Seung-gil week Day 2 - free day, Day 3 - greed, Day 6 - animal kingdom
@leeseunggilweek
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Seung-gil tested the currents of the ocean around him, glancing back at the Kictionfin Kingdom one last time. It was the middle of the night and only a few of the sentry were out, patrolling against the beasts that came out when the silver eye rose over the waters. It was a pattern he’d observed for himself, swimming to where the water ended and gave way to the dry ocean above, watching the path of the silver and golden eyes, feeling the tides and the fishes match their path. This was the only time he could escape without anyone noticing, without his father noticing and dragging him back to chain him to the throne.
He turned to disappear into the dark waters, drawing up short as he found the snitchfish JJ hovering in front of his face.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Seung-gil grimaced, flicking his tail fin to maneuver aside and resume his escape. “None of your business.”
JJ huffed a stream of bubbles as he flitted after, swimming beside him. “I was told to alert the sentry if you tried to go off on your own in the middle of the night again.”
“Then alert them. I’ll turn you into lobster bait tomorrow.”
JJ grumbled under his breath. “Lobsters don’t like kingfish.”
Seung-gil snorted. “Is that what you are? I thought you were a snitchfish.”
“I hope you get eaten by a shark,” JJ muttered, smacking his tail against Seung-gil as he turned to swim back to the kingdom.
Seung-gil ignored him and continued on, basking in the silence of the deep ocean. There was a shipwreck not far from there; it’d sunk several silver eyes before and he intended to poke through the fresh treasures of the land swimmers. His father had confiscated his collection when he was sixteen, and he’d been building it back up ever since, hidden away in a cove that even JJ didn’t know about.
He reached the edge of the Kictionfin territory, where the land dropped away into a deep trench, the outline of the large ship just visible in the depths. He glanced around, deeming the area safe enough before pushing away and swimming down. The water grew murky, the sediment still drifting and settling from the massive structure crashing into the ocean floor.
The ship was cracked in half, the large poles that had been sticking out of it snapped into pieces and littering the area around it. He swam closer, finding an opening and squeezing inside. He poked through the splintered wood and cracked hard shell, ducking under broken chunks as he looked for the chests he knew would be buried beneath.
His father had called him greedy, childish, his head full of starfish and broken shells, but he wanted to know what it was like in the dry ocean above, and if the only way to do that was to scrounge for sunken treasure from the land walkers’ ships, so be it.
The glint of something further below caught his eye and he dove, hissing softly as splintered wood scraped his arm, but the excitement overrode the pain. He brushed aside the settled dirt, finding a round, shiny silver ball with countless rivulets and crevices. It squished a bit when he squeezed it and he could pull it apart until it was wide and flat and crumpled like the ocean floor.
He squished it back into a small orb and tucked it into his pouch, turning to continue hunting when a shadow passed by the opening nearby. He froze, glancing to his arm and thin trail of blood oozing from the scratch. With a curse, he pulled seaweed from his pouch and pressed it over the wound, but the damage was already done.
He swam to the opening and glanced out, looking up as a shark passed overhead. And not just any shark. The black tail marked it as a paisin shark. They were the only shark in the area that hunted in packs, and he counted at least six of them.
The top of the chasm was a good distance away, but if he swam fast enough, he could reach it before they caught him. He waited until they were on the far side of the chasm before pushing away from the ship, gritting his teeth as the desperate flailing caught his tail on a jagged spike, tearing the delicate fins.
His course faltered, heart beating hard in his chest as he sensed the sharks take notice of his movements. He kept his eyes on the top of the cliff, throwing himself into a roll as a shark came at him from the side. Hard flesh slid against his arm, knocking him back toward the ship. Another shark came at him from above, and when he turned to flee back to the cover of the ship, another was there, already close enough he could see the rows of sharp teeth.
He screamed as they sank into his arm, the murky water turning dark with blood. It spread into a thick cloud as he flailed, struggling to free himself, and when he finally did, he looked in horror at the empty space his arm had been. He clamped his hand over it, grimacing with a sick sort of fascination at the feel of bone.
His mind and body turned sluggish, his body feeling cold as the Arctic waters as he struggled for the ship again. It was a futile attempt, another scream tearing from his throat as teeth sank into his tail.
He saw the other sharks coming for him as his vision darkened at the edges, and all he could do was wonder what he'd done to end up here, cold and alone and dying.
