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You keep your eyes glued to your feet and slowly, slowly, stand up and back away from the edge of the water.
You watch the troll in your peripherals so as not to provoke it.
Inside, you're panicking. Your phone is dead, your alone and it's getting dark. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
As you move away the mer makes a small whining noise and slips, falls really, back into the water. You can't leave it to die. Your moral code simply won't allow it, plus Sollux will kill you if if he finds out you let such a rare animal die. But you had no way of contacting him and it would take far to much time to drive work and pick up Sollux.
You make a snap decision and run up the length of the beach to the parking lot, improvising as you went. You leap into your truck put it in reverse and and drive directly into the sand and to the Tub, making sure to have the rear facing the ridgeback. This was your work issued truck, with the back specially modified to be completely watertight and padded so you could safely transport fish tanks and their occupants. Lucky for you and the troll, you had just cleaned it out this morning, except for the standard pull out ramp that comes with the truck and a random bucket in the corner. You don't know why you kept that but you so glad you did.
Keeping an eye on the mer-troll, you frantically pull out the ramp and attach it to the open back of the truck. You make sure the end of metal is within a foot of the water.
Deep breath. You rub your hands together trying to psych yourself up to go through with your plan, all the while nervously eyeing the water.
Okay. Here we go.==
You lurch forward and after just a moment's hesitation, leap into the Tub with the mer. The water is murky with sand from it's previous thrashing, making it hard to see. You can still make out it's unconscious form though. You take a deep breath of air before diving to the bottom where you grab his shoulders, avoiding it's spikey fins. Kicking your legs as hard as you can, you drag him to the surface and halfway out the water. You lost a flip-flop in the pool and don't have the time to get it.
Now for the hard part. ==
You position yourself on the ramp and heave him the rest of the way out of the Tub, leaving purple smears all over the rocky sand. Damn, he was heavy. Not that you expected anything else. Breathing hard, you wince at the ridgeback's injury, now bleeding even more than when you found him. You brush the front of your sopping Mohawk out of your eyes and continue dragging him up the ramp until only his tail is left sticking out of the truck. Carefully you pick up his tail with both hands, not wanting to cut yourself on it's poisonous spikes, and pull it into the back so that you could close the lower part of the door on the truck. You grab the bucket from the corner and hop out.
Filling it with water from the Tub, you dump it's contents into the back with the troll. You do this until the water is about five inches deep in the truck. You don't think you have time for any more and that's probably good enough. You slam down the upper half of the door and lock it. You don't want it to suddenly open while you're driving.
You fold up the ramp and decide to leave it by the Tub since there's no room in your truck. You can barely see and you doubt that someone would want to steal it it. Even if they did it wouldn't matter because the merman definitely has priority.
On your mad dash to the aquarium (and Sollux) you nearly run three red lights and hit quite a few potholes, muttering "Sorry, sorry," each time, knowing the experience couldn't be pleasant for the troll. If he's even still alive back there.
When you arrive after what feels like forever, you park in front of the loading garage, grab your door key, and run in through the back door. You race through the halls looking for Sollux, at least until you ran face first into him as you rounded a corner.
You both rebound and land on your asses on the hard tile floor.
"What the hell, Tavros?! Look where the fuck your going!" he shouted angrily, "What are you even doing here at this time; your shift was over a few hours ago!"
Seeing your panicked face he paused, "What?"
The words exploded out of you. "IneedyourhelpheshurtreallybadIthinkhemightdiesoIt ookhimhere!"
Sollux grabbed both your flailing arms, "Slow down, what? Who's hurt?!"
It would would take too long to explain so you scramble to your feet and yell "Just come here!" and run back out to the truck holding the mer-troll.
Make sure Sollux is actually following you ==
He is. You both make it outside in less than a minute, though you're both breathing hard.
"What," huffs Sollux, gripping his knees for support, "was that for?"
You point to the truck,walk over there, and open up the upper half of the door in the back. "Take a look at this."
"Holy fucking shit." Sollux of course, being the highly experienced marine biologist and veterinarian he is, recognized the troll instantly. "Holy. Fucking. Shit. Is that- is that a…"
"Yeah."
Sollux stared, dumbfounded, at the mer for a few seconds before grabbing his cellphone from his raincoat and texting at a furious pace. After a minute of nothing but the sounds of his insanely fast button jabbing, you broke the silence.
"Well?"
Sollux glanced up and said, "I'm calling for backup."
