#mermay request

Night is nearly upon you. The ocean is as enchanting as crystals strewn across a silken blanket. You dig your toes into the fine sand, letting it exfoliate your skin. The sky looks like a tie-dyed canopy with a gradient of netted holes puncturing it. You lay back, staring up into the stars sparkling their immortal shine just for you.

“Stop! You can’t do this!” A distressed voice shatters your tranquil relaxation. You spring up, squinting your eyes as they fight against the glare of the sun peeking over the horizon. A lone fisherman is seen reeling in not something, but someone in their net. He’s rather dismissive and rough in handling her. The poor girl he’s tormenting just wants to be set free while this man is infringing upon her right to do so.

You leap into action, leaving your recreational belongings where they are while sprinting down the few-yard stretch of the beach and to the docks. “Hey! Let that little girl go!”

You reach the fisherman just as he pulls her up. The girl is squirming and struggling to be free of the net. Although, you’re forced to stagger on your feet at the sight of a snub-nose revolver being retrieved from the fisherman’s pocket. “This ain’t no girl! She’s one of them!”

Upon closer inspection, you can see that the bottom half of her torso is composed of nautical anatomy, glistening with green scales that have patterned stripes of red and pink. She’s beautiful, but the look of horror on her face seals your plight to help her out of this bind. You might not have the power to do so now, but you will. 

“Aye! Step back!” He growls at you, threatening and abrasive such as an animal guarding its resources. “The bounty fer this catch is all mine!”

“Please! Please help me!” The girl pleads, desperately.

“Shut it!” He jostles the netting a bit and dishevels her hair, causing a tousle of blonde locks to cover her eyes just as they begin to fill with tears. 

“My mistake. I-I’m sorry sir. As you were.” You fall back, turning around and regrettably leaving that poor girl alone with that man. Though, you rely on the blind greed of the fisherman to completely disregard you as soon as you’re out of sight. From the shadows, you watch his every move. He drags the little creature onto his boat as she struggles and squirms, making it difficult for the geriatric bloat to wrangle her. He uses the butt of his revolver to smack her a couple times out of frustration, thus correcting her behavior and making it easier for him to handle her. She yelps upon impact and the sound drives a piercing dagger of fury to ripple your insides. 

Every yearly migration, the bay suffers brutally. The fish travel to warmer climates as the seasons transition and it stalls the livelihood of the locals. Bills still need paying and mouths need feeding when the fish all recede, so it drives them to outsource other means of keeping the lights on and bread on the table. Rather iniquitous means. The means of which were easily influenced by lies perpetuated against the aquatic neighbors illustrating false claims about diseases carried by them that pose a life-threatening danger to humans.

Going back for your shoes, you follow the old man as he slowly sails the perimeter of the bay until he reaches a desolate area where massive tangles of driftwood wash ashore. He is seen meeting with the one known as Hemlock, the man responsible for this decree against the citizens of the seas. The man is a dirge by some, a saving grace to others, depending on where your morals lie. 

“She’s in mighty fine condition. A young’un too.” The fisherman starts, chatty and tweaking while eager to get on Hemlock’s good side. “You think I could maybe get a little bonus for her or sumthin’?”

“Do you want a little bonus?” Hemlock retorts, looking between the fisherman and the unconscious girl resting in a saline tank as it’s being hoisted on board his personal barge via crane. “Or do you want something?”

“I uhh, would prefer the bonus sir.” The fisherman realizes that he’s overstepped, his hunchback and feeble form reigning true to the kind of deplorable person he really is.

“Well, unfortunately for you, I don’t have my checkbook on me.” Hemlock reaches into his breast pocket and brandishes an easily concealable but incredibly lethal Mauser pistol. Pulling the trigger a single time, the old man drops to the ground with a puddle of blood pouring out of the exit wound in the back of his skull. You gasp, quickly covering your mouth so as to not be heard. Hemlock takes a suspicious glance about the room, scanning thoroughly. You duck behind a large, towering basket meant to hold huge reserves of fresh fish when in season. At this time, it is empty and bone dry, not a single fish has been deposited in weeks. Hemlock shrugs the disturbance off, placing the gun back into his pocket and walking up the ramp and onto his ship. After catching your breath from having to quickly hide from view, you follow his path to stow yourself away on board.

You make it to the deck where the little girl is being kept. Her’s is the only tank occupied, but there are at least a dozen others meant to be receptacles for her kind. She has a bruise forming on her forehead where the now-deceased fisherman had struck her. With her eyes closed and resting, you can see that they are sunken, and she looks half dead. You remove the lid to the tank and try to stir her awake without scaring her.

“Come now. I’m here to help. Wake up, please…” You breach her face from the water’s surface, tapping on her cheeks to stimulate her senses a bit. When her eyes flutter, you can see that it’s working, but the sound of footsteps in the distance announces that you don’t have much time. “Yes! That’s it! Look at me! I can’t get you out of here unless you work with me a little bit.”

“F-f-fooood….” She speaks, but it’s only to communicate one word. Thankfully, it’s one you understand.

“Food? Right now?” She passes out again, falling limply in your arms before you let her drift back to the bottom of the tank. Regardless of how impeding the request is, she desperately requires sustenance if you are going to have any hope of rescue.

Replacing the lid back on the tank, you descend the ramp that leads to the ship’s deck and navigate into knee-deep waters. To your delight, you are able to quickly locate a handful of scallops, oysters and clams. The array of raw protein will surely be the perfect fuel to get the girl’s energy back up. Taking a fold-over knife from your back pocket, you shuck the bottom-feeders and discard the shells on the beach to be used by other members of the ecosystem. 

A booming foghorn resounds, and you hear the creak of chains being reeled in, pulling the barge’s anchor out of the bay. “No…”

You begin sprinting as fast as you can up the ramp, shellfish in hand. The barge is relatively slow on departure, thus granting you a grace period of a few minutes to leap onboard at the last second. With guards posted from deck to stern, you stay low, creeping back to the area where they’re keeping your new friend. You don’t know why you feel compelled to be responsible for her safety and freedom. It’s innate and primal, the need for her to be released. You will stop at nothing until that is accomplished.

Having located her, you pull the lid off the tank again and deposit the edible parts of the mollusks into the water. They float all the way down, little globs of flesh closing the distance around her face. The scent floods the water, pulling the little girl out of her weary slumber. She slurps the pieces one after the other, chewing happily with a mouth full of seafood. Her energy seems to visibly be replenished as soon as she consumes the meat. Color returns to her face and she swims rapidly, scaling the length of her tank repeatedly until she splashes water all over with displacement. Suddenly, she begins to glow, and not in the typical sense of bioluminescence. She’s glowing like a star, swirling about and causing the water in the tank to fizzle and steam. You’re startled by what you’re seeing, speculating if you should be alarmed or not. The glowing beams emitting from the tank are angelic despite the unnerving setting. You are lost in the sparking display, captivated by every second of its glimmer. Once the brightness dies down, you try to make out any image at all through the flurry of bubbles blocking sight of the contents of the tank. Suddenly, her palm is slammed up against the glass and you backstep out of fright. She scrambles for air, gasping and splashing you once more when she ascends the tank and takes in a fresh breath.

“Whew! Thank you! I am feeling much better now.” The girl exclaims joyously, as if not even phased by her current predicament. “My name is Omega. What’s yours?”

“That’s not important right now!” The steps are coming closer, the sturdy soles tapping loudly against the steel hull.  “We need to get out of here!” 

The girl begins to climb out of the tank, and you start to prepare to cradle her, but a little foot emerges out of the water followed by another. She has formed legs where her tail used to be, but her forearms, calves and cheekbones still have the raised fins protruding from her skin as well as a set of gills on either side of her neck. Shaking yourself out of your stunned trance, you think quickly and clothe her with a lab coat that has been forgotten here for a while amongst unused equipment and wares. There’s no way to hide the trail of water you’re about to leave, so you figure putting as much distance between you and Hemlock would be the best bet. 

Just as you make it out of the cargo room, blaring alarms announce your presence to all personnel aboard the ship. You look at Omega, eyes widening with panic. “Oh no.”

“Please tell me you have a skiff somewhere!” Omega pleads, gripping your shoulders with both of her scaly palms.

“Yes, just off the port bow! Only snag is…”

“What!?” She urgently inquires.

“It’s going to be a bit of a swim.” You point to a little speed boat off rocking against the waves still secured to the docks.

“Oh! That’s no problem!” Omega courageously takes your hand in hers and runs to the edge of the deck. The drop into the water is about four to maybe five meters, a large descent that you are hesitant in dismounting, but Omega’s confidence quells your worried spirit when you slowly realize that putting your trust in her will not backfire. “Get ready to jump!”

“On three.” You agree, grasping her hand tightly and climbing onto the edge. “One.”

“Two.” Omega continues and you see a group of security guards running as fast as they can in your direction.

“Three!” You exclaim in unison, leaping off and into the water. The wind whooshes past you through every millisecond you fell down felt as if you were flying. The plunge into the water was deathly cold, temperatures dropping with the evening sun. You feel your body tense up as it succumbs to the shock, unable to swim properly while struggling not to sink. What sparse light you can see peeking through the surface of the water is slowly disappearing as you descend deeper, but a sudden blinding and sparkling aura emits besides you like a flash charge. Before you know it, you’re gasping for breath and being supported by Omega as she has you perched on her back and zooming through the water. 

The salty mist of the sea welcomes you, cascading you in its cleansing shower and you begin to feel an amazed smile spread across your features. You turn your head and glance to the back of you. Peering closely into the darkened depths, you can make out a hazy silhouette of Omega’s tail squiggling beneath the surface. Her speed is remarkable, accelerating as fast as a jet ski. 

“Whoo-hoo!” You cheer, hearing your jovial screams bounce on the waves. With no one fast enough to pursue you and your new little friend, you celebrate this narrow escape and Omega reciprocates by zig-zagging her swimming path, giving you a fun little ride on the way to your skiff.

Once you reach the speedboat, you help Omega onboard and start it up. You closely follow the edge of the headland and try to reach the furthest tip of the coastal cape. As soon as you round the corner, you will be out of the whole bay and lost to the ocean. “Alright, so where do you wana go, kid?”

“There’s an island west of here, but it’s far. Can you take me to it?” Omega pleads, clutching onto a red bandana you hadn’t noticed her wearing before, what with all the intensity of the moment.

“Is that where your family is?” You ask, inputting the coordinates and diverting your course.

“Yes…” Omega sits on one of the plush seats, the upholstery yielding to her sharp fins and scales. She fidgets, tugging on the edge of the red fabric. “My brothers don’t know I went exploring.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I found you when I did then, isn’t it?” You chuckle so as to not catastrophize the gravity of her predicament. 

Omega’s head droops and she falls into a guilt-ridden whimper. Setting the boat to autopilot, you rush to her side and begin to console her. You kneel at her side to get down to her level, looking up at her from where she sits in the chair. “Hey… Don’t cry. I’ve got you. You’re safe and that’s all that matters. And if they get mad, I’ll back you up. Mkay?”

“R-really?” She sniffles, lifting her face up. 

“Of course.” You confirm, wiping a tear while gently stroking the glistening fins on her features. “Besides, I figure it’s the least I could do since you kind of saved me from drowning.”

“Haha! Yeah! You would have sunk like a rock!” Omega laughs through her pain, distracted by her heroics and the faults of your human anatomy in comparison to hers.

“Okay I wasn’t that helpless.”

Omega squints, biting her lip so as to not laugh at your expense, but she can tell you have a resilient sense of humor. 

“Yeah, I was pretty helpless.” You chuckle, allowing Omega to release her laugh. She’s so radiant when she’s happy and you wish to preserve this for as long as you can. “Come on, little one. I think I have some spare clothes that will fit.

Omega changes from her soaked lab coat and into a cozy set of blue patterned pajamas with blowfish on them. She finds humor in the smallest things, such as the expression the blowfish are making on her garments, inflated and surprised as if they would burst at any moment. She wasn’t inaccurate when she described this trip to be a long one. What is this child doing all the way out here by herself, you wonder. She grows fatigued from her travels and you direct her to a little bench at the back of the deck where she curls up on her side with a blanket and sleeps for the remainder of the commute.

“Omega?” You jostle her gently, not wanting to scare her but still wanting to stir her enough from her dreams. “Wake up. We’re here.”

She rubs her fists into her eyes, adjusting her vision and blinking the drowsiness away. She pushes the blanket off herself, steadying her stance as the boat rocks against the waves. “Home…”

“Where do you want to approach from?” You ask after giving her a moment to take in the sights.

“We live in a cave just around the other side.” Omega replies without turning around, keeping her eyes glued to the horizon. “Take me there, please?”

“You got it, kiddo” Driving her around a bit, the sky slowly transitions from a hue indistinguishable from the ocean into a more saturated and bright purple. By the time you make the jaunt around half the island, the sun is only minutes away from making its appearance.

You park the boat to continue on foot, walking along the shoreline until you reach a secluded cave mouth. “Here it is. They should be-”

“Omega!” An angered voice calls, reverberating through the cave while accompanied by the shuffling of footsteps. A group of five other merfolk emerge from the shadows, all in their amphibian appearances with similar sets of fins and scales decorating their forearms, calves and cheekbones. The one who you presume called her name reaches her first with the others all sprinting closely behind. He has long brown hair that tumbles into his face and down the nape of his neck. He has a skeletal marking across one side of his features that accentuates his own facial fame. He dives in to hug her, holding her and surveying Omega for any signs of injury. “What were you thinking just leaving without a word? You know I don’t mind where you go as long as you check in.”

“I know, Hunter, but you told me that lying is wrong, and I didn’t want to lie about where I was.” Omega hides her face between her shoulders, raising them when her guardian begins to express his worries.

“What’s this?” He moves her hair aside and she winces. “Did that bastard hurt you?”

“It was the fisherman that caught me.” She reveals to them. “And besides… Hemlock already killed him.”

“Omega, what have we told you about humans?” Another member of her family steps forward, scolding her while raising a finger to point directly at you. “And why have you brought one with you?”

“Echo, it’s okay! She’s a friend!” Omega glances behind herself to look at you, nodding her head to communicate that she has things under control. “She saved me.”

“Saved you?” The next member steps forward, a formal and poised individual with hair slicked back by a pair of lemon-lensed goggles. He adjusts his eyewear in query, before speaking again. “Saved you from what exactly.”

“Tech, please just-” 

“You were captured by bounty hunters, weren’t you?” Tech’s assumption is correct and the shock travels through the family but impacts the tallest and most formidable-looking member the most.

“Omega, we could have lost you!” He advances towards her, picking her up and squeezing her tightly in a hug, a single tear falling from the ducts of his false eye and down the scarred ridges of his face. “I am so glad you’re okay!”

“I know, Wrecker.” Omega hugs him back, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Yes, because that’s all that matters, right?” You reiterate your statement from before, speaking in defense of Omega just as promised. “And trust me, she was worse off with the other set of humans if I hadn’t come along.”

“It was awful, Hunter...” Omega clings to her brother, unloading all her grief onto him and letting herself be supported by his gracious devotion. “They talked about what they were going to do to me… What they’ve done to others like us before…”

“She was taken by the Scientist.” The fifth and final person joins the commotion. He’s sullen and stoic, hardened by his past and burdened by a history you presume he has with this Doctor Hemlock. “You are lucky, kid.”

“Crosshair is right.” Echo chimes in before moving to address you. “Is there any chance he may have followed you two?”

“We were traveling all night, and I didn’t see anyone.” You confirm. “I disabled my transponder and kept all the lights off. We were ghosts.”

“A small, short sight on your part, my dear. Ghosts can still be hunted.” That same pretentious voice you heard on the beach comes through the cave’s chambers. He is accompanied by two other members of his personal security with their net guns pointed directly at you and your new colleagues. “Hi there. Didn’t think you’d see me again so soon, did you?”

“Omega, get behind Hunter.” Crosshair can see the advantage in putting distance between Hemlock’s most recent catch and him, ensuring her safety is at the forefront.

Everyone is frozen in place, unable to rationalize just what actions they should take next. You’re pinned between a rock and a hard place, but you notice an advantage in outnumbering your enemies. When Wrecker puts Omega back down, Omega steps back as per Crosshair’s orders and she grabs your hand tightly, squeezing it a couple times to get your attention. You shift your eyes to her, and she gives you a nod. She then communicates this nonverbal gesture to the remainder of her family, gripping your hand tighter. There seems to be some form of coordinated scheme coming into play and you go all in on your involvement, awaiting any cues they give you and obeying them as commandments. 

“Now, what have we here? An entire school of disgusting fish to fill my nets.” He raises his hand in signal for his guards to deploy the restraints, taking one last moment to boast. “I’m going to enjoy putting your heads on my mantle.”

“Are you the one who’s been taking my people?” Hunter instigates, angrily raising his voice. “Picking us apart and experimenting on us like we’re some kind of monster?”

“The real monsters are the diseases you spread to all of mankind!” Hemlock yells back spitting his lies as if it were gospel. “I’m doing the world a favor by eradicating the likes of you from this planet. Permanently.”

“That’s a myth and you know it!” Crosshair joins the argument alongside his brother, He reveals the absence of his right hand from beneath a woven poncho. “This is the price I paid for your research. Many others weren’t as fortunate, and you made sure of it.”

“Ah, Crosshair. I remember you.” He grins arrogantly. “One of the only few to escape if I recall. Seems she takes after your strong spirit. How quaint.”

With a wave of his arm, the nets fire but Omega brings you to follow her lead in dropping to the floor and out of the path of the net. Her steadfast agility coupled with the efficiency of her family gives everyone a chance to easily dodge and depart in their own defensive strategies as per the order of Hunter. “Plan seventy-two, now!”

Wrecker advances towards the troops that are struggling to load another net to be fired, tackling them both and crushing them with his weight. They are swiftly incapacitated, and Wrecker begins dragging them towards the back of the cave. This distraction allows the others to split up through various maze-like pathways in the cave, Omega yanking you to your feet and sprinting as fast as possible. After running for a while, all channels lead to a pond hidden from the light of day and Omega leaps into it. She transforms into her natural state, and urges you to join her, but your lack of gills makes confronting an unknown body of water rather daunting, what with the shock of cold you’re not properly equipped to bear. “Come on! Hemlock is on our tail!” 

“Don’t take another step.” Hemlock orders you, his own loaded sidearm pointed at your back with his gloved finger on the trigger. “Tell me where they are and maybe I’ll think about sparing your life. You’ll be working for me, of course.”

“Please.” You plead with him. He hasn’t noticed Omega in the water, so you turn your back to the pond and raise your hands. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Do you know what these creatures are worth?” He argues, as if riches are enough of a reason for his sins. He walks closer, raising his arm and pointing the gun at your forehead instead “I can pay your weight in gold for a single fin.”

“No amount of money is worth their lives.” You stand your ground, denying his nefarious offers. “Plus, they all jumped into the water. If you want them, you’ll have to look for them yourself.”

“Stop lying to me.” Hemlock agitatedly says, stepping forward and pressing the muzzle of his pistol to your skin. “Just tell me where they are.”

“I’m not lying. They’re in the water. Just look.” With your arms still raised, you urge Hemlock to peer into the darkened pool with a point of your fingers.

Hemlock’s sick obsession with the merfolk overrides his course of logic, playing directly into your trap. The pitch darkness of the water cloaks the pond in a shroud of mystery as Hemlock walks closer to the edge. He keeps his pistol trained on you while staring deep into the depths. Then, comes a gleaming shimmer of ethereal bursts of light. Each person’s transformation emits a different glow until a rainbow of colors brightly illuminate the pond. Hemlock is too captured by the otherworldly visions he is witnessing, slowly lowering his sidearm in distraction and granting you the space you need to execute your final move. 

Hemlock is bent over the edge of the pond now, concentrating on the fading emissions of light as they turn into softly lit ridges of bioluminescent fins announcing their presence. Six pairs of eyes open and make visual contact with Hemlock’s, and in this instance, he falls victim to his ambitions.

He gasps out of fright as soon as he makes out what he is looking at. He stumbles backward and into your grasp where you smack the pistol out of his hand, falling in a clatter against the rocky floor. Hitching your leg behind both of his, you buckle his knees, and he collapses, dexterously pushing him into the water. He swims to the surface, coughing and splashing in surprise of what just happened. The pond is a good foot or so from the cave floor’s edge and covered with the slick slime of aquatic algae that oxidizes and rehydrates cyclically with the tides. You watch him struggle, choking and gagging when he accidentally gets a mouthful of seawater. 

“I’ll - ack- ack- I’ll have your head for this! - ack-” He calls to you, still struggling to keep his head up.

“You really like to bandy that threat around, huh?” You rhetorically jibe. He looks pathetic, filling his role as the truly helpless one here. His hair is a mess, falling in thick strands and sticking to his head. He looks up at you with a seething rage. “By the way, you should be more concerned about your head, Doctor.”

The confusion in his face is more satisfying than you expected. A tug on his foot pulls him downward. Panic spreads like a disease and infects him entirely as his struggles for breath morph into prompt hyperventilation before the next few yanks cause him to scream.

Hemlock’s gargled yells resound with each dunk below the surface when he feels that the viscous tugs on his form are the initial rippings to an oncoming feeding frenzy. “Get me out of here! NOW!”

“Oooh… Yeah, sorry. Can’t do that.” You step away, folding your arms over your chest. “I know better than to come between merfolk and their breakfast. I suppose that you didn’t find that out in your research. What a shame.”

“You can’t do this to me!” He cries, rageful dread now taking its possessive hold. His speech transitions to the gargled yells again when the water around him begins to splash, dragging him back and forth as this little school of merfolk starts sideswiping him in a calculated craze. “Please! P-please, I can - ack - pay you!”

“Like I said the first time, no amount of money is worth their lives.” In this closing remark, Hemlock’s shrieks get drowned out by a violent throttle of splashing laps of waves tossing him in all directions. His arms flail in tandem with his horrifying battle, depositing droplets of water onto the cave floor where they soak into your shoes. You’re intimidated by the sheer power of this family as a unit, ripping him apart little by little at astronomical speeds. In no time at all, they’ve pulled him under, and you witness a surge of bright red bubbles painting the once black water in a hue of death. You knew what was coming when you pushed Hemlock into the water, but you are still shocked at the severity of your actions when seeing them firsthand. You still feel he deserves this. You remain resolute in your self-assurance, but this incredible display leaves you all the more grateful that these aquatic individuals are your allies.

In minutes, Hemlock’s skeleton is picked clean of its flesh where it will become a buffet to the bottom feeders. One by one, your new friends show themselves by peeking their finned faces out of the water. 

“I suppose Omega was right when she said to trust you.” Hunter tells you while floating with his little sister in his arms. “We thank you for bringing her back home to us.”

“And for the meal too!” Wrecker exclaims while licking the blood off his lips. “It’s been a while since we ate that good.”

“Manners, Wrecker…” Echo scolds him as Crosshair jabs an unseen elbow into Wrecker’s ribs under the water.

“I believe it would be safe to say that you’ve done far more than reunite us with our little sister.” Tech swims closer, reaching the edge to increase the sincerity in his voice. “We’ve been keeping tabs on the Scientist since our population started losing its numbers.” 

“With the mastermind spearheading his operation eliminated, we might just have a chance at coexisting with other humans.” Echo swims forward as well, agreeing with his brother.

“I will do all that I can to set the record straight and abolish the merfolk bounties. I promise.” You lay on your chest, reaching down with your hand off the edge in order to shake theirs.

“We know you will.” Tech takes your hand first, shaking it with a firm grip followed by Echo, then Hunter and finally Wrecker and Crosshair. 

“You put your life on the line to bring Omega back to us, and we will forever be in your debt.” Hunter adds, holding Omega just a little closer, but she begins to struggle in his arms when she sees you stand up to get ready to leave.

“Wait!” She descends deep into the pond as she twirls and spins to accelerate her speed enough to breach out of the water. 

“Omega!” Hunter scolds her as she lands with a flop, quickly dragging herself on her elbows towards you until she throws herself atop you in an informal embrace. Hunter calms down when he sees that she’s only giving you a good-bye hug, not knowing when or if your paths may cross in the future.

“You never told me what your name was…” She begins to stifle a cry, knowing that separation is upon you. She’s grown so attached to you in this singular pivotal night in her life, hoping to see you again. 

“What do you think my name is?” You ask, allowing her to soak you with her drenched little form.

“Diell.” She tells you, resting her head on your chest and wrapping her tail around your legs. “You look like a Diell.”

“Oh yeah, and what’s that mean?” 

“I heard once that it means sun.” Omega smiles and you feel the collective joy radiating from her hug as well as the other sets of eyes watching you show such tender care to their sister. Having been given every reason to hate your kind, they soften when they see you’re just as protective over Omega as they are. “And you’re very warm… like the sun.”

“Then you can call me Diell.” You smile at her, hugging her back while making sure you aren’t poked by her dorsal fins or scratched by her scales. “Nice to properly make your acquaintance, Omega.”

“Do you have to go?” She beckons with a pitiful plea in her voice. “I don’t want you to.”

“Don’t smother our guest, Omega.” Hunter begins, apologizing on her behalf. “We’re not like humans, remember?” 

“Yeah, they have houses with doors and a fence and… whatever else a human house consists of.” Wrecker inputs, but it doesn’t make Omega feel any better, her face growing increasingly more dejected by the second.

“I’ll tell you what,” you negotiate, “I know where to find you. How ‘bout I come and visit every now and again?”

“You’d do that?!” She asks in disbelief. 

“As long as you’ll have me.” You say, looking to the rest for approval.

“Yes, of course we will!” Omega squeals, happily flopping beside where you sit on the rocky cave floor. 

“Come on, little one. Time to put you back in the water.” You lift Omega up, holding her in your arms as you inch to the edge. She gives you one last parting hug before leaping from your grasp and plunging into the pond with her brothers. “I’ll come back before you know it.”

“We’ll hold you to that.” Hunter reaches his hand out to you for a final shake as his brothers nod approvingly at you. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t.” You conclude, waving goodbye to Omega as she swims to the furthest point of the pond. You watch as they disappear into the depths, once there and now gone. You have a long boat ride ahead of you if you want to make it back home before another sundown, so you retrace your steps through the cave and back to your skiff on the beach. 

The tropical morning sun is beating down on you as exhaustion of your endeavors sets in. You look around the beach and notice a larger, more heavily equipped boat is parked beside yours. Hemlock sure likes to ride in style and leaving it here to be taken by the elements would be a deplorable fate for such a vessel.

You climb aboard and initiate the boat’s throttle, pulling away from the shoreline and turning yourself back around in the direction of the mainland. You’re only pushing a few kilometers away from the island when a repetitive splashing breaks your concentration on your course. Looking from side to side, you see a green blur leaping from the water’s surface and gaining momentary flight before splashing back down. Then another one of a different color, orange. You take notice of another one in blue, yellow, red, and teal. Soon you realize that they have followed you for a proper marine goodbye, meeting your eyes with a wave every time they breach the ocean’s surface.

The feeling is exhilarating, seeing them swim so fast and strong. Their blurs of sparkling colorful scales glint brighter than the waves. In this chase, they all start to release a guttural resonance that resembles the songs of whales. It’s a blessing to see their magnificence for your very eyes, cheering and whooping all over the deck of Hemlock’s boat. They continue for a while longer until you lose visibility of the island, then they disappear. However, their songs continue, traveling to enchant you across the waves as you make your way back all the way home.

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