Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 181: Episode : Goodies for the Mermaid.

On the surface, the mates were not having it good.

Ren sat on the muddy bank, his robes stained with damp earth. He didn’t care. He sat with his legs drawn up, his chin resting on his knees, staring at the swirling eddies where the Iron-Whale had breached the surface before.

"I am a fraud," Ren whispered to the water.

He smelled the scent of Zarek, and he turned back to find the dragon king leaning against a trunk of a massive Iron-Wood tree near the water’s edge, crossing his arms over his chest.

His bicep was bandaged where the high-pressure water had sliced him, but fresh blood was already seeping through the white linen.

Zarek was as anxious as the others. Even the forest felt tense because there was no Roxy to hold her mates down.

Zarek stared at the river as if his sheer will could force the water to part and give her back. The silence between them was suffocating.

"I am sorry," Ren said.

The words felt inadequate, but they were all he had.

Zarek didn’t acknowledge the apology. He just kept staring at the black water.

Ren let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh, shaking his head.

"I don’t know why I thought I could do this," Ren continued, his voice trembling slightly. "I don’t know what it feels like to have a mate, Zarek. The Fox Clan... we are cursed with solitude. We are born alone, we live alone, and we die alone."

He looked at his hands.

Ren looked up at Zarek’s profile. The Dragon looked like a statue carved from granite and rage. Not giving a damn about what the fox was saying.

Zarek didn’t answer. He didn’t even blink.

Ren sighed, looking back at the river. "Why am I even talking to you? You aren’t listening. All you see is red. All you want is to burn the world."

Ren’s ears suddenly twitched, sensitive to the drop of a pin.

He narrowed his eyes. The current was strong here, but that bubble hadn’t moved with the flow. It had come straight up.

More bubbles. Froth began to gather near a patch of reeds about ten feet from the bank.

"Zarek," Ren said sharply, the self-pity vanishing instantly.

Zarek pushed off the tree. He had seen it too. The water’s surface broke.

A head emerged. Wet, ink-black hair plastered to a pale skull. Violet eyes that glowed with an eerie light.

"A mermaid," Ren exclaimed, scrambling to his feet.

The Dragon King launched himself forward. To him, anything coming out of that water was an enemy. It was a monster that might have hurt Roxy. His claws extended, his eyes flashing gold, ready to rip the creature apart.

Nimue didn’t shrink back. She bared her needle-teeth and hissed, noticing the hostility. She was an Apex Predator, and she didn’t fear surface lizards.

"Zarek, stop!"

Ren threw himself in front of the Dragon, slamming his palms into Zarek’s chest.

"Wait!" Ren screamed, digging his heels into the mud as Zarek’s momentum nearly bowled him over. "Look at her! Look at her hair!"

Zarek snarled, trying to shove Ren aside. "It’s one of the things that took her!"

"Look!" Ren pointed.

Zarek paused, his chest heaving. He looked.

The mermaid was snarling, yes. But she wasn’t attacking. And she looked... strange.

Her hair wasn’t the tangled, matted mess of a wild beast. It was sleek. It was glossy. It was braided into an intricate, regal crown that sat high on her head.

Zarek recognized that braiding style. He had seen Roxy practicing it on Iris’s hair just last week. And the smell.

Beneath the river muck and the ozone, wafting off the mermaid, was a scent that didn’t belong in the wild.

It was the scent of the expensive bottles Roxy hoarded in her store and used after her baths.

Zarek froze. His claws retracted slightly.

"You..." Zarek breathed, stepping closer to the water’s edge. "You smell like her."

Nimue stopped hissing. She treaded water, eyeing the two massive males with a mixture of fear and arrogance.

"Are you the Sky King?" Nimue demanded, her voice rasping like wet gravel.

He growled, not ready for any small talk. "Where is she?"

"What do you want?" Fox added quickly, stepping up beside Zarek, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace.

Nimue didn’t waste time with pleasantries. She didn’t trust them not to attack her. She reached into the sash of kelp at her waist.

She pulled out a rolled-up tube of pale leather and tossed it onto the grassy bank.

It landed with a soft thud at Zarek’s feet.

Before they could even reach for it, Nimue ducked her head. With a splash of her indigo tail, she submerged, sinking just below the surface, her violet eyes watching them through the murky water like a crocodile.

Zarek dropped to his knees. He didn’t care about the mud. He grabbed the scroll with shaking hands.

He pulled the tie. Ren knelt beside him, his shoulder pressing against Zarek’s arm.

They unrolled it together. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"It is her," Ren whispered, tracing the letters with a trembling finger. "That is her handwriting.."

They read hungrily.

"She’s alive," Zarek choked out. The stuff feeling in his chest had disappeared. "She is safe."

They read the commands.

Zarek looked at the river, where Nimue’s shadow lurked. He felt a pang of shame. He had almost incinerated the only link to his mate. "She knows me too well."

Ren squeezed his eyes shut. "Even in the dark," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion, "she is worrying about us. She is worrying about me."

He laughed, a wet, joyful sound. "I was sitting here drowning in guilt, and she is down there telling me to eat."

They reached the final part. The list of demands for Nimue.

Zarek stared at the writings. He ran his thumb over the charcoal, smudging it slightly..

"She has turned a monster into an ally," Ren analyzed, looking at the water. Zarek stood up, tucking the letter carefully into his belt next to his skin.

"We have orders," Zarek stated.

He looked at the waiting mermaid. Nimue’s head broke the surface again, her violet eyes expectant, waiting for the "goodies" she had been promised.

"The storage room," Ren nodded, scrambling up. "Roxy kept crates of the high-end fabrics from the last trades. And the oils... Kaelen has the keys to the vault."

"I will go," Zarek decided instantly. "I am the fastest. I can fly to the Manor and back in minutes."

He turned to Ren.

The Fox was physically weaker, yes. He couldn’t fly. But he was the one who could talk to a mermaid without accidentally insulting her or starting a war.

Zarek grabbed Ren’s shoulder. His grip was firm, grounding.

He unfurled his massive black wings, the wind from the motion flattening the grass.

"Fox," Zarek said, looking Ren dead in the eye with a serious, almost humorous intensity. "Watch that fish."