The Lost Secret of the Silver Sea

Chapter 5: Head Above Water

After their little stunt of being late to many times in a row, Kaelonne was stuck at the castle, helping out Eirian’s mother with her research. In any other time, this would not have been considered punishment at all, but with his worry for the human at the forefront of his mind, keeping his hands busy was the only thing that stopped him from going crazy.

            Eventually, even the lead researcher had grown tired of his consistent fidgeting and asked him to take a break for the rest of the day. A little miffed and guilty, the young royal searched for his brother, hoping that he could convince him to visit their training spot.

To his unfortunate luck, however, Falkon was spending the day entertaining the young Mermatian that had caught his attention. Kaelonne rolled his eyes and tried not to gag from where he hid behind a pillar, swimming away before he had to hear the pair laugh at another of his brother’s poor jokes.

            Eirian was stuck searching for caritilian crystals for his mother’s research, a job even Kaelonne often shied away from despite his title for reckless bravery. The dye produced by the hostile plants surrounding the raw crystals stuck to scales and skin alike, making it an absolute nightmare to remove.

            Idris would be far too busy with duties, preparing for the new set of trainee guards and fighters that would be joining the regiment, and the last person he’d ever ask was his father. Not only was the Mermatian far too keen and would easily pick up that something was off with Kaelonne, but he was the King of Helacean.

            Leaving the safety of the castle without at least one partner was heavily frowned upon, basically forbidden if one carried a status, whether it be royal, healer or anything in-between. He couldn’t ignore the strange tugging in his chest, however, at the thought of giving up on his endeavours. For someone labelled to have the mind of a genius, Kaelonne genuinely wondered if his next move is anywhere near what would be considered wise.

            Sneaking past the guards taking post at the grand doors was hardly a task. Years of ridiculous antics with Eirian around the castle have instilled in them the general instinct to turn a blind eye unless asked outright for something or given an order. Leaving the kingdom entirely, however, was a much more difficult task.

            Kaelonne looked at the bright rocks glittering in his home, peeking his head over a large boulder he’d taken refuse behind, guilt making him twist his mouth and flatten his ear-fins. His father would be absolutely furious if he ever got word that the young royal had blatantly ignored his rules put in place specifically to protect them. He sighs and turns his back, eyes narrowed to the surface that suddenly seemed so far away.

            His tail protested the consistent, almost frantic movement, the muscles screaming at him that it wasn’t built for such a long distance without rest. Kaelonne rolled his eyes at his dramatic, inner monologue, letting out a small whistle of relief as he eyes the small valley where he and Falkon would often cross spears.

            The area that had been subjects to his insistent search just a week ago had hardly changed. Broken bits of seaweed had settled restlessly at the floor, crabs snapped at anything that dared to come close to it, fishes nibbled on the moss growing on the edge of rocks. Kaelonne scented the water, shrilling softly in reprieve as the presence of the human’s blood was almost non-existent.

            The broken edge of the board that he’d left at the large rock was now waterlogged and half-buried in the sand, the painted scratched and peeling. He let out another small whistle, listening for any sound of danger nearby, relaxing when nothing returned a warning.

The hardest task on his list now was to identify any chance that the human was alive and well. Absentmindedly, he tapped his finger on the chain around his neck, a bad habit he’d picked up over the last few days in an incessant need to make sure it hadn’t fallen off.

            Kaelonne flinched as the sound of a small pebble hitting the surface of the water reached his ears. He stiffened on instinct, listening as a handful more of the small rocks hit the water methodically, the water rippling calmly in response. The Mermatian shook his head and swam to the sharp rocks he’d initially smelled the blood from, barely poking his head out from the water.

            He smiled as he takes in the warm sunset, the colours meshing into some sort of explosion of colour. It served as a distraction from the pounding of his heart at the thought of his father finding an empty room when looking for him.

The splashing of rocks was a small distance off, disturbing the tiny, colourful fishes looking for algae on the broken bits of floating seaweed. Kaelonne pushed off the rock, inching just into the line of sight of the creature responsible for unsettling the water at such a late hour, eyes barely above the waterline.

            It sat on the flat plane of rock, its strange legs folded beneath it. The dark skin tone was a little healthier than the last time he’d seen them, most likely due to the human now having the chance to properly recover after their unsolicited dance with death. Kaelonne felt a small binding around his heart finally slacken at the sight, resting his hand on his chest in a short prayer of thanks.

The Mermatian eyed the odd cloths covering the being again, this time in green and black, and much thicker than the ones that had shredded through his claws far too easily. Hopefully, the human had learnt to wear thicker armour or to stay where it was safer when not wearing it. Its soft skin was no match for the sharp rocks and rough waves. A white strip of cloth wrapped around its head and arm, most likely covering the injures the poor thing had received.

            Kaelonne waded further out into the opening, glad to have seen the creature in good health. Now that his task was complete, it was time to return home. He grimaced at the strange feeling in his chest, the sudden reluctance to leave the creature to his lonesome caused him to splash the water with his tail . The young royal winced as the small sound echoed among the rocks, ducking under when the plopping of rocks on the water’s surface stopped.

            “Hello?” Kaelonne cursed in his head as the muffled, grating tones of the human’s language reached his ears. “Are you… are you still there?”

            The Mermatian kept quiet, genuinely unsure of what to say, a ‘hello?’, ‘Hi?’, ‘Oh hey, nice to run into you, not like I was stalking you or anything, but I’m glad you’re doing great and all that jazz so now I’m going to go before my father wrings my neck for ignoring his one and only rule he insisted on me listening to?’, that last one might be to long if the human decided on screaming at the unknown. Thankfully, he didn’t have to embarrass himself trying to form the human’s strange language as it continued talking in a mellow tone.

“Uh, it’s probably not you, or you’re probably already gone, so I’m just going to say what I have to say.” The human took a deep breath, pitching a stone in to the water, “I want to thank you for saving my life, I know… that you’re not human. I think. I could be wrong, I don’t know, what I’m I saying… What I mean is, thank you, my dad would’ve never been able to find me if it weren’t for you. I was such an i***t, he told me about all the freak storms happening in the area, but I insisted on going surfing. Tomorrow… we’re heading back to the city. My vacation is almost up, and work’s going to be an absolute pain, but I’m genuinely glad to say I’m alive to see those boring papers again, heh.”

            Kaelonne inched closer during the awkward speech, finding that the voice wasn’t as grating as he originally thought, tilting his head as the unfamiliar tones caught his attention. He watched the human slowly picked itself off the ground, one hand rubbing at its head. With what was either the dumbest or most interesting idea, he poked his head up curiously, whistling softly as the two-legged creature turned its back.

            The human spun around with wide eyes, taking a hasty step away from the water and falling on his back. Kaelonne’s ears raised in surprise, that was definitely not the reaction he wanted to elicit out of the fragile creature. The young royal whistled softly in question, watching it pulled itself to its knees and rubbed at its elbows with a wince. He daringly swam a little closer, tilting his head as the once chatty being now seemed lost for words.

            In the back of his mind, he cursed himself loudly as he thought of all the ways his father would yell at him when he returned home, the setting sun painting the sky in bright pink and orange hues. “You… y-you’re here…” The soft voice pulled him out of his musing, he tilted his head a little more, wondering if it were really a good idea to say a word.

            With a hasty flick of his tail, he rears back and ducks under the water, ready to claim his task completed, “Wait!”. The voice makes him halt against his will, tail stilling in an odd position. He waits a few seconds more, his head turned to the setting sun, “I, I just want to talk…”

            The Mermatian lets his ear-fins drops at the millions of reason why this was the worst idea he’d ever had, ignoring the time he’d mixed the dust of a caritilian crystal and flatiern and had the gooey mixture stuck on his claws for days. The young royal turned around and raises his head slightly above the waterline, ears twitching as he listened to the human’s form of a sigh of relief, absentmindedly wondering if the dry air ever hurt their breathing ways.

            “Thank you… for staying.” Kaelonne eyed it wearily as he pushed his head out of the water a little more, moving his mouth to form the human language.

            “You… do not seemed to be bothered that I am not of your kind.”