Chapter 1062 — A Small Mistake
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
Metzen drew closer, and the dragons around her parted to let her through; the encircled figures came into her view, and at first glance she saw about ten tall, wary half-human beings with unmistakable deep-sea traits—yellow-brown eyes and fine scales covering their bodies, skin of deep blue or cyan glistening with moisture, the lower half a thick sea serpent's body (or perhaps a strange fish tail), the upper half close to human, with webbing visible between their fingers.
These strange half-human beings held metal tridents and wore equipment she could not identify—the dragons of Tarond did not know these creatures, for as a race they had come into being in the deep sea only recently, yet Metzen recognized them.
These were naga, naga who ought to dwell in the distant deep sea and had only recently established contact with the north of the Loren continent—she had chanced upon a small amount of material about this race while out on field duty for the Cecil Empire.
So these were the so-called "strange fish"?
Metzen's eyes went wide, and just as she was puzzling over why naga should be seen here, the next instant she spotted another figure among the naga clustered around it: a black-haired siren.
In that instant she understood why the dragon had suddenly faltered: ordinary dragons did not know the naga, but the siren they did know. Though this race was exceedingly mysterious, communicating with almost no power beyond the deep sea, and the dragons themselves were barred by all manner of former "taboos" from dealing with these "visitors from beyond the stars" who possessed starships, this was, after all, a race with a long history on this planet—at least, material about them had once been easy enough to find in the old Omega Network.
So... the fishing party had just "caught" a group of naga, and a siren?
The expression on Metzen's face turned strange in an instant; the corner of her mouth twitched once, and only then did she walk with somewhat stiff steps toward the uninvited guests, while the siren, shielded by the naga, noticed the stir around her and turned to look this way.
Only then did Metzen notice that something seemed to be coiled in the siren's curled tail. Looking closer, she made out that the tip of that long tail was wrapped around a water elemental thrashing with all its might.
The unknown siren smiled at Metzen, its long tail curling and shifting as it brought the captured water elemental up to its lips—and only then did Metzen realize that the creature had not merely been caught, but had a drinking straw stuck into it...
The next second, the siren clamped down on the straw and sucked hard. The water elemental instantly let out an angry, shrill screech: "You always pick on just one to slurp! Always just one to slurp!"
Metzen: "......?"
In the somewhat awkward silence, one of the naga finally broke it. He turned to the black-haired siren beside him. "Lady Cassandra, aren't we supposed to be near the Eternal Storm? How did we... end up in a place like this?"
"I am thinking," said the black-haired siren called Cassandra, flinging away the water elemental—now drained to barely a dozen centimeters tall—and gazing thoughtfully at the bewildered dragons around them. "This place..."
The water elemental dumped on the ground wobbled in place twice, then bolted into the distance while shrieking furiously: "Always just one to slurp, always just one to slurp!!"
"Actually, I didn't really pick just one..." Cassandra shook her head. "Never mind, that's not important. What matters is that I do believe we swam past..."