Bound With The Water Dragon

New Found Strengths

Liia’s guidance sent him forward. Every step in towards the crevice pushed him on through the masses. There were creatures of every size flanking him. Some as great as the leviathan Ejder named earlier, while others were as small as minnows. 

His entrance seemed all too similar though. As his eyes traveled around the space before him he met the faces of many beautiful women crowned with red sea coral. They wore white robes, nearly blending in entirely with the icy walls, save for the golden embroidery at the hem. It glinted ever so slightly, pulling his eyes down to the ground. Morgan blushed slightly, realizing what he did, even though it wasn’t intentional. He did not just check them out. 

His sights set forward once more, sweeping the floor to keep him out of any more drama. There he could at least keep his guard up. He could focus on what he really wanted rather than what was happening around him. 

Movement beside him startled Morgan once more. This time it was to his left. There he caught a glimpse of a tall thin being turning away from those that looked on. It’s action led the shift in attention from him back to their own issues. Morgan watched as it’s frame seemed to sag as it slithered away. Those that were left, the two kelpies closest to the opening he needed, leaned casually beside it. It was almost as if they were guarding it… like they had the right to. 

His eyes darted to the one on the right first. It’s horse form was as dark as the abyss beyond them. His eyes were a bright purple. It’s enchanting color raced from corners of his brow, down his mane and out into a grey fin. It hung to the side of its neck casually but it’s stance still made him weary. Morgan’s eyes darted to the other one to keep himself from staring. It seemed he had already worn out his welcome. Not that it ever seemed like he truly had one. 

Enough could be said about Liia’s attempt, but still, so much felt unreal. He wondered why he felt threatened here with them when she explained none of them knew why they were really there. 

As the other tilted his head in question. His red and black mane perked up. It flowed back behind him just as his body reared up on his strong serpent’s tail. It kicked out it’s legs in a challenging way and snapped at him. 

“Hey, woah!” Morgan shouted at the creature. “What’s your problem?” 

“More like what’s your problem?” the purple one grumbled, revealing his deep voice. 

It rumbled like thunder as the other’s whinny shrieked right through him.  

“Besides you?” Morgan bit out against his will. 

It felt like Ejder was back, or surprised with him in his courage to move through the unknown. Whatever it was, his retaliation was not ideal. 

A flashback to being younger materialized in his mind. It was a glimpse of getting beaten up for challenging a bully in elementary school. It was there and gone. One moment after another where he failed to be his own hero against his own kind when he felt Ejder force his body to stand at his full height. 

While the kelpies wouldn’t back down, he could feel Liia with him too. Her focus awarded him his calm as he stood there, ready to answer to the brothers. 

The red kelpie advanced further. His strong tail raised it up, far higher than himself before springing himself downward to use it’s dark hooves to knock Morgan down. 

“The magic you hold is not yours,” the purple one neighed and stomped his hooves in front of him, readying himself for the fight. 

“Yeah! I know!” Morgan hissed, dodging the red one’s assault. 

“You know?” 

“And yet you still lie about it?” the purple one reared. 

“Do not tell them what I am or that I’m locked in here,” Ejder growled in his head. 

“Then what do I tell them?” Morgan hissed back, throwing himself backward to get out of the way of the purple kelpie’s charge.

“Yes, what do you tell us?”

“How about the truth?” the other snorts. 

“The truth is the only way they’ll stop,” Liia’s voice penetrates his mind, throwing him only further into his confusion. 

“The truth?” Morgan shouted his question as he dodged the red kelpie once more. He couldn’t stop his retaliation blow. It was an attempt to get them to stop; to wake them up from the terror they were enforcing on him. His fist hurled through the air and smacked into the kelpie’s gills. The hard contact echoed through the space. It called all eyes back to him again.

The whispers that followed left him concerned but he was no liar. 

“I don’t know what I am, therefore I am not hiding anything,” Morgan sneered at the fallen red kelpie. 

Morgan’s focus then found the other’s only to put the fight to rest. 

“Now,” he sighed. “I’m going to find out. If you have a problem with that, it’s on you. I’m not here for any of you. I’m not your cataclysmic event you need to be wary of…”

With that, he felt Ejder’s bond with him grow while Liia’s faded. It felt wrong to use her message against them but the shock seemed to still be pulsing through their beings. There was an energy there that he swore he shouldn’t be able to feel. Morgan shook his head before pushing out one last message especially to the two troublemakers beside him. 

“Don’t follow me.”

Morgan stepped over the black and red kelpie, beginning his journey into the dark crevice. Neither attempted to stop him nor did others seem to rush to their aid. It seemed as if he just put a pair of bullies in their place which was new for Morgan. Usually a fight would lay him out and have him in hiding for several days. 

“Thank you,” he thoughtfully muttered to himself but meant for Ejder to hear him. It was for him after all but no response came from his inner being. 

Morgan shook his head once more. He smoothed his hand out against the glacial wall expecting to find grooves there but there was nothing. 

“Could you at least tell me what it is I’m looking for?” he murmured once more. 

“That depends on whether or not you’re going to lay me out for wanting answers too,” Liia’s voice sang through his mind. 

Morgan swallowed at that. He was completely shrouded in darkness with legitimately nowhere to run if any of them followed her in. He wouldn’t know. Hell, he didn’t even know she was there. He thought her body glowed. What was it that he was seeing if she didn’t? How was she doing it?

“I would never,” he shuddered at the thought of hitting a girl. 

“Why? I’m not that different from Grant or Bryson. So why do it?” 

“I’m not certain I’m hearing you right,” Morgan huffed. “Did you not see what they were doing to me? Physical interrogation for… for what exactly?”

“Everyone’s shook up here. You can’t honestly think that a human showing up is going to put anyone at ease, can you?” Liia questioned, her tone blank and untelling. 

“You can’t honestly expect me to understand where you’re coming from. I mean, you’re a mermaid, right?” 

“Your point?” 

“A mythical creature in the human world is a story parents tell their kids to keep them out of the water. They do it to scare them into listening or protect them from themselves. In our world, you aren’t really real.”

“What?” Liia’s voice seemed tinged with hurt. 

“How can you expect me to know I’m the intruder when none of this is supposed to be real?” Morgan asked, afraid to walk around in the shadows now, for fear of walking into her. 

“Plenty of people believe in us. It’s why we exist…”

“What do you mean that their beliefs are why you exist? Do you hear yourself? You’re not here, living and breathing, in front of me, just because a couple of five year old human girls believe in your existence.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Liia shot back. 

“What do you mean then?” Morgan asked, dragging his palms down his face with exasperation. 

“People, ya know,” she said, clearing her throat. “And then the maidens of the deep, or mermaids as you call us, laid their eggs in coves. If their spawns made it back from the surface, they gained their gills. If not, they wound up in tuna nets. I’m sure you can imagine what became of them.”

Even shielded in shadows, Morgan couldn’t help but feel like she could see him. 

“It’s fine,” she hooked her arm through his before adding, “You would have never known unless I told you.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized despite her expectation to move on. 

“Like I said…” Liia trailed off. 

“Right. Right,” he repeated, welcoming her hold on him. “What was their deal anyway?”

“Who? Grant and Bryson?”

“Yeah. Are they always like that?” he asked. 

“For the most part they can keep it together but they’ve been on edge. No answers equal’s fear here.”

“That’s the same everywhere, I’m afraid.”

Liia snorted. 

“If I had legs, I’d kick you for that.”

Morgan chuckled at that, then added, “I bet you would.”

As they carried on, arm in arm, Liia explained their situation. At the very least, what a kelpie was and their intentions to seek  the truth or give death to a life that’s unworthy. 

“Being surrounded by lies is kind of their deadliest  poison,” she provided. 

“Ah, and somehow I’m living a great lie, therefore I must be ruined for it,” Morgan grumbled. 

“I never would have guessed being a human was a great lie, but if that’s your thing…”

“Wait… what?”

“What?” she parroted, unsure of his response. 

“What is that thing you just said?”

“Being surrounded by lies…”

Morgan shook his head, “No, no… the other one. The one about being a human is a…

“A great lie?” she finished his question. 

“Yeah that one. What do you mean?” Morgan’s frown only fell deeper. He found himself searching for a meaning past his vessel. “Do you think I’m one of you? A mythical being?”

“Well, I mean… I assumed that was why you were in this cavern…” she whispered. “Aren’t you looking for your bloodline?”