“Good morning, blacksmith,” Zayed assesses a neutral greeting to be best.

Without looking, she answers: “Don’t tell me. The innkeeper told you I’m a lone woman, and you’ve come to try your luck.” She keeps banging on a horseshoe.

“Actually,” he says, “I want to borrow your hammer.”
This makes her turn. Her deep blue eyes flash over his, before she turns to a bucket of water. Steam hisses like an angry cat when she drops the shoe into it.

Zayed notices her lips like ripe pomegranates, bursting with a rosy hue, hinting at the warmth and sweetness concealed within.

“My hammer?”, she looks him over. “Why? Don’t you have one of your own?” She dips her tongs in the bucket and retrieves the shoe then places it on her anvil.

Zayed catches her quick smile. “Nothing’s wrong with my hammer, Most Noble Blacksmith. No one ever complained about it.”

Ruksana cooks the Gaokerena, the life-giving plant. It smells of wet palm leaves. The plant becomes pasty with the heat. On her table, next to the cauldron, stands a thin figurine of a woman.

“We will bring this figurine to life,” the seeress tells her. “It will be his future wife. But you will have to give it your son’s lust.” Ruksana splats the pasty plant on the figurine. Her eyes are alight because of the wet sounds it made. A blush appears on her cheek when the seeress forms big breasts and a round ass.

Magali feels an energy pulse shoot down to her hips.

‘Could this be him?’ Magali wonders. The fate of all mermaids is to have a human mate once in their lives. This is their way. This is how they continued their line. She presses him against her bosom. He is doing wonderful things down there.

‘Yes,’ she decides, ‘this is him.’

Magali pulls Arash into the water. He gasps. Further and further down they go. Zayed struggles to go back up for air, and still she dives deeper. Just when he is sure this is the end for him, the mermaid kisses him. Bubbles tickle into his mouth and refresh his lungs.