Aquata Cove Ch. 60

Syrinx swims as she glances at the blue merman. She feels a sense of guilt for him; it doesn't feel fair that he holds a grudge against her, and yet at the same time, she can't discredit him for it.

Now that she thinks about it, all merfolk think that the Capricorn hunts Coshitons in a way to bring their end. And Merrick claims that he forced himself to live on the land for 3 years - even two whole years isn't possible for her yet.

Was that what he wanted to talk to her? Was that why he pursued her here and there on the cruise? She feels bad that she didn't give him a chance to hear him out, but in her defense, he had this psychological string in his eyes that looked ready to snap at any moment - he still does, she can see it. And yet the Noita and Adra Noita in this pod don't seem to be bothered.

And now that she actually WANTS to be a friend, now he's the one shutting her out.

As Merrick swims, he notices he is beating his tail harder than he needs. He pants as his long tail is beginning to feel sore, his fingers loosening and tightening on his weapon. He grunts as he paddles his left hand beside him as his heart pounds harder in his chest.

Should he alert the others? No, he's fine, he can do this. He groans as he dips his body up and down, trying to pull himself through the water. His vision is beginning to blur, his tail is burning from the inside, his teeth clenches as he huffs with harsh strain.

Arnaav paddles along with everyone else. The way Merrick yelled at him... He didn't do anything right, even after all of the times Merrick was kind enough to show him all he knows. He's the worst hunter ever, when he can't even match with Merrick's training. After all, he's the only one who actually tried to teach him for as long as he did. He's not meant to be a hunter... He can't even shoot a single strike on a prey.

The otter turned back to look at Merrick, only to see someone else where the Piscien was before. He slowed down as he turned himself around, allowing the others to pass him while he looks for him. Those deep, orb-like eyes widened as they see the blue and silver fish struggling behind.

"Merrick!" Arnaav raced forth over to him, breaking from the pod and darting to Merrick. The Piscien groans as he pants harshly as he tries to swim, before he feels a pair of paws pull up on his sides, "Merrick! Wake up!"

"Hnnhh... Hghh... I am fine... I am awake, I... Hghhh..." Merrick mumbled.

"Rrrfff! Come on!" Arnaav's legs kicks the water as he tries to pull Merrick forward, "HELP! Someone! WAIT! Noita Vanora! NOITA!" He yelps.

Samudra and Vanora halts the pod, and both of them swim around the pod in opposite directions. Both of them gasp as the small Amnien endeavors to pull up the wilting Piscien up and forward. The lionfish mermaid sped up to Merrick, while the young Adra Triton darts forth, and grabs the harpoon drifting down from the Piscien's hand.

"He's talking, b-but he can't move!" Arnaav said as he began to panic.

"I said he was not well!" Vanora said as Samudra replaced the otter paws with his own heavy hands, holding Merrick up.

"I am fine..." Merrick groaned as he can feel Vanora's energy enter his chest and head.

"You are not." Vanora corrected, "Your dehydration is more severe than you had led on. You will not be able to swim anymore for now."

"No..." Merrick's fist clenches tightly. How can he still be so weak???

"It is almost time for us to rest for the sun anyway," Triton Samudra said. He blinked as he can clearly see the anger inside Merrick's cast-down eyes. Anger at himself, maybe? Unless Arnaav's failure is still hanging inside of his mind.

Samudra looked about, and spotted a sunken ship a short distance away, "There." He announced to the Kenovani, "The fallen ship. We shall rest there. Vanora, Nerissa, go forth and feel the ship, and see if it is safe for us."

"Yes." Vanora said, before she and her daughter, Adra Nerissa, dove down to see to the ship.

~~~

The whole pod is gathered within the dead ship, as small a school as they are. As with any other pod, they are gathered around a glowing aura of light, usually for the Razirah, Noita, or Triton to tell stories or discuss any pressing issues, or just regular conversation.

Merrick takes deep, steady breaths as they relax around the light. He feels a little better now, but he still feels shaky, and very angry with himself. Samudra said that if he joins the Kenovani, his dehydration will be cured - he is INSIDE the ocean, for Atargatis's sake, surrounded by water! Noita Vanora says it doesn't happen as fast as Samudra may have led on, especially in Merrick's case, whose Land Sickness - as they call it when a merfolk has been on the land for too long - is the most severe case they've ever seen.

"Triton Samudra." Merrick said.

"Are you feeling alright, Merrick?" The thick and heavy Holsien asked.

"Yes. I was wondering something."

"We will answer any thing you wish to know." Samudra said with a nod.

"If the Kenovani Pod is made up of Coshitons, how do you go about of Red Moons?" The question seems to make Samudra uneasy.

"As you can see, the Kenovani is much smaller than any healthy pod in the ocean - at the very most, our capacity measures to an approximate half of a regular pod. Red Moons is a... An emotionally strenuous time for us..."

"For most of the time," Vanora said, "We hope that we are fortunate enough for members of the Kenovani to fall in love with another fellow member. As of now, there have been 5 Red Moons since the Kenovani was formed."

"I can understand the reluctance to find mates for the Kenovani." Merrick said.

"Indeed," Razirah Ebba nodded, "It would be tactless and cruel for us to actively seek out pod frenzies on a Red Moon - what merfolk would ever want to fall in love, only to be cast away from their own lives, their family, torn between their two loves. Forever cut off from their true home."

"Yet at the same time," Samudra said, "It is not fair that we must choose to remain alone and mateless forever..." He said, "As selfish as it is, we chose to seek out other pods to find mates on one Red Moon, and then naught on the next Red Moon, and so on in that pattern."

"That sounds so hard..." Merrick said as he bowed his head, "It... It really is not fair..."

"Exactly." Samudra nods. "It is not right that we must suffer for a few poorly-planned rules..." A fire of determination burns deeply in Samudra's eyes, "That is why I am going to change the Sacred Laws."

Merrick blinked and looked at the Holsien with estranged eyes. A subtle glance shows no surprise, but a unanimous sense of admiration from the faces of the pod.

"Wait... Change the Sacred Laws??" Merrick said, "What are you saying?? How can that be possible?? If the Sacred Laws could be changed, wouldn't they already have been changed long ago?"

"It is unlikely." Samudra replied, "We merfolk have always existed with an overwhelming sense of tradition, so much so that rarely we stop for one moment to question the reasoning of such laws, and why they are so strict as to immediately banish anyone who defiles a law, no matter the age or intention." Samudra frowns, "Circumstance means nothing in the eyes of the conservative natured merfolk, once you violate a law, you considered worse than dead."

Merrick immediately is reminded of his own father. He doubts if Kaiken really cares if it wasn't Merrick's fault the Red Moon chose a human man to be his one true love. He sure didn't care about the fact that Arnaav was still practically a baby when he bellowed at him.

"So how will you change the Sacred Laws?" Merrick asked, "And if so, does that mean Coshitons can return to our own pods?"

"No." Samudra shook his head, "As with human markings upon their flesh, our marks will always remain upon us as well. We are not ever welcome back into our pods. However, we do have the opportunity to change the laws for future generations of merfolk."

"How?"

"As you know, every single merfolk in the entire ocean gather to the three Lost Kingdoms for one year every century to remember and to know who we were and what we are." Samudra explained, "And on that momentous year, can we merfolk truly change and effect the Waves of Fate. As Syrinx, the only mermaid in our pod who has spent the most time on dry land out of all of us has explained," He gestured to her with his hand, "Humans change, create, and abolish their own laws all of the time."

"The human elections." Syrinx spoke up, "Courts, this force called the Government and Congress. You know of these?" Merrick begrudgingly nodded.

"Though it is much more solemn and so far," Samudra continued, "We merfolk are capable of the same actions and the same process. A Sacred Law can only be altered or destroyed by a majority favor of the merfolk gathered to the Lost Kingdoms."

"Is it still possible for us though??" Merrick asked hastily, "We are rogues of merfolk. Would our word even be heard?"

"Yes. Of that, I have no doubt." Samudra holds up his hand to show his own black symbol on his palm, "Though we are cast out and denied existence in the eyes of fellow merfolk, we are all the children of the Sea Mother Atargatis, Coshiton or Merfolk alike."

"We can really go to the Lost Kingdoms? And we can really bring down some of the Sacred Laws??"

"In the Lost Kingdoms, it is the one and only time other Merfolk are obligated to see us. They cannot turn their backs to us. And they WILL hear our plight, they will know our hinderence."

"When exactly do we go to the Lost Kingdoms??"

"For a long time yet..." Samudra sighed, "Almost 30 years is left before we can make our mark on Laws." An instance of sadness glimmered in Samudra's eyes, "It is possible that I may not be able to make it..."

"Why not?" Merrick asked.

"My life is half spent. Simple as that." Samudra answered, "I will be an old relic of a merman if I live to that day, and anything could happen."

"Oh, have more faith, Samudra." Vanora nudged him with her hand, "You will be there, and you will make life better for countless merfolk."

"Hah hah hah..." He chuckled, "Perhaps you are right..."

~Several Hours Later~

"..." Nerissa stirs in her sleep. It currently has been almost half of the night since they observed the ship for rest. Vanora pointed out that some residual energy in the ship somehow... Feels like Merrick...

Right now, however, she slowly blinks awake as she can feel turbulence in the auras among the pod. She pushes her hands onto the old saturated wood of the ship, and raised her head. Her eyes looked onto the colorful mists of the members' auras, all of them surrounding themselves in their own respective pattern. One of them, however, is feeling excruciatingly chaotic. Nerissa floated up, before she felt a hand push gently down upon her shoulder.

"Stay put, Daughter..." Vanora said, her own more experienced eyes pinpointing the exact trace of the unstable aura.

"I can do this, Mother..." Nerissa is much older than her brother, she is quite adept in her duties as a Noita in training.

"You know I would let you handle this... But Syrinx's warnings has me concerned... Please remain..." The lionfish mermaid swam up, and carefully loomed through the water, above the sleeping merfolk. The aura is getting more and more like a violent hurricane the more she followed the trace.

Vanora pulled herself onto the frame of the door, and looked down upon the source of the troublesome aura.

"Nnnh... Ghhh, khh..." Merrick twitches and tenses harshly in his sleep. His eyes clench as his arms tightened as his tail coiled crookedly.

"A vicious nightmare..." Vanora muttered, "I have never felt such darkness and spite..." The Noita looks to a far corner, and sees Arnaav huddled up in a corner. The poor boy always isolates himself from the pod in times of rest, but as those young eyes look up at her, the otter shakes in fear with a pleading look so desperate, as if he's afraid to move, and disturb a mindless beast that would pounce upon him like injured prey.

()()()

"You're never getting out of here until you tell me everything." Said glowing glass eyes and a devilish grin.

"He's fryin' up cause of you, fagfish." Snickered a country accent as he punched a gun all over Merrick's neck.

"This will only hurt a lot..." Came a blood-covered doctor, holding five scalpels rotating around his hand, "And it will hurt, foreveerrrrrr... Hmhmhmhmhmh"

"Heheheheheheheh"

"Gahahahahahahahahahaha"

"Stop... Just kill me..." Merrick is unable to swim as his tail is strapped down, while his arms are tied to either side of him. "JUST KILL ME! Leave me alone! LET me GO! JUST LEAVE ME BE!!"

The three evils simply laughed at him as they grew larger and larger around Merrick, mocking and mangling him as he struggles in his restricted predicament. The looked down on him in a sea of red and black.

In their shadows, saw the love of his live, a pink heart beating and hovering above his body, "No! Not him! ANYONE but him! STOP! LET HIM GOOO!!" The heart turned yellow as it spazzed about in a sudden rush of lightning, making the dark silhouette thrash and flop on the spot.

()()()

"RRRRRGGGGHHH!" Merrick whirled about in a moment of anger and terror. He gasped as he sees darkness, a familiar face, and a glint of silver before he halted himself.

His widened eyes stares at the startled gaze of Noita Vanora. Merrick pants as his harpoon shook in his hand, the hook-shaped point just a hair away from touching Vanora's neck.

After a pause, his webbed hand released the harpoon, and let it drift down to the floor. Other members of the pod awoke nearby, turning and peering around at the source of the scream. Arnaav curls tighter in his corner as he vibrated with fear from the spectacle.

"I am sorry..." Merrick whimpered, "I am sorry-"

"It is alright." Vanora said, "I understand, it is alright." She took a few deep breaths, her heart still pounding from the near-death experience; if Merrick didn't have the reflexes of a Triton, she'd probably by dead right now.

Embarrassed, Merrick quickly unfurled, and loomed out of a whole of the ship. He swims quickly away, trying to pretend that none of the members of the pod are staring at him as he left.

Arnaav, still shaking with fear, gulped as he drifted up to peer out of the ship, looking at the flapping tailfin of the blue and silver fish. He whimpers as he climbed through the water to paddle after him.

Syrinx stared with her jaw open. Merrick almost killed Noita Vanora. He could've really ended her life...

She can't stand it anymore. She grabs her weapon, and follows suit, before a heavy hand clamped on her tail-flippers. She turned to see Samudra holding her back.

"Let them go. You two are not the best of compatibility as of yet." He said deeply.

"Why do you think I am going after him?" Syrinx asked.

"Scolding him for something beyond his control will not help him right now. He needs to heal."

"I need to understand him. If not to open with me, I will find out what is his curse. Please, Triton Samudra." She said, "This happened before in my pod... I need to know his pain so I can help to prevent what happened before."

There was a pause between the two, before Samudra's heavily plated hand released her flipper. "If you find out," He continued, "Relay it to me as well, when you can. This concerns me deeply as well." Syrinx nodded, before turning swimming forth. Vanora came up next to him, and he turned to hold her.

"I am alright..." She muttered, her fins still twitching, "Please do not-"

"I feel strongly about this... But I cannot fault him for almost ending you..." Samudra said as he fist clenched, "Even if I want-"

"No..." Vanora shook her, "I should have been more cautious..."

~~~

Arnaav swims forward, sending signal after signal in several directions, turning his head left, turning his gaze right, before he spotted the Piscien, lying upon a large rock, almost like he's holding it as if he's afraid he will slip off. The young merman glides forward to Merrick, happy that nothing else has gotten to him. He's not sure what he can say to make things better; heck, they haven't spoken since he failed the last hunting lesson.

Arnaav opened his mouth to speak.

"You are still sending far too many signals." Merrick commented without even turning to look who it is behind him. Arnaav pouted as he slumped a little.

"I was looking for you. I-I had to send a lot of signals."

Syrinx quietly snuck behind, looming behind another large sand-covered rock. She can't come too close, or else Merrick might hear her, or if not heard, his instincts would inform him of her presence.

Back when she was a mischievous little meryin, she had a habit of sneaking up to members of her pod, but she could never startle the Noita, thanks to her aura-sense, nor was she ever able to spook the Triton because of his enhanced intuition, or either of the Adras for that matter.

This should be a good spot. It's not likely, but Merrick just may confide in the small otter, seeing as how they have history as acquaintances.

"A-Are you sad, Merrick?" Arnaav pawed up to Merrick, "Is your stomach hurting? Sometimes I get upset when my stomach hurts."

"No..." Merrick smiles at the sheer innocence, "It is not my stomach."

"... Er... W-Why did you almost hurt the Noita?" Arnaav timidly asked, "You were struggling while sleeping for a long time since we started slumber. A-Are you... Possessed?"

"Hmph..." Merrick shrugged slightly, "In a way, I suppose I am."

"HHH!" Arnaav gasped deeply as his paws shot straight to his mouth, "N-No! W-We have to take you back to the pod immediately! T-The Noita can make you better again!" He said as he tugged on Merrick's arm. He merely chuckled and pulled his arm back.

"Relax, Arnaav. I am not possessed by a spirit." Arnaav gave a confused look after that, "Rather, I should have said that I am still haunted..."

"Haunted? Is that not the same as being taken by a spirit?"

"Not quite..." Merrick shuffled a little on the stone, "I need to be alone right now..."

"But I don't want to leave you." Arnaav said as he paddles around, "I want to help you."

"You cannot. This is a personal matter..." Merrick dismissed. That otter boy simply gave him a begging look with those large, child eyes. Merrick sighed as he adjusted to sit up.

"About 8-10 moons ago, I was captured by a human... His name was Nigel. He was a cruel, falsifying man. I doubt that he even had a soul..."

"What do you mean? What did he do?"

Merrick took a deep breath, while Syrinx listened very carefully.

"He tortured me." He said, plain and simple. "He had me abducted from my mate's home, and... He interrogated me about us merfolk..."

"Us merfolk?"

"He once met a mermaid when he was only a child. And ever since then, he made it his life mission to prove our existence."

"What do you mean?" Arnaav asked, confused, "We already do exist."

"Yes we do," Merrick continued, "But apparently, mermaids and mermen are considered as mythical creatures to humans."

"That sounds ridiculous." Arnaav said.

"Yes," He chuckled, "Anyway, to prove the existence of merfolk, this man asked me constantly about different things about merfolk. And I refused. I could see just what kind of man he was, and what would happen if a man like him were to come to us, and I would not give him a single answer... And so he punished me."

"How did he punish you?"

"He... He tore me apart... Both in body and soul..." Merrick trembled. Syrinx gasped very silently as Arnaav did, "He stole my blood. He cut off the webbing of my fingers, he butchered my fins off of my head, he turned my tail into a barren shadow of what I am by yanking off my own scales one by one, he ripped my tailfin into ribbons until there was nothing left..."