Chapter 85 The Mermaid's Fate
The little mermaid excitedly patted her tail: "Yuanyuan, you're amazing!"
Wu You walked to Yuan Yuan's side, his eyes reddening again, his voice filled with gratitude: "Thank you, messenger, thank you, Beast God, you saved our entire tribe!"
Yuanyuan breathed a sigh of relief, her legs went weak, and she sat back on the big fish's back. Her little hands were still trembling slightly, but she smiled at Wu and said, "We can continue our journey!"
The bear tribe's shaman watched the mermaid procession slowly swim forward and called out to Yuanyuan, "Little messenger, if the fertility pill really works, our bear tribe will remember your kindness!"
Yuanyuan turned around and waved, watching the bears gradually retreat back into the forest, and finally felt relieved.
The bloodstains on the water had not yet faded, but the surviving mermaids rekindled their hope.
The giant mermaid swam forward with Yuanyuan by wagging her tail. The mermaid team continued upstream with the current, heading towards their birthplace.
...
After several days of tireless work, they arrived at their birthplace at noon.
The freshwater area has a gentle current, and the clear river allows you to see the stones and aquatic plants at the bottom. Strangely, there are no fish or even plankton here, making it seem like a stagnant pool.
But water is clearly flowing.
Yuanyuan sat on the back of the giant fish, looking at the scene before her. She felt something was off, but she couldn't quite figure it out.
The system has disappeared.
Originally there were nearly three hundred silver-blue mermaids, but now there are less than two hundred left.
Even though they escaped the bears' prey, their scales still fell off along the way.
Many mermaids couldn't survive and perished along the way.
Now, some have lost most of their scales, while others have no scales left at all, revealing reddish flesh. Some have their tails wagging weakly, and almost every one of them has exhausted its energy.
The witch's golden scales had mostly fallen off as well. Panting, she called out to all the merfolk, "We're here...we're finally home!"
Yes, this is their birthplace, their home.
The mermaids did not cheer; they simply used their last bit of strength to swim toward the crevice in the rocks on the shore.
The female mermaids first found a hidden crevice in the rocks, their abdomens slightly contracting, and transparent fish eggs fell into the crevice with the flow of water. With each egg laid, their bodies swayed, and the luster on their scales faded a little.
Yuanyuan slid off the back of the big fish and stepped into the shallow water. The stones hurt her feet, and she almost slipped and fell.
She watched this scene with a vague unease in her heart.
She looked at the fish who used to talk to her. He was guarding a female mermaid, whom she recognized as Ah Zhu.
She is Yu Na's younger sister.
Along the way, he always liked to share the fish and shrimp that the orcs had caught for him with her.
At this moment, she was surrounded by several male mermaids.
Just as she was about to go over and say hello, Ah Zhu slowly leaned against the crevice in the rock, her eyes slowly closed, and her tail stopped moving.
"Sister Azhu!" Yuanyuan ran over and gently touched her body with her little hand. Her body temperature was still warm, but she was no longer breathing.
Yu Na turned her head, the light in her eyes gone. "She's tired, she's asleep."
His own body was slowly getting cold, and his tail was stuck to the bottom of the water, unable to be lifted up anymore.
"Yuanyuan, I'm almost asleep... When the babies hatch, will you help me look after them?"
Even if Yuanyuan was slow-witted, she knew what was going on. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she shook her head violently, choking out, "Don't sleep, please don't sleep!"
"Yuanyuan, it's so good to know you, but I'm really tired."
After Yu Na finished speaking with a smile, she closed her eyes and her body slowly stiffened.
Yuanyuan looked at him, then looked around. The shaman who used to tell her tribal stories was lying next to the largest crevice in the rock, no longer breathing.
The big fish that had been carrying her was now at the bottom of the water.
Several other mermaids huddled together, equally motionless, their bodies forming a circle, protecting the crevice in the rock from the current.
In just one hour, nearly 200 mermaids were all dead.
The river, which had become lively because of their arrival, was now quiet, with only Yuanyuan's crying and the sound of water flowing through the cracks in the rocks remaining.
She crouched at the bottom of the water, her small hands stroking the cold bodies of one mermaid after another.
Those mermaids who had laughed and played with her, shared food with her, and protected her in the turbulent waters had all turned into cold corpses.
I will never talk to her again, and I will never wag my tail and perform for her again.
Yuanyuan sat crying for a long time, only stopping when it got dark.
I stood up from the river, fell down several times due to leg numbness, but got up again.
Finally, I sat blankly on the riverbank, staring at the calm surface of the river.
The moon rises and then sets.
The sun rose, and the blinding sunlight made her close her eyes uncomfortably.
He finally collapsed on the shore.
When I woke up again, I didn't know how much time had passed; the sunlight was hanging in the sky.
Her gaze fell on the river again, where the bright red mermaids remained in their original positions.
She stared at it for a long time until her eyes stung and tears streamed down her face.
She blinked, and it seemed like she saw the fish eggs in the crevice of the rock move slightly.
She rubbed her eyes and looked again; she hadn't misread it.
The fish eggs really moved.
More and more fish eggs began to sway, and a small opening appeared in the transparent eggshell, from which tiny fry with pale blue spots emerged.
They were only as long as her little finger, with soft bodies, swaying their tails, and swimming toward the mermaid corpses beside her.
She thought they wanted to go find their parents.
But what did she see?!
The countless baby fry gently nibbled at the mermaid's body with their tiny mouths.
The mermaids who brought them to this world became their first food.
Several baby swam to the mermaid body closest to her and began to nibble on it. Yuanyuan watched, feeling a pang of pain in her heart. She wanted to shoo the baby darting away, but stopped halfway through reaching out her hand.
There are no other living things here, and if they don't eat, they will starve to death.
If even they die, then the merfolk...
She remembered what the shaman had said: "The cubs are the hope of the tribe. As long as the cubs can survive, the tribe has hope."
They must have known all along that they would become nourishment for the cubs, which is why they wedged their bodies into the crevices of the rocks to prevent the water from washing them away.
This was the first food they left for their child, and also their last gift.
Yuanyuan didn't move anymore, she just squatted there and looked at the cubs.
They ate very diligently, their bodies growing little by little, and the pale red spots becoming more and more obvious.
By the time the mermaid's corpse at the bottom of the water had been gnawed down to just a skeleton and scattered scales, the cubs had grown to the size of her palm.
They swam nimbly among the rocks.
A few of the bolder baby fish swam up to Yuanyuan and nuzzled her little hand with their tiny heads. Looking at them, Yuanyuan's tears welled up again; she felt a strange, indescribable sadness, a pang of sorrow in her heart.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
