Hi readers, Now before you start reading I should mention that the reference to this story is kinda the same to the book "The Last Unicorn". I didn't make this into a crossover because its a mermaid and the story is more on trying to escape from the 'claws' of Tomatoa.
Anyway, hope you enjoy!
It was a stormy night, lighting hit the ocean, as giant waves formed, and smashed down. Under the water, it was dark, and there was a panic. Swimming as fast as they could, a pod of mermaids swimming for there lives. Young, old, mothers pulling their little ones along trying to escape the creature that was chasing them. The safety of their home was no longer safe, but swimming in to open ocean was even more dangerous, for there was no where to hide, all they could do was swim and hope that they were fast enough.
Out of the rush of frantic mermaids, one mother pulled her little seven year old daughter, trying to stay close to the pod.
"Mama!" The little mermaid cried, terrified on what was going on. "Mama! What's happening?! Why are we leaving the reef?!"
"Aqua, there's no time to explain!" Her mother cried, gripping her daughter's wrist even tighter. "Just stay close! Don't let go of ma-" Just out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a small grotto, to small for her, but big enough for her child.
As she pushed through the crowd, she swam down and pushed her daughter in as far in as she could. Looking her daughter in the eyes she said. "Aqua, you stay in here, do not leave the safety of the grotto. Do you understand?"
"W-what? But mama, you said the reef isn't safe anymore!" Aqua cried, scared out of her mind.
"Listen to me my pearl," her mother held her head in her hands, "We will drive the monster far away from here. You will be safe as long as you stay out of sight. Mama will come back and find you, alright? Do you understand?" Her worried looked frightened her daughter, but she nodded. she gave one last big hug and kiss. "I love you my precious pearl. Mama will come back, I promise." With that said, she let go of her child and swam off to catch up with the pod.
Aqua shook so badly, as she wrapped her arms around herself for comfort, looking at the entrance of the grotto she watched as the dark blue water turned pitch black, and the sounds of a large creature roaring. Very quickly passing the cave she saw a large dark serpent like figure, the body was jagged with the jaws of an angler fish and jagged sharp teeth. Attached to the body were large spear like tentacles, but the thing that showed out was the single eye on its side, a sickly yellow color no pupil that glowed in the dark water. It was so fast that it quickly swam past her after the pod.
Aqua closed her eyes, praying that this was all a nightmare and it would go away. "Go away...Go away...Mama...Mama..."
Gasping for water, Aqua sat up from her clam shell bed. Looking around she saw that she was safe in her grotto home, and that it was just a nightmare.
"Again..." She sighed out putting a hand to her heart. "That dream always haunted me, I just wish it would stop." Stretching her arms up, she slowly swam out of bed and over to her small pile of sunken treasure.
In instinct, mermaids have a way of finding treasure, as well as a love for it. They saw it as gifts from human, as mermaids were considered gods, and wore them that way. Aqua sat down on her pile of gold coins, and picked up a soled gold comb. Looking herself if a broken mirror she combed her pastel orange hair, but it wasn't easy underwater, since it floated everywhere. She then opened an empty oyster filled with pears and placed them all in her hair. Then lastly her favorite accessory, a pink shell with laced pink pearls hanging from the side. She clipped it on the right side of her hair.
Next was her Atlantis armor. A mermaid's head and torso is the same as a human female, they could have varieties of different skin colors depending on what habitat they lived in, but were still lightly covered in scales. The only part of their body was completely covered was the breasts, that covered her on the sides, in a V neck, down to her waste and her tail. Every mermaid had a unique style in armor or human clothing, Aqua's Atlantis armor was like a bikini top and belt. the golden chain covered in jewels wrapped under her breasts and around the back of her neck. Where as the chain belt that matched wrapped around her hips just above her tail.
Checking herself in the mirror, she nodded happily at her work, before swimming out of her home. She lived in a large coral reef that stretched for two miles. Not to far was a island, which was inhabited by humans, and she would often see their canoes on the reef fishing. When out of her grotto Aqua would go out hunting for fish, squid, or whatever she could hunt for, and sometimes go looking for treasure. She carried a spear she made out of a piece of drift wood, and a barb of a sting ray tied together with seaweed.
As she swam above the coral looking around she spotted a pod of dolphins with their calves, playing together and having fun. Aqua suddenly felt very sad, it had been ten years sense the attack on the reef, and her pod had not returned, nor had her mother. Aqua managed to keep herself alive from what she had learned from the pod, but her loneliness grew more and more each day.
"She promised..." She muttered. "Mama will come back." She tried to keep her chin up, not to give up hope. Ignoring those negative thoughts she swam on. Off in the distance, she spotted a school of fish, and like a torpedo she swam after them. But just before she reached them, she looked above the surface to see a human boat and just in time, because a net was suddenly thrown overboard trapping the school inside.
"Oh, come on!" She growled, glaring up at the boat. Now usually she was told not to go near humans, but some times the elders from her pod would say human respect mermaids, and if were spotted would offer them something. Where as others would say that they would capture them as slaves in hopes that they would bring treasure to them. Not really choosing either one of those, Aqua swam on the other side of the boat and peeked up above the surface.
There were only two men on boat trying to hall in their catch. "Boy, the fishing is doing very good this week, isn't it?" The younger male asked, smiling at the older one.
"Yes, life is slowing coming back to this reef, wish I could say the same for the mermaids." The old male said.
That got Aqua's attention, as she listen closer.
"Mermaids?" The younger man laughed. "I think you've been out of the sun to long, they're just myths and legends."
"About ten years ago there was a great storm that shook the island, destroying half this reef. Damage like that would take a millennium to recover, as well for the creatures to come back. But a mermaid's love over her home, can easily bring life back."
He is right, Aqua thought. Mama said the reason our reef was so pure and almost untouched was because of we've protected it for so long.
"Ha ha, whatever you say old man, but I'm not going to show my gratitude on the fishing just for some fake goddess." That ticked off Aqua. lifting her hand up she magically formed a ball of water, and hovered it over the young man's head before releasing it, soaking him. He gasped out in surprise, as the older man chuckled.
"I told you, there is one mermaid left in this reef. We must show some respect to her." The two men finished holing in their net full of fish before heading back to the island. Aqua ducked back under the boat and watched it turn, but not before she heard the old man say. "Stay where you are mermaid, the ocean is no longer safe for your kind. Stay in your reef with your friends. And good luck to you, for you are the last." And after that he untied his shell arm bracelet, and threw it in the water as a gift, before the boat steered away.
Aqua watched it leave as the bracelet floated down, caching it in her hand. "I am the only mermaid there left in the ocean? The last?" She asked looking down at the bracelet. "That...can't be..!"
It was late in the after noon, Aqua was sitting down on some coral, she had caught a mackerel for lunch, but she more played with her food then ate it. What the human had said was bothering her. "I can't be, I can't be the last. What do humans know, just because they haven't seen us in a while, doesn't mean we've all disappeared." She glanced down at her tail and saw a small cuttlefish eyeing her meal, smiling she offered the rest to cephalopod as it happily ate it. "I maybe the only one in the reef, but we don't disappear. Mermaids have been around for thousands of years, in times of gods. We can live up to a thousand. We can be hunted captured, even be killed, but we don't disappear!"
Aqua shook her head before swimming off. "Why am I even thinking that, what a stupid thought, I can't be-" Suddenly she got a flash back on what had happen ten years ago. The panic, hiding, the terrifying roars, the monster that was changing them. "That thing...it couldn't have. What if...no! No, don't think like that Aqua!" She slapped her cheeks shaking that thought out of her head. She stopped swimming and turned to the side, where the reef drops off to open sea. "I've never known what is out beyond the reef. Can I truly be the last?" She wrapped her arms around herself frowning sadly.
All of the suddenly she heard a noise, it sounded like someone singing, and it was coming up behind her. Turning around she saw a marlin flipping around and jumping out of the water. "~Can't swim so I took a boat, to an island so remote~" he sang as she swam right up to Aqua. "~Stayed there 'till the air was clear. I was bored and out of tears. Then I saw you washed up on the shore~. How do you do maiden?" He bowed his head to her.
The golden mermaid couldn't help but giggle. "Hello marlin, welcome to my reef, have you traveled far?" She asked the dancing fish.
"~How far will I travel~ To be with you" He sang in and out of his sentences, as he swam around her. "~If to just gaze at your beauty~" gracing his fin through her flowing hair
"You're certainly not shy." Aqua pulled her hair back. "Marlin, do you know what I am?" Aqua asked. Marlin travel war out to sea, maybe he had seen other mermaids.
"Well you're a beauty in the water. ~You're my everything, you are my sunshine. You're my angel on the beeeach!~" He sang jumping out of the water.
"I'm being serous though. Do you, or do you not?"
"Its hard to tell~" He hummed, circling her.
"I should know better then ask a marlin that doesn't spend more then three minutes in one place." Aqua sighed, watching the marlin sing some more. She tried another way. "Marlin, in all of your traveling, have you seen someone like me? Or maybe more?"
"Hmm, it's hard to say~ A beautiful angel-fish such as yourself if very rare."
"I guess I shouldn't have put in so much hope." Aqua sighed starting to swim away from the singing fish. "But I guess you mean well." The marlin kept singing swimming around her, seeing her as good company. Aqua tried to put her distance between them. "I hope you hear many more songs along the way. But I must find someone who knows me, and maybe have seen others like me."
Just when she was headed back to her grotto the Marlin spoke up but not in song, stopping her. "Mermaid: a creature with the head and trunk of a female human, and tail of a fish. Conventionally depicted as beautiful, with long flowing golden hair, and a voice like bell. Mermaid." He smiled.
Aqua gasped, smiling happily. "You do know what I am! Please, I'm asking, if you've seen other mermaids like me somewhere in the ocean. Maybe you've even seen my pod?! Tell me where I can find them!" Aqua begged stopping him from leaving.
The marlin turned back, his smile gone, looking very serious. "Please listen carefully to me, goddess. You can find the others if you our brave. They past down the ocean current long ago and the Leviathan swam close behind them covering their trail."
"The Leviathan..." Aqua gasped. Was that the monster she saw all those years ago? "What is Leviathan?"
The marlin then bowed again to her. "His prize capture, it's highness. And the tentacles of a giant squid. With them it shall push the mermaids, all of them to the there ocean touches rock. Listen, listen listen!" He jumped around.
"I am listening! Where our the other mermaids and what is the Leviathan?" Aqua tried to ask, but the marlin chuckled getting lost in his singing again, and swam off over the drop out, back to open sea. Aqua watched him till he was out of sight. "He said I could find the others. So there is hope!"
The moon light glistened through the ocean as a dark blue blanket covering the reef. Inside her grotto Aqua looked out, watching day go to night.
"I have never left my home. I promised Mama I would stay and wait for her. But...I must know if I am the only mermaid left in the ocean. What if they're all waiting for me, Mama too. What they need my help?" She thought back on what the marlin told her.
"They past down the ocean current long about and the Leviathan swam close behind them covering their trail." The image of the Leviathan chasing mermaids out to open sea scared her, she shook that image out of her head.
She looked over the reef again, she could stay in the reef, where it is safe. But if she dose then she will forever live along, and the thought of leaving the other mermaids to die was to grave on her. Making up her mind she decided.
Grabbing a leather shoulder bag she found from her collecting, she packed food, extra sting ray barbs, and seaweed. She unclipped her seashell and put it in the bag for safety. She tied her hair back in a ponytail and grabbing her spear, she swam through the reef till she reached the drop off. Taking a deep breath she looked back at her home, many of the sea creatures came to watch their protector depart. Taking one last look, she swam off as fast as she could, not looking back.
"I must go quickly, and bring my pod home." She vowed, as she disappeared into open sea.
"You can find the others, if you are brave."
