Hearts Still Bleed Underwater (G/T)

2

Keppler shook violently from within the walls of his glass prison, cursing himself for thinking that it had been a good idea to hide here in the first place. It was transparent, of course he’d be seen! And now he’d been caught, stuck at the mercy of whoever had ripped his shelter out of its place. 

He could feel that they were travelling fast, faster than he had ever swam before in his life. He glanced out through the bottle at the sand passing by beneath, wondering just where in the world his captor was taking him. Fortunately, the trip didn’t last long. Unfortunately, that meant that all of the attention was now on him.

He stared up, and up and up until his eyes met with those of a mer much, much bigger than he was. 

The same mer that had been chasing him. One that was likely not going to let his ‘meal’ get away or hide forever.

He swallowed the lump rising in his throat, jaw clenched in terror. He knew that it had been a bad idea to leave the shoal today, and was even warned against it, but it was too late to berate himself now.

A frantic, anxious voice rang loud in his ears, drowning out any and all rationality.

“Ooooh, you’ve done it now, it’s totally going to eat you.” His imagination sneered. The thoughts made him go pale, and curl in on himself even further. Maybe if he made himself look even smaller, he wouldn’t seem worth the time it would take to break the bottle open. Maybe he could escape and make it back to his family, if only so he could say “I told you so” to everyone that thought he wouldn’t survive.

Maybe he could still find that plant, and make it back in time to save his sister.

“A tetra..” The larger mer spoke first, breaking the deafening silence between the two. Keppler’s attention whipped back up to the giant, too afraid to take his eyes off of the predator for long. He said nothing in response, only staring back into those hungry silver eyes like they would be the last thing he ever saw.

Only their eyes weren’t filled with hunger and malice like he had thought they’d be, but rather a curious look instead. Something akin to… awe . Whatever it was, it didn’t sit right with the little mer, and he made no move to reciprocate the excitement. 

Upon seeing his lack of a response, the larger mer spoke up once more.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now. You can come out of there.”

Keppler almost laughed at how wrong that statement was. In the hands of something so large with teeth so sharp, he was anything but safe.

He said nothing again, only shaking his head in response. If he could bide himself a little more time, then he could maybe live long enough to figure a way out.

The larger mer sighed, momentarily dropping his attempts at communication in favour of looking around. A puzzled expression rippled across his face, one that didn’t go unnoticed by Keppler. If the giant had swam them into unfamiliar territory, then maybe he could use this to his advantage. The mini mer knew these parts like the scales on his own tail-- if he could just make it out of the bottle, he could likely lose the other in the rocks not far from his shoal.