FLOOD

Underwater Chase

            “Just hang on to your fish…Penny, and I’ll take care of it if need be.” I shifted the sack I was carrying over one shoulder. It was awkward just hanging on with this thing, I would have to drop it if I had to fight.

            But I couldn’t fight two of them, not in their natural habitat. They were stronger swimmers than me. But, I reminded myself, they had water in their bodies, something I’d figured out earlier.

            The first mermaid came into view, her hair waving like flames around her face as she swam up to us. It was Tilla, and her black eyes were fixed on Eli, her smile wide and wicked and full of sharp teeth.

            The second shadow shot up, turning into Cassa, her dark eyes wide with rage. I could hear her screaming at her sister. “Tilla, you selfish sea-cow! You’re going to get us both in trouble!”

            Cassa reached up with long, slender arms, grasping her sister’s tail and yanking on it savagely, and Tilla screamed and looped around in the water, struggling to throw her sister off.

            Penny and Rykin must have sensed something brewing in the water beneath them, because both dolphins picked up their speed, making for the surface with renewed vigour. I hung on desperately, staring back over my shoulder at the fight beneath us. It was impossible to tell which sister was which, all that could be seen were flashes of fin and scales and bright red hair. Hisses and screams tore into the insides of my mind as they thrashed beneath me, stirring up the water. I wished I could shut them out, they were loud and I could feel the anger radiating off them in waves.

            I really didn’t like this mind reading thing.

            There was one last savage shriek, and then it cut off. One of the mermaids slumped backwards in the water, her tail limp and hanging, her hair floating like seaweed as she sank slowly down in spirals towards the bottom.

            My throat tightened. Was she dead? And more importantly, which one was that?

            I got my answer when the other mermaid looked up and gave Eli a vicious, sharp-toothed smile. Tilla had beat her sister, and now there was nothing to stop her from going after my friend.

            I didn’t know if it would work, but I blasted a mind-message at Penny the dolphin as loudly as I could. “GO!”

            It must have worked, because Penny bucked in the water suddenly, and Eli gave a shout of surprise as he lurched forward. I didn’t know dolphins could swim that fast, but this one did.

            I turned in the water, facing Tilla as she swam towards us. Rykin was still going for the surface as fast as he could swim, and I was barely hanging on, trying to hold the bag of food with one hand and twist myself around to look at the mermaid at the same time. I should have dropped the food, I knew that, but I also knew Eli would be starving by the time we got to land, and that I wouldn’t have time to hunt.

            I wasn’t going to let some bitchy fish-woman make me drop our entire food supply.

            I projected my thoughts at her, the same way that had made Cassa complain I was shouting. “Didn’t your king tell you about my particular talent?”

            Tilla ignored me, she kept swimming, her eyes fixed on Eli. The way she stared at him was so feral and hungry that it made my gut churn. I didn’t want to think about what she would do when she got her hands on him. “LISTEN to me, or I’ll rip you into tiny pieces right now.”

            They gave her pause, just for a moment. Her black eyes shifted to me. “You can’t do that.”

            “Sure I can. You might not be human, with a body that’s nearly all water, but you’re half human. You still have plenty of water in you I could play with, or…outside you. There’s an endless supply.”

            I could still feel the ocean all around me, had felt it since I’d come here, but until now I’d been repressing the feeling, locking myself down. Now I opened up and let the feeling flow in. The tides were the first thing I could really feel, where they were going, the eb and flow of them and the magnetic pull that moved the ocean from one side of the world to the other. The waves crashing up on so many different shores. Again, it was so overwhelming I had to reign it in fast, and I forced myself to contain it to the spot that we were swimming in, just that ten foot radious around us and the mermaid. I was hesitant at first, reaching out, I hadn’t done this before, but there wasn’t really time to be unsure about things. I had to stop her before she did something terrible to Eli.

            The water moved fairly easily on my first attempt, surprisingly so. I held myself back though, and said as loudly as I could in that strange mind-speak that was slowly becoming familiar to me, Back away from him.

            The threat in my voice must have been real enough to give her pause, at least for a few seconds. She turned to me, the motion effortless, and it struck me how easy it would be for her to kill me and Eli. She was so at home in the water, we were in her hunting grounds, and she was a predator. She reminded me a little bit of tales of Medusa, the way she stared at me with blazing eyes, her hair snaking out in all directions as it floated around her face. The way she stared at me, I could see she wanted nothing more than to rip my throat out.