Beast Conquests

Chapter 10: Red in the Water

       "The first beasts, what are they?"

       But it was a question he said he'd answer another time.

       Later, Mirabella found herself immersed in the colours of the sea. Vibrant corals, schools of fish in different colours and sizes and shapes danced around her and all manner of sea folk seemed to sing as they swam by.

      Her giggles and laughter rang out from the bubble. Azul, her companion never left her side. As he showed her all the beautiful places, his heart fluttering at every smile of hers his heart grew with the callous need to covet her.

      Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the water. Faint and fleeting. Azul subtly became alert, still with his charming smile not to alarm her. Ears twitching as he felt around.

      Sounds tossed around in the water, his sea green eyes peered into the depths of the water already accustomed to the dark and there he saw something moving, crawling and lurking in the dark.

       "Mira, it's time to go."

      His tone was the same as it had been cool and calm but Mira noticed the waver in his voice and his eyes darting here to there. His gills raised like hackles.

     Ominously, the fishes, sea horses and even the turtles swam away as if to flee.

      'There's something wrong.'

       A predator was coming.

      She didn't protest and let him take her away quietly. The water suddenly ran cold and shivers ran up her spine. Mira noticed Azul slowly gaining speed, ready to bolt if someone or something were to spring out and attack them.

      'Damn it! I took us too far.'

       Azul cursed not just the situation but himself most of all, teeth grinding and the retracted claws to his webbed hands slowly coming out. But he calmed himself and called out to the other members of his tribe.

      The distress signal traveling through the sea quickly, sound waves bouncing off. Even then, they were still a ways away from the tribe.

      'But those things shouldn't be here. They've gotten too close to our territory. We don't have the men to keep guard. As it stands our tribe lacks the numbers, it's only a matter of time...'

       Some jumped out from the dark. A hideous, scaled creature with protruding fins at its back, the elbows and the head like devilish horns. Mira's eyes couldn't keep up and saw only a blur of murky, dirty, dark green.

       Thick black lips like rubber and gnarly, askewed fangs. The creature snarled and swiped his claws, Azul dodged barely. He hissed, baring sharp fangs of his own and his gills flaring out.

      "Mira, stay calm and trust me. Whatever happens, stay in the bubble."

        In a matter of minutes, they were surrounded. Mira's heart beat quickly in anxiousness, she tried to call her breathing. Her hands were trembling, the nails that had grown out dug at her flesh as her hands balled in a fist.

        'What are these things?'

       Deformed, monstrous. Their eyes were pure grey without a pupil and it made her uncomfortable. It crept up her skin, like thick sludge drowning her. The feeling couldn't be shaken off.

       And an innate fear was born, even worse than when she was followed by two suspicious men as she walked home to her apartment at night.

       She could barely hear the faint gurgling and snarling over her loudly beating heart.

      Azul eyed one as it cautiously approached and then, they attacked.

       The sea water became dyed red. The deep and rich colour of blood seeping into the water and spreading like ink.

       Mira trembled.

       'I didn't realize... I don't know why it took me this long...'

       Claws out and fangs bared. She could only watch from inside the bubble as the monsters reached out, snapped their teeth and tried to tear Azul apart.

      He swiped his webbed claws, hissing like a snake and blood cake gushing out from the beheaded monster. Their slimy skin turned ink black as the bodies slowly sank. Corpses and pieces of them to the ocean floor.

      They were vicious, almost mindless in their attacks and they seemed never ending. No matter how many Azul had slaughtered, they kept coming. The merman was the only creature swimming between them and Mirabella.

      The grey eyes, like of a dead fish seemed to really see nothing but their desire.

     From scratches to wounds, they began to chip away at Azul's tight defense. As his tribes greatest warrior, he was worth a thousand of his tribesmen. But he couldn't hold them at bay forever.

      One slipped by him, it's disgusting arms reached out to grab her. It was a split second and then, the bubble popped. Even when it didn't make a sound, the 'pop' echoed loudly in her head.

      Mira hurriedly took a deep breath, her legs kicking underneath her to keep her afloat. Azul cursed, his tail swatting the monster away.

      The green skinned barely human monsters howled and took advantage of that moment to intensify their attacks. Slashing and hacking away the flesh of their own.

        The pieces of skin embedded bona and scales filling the already reddened water like a sacrifice. The were carnal and hungry. The rough, yellowish teeth tearing and gnashing.

      Azul's claws ripped them apart, limb from limb as deep as the bones would go. The once gorgeous tail whirled twisters of water. There was a buzzing sound ringing in her head like a radio murmuring white noise.

       The water trembled and roared with a wave trying to wash them away and yet, Mira's eyes widened as she tried to run from it but she was too slow compared to the green monster that snarled and reached out it's long claws with bits of flesh.

       With a gnarled expression it swing it's hand to slash her in half as if it would take only a part and feast on her flesh. Her eyes closed awaiting the sharp blades to tear her apart but instead there was the rush of water and the air knocked off out her lungs.

      Almost too soon were cold arms, icy limbs wrapping around her as her eyes snapped open. The fresh expression of pain on his face was irrepressible. And it was only for but a moment but she was terrified of it.

      They sank down, all happening slowly in her mind as the horror sunk in.

       Her air had run out, her eyes rolling at the back of her head and her lungs were burning. That was when cool, smooth lips met hers giving her a breath of life. Her eyes snapped open and a moment passed between where only sea green orbs were seen.

        They swarmed around them but with one wave of his tail he pushed her down and away as a torrent of water carried her away. And she could only watch in horror, half paralyzed as he drowned under their numbers.

      Even then she couldn't scream his name or do much of anything else but be helpless. That moment, watching Azul hold them at bay, fighting ferociously and skillfully yet being wounded all the same made her realise a startling fact that she had subconsciously been denying.

       The danger of the world she ended up in.

       The brutal carnage, the barbaric practices and most of all the sheer, outright peril she was in and how helpless she was. Defenseless. The fear kept her frozen and unable to react more than the shock had.

       And when all seemed lost a loud call rang throughout the water like waves. A large, spherical sea shell in the webbed hands of a merman used as a horn announcing their presence.

       The tribe had come to save them.