Water Lilies

Damla & Liȇn

One moment at peace in the wet vegetation and the next on one's feet in a rush to conceal identity, dignity, and alarm, I rushed to gather every article about my person. Tyr's outburst was my saving grace and I admired his passion for honor; truly he was meant to be a knight.

The clatter of shouting men and a young boy persisted as I finished fastening the armor. The braid was second nature and disappeared under the helmet just before I heard splashing disturb the still waters behind me.

"Oh, look, Damla."

"Yes, indeed, Liȇn."

"It's a man?"

"It's a woman?"

I stumbled with surprise over the tangles of grass and lost my helmet. Wet, inhuman women waded in the water like curious otters. They stared up with wide eyes like otters, too.

"I saw her sex. Quite soft like a woman's, Damla," Liȇn's watery whisper purred.

Damla nodded assuredly, "Yes, Liȇn, but she dresses like the men! Oh, does she smell like one, too."

Liȇn glowered, "but she can be washed, Damla."

'Does she taste like one?" Damla pushed herself just enough from the water to rest her cold, soft lips upon my hand. My fear kept me frozen, and my eyes locked on the strange creature. Damla's skin was blue like a wintry death, but blushing, and her hair a pretty green like young fiddleheads. Ample, naked breasts accompanied her exit from the dark water and glowed a pink blush along the curvatures. The black pupils that had once clouded her eyes and the emotion behind them shrunk to a human proportion and stared into me like an abyss. With quick work, Damla had my fingers in her mouth and rolled them over her tongue like succulent bones, desperately trying to pull out flavorful marrow.

I screeched and withdrew. The water creatures chortled and sent a playful splash of water into my face with a flick of a silvery fin. I felt their new intent chilling on my skin. Looking back I saw Tyr had lost to the men superior only in size. They were stunned, struggling with a temperamental boy, and watching the mermaids' plot unfold.

"Pretty lady. She does taste like a woman," Damla grinned.

"Then, I would also like a taste," Liȇn decided. In a quick motion, their long, slippery fingers were curled about my ankles and strength that betrayed their physical forms dragged me into the river. I might have screamed, but the water swallowed my voice.

Under the surface, it was pitch black besides the glinting star above us. It seemed a million leagues away, as did the air, and the struggle for oxygen became increasingly real. Since I was a child I knew how to swim, but the mermaids dragged me further and kicking was useless in such armor.

"Her insides ache like a man's, Liȇn," Damla's whispery purr nested in my brain. Her voice was as clear as day and not at all strangled by the heavy waters. Liȇn ignored Damla and set my hair free, while discarding the leather strap I used to tie it.

"Maybe human women are not so special," Liȇn whined teasingly. Deeper and deeper they pulled me down. There was no way such a tiny river could be so vast, and yet the star dimmed and the darkness blanketed me.

"Let her make a case then!" Damla laughed. She twisted around my body like a chain and gripped my head between her slender hands and pressed pink lips to my purple ones. A voice, more like a resonating sound, filled my head till I thought it might implode. Indecipherable whispers, music, wind and waves rushed through like a nightmare and exited far milder like a dream.

"There," Damla said. She poked my belly till my lips parted - there was no more air to escape - and I breathed in the water. It was like drinking but deeper. As a child, when you return from games breathless and desperate for well-water only to get the delicious shock of the refreshment you're never really prepared for in those times, you want to breathe the cool water into your lungs but always resist instinctively. This was that moment of ultimate freedom. For the first time, I breathed in the most refreshing breath of water and felt whole again.

"Better?" Liȇn inquired. Damla released me from her hold. My breaths were slow and careful, but the water passed through my lungs like cool air. My armor continued to pull me down but the mermaids took hold and made quick work of it. Bright sounds of clattering metal echoed around my ears. The helmet was long gone, and so soon followed the pauldrons, breastplate, tasset, rerebraces, vambraces, cuisses, and sabatons as the clasps were released by deft fingers. Liȇn gave each piece a brief study and carelessly tossed them towards the surface. They floated out of sight into the gleam of the morning star and I had to promise myself to keep calm in the face of illogical happenings. Perhaps in another life I might understand, but for now I was on my own and Ladies of the Water had considered eating me not so long ago.

Damla explored me. She found the costume delightful in some respect. In the water, I felt weightless as did my clothing rippling soothingly against my skin. Green hair appeared in front of my stomach where Damla took it upon herself to tug the tunic from my breeches. Liȇn pulled it loose over my head, grinning like a wicked menace as she did, leaving me nearly bare. The binding cloth I had had just enough time to don before meeting my watery tomb had remained in place.

Both mermaids pupils had expanded to fill their sockets once more and the effect was disconcerting and invasive.

"Look, Liȇn. She tries to cover her shame where there is none. She is flat like a water-worn stone!"

"Hush, Damla, she's simply a liar," Liȇn said mischievously. "Here is the secret!" Liȇn tugged at the fastening on the bind and the cloth fell into the sand not far below. Breasts exposed, Damla was elated.

"Oh, so she is a lady! Well, this is so much better because I am so hungry, Liȇn," Damla sang. Damla swooped in and pressed her large chest to mine.

Damla chittered, "We are like twins! She's so soft and plump, Liȇn. Feel her!"

"I'd rather taste," Liȇn's hooded lashes glowered. I tried to back away, to nowhere in particular, just anywhere away, but Damla's hold was permanent.

Liȇn took Damla's place and wrapped her hands about my hips, digging sharp nails into my buttocks. I watched her, her big eyes staring up like deep holes and her lips parted as if preparing to bite flesh. Her lips curled up at the corners and the tiny rows of teeth for ripping glittered back. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and turned my face to the sun, praying God was merciful and would forgive me for every sin I had committed until now. Soft laughter, their skin on mine, and a sucking sensation.

"W-what?!" I cried. My voice sounded strange under the water.

"I knew it! She has not lost her voice. I would like to hear her sing," Damla cooed.

I opened my eyes and no blood appeared in my vision. Liȇn's lips were suckling at my nipples like a kitten with its mother. She was gentle but thorough and drawing her tongue over the pink halo making the nipples stand taught. Liȇn's fingers dug deeper into my lower back when my body jerked; I could sense the blood escaping in the water. Damla's long transparent fins brushed Liȇn's hold on me away. Arching back to watch her, Liȇn still occupied with my front, I caught Damla leaning in and the flash of a long silvery tongue snaking across the marks left in passion. It felt cold like a frozen fern melting against the small of my back.

"All better," Damla whispered, swimming agiley past my ear. She pulled gently at my hair as she went and Liȇn's sweet face appeared in the swirl of black tendrils. She placed her palms gently on the sides of my face and pressed close - her lips to mine, evidently intent on drawing out all aspects of my will to resist her, and her breasts pressed firmly against mine.

Her tongue in my mouth was as refreshing as my first breath of water and her wandering hands broke my spirit. My hands wandered back. I felt her smirk.

It had not occurred to me before, but Liȇn's lower half was scaly like most fish despite its glossy appearance. A delicate curvature to her hips and buttocks invited touching, to which she mimicked. My hands wandered back to her head. She had ears, slightly pointed like faeries of lore, and her hair was as pink as rose buds in springtime, tantalizingly soft like a flame without the burn. I opened my eyes - the mermaids were both staring into me intensely, measuring reactions. Damla separated my lips with her thumb, pressing until I allotted access to my tongue. I sucked on her, which pleased her greatly, and Liȇn drew her smooth fingers down my figure with admiring gestures.

"Do you like this game, ___," Liȇn murmured. The last sound seemed to be a name but in a mermaid's language. It sounded like rushing water, sea plants, and the way tiny bubbles popping in one's mouth might feel.