"Hey, hey. I just want to talk, miss!" Vynx spoke in an amiable tone. He stood still as the mermaid smacked her free fist against his leg and spat on his boot. Even in her violent rage, he had to admit, the waterlogged woman was as fetching as the legends described. With vibrant teal hair and shimmering turquoise scales, she resembled the preserved mermaid he once saw at the Commission, but with all the vitality and fury of an actual living being. The hunter kept hold of her for several minutes until she gave up on pulling away, only shooting him a scalding glare from beneath her messy bangs. 

Her aquamarine eyes flickered over the group, staring at Vynx and the others cautiously. "You want to talk?" she asked. "I know that you humans always want more than that." 

"Alright, well, I can't deny that I do need something from you, but I promise to let you go after this," Vynx replied breezily. "We aren't going to hurt you. We just need some of your tears for our mission." 

The mermaid cocked her head back and cackled. "My tears? What silly tales have you seafarers come up with this time?" she snorted. "First it was our scales, then our tails, and now our tears? You humans have a sick sense of greed."

"First off, I'm not technically a human. Secondly, I don't believe in all that superstitious crud either, but there's no denying that you mermaids have longer lifespans than most," Vynx pointed out. "Sure, selling your body parts off could land me a boatload of money, but it'd be a real shame to hurt such a beauty," he grinned suavely, trying to lay his charms on thick. If he managed to reel in three supernatural ladies so far, surely he had something going for him in that department.

She seethed at him in a silent standstill. It was clear that Vynx's strength was far beyond anything she could hope to overpower, and even then, the mermaid was surrounded. With an annoyed sigh, she replied, "I have no reason to cry for you. Torture me if you will, but I won't shed any tears even if you kill me." 

"Well, what if I made you cry some other way?" Vynx asked. "I could do a comedy skit. I got this whole routine planned—"

The mermaid stared at him indignantly. 

"Okay, okay. How about we try something else then? I have one other idea, but you're gonna have to come ashore for a bit." The hunter pulled the mermaid up into the air and tossed her over his shoulder to carry her back to the beach, only releasing her arm once Soleil had grabbed some rope to bind her wrists behind her back. "Just bear with me here, alright?" Vynx set her down gently by their makeshift fire while the others stood by at the ready. At least on the sand, she would have a harder time slipping away from them. 

With his hands freed, Vynx reached into his coat to procure an onion, a can of red powder, and his tin of allspice. He called on Hilde to find him some thin sticks and a flat rock, while Sophia and Soleil were tasked with catching any fish they could get their hands on. Vynx whipped out his hunting knife to begin peeling and chopping up the onion near the mermaid. To his delight, he could see her eyes beginning to water as the fumes wafted into the air. 

However, the woman stubbornly turned away from him and shut her eyes, refusing to cry on behalf of a simple vegetable. 

"Ah, it would've been easy if you teared up from that," Vynx sighed. He brightened when the others returned with the rest of his supplies and soon got to work skinning, slicing, and seasoning the fish. Once the sea bream was prepared for the fire, he dumped the entirety of his red powder onto the fillet and set it on top of the onions by the fire to cook. The fish charred up steadily, and the scent seemed to draw the mermaid's attention back to the flames. Once the meat had cooked through, Vynx pulled it off the flame and offered it to her with a smile. "Here you are! If you thought the beef jerky I tossed in the water was good, you'll definitely like this," he insisted.

"... You're a strange man," the mermaid muttered. The smell was admittedly tantalizing, and the strong spices were a foreign concept to the fishwoman, who had spent all of her years at the bottom of the sea. Regardless, she opened her mouth, revealing a set of pointed teeth right before she chomped into the fish. Her eyes immediately widened, and there was a look of sheer regret on her face. She spat out the meat and began to hack. "Ack! What foul poison did you add to that?! My mouth is burning!" she shrieked as her face turned bright red. The bound woman thrashed her tail, sending sand up into the air as she hissed and cried for water. 

"It was hot chilli! It's all the rage on land right now. Of course, if you've never had it before, I figure you must not have a lot of spice tolerance." Vynx tried not to laugh and quickly grabbed his canteen of water for her. As he spotted the tears welling up in her eyes, he motioned for Hilde to prepare the glass vial in her possession and catch the stream trickling down her cheeks. He waited until Hilde scooped as many tears as she could before he finally reached over to offer his water to the furious fishwoman. The mermaid chugged down his water desperately, only breathing out in relief once she finished the entire canteen. 

"That was awful." The mermaid glowered. She only stared incredulously when Soleil grabbed the rest of the uneaten fish and wolfed it down with no issue. 

"Sorry, but it was either that or my performance of The Prince and the Baker's Daughter," Vynx chuckled apologetically. "Here, have the rest of my jerky." He fed her the last few strips of dried meat he had on him, glad to see that the universal language of food had transcended any interspecies barriers once more. With his mission complete, he cut the rope bindings on the mermaid's wrists and offered his hand again. 

The mermaid wriggled her arms free and looked skeptically at his hand, then at the sword at his belt. If Vynx had wanted to kill her, she knew he could have by now. Bizarre as the entire encounter was, she was simply grateful to be alive with only a numb tongue to complain about. She took his hand and allowed Vynx to pick her up and return her to the water. 

"By the way… do you have a name I can call you?" Vynx wondered. While reluctant to let such a dazzling woman go, he had three other ladies glaring daggers at him to make sure he didn't try and cop a feel of the mermaid's bare chest.

"Uria," she replied curtly. 

"Pleasure to meet you, Uria. Guess this is where we say our goodbyes then." The hunter lowered her into the water, and the woman slipped out of his arms at once. He received one last slap to the face with her tail before she disappeared under the waves and out of sight, but he had to admit, it was a refreshing feeling. Vynx stood and watched the ocean, noticing that the fog had lifted enough for him to see their ship still anchored in the distance. With one last sigh, he returned to put out the fire, then got ready for the row back to the schooner. He never liked making a pretty woman cry, and he could only hope the reward from Rosina would be worth another bout of seasickness on the way back to civilization.