Survivors of Alterna: Final Run

Chapter 2: The Exiled

After Akikta caught Nakji up to speed on everything, there was a discomfiting level of silence between the three.

This was probably the part where the two should've asked questions, but Nakji didn't particularly feel like talking to a salmonid, and Akikta felt uncomfortable enough. A salmonid willing to help them out? This was probably a painfully obvious trap. But... maybe it wasn't.

Akikta desperately hoped for the latter, but the pestering feeling of awkwardness continued to rise for as long as the silence between them lasted. With the silence came skepticism.

"So...I noticed earlier you kept referring to Sal as usurper. What's the deal with that?" Akikta blurted, unable to bear the awkwardness any longer.

"Because he is," Rick answered without explaining further.

"Can I get some sort of context?" Rick let out a warbled sigh, lowering his head and slowing down a bit. After a moment, he picked his head back up and continued leading them through The Bowels.

"He came to our tribe one day, alone and without a name. We had never seen a creature such as him... But he insisted he was one of us," Rick said, giving Akikta a brief breakdown of Sal's origins from his point of view. "At the time, we had seven chieftains. Most of them were untrusting of the outsider, rightly so." Rick paused.

"But...?"

"One of the chieftains favored him. Said he had some untapped potential, but, if you ask me, it was out of pity."

"Let me guess the rest. He climbed his way through the ranks, killed the seven chieftains, then took over your clan?"

"No." Rick quickly disproved Akikta's assumption. "The usurper had mingled with us for a few months. At one point, he was even offered to join our tribe...but he refused. Instead, he left." Rick corrected.

Nakji softly elbowed Akikta to get his attention. She wanted to know what Rick was saying, so as the salmonid spoke, Akikta translated for her.

"A few years later, he came back to us, worn down and beaten. Someone must've really done him in. Whoever it was, I wish they had finished the job, because from that day forward, everything changed." Rick looked up at the destroyed and cluttered buildings that formed the ceiling of The Bowels. "The idea to trade with the octarians? Invading the shores of those cephalopods? Moving into this place? It all came from him. His worst idea yet was for us to reign supreme."

"Doesn't look like the others thought it was a bad idea."

"Well, of course they didn't think so. The idea might've been his, but it was the chieftain who favored him that pitched it to us."

"Sounds like that chieftain really liked him."

"Perhaps. I'll never understand why she helped him, but he ascended the ranks solely because of her. And now, with you here, the whole world is at stake." Rick lowered his head. "To think I once considered her to be the wisest of us all..." Akikta looked down, a solemn expression taking over his face.

Rick felt betrayed. He could tell. Even if the salmonid didn't directly say he was backstabbed, he could hear it in his voice. Akikta understood the tone all too well.

Still, there was one thing Akikta did not quite understand. "It sounds like you know Sal's plans. Not saying that he's right or anything, but, why are you so against it? Wouldn't your clan be the one to benefit from it?"

"Because I've worked with Eosalmo. From the first runs he set out on, I witnessed what type of creature he is. And he is nothing like us." Rick stretched out his fins. "We care about each other. But more importantly, we care about our ecosystem. We, the Tidal Wave Clan, bring balance to it. Yes, it is true the colorful cephalopods have been overfishing us. But we encroached on their borders first. They are merely defending themselves, as all living beings should."