The Grim Deep Dark 03
>.> <.< -yeets- have some mer au, the untramer leviathans have made it above the formally thought 'imposable to pass' top current(s). and now met their first Argenta/Sentinel, who is not happy to see a new kind of abyssal pod breaching the currents.
[Chapter 01] xXxXx [Chapter 02]
03 Above:
When even the great leviathan was tired, it told of how hard the last while had been. The near loss of two sons had taken up the most of the time getting through the top current of the trenches. It was a very, very sharp learning curve once in the current, to fight ever instinct to fight the current but instead go with it.
Learning the top current was also three stacked currents was… also an experience. How the abyssal beasts navigated them to get out roughly the same spot was unknown. Roboute had been forced to coast a bit on the last current before grabbing an outcropping of bedrock to help swing himself and his clinging sons out of it.
The thought that he would have to at least be diving into that current one more time. Or if the nursery grounds proved true… several times. He would need to modify how to do that.
But.
It was not as impossible anymore.
The realization that the top current, currents really, were not as impossible to get through as it was widely agreed upon…
The great leviathan gave a deep sigh, lounging in his beastie form almost as he still held his jaws closed. Keeping the two in the brooding pouch safe, he could hold most to all the eggs of his sons. These two were no trouble.
Roboute had almost caught his breath when rolling slowly over. Starting his tenth head count on his sons, when realizing what he had been half laying on, half using to anchor himself with to keep from sliding down hill. Rib bones, massive enough that they arched high over his impressive size. Slowly he sat up, starting to shift back into his mer form, son and new little pup slid into his cupped hands from the brood pouch.
The water was distinctly warmer up above the current to him. Not like the vents but warm. There was also the faint ambient light coming not just from Roboute's form. It came from… the bones. A coral and plants none of the group of leviathans had ever seen before, spiraling up the massive ribs and other bones embedded into the rock. With others even farther stacked on top the shallower this bone yard went. Roboute and his sons could see from their spot that greater skulls were encrusted fully farther up. Some the same size as their father, others where he could lay inside of, or in between the fangs.
It gave an eerie sense of being watched passively by the dead.
This place really was a bone yard, but one so much older than any present could live to be. Larger than any in the depths as well. Fossils, with different stages of petrification going up, and shallower. There was the faint scent in the water of one of the abyssal beasts nearby that was freshly killed, but out of sight.
Cupping his scout son, and the tiny pup he held, close to his chest, the leviathan rolled slowly over and back up right. His fins fanned out in habit to spread light for the others. The rest of his sons no longer needed to cling to him, the oldest able and already starting to look around. Only the youngest held onto his back, two wedged between fins while recovering.
Drifting upwards was… strange, but not necessarily a bad thing as there was some deep seeded instinct Roboute could feel. As if he was supposed to rise shallower…?
The giant leviathan reached out with his free hand, slowly nudging Titus up to his neck. Hearing the little pup squeaking as she was moved again. Once both hands were free, Roboute found and carefully lifted a wide flat skull from one of the lava swimmers. The bone felt nearly like stone, and was glowing a strange shade to him, almost everything was encrusted. Shimmering silver-green, with… ribbons… was this where the kelp herbs that dropped to the deeper depths came from? This bone yard?
He looked up, Roboute focusing really up shallower. Hovering between the tail entrance of a ribcage that was at least five times his size all around. The spine above and glowing all the way up past several platforms, and out of sight after what had to be hind hips?
“What were these creatures?” Roboute asked, more to himself, taking in the hazy trails of other skeletons that seemed mostly together. Yet they were going out of sight.
“An-sest-e-rals.” a tiny voice answered and sounding out the word she knew, from where the pup had been placed. Not unlike with other ‘small’ leviathan mer, Titus risked putting the pup under his chest plate. He was already sick from getting stuck with her spines. Now little Lily was peeking up over the top edge, her spines and fins clamped again.
It was still so cold this deep, more so away from the bigger then big leviathan’s brood pouch. Why did it have to be so cold? Unlike the first few times meeting this big mer… Titus? She was huddled between his armor and body, much like the other bigger, nice merman.
The pup was starting to press against her current… guardian? At the moment he was both warm and safer seeming then anyone else, having only held and let her brace against his arms while the giant leviathan had broken through the currents.
“Ancestrals?” Titus asked, speaking the word clearly as he looked down. Getting a squeak of agreement back, the pup’s wide eyes turning up to look at him back.
Lily’s eyes were reflecting the bioluminescent lights from the boneyard, and Roboute’s own frame. But not making any herself.
“Do you know any of their stories?” Titus asked, on a hunch, as even their bone yards had countless stories, legends and myths of what the things were. Why not these ones, and he saw the pup perking up.
“Wraiths!” Lily chirped, only partly aware of Roboute tilting his head and trying to get a glimpse of his new, and littlest pup as she spoke up on her own. Feeling braver with not having been eaten, and now allowed to heat leach. “They and the bigger then biggest-big, they made the seas and land, and- AND some still swim out in the open water! The Guardians say they see them- John, Slayer, HE says these are… shed… bones. That the wrapths… wraiths and An-sest-e-rals… they grow and swim and come back to make new islands and shed and regrow like the tide!”
The pup gasped, shivering and having used up a few wiggles and what built up of heat seemed gone after that ramble. The tiny pup grasped at the fingers of Titus’ hand as he lifted it to rest it over her head. Trying to keep warm water in the same area. “Tide?”
“Yeah, low tide, high tide?” Lily shivered and tried to wedge herself down. Starting to loose feeling in her fin tips again. She had finally been warming up…
There was a pause, not just from the merman that was holding her but his father and the rest of the pod.
Lily peeked out, seeing a few other of the deep sea mers that had risen up to be level with their father. “...you don’t know about tides?”
“I have never heard of the word, little pup.” the deep voice of the giant leviathan hummed all around, and then chuckled at the confused sound Roboute heard from the girl. While the pup was trying hard, trying to sort out how to explain whatever this ‘tide’ was. “Who is this…Slayer, pup?”
Distracted, Lily blinked and then said promptly. “He’s our reef guardian! I told… told… Varro. He protects our islands. Him and the guardians… it’s cold…”
“I find it rather warm up here.” A gravel voice said out of sight, sounding older and rather amused.
Lily made a face as she hid down between the extra given scale and the merman’s front. She hissed at that statement, it was NOT warm, it wasn’t as cold out there as under the bottom current. It was all cold.
“You all have thick hides,” Roboute’s voice vibrated the water, amused and seemed a little fond, “The pup is smaller than any of our own.”
Varro hummed and passed behind his father, checking on the pup, “She is not made for even this depth, she is from a warm place, and I do not think Lily would have left her nursery for a long while.”
The great leviathan hummed, reminded again of the possible safe nursery grounds. Something desperately needed, that Roboute turned back to this ‘Ancestral’ fossilized remains. Twitching his fins, making sure none of his sons would be left behind, and they were all able to follow him. Not minding the youngest scouts still holding tight to his back. He was using the massive, glowing spine as a guide to go up shallower. Passing in between the ribs of the tail and finding he had to pause a few times at points.
Instinct helping the group not to rise too fast, to take a while to adjust to the lessening water pressure. The healer was constantly checking them all, and had a new bag made to keep gathered things.
That’s when there was movement as they crested the hip bone of the ancestral, drawing the whole pod’s attention. Something large, almost as big as the ‘smaller’ abyssal leviathan mermen was moving between the bones to the side. A shark, but nothing like the ones any of them knew. Not even just that it was moving faster than any shark in the abyss. Sure swift movements as the creature was coming out of a semi sheltered spot and moving up shallower and to one side of the massive skeleton they were following.
Then a second shark, not nearly as big, was rising out of the bone yard. As if summoned, a third, of a completely different kind also rose. Then others melted out of the glowing haze of the open water all converging not on the new pod in the area… but something freshly dead in the boneyard.
Inadvertently, the abyssal leviathan mers were blending into the background because of their bioluminescence. Even Roboute’s larger frame was almost matching the glowing bones of the Ancestral as he hovered higher up near the top of the ribs and spines to get a better look around.
He was just recognizing the shape of a feral beast where there was a snapping sound that carried in the water. Roboute blinked as unexpectedly there was a squeak from the new pup at his neck in response, as if she recognized the sound. Lily was peeking up over the edge of the armored scale plate again, taking in the differences.
“Do you know the sound?” the big merman asked, looking down at the pup he held. The young scout flicked his tail and kept close to his father, Demetrian lifted a hand to carefully touch the pup’s head. Smiling despite himself at watching tiny hands in comparison gripped two of his fingers.
“Guardian,” Lily’s little voice squeaked, feeling betting with less pressure and warming up again. As well as just able to hold onto something made her feel better.
“You’re reef guardian?”
Lily nodded, then shook her head, “Not John, the other guardians. Like Valen, they chop-chomp when they eat! Big sounds!”
“What does… ‘John’ do, to eat?” titus asked, bracing on his father’s neck so he too could easily listen to the pup's little voice. Aware of a few other older brothers drifting closer to listen as well as just keeping eyes and senses out around their pod.
She giggled, kneaded at the hand she held with little soft claws of her own. “He eats the monsters! Big chomps, he’s bigger than big!”
The big merman could hear the little clicks as Lily tried to mime the chomps, her tiny teeth clicking in her spot on his chest. Demetrian could not help but smile despite the implications of how big that snap had been and the crunching of bone or the stone bones? “He eats monsters too? Have you eaten anything from the beasts?”
Lily made a face, as if the idea was a weird one. But then with how small she was, and how even their pups would be imprinted on certain foods, Demetrian was not sure if she could eat more then what was in her nursery-
How were they going to feed the pup if she was food imprinted?
“I like shrimp!” Lily trilled, “I’m good at hunting them and crabs- momma and pod bring back fish.”
That little trill of sound traveled a bit, or the tone of it, if not the words and an ever present background noise that was not the stacked currents… stopped. The awareness of it only coming from the adults with the lack of it, the pup was oblivious. Being against the double hearts of her current guardian, it was distracting.
The Great Leviathan paused as he registered the same thing, shifting to pull back away from his young son, and peer down. Focusing on Titus and Lily’s smaller head peeking out from his front. Glowing blue eyes scanned around, realizing the migration of sharks had stopped, pausing on their conversion to a spot. Roboute blinked, realizing he was not sure if a question had been asked. “Pup… what kind of mers are your reef guardians? Do you know?”
“Shark!” Lily squeaked, brightening up, a little more active to twist in her spot, her spines lightly scraping but as she was calming down they were oddly more flexible. “John's a biiiig shark! And there’s grandpa Valen, he’s pod with John, he’s… dun…dunk-ee…say-ris… they’re big too, like the… uuh.”
The pup blinked, baffled as she realized she could not remember how to say the other kind of guardians that came by now and then. “...hot water swimming mers? pod?”
Roboute dipped his head closer to the two, fighting the temptation to push the teeny pup back into his brooding pouch. “Do they go deep?”
“...I don’t know?” Lily admitted, ducking, still holding one of Demetrian’s fingers tightly with both of her hands.
“It’s alright pup.” The true giant reached out, cupping a hand behind his son and rumbled a reassuring sound. He glanced at three of his older sons to his right, and tilted his head to where the sharks were starting to move again. He followed at an angle, keeping closer to this ancestral’s bones, a slow pace to not hurt any of their group.
Cresting another ridge, Roboute paused as he recognized the fresh scent of dead, abyssal beasts. Then he saw the first, nearly stripped… chunk of hind legs and tail near the glowing ribs of the titan. Feral sharks of several unknown kinds were feeding off the carcass, and moving rock crabs that were surprisingly large and leggy, stealing the scraps scattered and floating around.
Once seeing the mostly stripped clean bones, Roboute realized there were other parts clustered around, even a broken open skull that the scavengers were taking full advantage of the rarity. There were more than one, or two beasts here, he realized. Roboute resting a free hand on the ancestral glowing bone. With more light then even he was used to, he could take in with the hazy visibility. Not two, or three, but he could estimate there were at least four by the remains. Yet there were larger chunks and parts missing as if something his size or bigger had been feeding on the beasts.
He could see the familiar glow from his sons, their own bioluminescent light dimmed but distinct even up here. They were communicating with each other with no sound but subtle shifts in their light. Roboute saw them moving to investigate the different parts. All in sight, one a little shallower and seemingly whole, but for the Beast’s middle being ripped open. Even from the semi distant, the Great Leviathan could see it looked…
Like a bite mark?
Yes, that was made by something at least as big as Roboute, if not a bit bigger. Another leviathan was using the ancient bone yard as a hunting ground? That would make sense, there were many hidden places here that could be a den for even mers of his size. It was tempting to see if there could be a good nursing ground here… but Roboute glanced at where his young son was with that surface level pup.
Coming from a safe nursery ground for something so small, until just recently.
A warning flash from flickering lights had him turning back. Seeing where his scouting sons were but the mostly whole abyssal beast, hollowed out and could have some sort of scavenger inside-
Too late Roboute saw what alarmed his eldest son that surged forward. Not in the cavity, but above the beast, a big mer as large as Calgar was sitting up from their own feeding. The strangest thing, Roboute noticed as he was moving as well, two tail beats later, was that his mer had no bioluminescent of his own. Yet somehow had blended into the background as they rose, that snapping-cracking sound came again as the ripped through the beast’s armored hide with jaws alone.
Then a warning bellowed out, the mer could be no bigger than the elder sons, but was built so differently with their own jaws. The voice male, but coming out in an echoing, caring way that the leviathan pod could not do. Not a true word but almost felt like a mix of emotions, of alarm and the edge of anger at not just the scouts but seeing the rest of their pod invading a territory line.
Rising in the water, he was broader in the shoulders, the pectoral fins visible were larger then the levathans. Yet his fins were not cropped, but naturally angled and stiff with the layered boney plates from fluke to shoulder. He bared not fangs but dental plates as a double sided, shining silver axe was hefted up.
Impossibly, this unknown mer seeming ready and willing to face and fight the group and the Great Leviathan Roboute himself. Over the kill or for the territorial border. Roboute flared his own light, a warning to his sons to not strike first, he was hoping to talk this stranger down- some knowledge of this new world above the current would be valuable.
A tiny little voice trilled out, before the new mer’s own finished. A small but caring sound that was an automatic response to the first call. Left behind with Demetrian, and two of his older brothers, Lily's eyes were wide as she called out. An instinct or reflex that could not be resisted for a pup so young. Like the leviathan pups would flair light if their caretakers would do a set pattern, only it was sound?
The stranger paused all movement in the water, focusing on the little sound. Watching as Roboute turned partly to look back as well. Then recognized the pup call, who that pup was. One of his missing ones.
He snarled, and bellowed out a truly long distant call, “Lord Slayer, here!”
Something as big as Roboute came out of the haze above and away from the ancestral bones. A dark shadow with no glowing light, coming out of the haze like only sharks could, but big enough to send a deep vibration of sound through the water. Responding to the call the strange mer did.
.
