Chapter 24: AND Thereâs Names!
Summary: Names for the five mers!
When I wasnât there on those rare occasions Blaster would be. He had taken to reading books out loud despite not knowing whether or not he could understand. Blaster had reasoned that he might as well read aloud instead of just sitting in silence when I asked him about it. It was kind of funny to see Prowl draped across his lap like an oversized cat while he read. I couldnât tell if he was listening or napping, but he seemed content and with our efforts Prowl seemed just a little bit better over the last couple of weeks. He still wasnât grooming himself or coming out during the day for others, but he seemed just a little less sullen. Maybe it was just me, but I thought that the puzzles and his little story times with Blaster were helping.
Then of course to add to the list of positives it seemed the five mers were trying to get Prowls attention now from what I was hearing. Aid was rather excited about it. If Prowl merged with them then there would be a complete pod that could be released back into the water. No doubt it would make all of their healing go much quicker and theyâd let go. I doubted Prowl was the one who decided to start skulking around the bridge and attack people anyway. He wouldnât go back to the bridge. As for the others Prowl could add some reason to their group. Heâd definitely stick out among the black and greens, but they could protect him from predators and other mers. If things went bad then Prowl would think something up and escape.
However Prowl ignored their calls. He wouldnât even look at them. Whether it was out of spite and some form of payback due to how they had been treating him and Barricade before or if he really just wasnât interested we werenât sure. They were much more active now. They called to him regularly. Watching and waiting for when he would emerge. It was something else to see them follow Prowl about to the best of their abilities with the glass and space between them. A couple of them were almost always pressed against the glass when Prowl was out of his little hidden nest. However they didnât seem bothered in the slightest as they seemed to mildly fight for who was up against the glass anyway.
They kind of reminded me of children in a way. They were practically fighting for the attention that Prowl wasnât even giving in the first place. It never came to blows or bites, but they did hiss and push each other occasionally. When Prowl eventually did look over it was to glare at them, but they responded like he had offered them the damn world instead of threaten them. The happy little noises and excited chatter was pretty funny though Prowl just did a sort of huff and turned away again.
Ratchet and Aid were paying attention to this much like everyone else. Aid was more obvious about it. Ratchet would just come in and watch for a few moments from the wall before leaving again. Aid was bouncing happily and even talked to the mers as much as he did everyone else. He really wanted this to work out.
I wasnât bothered with it one way or the other. If he decided he wanted to give it a shot then he could give it a shot. If Prowl didnât want to bother with them then he shouldnât have to. Magis Accuratius were aggressive and strong and if he wasnât comfortable with it then I would back him up. It would be the same if it they wanted to push him merging with the mini and the two Ante Secutors. The pair were battle types, made to fight and protect the pod, with strong scales for protection. They however hadnât been brought up again since the five started whistling and tapping on the glass to try and get Prowl to acknowledge them.
They had started on a nest finally. They tore apart when they had started when they first got here to start anew. Chromia and Elita had gone and named the green black mers during their newest efforts to build a nest. There was Hook and his name came from the accident that brought them in. He had dozens of hooks in stuck in him back then. Bone Crusher got his name from the accident also for obvious reasons. Then there was Scavenger, who would search the sand and rocks and coral intently for anything and everything it seemed. Long Haul was easily bringing over the materials to their chosen site as Bone Crusher broke them off. Finally there was Mix Master. He made a substance with what he had that glued the pieces of their nest together. They cut pieces that seemed to fit together perfectly and it was amazing to watch. It was soon difficult to tell where they even broke apart and fitted them together with the way they were filling in cracks and smoothing things over. There was no wonder why they were called the builders of the sea now. If people could communicate with mers then these guys could really help with underwater construction. Mers in general could help save people and salvage things below the water that people couldnât.
They worked on it silently and communicated rarely to each other as they focused on their designated jobs. The large nest they made was rather impressive and when they were satisfied they were back to trying to get Prowls attention. I wasnât sure when they said exactly, but eventually Prowl actually left his nest with a growl. The others however whistled happily. Scavenger circled the nest with a noise that wavered between two notes and easily showed his joy. Prowl glared daggers as they howled and whistled to him. Then they stopped and seemed to be waiting for some sort of response. A couple of seconds later and Prowl just returned to his nest. They deflated and just stayed put for a time before they started to tear apart their well built nest. It was a shame really, but the next day they were building another. This one different from the other. Different design. More of this less of that kind of thing. They tried again the next morning. The excited sounds when Prowl finally emerged came Again and of course they waited Again. Prowl returned to his nest and they took their nest apart once Again to do it all over Again the next morning. Again. Again. Again. It was just a seemingly endless cycle.
However one morning they started to add little things in between their nest building. Scavenger popped up above the water and threw a shell of some sort over into Prowls tank. The noise made Prowl jet out of his nest to investigate whatever had invaded his space. He quickly noticed the pink and red shell as it sunk down slowly. He caught it and looked it over before directing his attention to the green and black mers. Scavenger made a soft sound as the others fought each other for the space against the glass that was closest to Prowl. Prowl crushed the shell in his hands and let it drop as he returned to his nest. They deflated and went back to work.
The next day they saved and threw over some of their own breakfast as some sort of offering in the afternoon. Prowl didnât touch it until Blaster came in with dinner. Prowl just dropped it out of the tank and crawled into his lap to eat what Blaster gave him as he glared at his now overly friendly neighbors. They looked like he had struck them at that. The looks on their faces were comical with how fast they went from excited to disbelief and upset. For some reason they appeared to be mildly confused on some level that Prowl would willingly jump up to meet us and lay in our laps. To build things with us and let us touch him. It made sense since they had a bit of a throw down with humans and lost one of their own, but they had stopped biting and growling at us after a while when we started feeding them and giving them their materials to build with.
On another morning they made some sort of necklace out of some underwater flowers and threw it over with a shell attached to it. Prowl looked them dead in the eye as he snapped the seaweed string and shredded the flowers. They looked heartbroken as he returned to his nest. I was starting to wonder if they were going to give up after that one. Prowl obviously wanted nothing to do with them. But the next day they had made some type of art out of some of the coral. They made smooth little round or oval like shapes from it and carved in little designs with their claws and threw them over for Prowl to inspect. Prowl had took one look at them and returned to his nest with a rather irritated expression. Whether this was putting him in a bad mood or not he was coming out his nest during the day even if it was only for a few seconds. Maybe this was good for him.
Arcee and plenty of others had wanted to look at the art including Percy and Jack. It was something that would no doubt want to be studied along with this behaviour. But when Arcee entered Prowls tank the five stopped working on their newest nest to look at her. Their scales rose slowly when Prowl came out to investigate. She wasnât even slightly bothered by Prowl as she went down to the bottom to gather and look at the scattered art stones as she was calling them. That was when they started hissing and growling. They were throwing a fit in their own tank when she started to pick them up. Prowl just followed her around and watched her curiously like he did whenever anyone entered his tank to clean it or for any other purpose.
Arcee ignored them, pet Prowl, and then pushed off the bottom to surface with the items. Prowl watched her another moment before returning to his nest despite how his neighbors were acting mere feet away. Each one had something different on them. One had what looked like a snake curling all around the coral stone, its jaws open to show fangs and a large and dangerous looking fin on its back. Another had what looked to be some sort of large underwater flower with a large amount of petals and a strange stem that split off toward the bottom. The next had a swirl of fish around it in several neat rings. Then there was one that had a forest of seagrass or some other plant with little fish and other creatures hiding within. Finally there was one that held a ship wreckage that probably was their home before they came into contact with humans. Each one was surprisingly neat and detailed. If they could make things like this then there were a lot of things that could be explained and it really opened some new doors. Did they have their own art? Could they write? Did they have their own real written language? Could people learn it? Could they learn ours?
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