"Shit." Even her voice sounded different to her now. There was something harsh about it in her own head. "This is so bad," she added, gripping her hands together before moving them up and squeezing her wrists.
Ulrika had been unable to understand the language of this place for nearly three hours now. Confused and frustrated, based over terror, she had left her friends in the village. Even Bear had felt awkward to her, and that's where she had lost grip on her nerves. They were shattered and she was trying to not cry as she sat on a large boulder. The rock was half in a lake, which slapped against it in a steady rhythm. Its reliability helped Ulrika to ease her thoughts and try to go one step at a time.
A tear slid down her cheek, and before she could wipe it away, it fell and landed in the lake. She watched the tiny ripples spread out, breathing deep even as her lower lip trembled. How was she supposed to do anything if she couldn't understand what people were saying to her? Where was Bates? Ulrika paused, then squeezed her wrists and moved her hands up to her shoulders and hugged them. Was he okay?
She noticed larger ripples had come and crashed into her tear ripples, as if something large had just barely touched the surface of the water. Instinctively, she pulled her feet away from the water and scooted back on the rock. She had come to distrust almost every mundane occurrence that happened - first she had met a strange wooden spirit, the next time she had been nearly killed by a water lion who then decided that instead he would teach her to roar after she screamed at him, and she couldn't forget the raven lady who had nearly outed Bates but had apparently swiftly developed a soft spot for Ulrika and her platinum eyes.
A form slithered just under the surface of the water, breaching to expose copper scales that shimmered in the sun. Ulrika frowned, that was way too big to be a fish. Or at least any fish Ulrika knew of. Who knew what kind of 'monster fish' they had here? It was moving toward her swiftly, she could barely make out the outline of its tail. Rising to her feet, Ulrika moved away from the edge of the water just as a hand reached up over the rock - a human hand, with what looked like webbing strung between the fingers.
A man's head followed, with slicked back black hair with grey laced through it at the temples, and auburn eyes. His nose was perfectly straight and his cheeks were rough, the left had a scar ripping down it to his chin. He caught her gaze as he folded both his arms over the rock, exposing sharp fins that jutted out from his forearms, and scales speckled his skin the same copper color as his tail.
"Why such tears?" he asked with a husky voice, deep and gravely.
Ulrika started, she understood every word he said. This couldn't be real - she had to be hallucinating. Of all the creatures that she could understand without Bates near... it had to be a merman!
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