Chapter 6: Home

Alurel went from the palace straight towards her home. She lived far outside the city: far enough that the golden metropolis was just barely in view from her residence.

An enormous cove was what she called home. It was alone on a seafloor with a sparsity of sunbuds, though there were still enough of the bio-luminous things to give any needed light. The massive nook was set into an even more massive mountain that, as far as undersea mountains went, wasn’t *that* big.

Alurel swam through the rather short entrance ‘hall’. Along the way, she spotted a small, shelled sea-snail-man slithering along the seafloor. He looked up to spot her, and waved a hand as she approached.

“Oh hello there, I’m sorry I didn’t realize this was your home-wait, wait no!”

She had opened her mouth and lapped him right up. A quick gulp and he entered her gut.

She enjoyed her privacy. It was rare to see another living creature even near her home. That was how she liked it. The dumber creatures of the sea naturally stayed away as there was nothing to feed on in the area. Sunbuds were effectively inedible to most, of course, and there were no other flora of fauna nearby. Alurel had picked that all clean when she moved in.

Still, some curious smaller seafolk would stop by now and again, typically without telling any others, thankfully. Alurel liked that too a bit, as it meant she could have a nice, wriggly meal.

It was of course the ultimate taboo for a larger seafolk to eat any of the smaller. The notion was so unthinkable, though, that no one would ever suspect it could happen. As far as Alurel was concerned, that was just perfect. Anyone’s missing friend, lover, or any mysterious disappearance always had another explanation.

Alurel didn’t remember too well the first time she ate another seafolk. It’s not like she actively hunted them or anything. She typically only devoured the nosy, or the naughty. Once in awhile, she might snack on a lone one in a mood, true.

For Alurel, part of it just made sense. She was big, and they and the humans--latter of which she did seek out--were small. It just felt like it was her right to enjoy herself at their expense sometimes. If it wasn’t then, why would she be so big? Why would the disparity exist?

She’d never dare speak such thoughts to another great mermaid though, and certainly not the king himself. They’d think her a monster, but Alurel knew in her mind that they were the ones with skewed perspectives. Their perspectives on the humans were especially wrong.

‘And I’ll show them, one day. One day soon~’

Alurel entered the central chamber of the cove, which she called her home. Sunbuds dotted the floor and lingered between indents in the rocks she used as shelves. She kept all kinds of things here, with the vast majority trinkets and baubles from the surface. Mementos, really, treasures, and she planned to add another one today.

Floating in the center of the cove chamber, Alurel began to lurch her throat. Something was coming up. She opened her mouth and spit into her hand the handsome pirate from earlier in the day: the one with the torn red trousers.

--==--==--==--

All mermaids of all sizes had a cavity in their body for storage. It was a few interchangeable names: among them, storage-stomach, or treasure-stomach. It allowed a mermaid to carry something or someone small with them hands free.

When Alurel had swallowed that pirate, she had done so with the intent of keeping him around for later. So, when he was gulped down, a handy valve near the bottom of her throat was opened, taking him into a stomach-like cavity that was bereft of acid.

However, that organ was not bereft of horror. It was still dark in there, wet. There was a pool of sea water for poor Barnaby the pirate to flounder in, and the walls had a bit of moistening slime to them. It was also near pitch-dark. Alurel kept only a single sunbud in her treasure-gut, and it was at the far other end of the cavity.

Barnaby saw it, and was almost tempted to go near it for comfort. Yes, its light only illuminated the rippling fleshy walls, but it was still light.

He was glad he didn’t. He was glad he was too frozen with shock to move. That’s because the scariest thing about where he was, was that he wasn’t alone there. Something else was in there with him, something that lived and moved.

It wasn’t just that sunbud either. He saw, briefly, dark-purple tentacles like those of an octopus. He saw them but a moment, in the distance. The moment he did, he knew it was best to stay still, stay safe, in the dark little fleshy corner he had plopped down towards.

It was a bumpy affair being in that cavity, as the contents of the storage-stomach moved when Alurel did. That meant the waist-high pool of salt-water tried to carry him away and around, sometimes succeeding. It meant he saw those dark tentacles here and there, as whatever creature they belonged to cried out in a shrill voice each time they, too, were disturbed.

Time went on till the entire cavity lurched. The walls were kneading in on the organ, trying to grab something. He heard a feminine yelp from where he last saw those tentacles, and released the strange stomach-walls had grabbed it.

But, they let her go. The walls kept, constricting, kept feeling around, and he worried the mermaid’s body was searching for him.

That was indeed the case.

Eventually, the cavity contracted the walls on his leg. He slipped free that one time, but Alurel had found him. She knew the general area, and the next clamp of the cavity walls snagged him.

In the meantime, that tentacled-woman he had barely seen and heard raced towards him. He turned away, not wanting to see whatever kind of monster it might be. She screamed as she approached.

The cavity squeezed him and jolted him upwards, towards the fleshy sphincter he had entered from. He felt slimy tentacles wiggling at his legs, trying to hold on. With frantic yells and some kicking, he successfully fended the limbs off.

Up he went on a familiar-feeling journey. His body was carted up the throat this time, and once more he was in that giant mermaid’s mouth.

‘Am I to be freed?’, he thought.

It would seem so, but it was a curse more than a gift. The mouth had a bit of salt water in it, but when the lips parted and she spat him out into her palm, water was all around him.

The pressure was painful, but he didn’t dare scream. He knew there was no air for him here. He would soon drown. Opening his mouth would only make it worse.

He looked up at the giant mermaid’s smiling visage, and choose to scream only internally.

--==--==--==--

“Ah there you are. You made me work a bit to get you out you naughty little thing.”

She rubbed her thumb against his naked chest.

“Don’t worry, I know you’re drowning in here. There is no need to speak. After all, you can’t even hear me clearly underwater, not like us seafolk. Soon, though, soon that may change.”

She licked her lips as she felt the contours of her abs with the tip of her thumb. The digit quickly moved to the man’s legs.

Alurel giggled.

“I always thought these limbs of your so funny: ‘legs’. Nifty little things too. The way they wiggle, the unique way you humans dance with them. I’ve seen your kind dance only a few times, on the decks of ships. There’s something endearing about those silly little bottom-arms. Yours are especially well kept: nice and strong.”

She sighed, then pinched the pirate’s legs between thumb and forefinger. With just a twist, she snapped them right off. The man screamed, salty water flooding his mouth. Alurel studied the little limbs while she swam towards one of the rocky shelves she had.

“They’ll make a fine addition to my collection.”

She dropped the legs there on the shelf among many others, most of which were clean down to the bone.

The man was bleeding from the stumps where his legs used to be. He had gone so long without air already, that death was near.

Alurel moved her thumb to his lower body, staunching the bleeding some. She swam towards another shelf of hers, chatting with him on the way.

“It’s funny, with those legs out of the way, the similarities humans and seafolk have seem all the more apparent. Our ‘top’ parts aren’t that different when the genders match. One day, others will see just close our kind can be together.”

The shelf was lined with little sharp jutting of rock from the floor: stalagmites. She pressed his lower torso against the pointed end of a free one. His screaming intensified, but only bubbles came out. His face was turning blue from lack of air, his body bruising and breaking from the ocean pressure. The pointed end of the stalagmite jutted out his back, blood flowing up from the wound wispy-like. He was thoroughly skewered by the stalagmite, twitching.

“Of course, you humans are rather fragile, especially to me. Short lived too. But, I think that just adds a certain charm to your way of living. Some of the prettiest flowers wilt, after all.”

Alurel swam backwards, taking in the view of the pirate’s place among other torsos skewered to the stalagmites on that shelf. The vast majority were skeletons, but the one nearest Barnaby still had a little bit of flesh to its bones. Just flakes of cartilage and bits of sinew, really, but something.

“You should feel honored.”, she said. The pirate entered the last stages of his death throes.

“I only take the most special humans down here to my home. I talk to them from time to time, even though they can’t listen or talk back. Don’t worry, I’m not ‘mad’ or anything silly~ It’s just comforting to pretend to have people to talk to sometimes. I’ve heard humans do it to, talking to mirrors and such.”

The pirate’s body bled out from the cracks in his form. The pressure was brutal, enough that his eyes jutted out on death. Alurel laughed.

“What a silly expression you have now. I like it.”

She turned around, floating in her central chamber and basking in the sites of her other treasures. There were priceless works of art, scavenged from ships that sunk: many times, she was the sinker. Crates of fruit, long decayed by the sea. Many such produce was something she never had the pleasure of tasting while it was dry.

She collected many things down here. The great mermaid found almost all parts of human culture neat.

“Yes, someday I’ll be able to bring people here, and they may last. Someday, the human world will be intertwined deeply with that of the sea. Oh I can just imagine it, a whole bunch of new people to meet, so much stories and culture to share.”

She smiled at the thought, lounging in a backwards float for a moment.

“It’ll be someday soon.”, she said, continuing to talk to no one in particular, save the collection of skeletons she had accrued.

“I think I found the perfect human this time, one who’ll really make my dreams come true. He’s handsome too. I really think he’ll pull through~”

She looked ahead at another shelf. That one was lined with another pile of skeletons. They were mostly intact though, and all bone.

“...Unlike the others thus far. Yes, my hopes are high. I just can’t wait till tomorrow.”

Alurel spun around, taking one more look at her new pirate memento.

“But, if I have to wait, I might as well keep myself busy. I do have to talk to a certain coven about plans, as well as to remind them to keep their mouths shut about any and all eels.”

Alurel started swimming to the exit. She took one last look in her chamber, facing some of its many human skeletons.

“So, I’ll see you all later my dear friends. I’m not sure how long I’ll be living in here. I’ll be a queen soon, after all~”

She left her cove, swimming out into the sea again.

“Very soon.”, she mused to herself.