In this he must have been successful, because the green-skinned being replied in kind. “Hello, landsman. You are an interesting color.”
“I am not green, if that is what you mean.” When Ehomba smiled, the sargassum man made a perfect round O with his lipless mouth. Tongue and gullet were entirely black. “I did not expect to find one of your kind here—but I had hope.”
“‘One’?” Lifting a supple, tubular arm that was fringed with kelp-like protrusions, the humanoid made a sweeping gesture. “My entire family is here; my wife and three children, and my uncle and his wife and two children, and an elderly cousin.”
Strain his eyes as he might while surveying the surrounding floating weed, Ehomba could see nothing. “They must be far away.”
A burbling noise rose from the depths of the sargassum man’s throat. It reminded the herdsman of the sound a badly clogged drain might make. “They are right here.” Turning slightly to his left, he pointed. Not off into the distance, but down.
Two sargassum children popped their heads out of the water not an arm’s length from the boat, giggling like gargling eight-year-olds. They so startled Terious that for the second time he momentarily lost his grip on the oars. Watery laughter trailing behind, the effervescent pair ducked back beneath the weed mat. Though they were blowing bubbles less than a foot below the surface, their natural camouflage made them impossible to see even when Ehomba looked directly at them.
“We like this place,” the adult was saying. “It is always calm here. The winds are mild and no landsmen ships with hooks and nets visit the valley.” His expression, insofar as it was possible to do so, darkened. “No sharks, either. And this weed patch is thick and healthy and full of good things to eat.”