Chapter 8
May was swimming out to the open ocean by herself. Popplio was back home, still nervous because of the storm from a few days earlier, and her sisters...well, at this point, it's probably obvious. She was planning to stay at the palace with Popplio, but her mother noticed how bored she was and suggested she take the chance to have a night to herself.
"I guess she's not wrong," May said to herself. "Ever since Serena's rite of passage, I've been working tirelessly on getting Popplio home. It would do me some good to take a night off from any obligations."
As she swam through the water, she looked beneath her at the villages outside the palace. Merfolk were just beginning their night. Some were swimming out into fields of seaweed to prepare for a harvest. Some were working on building new homes out of dead coral, among other things. As she watched them go about their business, she noticed several merboys and mergirls swimming around, laughing and playing without a care in the sea. She smiled as she watched them frolick about in the water, remembering how she used to do the same thing with her sisters and childhood friends.
"Those were the nights," she sighed nostalgically. "No worrying about the obligations of a princess, no arguing over seeing the world in different ways…" She looked up at the surface. "...and no incessantly talking about the world above." As she gazed up, her mind drifted to the conversation with her sisters from earlier that night…
"So what're you gonna do tonight, May?" Misty asked.
"Probably stay here and keep Popplio company," May replied. "Poor girl's still terrified of that storm from a few days ago."
"Poor thing," Dawn agreed. "But won't you be bored?"
"I'll be fine," May said.
"Yeah, you tell yourself that," Serena muttered.
May looked at her with a frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're gonna sit pretty down here, floating idly about, when you could come with us to the surface again."
"Serena, stop pressuring her!" Misty said, getting between them. "You saw what happened to her when she came up. She needs time to herself."
"She just needs to get used to the air up there, that's all!" Serena insisted. "We all had to at first!"
"It's not like that!" May shot back. "You don't know what it's like to feel like a Sharpedo's skin is brushing up against your lungs!"
"You're overreacting!" Serena said.
"Girls…" Misty started to say, but she was drowned out.
"Easy for you to say!" May snapped. "Besides, Popplio needs someone to be there for her, and right now, that someone has to be me! But then, why would I expect you to understand?" With that, she turned around and swam away angrily.
May huffed in annoyance. "She just doesn't understand," she muttered. "Or maybe she just refuses to try and understand." She looked up at the surface again. "Maybe she's so enamored with the surface that she refuses to believe that it can do any wrong." She sighed and shook her head. "Or maybe I'm just overthinking things."
As her thoughts turned towards the world above, she turned so that she was facing the surface, putting her hands behind her head in a relaxed position as she continued to swim through the water. "What is it with us mermaids and our obsession with the human world?" she wondered. "We're born in the sea, we live our lives in the sea, and then one night we wake up and suddenly decide that we don't belong in the sea. Why is that? Because we look just like humans from the waist up?" She sighed again. "I just don't understand. Even if the human world is half as wonderful as my sisters claim it is, that doesn't mean our world is any less beautiful. What does the human world have that makes us want to leave the ocean behind?" As she thought about this, she looked over her stomach down at her tail. She smiled as she watched it flip in the water, propelling her forward, glistening in the moonlight even though she hadn't decorated it tonight. "It's beautiful," she smiled admiringly. She caught herself thinking this and giggled to herself. "Well, Misty did always say I was a vain mermaid," she said. "Still and all, what's wrong with acknowledging how beautiful our tails are?" She looked down at her tail again, watching with a smile as she flipped her fins. She'd always loved the way it moved in the water. "And what's wrong with wanting them to look beautiful?" She glanced at the surface one more time before doing an underwater flip as she swam back into an upright position. She looked down and saw that the villages were gone, replaced by the vast expanse of sand and stone at the bottom of the ocean. She looked around and saw the deep, blue sea all around her as far as the eye could see.
"Amazing," she said quietly to herself as she floated in awe at how vast it was. "I know some mermaids would look at this and feel so small compared to this vast ocean. I can't exactly blame them, but...I honestly never feel that way." She smiled as she continued to gaze on. "Everything's so open, and there's so much to explore...I would love to see it all one of these nights." She sighed and looked down. "Being a princess does have its drawbacks. If I weren't tied down to my kingdom, I would gladly swim out there to see it all." She looked up again and gazed out at the ocean, opening her mouth to say something else. But as she continued to gaze, she decided that there wasn't much more she could say. So she floated there: alone, seemingly little more than a speck in the vast ocean, lost in the wonder of it all.
That was when she heard it again: a faint, distant melody that seemed to float through the water. May gasped as she turned in the direction of the otherworldly melody, beaming as she recognized it.
"The Oceansong!" she whispered. She'd been so preoccupied as of late that she'd almost forgotten about the mythical melody. She floated there a moment, smiling as she took in the haunting melody, before she flicked her fins and started swimming in the direction the song was coming from. It can't be that far away she thought. The girls might think that I'm just imagining things, but I know what I'm hearing, and I will find it. She swam around a large rock structure that no doubt towered out of the water; the sound seemed to be coming from the other side. As she swam to the other side, her smile turned into a small frown when she found nothing noteworthy there. Moreover, the melody had actually grown fainter rather than louder, which made no sense to the mermaid princess.
"Must've gotten away," she muttered, putting her hands on her hips. "I wonder where to? Hm...then again, that's not too important right now. What's important is that this time, I know for certain that I heard it. The girls can say what they want, but I know what I heard." As if to validate her words, the melody started singing again, flowing up through the water. May's eyes lit up as she looked down at where the song seemed to be coming from. Then she raised an eyebrow as a thought occurred to her: it was floating up through the water...but where to? Curious, she looked up and started swimming towards the surface, paying close attention to the way the melody sounded in her ears. Eventually, she found herself right beneath the surface, trying her best not to look at the rippling water so it wouldn't make her nauseous, and listened to the melody. It wasn't as loud as it was before, but she figured it wouldn't. What she found intriguing was that the melody hadn't followed her up towards the surface.
It flowed away from it: flowing up briefly, the melody quickly changed direction and flowed back into the ocean.
May smiled softly at this. "I guess I should've known," she mused. "The Oceansong wouldn't try to leave the sea." Still, that didn't dampen the relief she felt. She flicked her fins and swam back down the way she came, closing her eyes softly and smiling as she returned to the deeper part of the ocean. The melody seemed to grow louder, as though it were closer. Listening closely to where it was coming from, May opened her eyes and swam towards the apparent source of the sound. Soon, she found herself floating over a small alcove. Listening closely, she smiled as she figured that the song was coming from that alcove. She took a deep breath and flicked her fins, propelling herself down to the alcove. She looked in, eyes wide with expectation and found…
Nothing.
Her face fell, and she sighed dejectedly as the melody faded once again. "I guess I should've known," she mumbled. "Why would anyone think they would find a song the way they find a buried treasure?" She floated into the alcove and settled in, gazing out at the ocean again. Her eyes lit up again as she looked closer. "The view looks a little different out here," she mused. "This must be unexplored territory." She smirked as she observed her surroundings. "Maybe Popplio and I can come out here next time we go scouting." A small current suddenly flowed from behind her, prompting her to giggle as it grazed her skin. As she continued to gaze at the ocean, the current blew past her in repeated bursts that seemed to flow past with increasing intensity. She enjoyed the feeling and sighed contentedly.
And then it hit her: this wasn't a current. This was something breathing.
Her eyes widened, and she slowly turned around to see what was behind her. She met with a pair of angry red eyes glaring at her out of a massive blue Pokemon, whose bared fangs glimmered in the moonlight.
She blinked, eyes wide as Clamperls, before giving a nervous chuckle. "Well, that explains why the Oceansong left." Without another word, she turned tail and swam off.
No sooner had she started swimming away than the Gyarados burst out of the alcove, roaring angrily at her. She had barely gotten a few fins away when the monstrous Pokemon caught sight of her and started swimming after her. May glanced behind her and flipped her fins harder, turning so that she swam up around the large rock structure. The Gyarados followed in hot pursuit, continuing to roar. May was barely faster than it, and there was only so much rock she could swim around before she hit the surface. Thinking fast, she dove down and swam for the bottom of the structure. The snarling Gyarados continued to follow her. She reached the bottom of the structure and floated there a moment, glancing up at the ferocious monster as it came down to attack her. Right before it could sink its fangs into her tail, she flicked her fins and swam out of the way. As a result, Gyarados rammed into the bottom of the ocean. After taking a moment to make sure it was dazed from hitting its head, she turned and swam away as fast as she could.
"That was close," she muttered. "Heh...this'll be a story the girls'll wanna hear." No sooner had she said this than she heard a roar behind her. She glanced behind her and saw, much to her chagrin, that the Gyarados was still hot on her tail. "Oh, come on!" she yelled. "Don't you have anything better to do?! Mermaids don't make good snacks, you know!" Gyarados didn't listen, so May just continued to swim as fast as her fins could propel her.
"I gotta find a way to shake it off my tail," she muttered. "If I lead it too close to the villages, someone could get hurt." She swam through the open ocean, constantly glancing this way and that in the hope of finding somewhere where she could easily lose Gyarados. After what felt like an eternity, she spotted a darker part of the ocean that she wasn't familiar with. Squinting, she noticed a labyrinthine network of rock structures that would make a human's obstacle course green with envy.
"Looks like there's no other choice," she said to herself as she swam to the darkened ocean. Before she knew it, she found herself shrouded in waters far deeper than she was accustomed to. Gyarados was still pursuing her as she started weaving in and out of the structures. Unfortunately, Gyarados was strong enough to blast right through them. Some of the rubble blasted through the water and fell around her, grazing both her shoulders and her tail.
"I thought as much," May muttered, glancing behind her a moment before continuing to move through the maze of rocks. "The girls would probably hate this place," she said to herself. "It's so dark and deep – argh! Focus, May! This is no time to think about that!" She continued to swim through the maze, weaving in and out of the structures while Gyarados continued to blast through them. May knew that sooner or later, the monster would catch up to her; this was one race that she would not win.
Thankfully, she knew that she didn't have to.
As she swam deeper into the maze, she noticed a structure shaped like a wall not far off. Several large boulders rested on top of it, and they looked extremely unbalanced. Thinking fast, she smirked and propelled herself up over Gyarados, doing a flip and a twirl for emphasis, before turning and swimming for the wall. She floated in front of it, staring the enraged Pokemon down.
"Come on!" she shouted at it. "Is that all you got?! I thought you'd be faster than that!"
Gyarados roared in rage and swam towards her. She smirked as she watched the monster come closer and closer. Then, once again, right before it could catch her, she swam to the side, letting it ram into the wall. No sooner had it done this than the boulders above wobbled slightly before toppling over. Before Gyarados knew what was happening, the boulders crashed down on top of it, crushing it under their weight. Gyarados roared in rage as it started thrashing about, trying to escape.
"Sorry, pal," May smirked, folding her arms across her chest while giving a triumphant flick of her fins, "but mermaid's off the menu tonight. Don't worry; I'm sure there's plenty of Luvdisc that will make a fine appetizer. Later!" With one last flick of her fins, she turned and started to swim away; only Gyarados' roars of rage followed her as it violently thrashed about under the rocks, snarling in fury. "Hmph," she muttered to herself. "Serves them right."
As she was about to head back out into the open ocean, however, she heard something different. Gyarados was still roaring, but now it didn't sound angry. It sounded like...it was in pain? Well, that much was obvious; she'd just dropped a ton of boulders on top of it. But the way it roared and growled, it almost sounded like...it was crying for help? May slowly came to a halt and floated there a moment. She slowly turned around and looked behind her, listening as Gyarados, now far away from her, continued to roar in agony. She glanced back at the ocean, knowing that she should swim away. But as she continued to listen to Gyarados' wails, she started to feel sorry for the monster.
Finally, she sighed and shook her head. "I better not regret this." With that, she turned and started to swim back towards the dark maze. It didn't take her long to find Gyarados. When she found it, her pity only grew as she saw just how sorry a state she left the poor monster in. Gyarados was still wailing, as though both expressing its pain and crying for help. She gazed into its eyes, eyes legendary for their anger, and found nothing but fear in them. She sighed and swam up to the rock closest to Gyarados' head.
"Now just to be clear," she said, grunting as she started to push it, flicking her fins with all her might, "I'm doing you a big favor here. If you decide to try and eat me again – oof! – I'll find another way to get you stuck like this. And next time – ngh! – I won't help you out!" She gave the boulder one more shove before it fell to the side. Satisfied, she turned and started working on the other two boulders in the same way. Soon enough, Gyarados was free from its predicament, but it still laid there, breathing quietly. May swam closer to its face, concerned. She looked around at its body and discovered a long gash across the side of its face. Blood was starting to flow.
"Oh dear," she whispered, inspecting the damage. "Okay, don't worry. I can fix this." She flicked her tail out in front of her, reached forward and pulled out one of her scales. "Owch!" she winced. "Oof...tender spot. I'm gonna be feeling that tomorrow." She swam closer to Gyarados' cut and held up the scale. "Okay," she said, "this might sting a little." She leaned forward and started to slowly trace her scale down the length of the gash. Gyarados groaned softly, clearly in pain, as she traced it. It didn't take her long to finish, and she set the scale aside, as she had no more use for it. The gash didn't look much different, but it wasn't bleeding anymore. May slowly traced her hand over it, smiling in satisfaction when she noticed that it was healing.
"That'll probably leave a scar," she sighed, "but at least it won't bleed anymore." She turned to Gyarados, who gazed back with a blank expression. "Now remember," she said, "if you try and eat me again, I won't save you next time you get stuck like this. You can go find yourself a nice little Luvdisc, or even a Sharpedo! They're the worst in these parts, but they taste pretty good! But don't go trying to eat mermaids, understand? We don't make good snacks." With that, she turned and swam away out of the darker depths of the ocean.
"Whew!" she sighed as she flicked her exhausted fins. "That was quite the adventure." As she swam for home, she noticed the light in the ocean was starting to turn golden. "Looks like it's time to call it a night," she said. "Good thing, too. My fins are killing me! I'm gonna have to lay low tomorrow and let them rest." She smiled to herself. "Eh, it was worth it. It'll make for a fun story to tell the girls."
As she swam off, her eyes lit up as she heard the faint sound of that mysterious melody once again. She glanced behind her, curious, but saw nothing. The melody seemed to be fading into the distance, but not as if it were moving away.
"I hope Gyarados can hear it too," she said to herself as she looked forward and found herself swimming over the villages once again. As she swam for home, she let her thoughts drift to her warm, comfortable shellbed, where she could curl up and rest after a long night of exploring.
Tapu Fini knows she needed it.