Neptune's Blessings

Chapter 43

Mathias clambered onto land and gave the tree that his tail had previously grasped a brief look, before settling down to watch Alula nervously move towards him.

Now that she had shown more interest than shy glances and occasional blushes, Mathias allowed his eyes to roam eagerly from her dark brown eyes down to her lowest pair of teats.

"Like what you see?" she mumbled, obviously flustered.

A smile tried to tug at his lips as Mathias hummed out an, "Mmhmm."

As she drew up to him he brushed a thumb along her reddened cheek and pulled her closer. Mathias found it adorable for the usually rather calm and collected harpy to be so red cheeked and embarrassed.

"I don't get battle lust," she blurted out.

Mathias made a curious noise and kissed her cheek, prompting her to elaborate, "Um, how the other harpies get turned on by pain and violence."

"I don't either," he responded before kissing her chin and asking curiously, "Are you a virgin?"

"No," she said stiffly before leaning into Mathias as he kissed down her neck.

"It's okay if you are," he told her equitably and rubbed his tongue into her plender gap.

"Oh goddess," she mumbled, and tangled her hands into Mathias' hair as she tilted her head back.

When he moved to suck on her left collarbones she huskily admitted, "I've just never been with a guy before."

"Neither have I," he cheekily mumbled as he moved to sucking on her other set of collarbones.

Laughing shakily she trailed her hands down his neck and asked, "Are you where Clara got that hand licking trick from?"

Mathias looked up at her in surprise, then with a smirk hovering on his lips he answered, "She put her hand over an aroused merman's mouth."

At that, almost shyly Alula pressed her lips to his once more. Mathias made a soft sound of pleasure as he invitingly parted his lips for her. With her tongue caressing the roof of his mouth, Mathias let out a soft muffled moan and yanked her in to press her chest to his own. His hands gently raked through the mottled brown feathers on her back as she rubbed their chests together.

Eventually Mathias impatiently tugged at her hips, trying to get her to grind against his lower belly. Once she started doing so he shuddered and voiced his appreciation and encouraged her to explore by guiding her hands down from his shoulders to his chest.

Alula broke the kiss to nibble along his jaw line as she trailed her hands in feather-light caresses over his chest. Mathias hoarsely whispered, "Touch me like you mean it," as he carefully teased his claws up and down her sides.

She pressed her little hands more firmly into his skin and traced the contours of his chest and neck as Mathias caught her lips once more.

His hands moved forward to play with her nipples, eliciting soft little murmurs of pleasure from them both.

Alula moved down and sucked one of Mathias' nipples into her mouth while her smoothly scaled thumb pad moved around the other one. Mathias squeaked and twitched, but when Alula gave him an uncertain look he merely gave her an encouraging smile and continued playing with her nipples as he enjoyed the unusual sensation of her playing with his.

Once she started to really gyrate upon him, Mathias pulled her closer to feel her nipples rub against his skin and recaptured her lips while he reached back to tease at her damp slit. Sucking upon her lower lip he watched her face lustily as he dragged her juices over her little clit and drove her to a fevered pitch.

Somehow Mathias didn't think that Alula would enjoy him getting stuck inside her quite as much as the others did, and he did not think he would enjoy her panic if she were to do so. So once her passage softened sufficiently he pulled her down onto his throbbing shaft as his tail wrapped about the tree.

As he slid in, gasping in pleasure Mathias held her tightly and buried his face into the crook of her neck until she started to bounce, pressing close enough that her clit rubbed against his lower belly and scales. He loosened his hold slightly to allow her to move, and rained kisses along her neck while she moaned loudly into his ear.

All too soon he was holding her tight once more as her wings flapped erratically. Once she calmed down again, he grabbed her hips and urged her back into rapid motion as he sought his own release. They achieved his goal quickly, as Mathias held Alula to his lap with their lips tangled together.

They leaned against each other to catch their breath and then Alula, awkward and flustered once more, climbed off of him to give him space to reenter the water.

Mathias caught her cheek before she could move very far and pulled her close for a gentle kiss to her other cheek and to murmur into her ear, "Thank you."

As he let the harpy go they exchanged brief wishful smiles before Mathias made his way back into the water with Alula following after.

The rest of the day passed without much of note aside from when at least an hour apart from each other, just as he seemed to start getting lost in his thoughts, Cora and Callie took turns dragging him back onto land to have their way with him. In between, Helen left and returned with a variety of hand pastries.

Eventually the hour grew late enough that the harpies had to head home, and Mathias had to take the merlings to seek their rest.

When Mathias' course altered from the norm the merlings cautiously moved closer while giving him oddly excited queries. Mathias tried to pull a smile onto his face, but all that he managed was a painful twitching quiver. So instead he took a deep breath and tremblingly explained to the overlapping and therefore unintelligible questions, "We're going to the kelp forest, where all the other merfolk in our pod who aren't nest bound sleep."

"Uncle Dare?" the bright eyed Quick asked when the others fell into a thoughtful silence.

"Yes," Mathias agreed with a fractured chuckle which quickly faded as he went on with, "And Uncle Tito, but not Uncle Linus. But Your Grandma, and your Mother will be there too, as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins that you've never met."

At the mention of their mother the whole lot of them fearfully shrunk against him. And he had to wonder, 'How can they be so scared of her and not have rejected her yet?' So he spoke up to nervously ask, "Where is your mother?" After a group wide flinch they unerringly pointed in the same direction, which wasn't quite where they were heading, but was still pretty close.

With a sigh, he stared morosely in the direction that they had pointed before forcing himself to brighten up and say as cheerfully as he could, "C'mon guys, hang onto me and maybe we can get there early enough to socialize before bed."

They stared at him dubiously as they slowly swam along with him, with only Shadow and Follows climbing onto his back. Mathias forced his face into a more genuine looking smile as he coaxed the rest aboard, "It'll probably be the funnest part of our night."

He could have simply told them to hang on, and they would've, but as much as he was looking forward to seeing his family again, even more so he didn't want to go back to the kelp forest.

His words prompted Curious to move onto his back though, and the others to slowly follow suit with Rambunctious being the last to wiggle into place and hold on. Sighing in resignation, Mathias sped up towards what felt like his certain doom.

As they approached the looming kelp Mathias shuddered with dread. The ominous feeling that suffused his dreams of the place descended upon him all at once. His merlings, ever in tune with their father, squeaked and somehow shrank further against him.

Before Mathias could panic and retreat a friendly voice called out, "I was wondering when you'd show up!"

Mathias narrowed his focus down onto the other merman, and his two older merlings who were racing towards him, with their three younger siblings tagging along behind them while the older two squealed gleefully, "Uncle Matty!"

Mathias tried to stretch his trembling lips into a smile and held himself stiffly still so as not to flinch away from his nibblings as he hoarsely answered, "Hey Felix, nibblings."

Felix flashed him a mischievous smile and teased, "Hey Matty, I've been waiting here every night for weeks. I didn't think my merlings were that much older than yours."

Mathias started to shake his head, but then his brows furrowed as he counted his brother's younger merlings and mumbled, "Didn't you have four?"

"Yeah," Felix agreed with a sad smile, "I lost one of them..."

Mathias shook his merlings loose and told them to play with their cousins before forcing himself further into the kelp to clasp his older brother sympathetically on the shoulder.

Felix squeezed the hand on his shoulder gratefully and turned to silently watch the merlings cautiously circle around and poke at each other.

With only a few weeks between the majority of them they were around the same size, aside from Glutton and the two older merlings, so it took Felix a few moments to double take and incredulously ask, "Do you still have all ten?"

A small rare smile tugged at Mathias' lips as he proudly watched the merlings start to play and answered his brother in a shy little rasp, "Yeah."

Grinning, Felix pulled his startled brother into a hug and messed with his hair for a few minutes before firmly declaring, "I'm following you out tomorrow."

Mathias batted the older merman's hands away and fixed his own hair before sourly responding, "If she even lets me choose where to go."

Snorting Felix rolled his eyes and scornfully said, "Like that harridan is going to want you going anywhere other than where she's already stuck you." At Mathias' continued gloomy doubtful face, he ruffled his hair more gently this time and grinned maliciously as he pointed out, "We're brothers, and brothers, especially when their merlings are of the same age, stick together. She can't stop me from following you anymore."

Finally Mathias felt reassured enough to pull a small smile onto his face and bump shoulders with his brother as he mumbled out, "Thanks."

Felix's grin softened as the pair turned to watch their merlings. The silence didn't last long though before Tito's voice interrupted with a dry, "I see your vigil finally paid off."

And then Darius was excitedly calling out, "Niblings!" As he was swarmed by fifteen excited merlings, he looked over to where Tito was moving out of the way towards their other brothers and dismissively said, "Oh and hey Matty, Felix."

Felix disgruntledly asked, "Is he always this bad with you?"

Shaking his head, Mathias bemusedly replied, "No, must be because you're here."

Felix rolled his eyes and muttered, "Figures."

The trio then settled to watch with palpable amusement as their goofball brother played with the merlings until he "died." Then Felix called out, "Alright youngsters, it's time to go say hey to your grandma and greet your cousins."

Mathias' offspring watched in confusion as the other five left. Then Mathias chirped and called them over before following after Felix himself. He chose to ignore the curious look Felix gave him over the chirp for now.

Chapter 44

As Mathias followed his brothers deeper into the forest he couldn't help but feel like he was just waiting for the net to descend.

They heard the voices first, it started as a soft murmur of unintelligible entwining conversation, and then as they got past more of the sound eating vegetation they could pick out occasional words and individual voices and the shrill excited squeals of merlings at play.

Mathias could not help but slow down even as his heart sped up, and he gulped in great big gasps of water. Felix continued on ahead of them with one brief glance back, but Tito and Darius exchanged looks and dropped down so they could wrap a comforting arm around their brother from either side.

Mathias came to a complete stop as he shuddered and trembled fearfully. Eventually he managed to whimper out, "I can't do this."

Pressing his head to the side of his brother's, Darius murmured soothingly, "It's just our family, it's really not as many as it sounds like."

Tito gave him a gentle squeeze and gave him further reassurances, "Our siblings' mates and our sisters' merlings won't even be there until you're more comfortable."

Mathias eyes darted around, not quite taking his brother's words in as he searched for an escape from the hidden danger.

Tito patted his shoulder, pointing out, "We'll be right there with you."

Darius sighed, pressing Mathias' ear to his chest he covered his eyes and other ear with his hands. Mathias stiffened up at first but Tito gently caught his hands before he could start thrashing.

Slowly Mathias relaxed, his breathing evened out, and then Darius carefully lifted his hand from his ear as he coaxingly said, "Take your time Matty, and like Tito said, we'll be with you the whole way."

Mathias mutely nodded against Darius' chest as he grasped Tito's hands before he could pull away. He took in his brothers' comforting presence and the steady thrum of Darius' heart beat in one ear as he absorbed the scents and sounds of the place. He reminded himself, 'This was home. More good things happened here than bad. Everyone waiting for us up ahead loves and cares about me and my merlings.'

It didn't entirely help. Even so, he was able to slowly calm down to the point he could let go of Tito and pull away from Darius. Cracking his eyes open he looked from Tito's worried frown, to Darius' cheerful grin and over his merlings anxiously clinging forms.

Forcing a smile onto his face, Mathias focused on his youngsters as with only a slight tremble in his voice he managed to say with a fair approximation of cheerfulness, "Let's go catch up with your cousins." They perked up considerably at their father's act and turned to chase after the already departed uncle and cousins.

Trusting that his brothers would watch his surroundings, Mathias kept his attention on his merlings as he followed after them. He didn't even notice when they arrived amongst the others, so when Sophia, one of Felix's clutchmates, rushed over squealing happily, "Matty!" Mathias whimpered and jerked fearfully to the side.

Before she could even react though, Darius had gotten up into her space and batted his eyes playfully while asking, "Am I still prettier than you?"

She pulled up short and groaned in exasperation while rolling her eyes and replied, "Ugg, yes, you're still disgustingly gorgeous. Now, would you please let me see my favorite brother."

In the background all three of her clutch-brothers simultaneously let out an outraged, "Hey!"

To which she dismissively replied, "You're all jerks and you know it." Further ignoring her six clutchmates' playful bickering she gave Darius a pointed look.

Darius thoughtfully tapped his chin before shaking his head and letting out a regretful sigh as he replied, "Nope, no can do. I can't subject him to your ugliness after having graced him with my gorgeous looks for so long."

Sophia scoffed at that, "Oh come on! You are not that much prettier than me."

By this point Mathias had recovered from his fright, and so after reassuring his merlings and sending them off to play he draped an arm over Darius' shoulder and leaned against him as he pulled on a happy mask and greeted his enthusiastic sister, "Hey Phia."

"Matty!" she squealed happily once more, then tried to get around Darius. But it didn't matter in which direction she went, Darius and Mathias simply turned with her. Finally she stopped and narrowed her eyes at Darius, giving him a disgruntled growl. After a moment of him smirking back at her while Mathias started feeling an actual urge to giggle, she brightened up and moved forward, enveloping them both into a hug.

Mathias stiffened up until he heard Darius loudly proclaiming, "Oh ew! Gross! Why'd you go and hug me for?"

Smirking, she gave Darius a loud kiss on the forehead before smugly telling him, "Because you wouldn't let me hug Matty."

Scoffing himself, Darius told her, "If he wanted a hug, he would've sought it out."

Pulling back, she grumbled and crossed her arms, "If he didn't want one he could've said no."

Their mother put an arm around Sophia and pulled her back even further as she said, "Hey Matty, Darius." Her eyes roamed over what she could see of Mathias before settling onto his fixed smile before she asked, "How are my grandmerlings?"

Mathias relaxed slightly as he looked to where the merlings were playing. He took a moment to watch them before he softly responded, "They seem to be settling in."

A subtle smile tugged at the corners of her lips and with a nod she offered, "That's good, why don't you join us and tell everyone what you've been doing for the past year?"

"Okay," Mathias agreed weakly, and held onto Darius like a remora as they moved over to settle down with the other adults.

When they had done so, Tito sat on the other side of him and leaned companionably against him. He took a deep breath, and watched the merlings instead of any of his adult relatives. They waited patiently, although not silently he noticed, at least until he started speaking, that is. When he spoke with what they no doubt considered uncharacteristic shyness, they fell quiet. Whenever he started feeling overwhelmed or overly upset, Darius would distract everyone from him by asking something that would get someone telling a story of their own.

Even so, Mathias did not dare to divulge most of the abuse that had happened, nor to let slip even the slightest bit about the harpies. In addition to not wanting them to know the extent of his shame, he could feel unfriendly eyes watching and every so often when the current shifted he would get a stronger scent of Chloe that had him shuddering in fear.

It had to end eventually though. The moment came when Chloe swam in amongst them, right up to the fearfully trembling Mathias. She smiled sweetly at the group and let out a gentle laugh as she said, "It's time to go Mathias."

Not daring to look directly at her, Mathias watched her approach from the corner of his eye. At her words he flinched, and failed at not cringing as he called over his merlings who were already racing over to cling to him.

Chloe's nose flared in annoyance, but she maintained her smile as she twisted about to lead Mathias away.

Mathias could feel the panic building up within him, in the same way that his little ones were trying to burrow into his back as he swam. But his brothers had dared not follow, and he did not dare to stop or turn away with her right there.

Arriving at her sleeping area, Chloe said not a word. She merely gave him a disdainful look before curling up.

Mathias hovered there, gasping and trembling before he stuttered out, "G-go see your M-mother." After they had slowly moved off his back and to their mother's side, Mathias fled to a spot that had just enough kelp to shield him from having to see his mate, where he collapsed into a panting, whimpering heap.

Mathias spent several minutes fighting the urge to go and pull his merlings away from their mother when a pained squeal had him up and moving faster than he could think. His motion was quickly arrested however when Shadow came barreling into him, with the other merlings not far behind hir.

Mathias gathered hir into his arms and moved back to where he'd been trying to curl up and carefully checked hir over in the dim filtered light. Even in such lighting he was able to make out the bruises on Shadow's left shoulder, but at least he could smell no blood.

Sighing mournfully he curled protectively around his youngsters, and hummed them a soothing lullaby, before following them into a fitful, nightmare filled slumber.