The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 281: The waves carry many voices

If we could wash off the polluted water on the fish man’s body, maybe he would get better and he would no longer be sleepy.

"Damar, we have to wash him off," I said, reaching for the water pouch. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

I don’t know how long Robin would take so it was better to start small.

"And then, we need to find a way to stop whatever is falling from those cliffs. Is there a cure to this sleeping herb that’s polluting the water?"

Damar looked at the cliffs, then back at me, his expression grim. "There is a cure." He said.

He picked up the merman—carefully this time since now he confirmed he wasn’t trying to trap us—and we retreated into the shadow of the rocks just as Robin came running back with a large leaf folded into a bowl, dripping with clear, fresh spring water.

Ah, he was faster than I thought. Were sheep this fast? And I was just about to sacrifice my drinking water.

"I’m here,"

I handed the basket over to Damar and started to wash the slime away, my hands shaking.

"Jael, was it? Can you hear me?"

Jael coughed up a glob of brown gunk.

"I guess you can hear me. We’re going to do our best to cure you of the sleeping effect as well as the pollution. But I’m not sure about how to clear the polluted sea."

I had no idea how to filter water, especially not one as wide as the sea.

The mer folks were already deeply affected, so instead of trying to clear the water, we had to stop the source of pollution and try to bring the mer folks out of the water until the waves carried this pollution further away.

"Damar, how fast can you get the cure?" I asked and he looked left, right, as if looking for something in specific, his nose wiggling in the air, and then he said,

"Not long."

"Then, can you get to it? Let’s make just enough to cure Jael for now."

Damar looked at me for a while, unsure if to leave me and the cubs with this... Fish.

I held his hand, though mine felt a little sticky thanks to the slime.

"I’m sure I can handle a sick fish if anything happens," I said to him and he nodded, turning to glide away after glaring at the dying fish for a short while, and handing me the basket of sleeping cubs.

His movements were so silent that it was like the forest just swallowed him whole as he disappeared into the bush.

I turned my attention back to Jael. Robin was busy pouring the fresh water over the merman’s neck, helping to flush out that nasty brown slime.

"Keep it coming, Robin," I encouraged, using a clean piece of cloth to gently wipe the scales around Jael’s gills. "We need those slits clear so he can actually get some oxygen—or whatever it is they breathe out of the water."

Jael let out a long, shuddering breath. His eyes were starting to focus again, shifting from that cloudy gray back to a deep, oceanic blue. He looked at me, then at the basket of cubs sitting on the rock next to me.

"You... Are you the one from the stories?" Jael rasped. His voice was still rough, but the ’sand’ was clearing out. "The land-mother."

I nearly dropped the cloth I was using to wipe the slime off his scales. I looked at Jael, blinking.

"Stories?" I repeated.

I felt a sudden urge to flip my hair, feeling all mythical and legendary for about two seconds, but then the weight of it hit me. My stomach did a little somersault.

"What kind of stories? And ’land mother’? I’m barely keeping it together as a regular mother, let’s not get ahead of ourselves."

I looked at Robin, then back at the merman. Was there some sort of primitive fortune teller under the sea? Or was I just being mistaken for some ancient goddess who happened to have tiger ears and a bad attitude toward hyenas?

"The waves carry many voices," Jael rasped, his eyes fixing on me with a look that was way too intense for my liking. "The deep-seers spoke of a female who would come from a world of cold stone... one who carries the mark of the Wolf but the heart of a hearth. They said she would walk where we cannot, and speak for those who have no voice on land."

The ’cold stone’ part sent a shiver down my spine. Did they mean the concrete and skyscrapers of my old life? How the hell would a fish-man know about that? No, I must just be reading too much meaning into this.

It’s because I have a tale to tell.

"Wait, wait," I said, putting my hands up. "Let’s backtrack. I’m just Arinya. I’m Damar, Fenric and Noah’s mate." I counted with my fingers. "And I’m the mother of three cubs. Just three. I’m not some savior sent from the heavens to fix the ecosystem. I just really hate seeing people get bullied, especially by guys who use poison because they’re too chicken to fight fair."

Damar came back from the bush just then, his hands full of the purple Sun-Thistle and milky roots. He caught the end of what Jael was saying, and his eyes narrowed, his gaze darting between the merman and me.

"Ignore their so-called legends, Ari," Damar said, his voice flat as he placed the herbs down to start crushing them. "The mer-folk have a story for every ripple in the water. Most of them are just dreams to pass the time while they wait for the tide."

"This is no dream," Jael insisted, though he winced as Damar pressed the bitter purple paste against his lips. "She is here. The stars have started aligning, even if the water is dark."

Okay, now it all sounded like gibberish to me. Let’s ignore him for now. I’m just doing what I can to reduce Noah’s stress. Whether they have a legend or not, it’s not my business.

I watched as Damar forced the cure into Jael’s mouth.

"Just eat the flower, Jael," I muttered, leaning back on my heels. "We can talk about my mythical status later. Right now, I’m just a very tired female who wants to make sure your ’nursery’ doesn’t stay asleep forever."

As Jael chewed the bitter medicine, his color started to come back, a shimmering silver-blue returning to his skin. The ’fog’ in his eyes was clearing, and he sat up, looking more like a warrior and less like a wet rag.

"Now," I said, looking at the high, rough cliffs. "Shall we start talking about how to help the rest of the merfolk tribe?"