Merfish

I always knew that there were things lurking in the water, but this was totally unexpected…

"Hey Flynn! Check this out," Yuri called out to me.

He pointed at the water, dingy and brown as always. There seemed to be something swimming around in it.

"Pretty weird right?" Yuri said.

"Yeah…" I said.

Squatting down next to Yuri, we spent the next couple minutes looking at the water flow. Then, without warning, Yuri slapped me on the shoulder and broke out into a full sprint. I knew the game he was playing, but even with his head start I wasn't about to lose.

Yuri slipped his way into the market, ducking under fruit carts, and rolling through the grips of many angry salesmen. I continued my chase, but I'll admit I wasn't as good at crowd dodging as Yuri. My whole run was filled with apologies to townspeople.

I burst through the crowd of shoppers and made my way down to the fountain square by the inn. Yuri always went for the Lower Quarter, that's what he knew best, but there was no sign of him anywhere.

"Where'd you run off to?" I said, scanning my surroundings for any sign of my friend.

"I'm over here dummy!" Yuri flicked my hair before making a dive towards the inn.

I dove on after him, but shot way too high. That was not a good plan… Instead of crashing into pavement I felt water engulf me. The last thing I heard was Yuri call out my name before everything went dark.

The water was so murky I couldn't see anything at all, so all I could do was flail around until I reached the surface; just doing that took out all my energy. Rapids and garbage kept plowing into me.

"Flynn!" Yuri called out to me.

He was sprinting frantically after me; all while screaming for help. My strength wasn't going to last. I tried to call after him, but the water pulled me back in. Poor Yuri, he must have been pretty tired from chasing after me. I had to keep calm; if I waste too much energy then the water's going to take me. Getting out of this situation was going to be tricky.

Then, a cold scaly thing brushed past my arm. I managed to catch it, and, from there, held on for dear life. Whatever this scaly thing was, it definitely felt me clinging on. It started flailing and thrashing about, but I couldn't afford to let go.

My breath was starting to go. I had to do something. So I kicked the scaly thing. It gave out a screech and burst up to the surface. I took a much needed breath and saw that Yuri was still running after me. Though there was something about his expression that was different: not worry or anything, just a look of complete shock. He was looking at something. I followed his eyes to the thing I was clinging so desperately to.

"Gah!"

I'd been clinging to a Merfish this whole time. That would explain the scaly feel, but that was beside the point. We locked eyes for a good minute, while Yuri panicked in the background. Looks like it wasn't just me who was shocked, so was the Merfish.

A new group of voices started calling me; from the looks of it, they were caravaneers. Hanks was there too. Everybody had a piece of a rope in their hands, with Yuri holding the end. I let go of the Merfish (thank goodness it just swam away) as Yuri tossed the rope to me.

They managed to pull me out safe and sound. I crawled back onto land, soaking wet, but safe.

"What in the world were you tryin' to pull, boy?" Hanks scolded.

I took his lecture without any complaints and thanked the caravaneers afterward. During my scolding, Yuri had gone off to find some towels and dry clothes for me, and bonked me on the head when he returned.

"You had me worried there ya dummy…" He said.

"I'm just glad that it didn't turn into a big deal." I replied, prompting another smack on the head by Yuri.

"No big deal? You got washed away by the river and beat up a Merfish." He said.

"I didn't actually fight it you know." I shrugged.

The day after, I got stuck in bed with a fever. For the next couple weeks I was the talk of the town; probably Yuri's fault, he just had to tell everyone about what happened. Flynn Scifo, at seven years old, fended off his first monster. Boy would that follow me for the rest of my life.

st of my life.