Eldoris and the Merlune 3

Two Nixies, a siren and a naiad. The nixies lurked in the depths of a murky puddle nearby, their sludge-coloured bodies barely visible. One of the nixies pulled something out of the water and it landed on the ground with a crack. A dolphin corpse. She opened her mouth, silent words flowing. 

Eldoris looked to her right to see the siren appear next to her with her charming fawn brown-pink hair, a voluptuous figure and an enchanting melody that never seemed to leave her even when she was silent. If Eldoris wasn’t a Merluna, born and bred in the water and hence immune to such powers, she’d have surely succumbed to the siren. 

The siren took off the pointed shells that sat like caps over her teeth, and handed them to Eldoris. They chinked and almost sang in her hand. The siren whispered something into the mermaid’s ear as she threw the shell caps on top of the fish bones.

The naiad drifted like a water wraith, though the small pool and the rocks and into the hollow. She turned to Eldoris and the others and shrugged. No offerings today. But then she sifted through the hollow and found a small mushroom and an ageing acorn shell. Better than nothing. She shrugged again and floated against the rock, listening to an invisible rhythm. Naiads, thought Eldoris, are damn sentimental creatures. She had never met one who wasn’t. The water of the pool began to bubble, but the siren (whose name was Ethyne) noticed and jabbed Eldoris with one of her scaled teeth caps. The nixies (Nephrine and Sealana) laughed at the mermaids’ obvious temper and lack of control. They wouldn’t be laughing once the meeting was over.

“Quiet now,” Eldoris began, “I didn’t call you here to titter to yourselves and talk rubbish.” Eldoris examined her hand in the sunlight. Ethyne beside her laid an elbow on the edge of the pool.

“Instead of watching that man you dislike so much, why don’t you let me work my magic on him. At high tide, he’ll be swept away.” Ethyne spoke so quietly it was little more than a whisper. 

“You’re not drowning, my ex, Ethyne. We have matters more important than that – my ruined kingdom!”

“You ruined it the day you trusted a mortal.” One of the nixies hissed.

Eldoris hissed back. A warning glare. 

“Calm,” the floating naiad whispered over the Merfolk.

Eldoris drew her magic up, letting water bubble and pop and brought a swirl around the bones and scales and foraged bits that her party had brought. She swirled then together around and around until they merged together, forming a kind of watery scaled fox. 

He will be our spy, Eldoris knew. He will scout for lost Mer-kingdoms. He will look for allies and monitor the Lindens. Ethyne put an illusion spell on him so that he became bushy and red in appearance. Just a regular fox to anyone without Merlune blood.