Chapter Text
Land is a volatile thing. It’s something she never thought she’d have to think about, let alone endure. For a long time “land” was simply a thing of stories. Stories told by those who knew more. Those who were wise. The sun was simply a light long past the surface and clouds were folk tales. Monsters were threats to keep the young and dumb in line.
While she is not quite young anymore, she is incredibly dumb.
Even as time becomes a fickle thing, she knows she’s been wondering for a long time now. Traveling as far as she could go, searching for what she had long lost but no less determined to find it. For a long time she’d been confident in her search. Now she seems at an impasse. Now she feels unsure. Now she feels afraid.
She’s been drifting through the vast dark oceans, bright coral reefs, and deep kelp forests. She was at peace with her beckoning call as she wandered over caverns, caves and cliffs. At ease knowing that with time, her call would be answered. If she could only keep going, traveling, searching.
Each day she swam with purpose, even if she was ignored by other passing mers and pods. She ignored them right back as she continued her search. No one could stop her from finding them .
For a long time she discovered new places and biomes. Traveling from place to place with only one goal. But tiredness began to grab hold of her, and she slowed down. Another coral reef was discovered, as peaceful and tame as the ones prior, but this time she rested. She should’ve noticed she was getting complacent. She should’ve noticed things were becoming familiar.
Now, as she wanders around her bright reef filled with familiar fish and the evening encroaches on daylight, Anon wonders if she’s been careless. Surely by now she would have found something. A clue, a hint. The thought has been wracking her mind for days, and it keeps persisting as she dips down to check under a rock ledge to peer into the cave she found the other day.
It is still empty.
Looking up she frowns. She should have found a trail, a clue of some kind. She should have found them by now, right?
Has she done something wrong?
A familiar croon flutters out her chest and tumbles past her lips, echoing around her.
Hello-where?
Like always, no one responds. She grumbles half heartedly as she lets herself glide down the lip of the rock, slowing to hover at the bottom of the reef. Fish don’t fear her presence anymore, they follow at her side or ignore her all together.
It’s nice not being feared.
A couple menial clicks leave her lips as she searches around. She’s not sure what she’s particularly looking for anymore, she’s already been here. Perhaps some oddities? Some changes?
But none appear.
The ocean has begun to darken as the light begins to fade away with night approaching. With this in mind Anon begins her wander toward her cave, her den, her nest.
As she drifts across the bottom of the reef, walls of coral and rock surround her and her path as she continues to search even if it’s as familiar as the back of her hands. But she looks anyway, continuing to click and call.
She quiets as she approaches her home, a mound of rocks covered in coral. Her home is under it, a crevice, with not much inside. No trinkets and treasures, no pod, no. . . It’s empty with the premise of leaving it soon. She hasn't gotten around to that quite yet.
All she needs her den for is to sleep, there is no need for anything more as she searches and travels.
Before she slips into her sad excuse of a home, Anon rests a hand on the wall of coral to steady herself as she allows herself one more call before turning in for the night.
here-come-help.
She doesn’t pause to hear a response, already taking the silence as her usual answer, beginning to creep toward the rocks, ready to sleep and take on the next miserable, lonely day.
The silence is broken by a stuttering warble off in the distance.
Lost-lost-help.
It’s a call Anon never thought she’d hear again.
Whipping around, the sail on her back raised, Anon almost doesn’t believe what she heard. After all this time she never thought she’d hear it again.
A pod call.
Blinking rapidly, Anon lifts herself higher with a flick of her tail as her lips part to respond. But she hesitates. How is this real? After all this time? What changed?
It’s silent.
Then, once again it's broken by a little voice, Help-Come-find-me.
Finally Anon croons, here-where-where.
It’s quiet. It’s silent except for the sound of the currents shifting. Until it's not.
In the distance, the same little warble, another call, Here-help. A mer pup.
Another croon begging for help, followed by the sweetest chirp Anon hasn’t heard in so unforgivably long echoes through the ocean waves. No moment is wasted as she darts forward to chase after the cries.
Lost-Lost-help. The pup calls.
Racing through the open ocean she chases after the calls she’s been waiting so long to hear. The ocean’s weight does nothing to hold her back as she darts around rocks and masses, rising above it all in order to follow the calls, the pup.
Coming-Coming. She croons as she glides through the currents, and soon those currents shift as she climbs higher and higher, closer to the surface. To the sun. To the world of folktales.
She only swims closer to the call. Closer, and closer, faster and faster until her chest is heaving with her labored breaths, her heart hammering against her chest.
She freezes. Still as her nose barely breaches the surface, the sun glittering against the surface turns to rays under the water, now blindingly bright with how close she is. She has never seen something so bright. She keeps herself still as her tail brushes against the sandy seafloor. How can two things so often be miles apart, suddenly be so close.
Looking ahead the floor of the sea continues to creep higher and higher until the floor and surface meet as the rippling tide.
She lets out a chirp, wondering if she went the wrong way.
It’s quiet. Then it’s not.
Help. The pup calls. H re-help.
A startled chirp works its way up her throat as Anon realizes her baby is above the surface. Breathing in deeply she wonders if she’s actually going to do this.
Then the saddest sound she's ever heard in her life reaches her ears.
A whimper, Don’t-leave. . .
She breaches the surface.
It’s bright and loud, the ocean is deafening above the surface, the waves crashing against the shore. It’s hot. As Anon pushes her long, ginger hair out of her face, her skin feels dry for the first time in her life.
Anon sucks in a breath of air as her gills seal themselves against her neck and she breathes from her mouth. So much of it fills her lungs that she expels it with a cough.
For a moment she can’t see from how bright it is, she hisses, her eyes squinting until she can find the pup. Why is the pup up here? Why the surface?
In the middle of the beach sits a little stingray mer pup. Small and alone on a beach surrounded by monsters. Lots of monsters. There are more monsters Anon’s ever seen in her life.
A frightened chirp breezes past her lips as she takes in all these creatures, standing tall on their fins or bent at a horrible angle to be closer to the ground. It’s all so horrifying the way they watch her.
At least they're not looking at the pup.
Anon notices the different ways these creators gaze upon her. The ones on the beach, close to her and the pup, stare at her with arms tight, ready to pounce. They are wrapped in clothes of grays, blacks and whites with narrowed eyes. She wants to flee but the idea of leaving the pup stops her from moving anywhere but forward.
The creatures far back are colorful in pinks, oranges and yellows, being pushed back by the creatures in black on the beach, stare with what appears to be hunger. A thirst. A want .
What do they want from her? What could she possibly give them? She has no jewels but the one on her neck, a necklace, faded with age. She has no matron. She has no. . . no pups. Do they want her scales?
Anon’s purple finned ears make an odd popping noises causing her to flinch. Another call from the pup causes her to pay rapt attention.
She stares at the pup who, despite their calls for help, seems to be in no fear at all.
One of the monsters puts a hand on the pup’s head causing a nasty snarl to slip past Anon’s curling lips.
Everyone on the beach tenses while gasps echo from the monsters in the back.
The pup’s reaction breaks Anon’s heart.
She retreats into the arms of the monster. She huddles close as if they’ll protect her. Protect her from Anon .
A heart broken warble slips from Anon’s chest as she tilts her head, lowering herself to the sandy ground. A submission. An I would rather die than hurt you.
The creature touching the pup, pets her hair as he whispers something to her. Anon’s eyes narrow as she watches the pup nod. She freezes as she finds the pup’s eyes landing on her.
Said pup lets out a heart wrenching whimper as she lowers herself to the ground in a fetal position. A pup's last resort for help, complete and utter submission. All self control in Anon is lost as she pulls herself across the bay in order to make sure the pup isn’t hurt, to give her the help she so clearly desires.
In no time at all she leans over the pup, stroking her cheek as she pulls her close, her tail curling around the other.
She is lost to the hum of her instincts chanting to protect. To love. To cherish. She holds onto the pup as if she’ll lose her all over again. Disappear again. But she won’t.
Anon won’t let it. Can’t. She can’t lose her pod again. Her pups. She lets herself breathe and relax into the instincts thrumming in her veins. It’s been so long since her instincts have let her relax like this. For so long it was a rush of search, search, search that she almost forgot why she was searching in the first place.
A hesitant purr rumbles in Anon’s chest. It’s so quiet she can hardly hear it, but it’s there.
It stops when there's a prick in her neck. She hisses but doesn’t move from where she’s rested her head on the top of the pup’s.
Safe , her instincts hum.
They continue to hum as darkness takes over her vision and drops her into a deep sleep.
༻⁀- ๑ -⁀༺
The van door closed with a loud slam as Jelka took a moment to remove her very nice, and very expensive leather jacket. A jacket now covered in salt water and sand. For the love of God, why did she decide to work with mer? They're loud, they're wet and they're annoying as shit.
Throwing the jacket over her arm she walks over to her daughter Nym, who insisted on joining Jelka this time. Normally Nym’s cooped up in her office or in the main part of the facility so perhaps she wanted the change of pace? Either way it doesn’t bode well for Jelka, mer are unpredictable and it takes a whole crew of people to get even the smallest of mer to settle.
But her once little girl is an adult now, she can make her own choices. Even if it's working with volatile people.
“Right, the new mer is settled with Azure in the back, we should get back to the center as soon as possible before she fights her way through the aesthetics,” Jelka grumbles as she joins the group of marine experts.
“How much did you give her?” One of the doctors asks. He’s from an outside office, Jelka doesn’t know his name.
“A tiny dose, I don’t know her weight and considering she’s been on her own for a long time, she’s likely malnourished. Mer are stubborn though and she’ll likely fight through it in two hours.”
“I’ll get started on a meal plan as soon as we get back,” Nym responds before asking, “How’d we find her though?”
One of the scuba divers that volunteered for the center spoke up, pointing toward the horizon line, “The local lighthouse gave a report of a female mer giving pod and pup calls for days on end.”
“It’s so uncommon for female mers to be booted from a pod,” Nym points out.
Jelka nods. It is uncommon, more often than not it’s males who are kicked out for “not being strong enough,” from losing a brawl. But they recover by making new pods on their own. Female mers? That’s a whole different story. Females are heavily treasured for the roles they play in pods as the mothers, the caregiver and the matrion, they have to royally screw up in order to get booted.
So this mer, a fully grown, female mer, got kicked out. And from the way she was calling and searching,
“She was a Caregiver too.” Jelka spits.
“What?” One of the nurses asks. “What do you mean?”
“That’s why we knew how to get her out of the ocean,” Jelka explains. “Besides the simple pod call she was using the call caregivers use to find wandering pups. So we bought a mer pup to do the responding call to summon her. With how quickly it worked, our suspicions were right, she was a caregiver mer.”
“You guys got your work cut out for you,” the scuba diver admits. “I’ve never heard of a caregiver losing a pod.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t happen,” Jelka mutters. “I’m curious what it did to her instincts.”
To be honest, Jelka's already noticed this mer to be hyper sensitive. They’ve used baby mers to get adults to chill out, but never has it worked so efficiently.
“As am I,” the other doctor says. “Mind if I join you back at the center, this information will do good for future incidents.”
Before Jelka can say no, Nym speaks up.
“Of course, we’d appreciate the extra hands.”
Jelka mentally sighs, she hates that her daughter has a point.
“Let’s just get the hell out of here,” Jelka grumbles. “I do not like these outsiders watching, nearly scaring the mer away.”
“No kidding,” another marine biologist says as she walks over. “Is Azure all settled in the back?”
“I’m about to check up on her,” Jelka admits as they all start walking back toward the van. They pass by civilians getting pushed back by police. Holy fuck, can’t people mind their own business? It’s not like mers are uncommon either. They show up on the shore all the time to say hi; pester those ones, they don’t give a shit.
This mer though? Probably hasn’t seen a human in her whole life. Probably doesn’t speak a lick of English.
At the van, Jelka peaks through the window to make sure the new mer is still knocked out, once confirmed she opens the door.
“You alright hon?” she asks Azure who’s sat up on the other side of the van from the mer. Said other mer is wrapped in the thick, black heavy duty blanket that velcros around her arms. It keeps her still and prevents her from harming others or herself while in a stressful environment. Hopefully they can get her out of it before she wakes, while adolescent mers like Azure find comfort in being swaddled, adult mers, not so much.
Azure gives a hesitant click as she wrings her hands together before nodding.
Jelka frowns, she doesn’t like taking a mer pup from their parent even for a short time and it’s clearly stressing Azure out. And Jelka’s certain Mushroom is probably anxious for their return.
“We’re heading back soon, don’t worry,” Jelka soothes. “I bet Mushroom is very excited to see you.”
Azure smiles softly before looking at the other mer.
“Will she hurt me?” She asks quietly.
“No, like I said earlier, she’s more worried about you getting hurt by us, and she’ll have a hard time getting out of the blanket. Especially after anesthetics.
“If she wakes up just ignore her, we’ll take care of everything.”
“Okay,” Azure whispers.
“Hang tight kid,” Jelka responds as she closes and locks the back of the van.
“Ready to go Dad?” Nym asks as she joins Jelka. “Azure is all settled?”
“Yup, let's get out of here,” Jelka leads as they climb into the front of the van, the older starting up the car.
“I wish we could’ve bought Mushroom to keep Azure company back there,” Nym says quietly as they pull out of the parking spot. “I can’t imagine how stressed she is.”
“I wish we could’ve as well,” Jelka admits as they turn onto the highway. “But for the same reason I’m not back there with Azure, that other mer might take it as a threat and put us all in danger. Azure is more than safe.”
“Where are we putting the new mer for now?” Nym asks.
“An isolation room,” Jelka answers as they enter the freeway. “Just until we get her vitals, find a way to communicate and get her settled. Then she’ll go in the main pool with everyone else.”
“Think Noa will be willing to translate?” Nym asks. “Noa has had a similar experience to this mer, not knowing about humans until he met us.”
“Possibly? Noa’s been grumpy though,” Jelka chuckles. “Don’t know how much more social interaction he can take.”
“We’ll have a day or two before we’ll try anyways,” Nym shrugs. “I just hope all this doesn’t stress the mer into becoming feral.”
Jelka frowns. “I highly doubt it, and if that does happen, we’ll take the precautionary steps to handle it right.”
The van dips into silence as the two of them sit with these thoughts.
This will certainly be a new experience for all of them, having never dealt with a pure wild, isolated, traumatized caregiver and Jelka simply prays no one ends up physically hurt. Especially her daughter.
༻⁀- ๑ -⁀༺
There is a mer screech that echoes out from the other side of the big blue doors. Muffled worried voices are coming from the doctors in hushed tones. Rushed steps from the nurses and other shuffled sounds come from behind the blue doors.
“Who do you think that is?” The jellyfish mer askes.
Mushroom, a beautiful white jellyfish with swirls and dots of red twirling into something elegant and deadly. One of her bells starts at her hips and is shaped like a ballerina’s tutu, the other bell is on the top of her head with her hair flowing in a way that matches her puffy tentacles on her lower bell.
“I don’t know. They really do be catching anyone they can find and bring them into this place. Like bro, there isn’t much food left in here.” The leafy sea dragon grumbled.
Space, who is older than most of the mer’s in the center. (He has been here for longer and nobody is sure for how long. He has fins that stick out from every point in his body. They have small flowy spines that look like kelp. Appearing to look similar to stiff stems, which makes him the perfect mer to hide away in the kelp biomes.
There is shouting as the mer shrieks. The humans without a doubt found another mer. A hurt or sick mer is not a safe mer to be around, everyone knows that. Yet, humans still find ways to approach them anyway. They meddle with things they don’t understand as much as they should. However, by intervening in the lives of mer, they do far more good than evil. Mer are saved if they were endangered by humans themselves.
That is why they are all here. In this center and not dead, trapped, caged, hurt, abandoned and alone somewhere. They were safe here in the rehabilitation center that they all called home.
The rehabilitation center, for injured or lost mer, Taco even hasn’t discovered half of the place. It is huge and has many different species of mer. Different areas for each kind of mers and social spaces for them to interact with one another. A labyrinth of pools of water and tunnels. Above water spaces indoor and outdoor for the mer to laze about. Caves and coves for them to sleep and play. It was a dream and could be called perfect, it still wasn’t the sea, but something was better than nothing.
The humans run and take care of most of this place. They keep it clean. Feed and interact with the mers. Take care of everything they need and want. There are a few mer here too that get a say in what is best for everyone here. Those mers were a part of the founders. They had averted out onto the land and sought out help from the humans. After many years and hard work, the center was founded.
It is for a better life for mers who can’t survive in the wild anymore. For mer who can’t go into the ocean at all. For mers who need a home.
That is what it is, it is a home, for the ones who no longer have a home or never did. It is a paradise. Living in this place is breathtaking. It has its ups and downs, however, anything is better than what it was like living in a tiny jar.
Taco hugs onto the leafy sea dragon tighter when another scream rings from the doors. The sound bouncing from the walls and into the main pool room. The silence that followed was eerie. Every scream was like a tug on the curling knots in the sea bunny’s gut. She feels nauseous and stops eating the sea slug.
The sea dragon notices. He is holding her in one arm while they both eat. They are in the middle of the pool. Closer to the surface but with a good distance away from it. The angled pool gives them room to be underwater or above it if they chose to. The sand is warm from the sun that beams down from the skylights.
“What’s wrong, dearie,” he asks, looking down at her.
“I’m scared for the new mer. What if they are hurt?” Taco turns away from the direction of the surface to face the sea dragon.
Space brings the sea bunny closer.
“Everything will be alright, little bunny, the scaleless things will take care of the new mer…or whatever the fuck it is making all that noise.” He mumbles the last part.
“Grandpa, it is rude to call them names when they take care of you.” Mushroom interrupts.
“Just eat your dinner and then you can play with Mushroom.” Space hands Taco the rest of her dinner and pats her head. Dismissing and comforting her at once and goes back to eating.
There was another cry from the mer. Followed by the familiar sounds of the big doors opening, catching the attention of the mers that are enjoying their meal.
Panic is quick to settle in the sea bunny’s chest as she gazes up toward the surface. She stills as there is a splash over head. Bubbles fill the water as someone joins the pool with them. Taco doesn’t move nor turn as she hears the new mer swim closer to them.
Because it must be the new mer. What or who else would they bring into the pool with everyone if not the new mer? Everyone is already here. If they want to go or leave they can, at any time, so why is there a new mer in here so soon?-
The humans have let the new mer in. They let in the violent, wild, mer in the pool with them.
Her breath quickens and she clenches her fist tighter around the thing she is holding. There was a sound- a voice and someone was making a noise. She can’t tell where it came from. Everything is becoming the same small place-
There is a click from Space, telling her to be calm , but Taco can’t hear past the pounding of her heart.
Something pokes her, it is gentle, it is always gentle and never harsh. But she still flinches back with a whimper, her rhinophores flattening to her head as she closes her eyes. To not look at the hand about to grab her out-
“ -aco! Taco!”
Something is covering her, shielding her from the new mer that was in the pool with them. Her arms are clinging to Space’s neck and her blunt claws are digging into his skin.
“Ow- Shit, that hurts agh-” Space whines a bit as he is used for emotional support.
“Is she okay?” A new voice asks
Taco knows that voice.
She knows that voice. It was Mushroom’s child, Azure, the sting ray mer. It- It isn’t the new mer who joined them in the pool than-
A call wails from the other side of the doors, not a screech, but a call for a baby mer. Then another call for a baby mer. A different call for a pod . The calls come faster, louder, and they start to mush together into one call. It is a longing that comes from the new mer. A need for someone. A need for comfort. A need for home .
Taco didn’t fully understand the rest of the clips and depressed warbles. It sounds like noises and she isn’t able to figure out what they mean.
“Okay, come here,” Gentle fingers wrap around Taco. “It’s okay. Nobody is here to tear you to pieces, dear.”
Space pulls her from his neck and brings her down to press her against his collarbone. Fingers wrap loosely around her, so she could leave if she wants to. She pushes herself closer and keeps her eye’s shut.
She is hidden behind the safety of his hands, free to leave as she pleases. It is familiar but despite the closeness, which she was normally adverse towards anyone that she didn’t know, she reminds herself that she is okay and can go away if she wants to.
He hid her away from the strange world she has grown used to and yet is getting to know.
“Grandpappy, how is that supposed to be comforting?” Azure asks as she swims closer to her mother. Pressing her face to the older mer and a small purr picks up from the mer pup.
“Don’t talk back to me about how I should comfort my grandchild.” The sassy reply makes the jellyfish mer giggle as she wraps her arms around her child.
Dinner is forgotten when more cries come from beyond the doors.
Azure shifted closer to her mother and looked a little anxious about the situation.
“Shroom, can I show you my new toy I got from helping out with the mer?” Azure suddenly asks her mom.
“Yes, of course. Let’s go see it.” She answers. Azure pulls on her arm and they swim away.
Which leaves Space and Taco by themselves.
Space sighs and turns and swims into one of the caves that is built in the side. He keeps the sea bunny close as he settles in and sits in the cave. He keeps a lax hold on her as he hides away in the cave.
“Everything will be okay. Nobody is gonna take you away or let you be eaten. Noa isn’t here to eat you after all.” Space says as he pets Taco’s head.
“You really do suck at comforting but I love you for it.” Taco answers as she curls up more to fit into Space’s arms better. Taking in water and letting it out as she relaxes more.
“Really, after all I do for you, can’t believe you damn kids.” Space doesn’t fight the smile that pulls at his lips. Because he did love his adopted grandkids, even if they are little shits, he loves them.
They stay in the cave.
Taco lets the quiet ripples, and splashes of the many other mer play and swim, fill the thoughts that want to drag her down into a deep dark ocean, where she has never gone nor can she ever go. So, she stays still as she holds onto Space’s arm that is wrapped around her. Grounding her and making her thoughts vanish as darkness fills her mind.
The two tucked close and they let the events of the day wash away from their minds. Space’s gills smoothly flutter while purrs fill the cave. The mer falling asleep right away.
Taco soon follows and is asleep curled close to Space.