#tiny mer

Marin woke up to his world shaking violently, if the giant wanted him awake this was working. He moved in and out of his coils to make sure nothing was getting tangled. Once he knew everything was secure he came back to the wall of the stomach. As he got to the edge it started to compress his body, everything was tightening as he heard a sound from above him. He hated whatever sound the giant was making and all the tightness that came with it. "Hey! What are you doing, I was trying to sleep!" His words didn't seem to travel very far as he could feel the giants fingers pressing at him again. He was forced upwards to the top of the stomach when the pressure disappeared. He was starting to get mad at the giant, they were just moving him around like a toy. He flailed his tail in an effort to make the giant stop whatever it was doing. It seemed to work for a while until his arms were gripped.

His body was forced upwards, he tried to flail but the muscles massaged him still. His tail was slowly dragged up with him as he was continuously massaged by the tight muscles. He was eventually deposited onto the giants tounge, he looked around to see the giants hand in it's own mouth pushing at their uvula. It came down and pinched him between their fingers. They pulled him out and gently set him onto their free hand. The cold air pierced his skin and he shivered a bit before looking back to the giant. He glared at it before flinging away whatever stomach juices were still left on him. They looked relieved to see him before clutching over in pain. He flicked off a bit more of the odd mixture of liquids and was going to start beraiding the giant but stopped when he saw tears welling in their eyes. They were in pain, but why? He saw his tail creating a small lump under their neck that was crushing their wind pipe.

"Hey, don't pull it out, it'll only make it worse!" Most mers had to practice to let whoever they were protecting out. It's a painful process if a mer tries to force them out and some mers have choked on who they were protecting. Marin didn't want his new friend to die but he couldn't help them, they either couldn't understand him or couldn't hear him. He watched in growing horror as the giant kept pulling his tail out of their mouth and each bit looking more and more painful. He tried to help pull his tail put but only succeeded in nearly slipping of their hand before catching himself on their thumb. The tears in their eyes started streaming down their cheeks. Marin started to cry when he saw that their lips were starting to gain a blue tinge. They were losing air to quickly, he was going to lose his first protector in forever because he was too long and he couldn't do a thing about it. He could feel the last bit of of his tail in their throat, they just needed to get that out and they would be safe.

The end of his tail came up their throat and they yanked it out just as their lips were turning entirely blue. They quickly took in a deep, shaky breath. Marin was held out far away from the giant as they coughed into their arm. "Hey! Hey! Are you ok? Do something, anything to show your ok!" His words came out frantic but it didn't stop him from trying to get the giants attention. Soon enough their attention settled on Marin, his hands were extended towards the giant as he scooted closer to the edge of the giants palm. They brought him closer and he immediately latched onto their face and hugged them. They slowly cupped their hands around him in an attempt to hug back, making a few low growls while hugging him. He could feel himself shaking in fear, he didn't want to lose his new friend. The giants stomach let out a loud growl without Marin in it. He didn't want be their snack again, not yet at least.

The giant set him down on their leg before reaching into their back and pulling out a shiny brick. They took the shiny off and threw it into the water before pulling off a small part of the odd golden brown material. They handed a small piece to Marin, what did they want him to do with it. He tried handing it back to the giant, they pushed it back to him before taking bite of the bigger piece. Marin took a bite of his piece and was stunned. It was the sweetest things he'd ever tasted. His stomach let out a low groan as the bite fell into it, he had forgotten how hungry he was. He tore into the small piece of food, finishing it with ease. He felt a little satisfied but he was still hungry, maybe he could- the giant interrupted his thoughts by handing him another piece of food. It was nearly as big as he was! Maybe he could even practice using this as something to be protected.

He took bite after bite out of it, making sure to try and make it ball shaped. He could feel the giant messing with his tail, it didn't hurt so he just ignored it. After a while he finally had it just small enough to swallow. He unhinged his jaw to fit it over the ball. It wouldn't fit for a bit, just slightly too big for him to eat. He kept forcing it in, his jaw stretched farther than it should have and finally got it through. Swallowing it wasn't as difficult, but when he got it down he was in paradise. The taste was still lingering on his tounge and the feeling of being this full was amazing. He laid down over the giant's leg and let every nerve fire. He let out an annoyed groan as the giant poked at his stomach, he couldn't explain it to the giant so he just wanted to sleep off his meal. He made an odd noise even to him as the giant poked his stomach again. He pulled himself off the giants leg and fell into the water, letting himself sink to the floor.

Marins back hit the cool sand, he just wanted to go back to sleep. He dug his way into the ground and burrowed into the sand. Keeping just an eye above the sand. The giant soon fell into the water, the bubbles surrounding him floated upwards back into the hole. He nuzzled his face into the sand to try and fully bury himself. It didn't take long for the giant to grab him, the warmth of their hand was a nice contrast to the cool water and sand. He held his stomach a bit protectively, he didn't want the giant to poke him again. For some reason though the giant decided to wrap him around their neck. They eventually got out of the cave and started walking again, his mind was getting fuzzy. After a while of walking the giant would occasionally check on him then give him messages and they would occasionally make a big piece of metal turn into water and bubbles somehow. This went on for a while and Marin eventually fell asleep.

Timeskip: a nap

Marin slowly woke up to the rhythmic pace of the giant walking. His eyes had to adjust to the light from the forest and the pure darkness ahead of them. He swam slightly upwards in front of the giants face and pressed his hands onto the invisible barrier. He wanted to make sure that his friend was with him. The giant rubbed at his back, he leaned into the warmth of the giants finger. He snuggled up to the giants thumb as it gave him rubs from all around. They brought him back to their shoulder and kept rubbing his back for a while. It didn't feel like too long before the giant stopped in its tracks. Marin turned to see what the giant was looking at. He saw what he never wanted to see again. The huge, long, oddly shaped piece of metal was still propped up on some uprooted trees. It looked like holes were torn into it and blown outwards. He knew the kraken didn't destroy it but whatever did was much more powerful. Marin was jolted back by the giants neck, his tail was still wrapped around them. He looked back to see three red tentacles coming at the giant. One was already wrapped around their waist and the other two were coming at them.

The giant was reaching into their back with one hand and trying to pry off the tentical with the other. Marin didn't want to go threw this again, and this time without even being protected. Marin was frozen with fear and sadness. A tentical griped onto the giants arm, he couldn't go through this again, he wouldn't let himself go through this again, if he could help, even just slightly. He snapped out of his fear and untangled himself from the giants neck, dashing towards the tentical around the giants arm. Marin pulled with everything he had, just able to unpop a single suction cup before he was grabbed. He looked back to see the giant holding him. They readied themselves and threw Marin towards the forest. They yelled out "HIDE" as Marin rapidly descended. He understood the giant! They could finally talk and... and... the slight optimism was soon crushed as the flailing siluet of the giant disappeared and the light from their head went out. Marin gently hit the sandy ground, sadness overwhelmed him as he was barely able to think. He was a curse on everyone around him, every protector he had would die. He staired into the darkness, there was a faint glimmer in the distance and his hope swelled before immediately being crushed.

A tentacle darted out towards him and Marin let out a scream as he began to swim towards the metal. There was a large gash that he swam threw, he looked back to see the tentical following him in. It was dark in the large piece of metal but he was glowing just bright enough to see where he was going. The massive piece of metal was neatly hollow, odd perfectly rounded ovals and rectangles leading into more rooms. He looked back again to see that the tentical wasn't following him anymore. He let out a small sob before going to explore the ship. He had outrun a kraken, but why was it protecting this piece of metal. He scoured the ship, there had to be something to indicate why it needed to be protected. Marin swam into a bigger room, there was rot covering six big rectangles and an odd substance was floating in the water. He was about to leave when something caught his eye. He looked over to some of the rot, there was something shiny caught in the deep green substance that didn't seem to be rusted over.

Marin cautiously swam over to the shiny metal, getting just inches away from it before being stopped "I wouldn't do that." Marin turned around as fast as he could towards the familiar voice. A barely glowing, deep red mer was swimming in place in the middle of the oval doorway. "The rot isn't very nice to touch." They slowly swam towards Marin, and he could finally see their facial features. He didn't need to see everything about them to know that it was Lamarr, there wasn't any other red squid mers that he knew about. "So, why are you in my home?" Lamarr's words came out less enthusiastic than normal and he didn't seem as 'on top of the world' as he normally was. Marin swam in place for a few seconds, stunned to see a friend where he was told no mer should ever go. He didn't realize as his tail drifted closer and closer to the rot, too entranced with his thoughts. He jolted upwards as the light sting turned into a full burning sensation. Lamarr let out a delayed sigh "Come on, I've got something to treat that." He left the room and swam down the huge, empty corridor as Marin followed behind while cradling the hurt part of his tail.

Lamarr swam into a side room as Marin followed, the pain in his tail was only getting worse. Marin looked around in amazement, Lamarr had gotten so many things past that kraken. A small algae bed rested idle between two metal cylinders and they had more shiny things on one wall than Marins entire collection. There was a large rectangular piece of colored rot on one of the walls with odd shapes throughout and a small hole in the opposite wall letting in light from the forest. He looked back to see Lamarr swimming towards him, rubbing green and blue algae together with an orange berry under his arm. He gestured to Marin to hold out his tail, rubbing the aquamarine colored paste onto the hurt area. It was cold compared to the burning feeling as Lamarr rubbed it on. He smashed the orange berry and put it over the paste to keep it in place. Marin cringed at the odd feeling but sighing in relief as the pain quickly subsided.

"So, I'll ask again, why are you in my home." Marin never heard their voice so cold, they seemed like a completely different person.

"I was with my protector when the kraken... it..." a wave of emotions flooded his mind as he remembered what happend to his newest protector.

"What? What did my mother do?" They sounded confused yet bored at the same time.

"Your... mo-!" Marin was cut off mid-sentence as the walls shifted around them. Marin looked around as a large metal rectangle fell towards them. Lamarr lunged at him and pushed him away just in time to be hit by a barrage of large metal trinkets that fell out of a smaller, red rectangle. Marin slammed into the wall as he watched Lamarr sink under the pile of metal. It didn't take more than a minute for Marin to come to. He looked around the room, everything was in shambles as the walls had shifted to the floor and ceiling. He looked up to see the thin rot floating towards him. He dashed away and swam in quick circles to make sure his tail wouldn't be hurt. He sighed knowing he was alright, but mad that he brought destruction with him everywhere. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Lamarr's panicked voice muffed by the metal on top of them.

"Marin! Please, Help I.. I.. I Can't Breathe!"

He bolted towards the top of the pile, trying to lift the oddly shaped metal. He tried everything, pushing it, pulling it, slamming into it, but nothing he did made it budge an inch. Everything started to shake but Marin didn't stop trying to free them. Lamarr's voice was starting to go hoarse and it sounded like he was on the verge of tears. Soon he was shoved out of the way, Marin looked over to try on fight whatever moved him but stopped when he saw his protector, alive! He moved over to hug their arm as best he could while they were moving. He looked down to see what they were doing and saw them flinging away the oddly shaped metal with ease. Lamarr's red glow started to shine threw the metal and a few strands of hair poked out. Once everything was out of the way the giant picked them up, the tenticals hanging idly off the giants hand. Marin swam over to them, Lamarr's arm was bent around and there was a huge cut on their chest.

"I- I'm so cold."

"Hey it's ok, uhh..." Marin didn't know what to do, he didnt know how to mix the algae to heal them. Lamarr seemed to know what to do so they could teach him while he did it. "I'll go get some supplies, but for now, you need to be protected."

"I- I don't h-have a protector."

"Umm, I'll try to get the giant to protect you."

Marin swam up to the giants invisible barrier and started pounding on it. He tried to take it off, swimming into the side but slipped and nearly slammed into the wall. He reoriented himself and turned around, ready to try again when he saw the giant bringing Lamarr closer to its face. Lamarr put his hand onto the invisible barrier, he seemed like he was about to cry. Marin swam up to the giant as well, he needed to make sure his friend would be safe. The giant looked at them both for a bit before taking off its barrier. Lamarr groaned at every movement from the giant, once Marin knew that Lamarr would be safe he needed to find supplies fast. The giant quickly slid Lamarr into their mouth, their face twisting in disgust before swallowing. The lump Lamarr created slid down the giants throat and quickly disappeared past their collarbone.

Marin swam down to the giants stomach, looking up for just a second to see water somehow draining from the inside of the barrier. Marin touched the giants stomach, after a few seconds, Lamarr weakly touched back.

"Are you ok in their?"

"Yes, it's much warmer in here."

"Good, I'll be back soon but I need you to find a way to keep the giant from falloing me for a few minutes."

"I'll try."

With that, Marin bolted off. The thuds of the giant echoed threw the metal chamber, he turned around to see the giant falloing him as he expected. He held out his hands to try his best to communicate to the giant. "Wait here." was all he said before swimming threw a small hole in one of the walls. The forest was right outside so he didn't have to worry about the kraken trying to get him. He dashed threw the branches, his tail barely touching any algae or coral. There wasn't much to determine where he was but luckily the town was at the center of the forest so he knew where he was going. Something was off tho, he shouldn't recognize these trees but somehow he does. His eyes darted around as the trees became disturbingly more familiar as he swam. He suddenly came to a stop, there was just something about this place that hurt him. He looked up, seeing the darkness threw a crushed opening in the branches. Why was this so familiar? He swam up to one of the trees, seeing red berries growing inside the hallowed trunk. A thought raced a cross his mind and just as soon as it came, he shoved it away. He bolted off towards the town, his eyes stang and he had to force himself to believe that it was beacuse he was moving so fast.

The yellow orange lights lit the town in the distance. He swam closer, slowing down just a bit. He swam deeper into the town, there seemed to be some sort of farmers market going on. He looked around for a stall that could help him, but he noticed that people were staring at him. He didn't have a protector, he shouldn't be here, he shouldn't be in this town. He shoved those thoughts away and continued looking for a medical stand. A pattern of red algae caught his eye, he swam closer and saw the spiral of the krakens tenticals indicating the medical supply's. He darted over as fast as he could just to see that the stall was closed. No, there had to be something else to help Lamarr. He looked around swimming above the crowd onto one of the less crowded branches to look around. He couldn't see another stall that had medical supplies. He nearly gave up hope and would buy the bace materials to try and heal Lamarr when he saw familiar long purple hair swimming next to a deep green. He swam down, seeing Amara swimming next to her dad. Amara was training to become a healer at the main medical center! This was perfect!

"Amara!" Marin yelled out as he quickly dashed over to her.

Amara turned around with a multie color algae basket hanging from her arm. "Marin?"

Marin saw medical supplies in the basket, everything was already gathered in one place. "It's Lamarr, he got hurt and I don't know how to heal him! Can you help!?"

"What happened? Where is he?"

"We were near the edge of the forest at his home. His arm is all messed up and bent and there's a huge cut in his chest."

"Was he getting colder?"

"Yes, but I found a protector that we could trust."

Amara looked up at her dad, he had been listening to their quick conversation and gave a slight nod. "Then we have to go now!"

Marin bolted off, they shoved through the crowds of people to get the edge where Marin had emerged from. Once they left the town, Marin slowed down so Amara could catch up. Being an eel ment that he was fast but it ment that he had to go slow so others could keep up. He led the way for wat felt like an eternity compared to how fast he got to the town. Amara's fastest was barely keeping up with Marin as he tried to slow down. They kept going, Marin quickly slipping into a tree and grabbing two berries, giving one to Amara and quickly eating the other one as they swam. He started to recognize the trees again and took a longer route, trying to convince himself that he didnt know why he was doing that. They kept swimming, Amara seemd like she was going to collapse soon. Finally Marin could see the edge, the giant was standing up and looking into the darkness above the forest and he couldn't help but yell out "Protector!" as he swam faster towards them.

The giant didn't seem ready for Marin to full force slam into them. Marin loosely wrapped himself around the giant and looked back to see Amara, she looked so scared that her scales were turning from purple to pink. The giant barely took a step towards her as she screamed. She started to back away before Marin caught up and wrapped his tail around her to stop her from running away.

"Marin, let me go! We have to get away from that- that thing!"

"No, that's what's protecting Lamarr, just like it protected me!"

"No way, that's a full on monster like the kraken! We have to get away from it or it'll-"

"Marin, is that you? Did you bring Amara?" Lamarr called out from the giants stomach their voice was muffled and barely audable but, they could hear him.

Marin let go of Amara, she didn't swim away but shyly moved towards the giant, looking up to their face every so often. She slowly reached out towards the giants stomach until she was barely touching them. "Lamarr, are you really in there?"

"Ya, i-it's gett-ting colder."

"Ok, tell me what's going on."

Lamarr began to tell her what had happend, Marin swam a bit closer to try and listen better. It didnt take very long for the giant to move. Amara moved away as they moved and layed down on their back. Amara slowly came back, sitting down on the giants stomach next to Marin. Eventually Amara found out that the only way to help Lamarr was if he was kept warm in the giants stomach while she healed him. Amara definitely didnt like what she had to do but there was no other way. She cautiousaly got up from the giants stomach and swam towards their face. The giant was staring into the darkness before tilting their head up to look at Amara, she recoiled away when it looked at her.

"Umm- c-could... I-I need you to eat m-me so I can help Lamarr-"

"They don't understand what you're saying."

Marin swam up to the giants face and knocked on the invisible barrier, their eyes focused on him. He pointed at Amara before swimming down to the giants stomach and quickly patting on it. Amara looked at him in confusion while he did that. The giant turned its head towards Amara, she backed away from it a gentle whimper echoed in her throat. The giant moved their hand towards Amara, she backed away but eventually sat down on their hand. The fingers slightly cupped around her and she backed up into them as she was brought closer towards the giants face. The giant brought their other hand up towards their face and looked over to Marin. He gently nodded, Lamarr needed help and he trusted the giant. A mass of bubbles escaped from the invisible barrier as the giant took it off. They quickly slid Amara into their mouth and put the barrier back on, water quickly draining from it. They soon swallowed and Marin fallowed Amaras form as it quickly moved down the giants body.

"Hi Amara, it's good to see you, Heh."

...

"...Amara?"

"Get me out of here! Marin, get the giant to spit me out!"