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“Prince Vanilla! Prince Vanilla! Something’s washed up on shore! It looks hurt!”
Prince Vanilla’s head snaps up and he holds tightly to his staff as a villager stumbles up the path to the pasture filled with meandering sheep, their chest rising and falling quickly from exertion. Their eyes are frantic and Vanilla wastes no time weaving through his flock to meet them. The Vanilla Kingdom’s shores are typically uneventful and for the villager to be in such a state, whatever they’ve seen must have truly upset them.
“Something?” he asks, steadying the villager with a hand on their shoulder. The eye in his Vanilla Orchid staff blinks and surveys the area, but they are too far from the shore for it to catch sight of anything. “Peace, and tell me what it is you’ve seen.”
The villager takes a deep breath and straightens their shoulders. Vanilla’s touch calms them but there is still nervous light in their eyes.
“I was taking a walk down the shore since the weather is so nice and I saw something tangled up in seaweed in the distance! I ran up to it, thinking it might be a dolphin or something but…”
“But?” Vanilla prompts gently. He beckons the villager to follow him as he walks toward the shore. “Please, lead the way.”
“It wasn’t a dolphin! It…It’s a *merperson*! At least, I think so? It’s bleeding and I couldn’t get very close… It tried to bite me!”
“Frightened animals tend to lash out when they’re hurt. They can’t tell who seeks to help them or hurt them.” Vanilla tightens his hand around his staff as the villager tries to describe what they’d seen on the shore. His Orchid enhances his vision and Vanilla’s shoulders straighten as it finds the seaweed tangled lump that the villager described. “Let me approach it alone.”
“But your highness! What if it attacks you?”
“I am adept in healing magic—that is why you came to me, is it not?” The villager nods cautiously. “So allow me to approach it alone. It will be less likely to lash out if there’s only one stranger.”
“If you are certain…”
“I am.”
Vanilla leaves the villager behind and takes slow and measured steps to the shifting mass down the beach. The closer he gets, the more his Orchid can make out. The creature has a beautiful blue and black scaled tail and Vanilla can see deep scratches with dark blood shining in the warm sunlight. Black-clawed hands attempt to shred at the seaweed and netting trapping them in the damp sand and Vanilla can hear angry and panicked clicks and whines the closer he gets. The villager was right—this is no normal sea creature.
The creature freezes and hisses as Vanilla approaches, baring two rows of sharp teeth and attempting to puff its chest out to appear bigger and intimidating to this perceived threat.
“I mean you no harm,” Vanilla says softly. He sinks onto one knee and braces himself on his staff. It blinks slowly at the creature, who stares at it cautiously before blinking in turn, deeming it to not be a threat at the very least. It does not grant Vanilla the same courtesy and hisses loudly as he scoots a little closer to it.
He is used to skittish sheep and doesn’t take it personally, simply extending his hand to the creature for it to decide if his scent was threatening or not. Vanilla simply waits, his expression placid as the creature leans forward and its sharp nose twitches as it decides if he is safe or not. Vanilla and his Orchid blink, waiting, and he smiles as that pointed nose bumps against his fingertips.
“Hello, there,” Vanilla says, flipping his hand palm up so the creature can investigate him further. He speaks slowly and softly., enunciating every word to try and be understood.“I do not know if you can understand me but I am here to help you if you will let me.”
Sharp, dual-toned eyes squint at him and Vanilla knows that he is understood. Good. That makes this easier.
This close, Vanilla can see the creature’s wounds better and resists the urge to wince at how attacked it looks. The depths of the sea are filled with many predators that Vanilla doesn’t know and it seems that the merperson in front of him met the wrong side of one of them. Its blue skin is mottled with bruises and scratches, as well as the odd large bite mark, and Vanilla wants nothing more than to heal it and relieve it of its pain.
“May I come closer?” He asks. He scoots forward on his knees when the creature doesn’t move away but he stops the moment it bares its teeth. “I truly do not mean you harm. May I have your hand?” It blinks at him and he wiggles his fingers to get his point across.
It blinks again, looking between the Orchid and Vanilla before it slowly extends its hand to him. Thin webbing connects its fingers and Vanilla gently brushes his fingers along the back of its hand and up its arm, his hand emitting a warm golden light as his healing magic transfers to the pained creature before him. It squeaks and clicks in surprise, almost pulling its arm out of his reach, before its wide eyes watch blue skin knit itself back together and bruises fade away under the healing light.
“See? I don’t mean harm.”
The creature still eyes Vanilla suspiciously before using its healed hand to point to the netting and seaweed tangled around its tail and torso. Well, freeing it from its prison would be a sign of good will, wouldn’t it?
Vanilla shoves his staff into the stand until he is sure that it will stand on its own before he turns to the mess. He keeps talking to the merperson as he works, hoping his voice will soothe any remaining nerves, and when he is finished freeing that magnificent tail, he turns his eyes up to the creature with a tender smile.
It hisses at him, but there is no heat in it, and Vanilla smiles wider.
“I’m glad you trust me,” he says and the creature responds with something like a scoff. “Well, trust me enough to help you, in any case. You must have gotten into quite the scuffle back home to have sought refuge up here. I am glad one of the villagers found me to come help you and keep you out of further danger.”
The creature doesn’t speak, it simply stares at Vanilla as he works over each wound on its body warily. It doesn’t relax much, which Vanilla thinks is fair, but it also doesn’t protest him moving closer to get better access to hidden wounds.
Eventually, Vanilla moves back from the creature with a gentle smile on his lips. The creature’s gaze is softer, though no less suspicious, and Vanilla inclines his head to him.
“Do you feel better?”
“…Do you get off on the sound of your own voice?” The creature says and Vanilla falls back on his ass in surprise. The creature cackles suddenly and while the sound is jarring, it is also pleasant. “Ha! You should see your face!”
“Have…Have you been able to speak this whole time?”
“Maaayyyyybe. Thanks for the help, sunshine!”
Vanilla blinks rapidly, his lips parted in surprise as the merperson turns to make its way back into the water. He manages to grab his wits back and shouts towards the waves.
“Wait! What’s your name?”
The creature pauses, tilting its head to the side and chittering to itself thoughtfully. “Call me Shadow. What’s your name?”
“Vanilla!”
“Well, thanks again, Nilly! Maybe I’ll see you again!”
“I hope that is in better circumstances,” Vanilla says, admiring the way the sun dances over ‘Shadow’s wet scales. “Shall we meet back here?”
“Maybe so. See you, Silly Nilly!”
Vanilla watches Shadow dive beneath the waves and grips his staff tightly in his hands. He does hope they see each other again soon.