Aquata Cove Ch. 62

"Do not speak, Father," Adra Nerissa said, "You were close to death because of that thing. You must save your strength."

Triton Samudra glances around the aftermath of this battle. Guardian Kraken pulls the Scylla carcasses away from the area, entangled by its many, many tentacles into the depths below. The atmosphere is still sore with a lingering dark mist in the water from the summoned squid and octopi, mixed with a tinge of blood from both the Scyllas and merfolk.

Deilan groans as he picks up the remains of the broken weapons, along with a few other merfolk who stayed to fight. Several Capricorns have escorted the rest of the small pod away from the struggle, hopefully still intact.

Once dealt with, the enormous, mythical squid Kraken looms away, ordered to hunt down the third Scylla that has strayed from the pod.

"Four of our own have been lost on this sun..." Ebba reports sadly, "Karkos, Myles, Ehecatl, and Inciro have perished in the fight..." She sighs, "Everyone else is still alive, and connected."

"We must regroup as soon as possible," Noita Vanora says, "We must be sure that we are all together."

"Yes. We still do not know where the last Scylla has vanished. If we do not know, it might-"

"That is not my concern at this moment." Vanora said, "If the third Scylla was still in the midst of battle, we would still be hearing it right now."

"It is fine..." Samudra moaned, "I am sure the others will be safe."

"No. You do not understand," Vanora said, "At this time, we must hope upon hope that no one must go above the surface. We must recount everyone as soon as possible!"

"Mother, what are you saying??" Nerissa asked, becoming quite bewildered.

~~~

Merrick gently sits down and tries to situate Arnaav as well, "Arnaav... Are you ok?" He asked drearily. He feels so tired.

"Hhhnnnn..." Arnaav groans as he sways a little on the spot, opening his mouth for a yawn, and whipping his head a little afterwards, "Hmm?" He looks up with half-lidded eyes.

"We escaped... We're alive..." Merrick mumbles. He grunts as he rubs his eyes a little, "God, that chase really wiped me out."

"Cha... Chase?" Arnaav swerved, before catching himself, and groans as he stretched out, "Wh-What chase again?"

"The Scylla... It came after us, and we were barely able to outrun it."

"Ok... I cannot really think right now..." Arnaav yawned as the warmth of the sun comforted his wet fur, yet quickly drying him, "Can we take a nap though? I feel like I have not slept in so long..."

"No. We need to get back to the pod..." Merrick yawned too, "Errff, why am I so drowsy?"

"You just swam so fast for a long time," Arnaav lays down and starts to curl up, "You're probably tired and..."

"Yes, but I can... Keep going..." He mumbled, slapping his own face lightly to wake himself up, "We can't stay, we need to get back, find out what happened to the others."

"Mmmnnnn..." Arnaav succumbs and falls asleep. Merrick sighed as he sits against one of the large shells, crossing his arms as he decides to let the young Amnien sleep.

"Damn..." Merrick's eyelids are so heavy, he takes a moment to rub his palms on his face, "Where are we anyway..." The air smells really weird here. And these shells feel strange -- they don't have a smooth or natural feel on their surface, besides the fact that they're 100 to 1000 times as big as any other shell.

"God, it's so hot..." He silently whines, feeling his arms on his bright peach skin. He looks at his legs, just barely noticing that he's dried up completely now. His tired eyes look over his pseudo little brother before him, keeping a watchful eye over him as he slept.

Merrick groans as he closes his eyes. Oh, an entire world of temptation pulls and sings to him as those lids cover his sapphires, before they very reluctantly open up again. Merrick looks ahead out to sea, and sighed in content as he sees a small bit of shade up ahead.

"Thank God... Looks like a cloud's coming." He smiled weakly in his drowsy state for a moment, before letting his lips settle back down, as the effort of smiling seems so bothersome. The merman takes another long, exhausting, agonizing blink, and smirks a little to see a smooth belly quickly appearing on Arnaav's front side.

Merrick tilts his head up a little to look up to the sky. He groaned as he sees no such cloud to mask the blazing sun, but still, he spots a small spot of darkness over the water.

His eyes squint as he peers up to the sun; to a slightly incomplete sun, with an invisible depletion on the lower side of the brightness of the sky.