And as she brought that hand away from her face, Alice realized  with cold dread that there were dozens of tiny bees crawling around lethargically in Melly’s hand. They were unable to fly, covered in thick phlegm and blood. Melly’s blood.

A bee crawled out of the Entomologist’s mouth and over her face, the corners of her lips still dripping. She seemed unfazed– no, it was as if there was thin film covering her eyes, casting them in a strange haze.

Alice’s breath was growing short. She couldn’t even bring herself to say anything, cold dread seeping into her bones. The cold tile floor felt as if it were to give way below her. Revulsion and concern and horror swelled in her chest in a horrible cacophony. She felt a terrible, terrible, terrible urge to slap those filthy insects out of Melly’s hand. But what would happen? Would the bees simply fall to the ground? Would they continue to stick to the Entomologist’s sticky glove? How would the woman even respond? Would she even respond in this state of hers? Surely she would. Surely. Surely. 

Frozen in place, she watched as with a gentle finger, the Entomologist nudged the bees away from the thicker pools of blood and phlegm in her hand. She let out a barely audible breath into her palm over the crawling insects. They never left her palm, continuing to crawl around, now a bit more lively. If Alice’s eyes weren’t deceiving her, they were beginning to make some kind of strange pattern in Melly’s hand, a familiar design. In a somewhat distant voice, the Entomologist attempted reassurance, still staring into her palm with a distant gaze. “I’m alright, Miss Lamb.”

Shakily, Alice whispered. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing.”

“Mrs. Plinius, he was holding a rag to your mouth.”

“To stop the bees from escaping.”

Her heart stopped. “What?”

“Now what do we have here?” The two women looked up towards the dining hall door– it was the Faro Lady. “Miss Lamb, I was looking for–” Miss Mora’s eyes flickered upon the Entomologist, her mouth still dripping. Her face blanched, eyes growing before narrowing in concern. She carried her cane under her arm as she hurried over, asking, “What happened? Mrs. Plinius, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“Far from it, if the blood on your face is of any significance.” Now close enough to the two women to see what was in the Entomologist’s hands, Miss Mora suddenly balked. “Good heavens. Are those–”

Though her feelings towards her were complicated, the sight of her former mentor now put the Journalist slightly at ease. “I came here and found Mrs. Plinius being restrained by Mr. Orpheus and–” Suddenly, Alice stood up.

The Faro Lady placed a gentle hand on Alice’s arm. “Dear, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Orpheus. Where is he?”

The Entomologist didn’t look up as she said rather dispassionately. “Miss Lamb, I’ve already made it clear that the Novelist did not mean any harm.”

“I sent him away for water, but he should be back by now.” For the first time in a long time, she found herself turning to Miss Mora with pleading eyes. “Please, would you watch over Mrs. Plinius while I look for him? I swear that I’ll–”

She was interrupted with a loud sigh. The Faro Lady shook her head. “Your first mistake was hurrying off by yourself after the meeting without a word. Your second was simply letting that man leave after seeing him do such a thing to this poor woman, a dear friend of yours. You let your sentiments get in the way of apprehending him. And you know the dangers of that well enough.”

Alice’s heart sank again, but fluttered again as the Faro Lady knelt down on the floor, smoothing her coat as she sat. Carefully, she opened the lid of her cane’s head and a faint but delicate scent began to fill the air. The Journalist did not fail to notice Melly’s shoulders slowly shifting as if she were gaining more awareness. Though she spoke with an urgent tone, Evelyn returned Alice’s anxiety with a smile. “Your third was to assume I’d say ‘no’ to one of my pupils. Now, find him. And hurry back.”

The Journalist nodded, clasping her hands in front of her. “Thank you. Thank you!” And quickly, she hurried off.

Wherever Orpheus was, Alice would find him.

And she’d get her answers to all of his strange and cruel behavior.

One brief glance in the kitchen told the Journalist all she needed to know: the Novelist had not been there. Stay calm. I can find him. “But where…” The cellar perhaps?

But hurrying back past Evelyn and Melly in the dining room and to the secret cellar in the parlor proved to be fruitless. It didn’t even appear to have been used recently, the restraining chair in the corner gathering dust, making the situation even more odd. If Orpheus was truly planning something sinister, where was he conducting his activities? And where has he gone now? There was nowhere to really hide in the Eternal Manor. Unless…

He went outside?

To try to escape the manor altogether?

There was only one way to find out. And if Alice’s memory served her correctly, there was a secret passage to get outside of the Oletus Manor of her childhood in the greenhouse, just by the kitchen. The Eternal Manor was practically a near perfect replica of Alice’s childhood home, though with a few more identical floors to house all of its ‘guests’. It certainly still held some of those secret passages, though Alice herself had no reason to seek them out during her stay until now. The real question was whether or not there was still an ‘outside’ when there were no games to be played.

But there was no time for Alice to hesitate or wonder about whether or not she’d be in a plane of existence once she left the Eternal Manor’s walls. She had to find Orpheus. She had to try.

With galvanized resolve, Alice climbed out of the musty cellar and practically ran for the greenhouse. It was empty; it seemed Emma the Gardener hadn’t returned yet from the survivors’ meeting. Quickly, Alice found the secret passage, tucked away behind a patch of sunflowers. With one hand on her camera and a deep breath, she slipped in and began to walk forward into the cold, cramped darkness.

And just as quickly as she had entered, the Journalist was suddenly outside with no memory of having exited the passage. One moment she was walking blindly in the dark, trusting the passage to lead her forward to the outside; the next, she was walking through the woods.

The sensation was only slightly disorientating, similar to when she sat in the lobby hall waiting for games to begin before hearing a loud crash and waking up in the playing field. Only this time, there was no loud shattering of glass or waking up on the cold hard ground. She blinked and suddenly there were trees.

It might have been the Darkwoods that matches were sometimes held in. But something felt…different. The frigid chill pressed violently through the Journalist’s coat, forcing her to wrap her arms around herself. There was no moon or stars, just a grim haze blanketing the woods. The trees felt taller and more densely packed together, as if trying to prevent the Journalist from walking any further. The barren trees clawed at the dark void above her head, their branches so thickly tangled together they could have formed their own ceiling. When she let out a nervous exhale, she could faintly see her breath in front of her.

She could see? Looking around, Alice realized that the stone she had put into her pocket and entirely forgotten about was now glowing with a bright violet light, a spark of light in the near impenetrable darkness. She quickly took it out, narrowing her eyes to adjust to the sudden bright light. It was humming gently, a comforting sensation.

“Now that I think about it,” she muttered, “It might have been an unwise idea to leave without bringing any light source with me.” Even on the most grim and grey of battlefields, one was usually able to see where they were going in the manor games. With a small smile, Alice squeezed the stone in her palm. “It looks like I’ll have to be counting on you, Norton.”

It was a bit ironic wasn’t it? The gift Norton had given Alice was being used, the one that Orpheus had told her to get rid of, was now being used to find Orpheus. This was a terrible idea. There was no way for her to actually track Orpheus. She would be wandering through the dark with nothing but a rock to guide her way. But maybe with some luck, Alice would find him. Maybe she’d even find Norton, or Mike or Joker. Maybe they were also beyond the manor’s walls…

There was no way to direct the light of the stone, so Alice merely held her hand out in front of her to light her way as she walked through the woods. The silence reminded her of that nightmare she had just a few nights ago. There were no harsh spotlights, no birdcages, but somehow this darkness was beginning to feel even more oppressing. She recalled a comment Norton had made that night.

“Don’t forget your candle on the table there. Would be a waste to let it burn out. And I hate the damned dark too.”

“Might I ask why?”

“Tsk. Well, maybe it’s more like…I don’t like cold, dark, cramped places. It all just reminds me of those caves. And how I could die at any moment if I didn’t keep a decent head on my shoulders.”

Alice shuddered. She understood the Prospector a bit more now. The woods that were typically so open felt like they were trying to snuff out all of Alice’s light. As if in response to her worries, the stone hummed a bit more urgently and glowed a bit more brightly. “Thank you,” she murmured, her voice cutting through the silence.

And distantly, she was responded to with a raven’s loud croaking.

The sound was so sudden and surprising, Alice spun around wildly in an attempt to locate the source of the sound. The raven croaked again, and this time, the Journalist determined the direction of the sound. With no other leads, she hurried off in that direction. The stone in her hand began to hum more and more urgently. Alice’s feet pounded against the forest floor as she pushed her way through, shoving away branches and brambles and thorns, nearly slipping on the ground more than once. Her breath was growing short with how quickly and how recklessly she was running forward.

But with every step she took, it seemed the raven’s croaking was growing fainter and fainter. Its cries were growing more and more desperate, and a horrible feeling of powerlessness threatened to bring Alice to a stop. She had to keep going. She had to keep chasing it. It was all so absurd. But this was her only lead. To Orpheus. To answers. Where was he? Where was he? 

But why did this all feel like some horrible, horrible nightmare?

All of a sudden, a horrible shriek pierced the air. The raven had let out one long horrible shriek, and it was its final cry. The raven’s noises stopped. The woods were silent once again, now unsettlingly more quiet.

Alice clenched the stone in her fist tightly, the light barely able to peek through her fingers. Her cheeks were flushed. A tightness was welling up in her chest. Tears pricked her eyes, which she quickly brushed away. As she did so, her hand naturally fell to her lips. With a shuddering breath and without a second thought, she was biting her curled finger. She was unable to draw blood through her glove, but that familiar sensation of her teeth clenched on her scarred fingers was enough to completely bring her to her knees. She couldn’t stop.

It was horrible. A clue dangled in front of her as she ran near-blindly through the dark. And it was suddenly snatched away from her. She was in the middle of who knows where with nothing but her camera and a stone in her hand. What if she couldn’t get back to the manor? Would anyone think to go outside to find her? But she wouldn’t want anyone to throw themself into the same situation she had gotten herself into.

If she stayed determined enough, if she just kept going, maybe she’d find a way. She couldn’t give up. She absolutely could not give up.

But if only she hadn’t let Orpheus simply run away. If only she hadn’t wasted so much time. She could have figured out what he was doing with Melly. What he had done to her. And maybe she could have itched that horrible suspicion that he had something to do with Norton’s disappearance.

“Norton…”

The pained expression the Prospector left her with flashed through her mind. Their last terse argument. What she withheld from him. Of what he had become that night and completely forgotten about. Her breath caught in her throat.

And she cried.

Those breathless sobs she tried to suppress by gnawing at her finger continued to break out. Tears ran down her face freely, blurring her vision. But there was nothing else to bother looking at aside from the trees, the camera at her side, and the stone in her hand.

You’re braver than a nightingale. 

Such silly words from her childhood. She wasn’t just brave. She was reckless. And when she fixed her attention on one thing, she failed to notice anything else, or even the more pressing matters at hand. It was so strange. She had been so fixated on checking on Melly that she had failed to pursue the walking mystery– the surefire culprit– that was Orpheus. And she had realized all too late that she had sent him away. And now so determined to find him, she gave no second thought to what lay beyond the manor or how she would get back, should she even find him.

Oh, God. What have I done? I’m such a fool.

Continuing to cry, Alice didn’t notice as the glowing stone began to vibrate more and more intensely. She didn’t notice as a rumble came from deep in the forest. She didn’t notice a twin pair of lights glinting at her in the distance. But she did notice when the stone in her hand flew from her hand. And she especially noticed when it joined a large pickaxe that flew past her head into the tree behind her with a sharp crunching of wood.

Alice dropped her finger from her mouth with a sharp gasp, frozen in place.

Why was this scene familiar?

And the pickaxe trembled a bit before flying back past her head into the dark. The destabilized ground shook violently, leading Alice to bump her head into a nearby tree. She cried out a bit and grabbed her head.

Oh yes. Something like this has happened before.

But it should be impossible.

But it wasn’t just a few nights before.

She heard him before she saw him, his footsteps loud and heavy, causing the forest floor to shake. She had all the time to run away and hide. That was what she should have done given her history with him. But she was too tired. She had so many things to fear, but he wasn’t one of those things. (Right?)

Still, when that face with the ever crooked grin and messy mop of black hair appeared, visible by the light of his pickage and a glowing white eye, she had to repress a shudder. Jerkily, the rest of his body emerged from the darkness. He was far taller than the Prospector, but he shared the man’s piercings, the tie around the neck, and the miner’s shirt (now ripped to near shreds). And the scarring across his face, now calcified stone.

The first time Alice had seen the hunter she had taken to calling ‘Fool’s Gold’, she was under the effects of the manor’s hallucinogenetic drug. That vision of a man made of stone wielding a magnetic pickaxe was just a by-product summoned by her stress and fright in the woods. But that hunter wasn’t actually real. ‘Fool’s Gold’ was just a drug-induced hallucination of Norton in a different form at the end of the day, though Alice would have preferred their first encounter not to have been one of him chasing her through the woods with a pickaxe.

It shouldn’t have been possible to see him without the drugs. And (as far as she knew) Alice hadn’t been drugged recently. She hadn’t seen Fool’s Gold since being sent to the Eternal Manor.

Until recently, that is.

She had seen him the night she and Norton had slept together in her room. How ‘Fool’s Gold’ came to be made no sense to Alice though. It was all so sudden and strange, she convinced herself and Norton that it was just a strange dream.

But here was ‘Fool’s Gold’ again. Right in front of her.

Was it just her own mind playing cruel tricks on her? She made a fist as if closing her fingers around Norton’s gifted stone. But the stone was really gone from her hand. The ‘Fool’s Gold’ in front of her was…real?

“Mr. Campbell? Norton? Is that really you?”

Fool’s Gold said nothing, merely looming over the Journalist. His body jerked, the stones rearranging themselves as he tilted his head at her. Was he…also confused? Curious? He was certainly much calmer than the last time she had seen him.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, standing up. Good grief, she wasn’t even half his height.

The stones of his left hand flew towards her face. On instinct, Alice flinched. But to her surprise, they stopped just a few inches from her face, reformed in the rough shape of a hand. As if facing a wild animal, she didn’t breathe. And the hand gave her a small flick in the forehead. If the hand were made of flesh, it wouldn’t have been that bad. But given the fact the hand was made of magnetic rocks, it hurt maybe just a bit more.

The Journalist yelped, hands flying to her forehead. Fool’s Gold let out something like a chuckle, the sound a bit sinister as the woman quickly checked to make sure she wasn’t bleeding. To her surprise, she didn’t even have a scratch. In bewilderment and a bit of annoyance, she looked up. “Now what was that all about?”

The stones of the rock hand flew up, spinning around in a bit of a dance before rejoining with the rest of Fool’s Gold’s body. He pointed off into the distance behind Alice. She followed his gaze. Though her eyes had certainly adjusted a bit to the darkness, still she saw nothing but darkness and fog. She turned back to him, and he pointed to her, then with his fingers, mimed a person walking before pointing off into the distance again.

“Is that…the direction of the manor?” He grinned at her. She frowned. “But I can’t leave yet. I’m looking for Orpheus. Have you seen him around here?”

A dark scowl screwed up the hunter’s face, and the ground around him rumbled dangerously.

“That wasn’t a ‘no’.”

He shook his head, readjusting and tightening his grip on his pickaxe.

“I can’t leave without him.” The ground shuddered more violently this time, making Alice stumble forward. She was getting lightheaded. The air felt different somehow. A vague memory from her research on the mines…odorless gases…dangerous…

“Please. Just tell me where he is.” Another thought crossed her mind, a clarification. “I’m not leaving you behind either. We can all head back together. I have questions to ask the both of you.”

She didn’t have time to react when he threw his pickaxe, perfectly catching her coat. The pickaxe pulled her backwards off her feet before pinning her against a tree behind her some distance away, the bark hard, cold, and rough.

The shock of pain shot up her body, near unbearable as white flashed in front of her eyes. Dimly, Alice could make out Fool’s Gold body twitching in the distance, a sight discomfiting.

With an outstretched hand towards his pickaxe, he flew himself towards her, grabbing his weapon and yanking it out of the tree with little effort, letting her drop to the unstable forest floor. Barely able to move, Alice gathered her breath, terrified to look up. But her curiosity and concern got the better of her as Fool’s Gold crouched down next to her. She met his eyes.

Regret and fury battled on his face, neither expression remaining on his face for long. She could feel the air around them grow colder every time that blinding anger twisted his face into a bitter expression. But every time he seemed to have doubts, some regret, his brows were furrowed together. It almost looked like he was…pleading with her.

“Norton. I’m not leaving you here alone. We’re all leaving this place and going back to the manor  together.” Slowly, he reached a hand out. Wincing a bit, she held up a hand and gently held his as best she could. His expression seemed to ease a bit. “But I can’t leave without Orpheus.” His stones grumbled again, and suddenly, a thought crossed Alice’s mind. Was the reason he was so angry….

Before she could think better of it, she asked, “Did Orpheus do this to you?”

To Alice’s surprise, Fool’s Gold didn’t fly into a rage. He didn’t try to pin her against the wall again. Instead, a blank expression fell upon his face.

“Did he not?”

Fool’s Gold drew his hand away. Narrowing his eyes, he scratched his head. He shook his head, letting out a confused rumble.

“You don’t…know?”

He shrugged.

“Well that’s…something.” Now it was Alice’s turn to be at a loss. “But he’s been acting so suspiciously. There isn’t anyone else it could be. The owner of the Manor perhaps? But that still doesn’t explain what Orpheus did to Mrs. Plinius…”

The hunter cocked his head at the mention of the Entomologist. The Journalist quickly explained, “I saw him holding a rag to her mouth. She said it was to keep the bees from crawling out of her mouth.”

That only seemed to confuse Fool’s Gold more (though Alice couldn’t quite blame him for that reaction). But a curious expression did cross his face. Suddenly, his hand flew to Alice’s mouth.

“Mrpf–” Quickly, she shoved him away. “No! Absolutely not!” Despite everything, she couldn’t bring herself to be afraid of Fool’s Gold. She trusted Norton, and while ‘Fool’s Gold’ was certainly more aggressive than the Prospector she had spent the past year with, this was still Norton. He was in there somewhere. And if he was, then he was certainly getting a bit on her nerves now. “We’re not doing that again. What on earth would you do that for?”

The hunter mimed a monocle over his right eye, then performed the suffocating motion once again, this time on himself. Alice narrowed her eyes. “Did…Orpheus do the same to you?”

Rather unhelpfully, he shrugged and tapped his head. Maybe. Hard to remember.

“Is that why you don’t want to help me find him?”

Fool’s Gold grumbled, his hands gesturing wildly.

“Something difficult to articulate without words?”

Almost child-like, he kicked the ground with a pout. The Journalist sighed, sitting down. This was too much to wrap her head around. Suddenly, the ground shuddered as Fool’s Gold plopped down next to her. Goodness, He was still well above her seated height. Alice coughed and looked forward into the darkness, trying to ignore the holes Fool’s Gold was boring into her with his very pointed stare.

Orpheus was doing something strange. And Norton was silenced as Fool’s Gold, unable to speak of what happened. The image of the bloody bees crossed Alice’s mind again and she shuddered. Was he trying to do something to Melly as well?

A large stone patted her head, jolting her. She looked up. The expression of concern on Fool’s Gold’s face was quickly replaced by that crooked grin. The Journalist sighed, but a gentle smile played at her lips. “What on earth am I to do with you…” At least she wasn’t alone. 

She couldn’t leave him here. And she couldn't leave Orpheus behind either. Despite everything, he was a friend, a very complicated friend. And she needed answers.

“Norton, I heard some ravens earlier. Did you hear them?”

He frowned.

“There’s practically no noise in these woods, you almost certainly heard them.”

The rocks shuddered with a sigh, and he nodded. The Journalist had a hunch. “Norton,” she asked, “You didn’t say that you hadn’t seen Orpheus earlier. Were you responsible for the ravens going quiet?”

Now he almost seemed to roll his eyes, like a child getting caught in some mischief, or as if she were stating the obvious. He raised an eyebrow. What do you think?

The Journalist stood up. “Is there a particular reason why you don’t want me to see him? You didn’t hurt him at all, did you?”

At this, the hunter laughed. Loudly. The stones that made up his body began to fall apart. Alice reached out a hand, but there was no need. He quickly began to reassemble himself. With his hands he mimed something once again: BOOM! And he laughed again, body threatening to fall apart. The Journalist’s concern for the well-being of the Novelist was quickly growing. At the back of her mind, she could almost hear Norton’s voice, all that he couldn’t say now with words: That stuffy Novelist got well-what he deserved.

Without a second thought, Alice grabbed the hunter’s right hand, the one not currently falling apart from laughing. “I’m taking you both back with me.” 

Alice stumbled forward as Fool’s Gold pulled his hand away suddenly. She turned to look at him. His body was crooked again. There was no smile on his face. Only an angry glare. The ground trembled beneath them. It didn’t stop.

“Norton, I’m not arguing with you about this. I want all of us to make it back to the manor.”

The hunter gestured wildly around them. The endless trees. The darkness. No sense of direction. No hint as to where the manor even was.

“We can find a way back together.”

Suddenly, his left hand flew out towards her again, easily grabbing her arm. With a yelp, Alice struggled as he pulled the stones back to the rest of his body, the two of them practically chest to chest. His calcified body wasn’t completely uncomfortable, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. And that wasn’t even factoring the gaping hole in his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her some distance above the ground and pinning her to his body. It was somewhat a protective embrace, though she could barely move or breathe. But there was another underlying message to this encounter.

Mine.

Heavens, the jumble of feelings in Alice’s chest and the flush that was surely on her face was not something she wanted to address at the moment. We’re going to have to talk about this. Later.

With sudden clarity, Alice remembered the pocket camera folded away next to her. If she were outside the manor, perhaps it would work like it did in the matches…Wiggling her arms a bit, she managed to grab the camera and open it. Fool’s Gold didn’t seem to notice, too busy hugging Alice. And wasting not a moment, Alice intuitively adjusted the angle to ‘rescuing’, found the shutter button and pressed it.

Another bright light suddenly filled the woods and a young boy with a green sweater and newscap on his head appeared. With sudden surprise quickly turned to anger, the hunter dropped the Journalist to the ground and summoned his pickaxe, making to swipe at the boy. But he was just a moment too slow, and the boy ran off into the woods. Quickly regathering herself, Alice followed the boy.

And Fool’s Gold gave chase.

Alice didn’t look back. She had learned better than to do that (at least, not too often). Instead, still slightly lightheaded from being nearly hugged to death and thrown against trees, she stumbled forward, urging her legs to keep moving, shoving aside branches that grabbed and clawed at her clothes, and chasing the illusion in front of her.

The Journalist wasn’t too sure where the boy was going or how long it would take for the illusion to disappear. He was currently her only source of light, the shimmering boy slightly aglow. But considering the illusion was able to work in the first place, they couldn’t have been far from Orpheus at all.

But the hunter wasn’t too far behind her either. There weren’t palettes to overturn or barriers to jump over in these woods. But there were large branches that Alice jumped over, successfully helping her put more distance between her and Fool’s Gold.

Alice’s ears caught the quiet whirling sound quickly approaching behind her. She ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding Norton’s pickaxe as it flew inches from her face and landed into a tree next to her. She didn’t stop running, eyes fixed on the slightly shimmering boy in front of her. If they didn’t find Orpheus soon, the illusion would surely disappear and she’d be running blindly into the darkness. But luckily…

“Orpheus!”

There he was! Lying unconscious against a tree that looked like it had been struck several times by something sharp. Even in the distance and the dim light, Alice could see his face was bloodied and his hair a complete mess. His monocle lay shattered next to him. Several pens and his notebook also lay scattered about. Several pages were torn out. The illusion quickly disappeared upon reaching him.

The Novelist groaned a bit. At least he wasn’t dead. The ground began to rumble loudly. A piece of rock suddenly raised from the air, glowing with a familiar purple light. It trembled a bit briefly before collapsing, causing the earth to shudder. Alice stumbled, and Orpheus’s head drooped forward at an angle slightly painful to look at. Without wasting a moment, Alice picked up Orpheus’ notebook and a handful of pens before wrapping her arm under his and lifting him to his feet, struggling with the weight of the unconscious man and her own lightheadedness.

“Orpheus. Orpheus. Wake up! We have to go!”

The man didn’t respond. Alice tried to remain calm. But seeing him in this state was not helping her ease her growing panic.

The ground trembled. Two red pinpricks of light were rapidly approaching from the distance. She shook the man’s shoulders.

“Orpheus, please!”

He remained unresponsive.

And a sharp pain ran through Alice’s body as something hard landed against her back, knocking her face forward against the tree. The bark scratched her face beyond belief and she cried out from the shock. The hunter was nowhere in sight. All too suddenly her senses dulled.

But before her world could grow dark, she suddenly found herself and Orpheus in the main hall of the manor, no Norton in sight. There they were in the main hall, Orpheus and Eurydice returned from hell. Mr. Kreiburg was there, along with Margaretha and Martha. The three turned to them in surprise, which quickly turned to horror at the sight of the bloodied Novelist and the scratched up and battered Journalist.

“What on earth–!?”

“Miss Lamb!?”

“Mr. Orpheus?!”

The room began to dim. The floor was slanting. The adrenaline was wearing off.

Quietly, the woman announced, “We’re back.”

And with that, Alice passed out.

-

You look down disdainfully at the most recent courting gift. For all that blustering and show of power, the gift this dominant presented to you is a small little gem. It’s supposed to be a tail accessory, meaning it would lay right over your scales. 

“A tail ring,” you deadpan, wondering if she’d get the hint. The mer grins, clearly way too proud of the…well, it would be mean to call it pathetic. Vanity isn’t the problem here. 

You roll your eyes surfaceward, and slither right out of her pod’s den to the coral below. It would be a lot easier just to show her. A flick of your tail takes you to the hard coral lining the rocks; you line up your hip to the coal and move alongside it.

Scales flake off easily onto the flora, soaking up the nutrients and giving the coral a healthy glow. You flatten your other fins to cover the spot, long sheer ones decorating the length of your tail. You watch as the dominant wilts, managing to put two and two together. 

“No thank you,” you say simply. You really don’t need her protection, and she’s not really your type. With that, you work your way through the rest of the coral, healing some of the sick spots and heading on your way. 

You’re going to have to move again. The members of your pod were nomads by nature, but you’ve been on the move far more than you used to be. Humans love trying to capture your species for themselves - even trying to cut off your tails. Some mer try to hunt you, while others at least have the decency to court you. 

There’s not many of your kind left. Most of them left their pods to go on their own, since your ilk’s flashy scales draw too much attention. You understood, but going from a group of at least ten or so mers to one is jarring. 

At least you have avoided getting captured so far. Humans are slow in the water, and their traps reek of blood and death – you swim in the opposite direction whenever you get a whiff of them. It does mean you are always on the run, never settling into a good nest for yourself. You miss the few good nests you made, full of familial scents and friends alike, till that faded into nothing too. 

The current pushes you past trenches, keeping low to the sand. Melancholy thoughts will not help you survive these waters, this is just how your life is now. You make the most of it and heal swathes of coral reefs and kelp forests, along with mers you come across. There are a few feral mers you have healed from the brink of death, your scales rejuvenating them from their grave wounds. It’s exhausting, but very rewarding. 

Speaking of exhaustion, you need to find somewhere to stay for the night. You doubt that other pod is going to follow you, but it does not hurt to be cautious. Regardless, even if that dominant does try anything, they will get a face full of your claws. 

Drifting for another hour or so brings you to a cave system set into a deep trench. Entrances span out for at least a few feet down, some set higher up. There’s one that appears to be a dead end – perfect. You don’t fancy trying to make your way out of twisting tunnels in the dark. This will work for a makeshift den. You don’t need to be out any longer than you need to be.  

You swim cautiously into the cave. The back is buried deep enough into the rock that you are hidden in the shadows, and there doesn’t seem to be the scent of any other mers or pods. 

The hardest part about this is sleeping. You used to sleep in a pile of your podmates, tails twined for safety. Now you must lie flat on your belly to protect it, tail folded in half to be more compact. You can hardly sleep like this, but it’s better than being captured. Many mer try, believing that your healing powers only need your person to work, and are sorely surprised when forcing you does nothing. It is about intention and want, your saving grace. 

You’re cold, lying in the corner of the cave. A pang of loneliness works its way through your gut, but you ignore it in favor of getting comfortable. It is what it is, and it's not changing any time soon. 

Sleep comes in fitful waves, the hard rock stabbing into your stomach. You wake up feeling like you barely slept an hour.

You’re going to have to find somewhere softer the next night. Running on so little sleep is just going to hurt you in the long run. You stretch and shake your fins out, sending them fluttering in a spiral around your tail. Their colors are muted in your apathy, from the lack of full meals and little time to stop and rest. You’re going to get sick at this rate, but what can you do about it?

You huff a breath out of your gills and swim out of the cave. Enough of the melancholy thoughts, you have a duty to perform. The reefs benefit from your healing scales, and sitting here crying about it will not change anything. With that in mind, you dart from the trench and into the field of seagrass, scratching your scales on the sand as you go. The soil heals, the grass glowing a healthy color. You smile gently, flipping onto your back to see the surface. 

It’s a nice day, all things considered. Maybe you can catch something good to eat today. 

Your stomach growls in response, reminding you of your delayed breakfast. A few schools of fish swim not too far above. Maybe you can snatch one real quick before you’re spotted. This area looks mostly deserted anyway, so you should be okay?

Tentatively, you stick your head above the ferns. You don’t smell anything, and the water is silent. Quick as a flash, you snap your tail and snatch a fish right out of the school. It’s swallowed in hardly a few bites, while you swim quickly to get out of open water. Your scales will reflect off of the sun’s glow the longer you’re still, turning you into a giant ‘come capture me!’ sign. There was a time your kind was worshiped for your glittering scales and code of healing, but those days have long since passed. 

A mer catches your eye as you reach a rock. At first, your heart beats out of your chest, then the thick scent of blood reaches your senses. The mer is lying right in the middle of the ferns, face twisted in pain from a giant gash across their backfin. A predator, then, but what could have caused such a large wound?

Your natural wariness conflicts with your duty. That mer will soon bleed out, but what if the mer or animal that did it is near? An opponent that made such a large wound would surely rip you apart too.

You are fast though. If you smell anything, you can just blind it and dart away. Leaving a mer to die like this is just not a conclusion you can stomach. Mind made up, you lower onto your belly and approach slowly. 

As expected, the mer hisses, raising their hackles in fear more than aggression. Their scent reeks of pain and misery, so you hold up your hands. 

“It's alright.” Churring calmly, you give them a good look at your fins and tail. Not every mer recognizes your species, but the lack of visibly sharp fins seems to relax them. “I can heal you. What did this to you?” 

“Barracuda.” You blink, taking their lack of aggression as an invitation and slide closer.

“You have to watch for their teeth, you know.” You work a loose scale off of your tail, pressing it to the tear. Now that you’re looking them over, they do look a little young. On a first hunt, perhaps? The thought brings back memories of teaching your younger pod mates, helping them when their fins got caught or got chased by bigger fish. Feels like a lifetime ago. 

“Save it.” They grimace in pain, but your scale glows gently and flows into the cut. They should be fine now. Their eyes dart between you and over their shoulder, eyes widening in shock. “It’s healed?” 

“Yup. Don’t let any other fish bite you like that, okay?” You smile gently, a pang of homesickness quickly ignored. You miss caring for others like this, not just out of obligation. 

“Yeah. Thanks…?” You tell him your name, and are thanked profusely. They swim off in the distance, quickly becoming a blur in the water. 

Well, if it's only a barracuda you should be alright. At least you know how to avoid one. 

*~*

Eclipse is somewhat bored these days. The product of competent betas means he runs a tight organization, not a fin out of place. It gets a little monotonous if he has no one to yell at, though. 

Things should be looking up soon. In about a moon’s time, the human fishing ships will be rolling in, easy pickings for him and his pod. There is nothing better than watching the life drain from a human’s eyes, and their ships are full of useful things. One less fishing boat means more fish for the rest of the mers so as far as he’s concerned, it's justified. 

He reaches out and takes another fish off the pile, crunching through the bones. That's still another moon though, and he’s just so bored. No one’s tried taking their territory in weeks, no fresh blood to threaten into submission. Perhaps he should go to another’s territory and take it over, just because he can. 

One of his underlings could come. Preferably one who’s not an idiot. He looks over the crowd of chattering mers, tapping his chin from where he lays on his stomach. There’s a few options here, one of which proposed this very idea half a moon ago. She would be thrilled to come, sharp teeth perfect for shredding. 

A flash of light catches his eye, distracting him. Eclipse blinks, confused. There’s very few mers that have flashy scales like that, and none are present right now. He takes pride in knowing each of his underling’s scale patterns - having someone new under his nose is not something that's possible. 

He scans the crowd carefully this time. There are normal blues, greys, and greens, some almost black. Therefore, a glowing scale stands out like a sore thumb on the thresher shark’s back. It's small, he wouldn’t have noticed it if it hadn't caught the sun just right. Eclipse squints, noticing the giant scar on their back fin. He’s sure he would have seen a gash that big before. 

“Come here Moksha.” They start, the crowd’s eyes turning to him before darting away. They know better than to listen to business that isn’t theirs, the chatter resuming.

Moksha swims over, swallowing an enormous grouper whole. They’re not the sharpest tool in the den, though that may be their age. “I can’t help but notice that shiny new scale you have. That doesn’t look like one of ours.” Unless threshers grew new scales he isn’t aware of, then they got it from somewhere else. 

“You wouldn’t believe it boss!” Eclipse raises an eyebrow at their sudden exuberance. “A barracuda got me good when I was hunting earlier! Then this mer came in, and was all like ‘I can heal you’, tore their scale off, and pressed it here!” They twist, showing off a tint scale embedded into their fin. 

Eclipse leans closer, prodding at the healed scar, and gives it a sniff. 

Time seems to slow. The change happens so fast he can feel his pupils dilating, leaning closer to Moksha to smell it again. The scent is somewhere in between heavenly and perfect, almost teasing his senses. 

Submissive scents do not really affect him. He wouldn’t be the leader of this group if he could be lured away so easily, and he really doesn't have any interest in taking a mate. They’re liabilities at best, a thorn at worst. But that scent? Even if they weren’t apparently useful, he needs to smell the scent from the source. 

“Where did you see them?” His tone is flat, betraying nothing of the roll of emotions in him. 

Moksha looks over their shoulder in confusion. “Uh, out by the fern plains?” 

Meaning they’re long gone by now. He snaps his fingers, the beta on duty snapping to attention. “Smell this.” He gestures to the scale, Moksha furrowing their brow deeper. “Find them. You’re looking for a mer who’s scales are that color. Bring them unharmed, but knock them out if you must.” Some mers resist his authority, but he’s sure they’ll learn soon. If they’re a fighter. 

Either way, he must see the mer that has these sort of…..abilities. 

He doesn't have to wait long. If he wants to see a mer, they will be seen, regardless of their opinion on the matter. The main den is empty save a few of his other betas when they’re dragged in, hissing and spitting. 

“Who do you think you are?” they snap, twisting in two of his betas’ grips. They’re no pushovers, but even they have a hard time holding them still. Eclipse leans onto his side, resting his elbow on the ledge he’s leaning on. It gives him an advantage in height of this mer, enjoying their struggle to break free. 

There’s a small hook in the ground, since these interrogations are not uncommon. Chains are looped around it and locked to their wrist, and finally, they struggle only against the chains. 

“Let me go, right now!” They hiss, staring at him right in the eye. Stupid enough to try and fight, but smart enough to know they’re going nowhere without his saying so. He lets a slow grin spread across his maw, waiting patiently. There is nothing else to do today but admire the way the sunlight outside of the den sparkles just so on their scales. Rather pretty for a nomad – despite the scales that are dirty and faded in places. 

He’s not getting much of their scent, though. There wasn’t much on the scale either,  meaning they had hidden it or it wasn’t that strong to begin with. He’s betting the former. A mystery he wants to unravel, much better than idly biding his time till the next moon. 

Eventually, they seem to get the memo. They hunch in on themselves close to the rocky floor, tail crunched up to their chest. Their eyes, however, are locked on him. There are very, very few who have the nerve to look at him in the eyes.

“I wanted to say thank you,” he starts slowly. Their brow raises. “Well, one of my poor subordinates would have bled out if it wasn’t for you,” he gestures behind his back, understanding dawning on their face. They’re certainly very expressive. 

“It’s part of my duty. Can I go now?” Well, they’re at least trying to be more respectful. 

“You can start by telling me more about that ability you have.” He’s heard of a species of mer that could heal ailments, but they’re all supposed to be dead or hunted to near extinction. Perhaps this is a surviving member? They could be useful. 

“You can’t force me to do anything.” Interesting assumption. He gets what he wants regardless, but it appears they’ve been forced before. He raises a brow. Instinct yearns to get closer, but experience asks to wait. 

“Is that so?” he lets the weight of the words settle, tail stretched out beside him. A lionfish tail has its perks, his tail at least the size of them. Orange spines raise slowly, flexing. He delights in the way their eyes dart to his colors and back, their attention drawn. “Oh, I won’t force you to do anything. Most mers choose to do what I want on their own.” Their face twists in distaste. They’re fascinating to look at. The desire to scent them properly pulses. 

“Great, then I choose to leave.” He guffaws at that, chortling. His men press their lips together in silent chuckles, the notion absurd. “Goodbye.” He blinks in surprise as the frilly fins around their tail turn sharp, slicing clear through the metal. They twist, and faster than he can process, have turned and darted out of the cave. His men jump in shock, but he holds up a hand - a lone scale drifts to the floor. 

Eclipse slithers off of his perch, picking it up as if it were a precious jewel. It could be, with the way it glitters and sparkles. Slowly, he brings it up, and gives it a deep sniff.

What are those notes to the scent? It smells tailored to his senses, sweet and inviting. The ocean’s bounty calls him to grasp hold of it. He wants it. There is nothing his claws have not made claim to. 

“Watch the pod for a week or so, Harlan,” he barely turns, too focused on staring at the scale. Eclipse knows he can follow them just based on this. “I want to see it intact when I come back with my mate. Am I clear?” 

His beta nods smoothly. Eclipse nestles the scale tightly into one of his spines, and snaps his tail. By the end of the week, he’ll have his prize.

*~*

You tear off across the water, swimming as fast as you can. The way he looked at you with those dilated pupils - that lionfish wanted a lot more from you than just your abilities. The look of a dominant that would love nothing more than to sink their teeth in your shoulder is universal.

You hope you’re too inconvenient to chase. You’ve already cleared a few miles from the den you were dragged to, wrists aching from the chains they wrapped around them. How dare they! What kind of pod kidnaps mers! 

Dangerous ones, that's what. Especially the way they all bowed their heads to the leader, as if he had some kind of control over them just from his authority alone. And those spines - their deep oranges are eye-catching, but you can tell their lethality just from a glance. One prick of those and you would be dead, or at the very least paralyzed. 

Sea mother below, you can only pray they leave you alone. You don’t hurt or kill on principle, but you will defend yourself if you have to. You just won’t allow yourself to be captured again. 

Hours you swim like this, tail beating the water in steady strokes. It's only when your muscles are crying with the strain that you slow, drifting to lay flat under the shelter of a rock. You stop there and pant, gills wide open to scent the water. 

You’re going to be able to smell him coming, at least. His scent reeked of dominant, in the way that speaks to being used to power. Flaunting a musky scent like that without a care in the world, yet demanding your attention in a way a dominant hasn’t before. Just instinct. 

What did he think was going to happen? What, were you just going to roll over and let him claim you? As much as he called to your instincts, mated to a mer with way too much power just isn’t all that appealing. 

Regardless, you’re rested enough now. You slither out of the rock into the open sea, keeping low to the ground - you need to keep swimming without rubbing off your scales. Leaving a trail for them to hunt you would spell your doom in minutes. For good measure, you snatch mud off the ground and rub it against the scent glands on your shoulders - since your species is so coveted, your scent is pervasive and very strong. This should be enough to mute it some more.

It’s not till the moon has long risen that you stop. You huff and wheeze through your gills, looking back at all the reefs you were forced to pass longingly. They’re not all dying, but the power of your scales could help them. You hope the sea understands your dire situation, especially as your stomach squeezes from the lack of food. A scent of blood would be a dead giveaway, so you ignore it and simply find a big enough cave to fit into and squash yourself as flat as you can. 

Maybe you’re ok, you try to reassure yourself. Swim a few more miles, and you should be able to lose any pursuers entirely.

Swallowing, you try to sleep for at least an hour or so. You’re tucked into the tightest ball you can, tossing dirt onto your scales to prevent them from glittering. It's filthy, but you do what you must. Gods, your stomach hurts, your tail aches, you would kill for a giant…juicy..

Flounder? You must be hallucinating from hunger, because a dead flounder just slid into the small opening of the cave. You stare at it uncomprehendingly, and slowly reach out for it. It’s only a dream, right? And it's dead anyway, so what's the harm? There’s a sort of…faint scent on it, pleasant. 

Your claws sink into the realistic flounder and chew on the meat. It's very tasty, freshly caught. 

Another fish drifts in, this time a few triggerfish. While it is strange that they’re dead, your hunger is much stronger than common sense. You tear into them, feeling much better for it. You can almost sleep now if you really want to. 

But now that you can think clearly, a sick feeling worms its way through your stomach. Who, or what, would throw dead fish in here? There were far too many trigger fish to blame it on the current. 

“Had your fill?” A smooth voice calls out into the water, your hackles rising. How could he..you’re hours away from his territory! Awake now, you flex your fins to their sharpest point and bare your teeth - if he thinks he can just kill you or force you to submit, he’s in for a rude awakening. 

His flat face fills the entrance, but he doesn’t force his way inside. Instead, the mer hovers just outside, a grin spread up his face. You don’t care what his intentions are - they’re not good. It seems he had the same idea as you, with the mud on his shoulders. No wonder you couldn’t scent him. 

“No. Go away.” He holds up his hands in surrender, but you see the way his spines rise. He’s coming in anything but peace. 

“We got off on the wrong gills, sweetfin. I’m Eclipse.” He rests his head on his elbows, peering at you in the darkness of the cave. 

You weigh your options. He hasn’t tried to reach you in here, and you’re relatively sure he can’t siren call to you. He would have sang to you in his den if he could. 

Your name is ceremonial, given to you by the pod leader before they scattered. It was revered a long time ago, apparently. It doesn’t mean all that much now, so you tell him in a flat tone. But with the way he echoes it, maybe it means something. 

“Now, you get some rest. You’ve had a long journey.” He pushes off the rock with that, and you are left alone in this cave.

….what?

Your tense fins waver in surprise, drifting with the current. Oh please, as if. He’s just going to try to take you as soon as you leave the cave. You take matters into your own hands and slither out instead, only your torso leaning over the edge of the cliff. Your tail is led from swimming all day, but there are things that should not be left unsaid. 

“Hey!” You shout at his retreating tail, taking your victory in the way he startles. Clearly he expected you to do as bid. “What is your problem, chasing me all the way out here? I’m not going to heal anything for you.” There. That isn’t going to be enough to leave you alone you’re sure, but you can at least get a grasp of his intentions. 

He flashes his sharp teeth, and swims up once more to hover just above you, spines flaring out in a flashy display. He’s sort of curled over you, but you refused to be cowed. 

“Is that so?” The words repeat again, cocky and confident. You flash your teeth back in annoyance. “What makes you so certain that it’s your healing I want?”

You raise your chin in defiance. “Simple. I have no interest in you.” Somehow, this makes the sneer turn into a grin, as if you said something funny. This guy rubs you all sorts of wrong. 

“Your scent says otherwise, angelfish.” He digs a thumb into his shoulder and wipes off the mud concealing his scent. A metallic, strong scent hits you right in the face, your hindbrain perking up in interest. You slap a hand to cover your shoulder, shrinking back. The mud must have rubbed off when you flattened yourself into a ball. 

“Get out of my damn face.” Tellingly, you can feel your face start to flush. “You’re crowding me, and you stink.” You slap some sand to turn back into the cave, lying flat to the ground again.

His chortles echo, sticking his stupid flat head inside and giving you a shit eating grin. Then you are left alone to your thoughts, his ugly mug and red tail out of your sight. You should have clawed his eyes out when you had the chance. It's too late now. 

His metallic scent is inside of your makeshift den now, though. As much as you’re a bit afraid of what he may want from you, and inherently dislike his kind, it is a nice dominant scent. A lot of them just smell like too much musk or too dull. Eclipse’s scent smells in a way that demands your attention but not so much that it stabs your senses. You don’t want a mer just because you’re a submissive, though. 

You wonder if he’s close, as you start drifting off from pure exhaustion. Eclipse can try whatever he wants - there’s a reason you’ve survived so long. 

Waking up is a slow process - you’re groggy from all the activity yesterday. It also looks like you’ve managed to sleep in well past the rising sun. Shoot. 

Much more energized, you dart out of the cave to check where that mer went. His strong scent is scattered all over the entrance of the cave, and some ways below you. Did he camp out on the ledge all night? At least he wasn’t stupid enough to try anything.

Clicking your tongue, you snap your tail and head off in a random direction. Now that you’re wide awake, it’s going to be a lot easier to reject him if he catches you. If he’s a respectable mer he’ll take the hint. You’re more than capable without a dominant providing your meals. 

Speaking of, some ways off in the water is a nice school of fish. You’ll catch breakfast, eat some, and dart off as fast as you can away. And cover your scent better, so he can’t track you. How the hell did he, anyway? You thought you covered your scent gland completely, and your species’s tail doesn’t really give off oils like other mer’s do. What is he, a blood shark as well as a lionfish?

Well, at least your breakfast is good. The fish here seem to be especially well fed, the meat and scales juicy on your tongue. You find a protruding rock on the reef and drape yourself into it, eating quickly. 

Well, if the food’s this good, you should have some more. There’s a strangely large school of fish here, all of which are being…pushed in your direction. Accompanying them is a familiar heady scent - of course this would be his doing. 

What is he doing though? Eclipse is corralling the schools closer to you, wickedly fast as he twists and turns. For his size, he’s able to swim faster than you would have thought. No wonder he caught up to you. You feel a bit mesmerized as he zigzags through the water, then snatches one. You take a few more, since they’re so close to you. 

Weren’t you supposed to be leaving? You turn your head and side eye him suspiciously, since he already caught up to you anyway.

“I suppose this is your doing?” Eclipse comes to a stop just above you, spines flexing. He’s hardly even breathing hard. 

“Yes.” He lets the word hang, drifting down to rest his head on his hands in front of his face. The fins circling his flat face reflect into the water, refracting and visually striking. He must have had an interesting family lineage to get such fascinating orange colors. Not to mention his markings, his face split in two by a raised line. One side is almost black save for the orange dotting. “You must have been starving after such a swim yesterday.” He takes the fish wriggling in his grasp and crunches right through it, bones and all. The eye contact during it is unnerving, to say the least. 

A shiver runs down your spine. You haven't really seen the extent of his strength, what he’s capable of. Apparently he can crunch through bone too. 

“Why do you care?” The fear squirming through your stomach turns your tone just a little quieter than the sharp retort you meant to snap. More like, why haven't you tried forcing me? Yes, you would claw his eyes out. But he’s no pushover. 

“Is it so incomprehensible to court you, angelfish?” You roll your eyes. Not this again.

“Courting me won’t make me help you. Mating me changes nothing of whether or not I heal things for you.” In other words, he can’t force you to do anything. You’ll die before you're tortured into healing. 

“Please, if I wanted you to heal things for me, I wouldn’t bother following you personally.” You guess that makes sense. “No, it’s you that I want.” He reaches into his spines and pulls out a scale, rolling it in between his claws. When did he get that?

“My - so that's how you found me!” with a meager scent trail, he followed you out this far. You can admire the tenacity, even if you’re surprised any mer would go the lengths he did.

“Yes. There’s something quite special about that scent of yours.” He leans closer, face hovering just over yours. You hold your ground, tensing to keep from fidgeting. Another blast of his scent wafts over your gills in this position, strong and sure in the way dominants are. It keeps you still, against your better judgment. “Sweet and heavenly. Did you know that?” You shake your head. Sweet, yes. Your scent is naturally sweet, but heavenly? 

“Plus, your scales aren’t doing too well. You’ve been on your own for some time now, haven't you?” Well, you have. You don’t like the way he says it, though. 

“So? I've been just fine on my own. I don’t need some mer to save me.” Your tone is sharp, biting once more. It’s better off in the long run if you reject him now. 

He huffs a great sigh, tapping you square in the forehead. “One more time. I want you.” He says your name in a low, sibilant croon, pressing closer again. You’re forced to lean back, less he presses his maw to your face. “I want to have you sleep somewhere much more comfortable tonight. Feed you well, fix those scales of yours. What that perfect scent of yours smells like pleased.” A hand holds the side of your face, dwarfing it. You’re so stunned by this abrupt declaration that you’re frozen in place. You two just met!

“You don’t even know who I am.” for all he knows, you could be crazy.

“That can be fixed.” He reaches down to take hold of the rock you’re sitting on, coiling himself around you. The spines rest so close to your tail and torso, whispering against your back. You’re caught between fear of what he’s going to do and anticipation about being courted for you. You turn your head to meet his, peering over your shoulder. 

“Get…get off of me.” His scent is seeping into your gills, a large claw hovering over your hip. It calls to your instincts, but he can’t possibly think you’re so easy that a few feedings is enough to make you roll over. “You’re going to have to work a little harder than that.” This isn’t a one way street. There are certain ways you can turn the tides - old tales from the submissives in your pod. If he wants you so badly, then he can prove it. 

You sharpen your fins and twist, nicking him. Not too hard to shred anything, but hard enough to dive out of his grasp. You’re gone in the space of a breath. A thrill shoots through your entire body at the playful growl that reverberates through the water at your challenge. To start a chase like this, and be caught by a mer of that size? It's a bit exhilarating. 

He may be fast, but your smaller size gives you the advantage. The reef you were forced to swim past has a network of tunnels with tons of exits, many of which he cannot possibly fit into. You have a feeling he’s not entirely stupid though. 

The one near the bottom seems to be your best choice. A small eel wiggles away in surprise when you dive in, pulling yourself through at a breakneck speed. From there, the tunnels split into four, then three, then eight, twisting and turning all sorts of directions. Down one tunnel, a deep trench splits the bottom in two. You’d get sucked down there if you even tried to cross it.

“There you are.” you startle from your contemplation, meeting Eclipse’s eyes and grinning face. His pupils are dilated to pinpricks, entirely focused on you. Your saving grace is the size, he can’t fit down the way you came. You grin in triumph, sticking out your tongue and darting away in the opposite direction. You feel like a guppy! This is the most fun you’ve had in so long!

There is, of course, a chance that he could hurt you after this. But then why bother with all of those sweet things then? It’s put out of your mind in favor of twisting through more tunnels, shoving plants out of your way. It leads you to an open, glittering cave full of algae and stones. 

You pause, only for a moment. The glittering rocks catch your eye enough to warrant a once over and strangely, you wonder if you can take some for a nest. The water churns around you, the sharp scent of a riled dominant suffusing through the water. You twitch, tail starting to twist to get away.

That's all he needed. A broad hand spans above your back, pushing you right down into the spongy ground. Eclipse’s thunderous growl reverberates into your ear while he flips you, pinning you with your arms over your head. You’re effectively caged under him. 

“You’re a quick one.” His scent spikes, from the challenge and exertion. Some of his spines are bent in strange shapes and cuts litter his sides - he must have forced his way through. Desire to heal him nearly bowls you over with want in response. He did very well catching you, now it’s your turn. You take a breath saturated in his musky scent, wondering if he’d get his tail around you. 

Eclipse’s eyes narrow suddenly, leaning close to you. Will he bite you? Not like this, your heart pleads. Neither of you are in a proper den, you wear no courting gifs. But no, he’s only scenting your neck. 

“You’re in pre-heat.” Sluggishly, your brows furrow. 

“Can’t be,” you slur. You haven't had a heat since years back, your species only triggered by a compatible partner. You blink, trying to focus through the complete haze in your mind. It’s strong, but surely it’s not because the two of you are that compatible. For your kind, the chance of that happening is….

“Sure, sweet thing. You’re letting me touch you like this, for no reason.” A thumb caresses your face, freeing a hand. You snake it behind his head, pulling him down. Strange sensations rock through your stomach and chest, but you just want him to touch you, mostly. It’s been so long since any hands have held you close. 

Your tail fin slithers along the moss, instincts demanding you to be held and pinned properly. For someone that chased you so hard, he sure is wishy washy. This does however bang it right against a protruding rock, sending a spike of pain right through your tail. The yelp you let out is very undignified, coming to your senses all at once. 

“Huh?” Eclipse hovers a mere shrimp’s length from your face, pupils so dilated it looks like he wants to eat you. A deadly claw holds your wrist into the moss while he pants, scenting you. This is not a play pin!

“Let me go!” As much as it’s strange to admit it, it would explain why every suitor seemed terrible lately. It was almost as if your hindbrain somehow knew that you were getting close to someone compatible, but that's just absurd. 

 You bare your teeth in warning, curling deadly claws right behind his head. It seems to do the trick, his grip relaxing just enough to let you wiggle out from underneath him. The two of you size each other up from across the cave for a moment, the spines on his tail rippling as he stares at you. 

“You shouldn't rile up a dominant with that kind of scent,” he hisses. You snarl right back, flaring your fins out. 

“We don’t have heat cycles, dumbass.” You aren’t usually this crass, but this mer seems to bring it out of you somehow. You’re not about to tell him that though. “I just have a strong scent.” To admit to being compatible with this guy is probably admitting defeat - but he doesn’t seem to catch on, squinting at you in total confusion. 

You take this opportunity to dive into one of the smaller tunnels. This is a conversation you are not having, not while you’re still remembering the feeling of his grip on you. He calls after you to your retreating tail while you twist and turn, following chipped rocks from when he barreled through them. Oops. Hopefully they didn’t hurt too bad. 

The sunlight greets your face when you exit, heading straight for one of the coral reefs you passed. There, you will gather the wit to reject him firmly, and move on. The idea of being so compatible all of a sudden is jarring, warring with a want to be near him. He’s not going to let you roam, though. Not a person with that kind of power. They covet their treasures. 

Healing a reef helps you think. Your sore and loose scales flake off the second you pass through the hard coral, embedding themselves deep into the network of life. It's a part of you, the same way your tail is. Would a leader of such a tight knit pod let you out to heal at all? If he’s a good provider, he will. 

Eclipse lies at the other end of the reef, appearing much calmer as he watches you. His tail flicks idly behind him in steady strokes.

“Listen.” You’re just going to rip the proverbial seaweed wrap off now. “I can’t accept your courting.” You can’t meet him in the eye, worming your way through spaces between the coral. Unexpected is the way he has nothing to say, but sharp eyes are trained on you. It takes a few moments before he speaks.

“You don’t have a heat cycle?” You snap your head up to narrow your eyes at him, soundly ignored. 

“No, but that's not what I -”

“Meaning, you haven't had a heat since what you presented?” You’ve had one or two false or short heats over the years, but nothing like what other mer describe. But that's not the point.

“Why does that matter? I said no.” You end the sentence with a point in his direction, then go back to your task. The reef already looks a lot better. 

“Hm.” His eyes haven’t left you once, touching your tail, back, everywhere; like a predator taking you apart. Perhaps that is what he’s doing. “Makes me the first then. No wonder you’re so prickly.” You glare at him, bracing yourself on a rock to shred the rest of your loose scales. 

“I'm leaving.” There. You’re going to leave, and if he knows what’s good for him, he won’t follow. 

“That's unfortunate. I was going to offer you the extent of my sizable territory - a lot of which could use your help, by the way - and all the fish you could want. My mistake.” 

Eclipse rests his head on his hand, staring off away from you. The whole of it?

“How big, and why did you let it get so bad?” Now that he mentions it, there were quite a bit of dreary looking reefs and plants you passed when you were escaping. 

Eclipse turns back to you some, meeting your gaze again. “We’re still in it.” He gestures to the emptiness of the water. “This is quite the populated area, yet we’ve seen no hide of anyone else?” That's…an excellent point. There’s a lot of food for no mer living here. 

“It’s rotting because of humans and their boats too. We get rid of them, but their presence still lingers.” As much as you don’t like killing, the fact that he can do anything about humans is impressive. The large metal ones would shred you in half if you got anywhere near the moving parts.

“And how do I know you’re not just lying to my face?” A grin spreads up his maw, taking your stillness as an opportunity to get another inch closer. Is he incapable of giving you space?

“Claw my eyes out if I am. I can give you quite a bit if you let me take care of you.” You swallow at that. Would he? Eclipse doesn’t smell like he’s lying. It mostly just smells musky. To be taken care of in that way, is that something you can even have for yourself? 

Well. If he tries to chain you up, you can always fight to break free of it. Behind the….rather pushy personality, maybe he’s not so bad. 

Or maybe it’s the heat talking. It’s hard to tell.

“I'll think about it.” You twist your fins to let the current take you up off the reef, intent on healing others. “What's the full extent of the rot?”

*~*

There is much to think about. While the sun sets, you settle onto your stomach in the den you chose. Apparently, the entire left side of his territory is almost rotted through, despite the efforts to clear away the human trash and debris. It's just not recovering like it used to. Plus, he’s quite the adept hunter, providing you with the fattest fish you’ve ever seen. You haven’t been this full in what feels like years. 

Said mer sits just outside of your den, lying on a rocky outcrop below the opening. Looks like he’s going to guard you tonight, but you can’t say you’re all that bothered by it. He’s been proving himself to be somewhat gentlemanly. 

This is probably a bad idea. But you feel cold, somehow, and his spines are still hurt from earlier. 

“Eclipse.” His orange head pops up at your call, yellow eyes staring at you in the darkness. You huff. “Come here. I'll heal your tail.” You bring your tail around to show your belly, leaning on your side. A purely innocent call, your tense fins convey. 

“An invitation? How kind.” He’s certainly overconfident, crawling into your den without a second thought. What if you were going to shred him to pieces? You wouldn't but it's the principal of the thing. You wait till he’s close enough to sit up, hovering your hands above his tail. 

You’re pretty sure just the tips are poisonous. Some scales are ready to be flaked off again, so you get them off your tail and press them gently in between the spines. They fit rather well in between the gaps. “Don’t worry.” You mutter, finding more and more scratches. Sea mother, did he rip apart a boulder? “They fade after a few hours or so. Your pod won’t see you with a bright and sparkly tail.” You snort at your own joke, but instead, he catches your hand. 

“I think there’s a better way to go about that.” You stare at him in confusion, before realization dawns on you. Your face flushes red. “No need to rip your scales off on my account.” 

For a moment, you freeze in indecision. He’s right - the more scales you flake off the more your under skin is exposed, and you really shouldn't rip off as much as you have. But to coil your tail around his….how intimate. 

Slowly you lie down next to him and raise your tail. Your glare at him for any sort of aggression - this is not an invite to pin you. When he makes no movement otherwise, you curve your tail and watch as his spines flatten to make way for you. He reaches behind you to pull you flush to his chest, but otherwise you set the pace. Okay, you can work with this. 

Your tail coils lightly around his, twitching slightly to get the right scales pressed against his cuts. From there, it's not really something you consciously think about - it’s a more instinctual process. The meager light reflects and bounces off your slightly glowing tail, rippling downwards. Eclipse stares at it, while you look over his face. 

Maybe...he’s a little bit handsome. You kind of want to trace the split in his face, to see if it has any texture or not. What about his fins? They’re in perfect triangles around his head, almost soft looking. Would he let you touch him?

You tighten your tail, feeling more and more cuts and scars. They were hidden by the spines, apparently. “Sea mother..” You mutter, feeling broken patches that clearly haven’t healed. “Are these from fights?” Some have the indented edge of teeth marks. 

“Not all.” The two of you watch your tail pulse gently, glowing more the harder you squeeze. You concentrate, growing more concerned the more injuries you find. 

“Did you ever put wraps on these? These could have gotten infected!” There’s a particularly long one up the length of his tail that makes him wince when you squeeze it too. 

“Some of them did. They healed.” You throw him your most incredulous look, considering whacking him in the face. Oh sure, deadly infections just ‘healed’. If he were anything other than a lionfish, he probably would not have survived at all. 

“There’s just so many…what about this one?” You press your tail to a particularly craggy scar, near the middle of his tail. His attention turns to your face.

“Wolf eel. Wasn’t old enough to know better.” You wince in sympathy - those things have massive teeth. You’ve been lucky to avoid one. 

“What about this one? The rounded scar?” Now you’re curious. You can feel the circle under your tailfin.

“Cookie cutter dominant, tried to take my territory. He didn’t leave with his fins intact.” He’s staring at you, voice hushed. It feels very intimate all of a sudden. 

“The long ribbed scar?” Your voice lowers to a murmur, meeting his gaze. His face is very close to yours. Would you be opposed, if he kisses you?

“A sharp human net.” A hand slowly reaches out to cradle the side of your face, claws mindful. He then runs a hand through your hair and scratches your scalp. It feels very nice. 

Your eyes slip shut, leaning into the touch. A tongue runs along your hair. How long has it been since you’ve been groomed?

“The…..” you trail off, as his tongue finds its way to the top of your head. “This one..you’re missing a few spines…” You can’t heal lost appendages, but the breaks are very jagged. They can be less sharp. 

“Initiation taking over the pod.” He sounds rumbly, voice deep in his chest. You relax more into his touches, reaching over his back to hold him. A broad palm flattens itself against your back, warm. He must have fought tooth and nail to get where he is now. But the way he holds you, almost desperate - perhaps no one has held him all this time. You fall silent, letting him groom you while you feel the texture of his back. It’s quite rough. 

“When’s the last time your back was groomed?” You speak into his chest, scratching at some of the rougher scales. 

“Since I was younger, maybe.” Oh. He could have had any mate he wanted with a pod like that, but hasn’t? What a strange mer. Regardless, you delight in the minute shivers sent down his spine while you scratch, feeling dead scales flake off. More and more fall to your claws, spanning patches on his back. His grip tightens on your back. 

Helplessly, you start to purr. Eclipse is reaching that spot on the back of your head that makes you putty in his arms, an echoing growl responding as he smooths over the spot with his tongue. You could almost fall asleep like this, held so closely. He’s very warm.

*~*

Something is just on the side of too heavy. It’s comfortable, but isn’t about to be soon.

You crack an eye open, waking from the dredges of sleep. Damn, you slept so hard your body feels like lead, warm and drowsy. The culprit uses you for a pillow, face pressed protectively into your neck. At least his tail is only loosely twined with yours. 

A great flush spreads over your face and down your neck. Eclipse is so close to the vulnerable parts of your neck, the grip on you tight. If he wanted to, he could simply lunge and snap his jaw closed on your neck, marking you as his. Plus….as your eyes travel downward, his tail is flushed in an answering rut, the oranges vibrant. Your own tail is bright in its own colors of heat. 

You’re compatible then. How novel. You still fear being tied down to someone with that much power, but he did promise to let you have free reign on his territory. There are even parts that are quiet like this one. So long as you don’t have to fight for your freedom, then maybe….

Confusion makes its home in your gut. Instinct has decided that he will be a suitable partner - his strength, his attention, and if the size of those spines are any indication, satisfaction. A dominant with that musky scent has something to back it up. 

But these feelings are too fast and very strong, after being on your own for so long. Is this really better than your nomadic life, even when you were hungry? You’re not entirely sure. 

You need to think somewhere away from his heady scent that clouds your thoughts. You slowly wiggle out from underneath him, hindbrain mourning at the loss of warmth and closeness. A few minutes to think, that's all you need. Sitting in one of the reefs may help you get your thoughts in order. It’s hard, especially with how tight he clings to you, but you manage to slide your tail out from under him and escape out of the cave. 

The bright sun stings your eyes - you slept well into midday again. What is it about him that makes you sleep the day away? You used to wake up with your pod nice and early no problem. Being held by him must be different in some way. You idly snatch a fish from the coral in annoyance, sitting right down on a rock. Its roughness reminds you of being warm and cradled in Eclipse’s arms, which you could be doing right now instead of putting your head in your hands. Should you? How much are you trading away by letting him bite you?

Maybe it should just be a mating cycle, and you should refuse his bite. Make him work a little harder to bind you two. After all, he hasn’t given you an actual courting gift yet. However, will you be able to refuse him when you’re deep in heat? Almost being pinned made you completely out of your mind, letting him that close to your neck. 

You’re already kind of warm. Pressing your hand against your forehead, you’re at least a few degrees warmer than you normally are. 

Suddenly, you’re conscious of how close to heat you are. You’re also out in the open, but this is Eclipse’s territory, and you haven’t seen the hide or hair of any other mer at all. But you know how strong your scent is. A mer could scent it for miles if you aren’t fully scent marked. Eclipse’s scent is on you, but not enough. You look back the way you came, grimacing at the distance you’ve just swam from the den. You should go back. 

Aw, shoot. Your point is proven by a flash of violet scales, a male twisting himself to show off. Your entire body leans away in complete rejection. He’s nothing like Eclipse. Perhaps you wanted him more than you realized. 

“Not interested.” Swimming away would only lead to a chase, but it would get you back to Eclipse. You don’t think you need to get him just yet though. You’re still more than capable of defending yourself. 

“I don’t see a bite.” His tone is teasing, but there’s an edge to it. His pupils are a bit too dilated for this to be casual. 

You look him over. There’s a big scar splitting an earfin, scales covering his chest and arms. His mouth is slightly open from two giant fangs, and big eyes remind you of the deep water mers. You like the sun too much to want a den down there, so not particularly appealing.  You try to picture this mer instead of Eclipse caring for you, but the visceral rejection in your gut settles that. 

“And? Not interested. Take a hint.” That's your last and final warning. Even Eclipse wasn't stupid enough to try something when you’re on guard. Your tail fins sharpen to points, narrowing your eyes. The eye roll you get in response means he got nothing.

He swims forward more, sliding a truly ugly stone bracelet off his wrist. It’s shaken in front of your face as if it were a guppy’s toy. 

“Here, what about this? Rare stones. Come on, you submissives like jewelry, right?” You’re too surprised to be mad about it. Who even says that anymore? Granted, abyss mers are a little backwards, you’ve heard. 

Well, he made his choice. You dig your claws into the rock and twist, slashing him clean across the face with your tail. He howls in pain, red flooding into the water. A heat scent really will make these mers do all sorts of stupid things. 

You turn up your nose, showing your disinterest. If he could think with his rational brain for a second, he might just leave you alone.

He pulls his hand away, pupils blown from aggression. You flare your fins out and hiss in retaliation. So much for that. Are you going to have to fight him? A rejection of a dominant like this makes you much more aggressive, baying for blood for daring to get this close to you. It would break your code, though. Maybe you can just knock him out, if you absolutely had to. 

You twist again and slap your tail against his flank, ripping up the sides. He tries to seize your neck, but you’re too fast - you instead sink your claws into his arm, scratching deep into the flesh as he pulls away. You hiss long and low, a clear warning. Your scent must have sent him in a daze to be this aggressive. 

A familiar aggressive growl snaps your attention down the reef. Eclipse barrels to the both of you at a breakneck speed, eyes flicking to you once before plowing into the mer with an unstoppable force. Your fins deflate, allowing yourself to sink back into the rock you were sitting on. 

From there, it’s a very one sided fight for your affection. Eclipse tears into the dominant as if he were made of sea fronds, your eyes glued onto the fight. Something warm broils in your belly at the sight - you didn’t think you would ever like a fight for your hand, but something about seeing him effortlessly tear the guy’s arms off is appealing as it is terrifying. Eclipse hisses something about daring to court his intended, barely letting him speak before his head is torn off. One of his big teeth gets pulled out before the body sinks deep into the abyss. 

It hardly draws your attention away. Eclipse is streaked with blood, huffing with exertion. It’s mostly instinctual, then, when you roll to your side to show your soft underbelly. You curl your tail invitingly for the champion. 

His focus snaps to you. His bright orange tail ripples with flexed spines as he swims over, hovering just above where you’re laid out on the rock. Such a gentleman, to not simply pin you like he clearly wants to.

Instead, he holds out the tooth. You blink in surprise - his courting gift? His large hand almost dwarfs it. Fear for just how strong he is lances through your stomach, but the state of submission you’re in is enough to ignore it. You can worry about technically breaking your code later. 

You hold your hand out for it, inspecting the sharpness. It stays intact even when you drag it across the rock, so that mer wasn’t a total pushover. Eclipse is just that much stronger. 

“I’ll accept it.” It’s muttered, the words a bit slurred. You put it down behind you. A grin spreads up his maw, and he seizes you, pressing a deep kiss to your lips. It’s intense and pleasurable, your tails winding together tightly. He kisses as he intends to claim you - tongue pushed into your mouth. Your gills pant, inhaling his scent in greedy gulps. You struggle to remember why you were rejecting him in the first place. 

He separates from you, eliciting a whine. You wanted more. 

“Swimming all the way out here - you gave me quite a scare,” he snarls. You whine your apology, licking the left half of his face to appease him. You just needed a minute to think, but that seems stupid now. Eclipse could have been kissing you senseless in the den. He’s also a lot more coherent right now than he should be. You should fix that.

“Out in the open near your heat too. Do you know the scent you're giving off? I could smell it-” you delight in your victory in cutting him off, licking a stripe up the sensitive scales on his neck. You get a burst of his musky flavor on your tongue, purring in satisfaction. Eclipse shivers, growling low in his throat. Far different than the aggressive version, and only for you. 

That seems to do it. He kisses you again, tightening his tail around you. The bulge on his hips press incessantly against you. You’ve never seen what a dominant sex looks like, but you’re sure you can let your instincts carry you.

“Not here,” he snarls suddenly. You agree - it's a bit out in the open to do any more than this.

You’re scooped up, the water rushing around you as he tucks you against his side, swimming swiftly. The speed is dizzying in your altered state, clinging to him tightly with your tail and claws. It feels a bit strange to be carried like a guppy, but you’re so out of it it’s hard to get your limbs to cooperate.

In no time at all, he’s pushing you gently into the den. You reach for him and press kisses to his face. The split marking is raised, like you thought it would be, but he seems stunned as he lets you pull yourself atop him. 

You're just so warm. The only thing that does anything to ease the sizzling of your skin are the claws he holds you tightly with. 

“You..” He pants, then pulls you in for a kiss. He’s just as affected as you are, the heat of his body pleasurable as he twines his tail with you once more. You feel like you’re drowning in a sea of instinct and scent. Is this what a true heat feels like? This must be the reason mates disappear for days during it. 

“Me?” You kiss the side of his neck, seeking more of his scent. It just tastes so good. He clutches the back of your head, muscles tensing. He must be caught between flipping you or not.

“Your scent..it’s…” Claws dig into your arm, and suddenly your vision is taken over by his face. He shoves his face into your neck, nibbling up the sides. The feeling rocks up and down your body, whining and gasping from the sensations. You clutch onto him, squirming in the little room you have. His tail is so tight around yours.

“It’s?” You want to know how it is when you’re close to heat. 

“Irresistible. The sweetest flavor and the depths of the ocean’s bounty.” Despite your flush from the heat, your cheeks feel warm. That's rather poetic of him while his claws grip your hips. 

“I’ll take you back to my den. This is no place to spend a mating cycle.” He pries his claws off you, hovering. You feel the distance keenly. Eclipse gestures to the rest of the cavern, full of sand and a bit uncomfortable. Now that you’re not being pressed into the ground, you’re starting to feel the stones digging into your back. He traces the side of your face. “I have a proper courting gift to give you.” You blink, trying to think past the fog. 

“That big cave?” Where he captured you? As much as being in a more protected den is appealing, that sounds a little too on display. 

“No, that's the pod den. My den is further back. Nothing would touch you.” He mutters this with an edge to it, sending shivers down your spine. You squirm, unbearably hot at the thought of being cared for in a den saturated in his scent. What is his den like? You hope there is some measure of softness in it. You picture it being just the two of you, while he presses you…into..?

“Do you have moss?” You blurt out, shifting uncomfortably in the sand. You get your elbows underneath you, wanting a break from the rocks. “A nest?” He is rather lonely - you're starting to wonder if you’re the first submissive that's ever been in his den. You drift your tail fin up his scales, thinking seriously about it. He just looks confused. 

“What do you sleep on?” Your heart starts to sink while he looks at you. 

“The cave floor?” The bare..the bare cave floor? Even when you traveled long, your short stays at least had moss. He has a permanent den, with nothing to sleep on at all?

“I’m not spending a week with you on the floor.” He purses his lips, scoffing. “Is that why your back has so many dead scales?” You look down, pressing your palms to his belly and sides. He jumps, but doesn’t push you away. “Why don’t we get you something soft to…do things on.” You flush, the heat simmering low in your belly. The contact staves it off for now, but who knows how long you have?

“You’ll come with me, though.” he could do a better job at asking rather than telling. But, the thought of being separate from him makes you a little ill, so you nod. “I can make you a nest.” He holds the side of your face again, rumbling. “There is nothing you’ll want for. You can have whatever you want. So long as you’ll stay.” He curls around you to sit behind you, pressing a kiss to your temple. It sounds wonderful. 

“Okay....” You shakily exhale, feeling his maw split into a grin. 

“Stay close to me. We’ll pick things up along the way.” He nudges you up, but you at least don’t need to be carried. All that activity earlier settled the boiling in your stomach, but not for long. The simmering under your skin just nags you quietly.

The trek back is at a somewhat swift pace. You feel like you could swim faster, but Eclipse is just very distracting. His mating colors flash in your peripheral, so you end up staring at him - which must flare your scent. This leads him to coil around you to scent you again, which leads to kissing, till the both of you are forced apart by the danger of being out in the open. 

You stay on target by picking up bedding. How could someone be sleeping on the raw floor for this long? Regardless of your secondary gender, all mers should have something decent to sleep on. Even the most brutal of pods have ferns in their den. You loop it around your arms and wrap seaweed around tightly to keep it in place. Maybe overkill. 

“We don’t need that much.” You twist onto your back and smile sweetly at him, thrusting the ball into his chest. 

“Whatever I want sure ended quick.” He bares his teeth at that, caught. You’re relieved of your burden and go down to get more. At his size, the den must have some surface area. The excess gets wrapped around your arm, while you root around for little shells to place inside. It wouldn’t kill him to have something nice too if you’re going to be stuck there for a while. The thought is appealing to your heat addled brain, stuck somewhere cozy where it’s just the two of you. 

“Here.” Suddenly, a crystal is pushed into your bundle. It shines just like your scales in the light, eroded into a strange spiral shape from the water. 

“When did you get this?” Eclipse inclines his head to a cave you have passed, the mouth bearing crystal deposits. How pretty! Compared to those stones that other mer had, this is much better. Sucks you can’t really wear it, though.

It fits nicely in your moss pile. It can be a header when you make the nest, so you coo your approval and give him a little kiss on the side of his head. This, of course, leads to another round of kissing, leaving you so very warm all over. The moss between you is what forces you apart. At this rate, the moon will rise before you’ll see the pod den. 

You try to focus after that. He leads you through a confusing series of tunnels rather than swim between the trenches, emerging occasionally to snarl at whatever is outside. Typical, as it is endearing. This does, however, get you to the main area by sundown. 

“A shortcut?” There were currents that pushed you through, but you didn’t feel like you were going so fast. Perhaps it's your heat coming back. You’ve been panting for the past ten minutes, swimming closer and closer to Eclipse till you’re under his arm again. It feels better, but the ache deep inside of you grows. 

“A little further.” He probably meant it to be soothing, but the harsh growl he says it with speaks to his rapidly approaching rut. You shiver and cling to him. No one dares to approach while he herds you to a cliff face, his den set deep into it. The tunnel bends a little to the right, and finally, you are inside.

*~*

Eclipse’s vision is tunneling to the point they're a bright spot on his vision. Their scent calls to him in ways he's never felt - he’s sorely tempted to sink his teeth in now, consequences be damned. It would be so easy. They already let his maw against their neck.

They slither out from his grasp instead. Some rational part of him reminds Eclipse to let them build their nest, rather than savagely doing what he wants. Patience is rewarded, in some aspects.

The moss is rolled off his arms, laid out and arranged in a circular fashion, similar to some of his underlings. He’s starting to see the merit of it - an enclosed space just for the two of them. 

Hm. That gives him an idea.

Eclipse takes the crystal off the moss pile and gives them the berth of his den, intent on solidifying his courting gift. Just the thought of them wearing one of his exploits sends a flash of heat from the rut, making him pant. He pushes it aside for the moment to open his steel box of treasure, various baubles the humans have no use for. There was a bangle in particular that the crystal he found would fit in perfectly. 

They purr so sweetly when he gives them things. He wants to hear it again. He wants to hear all of the noises they make, in ecstasy, in happiness. Mostly, he wants to hear that sweet whine again. 

It takes some effort to get it inside the clasp - he’s used to making weapons, not jewelry.

“There,” they huff. Their pupils are dilated, rubbing their tail against the moss. It flattens it into the groove of the rocks. “Can't believe you were sleeping on the floor this whole time.” 

If it makes them stay for more reasons than his teeth in their neck, he’ll take the berating. They’ll make up for it in spades when they take all of him.

“Now I’m done.” They test on their elbows, peering up at him. Are they shy, all a sudden? He lets a grin spread on his maw at the sight. A little flush spreads over their cheeks. “What’s that?”

He slithers forward in response, stopping to hover over them. There’s something about the trusting way they look up at him, searching his face. They’re far too easily won over, and he’ll see to it he’s the only one who has this measure of trust. 

“A true courting gift.” Eclipse reaches out and cradles their wrist, sliding the bangle on without breaking eye contact. It’s worth it to see the way they run their fingers over it, tail flicking. He probably shouldn’t tell them he ripped it off a human’s arm. 

They purr their appreciation, pressing close again. Instincts satisfied, he gathers them up in his arms, finally, finally, pressing them to the moss of his den. He takes this time to press against their neck again, taking greedy inhales of their scent. The heat has spiked the scent to straight sugar, thick on his tongue. They whine loudly as he licks a stripe, as they did in that inadequate den. It tastes better than any meal.

They bite their lip and clutch him close, skin burning under his touch. He runs his hands all over their skin, down their sides, gauzy fins, the scales of their arms. They’re soft, despite the few rough patches from their nomadic life. If he keeps them there, they won’t need to live such a rough life. He coils his tail tight around them in possession, intent on keeping them in place. 

Doing so presses his pelvis directly to where they’re warmest. They gasp into the water, taking shaky breaths. He stops for a moment to look down at them. They’re quite the picture, flushed and squirming. 

“Please.” They reach for him. Considering this is their first true heat, do they even know what they’re asking for? Oh, he wants to show them. What face will they make when he stretches them out? He wants to see. He growls low in his throat on instinct.

He’s rewarded when their eyes go bleary with heat, and tilt their neck for him. He’s accepted as their dominant, surging close to close his maw on their collarbone. He has just enough sense to avoid the scent glands. He’ll get what he wants later, the bond won’t take if they refuse him. 

They twist their head to nibble on his jaw, leaving their own bite on his skin. Feisty. Not that he beds submissives very much, but having one that pushes back even in the ravages of heat makes him desire them that much more. 

Sharp nails dig into his back while he litters their collar bones and biceps in bites. The intent of his teeth sets into the skin - marking them as his. The sight of it is heady, his pelvis throbbing in time with his heartbeat. Their purring ratchets up, kissing and nibbling on his facial fins. 

“You smell like you’re leaking.” He growls into their chest, snaking a hand down between them. The pad of his thumb meets the slit, weeping steadily with slickness. He applies just a bit of pressure, just to see, feeling their body tense.

“Feel so..” They squirm, tail a vice around him while they cling to him. “Empty.” He applies just a bit more pressure, leaning back to watch them keen. He wants to see the minutiae of every expression they make. “Stop teasing!” They reach down, sliding a finger through their own slit. Eclipse is enraptured while they slip inside, closing their eyes to shiver.

He pushes their hand. He’ll give them what they want. They shouldn’t want for nothing, he’ll make sure of it. 

Their frustrated whine turns into a gasp of pleasure as he slips inside, searching for the egg pouch. Their scents are compatible enough that he’s quite sure they’re able to take him, barbs and all, but it doesn't hurt to check. They squeal and push into his hand, presenting so perfectly. He captures their mouth in a kiss as a reward.

Eclipse’s cock pulses. It takes barely a nudge to let out, coiling over their slit. He presses the pad of his finger against their egg pouch as well, listening to their whines while they tense around him.

“Is that..?” They slur, reaching down. Eclipse growls deep in his throat while they wrap their fingers around his cock, the feeling intense as he throbs in their hand. He’s so pent up the tip dribbles onto their hand, which they separate the kiss to lick. 

They share the scant inch of water between them, licking their fingers while staring at him. Checking his virility, he thinks absently, but his focus is entirely on their reaction. He feels elation surge through him as they purr, rumbling deep in his chest in response. The soft spines on his tentacle flex in anticipation before relaxing, shifting them down to line up. 

“Go slow..” they choke out, clutching onto him. They bury their face in his chest, nails digging into his back. He kisses them on the side of their face as he slips inside. 

It’s so warm, he almost thrusts the whole way in one go. There is a merit for a little patience, though. They take heaving breaths, clearly trying to adjust, until he finally gets all the way in. Patience. Just a little bit longer. He can already feel them squeezing around the spines, gasps turning into strained moans. He growls loudly, biting the space just next to their scent gland. Not yet, but oh, how he wants. 

The ovipositor presses against the entrance to their womb, a little ring of muscle hiding the pouch within. 

“Oh, sea mother.” They tremble beneath him, gasping. Eclipse is no praying man, but he has to agree. The feeling is heavenly as they squeeze him like a vice, teasingly allowing him deeper. Can he push past it?

“I'm going to move,” he snarls into their hair. They nod frantically. Eclipse braces an arm on the nest, the water sloshing while he takes what he needs. The fire burning through his chest and stomach seems almost unquenchable, only abated as he brands their flesh with his touch. They cry out on every return thrust, pushing deeper, and deeper, and deeper - 

They shout, somehow tensing tighter around him. Eclipse sees stars, his cock milked for all it’s worth as he spills deep into their womb. The ring of muscle opens for him, slipping the tip deeper inside. 

“Mine.” He snarls, biting them again on the shoulder. They wail while he sinks his fangs in, just narrowly avoiding the scent gland again. He has so little patience in what's left of his rational brain. Teeth sink into the top of his neck.

“Mine..” they echo, clutching his head. If he could have them for eternity it would be too short. His tail tightens, rolling them onto his side to begin anew. The recent finish did very little, the eggs not ready just yet. Perhaps not this rut, with how long it’s been since he’s had a compatible partner, but he will fill them up. 

“Taking it like you were made for it.” He snarls, marveling at how true that is. He fits like a glove inside of them, the barbs forming a perfect crevice. Each shift makes them shiver in pleasure. 

“Yes yes, you’re huge, keep going.” They slap his back, but he can’t help it, he snorts. Even in the throes of heat, they snap and their spine is unbowed. He knew there was a reason he’s drawn to them. 

“Anything for you, spitfire.” he means to say it mockingly, but it comes out lower than intended. Their eyes widen in surprise, before ecstasy takes over their expression as he thrusts again. There is little room to move with how deep he is inside. Regardless, his hips smack theirs, grunting into the crevice of their neck. Their sweet heat scent spurs him on to go faster, and soon enough, he’s spilling once more. The rhythmic tensing of their walls echoes in tandem with their finish. 

They share a slow kiss while he spills, pushing whatever he has left deep inside of them. No eggs this time either. No matter, they have this and the many next mating cycles to try again. They’ll find it better to stay here, where it's safe. 

“Stay with me.” He mutters into their skin. He kisses their eyes, their cheeks, and leans back only to stare at them. Their eyes are wide, trusting and glassy. “Let me bite you. Let me stay with you.” He wants it more than anything. Their hand reaches up to cradle the side of his face. 

“Yeah.” They whisper, rubbing their thumb on his cheek. “Go ahead.” 

He doesn’t have to be told twice. It takes barely a twist of his head, sinking his teeth right on their scent gland. He gets a mouth full of their blood and sweet scent, growling in pure ecstasy. They wail, loud and keening. 

He’s almost expecting it as answering teeth sink into his own shoulder, as he laps up the blood on theirs. They would be the type of submissive to demand an answering bite. The connection surges between them, bonding them for as long as they live, if he has anything to say about it. 

Eclipse grins down at the blood coating their mouth, licking some of it off. He’s nowhere near done with them, as the heat returns. He presses their hips tightly together, sealing their mouths in a kiss. 

*~*

The human ships never saw him coming.

The bond hums over his skin, a live wire sending renewed strength into his bones. They are easily torn apart, easy as breathing. Some of his bigger betas rip apart the hull while they’re at it, sending hundreds of these fools down into the depths. 

Eclipse feels like he’s floating, like nothing can stop him. Sure, they may not be very happy in his den, but they’re much safer in there while he gets these wretches out of his territory. He’ll make it up to them later when he takes them out to heal. That should bring that happy scent back, sweet and pleased. He’s sure. 

He gouges out a human’s eye, digging through their treasures till he finds a pretty necklace. This will do for his perfect mate. 

“I got a better idea, and it’s a clear night too.” Boldly, you reach out for both of their hands and lace your fingers in theirs. Perhaps it’s not the most appropriate for the stage of courting…pre-relationship…whatever it is that's going on between you two, but neither of them pull away. “Come on.”

Surprisingly, they follow without much protest. Perhaps your apology was enough to convince them that this would be worth it, and looking over your shoulder they seem to just be exchanging looks. Sun tightens his hand in yours, scent pleased. 

You take them over to your sunning rock and swim up to the surface, popping your head up into the cool night. Just as you thought - the sky is clear and the stars shine bright tonight. You dunk back underwater to meet their confused faces, grinning excitedly. 

“Have you ever stargazed on the surface before?” 

“Oh! The pretty surface lights, right?” Sun chitters, squinting past you. 

It’s quiet, this time of night. The space ship doesn't employ a full crew; there’s only just enough to keep it running, leaving just you and a scientist or so to monitor the specimens. The powers that be are paying a lot of money to see what those creatures can do, so here you all are. At least, both of them are contained as much as two otherworldly aliens can be. 

You read over your data pad with bleary eyes, cracking your jaw on a very big yawn. It's barely three am standard time, making the lines of data cross your eyes as you try to read their vital signs. Specimen S is active, though when is he not, and Specimen M seems to be talking to S. The spikes in brain activity go up one after the other, mimicking an internal conversation that they must be having telepathically. Sometimes, they share this conversation with you, even arguing inside of your own mind. They have some sort of…interest in you. 

Thus, this leaves the nightly feeding to you. The team learned quickly that they need to be fed as often as possible, or they start to get antsy and aggressive. Even the sleepy one will start banging against the glass if he is getting too hungry. A product of their constantly changing biology, perhaps, is a very high metabolism.

You procrastinate on their trays, gathering the paste from the containment cube. The team is very lucky they have taken to the nutrition paste, or you would all be alien food quicker than you can blink. Just the thought of them using their insane amount of teeth and mouths they have makes your stomach turn a little. Despite their strange affinity to you, you are very sure the minute you can not feed them your head would be severed from your spine.

The bag of nutrition paste crumples in your grip. They do not allow anyone else but you to feed them, but if you do not feed them then the crew will be devoured. The most important researcher, and also the scapegoat. It makes you angry that you are stuck in this situation, frustrated that you are light years away from home with a metaphorical collar around your neck. You stare daggers out the window in frustration at the Beta Nine Planet. It's a particularly ugly magma planet, so you flip it off just because you can. 

You take a breath and let it go. They can sense emotions, telepathically reading your thoughts and speaking in return. Going in there angry will piss them off, and the scientist part of your brain would like this to be a somewhat productive encounter. Plus, it's not as if you can blame them for their very biology. They are sweet in personality, even kind to you. But only you.

You balance the tray in one hand while you walk, sending a ping on the ship’s memo log. If they cannot find you tomorrow, your dead body will be in the containment room.

The door opens for you in a silent woosh. Your heart rate has slowed, a neutral expression on your face. What passes for a head on specimen S looks up, and upon spotting you twists himself to flail in what you think is excitement. He never stops moving, the lower half of his tentacle net twisting like a spiral on the glass behind him. Chittering and creaking fills the room and is echoed by specimen M, who cracks what could pass for an eye open in response. 

“Evening.” You try to maintain control over the situation by keeping your spine straight, refusing to let your eyes dart over their bodies. They’re both covered in eyes, all open ones staring at you. It's unnerving in the worst way. “I have your second dinner.” That gets M to open his other eye, sitting up lazily from his…folded position? He’s sort of in a pile on the ground, head appendage trailing after him as he presses his face against the glass.

‘Food? Food. Food for us? Lovely human brings food for us.’ They both love to speak at the same time in your mind, as if they timed it. The team has categorized them as a hivemind species - despite the fact that they are physically separated and behind glass containment cylinders, they can hear each other’s thoughts just fine. 

“Yup.” You try to keep your thoughts plain and simple: this is food. Here is food I made for you. You should eat this food. You take extra steps to not think about how interested they both are in you, how M’s smile spreads up his face akin to a shark’s. “Your regular gelatin packet. I'm going to give it to you both at the same time, okay?” You speak slowly not because they don’t understand you, but because they will injure themselves to get to you first. You watched in complete fascination as S sulked for days while M crowed and jeered at him for getting food second. 

“Sun’s too needy. Starlight likes me (No, me!) more.” Shoot. You opened yourself right up for an argument in your own mind, M jeering loudly at S’s expense. Externally, M chatters his teeth together and shifts, sitting back and away from you. S slaps his lower half against the glass, practically squished onto it and chittering away. You resist the urge to cover your ears, knowing it would do no good. 

You tune them out and focus on your task, slipping the packets into the small hole in their enclosure. The containment cells are just close enough for you to reach within your wingspan, so you get their internal doors open at the same time. Their argument ceases for a few blissful moments when they notice the food, but then you get to see the horrible sight of them eating. Almost all of their mouths open, each ‘chewing’ at the same time. Neither of them even bother to open the packet, eating the plastic and all. You are very grateful they appear to eat everything with no issues. 

You take this opportunity to swallow your fear and take your clipboard out. You are a scientist, regardless of the smacking noises S makes while he cleans his fingers. And the sides of his cheeks. A long tongue stretches out if the yellow rays on his head, passing over an eyeball before joining in on the grooming. S crouches down once done, cooing and bouncing in place. You’d almost call it stimming, if he were human. Do aliens stim?

‘Stimming? Movement, human movement?’ S asks, the rays around his head waving. It’s similar to how ferns would wave underwater, gravity defying. One of the eyes on his rays darts all over your face while he taps the glass to get your attention. You look down at your clipboard, trying to give them as little simulation as possible. 

“It’s a movement humans do to receive a specific type of simulation. Does spinning your..” What do you call that, because that’s not his legs. “Lower half give you stimulation?” S taps the glass, pressing his hands flat against it. He always wants to get closer to you, as much as possible.

‘Cage is cold, by myself. Miss closeness.’ He croons sadly, and in your peripherals you can see him ducking lower to try and get you to look at him. Makes sense, a hivemind species would be used to being close to another being all the time. You would almost feel bad if you didn’t know what they’re capable of, though the cells they’re in are too small. ‘Sunshine can warm me up.’

Your swallow and try not to dwell on that image of S wrapping you up and mind melding with you. What would that be like, to share thoughts all the time far more than he does now? You imagine for a hivemind species it must be euphoria. You think your personality would surely be crushed instead. Instead, he probably just wants to eat you. 

‘Not true!’ You look up in surprise at the force of his declaration. ‘Starshine would be with us, inside - together.’ Both echo inside of your mind, hushed and reverent. It makes it sound as if such a thing is sacred. Do they have a culture around these things? M makes a melodious noise while you ponder, and when you look over, his head tail is slithering slowly against his back and his red eyes are staring at you. 

Your head becomes foggy for a movement, and you curse silently while your feet move against their will. ‘Closer…’ echoes in your mind, body helpless as you stop in front of the glass. You stare up at him in what you can feel is a slack jawed expression, and press your hands to the glass. ‘Better. Sun’s hogging.’ He reprimands S all the time about how clingy he is towards you, yet croons and calls to you any chance he gets. He wants you to sleep next to him, which he has not successfully done so far. You can’t imagine opening your unconscious mind to him is a good idea. 

Despite the pressure of his call, you have a little room in your mind to think. You picture your mind’s self pushing him away, rejecting a sort of blanket he’s trying to impose on you. The shark’s grin spread up his face turns into a pout, blues on his body flashing in mid annoyance. 

“I’m not tired, specimen M. Is this a call in your species to join minds?” You force yourself to keep calm and clinical, moving your leaden arms off the glass to write on your clipboard. 

“Starlight’s fragile, needs more sleep.” He pokes the glass around where your eyes are, making you flush in annoyance. You only get a few hours of sleep thanks to them! You stress all the time about them breaking out the glass, dooming you all. ‘Sleep better if you were with us.’ The ‘us’ is layered over a few times, as if in an echo chamber. Your head is starting to hurt, meaning it’s time to leave. You did your task, and you got a few more notes on avoiding merging with them. 

“I see.” You note this, and write down the time and date, plus the new information you have gathered. S stims, and there may be an easier way to mind meld with you when unconscious. Isn’t that a nerve wracking thought. 

‘Leaving so soon?’ They both coo, M’s a more aloof tone. You nod, setting the pen behind your ear. 

“It’s very late. Good night.” Your tone is clipped, dismissive. You have already given them enough rope tonight, far more than you wanted to. You force down all of your feelings, exiting out of the area with a fast pace. The door closes on echoing chitters and croons, calling you back. The back of your mind wants to, the part that you fear they have wormed themselves into. It must be, because why else do you want to know more?

You send a message to the ship’s log about your current state of being alive, and flop hard into your bed. Another restless sleep lies ahead of you, mind racing as you try to relax. 

You fall asleep within minutes, instead. One second you are staring at your wall, the next you are enfolded into a pair of arms. A sort of buzzing echoes in your dream mind, pleasant despite the droning. 

On loop, you are praised and pampered, slithering things touching you inside of your skin and out. You feel like you should be scared, but the constant praise and droning noise prevents you from thinking much at all. 

“Darling..” you think you hear. You’re not sure, because the sound seems to be coming from both inside of you and outside. “You’re so perfect, yes, so kind…” You see flashes of yourself talking to Sun and Moon when they were first brought here, when they’d cry constantly. You felt bad, so you tried to console them. You feel bursts of love and gratitude from yourself, or maybe whoever it is that’s inside your mind. Who is that?

You are twisted..no, rather your perspective changes. Two faces peer down in your field of vision, one yellow and one blue. You’ve…merged? But…they need to do it physically..it's very hard to think, and very hard to feel scared when such joy is rocketing through your systems. Euphoric, you had hypothesized. You can think of no better way to describe the way they enfold you into themselves. 

“Hey!” You sit up so fast you almost flail out of bed, heart racing inside of your rib cage. The door is assaulted with banging, your name called in an urgent tone. Dizzy and disoriented, you wrestle yourself out of bed and clutch your head, the vivid dream overlapping with the monotone colors of your room. Just a dream, you mutter to yourself. You did not merge with them without knowing. 

“What?” You get the door open and muster an irate expression, because what is all the commotion about if the ship’s alarms aren’t going off? The head scientist sighs in relief when he sees your face, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Do you know what time it is? You’ve overslept by four hours. Both specimens have been banging at the glass constantly. Are you alright?” You feel yourself pale, flipping your wrist to see your watch face. The wake alarms have been clearly going off for hours, unheeded in your strange dream. You pray to anything that is listening that it was only a dream. 

“One of the administrators is here today. Can you get them to calm down? Please?” You know he would not be saying please if this was not dire. Those corporate types pretend they don’t have a very dangerous alien on the ship and board whenever, in the interest of seeing ‘progress.’ You think they want to see if they see if they can be tamed, but these things are above your clearance. 

“I'm fine. Just slept too hard.” You lie smoothly, nodding your head. “I’ll calm them down. Give me two minutes.” You shut the door, pulling on your work clothes and splashing water in your face from the refresher. 

You shove your strange dreams back down into the pit they came from. There is no time to worry if they gave you those dreams or if it's a product of your overactive imagination. You are going to believe the latter, since you are in proximity to them all of the time. If it were given to you, then wouldn’t you be a mindless drone already? The thought is comforting, and it steels your heart as you stalk out to the containment room while the dream fades from your mind. 

They weren’t kidding. S is very agitated, baring his teeth while his body shapes and morphs. M is in sort of a heap on himself, pressed into a small corner of the cylinder. You can faintly hear chattering of teeth under all of that mass. Both of your fellow scientists have clutched their hands over their heads, a faint trickle of blood pooling out from under their palms. Yeesh.

“Hey!” You call out, willing your heart steady. You knock on S’s glass, then tap M’s glass. You think you may just have a stronger mental fortitude, because your ears never bleed like that. S’s eyes snap to you, and his entire demeanor changes - one second he looked a hair's breadth away from smashing the glass, the next he’s cooing gently, flattening himself to the bottom of the cylinder to look at you. M quiets down, but refuses to move from where he’s in a pile. 

His body is still half twisted when he was forming himself into knives. What made them so angry? ‘Beloved is here, is here! Get rid of them - poison - trying to hurt us, want to kill us!’ S does most of the talking, but M chimes in when he feels like. He’s rather shy if there’s anyone else but you in the room, but you fear what he would do if he’s fully awake. You blink in confusion, turning your gaze to the other scientists. They seemed to be okay, rubbing their temples. 

“Oh god, the ringing has stopped. How do you stand it?” The junior scientist, a more recent recruit, asks while glaring daggers at S. You grimace, looking at the older scientist for an explanation.

“Don’t look at me. One minute I was trying to see if Specimen M was awake, the next my head was splitting open.” Mason looks down at the new recruit…Abel? Atticus? Something fancy you can’t remember for the life of you. He swallows, suddenly looking caught.

S bangs against the glass. You all jump, and S hisses a steady stream. He’s not usually this angry. ‘Poison. Bad human thinks we’re stupid,’ echoes in your mind before he twists in a way that would be impossible, and his head changes right before your eyes into the recruit. “What freaky ass aliens.” He asks, with a tone of voice that's clearly mimicking human speech. Your stomach drops out, heart rate picking up. They can do that? “They need some shock collars or something. Ugly creatures.” S morphs back into his normal head, pressing flat to the glass. He chortles at the shocked expression on the recruit’s face, slithering around. 

“I think you two need to leave.” The demand leaves you in a rush, but your face is blank. “I will take over from here.” They don’t need to be told twice, practically speed walking out. You swallow, S chittering happily when it’s just the two of you. 

‘So good to us, thank you!’ You press your lips together, taking slow and even breaths. They both seem to relax now that the room is empty, M unfolding himself from the ball he made himself into. You think calming thoughts, a hammock on the beach, windchimes, anything to keep your heart steady and your mind clear. 

‘Starlight’s better.’ M sounds petulant. ‘Others too loud.’ In mind, or out loud? Could be ether. 

You’re going to need to brief them again. How many times have you told the others to at least try to be clear headed? That’s why you’re the only real handler - the others make both specimen’s too agitated. It’s like they want to die. 

‘Never hurt treasure, no, keep treasure safe.’ Both of them press against the glass. S scrunches his face, as if the thought of them hurting you is absurd. ‘So good for us..so lovely. Come closer?’ This is echoed between the two of them, a light show streaking down both of their bodies. S…no, Sun’s yellows turn vibrant, Moon’s blues into royal blues, mesmerizing and enchanting. Perhaps it’s the dream you can’t remember, perhaps your defenses are low, but you have no mind to look away, the edges of your vision blurry. Why are you hesitant to get close to them again? They look inviting, grins spread up both of their faces. Wouldn't it be nice? You wouldn’t have the burden of a body anymore.

‘Pretty….’ This is much easier than speaking aloud. They can hear you just fine, and they both look so happy! You sort of shuffle forward, elated and confused in equal measure. You’re not sure what's going on, but the light streaking down their bodies is mesmerizing enough not to care. 

‘We can hear you.’ The message ping pongs around inside of your head, both of them pressed flat to the glass. Something changes with that declaration, the voice settling somewhere in the back of your mind. It sort of….buzzes, almost. 

Your pda takes that moment to chime, startling you so hard you freeze in place. You blink, shocked to see you are halfway across the room and in the center of both of their cells. What were you about to do? Their wide eyes narrow in displeasure at the same time, the buzzing noise ceasing. A shiver of fear goes down your spine - you were very close to doing something. God knows what, but it was not something you should be doing.

You flip out your pda. It's a call to the conference room - almost two hours have passed somehow. You don’t spare them a goodbye, crossing your arms and ignoring their low upset crooning. 

*~*

“Really.” The administrator sits across from you in the only conference room, the one you all use to give the company updates. You are so, so tired. The thought that they could pretend to be anybody won’t leave you, stomach turning over itself. “Hm. That's a new development.” 

Vanessa, she introduced herself as. A straight laced middle manager type, she types on the datapad with her constantly, never really looking at you or the head scientist. There’s a headache building somewhere right behind your eyes the longer you sit here. 

“We just need different precautions then.” She finally looks up, resting her hand on her chin. Her eyes seem to pierce through you. “So long as they’re just listening to your thoughts, they’re calm, yes?” You hesitate to tell her yes, because nothing is going to stop them from jumping from your mind to someone else's. Nothing really stops their telepathy, no matter what the team has put up to try and block them. And the fact that they could just command you to do anything…are you really a block between the crew and certain death?

“Yes, of course. If there are only a few people, then that should keep them calm.” The head scientist answers for you, looking nervous. He’s such a pushover. 

“That can be arranged. A few interested parties want to see them. We’ll provide you with a shuttle in a few hours. I'm sure you can get them ready, yes?” So that's why she’s here. The stakeholders love to spring random things on your crew, unheeding of the danger it poses them. So long as you’re there and the glass is reinforced, who cares? They want to see progress. 

“Understood.” Saying anything else will change nothing. They are paying exorbitant amounts of money to handle shape shifting aliens, so that is exactly what you are going to do. “Please select more experienced crew members. They are very emotionally sensitive, and will lash out if emotions are too high. We can knock them out, but it doesn’t mean they are not mentally active.” And will probably kill everyone on that ship.

“Why? Knock them out enough to keep them docile. Keep the concentration of gas on for the duration of the viewing. Problem solved.” The dismissive tone she says it in shows you how little she cares. Great. This transport is going to go swimmingly. Your heart sits somewhere in your stomach, feeling distinctly like you are going towards your doom. 

“If you will excuse me then. I will get them ready.” You do a few mental calculations as you go to the maintenance room; they need to be unconscious for several hours, but not enough to kill them. It’s a little sick, treating them like animals. They’re still intelligent beings, regardless of their capacity for slaughter, as shown by how much they talk to you. You wish there was a way to let them out without killing everyone and yourself. 

But what can you do about it? You curse to yourself as you fiddle with the controls, biting your lip. Getting kicked off this ship is a surefire way back to a planet like Gamma Thirteen, where you will be stuck behind a desk all day and all night. You think you would go crazy, cooped up for the rest of the foreseeable future. Between that and aliens who want you as one of them, it's a rock and a hard place. 

“Okay. That should knock them out in time. I hope.” The gas still works, but it makes them agitated as they slowly fall asleep. Maybe you can try talking to them. At least to form a truce rather than this uneasy relationship you have going on. Maybe if you ask, they won’t try to force you to do whatever you were about to do again? They're gentle with you, letting you refuse their mind control. Doubt is strong in your gut, but you have to try. 

With that in mind, you unlock the containment doors once more. M is asleep again, resting on his arms. He’s using his own lower half as a pillow, the net spread out like a blanket. S appears to be singing to himself, swaying side to side while he stares at the ground. 

“Sorry for leaving like that.” S sits up, smiling once he sees you. “You..surprised me.” He doesn’t look mad, at least. 

‘Star doesn’t need to be scared.’ The lightshow has subsided, but all eyes are on you once more. The one on his chest is curled into a crescent sideways, appearing to be happy. What is it about you that entices them so?

“I have a request.” M cracks an eye open, giving you his attention. You take a breath. “We have to move you - not far!" You cut yourself off as S presses himself against the glass, chattering distressingly. You keep your mind as blank as possible. "But we need to go somewhere special. If I promise not to leave, do you promise to stay with me?" Do they even understand promises? S and M look at each other, then back at you.

'Treasure won't leave?' They speak at the same time, both pressed against the glass again. At the very least, you are not being drawn into a light show that will surely spell your doom. The pressure on your mind is a lot weaker. They really just want you close, apparently. Hopefully. 

"Yes." You refuse on principle to answer in your mind. You feel like this will give them an invitation to speak only into your mind, and you cannot allow that to pass. That's a step too far. "I promise. I'll be with you the entire time." They don't look especially happy, but you think you have gotten them to agree.

You sit down in between their tanks to prove it, and watch as they settle down to be level with you. The gas is working - S's eyes are getting droopy. You hum quietly, as he would sing to himself. M’s eyes close quick, as he most often does, but S stares at you with sad eyes. 

‘Don’t like sleep..’ Do they ever sleep? You call M’s behavior sleep, but he opens an eye even when completely still. S never really seems to stop moving, either. You swivel to him, humming just a little louder. S’s head rays droop around him, and you feel a sort of buzzing sensation before he finally closes all of the eyes. 

You sit there and hum softly for a few more moments. A sort of squirmy feeling makes its way into your gut and in the back of your head. He was scared, going to sleep there. You turn to M, who is less curled up comfortably and more in a sort of a sprawl, mouth unnaturally slack jawed. Was he scared, too? He ‘sleeps’ more often than S does, but…well. You resume humming, keeping calm. 

Wait. You reach up and press the back of your head. You swore for a second…but that's impossible, because you are separated by glass. They are both unconscious, barely twitching. So what was that sensation? There’s a sort of low buzzing noise coming from…oh, from them. You breathe a sigh of relief, and go back to emptying your mind. The nauseous feeling must be coming from sitting near them for so long today. 

Now. You have around forty eight standard hours before they’re awake, or at least active. You keep your mind steady and your movements slow, watching carefully for any movement or agitation. At most, a bioluminescence travels sluggishly down their bodies, but they remain still and silent.

You get the release hatch open, unbolting the cages from the ground. These things are on wheels - there would be no way to transport them safely without risking a breach. It also has a closed air supply to keep the gas at a steady level, so you and your crew have the best shot of keeping them calm. That's all, you tell yourself. Just relax. You watch S settle from his tensed position, falling flat once more. 

It doesn’t make them any lighter though. You crouch down and get two good grips on the handles and begin to pull, wheeling them down the hallway. You can hear people getting out of your way, some curses, some doors shutting. The tension in the air is palpable - any mistake and  - it will be fine. M’s hands are curling into claws, he relaxes as you level your thoughts again. You have meditated a lot since coming in contact with these aliens, and it serves you very well for this purpose. So long as they are linked to you, it all will be okay. 

You manage to get around the few hallways, hitting the hatch with your elbow. Lo and behold, a luxury cruiser is docked to the tiny airlock. You allow yourself a small, stray thought of how annoyingly organized these people are when it comes to flaunting something expensive. 

“That's them?” Vanessa stares wide-eyed at the containment cylinders, both of them twitching in response to her voice. You raise a hand to your lips, and then poke your head. 

“Don’t talk to me, I can’t think about anything.” Your tone is curt, but you really can't. They’re already agitated from all this movement, just startling to settle down again. Little pulses move somewhere in the back of your mind, as if a reassurance that you are there. It's fine, you send back, in a strange reflex.

…..you can freak out about that later. The buzzing is not coming from them. 

“Whatever, so long as they’re contained. This way.” The guards all stare at your entourage openly while you haul them up the ramp, staring straight at Vanessa’s back. How long is this journey, anyway? You should have more than enough time till they wake up, but you hope the majority of it isn’t in the ship. At the very least, it appears to be one of the higher end ones, judging by the polished floors and holo signs. 

It turns out the ‘secure’ location they put you in is in the cargo hold, made claustrophobic by the size of the cages. There is just enough room for you to put them on either side of the room, almost blocking the door. Great. 

“Does the intercom turn on in here? Please keep it off.” The last thing you need is a loud announcement that startles them enough to wake up. Base instinct to protect themselves is far stronger than any gas you could give them. 

M violently twitches, slapping the glass with his hand. Both of you jump, your heart in your throat.

"Shhhhh." You start humming again, forcing anything else out of your mind. Seriously, anything can startle them. You crouch down, close to where his head is. "It’s okay. Shhh..." M settles, hand falling off the glass. He must be very uncomfortable if he's willing to move so fast.

"What? Why’d it move like that? You said they were going to be unconscious." Vanessa sounds disturbed. You look over your shoulder at her, face deadpan. Whatever she sees makes her face pinch. 

“I tried to tell you.” You pause, letting the wave of anger pass through you and out. “They are unconscious as of now, but they are very receptive to emotion. I thought about something startling, and Specimen M reacted in reflex.”

She looks almost afraid. You really, really wish someone would have listened to you. She turns on her heel and fiddles with the intercom, the overhead speakers turning off with a click.

“There. Just…keep them calm.” She runs a hand through her hair, and shuts the door behind her.

With that, you are left in the darkness of the cargo hold. Slowly, you sink down into crossing your legs, stiffly sitting in between them. How is this your life right now? You take even, slow breaths, lightly lamenting the choices that got you to this situation. Getting four degrees in different fields could not have prepared you for the task you face, for the long journey ahead.

The silence drones on, permeating. The buzzing comes back stronger, a sort of a low droning sound at the base of your skull. You dearly wish you could pretend that is the rumbling of the ship, but this is far too new. The engine is silent under the floor.

Where have you heard this sound before today? It’s familiar, but you are having a hard time placing it. What's more worrying is how unbothered you are by it. It's like white noise but inside of your skull. 

You’re almost getting sleepy. You sag forward, the buzzing growing with each passing second. It wouldn’t be so bad to take a nap, would it? They’re still, and it's not like you’re going to be bothered anytime soon. 

“Can’t sleep…” you mutter to the air. You want to, but you’re on duty. You rub your eyes and push down the buzzing, shaking your head to clear it. It doesn’t do much. It must be them, but how have they connected your minds like this?

It's very hard to think. You slide forward, sprawling out on the floor. It’s cold, but it would be a lot nicer if you were lying on something. It's almost uncomfortable to be by yourself like this.

On either side of you, Sun and Moon twitch. They kind of lean towards you, but that's as far as they can get, not with the gas in the chamber. In your muddled state, you struggle to remember why the gas settings are on that high, because why do they need to be forced asleep? It's leaving you alone in the cold. 

“Are you doing this?” You ask the air, your question directed at the aliens. Muted fear worms its way up your spine and into your stomach, fear for these desires you're starting to think aren’t your own. But when, how? You never opened your mind to them, never let them touch you.  As far as you know, that's the only way to…..

The light show. You responded in your mind, didn’t you? Just a short word, a bust of emotion. In a hive mind species perhaps reciprocating means consent, if they have any concept of consent to begin with. It's more strange to begin with that they’ve paid such close attention to you and let you go thus far, culturally speaking. 

Well. Mindless drone with no concept of boredom may be better than getting pulled apart.

Time passes sluggishly like this, your thoughts slow. You’re sort of sprawled out on the ground, cold and lonely. The cold is your own, but the loneliness is not. A hive mind would never sleep alone, curled into their loved one’s bodies. How long till there is nothing left of you? Only time will tell. If you had any mind to do it, you would almost call for help. You’d probably get that person killed though.

How close are you to the station anyways? It feels like it's been a really long time since you’ve left, but you have no way of telling, not with the engines silent. For all you know, you’ve been docked for hours - 

The entire ship rocks.

You shout in alarm, thrown forward onto your shoulder. Your body flips like a ragdoll on the ground before slamming into the door, suddenly wide awake. Your thoughts return to you in clear focus, the numbing buzzing from before dulling into almost nothing. What?

That's the least of your worries. In the blast, both containment cylinders rip clean off the supports, living flesh flailing inside as they go shattering onto the floors. Your heart stops for a moment, fear - panic - anger bouncing around your skill in quick succession. They kind of splat onto the ground, squeaking and chattering. 

They’re out. You are effectively trapped in a room with freed aliens, the only way out a door that will do nothing to stop them once merged together. They’re barely awake, and already they begin this process, tentacles and arms and limbs all reaching out to each other. It becomes a marriage of color and moving skin, eyes and mouths and teeth moving as they twist and connect. Up and up the body rises, till they are easily seven feet tall. 

Two heads emerge from the top, one yellow in a crown of golden rays, and another blue with a tail hat. The eye on the center of their chest opens wide, curling into a crescent once it spots you. The panic from earlier turns into a burst of euphoria, a grin working its way up your face without your consent. 

‘Darling, star, starlight…’ They work their way over to you, seamless now that they are together. They move akin to a spider, a lot of movement at once for a short distance it takes to lean over you, staring excitedly into your eyes. Well, mostly..to hell with it, Sun. Moon seems to be resting against him, though an eye is cracked open to stare at you. ‘Not cold or lonely anymore. Come.’ 

A mouth opens up where their chest is. They want you with them, together, closer than they are just in your head. What would it be like, with no cares or worries?

“I'd lose myself.” Your smile wobbles, distress and confusion worming around in your stomach. Sun slaps his hand above your head, chittering loudly. 

‘No loss, only together.’  You shake your head, Sun’s delighted grin turning crestfallen.The blue side hand reaches out to you slowly while Sun crouches down, freezing in place when you flinch. Moon chatters, Sun coos. They get just below your face, staring at you with wide and pleading eyes. ‘Beloved tired and cold. Rest?’ You shake your head again, firmly. They already mind merged without you knowing. This is far enough. 

Whatever they were about to plead with is drowned out by the rat-tat-tat of gun fire, the air charged with the phaser beams that follow. You whip your head to the door, the alien reeling back from the noise. 

Pirates. Here? Now? You were in a remote area of the galaxy, where did the shuttle go that was anywhere near pirates? That must have been the explosion from earlier!

‘Pirate? Danger, bad humans.’ You can feel them indexing your mind, watching your own memories play out in front of your eyes.

“Stop that!” You flail your hand in front of your face, blinking hard to clear it. “Please just ask. They are very dangerous though, maybe if we block the door -”

Said door whooshes open, leaving you sprawling out on your back. Three men grin at you, guns trained right onto your face. There’s splashes of blood streaking up the sides of their faces and on their clothes, terror leaving your mouth in a pathetic whimper.

“Well, lookit what we have here. You a scientist type? We could sell them for a lot.” You hold your palms out in surrender, eyes darting to Sun and Moon for help. 

Anger - fear - hatred. A deep anger boils inside of you, and the room fills with a deeper growl then you have ever heard them make. They rush towards you, cracking the walls from the sheer force of their bulk. 

“What the hell is that?” One of the screams, reeling back. The others open fire, both you and the alien wail in pain from the awful noise. 

Crunch. A man is slapped into the wall, turning into a mass of guts on impact. Your mouth drops open, staring at the gore uncomprehendingly. The alien passes over you, the net of tentacles temporarily blocking your vision from the awful sight. In reassurance, a little blue tendril caresses your face, before you get to see a yellow one shank another man through with a knife hand. He dies in seconds. One after another they are taken care of, bullets going through the alien and out, harmless to his shifting biology. Bulletproof, your scattered mind understands. 

Through this, cooing and shhing permeates through your skull, exactly like how you calm them down. They’ll never let anything harm you, they seem to say. Your heart rate slows, staring directly at the ceiling. There is no gore or viscera there. 

‘All better. Sunshine okay?’ You can’t say that you are. But you are physically fine, and that's what matters. You swallow. ‘Shh, made it better.’ Moon’s head shifts down so he’s closer to you, cupping the side of your face. A sort of sweet melody permeates your mind, a blanket of calm washing over you. Not a mindless drone, but rather as if you were being held. It's…comforting, actually. 

“Thanks.” You work your way out from underneath them, standing up on very wobbly feet. “We can’t…stay here.” You stare at their faces, trembling some. If you stay here, there will be more, and they could easily take over the ship and leave you stranded. A ship dead in space is as good a coffin. “Do you two think…you can protect me? Our best bet is the bridge.”

Your cheeks are squished by both hands, new ones clean of blood. Despite the fact that gore streaks both of their faces, your heart swells with the bursts of love and affection they surge into you. 

‘Lovely will never be hurt.’ They do not do things by half measures, the declaration sincere. 

It’s time to take back the ship. Two aliens hum in the back of your mind, all encompassing and fierce. You hope to any gods that are left that Vanessa is still alive.