Tanked

8

Chpt 8: Out of the Water

(Ascal)

The full week has passed already, and I sat fearfully on my cot as I waited. It was almost night already, and I knew that lord D would be here any moment. The two twin guards, who have actually come pretty close to the merman and I, have already warned us that he was home, and making rounds through the other cells.

Rinus pushed himself onto the platform and looked at me. "What wrong, Ascal?" He asked softly. For the last three days, I've had him speak nothing but English. He's been getting pretty good at it, other than the little mistakes he makes; like the one he just did.

"What's, Rinus, it what's. What's wrong?" I give him a tiny smile, but I can tell he knew I wasn't very happy.

"Ahh, sorry Ascal. So, what's wrong? You look sad." He leans against my leg and lays his head into my lap. I'd have to tell you that this young merman has grabbed a piece of my heart that I never thought anyone would grip. He feels like a son to me. Someone I should protect at all costs and make sure is always smiling. I know I've only known the poor boy for a week, but he's touched my heart with his cute, childlike behavior. I've learned a lot about him in this past week, and I'd love to learn more if I could; but I doubt I would get the chance to.

"I'm fine, Rinus, just a little worried." I pet his wet hair and he gives a bubbly purr. You would never think a fish could purr, but there he was, purring. It wasn't really a purr; it was more of a bubbling hissing sound that came from his gills, but it was purr enough.

"Why are you worry?" He looks up at me with his bright eyes and slaps his tall a bit, making some water splash.

"Worried. I'm worried because Lord D is coming back today, and I know he wants to see you." He hisses and digs his claws into my leg a bit. I yelp and try to take his hands off of me. "Let go Rinus!"

He lets go and whimpers. "I'm sorry Ascal, but I just hate that human. He hurt you and he seems really bad."

I sigh. "He is bad, but when he comes you have to listen to him, or else something bad will happen. Do you understand?" I look down at him and he gives a small nod.

"Ok, but only because you asked me to." I smile at him and pet his hair again.

"That's a good boy." I smile but then sigh. Suddenly, the door from bellow bursts open and Kevin yells up the stairs.

"Lord D is on his way! Ascal, its best you come with me and Rinus should get into the water." I sigh and run my fingers into my hair. I look at Rinus as he grows weary and hugs my leg tightly.

"I don't want you to go, Ascal." I pet his hair and stand up.

"I'm sorry but I have to. I'm so sorry..." I pull my leg from his grasp and walk down the stairs. I hear a splash behind me as he jumps back into the water. As I walk out, two guards grab me and yank me out of the tank room. Just before the door closes behind me, I look back to see Rinus looking at me, and I could see the silhouette of Lord D standing in front of the tank. "I'm so sorry..."

(Rinus)

I watched worryingly as Ascal was pushed out by two guards, and then turned my attention the looming shadow outside my tank as it spoke. "Hello Rinus, I'm sure you remember me."

I swim down to the little speaker and nod. "Hello."

Lord D smiles, "Good, you can speak. Now before we start the...'fun'...part of the testing, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." I say and look into his eyes. Ascal had mentioned that to show respect, call males sir and females ma'am. He also said that eye contact was good during a conversation. Lord D didn't seem to deserve my respect, but Ascal told me to call him that anyways.

"Good boy. Now, can you change into a human?" I looked at him confused. Me change into a human? I've heard of something of the sorts from stories mother used to tell me before she left, but the beings the stories said we changed into didn't seem to look anything like a human. More like a fish with legs.

"I do not think so, but I do not know for sure..." I lie down on the sand and look at him confused. Lord D nodded and I glared at him a bit. I still didn't trust, or like him. No matter who he is, he hurt Ascal.

"Can you survive in fresh water as well as salt water?"

I tilt my head. "I have never seen fresh water. I have always been in ocean."

Lord D looks back at something and I can just barely see another human taking notes. "And does sea creature poison affect you?" I did know something about that. It was one of the first things mother taught me when she was giving me hunting lessons. I gave him the three names of the creatures that she told me to watch out for, not including sharks. The names were in my native tongue as I didn't know their English names, and that seemed to anger Lord D a bit. "Give their English names."

"But I do not know them." I told him and he shook his head. He said something to the other man who was taking notes and gave me one last glance before walking out. Suddenly, a loud clanking noise filled the tank and the water began to get lower. I gasped and swam around, trying to find where the water was going so I could stop it. I finally found a weird hole with a grate over it. I put my hands over it to try to stop the water from going out the hole, but that didn't work. I then took some seaweed and started to stuff it through the grate. Slowly, the water stopped going down, but by now, I only had about half a tank left.

I lay down at the bottom and watched through the tank at humans rushing around with things I've never seen before. After a while, three humans in weird suits and things on their backs jumped into the water with me. I hissed at them and swam away, staying as far as I could from them. One had a long stick thing with a loop at the end. He kept trying to use the stick to throw the loop around my head anytime he got close to me; which only happened twice when they managed to corner me. Now I avoid the corners at all costs. Another human carried a long rope. The third human stayed back for the most part, around where the strange hole was. I didn't think about him too much, too preoccupied by the other two, until suddenly the water began to rush out again.

I gasped and looked over, swimming over quickly to clog the hole again; but now distracted, I wasn't able to move out of the way fast enough when I suddenly saw the loop in front of my face. With a hard yank, the rough silver loop was tightened around my throat and I yelped, thrashing around and swimming away, dragging the human with me. My exempt to escape was short lived as the water got too low to swim, and I was stuck in sand. The humans, who now walked, approached me and I hissed and clawed at them. The one human used the stick and loop to force my head down into the sand while the two others grabbed my hands and tied them together with rope. The most I could do now was hiss and thrash my tail around.

Soon, other humans jumped into the now empty tank and wrapped fabric around me, lifting me out of the tank with more ropes. I hissed and screamed, thrashing around non-stop. When I got to the platform, they lowered me onto a weird white board, and strapped me down using black ropes attached to board. This ended my thrashing. With nothing else to do in an attempt to free myself, I hissed at anyone who came close to me. The humans seemed a bit calmer one I was strapped down, and after a few moments, the scientist walked up to me.

"Good, no harm done. Now, get him to lab 3! Testing will began as soon as possible. Lord D wants all the tests performed, but we are not to kill him, understand?!"

"Understood!" everyone said and I was suddenly lifted, being carried to a place I wish never even existed.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hope you all liked this, i'm sorry it took so long for me to write