Days passed without much of interest happening... Ok well Stan and I had a weird father mother type relationship with Shirley... or at least a male and female babysitter. The kid could make all sorts of trouble, but since I had little else to do underwater I was able to babysit Shirley as she explored the sea. At the very least our kind Dr. Sprikov was giving us markers to give us some landmarks for more barren parts of the sea floor... Along with a few hoops to jump through along with other ways to test what we could physically be expected to accomplish. Then Kriash came. The Mermaid found the three of us when we had decided to have a picnic in a nice clearing we discovered.
"Well at least the sushi is as fresh as it could be..." an apologetic Stan muttered
"This isn't sushi, it isn't even sashimi, this is literally fish we just hunted and are eating completely raw." I commented holding some small fish we had air blasted before shoving the thing into my mouth and chewing. Heck I wasn't even sure if it was dead or just unconscious Although at that point it didn't really matter once it reached my stomach.
"Super Fresh!" Shirley said as she was blowing some air rings and swimming through them after she finished her fish. The squabble lasted a few more minutes before Kriash showed up. Kriash simply swam by and it felt like reality was more of a suggestion all of a sudden. Their scales seemed to be some refractive crystal, they seemed to have replaced their hair with a miniature coral reef... Like they just shrank down a coral reef and put it on their head fish and all, and the oddest thing was their eyes looked like a complete void.
"Ah, some mermaids. Is this where they were making some hotel for us?" Kriash asked
While Stan and I were still staring Shirley said "No, we just went for a picnic!"
"Ah, mind if I joined? I was about to take a break as well."
I told Kriash "We were about finishing our meal, but I guess we could continue the picnic a bit." Kriash nodded and then reached a hand into nothing making it look like the hand had disappeared. Then Kriash pulled a picnic basket out of nowhere and the fragrant aroma of a freshly baked pie and greasy burgers were inside. Kriash licked their lips as they pulled out a few burgers and said "If ya'll want help yourselves." As if the burgers not being soaked or falling apart in the current was something to not be astonished by. Then as if to mock physics more she brought out a giant pitcher of sweet tea and poured some into another glass.
I asked Stan "Hey, I wasn't that into magic but is this... normal?"
Kriash chuckled and said "For you landlubbers maybe. Normal folk aren't that crazy about having a ton of magic around. Afraid it'll turn them into monsters like us. However for those who can bury into the earth, soar in the skies, or go to the depths of the Mariana Trench practicing magic is easy enough. Especially when you don't have to deal with all those invocations or silly hand waving."
"I guess now that I think about it... we didn't need to do any of that to make air bubbles. Why though?" I asked as I grabbed a burger and could feel the warm toasted buns dry in my fingers as I took a few bites.
Kriash chuckled and said "Humans aren't inherently magical and just use loose magic. Us monsters however can store and generate magic, although we still need to train that." The food Kriash brought was great, but it couldn't quell all the questions.
Stan asked "So... did you come directly from the Trench?" Kriash nodded "Then where did you get all this stuff?"
Kriash shrugged and said "I made a farm, when you get deep down there's a lot of volcanic activity which can help with the soil quality." Kriash took a burger and after eating a bite "Can't get the Sea cow Sea milk right." When we got back Kriash seemed to be building some weird machine that Kriash explained it was a computer although I didn't believe it till Kriash started talking about all computers essentially needed was some ways to store 1's and 0's. I still didn't believe it, but I had to admit that when she hooked up a jellyfish for energy and a piece of sea glass to the machine and it started to boot up... It was a computer. Kriash certainly brought entertainment, but just felt dangerous. The way Kriash thought or the power of magic or just... Kriash being Kriash. It felt telling that Dr. Sprikov didn't want to be in the same room as Kriash... but still... magic. I hadn't used much magic in fear I'd blow up my boobs again, but... If I asked Kriash for a tip then maybe... or maybe even just one trick...