It is well known to humans, even in ancient times, that the ocean in its vastness hides many secrets. But no matter how open-minded they are, none are even close to the tip of the iceberg.
To them half the creatures and societies in the deep are an enigma, even the fact that species they consider common and simple are anything but. The reality is that the difference between the consciences of most beings is almost zero, they all go through the same mundane emotions and experiences.
A cecaelia in her teenage years was straying too far from the territory where she lived, not really thinking which way she was going, that didn't matter. She just wanted to be alone to scream with all her might the frustrations she couldn't release at home.
"If you didn't exist I wouldn't have to be begging for crumbs of attention all the time!" There was genuine sadness in her words, but it was still the tantrum of an immature kid, a tantrum that seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"Stupid Ursula! I hate you! Why don't you just disappear?!" The sadness was quickly replaced by a feeling of resentment just as genuine, she hit a rock with one of her tentacles in anger, but the sound of it falling made her finally realize something. Apart from her, nothing was heard, absolutely nothing.
Her anger had led her to inadvertently swim to a rather dark part of the seabed, the already hidden sun on the surface only making it worse. She looked around and nothing was familiar, that whole place was completely unknown.
Finding herself in that situation made her mentally repeat one of the few useful pieces of advice her mother had given her "Being in a strange place with no one around is a bad sign."
"Now are you quiet?" A deep, unmistakably sinister voice suddenly spoke to her "but suddenly having company can be even worse."
"With all that noise you made I can assure you that you'll attract many volunteers willing to... give you their attention," just the way he pronounced the last words was enough to make it clear, whatever his plans were, she would not make it out alive.
"But since I'm the first to arrive, I guess that honor will be mine." That statement chilled her blood, the seconds became eternal and at the same time ephemeral. They felt just like what they were, the moments before a death sentence.
The owner of the voice finally decided to let himself be seen, even in the dim light she could distinguish it perfectly, the unmistakable figure of a huge tiger shark, who took his time to look at her maliciously for a few instants before attacking.
Her body didn't move, it could only freeze. She felt a push in her abdomen, suffocating but tolerable, it was not the stabbing pain she expected, she opened her eyes and found herself face to face with those of her executioner. The beast was clearly enjoying the moment, rejoicing in being the cause of her misery.
"I see you don't want to scream anymore, we'll have to work on that." The shark said as he tossed her off his nose with some disappointment. This wasn't about survival, she wasn't going to be given a quick kill, this animal was going to use her as his plaything until she was no longer entertaining.
"Let me warn you, I'm going to get much more than a few crumbs out of you." The madness in her attacker's voice was already palpable, just imagining all the implications of that phrase gave the fish what he so much wanted, her screams. But as he came close to actually piercing her skin with his fangs something fell into his eyes, blurring his vision.
As a child, the young witch discovered that she had an "ability" that her sister didn't possess, more than an ability it was a reflex that was becoming increasingly unusual in her species, the ability to produce ink when she felt a threat nearby. It wasn't something that anyone missed, it was a skill considered useless and primitive, and it used to be one of the things her sister made fun of, "a useless ability for a useless witch" she said.
But that didn't matter anymore, after all thanks to that reflex she would live... for a few more seconds. The ink managed to stop him from biting her, but she really hadn't stopped him at all, she had just taken him by surprise.
It was over, this was her end. She had already run out of options... or maybe not?
"This has to be a joke," the shark said to himself in a low voice, his victim had taken advantage of his distraction in a truly annoying way.
The girl clamped her tentacles to her attacker's back and her arms to his dorsal fin. The predator, unable to reach her, started to move from side to side totally enraged, but she clung even more, with all the strength she had. They struggled for several minutes, holding on to him was already becoming painful but that was the least of her problems, she was not going to let go of the only chance to save herself.
"This is ridiculous. Get off me!" He growled at her, losing the relative composure he'd had so far, but the young witch was not willing to give in. Losing against Ursula was enough, she was not going to lose against that thing as well.
"Don't even dream of it. You're not so great anymore, right?" She challenged him, giving herself the luxury of feeling superior.
"Sooner or later you'll have to let go, and when that happens you'll really wish you got eaten the first time," her attacker replied with noticeable anger in his voice.
"In that case I'll gouge out your eyes myself, and then you'll be someone else's prey." She countered with every intention of provoking him. She knew it wasn't a good idea, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel thrilled at being able to cause trouble for someone so dangerous.
"I doubt your slippery things could do that, and even if they could, I don't need my eyes to find you, you'll just make me want to prolong your agony," he began to speak more calmly, but the anger was still present.
"Sounds fun, but you'll have to do it with someone else because I won't let go of here." She still wouldn't budge a bit, she would show him that he had messed with the wrong prey. If there was anything she could be proud of, it was that she was stubborn like no other.
"If you refuse to get off my back you'll starve... no, not even that, no one dies that easily. You will suffer slowly, till you're so weak that it'll be impossible for you to stand, and then I will do with you as I please."
She couldn't deny that she was terrified, but at the same time she was furious, that animal felt empowered to say all those things to her without consequences, in a very unpleasant way he reminded her of her family. That feeling made her forget her fear for a few seconds, leading her to carry out her threat and poke one of his eyes with her tentacle.
"Now I'm really going to kill you!" He roared even louder than before, none of his previous victims had made him feel anything in the slightest, but for that mollusk on his back he couldn't feel anything but hate. "You're going to suffer more than any other damn thing I've ever eaten!"
The predator was about to shake her again, but before he even started he heard the teenager screaming and rushing to hold on. He couldn't help but laugh at such a scene, it was almost against his will, he would have much preferred to keep his fury intact... but that was just pathetic.
"I see why you were complaining, I wouldn't want to be near you either. You're pretty annoying, you know that?" The shark teased with something he knew would affect her, she definitely deserved it for giving him a hard time.
That made the girl huff in indignation, her emotions changed as fast as the tide, one moment she was trembling with fear, and the next she was doing that same thing on her aggressor's eye again even after getting a taste of what that could provoke.
"Stop that!" He uttered angrily, but strangely not with the same intensity as before. It wasn't even worth spending his anger on someone so insignificant, that girl was nothing but a nuisance, a nuisance that soon would be over.
"You deserve it for saying that!" The witch told him in a tone that could only be described as the voice of a spoiled child.
"I bet that when you no longer exist, everyone will be happy," he commented with a smile, exploiting her weakness, hoping that perhaps with a bit of luck she would decide to let go and end her life, but the girl just gave a sigh and lay on the shark's back without forgetting to take care of her grip.
"You're right," she admitted, not even saying it with sadness or anger, just resignation.
"Again you're ruining it, this isn't fun if you just agree with me," the atmosphere was already getting awkward, the last thing he wanted was to hear dramas from a future corpse.
"But it's the truth, it's all because of my sister," she continued with the complaints from his back.
"I never had that problem, I ate most of my siblings," surprisingly, that wasn't an attempt to scare, it was just a comment that came to his mind.
"Really? Lucky you, I wish we were like that," she said in a surprisingly casual and even wistful voice, which would make one think they were talking about anything but cannibalism between siblings.
"But wait, if we were actually like that, then she would have eaten me, she's even fat. Nothing works for me!" The girl lamented with a claim that might seem like a joke, but it wasn't, she meant every word.
"I didn't expect that reaction," hearing that genuinely piqued his interest "you talked about it as easily as you would talk about the color of seaweed, it's hard to notice at first but, you have a twisted mind."
"The reaction of the people I know wouldn't have been much different," she replied with the same ease as before, although a little annoyed since what the fish had said sounded like a criticism.
"And they say that we are the bad guys, anyone would expect more morality from beings who presume to be so civilized"
"The Tritons are the ones who go around with that nonsense of morality, I have nothing to do with it," now that monster was really stepping out of the line, if there was something she couldn't stand, it was being compared to a Triton.
"I couldn't care less about morality, you're all the same, pretentious creatures who think they're a big deal when they are the easiest to break. The taste isn't much, but their faces before dying are always the funniest."
Each thing the predator said was worse than the last, it didn't take a genius to figure out what he meant by "breaking". The image of an out of control beast about to kill you is terrifying, but hearing all the murderous intent out loud somehow elevated that feeling to a new intensity. If she wasn't the victim in turn it could be a fascinating sight to behold.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly felt another strong jolt, she almost let go but luckily for her she managed to hold on just in time. That almost managed to give her a heart attack, how the hell could she be that careless?
"Don't get distracted, exchanging a couple of words with you doesn't change anything, I'm still going to eat you, and stop feeling so comfortable up there!"
"You're not going to take me down so easily... What's your name?" The shark didn't expect that question, what the hell he didn't even expect that "talk" to go that far.
"Girl, why would you want to know that?" He thought about shutting up and letting time do its thing, but just by spending a few minutes with her he already knew that ignoring her would only make her more unbearable.
"So you don't keep calling me girl, besides, if we're going to be together until one of us gives up at least we should know our names."
"You talk like you're going to last long, forget about starving, just go to sleep and it'll all be over for you."
"Yes, I know, you've already made it very clear... you'll make me suffer more than any other thing you've ever eaten," she finished the sentence with some hesitation, realizing too late that it wasn't smart to remind him.
"More than any other damn thing actually, but nice try, it seems your memory isn't as bad as everything else." He attacked her fragile ego again, no matter how many times he did it, teasing her wasn't losing its charm.
"Idiot!" She yelled angrily while punching him in the head, but her target barely felt it, especially with how busy he was laughing at her. The childish response she'd just given him only confirmed what he already knew very well, that teasing her was quite entertaining, more than he wanted to admit.
The witch didn't know how the creature below was capable of giving her goosebumps one moment, and the next making her want to punch him for being so irritating. Suddenly she noticed something, she wasn't holding on as tightly as before, a detail she corrected immediately. It wasn't from feeling tired or anything like that, she had been so immersed in those discussions that at times she forgot how bleak her situation was.
She began to wonder if maybe he was talking to her with that exact intention, as a trick to make her fall, if so she had to admit to herself that it almost worked, he was very adept at suggesting her, at making her interest outweigh her fear. But no, she'd already figured it out and his cunning manipulation would not work, from now on she would not feel safe even for a second, she was determined to turn this battle of wills into the first victory of her life.
"What if, so you can see that I'm not that bad, I finish you off in one bite? You won't even feel it, it'll be over in a second," he proposed in a dissonantly friendly way, to him it honestly sounded like a good option.
"How generous! I feel honored by your offer, what a special treatment," she wanted to stay alert, she really did, but it was simply impossible not to answer sarcastically to such a "flattering" proposal.
"You should, I can assure you that no one has been so lucky after meeting me," he told her with a noticeable "it's your loss" expression.
"I will die, and my greatest success was making a shark have a little pity on me," perhaps she was adding fuel to the fire by mentioning death but she couldn't help it, it was very spontaneous for her to talk like that with her current companion.
"You say it like it's an easy thing to get," he surprised himself by saying that, coming from him it almost sounded like he was encouraging her, but luckily that went unnoticed by the woman above, who had something else on her mind.
"Before this I didn't even know sharks could talk," she admitted making the other feel slightly offended.
"Of course we can, everyone does," he clarified as if it were something very obvious "But it's logical that you don't know it, most of them don't talk with their food."
"And you do? You're the odd fish of the bunch then."
"Not always, but after a while just eating them and leaving gets boring. Talking to your prey provokes a lot of interesting reactions, you couldn't even imagine them, unless we talk about yours of course," he laughed remembering what happened just a few moments ago, it would probably be a long time before that memory ceased to amuse him.
"Could you forget it already? Let me remind you that you haven't been able to eat me yet," she replied annoyed, "and I don't want to imagine what you did to those, I'm not interested."
"Don't worry, you won't have to imagine it, you'll feel it for yourself very soon," he casually answered, not even affected by the mention of how she managed to dissuade his attack "Besides, it doesn't matter how many listen to me, in the end no one lives to tell about it."
"Makes sense, that means maybe others besides you do that as well," she continued, completely ignoring the bad omen that his previous words implied.
"Maybe, but why would I know? Do I seem like someone very social?" He asked sarcastically.
"I haven't really seen much of your face but, yes?" The shark just got confused when he heard her, that woman was saying weirder things every time "I mean, you're grumpy, but it's easy to talk to you."
"That must be the funniest thing you've said so far, I thought you had an idea with what I said about my siblings, my own species is nothing more than another prey," now his "prisoner" really had left him incredulous "I've literally never talked this much in a single day."
"Me neither!" The tone of happiness he heard above made him roll his eyes, he wanted to finish with that subject but he only managed to excite her even more.
"Impossible, you haven't shut up since I found you. If this is your best conversation the others must've been trash."
"They were, this one may even qualify as good," she said genuinely amazed "I can't believe the most honest talk I ever had in my entire life was with... my killer."
Hearing that in her own voice made reality fall back on her, once again she had taken refuge in everything they talked trying to forget that she was lost, even when the same creature was open with his intentions, not missing an opportunity to mention them whenever he could.
"I'm glad you remember," saying this the fish just gave a shake, no more was needed. The witch was easily released by that movement that was not even half as strong as his previous attempts, it was so sudden that she didn't even have time to think about what was happening, before she knew it he was already in front of her.
"Where have you been swimming to all this time?" The girl couldn't believe it, she was distracted in such a naive way, she was a fool, obviously every word of that monster had been nothing more than a trick to make her lower her guard and get what he wanted.
"Does it matter? You hadn't thought about that until now, you even stopped holding on tight even when I warned you about it," he told her slowly, in a slightly mocking way, looking into her eyes intently "You're a pretty disobedient little girl, right?"
The defiant attitude had completely vanished, she no longer had that protecting false security, she could feel his breathing on her, now she was truly at his mercy. The creature just kept talking to her without changing that almost whispering tone.
"Our meeting was... entertaining. But sadly everything comes to an end," the shark threatened her in many ways that night, but none of them felt as real as that one.
Note:
-I decided to write this fanfiction because I've always loved the interactions between these two. I want to experiment with their dynamics, and maybe fulfill a childhood ship in the process XD, take it with humor. It will have a slightly different story from the one seen in the second movie.