Snippet #2777849

It had been months since Narumi had been rescued by a lone group of Wanderers on the Goner Seaboard. She had come to see the clan's matriarch, an elder woman who the mergirl had come to know as Grandma Giliadora, and the rest of the ten-person clan as family. None of them knew her secret yet, that she had come from the sea. In the few months she had known them, she had learned a great deal of their language, and she had also learned that they questioned the existence of her kind. Some believed the merfolk to be a myth, others claimed beyond a doubt that they had seen one in their lifetime. There appeared to be no absolute consensus on the matter.

But the topic of merfolk had only come up once or twice that Narumi recalled. She tried to avoid the topic, pretending that she did not understand the reference. Over the months, she traveled with the Wanderers north along the coast. The family group made a living by fishing and gathering land plants. While Narumi had primarily survived on fish and seaweed before, she had gained a new taste for the terrestrial plants and vegetables that made up the majority of the Wanderer diet. Having discovered in secret that her fins would regrow when submerged in water, she had pretended to have a phobia of the water so she was not expected to help with the fishing. Instead, she became a full-time gatherer, learning the names and properties of the different plants that populated Precaria.

For a few days, the Wanderers had been camping in a location referred to as Mer Cape. It was a great fishing spot, and Narumi certainly loved the taste of fresh fish, mussels, and crustaceans of all kinds. After a successful day of fishing and gathering, the family had sat down on the beach to a festive evening of feasting, dancing, and music-making. Narumi clapped her hands in time to the beat of the drums and flutes. It was still daylight when the world as they all knew it changed very abruptly. An enormous... thing appeared in the sky. The first man who spotted it, pointed it out to the rest of the clan, bringing the music and dancing to a sudden halt. Everybody gaped at the sight which none of their eyes before had ever seen. What was it? Was it dangerous? Should they run and hide?

Nobody seemed to know what to do at first. Not a word was spoken. Until some unidentified dots dropped out of the hovering sky object. Grandma Giliadora was the first to speak. "Everybody, run! We don't know what it is. We must hide! Get off the beach!" she cried, beckoning the lot of them to follow her. They left the bonfire burning bright, grabbing as many of their things as they could carry without properly packing them up first. Narumi was immediately frightened, so she followed the others in quick pursuit. The family disappeared into the forest, peeking out from the dense trees to observe just what it was that had arrived in their world from a safe distance.