"I am Hadama," he offered as he watched the mermaid work, nodding in silent approval as she made her deft cut. "And I would like to see these human lanterns, someday." But for the moment, he had his own family's traditions to uphold and pass on to another, and he lifted his squid out of the water, turning it upside down so the rest of the water and ammonia could drain from the cut.
He kept a finger in the cut, however, so the creature's top didn't seal completely shut and stick together in the way that once-living flesh could do. Tipping the squid right-side up again, he reached for his jar of glowing water and, balancing them both carefully in the waves against his broad chest, he began to slowly and carefully pour the jar's contents into the squid's emptied buoyancy chamber until it was about half full. "I have only spoken to a few," he admitted slowly as he worked. "But they are indeed curious. Have you spent much time with them?"
He offered her the glass jar, and there was an amused gleam in his green eyes as he continued to hold the squid out of the water. "The next part requires a bit of fortitude," he warned, reaching into a pouch on his harness and pulling out two pieces of tuna sinew.
He kept a finger in the cut, however, so the creature's top didn't seal completely shut and stick together in the way that once-living flesh could do. Tipping the squid right-side up again, he reached for his jar of glowing water and, balancing them both carefully in the waves against his broad chest, he began to slowly and carefully pour the jar's contents into the squid's emptied buoyancy chamber until it was about half full. "I have only spoken to a few," he admitted slowly as he worked. "But they are indeed curious. Have you spent much time with them?"
He offered her the glass jar, and there was an amused gleam in his green eyes as he continued to hold the squid out of the water. "The next part requires a bit of fortitude," he warned, reaching into a pouch on his harness and pulling out two pieces of tuna sinew.
