Beneath the Waves

Rescues and Comforts

They traveled for a while in silence, eyes scanning their surroundings. "Brian!" Evan called, the group pulling to a stop as the shark pointed in the distance.

An orca mermen was swimming towards them, a large white shell in his hands. Brian gritted his teeth but waited, knowing this was the sign for a message.

"A message from Prince Ivan," the merman said, holding out a scroll. Brian took it, unrolling it to read it. Evan and Daithi peeked over his shoulders, Kris, Scotty and Smiity staying back to keep an eye on the orca.

We have the humans. If you wish to have your pets back, surrender to the king of Orcal. You have until their blessings run out. If not, they'll drown.

Brian clenched his fist around the scroll as he glared at the smug orca merman. "Tell your leader he can return them or the entire kingdom will be wiped out. We won't surrender, not to you. He has until tomorrow at sunset, or my warriors and our allies will attack," he said flatly and the orca's smirk vanished, replaced with a glare.

He swam off without saying anything and Brian closed his eyes, feeling the water around him respond to his agitation. "Come on, we need to get to your father," Evan said and Brian shook his head.

"No, we can't. If he finds out we gave our friends the blessing of the ocean, he'll force us to either turn them into full merpeople or kill them. Gather as many of our warriors who will listen, talk to only those who won't report back to Father. Evan, I need you to go to the sharks and find as many who will follow you. I know they're not going to return our friends, regardless of what we threaten. We'll need to be prepared. Meet back here in exactly 24 hours, that will be the deadline for them to accept my demand," Brian ordered, his friends nodding once before swimming off.

Brian turned around and stared off to where the orca had vanished. Anger and worry simmered in his stomach, his fingers trailing to his pocket where the braid sat.

He was getting Brock and the others back. Before they risked drowning. He wasn't going to lose some of the best friends he'd ever made in his 200 years of life, not to a bunch of asshole orcas.

He straightened his shoulders and turned, heading home. He'd need his spear and some of his fathers magical weapons if he was going to save his friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Brock could feel the magic wavering, his breaths shaky and labored. Tyler looked horrible, having busted a few ribs and Tyler was certain he had a small fracture at the base of his skull. He couldn't move his neck very well without a severe pain shooting down his spine and he was constantly nauseous.

Marcel, Lui, Anthony and Chrissy were doing alright, but John and Jon were still unconcious. Chrissy, who was in between both of them, had been checking them both constantly and worried the henbane toxin was too strong for their bodies.

"The way Jon reacted, he might be allergic. He's still breathing, but it's slow," she'd said quietly the day before, and Brock was terrified. The two men were extremely pale, and hadn't flinched once.

He could hear the orcas talking outside of the room where the cells sat. There were no doors, just curtains of seaweed, which didn't block any sound.

"He refused to surrender, said we had until sunset to return the humans or he and their allies would attack. Do you think Prince Ivan will accept? The Golds are one of the strongest kingdoms, and their closest allies are the Sharks. We'd be fucked if they attacked," one guard had said a few hours before.

"I don't think he will. We should ready ourselves for an attack, Prince Ivan is stubborn," another had said and Brock had exchanged glances with Tyler and Marcel hopefully.