Making a Splash

Bite Sized Meal

The kingdom of Aquaria was in utter chaos. As if the mersharks prowling through the city in search of any merfolk to gobble up wasn't bad enough, the palace itself was currently under siege by more mersharks and a pair of cecaelias, one of which was Grimlur. Calling the situation dire would be the understatement of the century.

Liz led the way as she and her friends swam with Selena and Maddie through the city, doing their best to stay hidden and avoid the detection of any mersharks. The princess poked her head out of their current hiding place, making sure that the coast was clear. Once she saw that there were no mersharks, she quietly signaled for the others to follow her as she swam out.

The seven mermaids were currently en route to the Nursery, the area where all of the youngest merpeople were. According to Liz, the rooms there could be used as a safety shelter, but it wasn't nearly as good as the normal shelters. With how sudden the attack had been, she doubted that the workers there had gotten enough time to move the children from the Nursery to a proper shelter, so they were the most vulnerable right now. And there was no way these carnivorous invaders would pass up on such a plentiful source of food.

As they came near the edge of the city, Liz caught sight of a mershark in the corner of her eye and quickly took cover back behind the building near her. The others did the same. Liz took a quick peek to see if they had been spotted, but it seemed they were safe for now. After a few seconds, the mershark swam off and the coast was clear once again.

"We're almost there." Liz said in a quiet tone.

"If those mersharks lay one hand on those kids, they're gonna get it." Lily growled. "How could they even think of eating a bunch of defenseless children?"

"Mersharks don't care. If anything, they prefer their prey to be defenseless." Liz said. "They're despicable monsters, all of them."

In the rear of the group, Selena and Maddie were still shaking with fear. It wasn't hard to guess why. They had gotten the worst of this out of all of them. Their mother had sacrificed herself to protect them, getting herself eaten in the process. And if they got caught, they'd end up getting eaten themselves.

The thought of what had happened to Fiona had Marie worried about her own mother. Was she in a shelter? Was she somewhere out in the city looking for her and her friends? Had the mersharks already gotten to her? Marie shook the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't think like that. Her mother had to be alive. She just had to.

The group continued making their way to the Nursery. After another minute of sneaking their way through, the cave was finally in sight.

"Alright, we need to be smart about this." Liz said. "Cleo, you stay with Selena and Maddie and find some place to hide. The rest of us will go in and try to save the kids."

Cleo nodded her head understandingly. She took the two children with them and swam over to a group of rocks. They would be well hidden there for a little bit at least.

Meanwhile, the others continued to approach the Nursery. They snuck up to the entrance and peeked their heads in. They had wanted to be wrong and for the mersharks to not be anywhere near here. Unfortunately, no such luck existed.

In the wide starting room where they had performed for the children earlier that day, one of the attendants was being restrained by a pair of mersharks, while a third one was circling around her, sizing the mermaid up. Of the two doors leading to the other rooms, one was open. They could only assume the children had been hiding there, because all of them and the other attendants were grouped together in a corner at the far end of the room with a pair of female mersharks guarding them to make sure they didn't try to escape.