MCYT RANDOMNESS 2

Fish out of water

I decided to write something that wasn't ConVex

Pov: xB

Everything feels wrong.

The water around me is too light, its normal pressure gone. My gills burn, when I open my eyes the world is too bright, the colours far warmer than the cool blues of my home. My skin and scales are too dry, the seabed below me is hard rock. I can't swim away from it. I can't swim anywhere. There's something around my legs and tail, but that's not what's stopping me from moving.

It's the fact that I'm on land.

My panic doubles, my need for the water that my gills aren't in increasing. The world, burning with clarity, is made of rock. Only rock. I'm trapped somewhere. On land. Slowly dying. A vague memory returns to me. Swimming with my friends one second, alone the next, caught up in some net. I see the red marks on my wrists, digging through my scales.

A sound.

I'm not alone.

I glance over, trying to swim away at the sight of a human next to me. But they're not entirely human, if the people we spy on and the pictures we've been shown are true. This one has horns, and large ears. Its legs are like that of the horses we see, but their tail, another thing humans don't have, is thin, ending in a tuft of hair.

They make another sound. They must be speaking Human, of which I understand very little.

'Hello....... I'm....... You.... Name?'

It's all I can pick out from their long sentences. I blink back, webbed ears drawing closer to my head in fear. Behind this first almost-human is another, also with horse-like legs and horns, but this one is taller, their horns curled. Is this what humans actually look like? Were the ones I saw just a different species?

'You... name?' The other says. Again, I can't answer. I can almost feel my skin cracking it's so dry. The horror stories of land run through my mind. Merfolk suffocating, or dying from the sun, or being caught by humans. All 3 seem to be likely fates for me.

The two humans start muttering things I don't understand, and I'm probably not supposed to. I continue dying silently, looking around. There's solid rock above and below, but ahead of me, there's metal bars, leading to another stone space. To the left, there's another room. More humans, 3 of them. But to my right, there's glass. It's covered in algae.

Water.

There's water.

I try to crawl over. The two humans turn their focus back to me.

'Hey....... Yeah...... water.' The first says.

Water.

I nod, hoping they understand, continuing to reach for the water. Life. But the two humans have turned away. I try to get their attention again, but my tail makes little noise. No splashes like in the water. But when they look back, they're holding something out to me. Paper. Writing. In very poor aquatic.

you water close future. No worry.

The other is banging on the glass, shouting, until something wipes the algae away. The translucent face of a jellyfish merman appears, apparently understanding the Human that the human is speaking, as it replies in aquatic, tentacles splashing replies. I catch my species mentioned. guardian merman, can survive on land, but not for long. Poor lungs. What's his name?

Suddenly, they turn to me, asking if they can try to talk to me. I nod back before the humans can agree for me. I've still got the paper from the other, and the human hands me a pen. I scrawl back my name, handing it to the human.

'Hey xB, I'm Jevin.' The half-jellyfish speaks as he reads, the tentacle movement and gurgles far more familiar than human communication. ' The humans in here... well, they're half-human, half land-creatures. Beef there is half cow, Doc is half goat. They can get the bad humans to bring you in here with me. When they come back. We were all brought here against our will.'

I flick my tail back, as much as I can, in response. 'Ok.'

'It sucks that they did this to you.' Jevin continues to say. 'But we're all friendly here. Including Ren, Gem and Zed, who you might see on the other side of you.'

I turn back to the three non-humans in the other cell. All are smiling at me. I smile back, before returning focus to Jevin.

'I can teach you to understand some Human. These lot can't speak aquatic because they're on land. And we can't speak Human in the water. So Doc translates.'

Doc nods, smiling again. I can't reply, so just think instead. I'm not alone. There's another merman here, a friend. I can speak with the nice humans. But I'm still on land. I still can't breathe properly, though I must have some capacity left or I'd be dead already.

before his attention shifts to outside. I follow his gaze. A Human. A normal Human. Beef's shouting at them, signalling at me. I hear 'no' over and over, 'water', until the Human calls something themselves, unlocking the cage. They're tall, and gruff, demanding something I don't understand over and over. I blink up at them, trying to figure out what they want as their calls get louder and harsher, louder than I'm used to. My fins flat against my head, I turn to Jevin for translation.

'They want you to stand. On your legs.'

I try, as hard as I can, to get to my feet, but nothing works. I can't balance on them, my webbed feet aren't used to supporting me. And the ground hurts to land on.

The human, impatient grabs my wrist forcing me with them. I'm left, still on my knees, scrambling along behind, unable to figure out how Humans use their legs for anything except swimming. Their grip on my wrist is tight, another grabbing my shirt, forcing me up and not letting go. My feet and legs hurt, grazed and unused to holding my weight. But we stop at the edge of the glass and a series of horizontal slats running up it. The human lets go of my wrist, barking another order I don't understand. The other keeps hold on my shirt.

'They call it a ladder. It's to get up into the tank. Put your hands on the higher slats, and your feet on the lower ones. Then pull yourself up... like that, yeah.' I try to follow Jevin's instructions, pulling myself up the 'ladder', until I reach the top. The water's foggy, grey and green in colour. I catch my reflection rippling in it, the fear in my eyes. But I still dive straight in.

Bliss.

The cool water soothes my gills, and I start breathing again. I'm weightless again, paddling the length of the area. It's small, clastrophobic. I can barely see the edges of the tank, green with algae. But we still have some space to swim around, and the ability to talk.

'Thanks, Jevin.'

'No problem. We've all gotta support each other here. It's a tough place. What happened to you?'

'I was swimming... then there was a net over me, and I couldn't escape... I tried as hard as I could.'

'Same happened to me. I went too far outside my territory. I thought I could swim away fast enough. But I couldn't.'

'How long have you been here?'

'Can't tell. But a while. Enough to become fluent in Human. Doc, Ren and Gem arrived after me. Doc and Ren came together.'

'What happens here?'

'We live in our cages, and then sometimes there are shows where Humans come and bang on the glass and shout at us. But they're mostly harmless.'

'Mostly?'  I reply, growing nervous. 'What do you mean mostly harmless? '

'Some are more rowdy than others. And sometimes some of the Humans get violent. But we'll keep you save. I promise.' 

I look over at Doc and Beef. Beef, who got the bad humans to help me. Doc, who learnt Aquatic just so he can communicate with us. Jevin, another merman who's helped me this whole time.

I've ended up with the best cellmates ever.