Desharow Mermaid - Chap 45

As I approached the ruins that looked like a bath, I realized that the stone walls were as high as two meters and I couldn’t even see Acheres’ face. I had to walk around the wall for more than ten meters before I found a gap that I could climb up. Instead of a swamp, there was shimmering water below, with some plants floating on top like lotus leaves. The visibility wasn’t great, unlike a lake, and I couldn’t even find where Acheres was at first.

I sat down on the stone wall, shaking the grilled fish in my hand and calling out like summoning a dolphin in an aquarium, “Hey, I’m here to thank you for your help earlier. If you don’t come out, I’ll leave!”

After speaking, I planned to stand up. To be honest, I didn’t really want Acheres to appear immediately because then I would have an excuse to leave quickly, but I had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen. Just then, I suddenly saw a webbed claw reach out from under the floating plants and grab my ankle as I swayed on the water. A dark and sinister yet beautiful face emerged from the dense shadows, coming closer to my knee.

Although I was mentally prepared, I instinctively shrunk back, almost losing my balance and falling backwards. But my waist tightened and I leaned forward again, landing on the damp chest that was coming towards me. I lifted my head, my lips lightly brushing against the prominent nose bridge of the face that was just within reach, falling into the unfathomable depths of its eyes, unable to breathe.

“Desaro? Where are you? I can’t see you!” Rafael’s shout nearby suddenly woke me up. I immediately pushed Acheres away and sat up again, raising the grilled fish in my hand and responding, “I’m here, don’t worry, I’m just feeding him!”

“Feed…” Aegles repeated the word in a low voice, staring at me with a furrowed brow, clearly not understanding the meaning of the word. They were used to hunting for their own food, so how could they understand the act of being fed? Moreover, I felt a little offensive to feed Aegles because he might be of my father or even grandfather’s age.

“Um…” I shook the grilled fish in my hand and grabbed his webbed paw, trying to put the fork into his palm as I explained, “This is for you to eat, it’s our food, cooked over fire, can you eat it?”

Aegles lowered his eyelids and sniffed the grilled fish in my hand, frowning. I didn’t know if the smell of the Russian seasoning that Raphael brought was suitable for mermaids’ taste, but I loved it all year round, and it solved the problem of food taste during long voyages.

If Aegles didn’t eat it, the grilled fish would be mine. I stared at the delicious food in my hand, drooling.

I thought he would reject it, but unexpectedly, he grabbed my wrist with his webbed paw, licked a few times, and took a big bite of the fish, swallowing the fishbone without hesitation. He ate like a wolf, and I was worried that he would swallow the fork in the next moment. I quickly pulled back and forcefully pulled the half of the fish out of his mouth. “Hey, hey! The fork is not meant to be eaten like this. Don’t eat with the cutlery!”

Aegles licked the oil off his lips, showing his sharp teeth with great displeasure, staring at the half of the grilled fish left in my hand. For the first time, he looked a bit embarrassed, and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter, watching his appearance. I laughed so hard that I almost dropped the grilled fish I was holding.

And yet the main character of this humorous scene seemed completely unaware of his absurdity. He simply lifted his eyelids languidly, as though looking at a child performing a trick, with a subtle curve at the corner of his mouth, as if brewing some revenge or scheme against me.

I quickly suppressed my laughter. Damn it! I almost lost control and joked with this cunning beast. I would be the one to suffer.

“Um… you hold this thing like this.”

To make up for my previous “offensive behavior” and divert Ares’ attention, I pretended to be serious and grabbed his webbed paw, inserted the fork into his fingers, and demonstrated a standard grip posture (fortunately, his webbing did not hinder me from doing so). “Then, you eat like this, watch…”

I lowered my head and tried to eat gracefully, holding the edge of the fork in my mouth, biting off a piece of fish and swallowing it, and carefully picking out the fishbone and spitting it out to avoid Ares’ gaze. “This is our way of eating. It’s a bit troublesome, isn’t it?”

After I finished, I couldn’t help but look at Ares’ face.

He was studying my eating posture with a thoughtful expression, nodded, suddenly lifted his other webbed paw, and wiped a shiny drop of oil from my lips with his finger. He even licked it with his tongue as if he had tasted some exquisite delicacy. Then he smiled ambiguously and stared at me with a satisfied look.

I stared at him dumbfounded, feeling my cheeks burning. I just wanted to climb over the wall and escape, but as I curled up my legs, his webbed paw casually grabbed them.

Then, he glanced nonchalantly at my restless legs.

My movements froze in place.

I realized I couldn’t run away, otherwise the wild animal would surely get excited, and I had no doubt that it would catch me and punish me right in front of my classmates!

Considering all of this, I had to pretend to be calm and put my leg down, continuing to eat a few bites of grilled fish as a demonstration. Ageres, on the other hand, really buried his head and started to eat like me.

He held up his fork, half-closed his eyes, and watched me eat. His long eyelashes drooped, and his sharp thin lips swallowed the fish without any movement in his cheeks. Only a slight bump appeared in his throat for a moment, and then it slid down his slender, powerful neck with the sound of saliva.

I couldn’t help but stare for a moment. I had to admit that the way he ate looked absolutely charming, like a gentleman. If only he didn’t habitually stick out his tongue to lick his lips – that move made him look like a lecher who liked to make sexual suggestions to his rendezvous targets at the bar’s banquet.

Rendezvous targets.

When that word crossed my mind, my nerves jumped sensitively, and I suddenly felt like I was sitting on pins and needles. Because here and now, in this moonlight, at this water tank, the two of us were secretly hiding here to eat grilled fish, wasn’t it just like a rendezvous or a picnic!

This was too strange…

I think to myself, unable to suppress the images related to * flooding my mind. The feeling of embarrassment makes sweat drip from my forehead, but my gaze is stuck with Agerres’ and unable to avoid it. There is always a sense that he is about to kiss me. At this moment, his webbed claws release the fork and press against the back of my neck, supporting the upper half of his body as he emerges from the pool.

The ambiguous atmosphere is so intense that it is almost igniting. If I don’t do something soon, we might develop into the next stage of intimacy. I shrink back to the side to avoid Agerres who is about to get close to me, while feeling around on my body to find something to divert his attention. Suddenly, I find a hard metal object in my pocket and take it out.

It is Raphael’s compass, and the metal pointer shakes like my heart, but it always points in the direction of Agerres. I hold it up with both hands in front of me, even though this little thing does nothing to stop Agerres from getting closer. I raise my voice, pointing at it: “This is a compass!”

Agerres seems visibly stunned by what I have said. He looks at the small object in my hand and picks it up, shaking it. I notice that the compass has successfully piqued his curiosity, which makes me secretly happy. Of course, I cannot let my emotions show on my face.

I stroke my chin and speak solemnly like a teacher, pointing to the shaking needle: “Do you know why this thing keeps pointing at you?”

He taps the glass with his powerful nails, creating a small crack, and then shakes his head, indicating that he does not know.

I touch the compass with a pang of heartache. Damn it, Raphael will kill me. As an explorer, his compass is his most precious possession. I rub my forehead in frustration and sigh: “Because you have a magnetic field that attracts the compass and changes its direction.”

“Magnetic field, at…tracts…”

　Achilles repeated the two Russian words in a low voice, his pronunciation hesitant and rough. Apparently, expressing himself in Russian was overly complicated for him, but he seemed to be breaking down the syllables and letters of each sound, trying hard to understand my words.

As he repeated my words, his gaze remained fixed on me, as if he wasn’t just repeating my words, but using them to express his own thoughts. This ambiguous illusion sent a shiver through my heart, and I quickly averted my eyes from his deep and intimidating gaze. I grabbed his webbed paw and placed it on the compass. The needle immediately began to swing wildly from side to side, as if it wanted to burst out of its glass casing.

“Look,” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, and switched to English to explain to him, “attract, you attract it, because you…”

My words were cut off by Achilles grabbing my wrist. I was startled and almost dropped the compass into the water, but he caught it quickly. He fiddled with the small knob on the compass, and I felt my heart caught in his fingertips. I couldn’t breathe and could only stare at him dumbfounded, unable to find any words to distract his attention.

I didn’t know what he wanted to do or express, I just let him bury his face in my chest and hold me tightly by the waist, sniffing deeply at the seam of my clothes. I stiffened and lowered my head, only to see him close his eyes in intoxication, as if he had tasted something profound and unforgettable from my body.

I felt my hair stand on end, and every pore on my body contracted sharply as Achilles approached. The hormone scent emanating from his hair was particularly strong at this moment, overwhelming my nostrils.

I couldn’t be sure if it was because Achilles was excited, but I was frightened and had the urge to run away.

I instinctively grabbed the fork next to me, aimed it at Achilles’ neck, and warned him fiercely, “Hey, if you dare to do anything to me, don’t blame me for treating you like that grilled fish!”

“… Attract…” Ageres buried his head near my heart and suddenly let out a hoarse growl. I was taken aback and saw him raise his head again. “I… attract… you… Desharow.” I felt his wet lips move towards my earlobe, leaving small sparks along the way on my neck. “Deeply.”

This sentence hit my eardrums like a spell, causing my entire brain to become confused. I didn’t understand how Ageres could determine a person’s inner emotions through their scent. It seemed completely absurd, but I suddenly felt like he had dug up my deepest, most unmentionable secret, and I lost the ability to argue. I felt like a compass, gradually unable to resist the “magnetic field” of this beast.

At this moment, with Ageres’ lips pressed against my ear, I was inexplicably excited by the touch. Not just physically.

My heart was yearning for him to invade me further, even in such a taboo situation. This conflicting stimulation made me remember when Ageres went missing, and I thought of him alone in his bed, masturbating. What’s more embarrassing is that he had caught me doing it before!

What the hell, what the hell, I couldn’t possibly have fallen for him!

How could I suddenly become attracted to a male mermaid? I’m a normal Russian man, I should be attracted to women like Eva!

No, these illusions must be a result of my worsening Stockholm syndrome!

These thoughts are raging in my mind as I am pinned against a rock wall by Agares. When he lowers his head to press his lips against mine, I explode like a spring, and scramble to my feet, tumbling down the rock wall in a panic. I slip and fall, my face covered in mud. I hastily wipe it away and turn around, expecting Agares to have chased after me, but he’s standing quietly behind the rock wall, his eyes cast downward. He looks at me with a mixture of interest and ambiguity, like an elder watching a foolish child.

From the smirk on his lips, I can tell that Agares finds me amusing. In his eyes, I must appear as a little devil desperate to salvage some self-respect, but each time he completely defeats me.

“Fuck, damn it, that old, sly bastard!” I curse Agares in anger and frustration, slamming my fist into the ground and running back to camp as fast as I can. I don’t even acknowledge Raphael’s inquiries and instead squat down alone to wash the mud off my face.