Carter slowed, still anxious to get to Arria, but d-mn his tail hurt from swimming so hard. But I just need to get to Arria… Elecia was merely letting herself float in the water, tiredly asking, “How much longer do you think it will take to get there?”
Herla shrugged a shoulder, "A day? I have no clue." He sighed sleepily.
"We all need rest, especially you Carter. You've been working harder then the rest of us." Mulir said, fighting hard to keep his eyes open.
Carter opened his mouth with a protest, “I really haven’t, I can keep going even, maybe if we just-“
“Carter, we are not going to be able to continue, we need rest or else we’ll be too tired to even be able to help your fiance when we get there.” Elecia interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder, “And you’re just going to hurt yourself more.”
"She's right, Carter," Mulir said gently, "And Arria will actually skin us alive if we let you hurt yourself more." The other two nodded.
"We need to be at full strength when we get there, so rest we must." Herla let out a long breath.
“Where can we go? Without, erm, drowning, that is.” Elecia asked, chewing her lips. Carter wrung his hands, ignoring the pain in his tail. He just wanted to make sure Arria was safe, every second wasted…
"I think there's a cave or something along those lines on the surface not to far from here," Gallion said, looking upwards, "It's about a ten minute swim."
“Alright then, we should hurry…” Carter muttered, taking a deep breath. He wished he could be with Arria, he wished he could know if he was safe… (Timeskip to the next day?)
(Yup)
The group rested well into the evening, gathering their strength for the next swim a few hours later. They new every second wasted was costing them but soon they were swimming again, heading towards where they presumed Arria was being kept.
Carter could hardly sit still towards the end of it. Though he had to admit, when they first came to rest in the cave he dropped like a fly, and had taken a long nap caused by exhaustion. But he was glad they were out swimming again. Ready to find Arria. Occasionally, Elecia would swim up and check the coast to see if any big cities were nearby. That’s where Maria would probably be, but sadly they hadn’t seen any cities yet…
Elecia was returning from the surface again, but this time she was shouting out, “Hey, there’s a huge city, we should check it out!”
"How close is it to the coast?" Herla asked, swimming towards Elecia, the others close behind him, "If we're all going to get Arria then uh, we're gonna need some more shorts…"
Elecia snorted, “It’s not too far, how about I run in first and buy you three shorts, and I can look for some crutches too.”
Herla looked away with a slight blush and nodded, "Uh yeah, that um… sounds like a good idea," He coughed, "Thanks, Elecia."
Elecia swam off, and Carter figured he’d swim to the suface. The potion would run out soon, anyways… (sorry that’s so short…)
(It's fine)
The three mermen watched them go, staying behind to have a short conversation with themselves before following them. The breached the surface not too far away from the coast, keeping a wary eye out for any humans near by while they waited for Elecia.
It felt like too long before Elecia got back, swimming in the water with three pair of shorts. Carter and her legs had reappeared a while ago, so Carter already had his shorts on. Elecia held out the shorts to the remaining merman, “Hopefully they fit well.”
"Eh, I'm sure it will be fine." Gallion said, waving a hand idly before he downed one of the potions and quickly slipped a pair of the shorts on. The other two followed closely behind him, taking a few moments to get used to swimming with legs.
"Right, let's go get Arria." Herla said as he began to lead them towards the shoreline.
Elecia helped Carter hobble up to the sandy shore, where Elecia had a pair of crutches waiting for him. He steady himself having a slightly difficult time using crutches on sandy but he could make it. He didn’t want anyone waiting around for him because of his leg.
Once Carter had adjusted to the crutches again and the group had made their way up to the street, the three mermen now having become accustomed to their new legs, they looked around to get their bearings.
"Elecia, you said they were going south right?"
“Yeah, I asked a lady at the store where we are, and she said we’re in [Name of city], which isn’t that far south of the docks where Carter was retrieved. The lady also said that there was a big business on the east side, run by a rich lady.” They were so lucky, so, so lucky. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Come on then, we have to hurry,” Carter urged, and Elecia frowned as she eyes Carter’s still healing leg, but she turned and started leading them eastward.
Gallion and Herla went up to walk beside Elecia while Mulir stayed beside Carter, looking slightly worried, "Don't push yourself too hard, Carter," He said, "I know you want to get to Arria but… you need to take care of yourself, too."
“Okay,” Carter nodded, “But I’m fine.” Besides, I can rest after I know Arria’s safe. It felt like it took too long before they got to a large building. A familiar looking limousine was parked in the front. “This is it, that was the limo.”
Mulir released a breath he didn't know he was holding, "Oh thank god we have the right place," He scanned the building, surveying it for possible exits, entrances, guards and what-not expertly, "We need an entrance and exit that will benefit you…" He mumbled.
Carter frowned, “Maybe the loading dock?” But that depends on where Arria is… we need to find the quickest way to him… Elecia pointed towards the other side of the building, a large truck parked nearby, and workers filtering in and out of the building.
Mulir turned his head towards the dock and took a small step forward, "That could work, yeah. Let's just pray that we can find Arria quickly, he could be on any one of these levels…"
Elecia made quick work of making sure the coast was clear, and before he knew it Carter was walking in with the others. I just need to get to Arria…
Maria stalked down the halls, which were fairly empty becuase she gave a lot of people the day off, mostly because of the merman in the guest room. She opened the door to said room for the second time this day, bringing in a sandwich and a water, “I brought a meal for you,” She stated plainly as she entered.