Thorns: A Garden of Monsters Collection

Merfolk BF | Jutai | Part 1

Ungendered Reader x Cis Male Merman

You x He/Him

CW: blood, swearing

Hope you like my babey whale boi!!! This one was a lot more off-the-cuff than planned so hopefully it turned out okay! Thanks for reading :)

------------

It was the kind of rain and cold that turned fingers and lips blue. Your boat was dipping and rising at an alarming rate and the storming waves threatened to send your crew overboard.

But you can't turn back now.

Ahead, you see through your telescope, is a Sea Poacher's vessel. You've been trying to get a read on their location for weeks now, and now you have them in your sights. Notorious for hunting protected species of wildlife, these boats have taken more lives than you wanted to know.

And now you've finally found one.

As your boat dips closer and closer to the poachers', you are struck by the fact that they weren't trying to turn tail and run. Then it hits you:

They've caught something.

You use your megaphone and disclose the information to your teammates. They all rush around, preparing medical equipment and clearing the support decks.

Finally, it's showtime.

You put the megaphone to your lips: "On behalf of the laws of the Aruna Environmental Society, we demand that you release your captive and surrender at once!"

After a few beats, a flare shoots out from their deck and careens onto yours, scattering a box of supplies and denting the railing.

"Well I guess we got their answer," you grumble aloud.

You leave your megaphone behind as you board one of the rescue rafts. The rain pelts against the plastic of your raft as the motor churns, creating deafening conditions. Your windbreaker can only do so much.

As you get closer to the enemy vessel, you can just make out a thick fishing net being pulled in by the poachers, a sizeable lump in the material confirms that they do indeed have something caught. Looking into your binoculars you see that it is black and white and smooth—an orca whale. An orca, with a serious reddening gash on one side, and thrashing about as much as it can.

You find it odd that the poachers would poach an orca, as their demand is low on the list of potential targets, not to mention the size and cunning of the animals themselves make them difficult targets...

But you weren't gonna worry about that now, now it was time for the nitty gritty part of the rescue: the fight.

As expected, the boat was being controlled by Shadows—evil spirits that wreak havoc in Aruna, often just being destructive and creating chaos, but on occasion shown to collaborate and combine their efforts strategically for complex heists like they are doing now.

Whatever they are, they're going down.

You and your crew toss grappling hooks tied to a rope ladder up onto the railing of the enemy ship and start clambering aboard.

The Shadows are hesitant to fight, but some of them charge at us, bracing for attack. You slice at one, the Shadow merely phasing out of existence like a sand tornado. It laughs, realizing its advantage. Not only that, the storm was beating the shit out of your team, one of them slipping and nearly sliding off the side.

Hitting the shadow right on the head, it shatters, scattering bits of sand-like vapor. You help up your teammate.

"Why are they fighting?" asks your crewmate. "They should be running!"