6. Oarus

6

OARUS

This human woman Yvonne is warm and beyond appetizing. I am wallowing in intrigue being near her. It is unlike any experience I have felt in my wayward sea life. I have heard the whisperings of the allure of the human female – the abundance of adoration, the gratification of the flesh, the bliss of entangled forms.

It all very much feels like a fairytale, something distant with deep folklore. Yet, there she is, lying in the bed I recovered decades before. It is my escape from the wayward world of the sea, yet the bed is far too tiny for my long and lumbering frame.

But it seems to suit her just fine. Her body is fragile and delicate, like the bowls she clutched between her slender fingers, her waif-like figure about to be blown over by the next gust of wind. I somehow find this appealing. Should she require protection, I would be there for her, a hero of the waters.

Fate is not an idea that possesses me. But something is altered in the pageantry of the universe. I can feel it in my gills.

It pleases me to no end to watch her lay down, curled in the blanket I’d woven from drifting nets. Her scent lingers on my scales, a tasty zest of sweat, startlingly fresh. I have never been close enough to a human woman to know the comfort of her embrace. The way she fell into the sea, like some kind of divine messenger, was far too tantalizing to resist.

Yvonne lies on her side, facing away from me. She is shaking subtly, so I pull the blanket further over her, folding it over to thicken the layer. She continues to quiver, and I am befuddled.

“Would you like another blanket?” I inquire, standing over the bed. “Or maybe another bowl of bigrul soup?”

She speaks. Her voice remains subdued, quiet, and with a careful cadence.

“I am okay, thank you.”

I am unsure how to proceed. She appears fatigued by the turn of events, so I settle on the notion of rest.

“Feel no fear, dear one. Your belly is full, and you may take a break.”

She nods again, but she remains silent. I move toward the torch twinkling in the dark, then place my hand over it to snuff out. The fire wheezes until the cavern is black.

Now, the only sound in the moonless night is the crashing of the waves against the coast. I envision it in my mind, a soothing lull that has cradled me to sleep for nearly a century.

I move toward the bed, my heart raging inside my chest. I lay down next to her, the mattress sinking, the rusty squeak a stark reminder of my sheer size in comparison. Yvonne next to me remains swaddled in the cover I’d given her.

I can feel her presence next to me, that scent riling up something peculiar in me. I have certainly felt arousal before – a sea beast such as I does not go on existing without the indulgence of copulation. But it has been some time since I have been held.

Yvonne has galvanized something in me that had laid dormant for ages. Or even something that has yet to flourish.

My voice is a song in an attempt to reassure her safety. I feel vain, but I must try to relieve her dread.

“Rest now, Yvonne.”

She says nothing. I can sense her breathing going from short and ragged, to long and shallow. I pull the blanket up to her neck, stroking her cheek after doing so. I am far too awake to let myself fade into the abyss of sleep.

My mind drifts to an alien place, summoned by Yvonne’s abrupt arrival into my orbit. The concept of a loyal woman, one eternally by my side, fills me. The image is enticing and calms the ruckus of my heartbeat. It is not a thought I have had and dwelled on before.

Yvonne’s breath stays shallow, but she tosses and turns, struggling to find relief in sleep. I watch her closely, my eyes burning through the black. She is fascinating, even hidden in shadows.

Eventually, she starts to stir, her eyes fluttering open. She is looking at me, those full lips shaking with hesitation. She gathers the courage and begins to murmur, her voice slipping up my spine.

“Oarus, I need to, um, relieve myself.”

I scowl, completely puzzled by her wording. “Relieve yourself? What is it that you mean?”

She turns to lie on her back, staring up at the stone overhead. Water continues beating its fists against the verve just beyond my hideaway.

“Urinate. I have to urinate.”

She seems bashful, then it finally dawns on me. It has slipped my mind that humans digest and require time to sully over their environment. It is not the sea creature’s way.

I rather she not soil my lair with her grotesque human emissions. But it is something I have not yet considered, so I must remedy the problem.

I rise from the bed, the bed squeaking. I take the torch from the wall, then remove a box of matchsticks from the writing desk. I strike the match butt end against the wall of the cave, a dazzling flair of light emitting. I bring the flame to the torch, which catches instantaneously.

Yvonne is sitting up in the bed, still as a stone. I motion with my chin down the tunnels of the cavern.

“Come. I will show you where to relieve yourself. Bring the blanket with you. There is a chill in the air.”

Yvonne rises up with the blanket still draped around her tiny frame and moves toward me with uncertainty. Her fingers hover near her mouth, and she gnaws at them in some strange, human habit.

“I can go on my own. You can trust me. It’s not something you need to witness. After all, I don’t have anywhere to go.”

There is a croak in her voice, from lack of use, I presume. I shake my head in response to her request.

“The caverns are no place for a human. Far too many enchantments to explain. Come now.”

To display my trust, I turn my back on her, the damp locks of seaweed whipping through the air. I walk through the tunnels that lead to the outside world as well as the attached and adjacent passages that only creatures such as I are privy to. I feel her following slowly, slinking a few steps at a time like a timid mouse afraid to make a fuss.

Once we arrive at the outcrop of the cave, I stop and turn to face Yvonne. She is slumped over with the blanket, her shoulders hunched and eyes as round as full moons.

She is looking rather unkempt, and I make a note inside my mind to provide cleansing devices. An image springs of her nude form, the scales of my hands caressing the folds and rosy ridges of her satin flesh…

My body feels a heat that is foreign and thrilling.

“There is a cave a mere few feet over,” I say, pointing out through the opening. “You can use that for your activities. I will wait here, to guide you back to slumber.”

She nods wordlessly, then begins to traipse past me. But before she does, I touch her shoulder. She gazes up at me, her expression aghast.

“I must warn you, Yvonne. There are many dangers near these caves. I implore you to make it a quick expelling. Call me should you need my aid.”

She nods again, then mutters in a barely perceptible voice. “I don’t need help urinating. I can do that.”

I choose not to respond and let her pass by. I long to touch her skin, but I resist for the time being.

Yvonne shuffles out into the misty night, and I watch until she reaches the edge. I then give her my trust and respect her privacy, holding the torch to move slightly back inside the cave.

I wait a respectable amount of time. But my patience wears thin, curious as to why the event takes so long. I pine for her presence once more next to me in the bed.

I step back out into the mist and narrow my vision at the adjacent cave. Backwash from the smashing waves obscures my sight briefly, but I soon observe how the wool has been pulled over my eyes.

The blanket has been left, abandoned and flapping in the wind, held down by a heavy stone. I squeeze the torch in my hand and let out a roaring screech, cursing her clever ploy and the foolishness of my infatuation. I toss the torch into the angry waters below and rush through the winding, pitch-black caverns.

I move through the shadows, raging at the way a mere human managed to outsmart an ancient sea creature from the depths of the oceans. Yvonne has dishonored me for the first and only time.

She will not escape this unscathed.