Deleted Scene: Lalo & Zareb

Anybody remember these two from Fictionpress? Remember when Dorian couldn't talk after a run in with Nemesio? Dorian doesn't lose his voice, but he does have trouble speaking in the publications, but for different reasons.

He was moving. Dorian could feel the water shifting all around him. The plant life caressed and tickled his fin. Shivering he shifted in the warm grasp of the unknown personage that held him in its strong grasp. Warmth flowed from the being into the young merman, which made it more difficult for Dorian to wake up. Yet, as his mind grew conscious to the sensations surrounding him, the desire to wake up grew more prominent. Dorian slowly began to crack his eyelids open, looking up sleepily at a man he had never seen before.

The being was blue skinned like a sapphire and glowing softly in the water. He was bald save for a head dress that was designed to resemble the fins of a lionfish. Long beads swayed around attached to the head gear like jellyfish tentacles. For some reason, to Dorian, the hat reminded him of something that sent chills up and down his spine. Golden eyes looked down upon him, glowing in the dark waters. “I know you must have many questions, little merman, but now is not the time to ask them,” the being said in a voice thick with an accent that Dorian was not familiar with.

Dorian felt so small and insignificant in comparison to this man that had him cradled in his arms. Curious as to what this being was, he tried to look down to see if there was a fish tail. It did not look like they were swimming, nor could he see anything from the angle in which Dorian was looking at. “I am no merman,” the blue being answered to Dorian’s unspoken question.

Dorian looked up in confusion and had only slightly opened his mouth when the man spoke again.

“I am a servant of the goddess herself; the one whom you had freed with your song.”

His eyes widened as immediate panic began to take over. “You were the…” Dorian gasped in pain before he could finish the sentence, clutching both hands to his throat.

“I wouldn’t recommend trying to speak right now,” the creature warned. “You had taken great damage before I had managed to slay Nemesio.” Taking notice of the fearful look in Dorian’s eyes, the creature responded, “Do not fear, you are not mute as you may have noticed. However, it will be difficult for you to summon the goddess with your voice damaged.”

Despite the pain he felt in doing so, Dorian tried to speak further, “Where… where are you… take… taking me?”

The creature frowned down at him like a father would to a disobedient child. “I am taking you to my partner. With Nemesio dead, he should be restored to his servitude form as well. He will be able to help you. Speak no further so that your body may concentrate on healing.”

Swallowing, painfully, Dorian kept silent. Nemesio, he thought. So that was her name and now she is dead. He wasn’t sure if he should celebrate her death. After all, the death did not cure them of the curse, only freed the goddess’s servants. Perhaps, in doing so, he would be looked upon favorably by her. Dorian reached up to lightly touch his gills only to hiss in pain. Still tender they were, from Nemesio’s harsh grasp. He squirmed a bit in the creature’s grasp so to indicate that he wanted to sit up further. The humanoid creature complied, raising

Dorian’s torso more upward.

Looking about his surroundings, Dorian didn’t recognize a single landmark, which troubled him a bit. After all, a merman outside his territory is a dead merman when alone. Reminding himself that he wasn’t actually alone, Dorian settled himself. “I… do not… know your… name.” he spoke softly to the creature.

His eyes rolled, “Did I not tell you to refrain from speaking, little merman?”

Dorian looked down, biting his lower lip guiltily.

A sigh left the creature, “Don’t give me such a look, I did not scold you that harshly.” He gave the young merman a glance and sighed again. “My name is Zareb.”

Dorian grinned happily, which led to Zareb rolling his eyes again. The remainder of the journey was spent mostly in silence. This drove Dorian into near insanity to be told not to talk despite his nagging curiosity. On top of that, he was being carried like a child. If he didn’t feel so weary from everything, he would insist on being allowed to swim. However, after all the chasing, searching and near death experiences, it felt good to just rest a while.

“Lalo!” Zareb’s beckon startled Dorian out of his daze.

Looking up from Zareb’s leopard seal spotted shoulder, he could see another blue colored man standing there. His eyes were also glowing gold. Dorian took note of the fact that they wore the same head dress, except with Lalo, Dorain was able to see past his torso. There was a type of adorned sash and roman tunic that he wore. Everything else was bare. Inwardly, Dorian frowned, unable to tell the difference between the two.

“Brother,” the one called Lalo greeted with a hand raised. “I see you have brought the pearl tail with you.”

Zareb answered with a nod while approaching his brother. “Nemesio has damaged the voice of the little one here.”

Once they were close enough, Lalo reached out, touching the tender parts where the mermaid had Dorian in her grasp. Dorian gasped, pulling himself away from his touch, despite how gentle it was. Lalo’s frown deepened, “She had managed to get a bit of her poison into him to sicken his throat. I shall have to prepare a medicine for him.”

“Is there time for the treatment?” Zareb inquired while settling Dorian down upon the seabed.

Dorian tried to voice an objection, but Zareb stopped him with a glare. He watched the brothers debate over his condition while probing at his neck, making himself wince. How badly did she get me, he wondered.

Everything was a blur of a memory in his mind. Silently, Dorian sat there, pulling his tail close to his chest and watching the blue brothers. It was strange to the young merman that two guardians to the goddess were in a humanlike form. Why weren’t they mermen if the merpeople were supposed to be children of the goddess?

Thinking back on the research done before going out into the ocean for the ruins, Dorian recalled the story of their creation. They had been human once so of course the guardians of the ruins, who are probably gods themselves, would be in human form. Interesting, Dorian mused over in his mind. This brought on more questions, which he was further forbidden to ask. A sad sigh left him as boredom began to set in.

One of the brothers came to kneel beside him, various underwater ingredients in his hands. When he spoke, Dorian recognized the brother to be Lalo. “Fear not little one,” he said. “There is time before the others arrive.”

“Others?” Dorian managed a croaked whisper.

Lalo nodded, “Yes, your sister and father are coming to find you.” He quickly held up a hand to stop Dorian from speaking any questions or exclamations. “If you are good, little merman, and keep yourself as silent as possible, then you shall be healed in time to reach the ruins and sing to our goddess.”

Dorian frowned sourly.

Ignoring the look on the merman’s face, Lalo set to work on the ingredients. He set them piece by piece into a hollow of a rock. Afterwards he used a smaller, cylinder like rock to grind it into a paste. The more things added to the paste, the more Dorian wrinkled his nose in disgust. It looked, well, like something that came out of the wrong end of a seagull. Dorian shied away when Lalo had scooped a sizeable amount of the green goop onto his two fingers. “Open your mouth,” Lalo commanded.

Dorian shook his head vigorously.

“You need to ingest this,” Lalo stated. “If you do not then you her poison will take your voice completely and you shall fail your people. Do you want that?”

Dorian lowered his head a bit shamefully then shook his head in answer to the question.

“Exactly, now open your mouth.”

It only took a short moment of hesitation this time before Dorian obeyed. To his disgust, Lalo smeared the mysterious stuff onto his tongue. He was told to close and swallow it, which was easier said than done. Gagging for a greater part of the process, Dorian finally managed to choke the sour, bitter mush down. A moan escaped him, holding a hand to his mouth in fear that he may vomit.

“Keep it down, Dorian, it must make contact with your throat,” Lalo warned.

Zareb then came up beside his brother with a stone of his own also with some type of mush. This was more of a yellow green than the one that Lalo had just fed him. Dorian stared at him questioningly and scared. “Second phase of the treatment,” Zareb stated.

Dorian wished he could scream.

It had turned out that there were three phases to the treatment, the awful pastes that he would have to ingest and then the soothing of his surface wounds. This was done using some other type of paste that was spread thinly upon wide leaves of seaweed. Then the cool leaves were wrapped loosely around his neck. Of course the brothers didn’t allow him to move from the spot where they had him lay. He looked up at the small outcropping of rocks that had formed themselves into a miniature cave. The only light that could be seen was from the mouth of it, but with night approaching above, that diminished Dorian’s visual.

Even with the guardians up and about in their true forms, Dorian still found difficulty in falling asleep. It was not safe here to sleep. The young merman found himself jerking at every movement of light, plant and tiny fish around him. Forcing his eyes closed, he concentrated on other things, reminding himself of Marie and their father’s approach. Somehow, through those thoughts, sleep managed to come to him again.

He awoke in the arms of one of the brother’s again, feeling even more so like a cripple. After all, his tail still worked well enough. He could swim alongside the brothers, he mentally frustrated. Since he was unable to speak without a scolding from one of the guardians, Dorian looked up at his carrier with a glare. This led to the blue man rolling his eyes at him, which told the merman that it was Zareb. “What is it this time, little one?”

Zareb asked in an annoyed tone.

Dorian pointed at his tail and wiggled the end of his fin.

“I know you are capable of swimming, little one,” remarked the blue man. “However, it is still a long ways to the ruins. It would be better for you to let us carry you. Rest and let your wounds heal.”

Frowning, Dorian squirmed about until Zareb had found it difficult to hold onto him any longer. Like an unruly child, the young merman managed to break free for a brief few moments. However, Lalo was quick to grab him by the tail, just above his fin. Dorian yelped, feeling himself getting yanked back to the brothers. He reached down; trying to pry Lalo’s fingers off, but the man had him in a death grip. The merman was soon finding it difficult to remain a float like this, giving up on the struggle Dorian showed them the most pitiful expression he could think of. This earned a heavy sigh from Lalo, “Little pearl, though you may be able to appear adorable and helpless, we do know better.”

Dorian motioned with his hands, moving his arm up and down to illustrate swimming movement. He then clasped his hands together like one would in praying, bowing his head and glancing up with large eyes.

Lalo raised an eyebrow and chuckled before turning to his brother, “Brother, it would seem that the little pearl is restless.”

“I care not about his restlessness,” Zareb remarked. “He is a child who has yet to learn to respect his elders.”

“He is the one who is going to free his people and you are concerned over his respect for you?” Lalo pointed out, now cocking his eyebrow at Zareb. “Brother, he is young and foolish, but he is the only hope for her children right now. What harm would it really bring to let him swim instead of be carried?”

Zareb regarded the merman with skepticism written upon his face. Feeling those eyes burning into him, Dorian attempted to stay afloat since his tail was still caught in Lalo’s grasp by moving his arms. A heavy sigh left the blue man in the form of bubbles, “Very well, let him swim with us, but once he complains of getting tired then that’s it.”

With a grin, Lalo released Dorian’s tail. With a wide grin on his face, Dorian swam around the brothers, twirling about happily until Zareb had grabbed his wrist, pulling the merman down to his eye level. With Dorian now locked in the piercing glare, he sneered, “Enough.”

Dorian gulped with a wince of pain and nodded.

“Good.” Satisfied, Zareb released him, giving the merman a shove as well so he may continue walking forward.

With a frown, Dorian floated there, rubbing his sore wrist. He didn’t dislike people very often, but for Zareb, he considered making an exception. Watching the blue guardian walk away, Dorian was amazed in noticing that the man did not even touch the sea floor. Neither he nor his brother did. Instead they walked on, creating ripples as though they were walking upon the surface. Shaking his head, he blinked in disbelief as it seemed like there was an unseen surface creating those ripples. Following after them, the young merman swiped his hand around and underneath Lalo’s feet, trying to feel something, anything to settle his mind.

Nothing.

A chuckle vibrated Lalo’s throat as a smile easily pulled on his lips. “I wondered when you would notice that, Little Pearl. If I were you, I wouldn’t trouble yourself over it too much. Follow us and concentrate on healing.”

Even though Dorian was not fully satisfied with the answer, he did like Lalo which made it easier for him to trust the guardian. Doing as was recommended to him, Dorian kicked his tail into motion and followed the two blue brothers. Their pace was very leisurely and easy for him to keep up with. Though he was supposed to be taking things slow it didn’t help much for his mood. After all, he was a merman again and since his return to the ocean Dorian has been unable to play. Yes, now was less than proper of a time to play, but that did not cease the tingles he felt all over his body. Holding his arms did not slow the trembles running up and down from head to fin. Oh how wonderful it would be to engage in a game of some sort to get his mind settled on better things.

Another chuckle from Lalo caught Dorian’s attention away from himself. “Ease your mind, Little Pearl. We shall arrive at the ruins in due time, there you shall meet again with your sister and father.”

This information did settle Dorian for a little bit, but there was still only so much slow traveling he could stand. Lalo did humor him with some conversation, explaining how Nemesio was able to turn them into their creature forms. It was due to the thievery and sealing away of the goddess’s power. Since the ruins had been used before as a place of worship, it was far too easy for the mermaid to access it and somehow change the lives of the merpeople. However, they were uncertain as to what exactly Nemesio did to seal the goddess in the first place. Dorian supposed, in his own thoughts that the answer would be given upon reaching the ruins. At least he hoped this was so.

Traveling with the brothers was painfully slow, which did not sate his restlessness. They only ceased their journey to eat, sleep and give Dorian further treatments for his throat. At first, Dorian was sure that the medicine being given to him was helping, just being very slow. However, one night as he was laid down to sleep, he overheard the guardians talking. Lalo was concerned with the slow progress, wondering if the poison had taken greater effect than they could have imagined. Of course Zerb dismissed the theory while the evidence seemed too true to be ignored. Dorian had lain there, with eyes closed feeling a new sense of concern eating away at his gut. If he could not sing, then how was he to summon the goddess?

Just as these thoughts were beginning to sink Dorian into a sense of despair, Lalo approached him. Kneeling beside the merman, the blue guardian reached out a comforting hand. Warmth seeped from the man’s touch into Dorian’s body, relaxing him out of his fetal position. With still saddened eyes, Dorian had looked up to Lalo in question. Lalo smiled down upon him, speaking with soft tones to soothe away the fears. Even so, Dorian pulled himself up to rest his head upon the guardian’s knees, clutching the fabric of his tunic. This action did not seem to bother him, as his hand now rested on Dorian’s head. With a heavy sigh, Lalo spoke, “You are so young, and destined for so much greatness. Fear not, Little Pearl, your pain will be but a small moment. Rest well, and go on one day at a time.”

Whether it was on his own accord or by Lalo’s doing, Dorian had managed to sink into sleep’s embrace again.