Neptunes Blessings Ch 013 018

Chapter 13

"Mathias," Helen began slowly, "the girls have been talking about finding a way to move you. What are your thoughts on the matter?"

Mathias sighed heavily and said, "It's a nice thought, but it wouldn't work."

"Why not?" she gently prodded when he stopped talking.

Sighing again Mathias organized his thoughts as he sucked noisily on the candy. Finally he wearily said, "The mating bond was created to aid in raising merlings, not to tie a couple to each other." Helen made an encouraging curious sound when he stopped talking again. So fighting a small smile Mathias continued, "Parents always know where their eggs, fry or merlings under the age of five are. The only exceptions are if the bond gets broken by a parent breaking the merling's trust. That is very hard to do though. The merlings need to be old enough to reason, and the parent would need to maliciously cause grievous bodily harm to one or more of the merlings." Mathias had stopped speaking long enough that Helen was opening her mouth to ask another question when he grumpily added another thought, "That is if she doesn't start harming them before they're old enough to reason. If she does that then she might need to kill one of them before the bond would be broken. I won't let her though." Growling softly he turned his head away from Helen and glared off into the distance.

Clenching her teeth Helen agreed grimly, "Of course you won't." Patting his head soothingly she asked, "What if we took you to a land locked lake or pond?"

Mathias shook his head and sighed saying, "Merlings also always know where their parents are, and when they're eighteen months old their instincts start driving them to spend part of their nights in the company of their lesser known parent."

Helen grumbled and stared off broodingly for a bit before brightening up and asking cheerfully, "What if we killed her for you?"

That thought alone was enough to cheer Mathias up for a moment. But it didn't take long for his eyes to dim as he shook his head and said softly, "If I had been at full strength when I attacked Clara, then she would have likely been dead before I realized that she wasn't just a really big bird. And Chloe... is not that much weaker than me at my peak. She has always enjoyed fighting more and her claws are much sharper than mine."

Helen sighed regretfully and said, "Alright, then I need you to go over with me what happened so I can help you strategize for next time."

Letting out a soft whimper Mathias asked in a small voice, "Can I have another candy first?"

"Of course sweetheart," Helen said gently as she dug out another of the pinkish candies and handed it over. "You don't have to suck it anymore, you can chew them if you want to."

Pulling the candy under the blanket and to his mouth Mathias asked nervously as he decided whether to suck or chew, "Is there anything in the water that could endanger my eggs?"

Helen turned and stretched up as she peered out into the water. "Hmm," she said thoughtfully, "There's nothing that I can see."

Mathias chewed slowly before he haltingly told her what had happened that day, with the only interruptions being when she needed a point clarified. Once he had finished she passed him a smaller yellowish lemon mint candy. Then they both contemplated in silence as she turned over in her head thoughts of what he could do next time to make things less shitty.

After a while Helen finally spoke in a slightly haunted voice, "I'm not sure what you could've done differently. Even dodging only seemed to have made things worse. But if she had knocked you out again then she might've gone after the eggs. She seems completely unhinged, someone like that will

kill

eventually. Most likely the one she'll kill will be you or your babies. If not both." Helen paused then offered tentatively, "We could try building you an underwater room that you could lock from the inside in the land locked lake?"

Mathias shook his head and said sadly, "They would hurt themselves trying to escape."

Helen tried again with a bit of fragile cheer, "How about if several of the girls mobbed her when she comes back next time. If they work together then they should be able to pull it off without too much of a risk."

Mathias perked up once more at this thought and then deflated and shook his head and said defeatedly, "She came when the tide was at its highest, she'll probably do the same next week."

She sighed and grumped while giving him a stern look, "Well, if you ever get the chance to lure her into our clutches..."

Fighting off a smile Mathias agreed quickly, "I'll do it eagerly." Reaching under her he patted her foot and said reassuringly, "If I can stay alive until the bond starts to fade I'll be able to convince the merlings not to seek their mother anymore and flee. If I can time it right, she'll no longer automatically know where they are and will have to think about it, and so we should have most of a day's head start on her before she realizes we're gone."

She grumbled in dissatisfaction and settled her wings resignedly as she said, "That's a long range plan, it'll take a lot of short range plans to get there." Mathias gazed thoughtfully up at her as she went on, "First thing we'll have to change how we feed you. We'll be giving you a large meal once a week, in three days we'll bring one by and then it'll be another week til the next one." He nodded in agreement without otherwise interrupting. "On the day she is here we'll come by after she's gone with a slightly larger than average meal. Hmmm, I'll need a way for you to signal us that she's gone... Oh! I can send Cora out with a bright yellow rock for you to place on this boulder when you want us to come by."

Smiling lopsidedly Mathias softly interjected, "I can also leap out of the water and do flips to catch your flock's attention."

"Not while you're injured you won't," Helen sternly told him.

"Alright," he agreed easily, "no leaping out of the water while injured. I will need you to come and remove the stitches in six days though."

Helen squawked in outrage and gave him a wide eyed look as she spluttered out, "No! But why?"

Sighing, Mathias soothingly said, "I know I'm not likely to be healed by then. But I don't want her to know that you guys are directly helping me. And I should still be better off than if I didn't get those six days."

Gritting her teeth she stared down at him for a while before she finally spat out, "Fine!" Mathias gave a sad relieved sigh before she went on in a calmer tone of voice, "Speaking of injuries, what time of day will it be easiest for you to get onto this rock?"

"Umm," he said thoughtfully, "probably around midmorning. The boulder is still exposed then but not by much so I can slip onto it much easier. But Cora won't be able to stay very long at that time of day because the tide is still coming in."

Helen nodded thoughtfully and said, "That'll suck, but we don't want your stitches being ripped early."

Helen then hummed and shifted from foot to foot but she could think of nothing else. Finally with a grumble she said, "If I think of anything else I'll have Cora talk with you about it.

Mathias nodded and tightly gripped the blanket as he asked in a small voice, "How is Clara?"

Startled, she blinked at him blankly for a moment before saying, "She's fine, she birthed a harpy egg this morning. We'll have to wait till she's birthed at least three more to be sure that there'll be no mer eggs. And she went right back to being hungry after so there is at least one more."

Mathias smiled so that his eyes were slightly squinted and his injured cheek hurt and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm glad."

Giving him a bemused look Helen reached for his uninjured cheek and rubbed just beneath his eye with the back of her talon as she confusedly asked, "Do merfolk not produce tears?" Mathias shook his head in confusion. "Huh," she said nonplussed before removing her hand and asking, "Do you want to keep the blanket?"

Clenching the blanket he lowered it just enough to fully expose his face as he asked uncertainly, "Are you sure?"

Nodding firmly, Helen offered, "I can even gather your scales into it so you can take them with you."

"Alright," he said softly as he slowly let go of the blanket.

Helen carefully gathered as many broken scales as she could find onto the blanket then she folded it up over them. Then looking sternly into his eyes she said, "Ok Mathias, I want to be the one to do most of the work getting you into the water, got it?"

"I got it," he replied softly.

With a gentle smile she picked up the folded blanket and said, "I need you to sit up on your own." Nodding he grunted as he pulled himself upright. Handing the blanket back to the panting merman she popped an unidentified yet sweet candy into his mouth before moving around behind him. Hooking her little arms under and around his arm pits she said, "Relax and let me move you now." He relaxed against her as she slowly pushed him forwards driving him into the water a little at a time. Soon enough she had him dangling over the water with her wings spread and flapping to help her keep her balance as she lowered him as much as she safely could.

Just before she let go of him Mathias shoved the candy into his cheek and said in a rush, "Cora might need to throw rocks into the water to wake me tomorrow, and thank you."

"Got it," Helen grunted out and said as she released him, "and you're welcome."

Mathias sank swiftly into the water before regaining control of himself and swimming painfully over to his nest. After inspecting the nest, he scattered the scales from the blanket and then curled up around his eggs to fall asleep with his face buried in the blanket.

Chapter 14

Over the next couple of days Mathias slept much better than he had been expecting. He realized why as the scent of harpy started fading from the blanket. He didn't feel right asking for a new blanket, so he left it as it was. Even so, it was still better than nothing, because while it was picking up his scent it was not picking up her's. So when he resumed having nightmares, at least they didn't continue once he woke up.

Over those five days Cora delivered a bright yellow rock that was about half the size of his head, which he hid at the base of the boulder. Clara laid another harpy egg and he recovered much faster than he expected. So much so that he hoped that he wouldn't actually need the stitches anymore and that it wouldn't be a problem to remove them.

Cora let him know that Helen would be coming in the afternoon. Most likely when the tide had receded enough that she could safely land on the rock. So, on day six Mathias anxiously awaited the tide's coming and going.

Early afternoon Mathias saw a shadow from overhead. He carefully scanned his surroundings before leaving his nest for the boulder.

Wiggling his way onto the boulder top he wasn't surprised to see Helen. "Hi," he said nervously as he sat up beside her.

Sighing, she pulled a pair of pliers and a pair of scissors out of her bag and said, "Let's deal with the stitches first so your stomach can settle before we put food on it."

Gulping, he nodded and laid back down so he could twist around to expose the entirety of the torn up side of his tail to her.

Carefully removing the stitches and packing them away, Helen was astonished at how healed up he was. As she moved to allow him to sit up she said, "Other than the one on your fin, I don't think your tail needs any of these stitches anymore."

Sitting up once more Mathias gave her a relieved smile before looking down at his chest. "What about these?" he asked in a soft worried voice.

Frowning worriedly she shook her head and said, "We'll just have to have a look-see and find out. Now look up at the sky and place your hands on the rock behind your back." As he held the pose she asked for she murmured, "There you go," and got to work carefully picking the sutures out of his chest.

"You can relax now," she said soothingly when she finished. Once he was looking at her again she explained how his healing was progressing. "It is better than I worried it still would be, but not as good as I'd hoped it'd get after seeing your tail. But the only ones that still need the stitching are also the ones that had their sutures rip through the nearby skin. So we just need to leave them." She frowned briefly before patting his right shoulder reassuringly and saying with a small smile, "But they aren't many so don't worry too much."

Mathias gave her a relieved smile which she returned before slipping around behind him and to his other side. "Now should we start with your cheek or your arm?" she asked thoughtfully.

"Umm, my arm?" he responded uncertainly.

"Alright," she said confidently as she began picking the stitches out of his upper arm. "Hmm, the one in the middle could use some restitching but the others seem ok," she said before grumbling, "Still would've liked to give them another day or two." Giving his upper arm one last look over she touched his chin to guide him into tilting his head to the perfect angle and said, "Now close your eyes and hold still." After a few more mildly painful tugs on his cheek Helen's hands left his face and she said cheerfully, "Well these don't look too bad at least. Now I have a present for you!"

Mathias' eyes popped open as he eagerly asked, "Is it candy?"

Helen chuckled as she rummaged through her bag saying, "Well I do have candy if you want some, but no the gift is something a bit more practical than that." Finally pulling out a square wax coated envelope she asked, "Do you have a way of cutting your own hair?" Mathias pulled a strand of hair into his mouth and snipped it with his teeth before holding it out to her curiously. Grinning, she said, "Hold onto it." Then she opened up the envelope to reveal a worn bronze half hoop earring.

Furrowing his brow in confusion Mathias asked, "It's an old earring?" He'd seen a few fishermen wearing earrings such as this, but he had never really paid that much attention to them.

Snorting Helen said dryly, "Now don't go getting overly enthusiastic on me." At his blank look she removed the half hoop from the straight pin and explained, "I got it from a fisherman. It's a sailor's needle. They store it on their ear, and a bit of twine about their wrist so that they can quickly patch up sail or skin. There is a nobby bit at one end of the pin that the eye of the needle slips over, and a split at the other that the point of the needle sits in."

Going wide eyed once more Mathias excitedly said, "Oh! So I can stitch up my own wounds."

"Yes," she agreed gravely, "But, I still want to guide you when it's needed and give you stitches where you can't reach or restitch if you haven't done a proper job. Which it'll take you a while to get good at it..." She trailed off and then sadly muttered, "Although I'd rather you never had the opportunity to get good at it." Sighing she continued as he nodded along, "When you're that badly beaten though we'll probably do what we did this time. Where I'll do the initial patch up and then once you've rested up and she's due to show up again, we'll undo my work and have you patch anything that still needs a few days back up. Now which side do you want the earring on?"

After a moment of thought Mathias said, "The right side."

Grinning she nodded and said, "Scars on your left cheek and an earring in the right ear. That should look very stylish. Now turn towards me."

Laughing he twisted his body so she could easily get to his right ear. Gripping the tip of his ear in her blunt talons she pulled it taunt as she calmly told him, "You might want to do some of that breathing from last week. I'm going to pierce your ear with the needle, then pull it out and push the pin through the hole."

"Okay," he said softly and breathed rhythmically as he braced himself for the pain. Helen worked quickly and efficiently and soon had the pin resting in his ear.

"Good job," she said soothingly as she pulled back, "I'll get you some candy soon but first I need to teach you what to do with this." She held the needle up briefly before going and rinsing it in the salt water.

Slipping the needle back into the envelope she pushed it into her bag and brightly said, "Your hairs are about as thick as horse hairs so we won't need many but I need you to snip a few more about the same length as the first one."

"Okay," he said hesitantly as he separated out a few more hairs and snipped them into his hand. Holding out the slim bundle of hair he asked doubtfully, "Is this enough?"

Grinning Helen chirped, "Good, good hand them here and I'll show you how to make thread." Carefully taking the hair from him she adjusted them until all of the hairs sticking out of the top of her hand were roughly the same length then she said, "Normally I'd make a slip knot and hold it with my teeth. Obviously that wouldn't work for you." Mathias smiled showing off his sharp incisors and long pointy canines as she continued, "So I'm gonna teach you a noose knot. First you twist the hair together just a little bit so that they're easier to handle. Then you make a loop like so, leave yourself a fairly big tail. Then you cross the loose end behind and then wrap it around to the front, then you keep going all the way around. Make sure that there is a nice big opening in the middle. Then use the tip of your talon to poke all those loose hairs down through that hole. Now grab them with the pads of your fingers or hook them with your talon and carefully pull them through, make sure you have all of them through. Then pull carefully on the end so that the knot shrinks but the loop doesn't. Now you need to hook the loop over something." Mathias watched in fascination as she nimbly used the tips of her talons for most of the manipulation she was doing. He gave his own claw tips a brief glance, they really weren't all that much sharper than her talons, maybe he could use them for a bit more than he'd thought. Helen smirked at his thoughtful expression and then cleared her throat and said, "Up here you can just loop it over my talon. You'll have to find something else if you need to do this underwater though." Mathias took the hair that she held back out to him and placed it over her proffered talon. Once the loop was in place she said, "Now grab the long tail and pull until it's tight on my talon, and then keep it stretched, and twist it." Nodding Mathias did as instructed. Helen continued to provide tidbits of instructions, such as when and how to move his hands down, and when to scoot back or how to keep a hold of the forming thread as she backed away from him. Once he reached the shortest hair she had him stop and said, "Okay, keep it stretched with your right hand and use a talon from your left hand to place in the middle of the half string." Once he had done so she continued. "Now keeping everything tight, lower your left hand and bring your right hand towards mine so that both ends can kiss. There you go," she said nodding encouragingly as he brought the ends together, "Now remove your talon so the body can embrace." Snorting he suppressed his laughter as he caught sight of her knowing smirk.

Pulling his claw back he gasped in surprise and watched in wide eyed wonder as the newly formed string rapidly spun into being. Grinning at him she showed him how to straighten out the bumps and kinks that always inevitably form when making string like this. Then she pulled the string off her talon and pushed up on the knot until it came undone. "Now," she said confidently, "it's time to make a simple knot. First you loop the loose end with a little bit of the twisted bit in it around your finger. Then once you have a nice circle you carefully pull your finger free. Then you fold the loose hairs over and push them through the loop like so." As she spoke she demonstrated using her thumb and talon at the end to carefully make sure every hair got through the loop before finishing her explanation, "Now to keep the knot where you want it, you pull down on the loop while pulling up with the loose hairs. You want the knot as tight as possible, so I'll tug at the loose end until the knot is no thicker than the string. Now," she held the new string out to him while speaking, "you need to trim the loose hairs down so that they're only sticking out a little bit from the string."