Chapter 220: Jellyfish Ll

Later that night, the silver-blue mer came to Syryn's room. He had a miniature jellyfish in his hand. It was small enough to fit in Syryn's cupped palm.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Syryn asked him. The jellyfish was so transparent it seemed to be made up of water. Its cute tentacles tickled the palm of his hand when it rotated like it was looking around the room.

"I just thought you might like it. Do you not like it?" Drevin's gaze flickered to the jellyfish cupped in Syryn's palm. 

"I like it."

"Name her."

"What? Right now?"

"Yes."

"..."

Syryn couldn't think of a name.

"You can name her after yourself. How about...Ryn?"

Syryn's heart suddenly throbbed.

Ryn, he heard the voice of another man call him from the graveyard of his buried memories. Echoes of happiness and warmth touched him for a second but they slipped away when Syryn tried to remember.

"That's me," he said, looking more lost than ever.

"Yes, Ryn. It is your name," the merman said with some concern. The foolish human looked very foolish, but also sad, as if someone had died.

In syryn's palm, the little jellyfish curled its legs under its round body and became a crystal bun.

"Call me Ryn," he said to the silver-blue merman.

"Why?"

"Just do it, Drevin." Syryn felt desperate and foolish but he wanted those feelings back. It was the rush of happiness that he was chasing.

"Ryn."

It wasn't the same.

"You are disappointed," Drevin observed.

"No, I just thought-" the mage didn't finish his sentence.

Syryn wasn't sure what he wanted. He realised it wasn't the name that was significant, but the person that said it. Whose voice was it then that he was recalling?

"May I touch you?" The merman asked, solemnly.

Syryn would have blurted out 'where' if he didn't catch himself as his mouth opened.

"Okay."

The silver-blue merman was hesitant but he put an arm around the human. And then another. "I have heard that humans comfort each other in this manner," Drevin said with a touch of apprehension.

Syryn was stiff inside the merman's awkward hug.

"Have I done it wrong?"

"No," the mage replied as he returned the hug. His skin brushed against the baby scales that were as soft as petals over the merman's stomach.

"Are you feeling better, Syryn?"

The mage looked up into silvery eyes. "I think so."

"Very good. You can come for more hugs when you need one."

"Thank you," Syryn said to the merman who was mean but nice. He also thought it strange that merpeople did not share hugs like humans often did. Humans hugged each other. He hadn't remembered that till Drevin had given him one.

After Syryn had closed his door, the silver-blue merman hurried away hoping that he hadn't been seen hugging Syryn. Such an intimate gesture was only reserved for mates or bonded mer pairs, and sometimes between a mother and her little children. It had been a bad idea but Drevin did it anyway because the foolish human had looked even more foolish than he normally did.

____

Lying on his clamshell bed, Syryn used a finger to stroke the head of his little jellyfish. The small creature was still a ball on Syryn's palm. It extended a cute little arm and waved it in the air.

"Hello, Ryn."

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Syryn poked the arm and it curled around his finger.

"What do you eat? Magic?" How silly, he thought to himself. Why would a jellyfish eat magic?

"Wait a minute.." Syryn abruptly sat up. Could he use magic?

The mage stupidly stared at his palms. What was he supposed to do?

"Come on magic, answer my call!"

Magic did not answer to Syryn's call.

"Do something..."

There wasn't even a fizzle of magic in the water. His jellyfish rotated slowly, letting its arms swirl like the skirt of a tiny dancer. It brought a smile to Syryn's face.

"Maybe I can't do magic.."

He let himself fall back on the seagrass and watched the little jellyfish dance. Round and round and round and round it went. Syryn fell asleep counting the number of times that Ryn was rotating.

____

"Why am I an honoured guest in Silisia?" Syryn asked Enkansh. The siren had solicited his company for eel hunting. With their ability to camouflage and hide within the cracks of rocks, stone eels were a chore to gather, but they were also Drevin's favourite.

"Why would I know that? Ask the king."

The siren had already caught five stone eels and they were strung together on a line made of tough fibre.

"You know why. Tell me."

"Ask the mermen."

"Aren't you also one?"

"I'm a siren."

"I haven't seen another siren in Silisia so far. Are you the only one?"

"Yes."

Syryn trailed behind Enkansh, watching him magically turn a stone into fish. At least that was what it looked like to the human.

"Why?"

"Bother someone else with your questions."

"Why?"

"Because you're annoying me."

"But you didn't answer a single query of mine. At least tell me why-" 

"For the love of- if you do not stop asking questions, I will eat you right now, human!" The siren bared his teeth at Syryn.

"You won't," he deadpanned. "I'm an honoured guest. If I go missing, they'll suspect the only siren in the kingdom."

Enkansh smacked Syryn on the chest with a stone eel. "Eating you will be worth whatever punishment they give me."

"Then eat me. Go ahead," Syryn arrogantly called the siren's bluff.

Enkansh narrowed his eyes at the human. The end of his tail flicked and twitched like an irritated appendage. A gleam of violence shone in the Siren's slitted eyes. 

"You... Stay back," Syryn put his hands in front of his body like a shield.

An undignified scream followed a blur of maroon as the siren pounced on Syryn and took him down. A cloud of sand exploded where the two fishermen tussled like children fighting for a favourite toy.

Alas, the siren prevailed. His agile tail was wrapped around Syryn's legs, holding them together. The mage found his arms pinned to his sides as a heavy siren crushed him with the weight of his body.

Syryn stared up mutinously at the siren, convinced that he wouldn't get eaten.

"Eat.me.if.you.dare." He bit out at Enkansh.

The siren bared its sharp teeth at him. And before he could process what was happening, Syryn lost a small slice of his ear lobe to the creature's pointed teeth.

"Fuck! You bit off my ear!" He screeched.

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