"Dead bodies should decay even faster in water than on land," he answers.

Curufin kneels down by one of these mer-people. He places a hand lightly on the man's chest, and then takes one of the man's wrists in his own hand and feels for a pulse.

"He's alive, he's breathing and he has a pulse." He shakes the man. "Wake up!" Nothing happens. The man snoozes on. Curufin shakes him again. Nothing.

He gets up and tries again with another mer-person. Nothing. And another. Nothing.