Noting Seula's move toward the descending stairs, Azalea inquired, "You're not taking the lift?"
"Too slow."
"So then how..."
The selkie grabbed a bucket, filled it with water from a barrel, and poured it down a slide on the outer curve of the stairwell.
"I... I need to prepare a few things, so I'll meet you at the b...bottom."
Azalea darted forward and grabbed onto Suela's arm as she sped away, her squeals of delight fading into the distance.
"I guess that leaves you and me to walk. Ladies first," Devin directed.
Reina took a tentative step, grabbing the railing for added security.
They descended a rough-hewn rocky shaft lit by bioluminescent lanterns on the banister.
Devin looked over the side. "Do you suppose it goes all the way to sea level?"
"Seems so. A little ironic; we climbed that hill only to have to go back down."
"At least it's warmer and dryer."
And it was, until about halfway down when Devin noticed condensation accumulating on the rockface.
"Does it feel unusually warm to you, Reina?"
"It does. Is there steam coming up from below?"
Devin removed his coat and tucked it under his arm. "Reminds me of Muddy Springs. Maybe there is a thermal spring down there."
Devin wasn't looking forward to the climb back up. He wondered if maybe he could ride Reina on the return trip. She never seemed to run out of stamina. On second thought, it's probably best not to. The stairs weren't slippery... yet, but with how steep they were, one mishap could prove disastrous.
There was another worry bothering Devin. Merport's proximity to the ocean made seafood standard fare. He wondered if there was anything plant-based for Reina to eat. While she probably wouldn't comment and eat whatever was put in front of her, he still wanted her to enjoy herself.
Seula had said not to expect too much. What did that mean? Was the food not good? Or maybe she was being overly modest.
Devin's eyes wandered. Even if the food proved mediocre, there was a consolation meal right before him -- for his eyes, anyway -- or maybe it was an appetizer. Because of the steepness of the stairs, Reina's sizable posterior was tantalizingly raised to a level he could appreciate.
Azalea's influence was rubbing off on him. He had a naughty idea. Placing a hand on her rump, he grabbed the hem of her dress and lifted it. Thank Gertrude -- her design really did take everything into account. The back of Reina's dress arched upward in the middle, so it was shorter than the sides. It was a convenient feature that let the fabric fall away when she squatted to pee. It also gave him easy access.
"What are you playing at?" She said teasingly.
"Just a little eye candy before lunch."
She smirked and teasingly swished her tail to impede his view. "You might spoil your appetite."
"I can't deny that. You could be a full-course meal. Unfortunately, I've only tried the side dish." He traced his thumb along the edge of her puckered hole. "I hope to try the main course before long." With his other thumb, he stroked the velvety crease of her pussy.
"As a plant eater, are you not worried I might..." she stopped abruptly and pushed her butt against Devin's crotch, "develop an appetite for meat?"
"Regrettably, the only meat I can prepare is sausage."
"Something I've definitely grown fond of. Though seeing as I've only been sampling it cold, I wouldn't mind trying it..." she ground her butt side to side, "warmed up sometime."
"Well, until that day comes, I hope you'll build up an appetite, and I'll have to settle for this lovely presentation you've set out."
Reina exaggerated her walk, letting him indulge in her sensually swaying hips.
Devin brushed her tail to the side exposing her friendship plug, which she allowed him the privilege of pushing in every morning.
He grabbed the end and gave it a light tug. A smile played at her lips as she clenched down, pulling it back in. They played a little game of tug-of-war for a few moments. Her anus was quite muscular, something he still had a vivid memory of.
Growing tired of that, he pulled her labia to the side. Their prim neatness made him want to bury his face in there and mess it up with his tongue. After this trip, he'd start putting some serious thought into how to have sex with her without any unintended consequences.
Devin teased her all the way down to the bottom of the stairwell. It wasn't enough to get her very wet but enough to elicit appreciative hums of delight.
Seula and Azalea were already there to greet them. The selkie was sitting comfortably in another one of the wheeled devices. Even though she'd been topless since they met her, the apron she'd put on showed off her side boob, making it seem sexier than she probably intended.
More surprising, the picture on the apron was especially lewd. A mermaid with a pouty face, annoyed at her own lack of self-control, dangled from a fishing line with a dildo lure in her mouth.
Seula saw him staring, blushed, and crossed her arms to try covering it.
If she was embarrassed by it, maybe it was a joke gift someone had given her.
"Life-mate! Guess what! Guess what!?!"
Devin discreetly adjusted Reina's dress back in place and gave her a light peck on the cheek. "What, my hyper little sprite?"
"Can you believe we are actually underwater?"
"Not so m...much underwater as below sea l...level," Seula clarified.
"Come in here, Life-mate, and you'll see!" Azalea dove through an archway underneath a figurehead of two mermaids, their breasts pressed against each other, each with an arm outstretched in a welcoming gesture.
Devin let Seula go first while he and Reina walked in side-by-side.
The enclosed space was the galley way of a ship, weather-built, wrecked, or built to look wrecked. The ship's hull was merely a grand tunnel for an even more impressive sight.
They stepped out into a large, open, and steamy space. Sometime in the distant past, the relentless ocean had hollowed out a significant recess, forming a high-ceiling room. Bioluminescent chandeliers in the likeness of jellyfish demi-humans gently filled the room with a soft light. The walls were decorated with fishing tackle, pulleys, sextants, and many glass floats, an orb of glass used to keep trawls and gillnets afloat. From the ceiling hung fyke nets filled with colorful shells, conches, and many other treasures of the sea.
With tapestries of gold and red completing the theme, Devin wondered if this was what the inside of a galleon or a ship of the line looked like -- at least the façade of one.
He and Reina alighted from the last few carpeted steps that brought them to the ground floor of this ship-in-a-sea-cave.
But the natural tidal action had not made for a flat, uniform surface, and the more severe potholes were covered with planks. Devin barely avoided a dip in the pockmarked floor. "An amazing setup you have here."
Seula grabbed menus from a shelf. "My family used to live here b...before living on land p...proper."
Azalea reappeared from behind a wall. "Life-mate! Reina! Seula wanted us to sit over here for the most amazing thing you've never seen!"
By "here," Azalea meant what Devin assumed was a table. Jutting up at regular intervals along the ground were strange, four-foot diameter stony craters with water boiling in them. Thus, the source of the steam. Built alongside them, so they touched, were circular formations of a different material. A massive ship steering wheel, on its side encompassed its outer rim. Above the handled spokes was an inner shelf with containers full of ingredients, and below it an outer table and bench for customers.
"P...please sit here. I...I know shoreborn are hesitant to be without c...clothes, but feel f...free to remove them if you feel too w...warm." She took away two benches so Reina could fit. "Sorry, we don't have any p...padding. I don't think we've ever had any large demi-humans down here."
Reina knelt on the floor. "I don't mind. We appreciate your hospitality."
"Ok, now that you two are in position..." Azalea flew to the front of the room and grabbed onto a cord. Using her momentum, she yanked it, and a massive set of curtains parted.
Devin and Reina stared, stunned.
A vertical geodesic dome, reinforced with what must have been many inches, if not a foot, of glass, opened before them, providing a peek into the mysteries of the undersea world.
Azalea returned to their side. "Leaves you speechless, huh?"
Farther below their current depth twinkled many lights from a city that dwarfed the land portion of Merport. They could just make out countless aquatic demi-humans in the murky depths.
Azalea landed on the table. Assuming the role of instructor, she strutted back and forth. "All underwater demi-humans are collectively called Pelagians. They are divided into different groups based on which layer of the ocean they occupy.
"Near the surface are the Swellborne, where the Kelmari, or kelp girls, live because they are plant demi-humans and need the sun, I'd guess. Below them, where the majority of the population resides, are the Marinids. Most of them live in the city. See that upper area? That's the Sahagin district, and below it, sitting on the edge of the sea shelf, is where the merfolk live!"
Devin wished he had the spyglass right now. "It's incredible. Truly a marvel."
Reina put a hand on the little selkie. "Thank you so much for showing us this."
She twiddled her thumbs. "Y...you're welcome."
"But wait! That's not all!" Azalea ran to the far side of the table and spread her arms wide. "Below that, out in the open ocean, are the Thalassaens!"
"Who lives out there?" asked Devin.
"The Ceti -- made up of Dolphids, Whaleans, and Orcarii -- and below them, allllll the way at the bottom of the ocean, are the abyssari.
"That's b...because not many people can d...dive that deep, except maybe the Whalurians, and those that live down there don't really l...like the surface."
"How about you?"
"Me? Nonono. I c...can hold my breath a good while, but I still need air. Also, the water f...feels really, really heavy if you go too far, and it starts to h...hurt. You can get squashed if you're not c...careful."
"That's scary. I guess it's sorta the same if you fly too high. The air gets thin, and it's hard to breathe." Azalea returned to her spot between Devin and Reina and plopped down on the table. "Well, that's all the plaque over there said, unless Seula has anything else amazing to tell us?"
"Um, well, my a...aunts are actually a...abyssari."
"Really? Are they here?"
"Y...yes, one is in the kitchen. The o...other will serve you. H...here." Seula passed around the menus. "I...I'm gonna go w...wake them up."
Before turning to leave, she tossed a coin into the adjacent non-boiling caldera.
"This view alone was worth the trip."
"I agree, Herd-mate. I feel privileged to be able to see this, and it's even better we can share the experience all together."
