Lifting them was not too hard. This was a medium sized vessel. It was made for carrying good hauls of fish. Once I brought them to the deck, I lowered them. They were also mermen. However, instead of fish tails, they had the lower bodies of sharks. No wonder they guys were so scared. Several sharkmen were crying out for help or slinging threats and curses at us. The 3 in the net were thrashing around to get out. I opened the net before they could break it with their sharp teeth. I could see that they were extremely pissed off at me. I gave Jared his trident back and aimed a harpoon at them. "Why are you hunting my friends?" I demanded. They looked confused at the question. "We hunt because we want to eat." the younger one said. The eldest was still glaring intensely at me. He was the one we met first. The youngest was staring hungrily at the mermen of the Goldtail Tribe. "They are my friends. You can't eat them." I told them. Before they could respond, 2 of them from the side of the boat pulled themselves up. "Can we get out pups back? You can go if you leave now." one asked.
I nodded my head. "Of course, they can go back with you. Just remember, we are armed and dangerous in this boat. Don't try to attack anymore." I told them. The sharks whistled to the members in our boat. They waddled over and I helped them flop back into the water. Once that was done, I looked at the 2. "Now it's your turn to hold up the deal. Go and stop trying to hunt my friends." I said as I made a shooing motion with my hands. They left us alone. I was not an idiot and made sure they were gone first. That took 20 minutes. They were circling at the limits of the area I could see with the spyglass, but they soon gave up on us. The mermen on the deck had been out long enough that they were dry and able to stand on their legs. "You just made Grayflank Tribe back down. You are amazing!" Jethro said. I shrugged. I did not really do much aside from kidnap their trainee warriors. I guess that was enough out on the open sea. "This is going to be talked about for generations to come." Jared said when we set off again. "That could have gone really badly. We need to be careful." Jude added.
That was certainly true. It had only been 10 minutes since we had started going. Because of the risk, I had told them to stay on the boat until we got back to their territory for safety. They nodded in agreement. I was going to agree with what Jude had said when I was knocked to the ground. A large weight was pressing down on me. "You thought that you could relax in our territory! Think again!" a voice said. A sharp burning pain pierced my shoulder, and I screamed in pain. One of the Grayflank Tribe hunters had jumped from the water and was now attacking me. I still had my harpoon. I aimed it behind me and stabbed at me. I felt resistance and heard him cry out in pain. I got him. I yanked back and stabbed him twice more. I was able to shimmy from under him and see the creature for myself. He was one of the trainee warriors that surrounded us. I had scooped him and his friends up in the net earlier. He was the one that said they were hunting because they wanted to eat in particular. It seemed he had bitten off more than he could chew. The engine was still running. We had a captive now.
