literature

Beware the Reef 10

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Aurora was finally ready to mate with me near the end of my cycle. Recovering from the birth had definitely gotten far too close for comfort and I’d been afraid I was going to have to end up hurting her or striking some horrible unbeneficial deal with Sonrei. Thankfully, neither of those two things happened. Jemin had finally seemed to settle in well and was letting Deiz and Trei tag along with him while he explored the reef. Hunting was still something I wouldn’t let them do because of the risks, but they could do a little bit of it within the shallower parts of the reef.

“All Squillian need to die!” I heard an unfamiliar voice yell and immediately took off in that direction. Jemin had been over there with Deiz and Trei, my son being a Squillian.

“Go home!” I heard Jemin yell and then my two oldest children swam passed me to head towards the cave. I rounded a corner just in time to come face to face with an enraged merman. That anger only seemed to boil over as he realized what I was.

“Die!” he snarled as his hands wrapped around my head, his thumbs at my eyes and he began to squeeze. I let out a yell of pain as I grabbed his wrists, trying to peel his hands off of me. My tentacles moved up to find the assaulting arms and found Jemin on one side. So I took the other and between us managed to wrench the merman’s arms down. It was only a matter of seconds before I had full control and had him fully wrapped as we sank to the reef’s floor.

“What is your issue?!” I demanded. “Charging a child like that!” Jemin backed away and put a hand to his shoulder.

“All Squillians need to die!” the merman hissed in a rather insane tone.

“Uh huh… And your particular reasoning for this?” I asked, not at all surprised. Whatever answer he gave was sure to be a good one.

“My mate is dead because of you!” he screamed as he struggled and thrashed to get free. I sighed deeply.

“Because of me… or because of a Squillian?” I asked. “Either way, I will not let you harm my children. They are innocent souls that I hope I can get mated before the need becomes too much for them.”

“Does it matter?” he demanded. “Like you’ve never driven anyone’s mate to death from what you did to them?”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is for a Squillian to find a mate?” I asked, squeezing my tentacles some to make sure he couldn’t get loose. “You know, I tried really hard the first three years after I hit sexual maturity to get a mate… For the seven years after that… I waited as close to the deadline as I could stand before I forced someone… But… Do you even know why Squillians force others under them? Why we need to mate?”

“I don’t care!” he growled as he continued to struggle. “You and your kind killed my mate!”

“Well, I think you should start to care!” I snapped. “Because if you were in our shoes, you’d do the same thing to make sure your insides didn’t burst! You’d survive however you could too! You turned us into monsters! You made it hard for us to find mates! You created the monster and now you condemn it!”

“How did we cause you to be fucked up?” he growled.

“By telling all mermaids that we’re rapists and monsters!” I snapped. “Generation after generation! When all females swim away screaming at the sight of tentacles, then you have no choice but to force them if it means to force them or die!”

“You are rapists!” he said. “We’re only warning them of what you do!”

“We’re not given the chance!” I yelled. “We have to mate every six months or we die! If no one is willing then of course we’re going to force it! You would too! I never wanted to rape anyone! I didn’t have a choice! I wanted to live!”

“Then I’ll be doing you all a favor if I kill you, won’t I?” he hissed angrily.

“Doing who a favor?” I growled. “My pregnant mates? Or my innocent children? They rely on me! They need me! Are you truly so cold as to break the heart of a mermaid who was thrown away by her family just to kill a two year old Squillian?”

“What the hell else am I supposed to do?!” he screamed. “My mate was attacked and killed herself because of it! What would you do!?”

“Scream! Cry! Mourn!” I snapped back at him. “Is this what she would have wanted you to do? Would she have wanted you to throw your life away too? I’d be devastated if one of my mates killed herself, but I still have their children to raise and protect! They’re just as important!”

“Well I don’t!” he snapped. “I never had a chance to have a child with her… all I had was her!”

“If she was attacked by a Squillian, she had a child…” I said firmly. “But I know for sure, she would never have wanted you to attack a child even if it was a Squillian! My children were killed by mermen and abandoned by pods! No mermaid would ever leave the child she carried to starve to death or be eaten by predators!” The merman just glared.

“So what?” he asked. “Are you going to kill me or just scold me like a bad boy?” he demanded.

“I don’t particularly want to kill you,” I replied with a shrug. “However… I also don’t think I can let you go. You’ll go after my children or worse, one of my mates.” I looked over at the young merman. “Jemin… ask Aurora what I should do with this guy…” He glanced over before nodding slightly and heading back towards the cave.

“Just kill me already! If you don’t someone else will there’s no point in showing mercy!”

“Well, I am hoping that by showing you mercy you might decide to not throw your life away,” I said, sitting back as I crossed my arms over my chest. “Aurora would definitely scold me if I just killed you without trying to be merciful first.” He pulled at his arms again to try and get free even though he knew he couldn’t.

“And if you were suddenly all alone… would you care?” he demanded.

“Mm, probably not in the short run,” I replied with a shrug. “But are you sure she didn’t kill herself because you made her get rid of her child? I mean… I know a Squillian was horrible and raped her, but I bet she loved that baby even if she didn’t want to. Aurora loved her son… loved him enough to choose letting me take care of her so she could be with him over beaching herself. Sonrei loved her daughter enough to keep her and track me down to force me to take care of them since she was kicked out of her pod… I think you’re angry at a Squillian… when you are why she killed herself…”

“You son of a bitch! I am not the reason she killed herself!” he screamed as he thrashed to try and get free. “I didn’t make her do anything! I loved her!”

“What happened to her child?!” I yelled as I squeezed him tighter. Everyone always said that mermaids killed themselves after being raped by a Squillian, but my mother didn’t. Sonrei and Aurora didn’t though Aurora probably wanted to after she abandoned Meir with me. The problem wasn’t the Squillians but how the mermen dealt with a Squillian’s child. He winced at how tight the hold became.

“There was no child!” he snapped angrily. “It was born dead!” I actually winced at that one.

“Did you try to give her another one?” I asked, my tone softening. “Even if it was a Squillian’s child… I bet she loved it and was devastated that it was dead…” He tugged again on his arms.

“She wouldn’t let me,” he said. “I would have done anything for her. Anything at all…” I sighed.

“I bet you would have,” I murmured. I looked up, hoping Aurora had gotten here by now. She could probably talk more sense into this guy than I could. “Look… I can’t imagine the pain you’re in right now… But running around trying to kill Squillians isn’t going to make it better. It wouldn’t make her all that happy either or she’d have sent you to kill the Squillian that raped her after it happened.”

“You didn’t know her,” he snapped angrily.

“Maybe not but I doubt she’d have wanted you dead,” Aurora said as Jemin led her to where the two of us were.

“He wants me to either kill him or let him go,” I told her. “I want to let him go, but… I’m afraid he’ll go after Trei again or Meir next time. Or even you or Kira… I don’t like that idea… So I need your advice…” She sighed and swam closer but stopped far enough away that she wouldn’t get caught in any cross fire if fighting happened again.

“If you really want to die there are easier ways than throwing yourself at Squillians,” she told him. He glared at her.

“I’m not trying to die.”

“Oh, I think you are,” she said. “And if that’s the case find someone else to kill you or do it yourself.” I nodded at that and unwrapped from around, but made sure I was between him and my mate.

“Aurora says you’re free to leave, but you come near here again I will make her cross with me,” I said firmly as I crossed my arms over my chest, puffing up to be even more intimidating. Mermen were just too small. He scoffed and pushed himself up. He might be small compared to me but compared to Jemin and Aurora he was actually rather large. He definitely could have been a pod leader.

“Like I would want to see a reef completely overrun by Squillians and their lovers.” He glared one last time before swimming off. I shook my head some as I watched until he was out of sight. Only then did I whimper and turn to press my forehead against Aurora’s chest.

“If not for having tentacles… my head would be squashed right now,” I muttered. She wrapped her arms around my head and ran her fingers through my hair.

“He was pretty strong,” Jemin agreed as he rotated his arm to try and get it to feel better.

“I’m sure it was terrible but you’re not seriously hurt at least,” Aurora said still petting me gently.

“I think she’s patronizing me,” I muttered. “Gah… I want to check on Trei… The bastard went after him first so he’s probably scared…”

“Trei is with Kira,” Aurora said.

“All of the kids are in the cave with the others until we get back so that they stay safe,” he added. I nodded some as I looked up at her finally.

“We should head back then…” I wasn’t in any shape at all for trying to hunt today. My vision was a bit blurred and my eyes hurt as much as my head did if not more. She nodded and Jemin led the way back towards the cave while Aurora helped me. “For now… we should keep the children inside the cave,” I said. “To be safe until we’re certain he won’t be stupid enough to come back… I don’t want to take the risk of anything happening to the children…”

“We’ll do our best but Trei and Diez have really grown to like going out with Jemin,” Aurora said.

“They’ll have to remain cooped up for at least seven cycles,” I replied. “I want them safe. If the bastard hadn’t announced his intentions so far away, I may have lost Trei…”

“I tried to stop him…” Jemin murmured. “He was just too strong.”

“I don’t doubt you did,” I said firmly. I didn’t want him thinking that I didn’t trust him with my children because I did. “But he’d have overpowered me if I was a merman so I don’t want to take any risks that involve the lives of my children.”

“I’ll try and make sure they don’t follow me out,” he told me. I nodded some as I tried to get my vision to clear up. Once inside the cave, my oldest two children swam over to me instantly. I wrapped them in my arms as tightly as I dared, thankful that Jemin had been there to protect them.
some people can't handle loss...
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