Case 01:
Sunburned Mermaid
“WHAT? The human realm? Who’s going?”
“You are, Illy.”
Illy had come to Scythia Transportation headquarters, as usual, to pick up her deliveries for the day, when Tisalia, the young heir to the company, had sprung the news on her.
“There will be an ambassador from Lindworm to build goodwill with the human realm. Illy, you’re one of the candidates. And you know you have the biggest advantage, right?”
“What? Ambassador? Why me?” Illy slung the bag filled with letters over her shoulder. Her expression was one of complete confusion. “Lulala is way more popular than me. Why would I go?!”
“Well, when you fly around as much as you do… You know, it’s rare to find someone in town who doesn’t know your cheerful face. Everyone likes to get their mail from you!”
“I’m not doing it to be popular!” Illy protested. “And anyway, the Lady of Scythia Transportation is you!”
“They said they want someone closer in age to Sioux. Aren’t you perfect, Illy?”
“Well in that case, how about Kay or Lorna?” Illy’s crest feathers were twitching.
Judging from her expression, she wasn’t excited by the prospect. “You know better than anyone, My Lady, what the humans did to me. Delivering to them is one thing, but I certainly don’t want to spend time in their realm!”
“That’s exactly why you should!” Tisalia gave her a knowing look. “It’s natural that you don’t feel comfortable around humans, but isn’t that all the more reason why you should learn more about them? Besides, the longer you live here, in a town where monsters and humans coexist, the harder it’s going to be for you if you hate humans.”
“Er…”
“You already know that not all humans are bad.”
“Th-that’s true…” Illy averted her eyes.
For example, Glenn helped Illy out a lot. And yes, Sioux had once been human, and she was the same age as Illy. Since they were both constantly flitting about town, they’d naturally spoken to each other. But their situations were completely different! Illy and other young harpies like her had been captured and forced to lay eggs! She couldn’t just brush her mistrust of humans away.
“The company will be backing you, Illy, so you’d better prepare.”
“Look at the time! I need to get to work!” Illy ran out, gripping her delivery bag.
“Wait, Illy I’m not—”
“I need to make my deliveries, don’t I? We can talk later!” Illy darted into the air before she was even all the way out the door. It was clear that she wasn’t actually interested in talking.
“That girl,” Tisalia said, letting out a deep sigh. But she recalled how she used to run away whenever her mother brought up unpleasant subjects, like trying to rush her into marriage. “Am I turning into my mother?”
Tisalia resolved to not get too pushy about it. She understood why Illy didn’t want to go to the human realm.
✦ ✦ ✦
“And that’s what happened.”
It was the middle of the day. There weren’t many people in the central square, due to the unseasonable heat wave. Illy was sitting on the edge of the fountain, telling Lulala about her morning conversation.
“Ahh, they asked to go to the human realm, too!” Lulala said.
“I heard that they’ll decide by a vote, which means you’ll win,” Illy insisted. “There’s no way I’ll be chosen.”
“Hmm. I wonder about that.” Lulala smiled. As Tisalia had said, Illy was quite popular around town. The only person who didn’t seem to realize this was Illy herself. “But I mean, I don’t really want to go to the human realm, either. I heard that people over there eat mermaids.”
“Eat them?! How horrifying! I never want to go there!” Illy’s plumage quivered.
As this new information stoked the flames of Illy’s fear, she looked across the fountain to distract herself. There was a young cyclops girl sitting there.
“What about Memé? Maybe she’ll go.”
“What?!” Memé protested. “I’ve just been sitting, minding my own business and doing my best to stay out of the conversation!”
“Please, join us!” Illy said, exasperated,
Memé was also close in age to Lulala and Illy. Illy found her single eye to be a bit…disturbing, but she didn’t hate Memé. The young cyclops was timid, and she could be a bit of a pain to deal with, but Illy thought she was sweet.
“A-anyway, I won’t be chosen as an ambassador,” Memé said. “If I were, I’d probably die of nervousness.”
“I’ve heard you’re pretty popular, Memé,” Lulala said from her perch on the edge of the fountain.
“Agggh, I-I don’t want to stand out.”
“Yeah, I know,” Illy said. “You and I? We’re not divas like Lulala. How could they possibly make us ambassadors?”
“All I do is sing!” Lulala chuckled. “But you’re really cute, Illy. Like, if you were to buy accessories from Memé’s shop and wear some of Arahnia’s clothes, you’d be even more popular, you know?”
“Accessories? Clothes?” Illy scratched her cheek with one of her wings, unable to even imagine such things. “No, I… Those don’t look good on me.”
“What?”
“Besides, I don’t need to dress up. These feathers are plenty!” Illy spread her wings, her face proud.
When Memé saw this, her black eye twitched. “Y-you’re right. I know you don’t need any of the accessories I make. I…I already knew that.”
“Ugh, I didn’t phrase it like that, did I?!” Illy said. “Don’t let it get you down.” She was trying to be nice, but she couldn’t look Memé in the eye. Perhaps she was still afraid of her.
“I honestly can’t tell if you two are friends or not,” Lulala said.
“Help me out here, Lulala,” Illy said.
“Don’t feel bad, Memé!” Lulala began. “It’s almost time for me to sing—”
That’s when the shadow appeared—a figure wrapped in a coat and sunglasses, to ward against the glaring sun.
“Hey.” The figure removed her coat, revealing bat wings underneath. “I heard the whole conversation. Just what in the world are you talking about? It’s infuriating!”
“Who are you?” Illy asked.
The speaker removed her sunglasses, and her sharp eyes narrowed, like she was spoiling for a fight. Illy could feel her hackles rising in response. She’d settled down quite a bit since coming to Lindworm, but she still had something of a temper.
“I’m Plum,” said the young woman, with a toss of her blonde locks. “Plum the vampire.”
“Vampire? Oh, from the graveyard district. I don’t remember saying anything that would offend a vampire.”
“But you did!” Plum glared at Illy. “Saying your feathers are all you need… You think you’re better than the rest of the candidates?! Do you have any idea how hard Lulala and I have to work to look this good?! Or how Memé labors over her accessories?!”
“You’re an ambassador candidate, too?” Illy exclaimed.
“Of course! My daddy came up with the list. He said his daughter would be the perfect bridge with the human realm, and I don’t intend on losing to anyone.”
“You go on then. I’ll drop out,” Illy offered. She didn’t want to go to the human realm in the first place. Nor did she have any interest in Plum’s prideful ramblings.
“Oh, really? You’re scared of losing, then? After you were just saying that you don’t need fashion because you have wings?”
“What? What does that have to do with it?”
“It has everything to do with it!” Plum bared her fangs. “Didn’t you know? The ambassador will be decided by a vote. In other words, the most popular girl—the cutest girl in town—will be chosen.”
“Nah, that’s not true!”
“It is true,” Plum fumed. “Everyone votes based on appearance. They want someone pretty! And you…you think your feathers make you pretty?”
“Well,” Illy began.
Plum snorted.
Memé had grown frantic. She didn’t know how to ease the tension between these two.
“I mean, if you wanted to drop out, I’d understand.” Plum reached out with one of her wings and pulled Memé close. “Then you’d know that you lost to my charms and Memé’s accessories, yeah?”
“Huh? Wha…what?!” Memé was confused.
“Are you on her side?!” Illy cried out, seeing the cyclops’s reaction.
Memé shook her head fervently. “I-I’m not on any side! A-and I don’t want to fight!”
“It’s fine. Don’t even worry about that loser harpy. Even though she was just bragging about her wings, she knows she can’t beat me. Awww, poor thing!”
“Whaaat?!” Illy’s crest feathers stood straight up with anger. “I doubt someone as frivolous as you could be elected!”
“What do you care? You said you don’t even want to go to the human realm!”
“I don’t! But I also have no intention of losing to you! You’ve got a lot of nerve, considering I’ve never even met you!” There was that time Illy had called the doctor who saved her life, but she ignored that for the time being.
“If you don’t want to go, then why don’t you just shut yourself away in Lindworm, you scared little chicken!” Plum shot back.
“If you would just listen!”
Illy flew at Plum, talons out. She tore at the vampire’s clothes until Plum’s voluptuous bosoms were exposed and quivering.
Plum let out an ear-piercing scream. “This was my favorite outfit!”
“Shut up! Apologize for making fun of my feathers!”
“You’re the one who brought them up! Where do you get off? Sure, your feathers are a bit pretty, but you clearly don’t care about your appearance!” Plum grazed Illy’s face with the claw at the end of her own wing, leaving a red streak.
“You idiot!” yelled Illy.
“Eeek!” Plum shrieked.
“Chiiirp!” Illy cried out.
They tumbled into the square, talons and claws grappling and scratching. With each tumble, more of Illy’s feathers flew into the air. It made for a beautiful sight, though losing her beloved plumage was torture for Illy. Even so, both girls were keeping their scratches shallow, so the fight wouldn’t turn fatal. They tore at each other’s clothes, exposing more and more skin. With all the excitement, they didn’t even notice the people staring at them.
“Ah, ah, aaaah! Wh-what can we do?” Memé had tears in her eye, and she was shaking.
“Ugh, there’s nothing we can do,” Lulala said, just as distraught.
Plum bit Illy.
“Owww! Watch where you’re biting!” Illy’s scream filled the square.
“Memé, will you go get Dr. Glenn? We need to stop them before they’re seriously injured!”
“O-okay…but what do you mean by ‘stop them’?”
“This!” Lulala plunged her hands into the water then clasped them together, creating an explosive stream of water. There was nothing either of the distracted combatants could do to counter this technique, which had once taken down the leader of a group of slave traders.
“Ergh!”
“Agh!”
The harpy’s and vampire’s screams were soon drowned out by water.
“You both need to cool off!” Lulala said, exasperated.