The Legacy of the Alliance

Chapter 36

"How the hell are we meant to get away? You only have one set of earplugs and if we tried to turn the ship around ourselves, the others would start fighting..." Lyra paced around until Val handed her the note book they were using for her responses.

'We need to fight the problem at its root.'

"Oh yeah? And how do you suggest we do that?"

Val pointed at the water.

"Val, no... We don't even know how many there are! Plus, I don't think your chemicals will work if your underwater - and if they do, they'll probably hurt you too..."

Before Lyra could protest again, Val leaped off of the boat and into the water - leaving her coat behind. Under the water, Val could see a group of five mermen and mermaids surrounding the ship. When they spotted her, flashes of: green, pink, dark blue rushed past the researcher's vision. Suddenly, she felt hands grab her arms and yank her down - they clearly didn't know about her gills. However, it didn't take long for a mermaid to point them out. That was when they released her arms and instead had one of the mermaids pin her on a piece of coral.

"State your name." the mermaid pinning her down had a rough voice and green skin with dark green hair that was held up in a bun.

"Why would I?" Val snapped back.

"You will answer her unless you seek your and your friends' death." an older merman held a dagger at her throat.

"My name is Valerie Quinn. Me and my friends had no ill intention in coming here. I swear."

"Valerie?" the merman with the dagger turned to a mermaid with dark blue skin and piercing yellow eyes followed by light pink hair and started muttering something. Without a word from her, she quickly swam off into the ocean.

"Val!" the researcher heard Lyra's calls from the ship.

"Please. Just let me tell her I'm okay... The last thing any of us want is more people to hold down, I'm sure."

One of the mermaids towards the back of the group sneered. "As if she'd have the guts to come down here..."

Val chuckled. "Oh, you don't know Lyra. A week or two ago she was- Actually that's none of your business. Now, let me tell her not to come down and you can drag me right back down..."

The older man finally nodded and Val found herself being dragged back up to the surface. 

"Val! Let her go!" Lyra called from the edge of the ship, looking like she was ready to jump down at any moment.

"Lyra, no! Stay there! I'll be fine..."

"But-"

"No!" Val insisted - if she knew anything about her captors, it was that they wouldn't hesitate to kill the other woman if she jumped down.

"That's enough talking." The green-skinned mermaid that had dragged her up began pulling her back down.

So there sat the researcher, perched on a piece of coral, her shoulders being crushed from the two merfolk pinning her. After a few minutes, the mermaid that had previously left had returned with what seemed to be  guards and a...prisoner? She had dark blue skin and pink hair like the mermaid that had brought the guards except she had turquoise eyes. Val looked again. Yes. Under the messy pink hair, those were turquoise eyes. Her eyes...

"Mom?"

The prisoner's head snapped up. "Valerie?"