Eric held Anna close as they swam from their nest and onto the more general area of The Kelp Beds.
Anna still clutched at her painfully thin stomach. She was trying her best to keep up with Eric, but her severe lack of energy barley allowed her to flick her tail - Feeling hardly like the earlier mermaid that was able to swim naturally just moments ago.
As two scanned around the kelp for food, Anna looked, with a hint of envy, at the healthy looking mermaids that were making out in the beds. She tried to look alive and well as she swam past the nearby groups, but she wasn't able to swim past the beds with her condition unseen.
A beautiful blonde-haired woman with a deep blue tail stopped making out with her forest green-tailed lover when her eyes caught a glimpse of Anna.
"Hey! Why did you sto- Oh dear…" The green-tailed mermaid paused once she saw Anna's stomach.
At that moment, Anna's cheeks burned with embarrassment as the couple eyed her.
"Poor girl. She forgot to feed." The green-tailed mermaid spoke softly.
The blonde mermaid looked at Anna with sympathetic eyes and whispered to her, 'Don't worry, girl. It happened to me at my first mating cycle, too."
The blue-tailed mermaid clearly meant her words in good faith, but it barely did much to improve Anna's mood.
She needs food, not pity.
Thankfully, Anna and her merman were out of the main Kelp Beds when Eric stopped to look at something that was glowing within the remaining strands of kelp.
"No way, can it be...?" Eric said with awe in his voice.
Eric left Anna alone on a rock and swam down into the kelp. For a moment, Anna was puzzled why Eric was so excited until Eric proudly emerged from the kelp with a trident in his hands.
In that instant, Anna managed to ignore her stomach pain to gaze at Eric, "No way… You own a TRIDENT?"
Eric nodded with a grin. "I lost it during a fight with you-know-who, but I finally have it back!"
"That's so cool!" Anna squealed. "Can it do magic like King Triton's trident?"
Eric paused. "Umm… No. Who is thi-
GGRRROOOOWWWWLLLLLLLLLL
"Ow! Ugh… Can you at least—hrk—hunt with it?" Anna groaned.
"Stay there. I promise to find you food, right away. I promise to be quick!" Eric said as he swam away.
Anna continued to wait, trying to keep her patience while her stomach felt like it was on its way to digest itself. She was at least a bit thankful that the constant pain was starting to go a bit numb. Granted, it wasn't a good thing, but the numbness helped with waiting.
After what felt like an eternity, Eric came back with his trident with filled with impaled fish on its tines. "I'm so sorry for the wait but I got food for you, now!" Eric said.
Anna desperately wanted to compliment Eric on his ability to wield his weapon, but her starvation led her to devouring the fish like a hyper little kid picking off melted marshmallows from a campfire stick.
Anna wasn't particularly a big fan of raw fish as a human, but they the food tasted so good to her now. Her taste buds revelled at the juicy meat as her teeth chewed and chewed at her meal.
Eric was a bit surprised at the rather unladylike nature of Anna's eating, but then he remembered that he's the genius that forgot to tell his mate to eat. It didn't take long until his trident was clean of any fish meat.
The two watched as Anna's stomach grew back to normal. With a smile on her face, Anna swam up and embraced Eric.
"Thank you so much, Eric! You saved my life!" Anna said with glee.
"And I almost ended it." Eric thought with guilt in his mind.
He didn't have time to mope about his error, however, as Anna gave happily Eric a long and loving kiss.