Between Scylla and Charybdis

Chapter 1.

Leave it to Mers to make a big fuss about finding a mate. Charybdis had a hard time wrapping his head around the concept. To be with one partner for the rest of one's life, it seemed like way too big of a hassle to be worth it. Granted, for a mer, that life was over in the blink of an eye. Compared to him, they were as brief as bubbles floating up to the surface. Popping out of existence as soon as they met the slightest resistance. Lingering in his thoughts, he soon found himself swimming completely lopsided and in the wrong direction.

'For fucksake, go tear a fin on a jagged rock, stupid cuckolding stump of a tail!!!' He hissed, turning back towards his now dolphin-esq tail and pinching the sorry excuses that were meant to be his pectoral fins. He winced, finding them to be far more sensitive than expected.

Being used to his own glorious tail, it was normal for him to pierce through the water like a spear, smoothly slithering through sand and current alike. Now he was stuck in this ridiculous bobbing motion, up down up down, hardly making any progress. If only he'd changed into a mer with similarities to a shark or eel, that at least would resemble a style of swimming he was comfortable with. But no. Flippin dolphins. Stupid Rudeus...He should've eaten him first and saved the other one for later.

After listening to Rudeus explain the idea behind the upcoming mating ritual, Charybdis came up with a plan. He'd infiltrate the pod under the ruse of being an outsider who came to compete for the next Matrons hand. Once inside, he'd find a way to seduce the welp and make her his puppet, he knew the spells to do it, he just needed her to open up to him enough so they could take hold. Fighting the Matrons guards was still of little interest to him and it would result only in more animosity from the remaining Mers. No, he'd take over swiftly and quietly and once he was at the center of it all, he could dispose of the Matron welp at his own leisure.

That of course, meant disguising himself as a Mer, for which he needed mer blood, and a lot of it. Rudeus being the only nearby donor, Charybdis ended up taking on some of his traits after casting the spell that changed his appearance. He wasn't green, thank Leviathan for that, but he had the same dolphin tail and relatively small build. Small for his own standard at least. He'd kept his own black and white colorings and his face remained mostly the same, so there was that.

Luckily he wasn't completely frozen with body dysmorphia yet. There'd been plenty a hag who lost themselves to the change, taking an amorphous form over time. Each shift took something away and if you weren't careful, you'd end up a mindless mass of flesh and bones, forgotten in a cave at the bottom of the ocean. He shook his head. No, he wouldn't let that happen. Not now, not ever. He was at an age where boredom and listlessness were risky and needed to be combatted. Perhaps this was exactly the reason why he was taking such a big risk on this plan. Success or not, the excitement alone would sate him for years to come.

After a few more grueling miles, Charybdis reached the entrance to their caverns. Clusters of outsiders gathered at the gaping mouth of the cavern, eagerly awaiting their inspection by the guards before being let in. Time to act like a mer. The last time he was here was when he'd bartered the truce with Agathis' mother. It lay fresh in his memory, despite being almost a century ago. He never made it past the front door back then. Actually getting inside would be a whole new experience, his tongue darted out at the prospect, tasting the water.

While the hag drifted away on a nostalgic cloud, one of the guards swam up to him and gave him a quick prod with some sort of stick. Charybdis' attention snapped back to the present, letting out a surprised snarl.

'What the heck was that for?!'

'Name?'

'What kind of greeting is this supposed to be?'