"We must keep searching!" The 3 other girls nodded to their twin and continued further into the forest.
Zel ducked back into the underground tunnel where he had earlier found the dead mermaid, and was now keeping the firery-haired girl.
"They didn't notice us. But they'll keep looking." He informed the girl.
"'Keep looking'...hmph." Lina muttered. "As if they're so concerned about me!" Lina gave a nasty glare to the spear the village women had thrown into her leg.
"Come on." Zel did his best for a sympathetic look, and knelt down before her speared leg. "It's time we take care of that." Zel made his hands ready to grip the spear, but not without permission from the girl.
She stared back into his eyes, with the same steady gaze. Biting her teeth behind tightly locked lips, she gripped the large tree roots at her sides.
Zel took hold of the spear as gently as possible, then with the same care, began to gently draw out the shaft. He watched as the girl cringed and grit her teeth, too proud to scream out. He wrenched the last of the spear out and inspected her leg.
"Ouch!" Zel uprighted his head. "What did you hit me for?"
"You didn't have to pull the thing out so fast!"
"It's over with now, isn't it!?" He sighed in exasperation. "So, what's your name?"
"Only if you tell me what you're up to."
"Fair enough."
"Alright. I'm Lina."
"Zelgadis. I was hunting mermaids when those women from your village attacked me."
"Mermaids? So that thing you threw at me really was one."
Zel nodded. "You don't know about them?"
"No. Should I?" Lina raised her eyebrow with an amused skepticism.
Zel smiled. "I suppose not." He twisted his legs into an sitting position. "I thought they attacked me to keep whatever they knew about mermaids a secret." Zel glanced back into the girl's -- or rather, Lina's ruby eyes. "Why did they attack you to?"
Lina frowned and diverted her gaze to another soiled and root-filled wall of the cave. "I don't know." She answered quietly. "I thought they were supposed to protect me." Indignation rose in Lina's throat as she continued. "They said I was their 'most precious treasure'."
Zel watched the girl for a moment as she allowed herself to be lost in bitter memories.
"So why are you looking for mermaids?" She asked him, seconds later.
Zel shook free that pensive image of her from his mind. "There's a legend that whoever eats the flesh of a mermaid, will become immortal. A long time ago, some of my friends found some, and we tried it. We didn't really know if the legend was true or not. We were just curious, I suppose. But instead of becoming immortal, some of my friends died on the spot." Zel stared off for a moment. No need to tell the girl how they coughed up blood or were suddenly disfigured before they fell and died. "The rest of us, lived for a few more days, before dying. But I didn't die." Zel shrugged. "Years passed and I never changed. I never aged and my wounds healed almost instanly. People began to be afraid of me. ...I was becoming afraid of myself."
Uh-oh. Lina watched him stare off again into the proverbial pit of despair. "So if you're already immortal, why look for another mermaid?" Lina encouraged.
"One of my village elders told me that a mermaid might be able to tell me how to become normal again."
Lina didn't really know what would be so bad about being forever young and unharmed. Then a thought crossed her, one that had surfaced first when she was a child, staring at that decrepid old woman, who acted as her only caretaker. "What do you do when you outlive your friends?"
"I try not to make anymore."
"Well, that doesn't seem right?"
"Huh?"
"So you're just going to exile yourself for all eternity?"
"Well, I..."
"That's no way to live!" Lina scrutinized Zel.
He stood up. "I'm going to go back to the village alone and get some answers. They won't try anything, when they obviously still want you." Zel glanced up at the cave ceiling, above which, the village women were still searching for Lina. "But first..." Zel tried to soften his expression. "Do you think you're ready for me to clean that wound?"
Lina gave her leg a testing movement. "It doesn't really hurt anymore. Wait. You're not going to use that sea water, are you?" Lina's eyes began to grow wide.
Zel glanced over to the cave's pool of water, it's scent filling the cave with salt. "Looks like there's no choice."
"Arg! Why is all this stuff happening to me today?!" Lina groaned skyward. "Oh, alright! There really is no choice." Lina pouted, almost swearing his expression was mocking her. She gave him an annoyed look.
Zel turned quickly towards the pool of water, lest he start laughing at her silly reactions to her aggrivations. He knelt at the pool, tore a piece of his already tattered shirt, soaked it, and returned to Lina. Once again asking for permission with his stare, he waited until Lina braced herself for the sting and nodded.
Lina blinked. "That didn't sting at all." She gave Zel a questioning look.
But his expression was even more surprised. He gently wiped Lina's bloody leg again, and in this trial, the blood revealed perfectly healed flesh.
"WHAT?!" Both Lina and Zel stared at her leg.