Tanked

He listened and repeated what they said.

“Moving... Aquariums?.... transport tanks....cross bridge ocean something... Too many are talking!!” Azalyss whined and started whimpering in my chest again.

I had heard all I needed though. The rest of what I needed was in what I was seeing.

Tanks, the watery cages, were all around. Small ones that wouldn’t be comfortable but still cages. We were placed in one, the net taken off and the top closed as we shifted to get more comfortable; as comfortable as we could anyway.

“Alright.... I think this may work or may go horribly wrong...” I sighed as I watched the humans around us.

Azalyss looked at me, concerned. I was too but I couldn’t see any other option. If I was right, and I didn’t want to be, the humans were trying to move us to another place with cages like what Azalyss had broken. Such a place was bad for us. So, my half-drowned plan to get to the ocean again was what we were going for.

I figured out that the clear wall being cracked was bad. Very bad if they wanted to keep us in the cages. But it was good, very good, if we wanted out.

Trouble was if we had nowhere to go after we broke it, we were damned to abyss. Also, I couldn’t scream at a high enough pitch to break the clear walls. Azalyss could though, and I had just seen the ocean.

I watched the humans as the few fish that survived Azalyss’ scream were loaded onto a very weird looking thing... I don’t even know how to describe such a thing...

But I noticed, not far past it, the color of the sky and ocean. I saw the human level green, but I could see where merfolk level blue met the sky and the green of the land. I saw the ocean. We had a chance after all.

I got a good look farther out as the humans lifted our cage and put inside the weird lifted box thing. It was metal surely and was suspended by four circular things. It got dark quickly as the doors to it shut. Something beneath us growled, scaring Azalyss but I ignored it, quickly realizing it wasn’t a growl. Whatever this was it wasn’t alive. Living things don’t make noises like that.

Then we started moving, only we weren’t moving. That was what scared me. I couldn’t show it though, not to Azalyss.

“Papa!!” Azalyss was terrified.

“I’m right here, right here babe,” I held him. “Babe, hey... I need your help again; can you help me? It’ll be really easy...”

“Papa I’m scared!” He was crying, crying hard. I wanted to cry with him, but I couldn’t, not yet.

“I know... but think about momma. I bet he’s scared, and alone...” I needed him to scream.

“Stop! No! Momma’s okay!!”

“What if he isn’t?” I asked.

He went quiet, crying silently again. Once more I felt his scream build in his chest.

I felt bad for saying those things and I was afraid they’d be true as well, but I needed him to scream. And he did. I would apologize later and explain then why, but his scream was the first step.

The clear wall completely shattered as water flooded everything. I pulled him with me as quickly as I could, cutting my tail up pretty badly in the sharp pieces of the clear wall as we tumbled out with it.

The back with the doors was blocked somehow but I had enough in me to break through one side. It hurt to do so, but at the time I barely felt it. There were more of the weird moving things some ways behind us, but I couldn’t worry about those as I moved Azalyss to my back to carry him. I saw the sea just off the black land.

I was scared, undeniably so, but it was now or never with Azalyss and the thing we were in was slowing and moving sideways. I jumped as best I could. It hurt and burned to land on the black land, but I barely felt it.

The moving things behind the one I had jumped from stopped and swerved, making awful noises, and releasing horrid smells. I dragged myself over to the small gray wall and jumped again though.

Azalyss screamed again, scared as he held onto me. But we made it. The water was cold and fresh and natural as it washed over us.

We made it back to the sea. The cold ocean water was a relief to my burns even as the salt stung them and my cuts.

“Swim. Azalyss SWIM!!!” I screamed this time, holding him on my back as I took off. We couldn’t waste time. We needed to get away.

He was trying to swim with me but mostly it was just me carrying him. I hope that somehow and some way Ayrice was alright but Azalyss was the one I had to take care of.

I realized I couldn’t go back home with Azalyss. I doubted they’d do anything to him; I mean it’s common that illegitimate children are around, but they don’t have it easy. He’d be scorned and forbidden from the palace. I’m sure he’d quickly be taken in by a family, but foster care wasn’t always good...

We’d figure this out later. First, we needed to get as far from the humans as possible, even if it meant leaving Ayrice...

I didn’t slow until over half-way through the day. I was tired and Azalyss was too, but we couldn’t stop. It was hard but I swam until I collapsed from exhaustion. We simply couldn’t afford to stop.

I was only out for half a day when I finally blacked out, despite having swam for three days straight. Azalyss never left my side and was starving. I was pretty hungry too, but my tail was still cut and burned with my hands.

I had to get the pieces of clear wall out first. Those hurt. Each time I pulled one of the six pieces out I ended up cutting my hands too. Azalyss only whimpered the more he saw blood. Finally, I got them out and managed to get the bleeding to stop with some drifting kelp I was fortunate enough to find.

I did the best I could to feed us on the open ocean surface level. I couldn’t dive as far as I wanted to for fear of my own kind. Unfortunately, the surface level made it so we stood out. Great for attracting sharks, bad for hunting fish.

Both of us lost a lot of weight, me more so. But we were surviving and moving. I resorted to eating more plants when we found them. I refused to stay in one spot for longer than I had to though, not until I was sure we would be safe. It was months before I found a place for us.

A small and ultimately forgotten island. It was large enough to sustain a village of humans, which it was doing, but small enough to not be cared about by outside humans. As far as I could tell this island was entirely forgotten by the rest of the world. Isolated. The waters were too shallow for mers to consider as well.

It had two divine lagoons and miles and miles of coral reefs around it. There were so many fish and few sharks. And plenty of plants for Ayrice...

Ayrice. I knew then I’d never see him again. Azalyss I think knew too but, we didn’t say anything about it.

Azalyss ate plants and fish so this place would work. It was a little on the cold side but overall, it’d work... I’d make it work. It would work. I think Ayrice would have liked it too. He whispered, only once in his sleep, of shallow waters around an island.

“Papa, what about the humans?” Azalyss was sitting at the edge of one of the lagoons, watching from under the water a few of the small human babes.

“I think we’ll be fine. Look, they have babes. Daughters and sons. They’ll see us and know I have a babe, you’re my babe. They’ll know I’m just doing what they’re doing,” I nodded.

I had a feeling this place would be perfect even with the humans. These ones I knew wouldn’t hurt us because they would see a family in the water, like we saw families on the land.

“Which is?” Azalyss asked me.

I smiled, “Trying my best to be a good parent.”