Black Hearted

Part 72

Mark twisted in the water to race back out with the other screaming merfolk. He barely made it halfway down the tunnel, before the water started getting pulled back by a strong inhale. The Merfolk clawed at the compacted ice walls, letting out ear shattering screams. While they had trouble digging their fingers into the ice, his thick black talons embedded themselves into the ice easily. A little mermaid slipped from her mother and the mother released the wall to try to get her. She had almost reached her, when Hector slammed her against the wall to pin her there. The mother wailed and thrashed against Hector, watching her daughter get helplessly pulled away by the powerful current. Other merfolk tried to manipulate the water to get her, but the water was being pulled by something far stronger then their powers. A few tried to simply grab her, but they just couldn't reach her. She was too small. Her little tail wasn't strong enough to fight the current. Mark watched as the little mermaid came toward him. He couldn't let go of the wall, he was too close to the source. Yet, he was her last hope.

Concentrating, Mark dug his talons in deeper and whipped his longer tail out. The girl grabbed it, causing his tail to wrap around her tiny body like a snake. The force of catching her dragged his nails down the ice a bit, but he used all his arm strength to hug the wall with her. The current stopped as suddenly as it had started, before the walls began to tremble violently. While the walls trembled, Mark seized the chance to release it. Taking the little mermaid from his tail, he hugged her small body close. She was barely the size of his arm. He tried to talk to her, but the water was muffling all sound from the heavy vibrations. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face against his throat and curled her tail around his arm. Was this normally how Merfolk parents handled their kids? He had never been around kids in general. Ignoring it for now, he just started to swim. Other Merfolk were doing the same, fleeing out of the tunnel as fast as they could. Everyone barely made it out, before a burst of bubbles and heated water shot through the tunnel.

Mark took a moment to catch his breath, then froze in the vibrating water to look at block of ice nearby. Within the ice, something was moving. Mark moved closer to get a better look. He placed a hand on the ice, feeling in tremble violently. The little mermaid turned her head a little on his shoulder, reaching out to touch the ice like he was doing. Only she slid her hand enough to clear the foggy gloss over the ice. Using her idea; he moved around to clear off a huge portion of the ice wall. Uncovering what appeared to be a massive purple and blue scale. The little girl flexed her fingers toward it, but Mark was too busy clearing a bit more away. He had to know what he was looking at. Why did it look so similar to the scale he saw in his memory? The trembling of the water stopped, and the little mermaid patted the ice wall. Mark flashed her a questionable glare, when from within the ice something opened. Mark stiffened, his eyes darting to the ice wall. Through the icy sheen, he looked into a massive reptilian eye of gleaming blue. Mark stared into the eye, swallowing hard. He hadn't been just looking at a scale the size of his ship... but an eyelid.

Mark stayed very still. He was afraid to move in case it triggered it into attacking. Instead, the tunnel burst with another rush of heated bubbles and the eye slowly closed. Mark calculated the distance between the eye to the nostril in the tunnel, realizing to his dismay... It must have a long mouth. What was more frightening... this was just the head. Where was the rest of it? Mark finally forced himself to swim back up toward the surface. Above the surface, Merfolk were all loudly chatting in panicked voices. Hector was trying to calm them all down, when a woman with tear streaked eyes twisted away from her Paramour to run toward the edge, screaming aloud. "MARINA!" Everyone went silent, turning eyes to her as she dived off the ship. Mark let her come to him. While the little mermaid twirled her necklace of pink pearls and sucked on her thumb. For the first time, he really looked at her and couldn't help smirking a little. Her long red hair was decorated with small shells and her big light brown eyes reminded him of an ocean at sunset.