Tanked

I will say it here, it felt like a thousand sharks were tearing into me to give birth to this thing. It. Splashing. Hurt!

But alas, after hours of struggling by myself, I had a babe. He was beautiful and strong enough to swim on his own not even an hour after birth, yet still small enough for me to cradle.

His eyes were pale and cloudy, his tail and fins were long and extravagant like Synris’. He had my skin and scale colors though. If he hadn’t had the sandy colorings he would have easily passed for a royal in the ocean.

The good thing was no humans were around, as it was the middle of the night cycle. However, this child had his father’s energy and wanted to play now. I was exhausted and still bleeding from his birthing though. I was no doubt too clumsy as well and thus would be useless to protect him, and I feared the fish in the cage with us might still take advantage of my sweet babe’s softness.

I tried. I tried to splash water around with him and to play hand games to keep him in the nest. I did my best to play and keep him entertained but the world was growing fuzzy and he wanted out of the nest, growing bored already.

“Please, just wait. Wait until morning, I beg you. Then we can play,” I pleaded, knowing he didn’t understand a word of what I was saying yet.

I noticed Synris, lurking and stalking near when I really thought I couldn’t keep my eyes open a second longer. I was desperate, just wanting my babe to be safe if nothing else.

“Please help?”

Synris nodded and I let go of the babe. He splashed a bit of water to get the little thing’s attention and had the child in his arms before I could change my mind.

I watched them for as long as I could possibly keep my eyes open. Hearing the babe laughing with Synris made me smile a little, despite my nervousness with letting Synris take care of the child. I had no other choice though; I was nearly unconscious by then.

The last thing I noted before my eyes closed was that Synris hadn’t let the babe stray too far from the surface.

When I woke the fake sun was on and some weird scratchy thing was irritating my tail and hips. I started trying to get it off but Synris corrected me.

“That diver put it on you. It stopped the bleeding. They fed him for you and gave him an oyster to suck on too.” Synris informed me.

I stopped pulling the scratchy thing and looked over at the babe, no, my babe. Sure enough, he had an oyster shell in his mouth and was happily gnawing on it as he laid there in the nest. Synris, I realized, was staying at the edges outside of the nest.

“...Thank you,” I mumbled to him and moved to lay down with my babe.

He was in a good mood, the babe I mean, since he had gotten to play and hopefully napped at some point. He smiled and showed me the oyster, pressing it to my mouth.

“No thank you, you can keep it,” I smiled as he put it back in his mouth and made a weird babe gurgle at me. It was a darling sound.

“He knows you’re his mother,” Synris had come around so he could see my face as he spoke softly to me.

I ignored him, focusing on my babe as I moved my tail lazily to move the water around some.

“Ayrice, will you please just look at me? At least look at me, please,” I could hear his voice crack with grief and pain.

Good. Let him know my pain. I continued to ignore him and stayed there, laying with my babe. I stretched out some as I got comfortable again and soon the babe fell asleep and I followed his lead. I was suddenly a much lighter sleeper though and kept waking up to check on the sleeping child.

Synris had left us some time before and I was awake to see the divers when they came to bring us food. They gave the food to me and I shared it with the babe curled at my side. I gave the fish bits to him too since he didn’t have a problem with them like I did. He only took a bit before closing his eyes and going back to sleep against my side.

The diver stayed at the edge of the nest like usual and talked to me, though we didn’t understand each other at all. He stayed longer than the other divers, as was usual, but then Synris popped up and started hissing at him.

“Synris. Just stop. He’s not going to do anything. At this point you’re the only real threat to us so just stop.” I looked up at him, annoyed more than anything.

“I’m not a threat, that’s my babe!” Synris growled.

“Your babe? Maybe you should’ve thought about that when you found out I was having him!” I hissed back, “Now stop growling at me. Only threats growl.”

He went silent for a moment before speaking softly, “Ayrice...”

“Do not even start with me. You had your chance. I could get over injuries to me, but I won’t chance you injuring MY babe. You had your chance and you threw it out. You should’ve thought things through better before you decided you’d beat me for having the babe you put in me. And you should’ve thought a lot more on how you were going to treat me because I am not your toy, and neither is my son. So just stop and let me take care of MY son.” I snarled at him.

He looked hurt before he turned and dove under the water without saying anything in response. The diver just looked between the water and my babe, woken by the growling, looked like he couldn’t care less before he closed his eyes and fell asleep again.

The diver left not much later, and I laid beside my babe, thinking of what I might name him. Traditionally, fathers named their sons while mothers named their daughters...but we weren’t in the ocean and things weren’t traditional in this situation to begin with.

I never really thought I’d have a child, so I’d never really considered names, even as I was pregnant. I didn’t know what to name him, but he needed a name because calling him ‘child’ was just rude.

I sighed and thought for a good while. I was stuck here so I suppose…...I finally moved to the edge of the kelp nest and stuck my head under the water to call for Synris. I called twice and moved back beside my sleeping babe.

It was a few minutes before I saw Synris come up to the edge of the nest, looking nervous and confused.

I glared at him for several long minutes before growling and finally talking, “Last. Chance.”

“Alright.” He nodded, agreeing easily and with eyes full of hope.

“Help me name him...” I sighed and looked back at the babe, sleeping beside me.

Synris was clearly shocked with me and was silent for several minutes. I was shocked with myself too.

“Well, ideas at least?” I asked, wanting him to hurry up before I changed my mind again.

“Oh, umm......Azalyss?” He offered quietly.

“That’s a royal name...” I shook my head.

“He’s a royal. Besides, I want to put the old laws behind us...I want to be better...” Synris mumbled.

I was quiet for a moment before nodding, “Azalyss it is...”