Chapter 204: “So Jimmy, do you have two Dads?”

Jimmy was convinced to follow Almara to this amazing underground land that she promised.

Initially he expected that she came from some odd, small underground cave, but when she mentioned a city, he was convinced that the place she came from was almost like a second world!

Since it took literal days to get from the lake to the said city, he was convinced that this second world was huge! It might even be as big as the grasslands itself, which by scale was hard to even imagine!

He was excited, so he helped Almara climb on top of Gutaxun, and afterwards, they headed towards the river.

Zik wasn’t as willing to explore the underground world. He didn’t have anything against shapeshifters, in fact, he didn’t even know that they existed until today, but with the current condition that the grasslands was in, with large wars brewing, he simply couldn’t care less about exploring a ’second world’ and considered it a waste of time.

Eni was even less enthusiastic. She didn’t like sharing her ride with a woman that she didn’t even know! Jealousy was one thing, as this same woman tried to seduce her man, but also, recent events have taught her to be cautious.

Field Runners, people she considered friends for years, turned on her tribe within days, and even killed Jimmy once. She barely trusted anyone, not to mention strangers!

She kept repeating, “This is a bad idea.”

And, “Why are we supposed to help them? Let them deal with the Fatt-necks themselves.”

Eni was very open about her opinions. She didn’t care that Almara was a few feet away, and she didn’t care if she heard her.

“Come on, two hours of work is nothing.” Jimmy said, trying to keep the tides calm. “Besides, we’ll make some new friends. Friends who can help us when the hairy-necked bastards from the west hills attack? You gotta see that as a good deal.”

“Hah!” She scoffed, “If these shifters were fighters, they wouldn’t ask you for help, Jimmy. Pull your head out of your ass.”

“Rude,” He pulled his head back, a bit shocked. “If they aren’t fighters, then why are you worried? Trust me, and relax. I’m your new Chief, remember? When have I ever made a promise, and not follow through with it?”

Fishing for reasons, she raised her nose up like an irritated hen, and said, “You haven’t fed me as much meat as you promised. There’s that.”

Jimmy couldn’t help chuckling. Eni was ’hangry’ apparently, which didn’t make much sense as she ate a couple of hours ago. She ate a lot of food for a short woman, and after some brain storming, he figured that she ate more because she had a lot of muscle on her. Muscles that she had to maintain with good protein.

Almara came to the rescue, thankfully, and said, “We have a great cook back home. He can cook a mean fish, uses spices and all. You haven’t had fish the right way until you had it salted, and sprinkled with Red-hot Spike weeds.”

“Sounds good,” He said, and poked Eni, hoping to lift her mood. “Tasty fish…”

Afterwards, he turned to Almara, and asked, “So you have salt? Mind if we take some?”

“Oh, you can take as much as you want.” Almara nodded, her voice cheerful like that of a song bird’s. “We have plenty.”

“I don’t like fish,” Eni pouted.

Despite their different points of view, the group did make it to the river nonetheless. Eni and Zik weren’t nearly as enthusiastic as he was, but they would still follow him to the other side of the world even if they did not agree with him. Considering that they were here with him now, they would never, in good conscience, let him approach a new, potentially dangerous situation alone.

Jimmy was aware of this, and he appreciated their loyalty. He knew that Eni had it especially hard to approach dangerous situations, because as a Field Runner, bravery was merely a concept for her. One didn’t need to face dangers when they could physically run away from them. He was aware of that, but in this situation, he aimed to use their loyalty to open their eyes.

If the world below this river was as big as Almara described it, then he had a feeling that even his friends would somehow benefit from being introduced to it. New surroundings could even help cavemen progress, one way or the other.

Anyway, Almara stood in front of the river, and asked them, “So all three of you want to come down there? I didn’t understand that wrong?”

“We’re joining you, fish muncher,” Zik said. “Can’t let the kid go down there alone, especially since he’s jumping head-first in the river. I wouldn’t hear the end of it from his father.”

“Oh, so you’re… dating his father?” Almara asked, rather oblivious. “That’s nice, that’s… as the city folk say, progressive?”

“What?” Zik’s eyebrows knitted, and he didn’t process her words at first.

When he did process them, he shouted. “No! I like women! His father is my friend!”

“Friend…” Almara parroted. “Cave-mate? That’s how it stars.”

“Lady, jump in that river before I throw you in myself.” His voice dropped.

As Jimmy heard their delightful conversation unfold, all he could do was look at the sky, as if he was looking for a Pterosaur, just so he’d avoid laughing. He didn’t want to laugh, because he knew that all Zik wanted to do was protect him. It wouldn’t be fair.

Thankfully, Almara broke the awkward situation that she created, and doubled back on her first question.

She said, “Well, if all three of you are coming, I’m gonna need to go down there and get two more of my friends, because I can’t carry you all by myself.”

“That’s fine. We’ll wait.” Jimmy said.

“No, here is the thing…” She held her breath. “It’s a six-hundred foot dive, so we’re gonna need to help you breathe underwater. The only way for us to do that… is if you guys ’mount’ me, and my friends.”

“Mount?” He repeated. “Like climbing on your back or something?”

“No,” She shook her head, embarrassed. “You’re a man, Jimmy, and you have a penis. Can you figure out what I’m trying to say?”

Jimmy was confused for a moment, but then it dawned on him. He was confused, because Almara insisted that she couldn’t give him a ’reward’ unless he helped them, so now when she was practically asking for him to penetrate her, which didn’t make sense. He even figured that this was a scheme for Almara to get some action.

Likewise, he pressured her, “Are you sure that’s the only way to help us breathe underwater? Also, isn’t there another entrance we can take? The world you described sounds huge.”

“There is another entrance near the sea, but it’s many moons away from here.” Almara said. “We don’t have the time, my tribe needs your help now.”

Jimmy thought about it for a while, and then said, “What are our options here, then? Because you should know that I won’t let my girlfriend ’mount’ some random man.”

“She can… mount me. Well, I say mount, I mean she simply has to kiss me through the ride down.” Almara said, “It won’t help her breathe as consistently as mounting a man, but I’ll get her down there safe and sound.”

Jimmy didn’t like the idea of her mounting a woman either, and at this point he preferred if she stayed behind and watched the dinosaurs, but then again, he knew that Eni had a thing for women. He waited for her to speak her mind, but when she refused to do so, he had to step in.

“Eni, what do you think?” He asked. “Do you want to ride Almara?”

“I don’t know,” Eni said, “She does look nice now, but I don’t know if I want to kiss a fish.”

“It’s up to you,” He nodded. “You can wait here, and look after Gutty and Rampage if you want.”

“No… we don’t know what’s down there, and you might need my help.” Eni sighed. “I’ll kiss the fish.”

“I’m a very good kisser,” Almara smiled.

Then, she started shapeshifting. Watching her shift from up close was as terrifying as it was interesting.

Her body melted into a sub-liquid form, squishing around as if she was boneless, and then she ’rebuilt’ herself into a mermaid of sorts. Nearly three meters, or nine feet long from head to tail.

Almara grew in size more than they had anticipated. She looked like a monster, a beautiful, hairless monster with scales as dark as the night.

“I can see why my snakes got your attention,” Jimmy said. “You look a lot like them… just more feminine.”

Almara hissed at them. She didn’t threaten them, but she just spoke in a different tongue now, as her brain adjusted to that of a hybrid mermaid’s.

Afterwards, she slithered into the water, and disappeared within seconds! It was horrifying to see her large, half-reptilian body move in the water, it gave everyone goosebumps, but they took comfort in the fact that she had expressed it multiple times that she did not intend to hurt them.

All they could do now was wait for Almara to come back with her friends, which shouldn’t take too long. The day was still young, and so they could afford to wait.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep