“You lustful pervert!” I snapped in embarrassment, flushing to my ear right then.Even so, Dicken kept kissing and licking my chin while he growled a chuckle from the throat, as if he was forcing himself not to laugh. His webbed paw was brushing through my hair, while I boldly flirted back by biting his ear.In the end, we played around until we were utterly exhausted and I finally lay over his chest, wheezing. Dicken caressed my back and softly said, “Sleep, Linda. There’s something that needs to be done before we close the portal.”“What is it?” “An unexpected interloper. I didn’t think that he would be so resilient.” Dicken’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “He came here from the other dimension like you, and his presence may affect how things progress in this dimension.” I immediately understood. “Are you talking about… Gary?”“Yes. I saw a group of people bringing him into the lab when I returned to look for you. He knows secrets that greedy humans must never know, and if thos
I promptly covered my private parts, but Dicken pressed a finger on my sole in the next instant and pinched it.“Stop, damn it! That tickles!” I snapped in annoyance, but Dicken laughed happily instead, and he kept holding onto my leg and pinching it. As he looked up, his dark eyes pulled me within his bottomless gaze like a magnet, before he poked out his tongue and licked my toes. The ensuing numbing tickle seemed to shoot up my scalp from my leg, and I barely managed to clap a hand over my mouth in time or I would have been screaming shrilly.“Wait, Dicken, stop!” Flustered, I begged for mercy, even as I lost my balance and was about to fall off the reef. Nonetheless, Dicken sharply sensed that and scooped me into his arms, and both our upper bodies ended up falling into the water. Not daring to breathe, I pulled my leg out and kicked him in his slippery tail, in retaliation to his prank.After that, Dicken held me by the waist and put me on the reef again. Holding me closely,
What was going on? And where was Dicken?I stood on the reef and looked around for any trace of Dicken, even as the small encirclement around me slowly shrank, and the seabirds flew off.Then, there was a loud splash behind me as a wet webbed paw breached the surface and grabbed my leg. Startled, I slipped and started to fall backwards, only for a broad, wet chest to catch me.Then, still holding on to my waist with both arms, Dicken put me back on the reef.“Linda…”Dicken’s deep voice rang beside my ear, and he lifted my chin with a claw so that I looked up at him. With that beautiful face of his before me, I stared at it repeatedly to confirm that it was him, the panic from not being able to find him in my dream fading. It turned out that I didn’t lose him—he was right beside me, and everything just now was just a dream.“Where did you go? I thought you…” I gulped even as I calmed myself. “A storm like this strengthens me. I was just trying to create a new ability,” Dicken s
As the soldiers on the harbor carried the glass tanks holding merfolk saplings up the warship, thunder abruptly cracked up in the skies, followed by torrential rains from the thick dark clouds. Even so, the warship slowly steered away from the harbor and headed towards the middle of the sea amid churning waves.Dicken and I swam along, following the warship, which had to slow down due to the downpour’s obstruction and the churning waves. Soon, Dicken led me down to the bottom of the warship’s hull, where its spiraling propellers were just above, struggling to push the ship against the storm and leaving the sea turbid in its wake. I had a hunch that Dicken was going to sabotage the propellers when Dicken suddenly released my hand, and curled his fish tail around me. Then, before I could see what he was doing, there was a blinding blue streak that shot past my vision, heading straight for the propellers.Bzzt…All at once, the propellers screeched shrilly as if they had ground agai
My grandfather had actually performed such a brutal experiment with Bob? What was going on? Why would he work with Bob? Was his affection for the younger me an imagination, and he was merely using me as bait for his plans?No, there was no way… Bob must have threatened him…However, even as I defended my grandfather in my head, there were so many unanswered questions that appeared in my mind, combining to materialize a mirror reflecting all the bizarre experiences I didn't understand as a child. All of those things cruelly pointed to an answer I was reluctant to accept, even as the eerie scenes I often dreamt of years ago slowly became clear: the interior of pure-white building, where other children and I were being delivered for some sort of checkup…There was no doubt that those scenes had occurred in my childhood, all of which were connected to my grandfather.As my mind went blank, I sweated bullets from my forehead.“Linda?” Dicken looked at me with his dark gaze then, and wr
“Survival.” Dicken narrowed his pensiveness. “The seas over the earth’s surface are the protective layer over our domain, but human’s extensive abuse has caused its environment to deteriorate over a hundred years. This threatens my race, because our usual procreation methods are utterly devastated by the yearly rising temperatures of the ocean. To avoid extinction, we’ve eventually evolved a method that would grant our kind perpetuation…”“By converting humans?”Dicken nodded. “Yes. That is why I’d sent some of our elites as envoys, hoping that they could change into humans and procreate with human women, after which they would convert their children with our kind’s Yiki. That way, those children would return to our fold as our own, becoming merfolk warriors who would aid us in this war to occupy the oceans.”I shook my head in disbelief, and wondered what it would be like if there really was a war between humans and merfolk. Still, I suddenly remembered the tragic sight of the merf
“What? What time is it?” I asked in confusion. However, Dicken simply pulled me aside and raised his webbed paw, reaching slowly for the ceiling. The scales on both sides of his tail were rattling rapidly, and soon, a bundle of blue bolts sparkled over his paw with a buzzing sound. Thin bolts hence accumulated around him, and I could feel air being charged by his bolts. Then, in the instant Dicken’s paw touched the ceiling, the entire ship quaked, and the people above erupted in an uproar and fled to every corner available to them. “What’s going on? What happened?!”“Oh no! The test subjects are getting out of control as if they’ve sensed something! Professor Bob, we need to ask for reinforcements!” As two sets of footsteps rushed past us overhead, a cabin door could be heard slamming shut while horrific hisses echoed above. Soon, something started to scrape harshly against the floor—seemingly merfolk sliding along it. The glass tanks holding them had shattered and were left str
I seemed to know Dicken better now, and finally saw what lay beyond his profound love for the ocean. Like human emperors who expanded their borders, Dicken’s nature was as callous and bloodthirsty as the merfolks leaders, and he revered defeating violence with more violence. Of course, this was the best solution to snuff out the vileness which humans wrought, and the mastermind of this great conspiracy ought to pay the price for challenging a troublesome leader like this one.I wondered where Bob and Gary were hiding at that moment… Were they shaking in their boots? And then there was my grandfather—or the elder of the merfolk, to be precise….Nonetheless, even as that thought crossed my mind, there was a melodious cry echoing nearby, and the frenzied merfolk that were tearing the soldiers into pieces suddenly stopped. Dicken’s gaze turned dark, just as his expression turned solemn.I had a bad feeling about this, too.“Come out, my king. I know you’re there… Still hiding there t