Tanked

Jackie, the diver, was actually starting to creep me out. Well I wasn’t creeped out, but I was a little concerned and starting to consider that Synris may be right about him.

He was still nice, always that never changed...but something about him just seemed off. I still couldn’t place what it was.

“Mmmmhhhhhhhh momma, I ate all the food again,” Azalyss was splayed across my lap.

“Well there’s not much I can do...did you ask Synris?” I questioned, assuming he was still hungry.

The divers didn’t take long to understand that Azalyss ate a lot of food. Like a whale’s worth. They got him a new and much larger snack box to access throughout the day, but they let Synris keep his as well.

“Nah, I’m full,” he giggled.

I sighed and ran my fingers through his hair, “Now if you’d be almost full when the divers come...”

“’m sorry momma,” he mumbled.

Like I said, he ate a lot. Unlike Synris though, Azalyss was not picky in the slightest. The boy would eat anything, fish or plants it didn’t matter. That meant he’d often end up eating what the divers brought for me.

“It’s alright... but if you’re that hungry you need to say something to them...” I rubbed his back gently.

Honestly, I didn’t care much that Azalyss was eating half my meal but Synris tied his tail up over it since I was dropping weight again. I appreciated the concern but disliked that he was starting to make my babe feel guilty over it when it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Momma I want to play,” Azalyss mumbled as he sat up in the sand.

“Well...umm teach me one of the games Jackie plays with you...” I still couldn’t keep up when it came to games like tag or race.

I smiled though, deciding to save mentally berating myself for later and instead to focus on playing with Azalyss now. I could at least try the less physically demanding games.

“Yeah okay!!” He laughed and started going through the steps for a hand game.

It was when I’d just gotten the hang of it that Jackie himself decided to pop in. Of course, Synris wasn’t much more than a minute later to come settle by my side. As soon as Synris showed up though I got the weird feeling that Jackie was upset again.

I shrugged it off and smiled, thinking it was probably because Synris always growled at him and he was just wary. It wasn’t feeding time, so he must’ve just wanted to visit.

“Wrong time, human, get lost,” Synris growled.

“Hey, maybe he just wants to play with Azalyss. They’re friends, it’s fine,” I pushed Synris back a bit, more or less trying to keep myself between him and Azalyss. I wasn’t going to let him hurt my babe, accident or not.

Azalyss still didn’t understand why Synris always got upset with Jackie. Neither of us did actually.

“Papa...” He started to ask but the look he got from Synris silenced him quickly.

“Hey. Knock it off Synris. Don’t start this with him,” I turned faster than I thought possible, growling in warning at him.

Jackie stopped some ways away and was watching us silently as Synris huffed.

“Start what? I haven’t done anything,” he rolled his eyes and before I could stop him, he jumped on Azalyss.

Azalyss squeaked as Synris rolled in the sand with him, refusing to let him go from the hug he’d been wrapped in. I relaxed as I heard them both laughing. As long as Synris was nice to my babe it was fine.

I looked up to Jackie and smiled but he wasn’t watching me. His gaze, at least as far as I could tell, was trained on Azalyss. I shrugged it off and swam up to him, pulling lightly in his arm for his attention. He had wanted to visit so I would visit him.

When he turned to look at me, I could only see his eyes, but they gave me the sense that he was smiling. It was strange as I still got that really weird feeling of displeasure from him. I shrugged it off again and held my hands out to him. I wanted to see if I could successfully play that hand game. Azalyss spiked my curiosity with it and now it was bugging me. Jackie didn’t seem to understand for a little bit but then he reached his hands out and took mine.

“No, the hand game. I want to play it,” I tried telling him as I pulled my hands away.

He didn’t understand me though. When I held my hands out again, this time trying to motion the game, he grabbed my wrist. When I tried to pull away this time though he wouldn’t let go. I was more confused than worried, until he started pulling me at least. Then I was worried and wanted him to let go. In my panic I struck him with my tail.

I think I hit him harder than I meant too. He let go immediately as he let out a muffled cry. Synris heard and was at my side in an instant, pulling me away. Jackie seemed to struggle to move as he tried to swim up and away.

“What was that?” Synris growled.

“I-i don’t know. He tried to pull me, so I hit him. I didn’t mean to hurt him,” At this point I wasn’t sure who was scaring me more, the quickly retreating Jackie or the growling Synris.

“Papa...” Azalyss started but Synris turned on him before he could finish.

“Hush,” He didn’t growl at least as he pulled Azalyss into the sand.

We sat at the bottom of our watery cage for a while, Synris just holding me and using his free hand to brush Azalyss’ hair.

“Ayrice..........what happened?” Synris finally mumbled into my ear, rubbing my back gently as he shifted to wrap his tail around Azalyss and pull him closer.

I explained and nearly started whimpering, convinced I’d hurt Jackie. Synris was nice though, doing his best to calm and reassure me while keeping Azalyss quiet besides us.

When the divers came to feed us, they all seemed wary and didn’t seem to want to get that close to me. Which was fine because Synris wasn’t letting them close to Azalyss or me anyway. It was a little confusing though, they normally wanted to try and coax me over to them since I normally stayed away and played shy. But I got the feeling that they no longer liked me.

Also, instead of two divers there were four, and Jackie wasn’t with them. Synris seemed to get the same off feeling as me. Again, the situation just gave me a bad feeling. I was worried again, and guilty.

“Something is wrong, Ayrice...” He mumbled as he laid beside me, long after Azalyss fell asleep that night.

“I know......I’m sorry for not listening about Jackie...”

“It’s fine, already past anyway.”

“You don’t think they’ll mess with Azalyss do you?” I asked looking at him.

“No, I won’t let them. Don’t worry, I promise I’ll protect our babe,” He smiled, so sure of himself. It was hard not to believe him when he was so confident.

I nodded and smiled myself as he moved to kiss me. It was a gentle, reassuring kiss, a kiss I actually wanted, if not needed.

He pulled away only to move to the other side of Azalyss. Synris smiled and reached over him to tug at my arm. I smiled back and moved closer to Azalyss, the two of us wrapping him in our tails and snuggling up on both sides of him for the night.

I think a part of me knew then, but I dreamed of warm sand and happiness in the tropics instead of worrying. I trusted Synris again.