It was another quiet, semi-lazy day in the jungle. Nothing strange going on...if one ignores what appear to be large ice blocks floating in the middle of the large lake. Slightly visable in the depths was a darkish shape. A "small" mermaid at about 65 feet long, Ghitsa found herself a hidden lake when she was young, and soon set up her home there. When she broke the surface, she was quite a sight to behold. Dark-green hair which was long enough to cover her back, her upper half of her body was a dark blue, which turned lighter as one got under her. Her skin had a bluish tint, and her eyes sparkled an ice-blue.
She glanced over as she felt a couple splashes near the shore, and turned. There, wrapped around a rather distressed human, was a familiar red-scaled lamia. She swam up gently and said "Attacked again I take it Flare?" in a friendly voice. Normally, she would try to snag them both, but she owed Flare, who helped her out when she was caught in a Pred-Hunter's electric net. "Yep. Not too many of them." Flare replied, the redhead nodded as the mermaid reached out and held the human by the head as the lamia uncoiled around him. "I've got their vehicle nearby, has a couple more if you want them Ghits." Flare said as Ghitsa popped the hunter into her mouth and swallowed like a popcorn kernal. "Thanks, but I had some others not too long ago. I'll take them for later though." The mermaid said with a smile, and Flare headed off to get their vehicle and pull it around.
The four others were bound up in the bed of their truck, and were in easy reach for the mermaid. She almost snatched up Flare, before she remembered that she had a human form. She picked up the bound humans one by one, and quickly encased them in a block of ice, and then she dove down to the bottom of the lake with her frozen meal, and under the surface was a cavern that was covered in ice. It was because of the properties of this cavern that ice was able to stay frozen, and the lake itself known as the "Never-Melting Lake", and it was said that water taken from this lake will always be cold, and if frozen, it would take extreme heat to melt it. Returning to the surface, Ghitsa asked "Need some food yourself?" Looking about ready to dive back under. "No thanks, I'm good. I'll go and head back now." was Flare's reply, and with a roar of the engine, she drove off. Ghitsa looked at her and thought back to the day they met, and wondered why she did try to get Flare.
***3 Months Ago***
She was having a strong craving. It had been several days since a boat had gone by, or even people from the nearby jungle trail stopped to try to get a drink. Ghitsa had moved from her lake though an underwater tunnel to a nearby tributary of the Jewel River, and managed to snatch a fish to snack on, but it wasn't enough. Especally since her favorite food had a habit of using this as a method of transporting other goods. However it seemed that they had started to wise up, sending down unmanned barges. At least there was fish around, so she wasn't going to go hungery.
Ghitsa has just checked out one such barge, when she heard the rumble of a boat's engine nearby. A running engine meant that it was manned...meaning she can get herself some humans finally! She quickly swam to it, and saw a dark grey ship that was a bit bigger as she was, and fairly wide as well. She settled near the bottom, her head facing the current so that her long green hair would look like riverweed or the like as well as cover her body some, and her dark fish tail would blend in a bit with the ground. As it passed overhead, Ghitsa smiled, though she noticed 6 long cords in the water behind the ship. She wondered what they were, but figured they were some weird anchors or something.
As she approached, she reached for the cords, intent on using them to flip the ship over, but as soon as she touched one, she suddonly felt a powerful shock run though her, and the other 5 cords, attracted by electomagnatism, latched onto her, further shocking her. She screamed out underwater, bubbles rising up as the ship stopped. At the surface, several figures could be seen, and soon they started to rise up a bit, as a small crane arm reached around and started to reach for her. As it grabbed her by the tail, the shocking cords shut off, leaving Ghitsa dazed and unable to really react as she was pulled out of the water. She was set onto the wide deck, and was strapped down tight. "Well, seems that the shock-net was quite successful...though this one is kinda small..." Said one male human dressed up like a Napoleon-esque uniform. It hurt her to move even her eyes to look at him, as he laughed and said "Well, either way, it'll be quite nice to have fish for dinner for my entire group...Anyway, let's get going! We got our catch, back to base!"
"OK, I'm trapped, I cannot move, which means I cannot freeze these guys.....I'm done for..." Ghitsa thought to herself as the ship made it's way down the river. She sighed, resigning herself to her face when there was a commotion nearby. Gunshots were heard, and commands were shouted out. Apparently someone was attacking a nearby group of hunters, and they were to move out to assist. As they approached the shore, someone leapt out of the trees, a stolen rifle in hand and a spear strapped to their back. Landing on the deck, it was a redhead woman clad in dark blue light armor.
"Well, hiya!" said the woman, and before the surprised crewman could react, she shot two of them in the chest, dropping them. She flung the rifle at a third, knocking him overboard as she drew her spear. "Hey, mermaid, if I free you, promise you won't eat me? You can have these guys." She said, as a fireball formed in her hand, aiming it at the hatch. Ghitsa thought it over a bit, then said "Sure. After all, they said they were going to eat me...." "Ok then, give me a moment.." She said, shooting a beam of fire at the hatch, melting the latch shut before she grabbed a knife and started cutting at the bindings. As soon as she had a hand free, she reached up and shot out a beam of ice, striking the hatch as it was blasted open, further hampering efforts to get though. However it was obvious that it hurt her to move. "Hey, you ok?" The woman asked Ghitsa, as she cut though another strap. "No...they shocked me...It hurts to move..." the mermaid replied, keeping it up and wincing in pain. "OK, here, I think I can help with that." The woman asked. Ghitsa wondered what she meant as her rescuer touched her skin and closed her eyes. She felt a tingling sensation, and she felt some of her strength return, and she could move again without it hurting much.
"What did you do?" Ghitsa as she moved around a bit, as another strap snapped. "Just used a Cure-2 on you...need another one?" The redhead asked, as she started cutting though a strap that was holding down her body. "No...thank you though.." Ghitsa said, while in her head, she wondered why this human was helping her. Though there was something..different about her. Something about the way she spoke. And why were these hunters after her? She'd have to find out about this. But first, it was time to teach these humans that caught her a lesson. She pushed up, and broke the rest of her bindings that were holding them down. "She's loose! Get them!" Came the cries of the crew, who had cut though the frozen door. "Seems I'd better get out of the way..." The redhead said, leaping out of the line of fire as the mermaid shot out two icy beams, one from each hand. She brought her tail around, and slapped the frozen crew, scattering them and shattering the ice, which resulted in some painful injuries for them, not only from the impact of the tail, but from ice chunks cutting and bashing into their bodies.
On the front of the ship, hidden from her view, several shouts were heard, and a bit of flame was seen. That gave her an idea, as she tried to knock down the rest of the crew into the water. It was as simple as freezing their feet, then grabbing them and dropping them overboard. It was all over in a matter of minutes. The redhead came back around and said "I think that's all." To which Ghitsa nodded and said "Get off...I'm going to wreak this thing so it won't be used to hunt and hurt more of my kind." The redhead leapt off onto a nearby tree branch, and held on as the mermaid started to slide off and into the ice-cube-filled water. It was quiet for a short time, when suddenly the front end rose out of the water and quickly slid under. To the crew who were still aware, it was a demoralizing sight. They just floated there in shock, and remained that way as one by one they were pulled under. Soon all that was left of the 18 crew were the 10 or so who were still frozen in ice. Ghitsa came back up and patted her full belly. "Ahhh...so tasty...well, I'm stuffed." She said contently. "Wow....I've said it before and I'll set it again...I will NOT piss off one of you preds." The redhead said from above, which caused her to look up and smile.
"Well, guess I owe you...after all, you saved me." Ghitsa said, reaching up and offered her hand as a platform to bring her down. "Anyway, what's your name?" The redhead said, looking at her as she slowly got on the offered hand. "I'm Ghitsa, how about you?" She said, lowering her down. "You can call me Flare." Flare responded. "You know..You're not like any human I've seen...there's something about you that seems...different." Ghitsa said as she swam down the river on her back. "Well, I'm not a human." Flare said with a shrug and she started to change, much to the mermaid's surprise. Her legs melded together, and formed into a long, 18-foot, red-scaled snake tail. "You're a naga!" Ghitsa said with a pair of wide eyes. "Not quite. I'm a Lamia. From what I know, naga have a human-esque tounge. I have a forked tounge. And naga cannot shift between a human and serpentine form.....and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think naga are warm-blooded, and I'm cold-blooded..." "What's that?" Ghitsa said, stopping her. "...I'll tell you later." Flare said with a shrug.
"Anyway, I feel like I owe you..." Ghitsa said, looking down at the small snake-girl on her. "Well...how about this. I'm sure you'd like to get back at those hunters." "Of course." Ghitsa nodded. "Well, how about this: If I come across any, and if I don't just kill them, perhaps I could give them to you?" Flare said, looking at her. The mermaid spent a moment thinking about this. This small girl could prove to be quite handy at getting meals....and it would be quite satisfying since the hunters who wanted to make her into a snack would become ones themselves. She'd have to be stupid to turn her down! "Sure!" She said happily. "And if you want, I can give you stuff as well....what would you like?" She said to Flare, who looked down and said "Well...where I come from, there's little water....so perhaps....fish?" said the Lamia, much to the larger woman's surprise again. "I think we got ourselves an agreement." Ghitsa said with a smile.
***Now.***
Ghitsa swam though the underwater tunnel connecting the lake with the tributary of the Jewel river that keeps her lake filled. Ghitsa smiled as she found a couple large fish and proceeded to freeze them. She may have a fairly steady source of food now, but she didn't like just lazing about like some preds....She had to hunt. Plus on the barges, she sometimes found some interesting stuff on board, like last time when she found a bunch of shiny gems, which she decided to keep and try to have them grow in one of the caverns at the bottom of the river. After all, she could try to use them in some of her ice scuptures. Taking the frozen fish in hand, she started to travel back home. Her opinion of some humans has since changed....she's now typically giving them a chance to prove themselves as someone who could benefit her. Though she hasn't found any yet. Not that she's complaining.
Subject: Ghitsa, The Not-so-Little Mermaid 
Sat Aug 01, 2009 4:55 pm
