Legendary Fisherman

Eddie gets out of bed for the last day of the fishing season. In the distance, he can hear the farmers tending to their fields. They have supported him when his catches failed, but he has been on quite the streak thanks to Vivian. Thanks to the diet from the sea and now the land, Shadehedge has started to turn itself around. A whiff of something reaches Eddie's nose through the cracks in his front door. He goes to open it to find his neighbor, Sylvia carrying a tray of porridge and cooked meats.

"Hello, Eddie. I was just leaving this before I go back to the field." Sylvia pauses for a moment. She wears a pale green-colored woolen dress with the knees mudded up. Her auburn hair is in a charmingly knotted mess down to her waist. Suddenly, her green eyes flash at him in alarm. "Is something wrong?"

"You're the one who's been leaving food for me every morning?" Eddie notices his lack of clothing. "Uh, let me put something on."

"You don't have to. You have to set out on your boat soon anyway. And..." Sylvia blushes. "... I am used to it from watching you go out on the water every morning."

"Oh." Eddie turns back reddening to face her. "I don't know what to say to that."

"No matter. We are just grateful for what you did for us this season. I noticed you don't eat in the mornings before you set out."

"Well, I was never a good cook." Eddie takes the tray from Sylvia and brings it to the table.

"You worried us when your boat returned without you a week ago. We feared the worst until you returned at nearly sunset, walking along the shore as if nothing happened." Sylvia goes and sits across from him while he eats. "Was it that mermaid?"

Eddie gives her a long, hard look. "Yeah, she almost got me."

"D-did you..." Sylvia's cheeks trembles with her words.

"No. She's still alive."

"You're too soft, Eddie. She may still kill you." Her eyes meet Eddie's. "Do you not resent her for all the lives that have been lost?"

"Maybe, but I'm not really the type to kill. I learned that that day."

"You saw her up close?"

"You could say that."

"The late fishermen used to say she was the most gorgeous creature they ever laid their eyes on. Is that true?"

Eddie sits in silence for a moment. "Yeah. She's definitely, absolutely breath-taking. Not what you'd consider humanly possible."

"Hmmm... I should get back to the fields, then. I can't see you off today since I used up my time cooking this morning." Sylvia gets up and gives him a peck on the cheek. "May winds be behind you, Eddie."

Goosebumps form along Eddie's arms as he saunters through the town. Most of the fish will have gone due to the cold weather. If there's very little this morning, then the season really is over for the year. He has been increasingly looking forward to going out onto the water. Vivian has been keeping her end of the bargain in luring fish into his nets and he has been satisfying her curiosity about life in his village.

Shadehedge's lone pier has a number of women gathered up on it. Whether this catch is successful or not, Eddie is out of a job and no one will starve any longer. The farmers will help the village live off the land next season, but fishing is something Eddie enjoys. And the women have made a pasttime of watching him stock his boat and prepare his nets.

He appreciates their presence and attention, but all the wandering eyes over his exposed body has been strangely intoxicating. Eddie wonders for a moment if this is what Vivian felt with the fisherman ogling her every morning as well. Fortunately, the women are unlikely to take up their spears and nets and bring him down for sport. The game they do like to play is casually mentioning his name and seeing whose voice makes his cock twitch the most. Now that it comes to mind, Eddie does recall Sylvia having won the game a couple of times. The winner is usually exempt from chores for the morning, though they all win a daily view of his stiff manhood.

The women step aside as he passes through to his boat. As much fun as they have with him, there is a cause for worry among them. Eddie is one of the last young men of the village. Fishing used to be the main trade, but that largely ended when the mermaid appeared. The fishermen forgot their duty and went, one-by-one, to their deaths. Not wanting their children to follow the same fate, the women slowly turned the surrounding lands into pasture and bought animals for grazing. Anyone who was old enough to work in the fields would help out. The idea was finally a success this season and no one wanted to become a fisherman any longer.

Eddie checks his nets and his buckets, with a couple dozen eyes on him. It feels unusual this time around until he sees that they have crowded on the pier right next to his boat. At the front is the town elder, Ada, a vigor-filled woman with white hair and stern eyes.

"You do not have to risk your life like this anymore, Edward."

Eddie quickly covers himself with his hands. While the women of the village willingly overlook his casual nudity, he never expected Elder Ada to make an appearance while he was going about his work. "I am sorry, Elder."

"Don't be so quick to apologize. Or to cover up."

"Elder?"

"Oh, well. I already got an eyefull." Ada straightens up. "The fish you have provided us will last us until the first harvest of the following year, Edward. You do not need to brave another lonely morning on the bay with that mermaid lurking about."

"Elder..." Eddie bows before her. "This is the only life I have known, and I do not think farming suits me all that much."

"I see." Ada lets her gaze pass over Eddie for a few wordless moments. "Words nor the face of death after all this time have not been able to dissuade you, I suppose. You've grown into someone quite dependable, Edward." With that, she leaves the presence of Eddie and the bewildered women of the village.

Setting off from the pier amidst muted cheers and smiles, Eddie rows his boat towards the middle of the bay. Before he reaches his usual spot far from the view of his eagle-eyed admirers, Vivian rises out of the water.

"What- what is it?" asks Eddie, noting her sullen face.

"This deal of ours... Will we keep hunting together when the fish come back?"

"If you resist the urge to drown me today, then yeah."

"Occupational hazard." Vivian eyes him sitting on the boat. "You wouldn't want to join me in the water today, would you?"

Eddie spies an odd glimmer in her eyes. "You know, I think I'm willing to risk it."

"You actually trust me with your life? In open water?"

"Watch me." Eddie puts down his gear and jumps right into the waves beside her.

"You're stupid. And gullible."

Eddie spits out a bit of salt water. "I know. I forgot to ask why you wanted me in the water."

"I didn't 'want' you in the water right now. I wanted to know if sometime later you wanted to swim with me."

"Oh... Well, well whatever, could you show me around the bay? All we've done the past week is chat and gather fish, with me always staying in my boat and you bobbing in the water."

Vivian slides below the water to consider. Before her, Eddie treads water with his pleasantly nude form creating clumsy ripples and waves in the water. The mermaid views his soft, shrunken manhood and traces a finger along her slit, thinking of how he desperately ravaged her the first time they met. As though his life depended on it. Over the past week, he has hardly touched her the same way, at least not directly. Eddie has been perfectly content to stay in the boat while keeping her company, though she has caught a few sneaky glances thrown her way.

He's told her about life in his village and about humans in general. Vivian doesn't care all that much about the world above the water, but she does find Eddie unfathomable and interesting. He readily, and foolishly, puts his life so casually in her hands. All because she promised not to kill him.

She surfaces right in front of Eddie. "I'll show you around the bay. I don't really live here, you know."

"Oh." The smile on Eddie's face vanishes for a moment. "Then, where do you live?"

"In a cavern out to sea, just outside the bay."

"Could you take me there instead?"

"...I guess I could take you. It's not like any human could reach it without my help." Vivian takes his hands in hers. "Why do you care, Eddie?"

"I- I don't know really." Eddie scratches his head, almost slipping beneath the surface in the process. "I'm drawn to you for some odd reason. You've learned a lot about me these past few days, but I haven't gotten a chance to know you."

"That's funny, because your stupid insanity is really attractive to me." Vivian pulls him under, giving him the power to breathe beneath the waves.

The rushing of bubbles fills Eddie's ears as he adjusts. Vivian holds tightly onto his hands while he looks around. Fish are everywhere, just not anywhere near him. They dart close, but dart away again at any hint of movement. Eddie's eyes widen at the beauty of the world beneath his boat.

"You're not as manly as I expected a so-called man-of-the-sea to be."

"Well, sorry about that." Eddie watches the last remnants of air leave his mouth as he speaks underwater. "Wait. What makes you say that?"

"You're still naïve. You jump into the water with a mermaid." Vivian gives him a look. "Those other fishermen came in after me like that and you saw what happened to them. With your very own eyes."

Eddie gives her a look back. "If you don't like humans so much and you don't even live in this bay, why do you come out here?"

"To sun myself. The water is calmest in the bay." Vivian shows off the gleam of her sun-kissed skin to Eddie. "I don't understand why your kind cover yourselves up. Not all of you are ugly on the outside."

"Yeah, that doesn't really sound like a compliment." Eddie can feel Vivian's cool gaze trace along his cock. "Thanks for that, I guess. I take it that all mermaids are cunning and stunning and gorgeous, right?"

"You're just basing this only on the fact that I'm the only mermaid you know."

"Do I look like I'm lying to you?"

Vivian smirks at his crotch. "C'mon. We're almost at my place."

Eddie is dragged through the water. Watching the seafloor blur below them, it almost feels like flying. Fish swim out of their way and even sharks avoid crossing their path. Vivian's long, golden hair fans out wide dancing behind her head like a cape. He didn't notice it the last time he was underwater with her, but Vivian has an intoxicating scent about her.

The two of them pass through the mouth of the bay where the seafloor just drops off into darkness. Huge spires of rock rise up beyond the surface, preventing large ships from getting close and stirring up the currents so that anything smaller would be swallowed up. Vivian pulls Eddie towards a neat vertical crevice cut into one of the spires.

"It's not very cozy is it?" asks Vivian. "We don't really have homes like you humans do."

The cave only hides a small room. It is not even deep enough for the shadows to create proper darkness. The walls are rugged and rocky, but on the floor is a simple, lonely mound of sand.

"Is this where you sleep?" Eddie is released from Vivian's grip.

"Comfort is relative." Vivian swims circles around Eddie as he explores what nooks and crannies he can find. "You probably couldn't sleep underwater in the same way I couldn't sleep on land."

"You- you don't have to answer this, Vivian, but..." Eddie sets himself down on the sand. "Are there other mermaids out here?"

"..."

"Okay. Sorry for asking if it's something you don't wanna talk about."

"I belong to a pod that lives around here. We follow the fish when they migrate for the season."

"Oh." Eddie's eyes shoot up to meet hers. "Wait! So you're gonna be gone?"

"Yeah, that's what that means." Vivian strokes her tresses. "You'll have left by the time I come back."

"What do you mean?"

"You said your village doesn't need your job anymore." Vivian sits before him. "You'll leave and you won't come back because you have nothing to return to."

"I still care about Shadehedge, my village. I lived most of my life there."

"Most of your life?"

"I was found as a baby in a small boat. The people of the village took care of me."

Vivian leans in close, as if to smell spirits on his breath. "You could have been born at sea for all you know. Maybe your father was a horny sailor and he somehow caught himself a mermaid?"

Eddie floats up to his feet. "Are you serious?"

"No!" Vivian laughs at Eddie's moment of seriousness. "I was joking, but... getting back to what we were talking about... what will you do at your village? That farming thing?"

"I don't know just yet. There are people who've depended on me who would be disappointed if I broke down into nothing just because of this."

"By 'this', you mean your greatest joy and way of life being obsolete to all the people you love. Yeah, that's just one tiny wave crashing upon anyone's shore."

"It doesn't sound so romantic when you put it like that." Eddie rubs some of the sand with the heels of his feet. "What do you do as part of your pod, Vivian?"

"I watch the coast as part of the patrols. If humans come close to our waters then I warn everyone. I stayed in the bay since this is the only part of the sea that your boats can safely enter. I guess I may be out of a job as well since you're the last fisherman of your village."

"They're will always be more after I'm gone."

"Merpeople do not stay in one place for more than a generation. We may move far from the coast next time."

Eddie's stomach rumbles, causing an echo even within the small cave. "How long have we been here?"

"Most of your day. Look up, the sun's already starting to disappear."

Getting up suddenly, Eddie tugs at Vivian's arm. "I have to get back! Everyone probably thinks I died! That you killed me!"

"It's not a good idea for humans to be out at night on the ocean."

"We're under the ocean."

"We're inside the ocean," corrects Vivian. "Dragging you around in the dark will just make you a target, then it'll be just like I killed you myself. We'll just stay here for the night. I have some fish here, but you don't like them raw and half-eaten, right?"

Eddie tries to think a way to counter her logic, but comes up with nothing. "Fine. I guess I'll eat whatever you're eating."

Vivian swims over to one corner of the cave and digs something out of the sand. At first glance, it appears to be a lump of seaweed, but Vivian unwraps it to show a dead fish.

"That doesn't look very good."

"It's fine. I caught it this morning." She rips it in half and hands Eddie the top half. When he hesitates to take it, she asks, "What? Did you want some tail, too?"

"Wha- I- No. I am fine with head. Wait. I didn't mean it like that! I meant I am fine with the head."

Vivian looks at him for a second and a smile crosses her face. "Did you just say something naughty in human-speak?"

"Ye-yes. But so did you."

"What was it?"

"Wait. How do we even understand each other?"

"You ask that now?" Vivian throws a disappointed look past Eddie before regaining her smirk. "Anyway, what was it about head that you're fine with?" She swims up against him with her smooth tail rubbing against the inside of his thighs. "Is this 'head' thing something you like a lot?"

Eddies crabwalks backwards on the sand, but Vivian just presses against him more forcefully. "It's something naughty, yeah." He tries not too look at her, but her face is too close to his own to ignore.

"You're... trying not to look at... my lips." Vivian ponders for a moment and looks down. "Ah! Head's probably something to do with sucking on your cock, right?"

Eddie can only nod while looking at his erection dangerously close to poking the underside of Vivian's swaying soft flesh or even nestling in her lush valley. He unwittingly grows thicker and longer with each syllable that comes out of her mouth. "Yeah."

"Are you imagining me doing that to you right now?"

"I'm actually distracted by other things right now..." Eddie winces.

"I bet you taste better than raw fish."

His eyes snap open. "Okay. That killed it."

Vivian falls back in laughter. "I'm glad you stopped there, 'cause... well, whatever. I wanted to see how much I could get away with."

"Can I have half of that fish now?"

"Yeah, of course."