The Jellyfish Messenger

Chapter Three: Lady Bites

"It wouldn't be fair and square if you did," Miwako said. The two shark girls faced off yet again, and Kale, Chrystal, and I were left caught up in the chaos, still surrounded by the rest of the Lady Bites. The situation quickly plunged back into the world of the bizarre as Miwako and Susie lunged and chomped at once another. Biting, clawing, smacking, nothing was off-limits. Miwako was small and nimble, which allowed her to easily dodge Susie's crushing jaws. When she bit back, she left small, yet nasty-looking circular wounds where she had chewed out a chunk of flesh. Susie winced and thrashed, but didn't seem very affected by the bites.

"Damn it...annoying little pest!" Susie lashed out and clawed at Miwako, leaving a trio of jagged gouges running across her chest. The little shark girl cried out in pain, but it wasn't over yet. She was slapped by Susie's tail fin over and over, brutally battered by the large appendage.

I gazed at the vicious fight in horror. "She has to stop! She's going to kill Miwako!"

"I'm pretty sure that's the intention," Kale said. "At least I tie up my snacks nice and tight and gobble them up whole when I eat them. I'm not fond of seeing prey beaten and suffering."

"We don't have time for this nonsense," Chrystal growled. "Let's go now, while they're distracted."

"But this is too cruel!" I snapped back. "We can't just leave her like this!"

Chrystal yanked on one of my tentacles. "Quit being so naive! What do you think this is, a fairytale?! Nature is cruel, this is what happens every day! In this world, it's us or them, and I'd much rather have it be them! Now let's get out of here!"

Susie had a clawed hand coiled around Miwako's neck, holding her up and squeezing tightly. The little shark girl flailed about, choking, gasping for air. Her bloodshot eyes bulged out. "Looks like I win," Susie sneered. "Let me teach you a lesson on what happens to pipsqueaks like you when I'm messed with."

Something within compelled me to act. I couldn't stand by and watch this person be killed for no reason. It wasn't the natural struggles between predator and prey, it was senseless violence. Even if it was reckless, even if it made me naive...I didn't want to watch anyone die, not if I could do something about it.

In the blink of an eye, I drew my sword and launched myself at the violent shark woman, latching onto her face. My tentacles held on and dug in as I tensed my body to make the stinging cells activate. Each of my thin, flowy tendrils were coated in millions of microscopic needles that when triggered, stabbed into my opponent and injected painful venom. The effects were quick to see, as Susie started screaming within seconds, not bothering to hold onto Miwako anymore.

She thrashed, trying to throw me off, and when I saw her scaly hand lower into view to grab me, I slashed out my fishbone blade and sliced open her palm. Red blood plumed into the water, sending the nearby sharkfolk into a frenzy.

I released my grip from Susie's face and pulled away, retreating to Chrystal and Kale, who were now in a panic to flee the swarm of hungry sharks. "What kind of jellyfish are you!?" Kale gasped. "You're crazy!"

"There's no time for that!" Chrystal shouted. "NOW can we get out of here?!"

"GET THEM! TEAR THEM TO PIECES!" Susie's voice bellowed.

"Oh, shit!" Kale snapped. He snatched up Chrystal and I just as the Lady Bites descended upon us. The bigfin squid plunged into the depths, dragging his trailing tendrils along with him. The shark ladies snapped and chomped at them, but Kale swerved away from each and every bite. "They won't be able to handle the pressure if we go down deep enough!" he shouted.

I buried my face into Kale's chest as he dove into the dark depths. My body felt like it was being squeezed, not just by the squid's tight arms, but also because of the speed he was diving at, the force shoving against my small, squishy body. I could feel the pressure becoming more and more intense, squashing all around me. Jellyfish folk had no bones, so our forms fared much better in the harsh pressures of the deep, but I wasn't used to all this intensity assaulting me at once.

The dim light of the twilight zone was soon snuffed out, swallowed up by the all-encompassing blackness of the dark zone. My pink body radiated its soft bioluminescent glow, acting as the only source of light in the endless darkness. By this point, the Lady Bites were long gone, but a new fear struck into my mind. How deep was Kale going to take Chrystal and I? Would he drag us down to the bottom of the ocean, where we were lost and helpless in the dark, to then devour us? Or was he really only trying to protect us from being ripped to shreds by the sharkfolk?

It was impossible to say right now, and we had no choice in the matter. A deep-sea squidfolk like him could probably see fine in the eternal midnight, far better than we could. The dark zone was his world, and our lives were in his hands now.

Species Introduced in this Chapter

Miwako- Cookiecutter Shark (Isistius Brasiliensis)

Susie- Shortfin Mako Shark (Isurus Oxyrinchus)