AN:
In these chapters I start using gender neutral pronouns for the fry. For a reference guide for this and future chapters; he-she-ze, him-her-hir, his-hers-hirs, himself-herself-hirself and nephew-niece-nibling.
Warning:
In chapter 19 after the ~~~~~ Chloe shows up again, the description is a bit vague and I would recommend reading the last paragraph if you feel like skipping the rest of it. And again in chapter 23 after the ~~~~~ Chloe shows back up to abuse Mathias some more.
Chapter 19
The next few days passed in a painful blur of highs and lows. With the perpetual state of dread he found himself living in being broken up each day by Cora's distracting and enjoyable visits. However, by the time Helen came by Mathias found himself to be quite exhausted. Although he was uncertain as to how well he'd be able to learn right now, going to learn more knots from her as well as talk about bones still seemed like a far better idea than not. Even if he wasn't sure what exactly she wanted to discuss about bones.
He gave Helen the same smile that he'd been giving Cora all week. However Helen was a more observant bird than Cora. And so she noticed the hints of sleepless nights and stressful days within the pallor of his skin and the brittle edge to his smile. So with a gentle smile she said, "You don't have to force yourself, kid."
Mathias gave her an abashed, "Okay," as he mostly dropped his smile.
She gave him a reassuring pat as she moved in to remove his stitches. But while his upper arm was more than healed enough they decided to give his fin another week just to be safe.
Soon she was putting away her pliers and scissors and pulling out a few lengths of differently colored twine. Mathias visibly perked up even before she could ask, "Are you ready to learn some more knots?" At his tired yet enthusiastic nod she settled down so their shoulders were at the same heights and handed him one set of twine while she kept back the other set for herself.
She started off teaching him the slip knot, then quickly moved onto the square knot and figure eight knot before showing him the sheet bend. Which is when he got excited and exclaimed, "I know that one!"
Interested, she waited for a moment as he looked over the knot she had just tied, before verbally prodding him with a simple, "Oh?"
"Yes, I just didn't know it had a name," he said excitedly as he swiftly showed her his experience with this knot. "My parents used this knot to teach me how to make net bags out of kelp," grinning he started his explanation with an eager happiness only for it to slowly slip into melancholic nostalgia. With a slight frown he continued in a subdued voice, "They used to make nets when my parents were merlings, but then the pod leader's successor died in an accident and everyone was forbidden from making anything other than a bag or even allowing the fishermen to have nets."
Reminded of how much he missed his family he stared sadly at the knotted twine within his hands. Unsure as to what to say to that Helen shifted a little closer to him as she wrapped her wing comfortingly around him. After a little while Helen broke the silence by asking, "Are there any other knots you know but don't know the name for?" After he shook his head she softly asked, "Do you want to continue, or put up the twine?" Mutely he handed her his twine. After putting their twine away she searchingly asked, "Can you tell me about your family?"
Sighing, Mathias swallowed a few times before asking in a slightly choked voice, "What kind of bones did you want to talk about?"
Helen gave him a stern look for a few moments before gently chiding him, "Mathias, avoidance is often not the answer." But at his pleading look she relented and with a sigh of her own gruffly asked him, "What can you tell me about a mer's skeleton?"
Mathias contemplated quietly for a while before slowly and softly answering, "Our spines are, spongy? Soft? I'm not sure what the right word is. But the bones of our spine are lighter, more flexible and better able to grow back than the rest of our bones. They're similar to cartilage, but not quite the same."
Helen listened with quite a bit of interest so she quickly asked, "What exactly do you mean by grow back?"
With a weak chuckle and a small smile Mathias continued to softly speak, "Well I could lose up to half of my tail, and if I lived I could eventually grow the whole thing back. But if I lost an arm, then the arm is just gone. Or something could take a chunk out of my back, and the spine, surrounding flesh, sensation and mobility would eventually come back. Or if it was completely crushed then the spine would quickly pop back into shape and sensation and mobility would slowly return." Then he shrugged and flashed her a smile as he admitted, "Merfolk spines are just weird."
Laughing she nodded agreeing, "Yeah they're weird, but they'd make a lot of people jealous."
Nodding thoughtfully he agreeably said, "Yeah, I can see that. So maybe don't let any wizards know."
Patting his shoulder she nodded and said, "I'll keep that tidbit to myself."
He gave her a small smile before hmming and saying, "We also have a few ribs in our hip area."
Blinking, she looked to his lap as she baffledly asked, "What for?"
Shrugging one shoulder he explained, "Well I couldn't sit up without the muscle attachments. And it's suspected that it's one of the things that allows us to swim like a seahorse when we need or want to." Helen nodded encouragingly as his explanation made sense. He looked Helen over thoughtfully for a few moments more before saying hesitantly, "Our ribs also have many joints, and the sternum is mostly made of cartilage... Other than that I think our skeletons aren't all that different than you might expect."
Even if Helen still thought that talking about his family would help him feel better, she had to admit to herself that he had perked up quite a bit. Shifting into teacher mode she handed him another box of meaty hand pies as she explained to him how to relocate a dislocation, and how to immobilize a suspected break.
Mathias hung onto her every word as he ate. Once they were both finished he passed back the box and gave her a sudden hug. Startled, she nevertheless patted his back comfortingly until he slipped wordlessly away.
~~~~~
The next day was truly a dreadful day. Mathias knew it as he woke up clinging to his nest. He knew it as he preemptively coiled around his eggs. And he also knew that there was no escaping. Not without doing things he was unwilling to do. He would neither abandon his nest, nor risk his loved ones being the ones to take him down if he struck out at her. So, he was stuck with it being a truly awful day.
When she arrived he did his best to just get through without thinking too much. At least about what was going on, that is. And to a certain extent he succeeded. He thought about his mother's stories, his father's hunting lessons, and Helen's medical lessons. He thought about anything and everything to keep his mind off the here and now. He kept his responses brief and his face as blank as he could.
But when she got done using him for her pleasure and his body was fully back in his control he could not help the sick shudder that went through him, nor the look of revulsion that twisted his face. And this of course angered her. He knew it would anger her, but he could not control himself to that extent.
Her enraged shouts set his ears to ringing and as he twisted about to flee to his nest she started hitting him with her powerful tail. He coiled up with his fin and torso tucked protectively in while her tail slammed repeatedly against him. He hoped that someday he'd have enough self control not to anger her. Because she was not a variable that he had any control of. Nor were the eggs, or the harpies, just himself. That was all he could direct and somewhat predict, himself. So, he had to get better at it.
Eventually she tired herself out and left without a word. Mathias tensely waited awhile, then once he was reasonably sure she was gone he relaxed and passed out.
He awoke once again with a start and painfully uncoiled himself. Flinching, he examined his tail to find a few places where the skin had split open. Only a couple of those spots were bad though, but they were right over lines that had recently healed. With a dejected sigh he got to the laborious task of making thread and stitching up when the only parts of him that didn't hurt were numb. Thankfully some of the numb parts were also where he needed to stitch.
He had absently noticed some shadows circling overhead several times while he worked, so once he had tended his needle and put it up he gingerly and with a tail that wasn't working quite right made his way over and up.
Emerging from the water he gazed up at an anxiously waiting Cora. She started to hop out of his way only for him to brokenly ask, "Help me up?" Coming closer again she held a foot out to him. He grabbed it with both hands as with a grunt she dragged him out of the water.
Once Mathias had climbed and wiggled up into her arms and was clinging to her, she wrapped her wings protectively around his trembling form and rocked from side to side. After a moment she spoke up, "There's something Helen told me I need to say to you, and it's true so you better listen carefully." He nodded against her neck to let her know he heard her, so with a worried sigh she said into his ear, "It's not your fault." With a sob he clutched her tighter as her words seemed to give him a tiny escape. Patting his back she continued to rock him as she soothingly and confidently repeated as if it were a mantra, "It's not your fault. It's not, at all, none of it. It's not your fault."
Chapter 20
After a time Mathias' sobbing diminished without fully going away so Cora switched from trying to build him up to singing him a soothing lullaby. After a while he relaxed and seemed to fall asleep in her arms. Slowly she stopped rocking and singing and just held him.
She kept watch over his eggs as he slept peacefully within her embrace. For several hours nothing disturbed the water at any depths that she could see, and then finally he awoke. "Cora?" he mumbled groggily.
"Yeah I'm right here," she reassured him as she switched her gaze from the sea to his face.
"Can't really see you," he complained as he blinked blearily at her fuzzy face.
