Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 67: Fish on Land

Eory sat on a patch of dried paint. He was looking at the long word that he had transcribed from the angry wound on his bandaged arm to a separate piece of parchment the night before. By his side, Eory had different versions of a fairy tale that was written in the fairy, waif, elvish, common, and dwarven languages handy.

He had made some progress in translating the long word. It was a combination of different languages, or so Eory thought. Some of the characters he had translated matched the characters in other languages perfectly, while some had small differences.

Every now and again, when Eory's head started to hurt, he would lower the piece of parchment so he could peer over it and survey Maruka's paintjob.

He hid a judgmental grin behind the piece of parchment. He also hid his flushed cheeks behind the parchment when he began surveying Maruka instead of the paintjob.

Maruka's sleeves were rolled up, and Eory could appreciate how well-sculpted his muscles were.

Eory giggled at the waves the selkie was making. Maruka glanced up with a roll of his eyes and a little grin. "Is my work really that b-b-bad? What is s-s-so funny?"

It had been an hour or two, so Maruka decided to take a break. He placed his brush to the side and walked over to Eory—his footsteps echoing the entire way. He sat down next to the fairy, who turned away from him to hide the fact that he was blushing."Oh, it's nothing. It's just, I think those waves you painted could use a few more shades of blue and white... Maybe a few more ripples."

Maruka shook his head, unable to stop grinning. "I-I-I don't know w-w-why you asked me to help if you're just going to n-n-nitpick."

Eory shrugged, his cheeks turning even redder. "I just enjoy your company."

Maruka let that sink in, letting it warm his heart, and then he asked, "So, how far have you gotten?"

Eory cleared his throat and showed Maruka his piece of parchment. "I have a few letters translated. These first three letters spell out red, and then there's the M I translated from the other night, here, and a K here. The K is a K from the waif language, the M is from the elvish language, and the red is from the dwarven language."

"You could t-translate all that just from looking at this single fairy tale?" Maruka was impressed. "T-truly, you are brilliant, Eory!"

Eory shook his head with a frustrated sigh. "Thank you, but I've barely made any progress. If only my head didn't hurt."

"Y-you should take a break! Come paint with me!" Maruka suggested, holding a hand out to the fairy.

Eory was unable to take his eyes away from his translation for a moment. He felt as if every moment he spent doing something other than translating, was a moment another recruit died. "I don't even know if my translation is accurate..."

Maruka frowned. He grabbed Eory's wrists and helped him up. "I can't stand that pouty f-f-face of yours! Come on, time to h-h-have some fun! You can help me fix the waves!"

Eory smiled. "Okay. Maybe it'll help me sort this translation out."

Eory dove into painting full-tilt like he loved to do. He spruced up the waves Maruka had painted while the selkie added more clouds to the sky.

"Do you like the sea, Maruka?" Eory asked while carefully and methodically adding foam to Maruka's ocean.

Maruka nodded. "Yes, you s-s-see..."

Eory waited for the selkie to continue. When a minute of silence went by, Eory realized that the man wanted to tell him something very important. He wiped the sweat from his ivory forehead and glanced up at Maruka. "Yes...?"