Tanked

4

Chpt 4: In Charge

(Ascal’s pov)

I was so shocked at the conclusion I had made, that I didn’t even notice when Lord D was talking to me; not until he suddenly grabbed my collar and yanked me down so that I fell to my knees. I yelped out and closed my eyes tightly, expecting a punishment for not listening. When nothing came, I opened my eyes and saw that Lord D’s attention was focused on Rinus. Rinus was snarling at Lord D and he was swishing his tail in anger, making him travel across the tank’s wall a bit. He was yelling words so fast; I barley caught any of his sentences. The only one I fully caught was: “Get away from Ascal!”

Lord D slowly let go of my collar and took a step back. Rinus slowly calmed down until he was only glowering at the human. Yes, Lord D was a human. I saw Rinus’s eyes flicker to me and he slowly started to swim down toward the speaker. Once he was close enough, Rinus lay on the sand and pressed his mouth to the speaker, whispering, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” I said even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. I also said it in English to give Lord D a sense of what he just asked me; so even if he could hear me, he wouldn’t understand me. Lord D chuckled, and I glared at him.

“I see he has grown fond of you, Ascal.”  Lord D clasped his hands behind his back and turned to the tank to watch Rinus, who had swum away from the wall slightly. He kept looking back at me as if he was checking up on me. That made me smile slightly. “Now,” Lord D continued and I looked back at him. “About what I had been talking about earlier; what you had been clearly not paying attention to. I leave you in charge of watching the merman while I travel to my sister’s for her wedding. In that week, I want you to try to teach him English, as well as learn as much as you can about him. I will be assigning a scientist to be observing him as well so he can make as many notes as possible before the real tests began.”

I flinch as I knew what he meant by ‘real tests’. With his fascination of mythical creatures, Lord D wanted to separate what was true and just a myth about ever creature he captured. I remembered all the tests he had put me through and I shivered. He never let any of his precious mythical creatures die, but he did push us to our limits. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Rinus would go through once Lord D came back from his sister’s wedding.

“You’ll be staying here during that week.” Lord D continued. “I’ll have a cot brought for you to sleep on and three meals will be brought to you every day. Now fallow me.” I got up from my knees and fallowed Lord D to a door. He opened it and I walked into a small room that held stairs that I’m sure led up all the way to the top of the tank. The stairs went up in a square pattern, and it looked like there were about three and a half flights of them. That must make the tank about 30 feet deep. I began to climb the stairs and it only took me a minute or two. At the top was a platform about eight feet in length, and 6 feet in width; about the size of a small room.

“So I guess this is where I will be staying.”I looked over the top of the tank to see that it was caged over with thick bars about a foot apart each. Tubs and cords for filters, lights, and bubblers were going into the tank from the back wall, probably from another room everything was in. There was a door looking cluster of bars and Lord D bent down to unlock it. He slid the door to the side and that left about a 5 by 5 gap for someone to jump in; or out. I looked into the water to see Rinus watching us; but he stayed down near the bottom. I smiled down at him and he smiled back.

“I give you permission to go into the tank if needed be, but do not take that permission lightly. Everything will be brought to you by tonight. The bathroom is down the stairs and is the only door that is not locked.”

“Wait, I’ll be locked up in here?” I asked, although I wasn’t really surprised. I’d probably be guarded too.

“Of course.” Lord D looked at me seriously, and then slapped the key to the door of the tank into my hand. He then began down the stairs as he said, “I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, but you can start your teaching today. I expect you to teach him well.” I then heard the door slam and lock. I sighed and looked down into the tank.

(Rinus’s pov)

I watched as the creature made his way out of the space, looking back at me once before he disappeared behind the thing that opened and then closed. I didn’t like him at all. He had hurt Ascal, and I liked Ascal. I looked up and saw him standing at the edge of the tank, looking down at me. I swam up to the top and slowly poked my head out of the water. My hair flopped over my eyes and I pushed the wet strands out of my face. I looked up and smiled as Ascal smiled down at me. I heard him sigh, and he sat at the edge of the tank, dangling his two limbs that took the place where his tail would be in the tank. I flipped my tail just enough to push myself out of the water and grabbed the two limbs to keep me out of the water. Ascal seemed startled and yelped, grabbing onto the edge of the tank and leaning back so that he didn’t fall in. I smiled up at him.

“Ascal, what are these that dangle where your tail is supposed to be?”

Ascal chuckled and said in sloppy mer-talk, “I never had a tail, Rinus. I’m not a merman like you are. And these things are called legs.” My smiled widened and I poked his leg.

“What is this stuff that covers your legs? Is it scales? It’s very soft.” I started to stroke the blue stuff that covered his legs. I found a whole in the stuff and poked my fingers into it. I felt skin underneath and pulled my finger back out, puzzled.

“These aren’t scales.” Ascal told me and I looked up at him. “These are called pants, and they cover my legs.” He then reached down and began to pull back the pants that were covering his legs. I gasped as I saw skin underneath. I then saw something else that interested me. I slid down his legs so that I was eye level with the things that ended his legs. They were hard and looked white and blue. I grabbed it and looked up at Ascal again.

“What are these?” Ascal smiled at me again and reached down to start untying what looked like white worms.

“This is my shoe.” He pulled the shoe off and I saw another white thing and grabbed onto it. It felt like the pants. “That’s my sock.” I took the sock off and let it fall into the water. I heard Ascal chuckle but I didn’t pay attention as I peered over the thing in front of me. It looked like a hand, but had a longer palm and very short fingers. I looked up at him and tilted my head to the side. He smiled and said, “That’s my foot, and these are my toes.” The little fingers started to wiggle and I grabbed them.

“Foot and toes.” I smiled as I said the words happily. Ascal nodded with a smile and I couldn’t help but smile back. I really really like Ascal.