Before Austin ever went to face the park, Aaron woke up on the second day to see Clia smiling as his eyes met hers.
It didn’t take long before they made love again. As he finally reached his climax, noticed that his orgasm felt better than yesterday, likely due to today before closer to the full moon than the first day of the mating cycle - Not that he had any complaints, however, as he continued to make love for Clia for hours on end until around noon when they both started to feel hungry.
Aaron offered to go out and hunt while Clia stayed behind just like yesterday.
“Okay. You just go and be safe now.” Clia said, hoping that her mate wasn’t in the line of sight of Eric.
“Don’t worry, I will,” Aaron said, kissing Clia.
With a flick of his tail, he swam out to explore the ocean for food.
While trying to hunt for fish, Aaron remembered how Jake and Glaucus invited him to have drinks with them after the first mating-day of the cycle. As much as Aaron was starting to like being a merman, he missed sharing a cool brew with his friends when he was a human, so Aaron went off to visit the underwater village.
It didn’t take long until Aaron spotted Glaucus and Jake sitting around, on what seemed like a park table-like structure made out of a rock, with drinks in their hands.
“Hey, guys!” Aaron said as he approached them.
“Good afternoon, Aaron. How was your first day of the mating cycle?” Glaucus said he offered up a drink to Aaron.
“Oh, it was fantastic. It felt so good and…” Aaron stopped as he took a good look at Jake - He looked a bit bitter and seemed to be in a sour mood. Aaron was about to ask Jake what’s up when he spotted some red bruises around his shoulders and stomach.
“What happened to you, Jake?”
His only response was a shrug.
“Jake, tell Aaron what happened. I think it’ll be good for you.” Glaucus spoke as he put a hand on Jake’s back.
Jake sighed, “Well, I was shopping for fish one afternoon with a couple of mermen when I spotted Eric swimming around the marketplace. He had that smug smile that looked like he owned the place. Dude bought like three bags filled with fish out of nowhere.”
“Wait, Eric?! You mean…” Aaron’s voice trailed off as he remembered how the sheer rage Eric had as he growled at Aaron yesterday. “Not one more flick of your fins, Clia is MINE!”
Jake took one swig of his drink. “Yup, that Eric. I came up to him and asked why he had such a shit-eating grin and you know he told me?”
“What was it?"
Jake took another swig of his drink. “He said he had a mate! A fucking mate!”
“No way!” Aaron exclaimed.
“I thought the exact same thing, Aaron, and so did a couple of the other guys. I pressed on him and he swore to us that it wasn’t Clia. It was someone else.” Jake said before taking a few more sips of his drink.
Aaron decided to finally try out his drink, it tasted nice. “I mean, was he telling the truth?”
Jake shrugged his shoulders, his cheeks were becoming flustered. “I challenged him to a duel of tridents to see if he was right.”
“A duel?!” Aaron said.
Glaucus nodded. “Yes. It’s a bit common for mermen here to have duels over ideas and truth. Most often, it’s done through tridents. I can confirm Jake’s story, as my wife and I were personal witnesses to the duel between him and Eric.”
“Wait, I could’ve sworn Eric dropped his trident when Clia knocked him out with her tail. His body floated all the way to the air like a goldfish. How could he recover so quickly?” Aaron questioned.
Jake shrugged again. “I don’t know, man. To make a long story short, I lost. Eric won and got some souvenir and left without a scratch. The End.” Jake finished his entire drink and sighed as his head dropped down and his eyes closed.
Seeing that Jake drank himself to a nap, Glaucus leaned in towards Aaron. “I wouldn’t say it out loud but I think Eric was telling the truth. Mermen usually don’t fight unless they really stand by what they say.”
Aaron took another sip of his drink “Do you really think Eric found a mate?”
“Yes. Although I doubt he’s with any of the usual mermaids around the village, they don’t like him but I did see Eric’s body rise up to the water’s surface. I’m not one to make theories but it’s possible Eric turned a human girl into a mermaid and brought her here from the land.”
Aaron was about to object until he remembered what Clia told him of her dream of being a human and turning into a mermaid after swimming with a merman Aaron for some time. Aaron took another sip of his drink and tried to think it over. “I think I should talk to Clia about this.”
“Indeed. It’s rare for a merman to turn a human girl into a mer. I just hope she’s safe being with Eric - He did seem genuinely happy while he was shopping, I couldn’t say the same for Jake.” Glaucus said as his head turned to the still-napping merman.
“Do you think Jake will be better soon? I think the lack of a mate is starting to get to him in the cycle.” Aaron asked.
Glaucus chuckled. “Don’t worry, he'll get over it. Jake’s a good kid. Yesterday just wasn’t his day.”
Aaron took another small sip of his drink, trying to not be drunk before hunting for food. “Well, if Eric could find a mate, so could Jake.” He said with a grin.
As much as Aaron wanted to lighten the mood, he couldn’t help but wonder who this human girl-turned-mermaid was. What he was especially curious about was whether or not she got turned because she took the same “No Trespassing” path that he did, on that park.