Between Scylla and Charybdis

Chapter 15.

The one known as Euryale kept his gaze firmly affixed on Charybdis' face. The hag could almost swear those cataract eyes pierced straight through his bones, to see... what exactly? His soul? His heart? What a load of make-belief nonsense.

'Glad to see you again, Gaia.' The male smiled without breaking eye contact. 'We came home early. Mother summoned the whole troop, but I can't seem to find her anywhere.'

Enough riling himself up. Creepy or not, the creature before him was still a Mer, and a scrawny one at that. There wasn't a whiff of magic about him. Cowering like this didn't befit Charybdis in the slightest.

'Whose our guest?' The male finally blinked, pulling away his hand and turning towards Gaia, who watched the whole exchange like it was the most normal thing in the world.

'Euyale, meet Diz. He's interested in screwing your little sister.'

Both males raised an eyebrow, for presumably very different reasons. While Euryale turned even more ashen than before, now looking at Charybdis as if he'd sprouted an extra head, Charybdis was just trying to see the resemblance between Scylla and this freaky male. They didn't look alike whatsoever, the male must take after her father.

'That's awful crude, Gaia.' Charybdis groaned.

'I call it as I see it, and I saw plenty a while back.' Now hold up a second, what was that supposed to mean?! Both Euryale and Charybdis turned to Gaia in unison.

Another burst of pain reverberated through Charybdis' head, as those blasted drums were struck once again. The brief moment of weakness was all Euryale needed to position himself right on top of the hag, with claws at the ready. Shit.

Everything went so fast, the whole room spun as the two males collided head on. Charybdis barely managed to slip to the side as Euryale's tail came slamming down towards his head. The muscles in his back screamed, but that was preferable to getting his face pummeled.

The crowd parted, making room for the sudden fight. A flash silver darted in front of Charybdis as Gaia lunged between the two males.

'What the fuck has gotten into you!?' She yelled while bracing both hands on Euryales shoulders. 'Newsflash, most males have a thing for your sister, mashing this one's brains in, isn't going to change that.'

If only this skirmish had anything to do with that. Charybdis knew the second Euryale lunged at him. He was familiar with anger, and this male, though definitely upset, wasn't angry. He was afraid.

There was only so much Gaia could do, scrawny as Euryale may have been, he was still quite a bit heavier than her. It took him little to no effort to shake her off. Charybdis braced himself for another set of punches, but another Mer collided headfirst into Euryales chest before the attacker could make any headway.

For a mind boggling second, Charybdis figured Scylla had changed the color of her scales, from her usual red, to a cerulean shade of blue. But that didn't make any sense, unless those drums somehow impacted his vision.

'Is he having another episode?' The new Mer hissed in a boyish tone of voice. His spine arched in an attempt to retrain Euryale, who was still trying his hardest to get to Charybdis. Okay, so this Mer was definitely not Scylla.

Gaia whirled around, grabbing hold of Euryales head. Even with the new male holding Euryale back, she still had trouble getting him to calm down. Just when her grip threatened to slip, a deep voice resounded from next to Charybdis.

'Now what in the ever loving foamshit is this?'

The largest male Charybdis had ever seen, parted the crowd of mer like they were a bunch of garden reeds, pushing a group of fully grown males to the side with the back of his hand. With striped brown scales plastered over solid muscle, this specimen struck an eerie resemblance to a shark.

'Okay, baby brother, timeout.' Without wasting a breath, the bull-necked male lifted both Euryale and the Scylla-lookalike over his head and onto his shoulder. The blue male twisted sideways, barely managing not to get pinned between a wall of muscle and the meekly struggling Euryale.

The latter seemed to be steadily losing steam, once bull-neck had him pinned, there wasn't much fight left in Euryale. His body slowly went limp, turning into dead weight on top of the brutes shoulder.

'I'm not having an episode...' he growled softly. 'He's the one who... he,-,' In a heartstopping moment, Charybdis and Euryale met eyes, but where the gray male had previously taken the offensive, he now only looked confused and sluggish.

'That's what you always say, little brother. Right after you pull something like this.' The large male grunted.

Charybdis watched the whole thing happen with mild confusion, a racing pulse and a searing headache. He'd dodged a bullet, if there ever was a bad time to get discovered, it would be now that his body was in tatters. Luckily, it appeared Euryale was somewhat of the 'family kook'. Someone was looking out for him.

'Shit..., how did I not notice his eyes?' Gaia cursed. 'Why is he even here? Crowds like this only set him off.'

'Charon forced him to come.' the blue male sighed. 'And I suppose he wanted to be here for Scylla as well.' The resemblance between this blue male and Scylla was uncanny, right down to the way he folded his arms and furrowed his brow. Another brother? It had to be.

'Lyca, can you take him to his den, please? He needs to be away from the crowd. I'll check on him later.'

'Sure thing, Yaia.' Dragging a limp Euryale along with him, the large male pushed another set of swaying Mer to the side and leisurely swam to the exit of the cave.

'Yaia?' Charybdis raised an eyebrow.

'You don't get to call me that.' The petit female huffed. 'Everything okay?'

'Give or take a bruise. I hardly think it matters at this point. I guess your joke didn't sit well with him.'

'Gods, I am so sorry about that. Euryale is actually the sweetest one of Scylla's brothers, but he's a bit..., we caught him on a bad day.'

'Wait? Euryale's the sweetest? What about me?' The blue male interjected.

'You're the most obnoxious.' Gaia laughed. It was subtle, but her face visibly brightened. 'Cetus, this is Diz. I'm going to refrain from making the same joke again, he's here for your sister.'

'Hmmm, and just like that, his face suddenly became more punchable.' Cetus grinned amicably.

'No! No more! He's my patiënt! You're gonna have to go through me first, nobody touches him. My reputation as a healer is at stake!'

Gaia gave Cetus a lackluster shove, but the male didn't so much as budge. It was clear from the way these two interacted, they grew up together. Charybdis had no trouble picturing Scylla alongside the pair of them as pups.

'You know i'd never do anything to risk ruining your reputation.' A moment of quiet passed. Charybdis couldn't help but notice Cetus' gaze lingering on Gaia for just that little bit too long. The young male wasn't exactly being subtle about it either. The way he looked at her, with unbridled adoration, left little to the imagination.

'I suppose you are looking for my sister?' Cetus eventually managed to pull his gaze away from Gaia. 'She's in the cavern connecting to this one. Heads up, she's gone a bit overboard.'

Charybdis' stomach sank a little at the mention of Scylla.

'Overboard? What exactly do you mean?' Really, her well-being shouldn't concern him as much as it did, he gave himself an imaginary slap. After all, what's the worst that could happen?

Making sure those drums weren't a threat was priority number one, but as long as they were being played, he couldn't possibly get close to them.

No drumming was coming from the other cavern, though. So checking in on Scylla wasn't the worst idea ever.

Cetus grinned wide, the very same grin Charybdis had seen his sister pull off so many times before.

'Oh, you'll see...'