💬
A number of years ago, while playing in the kelp forest...
Someone was here. Someone who shouldn't be.
Finn dropped the crabs he had been chasing, turning his head to listen. The distant sound of unfamiliar voices made his earfins twitch.
It was near Papa's work.
Finn pushed himself off the soft, sandy seafloor and swam through the kelp forest to the source of the voices.
He peered through the gently swaying seaweed and narrowed his eyes, scrutinising the familiar yet unfamiliar pair that had long since crossed the property line.
The redhead was gazing at his surroundings in awe, seemingly unaware of the fact that his bright green tail was like a beacon in the dark. Finn was pretty sure that was Prince Rielle. If it was, he was a long way from home.
The boy next to him, a lionfish that Finn vaguely recognised from school, quite clearly didn't want to be there but was trying his hardest to school his fearful expression.
"Come on, Chrysos!" Cried Rielle, pulling the other boy along. "Apparently, the abattoir is just ahead! We won't be able to see if the rumours are true if it's dawn by the time we get there!"
Chrysos' face drained of all colour, and Finn could see him swallow even with the distance between them.
"Prince Rielle, we shouldn't be here, we-"
"Sea Witch, it's creepy here. I've never seen such a dark, silent kelp forest. It's like a horror story, you know?" Rielle was talking a mile a minute, stopping only to let out an excited gasp. "Do you think this place is haunted like in the stories? Are we gonna get chased by a ghost?"
Finn rolled his eyes. Those myths, because to call them rumours, would be far too kind, were utterly stupid and baseless. Well, it wasn't as stupid as the one that claimed he was a ghost, which caused his classmates to fearfully prod at him for two weeks.
But surely, a prince of the Coral Sea wouldn't be so stupid as to believe such-
"AH! ... Oh, sorry, it's just a yellowfin. I thought it was a ghost."
...Nevermind.
Finn glowered at the two as they swam towards the abattoir, wondering why they would ever want to go there in the first place. Nevermind ghosts or creepy things, an abattoir just wasn't a very pleasant place to be.
'Papa's gonna be very annoyed,' Finn thought to himself as the pair gradually left his line of sight. 'Maybe I should just chase them out.'
-End
Chrysos belongs to @/distant-velleity
