I do not own Mythic Ocean. Paralune does.

Chapter published December 1 2020.

The activities of those who wanted to wreak havoc and destruction continued.

Suma

"RAIDERS!" someone shouted.

He froze up and pushed himself away from his lovers. Mood? Ruined. Everyone in the grove scattered, swimming away in every direction; left, right, up, one poor drunk soul even tried to dig a hole in the bedrock.

Him? He went, like, due east. He swam as quick as he could, slamming his tailfin up and down and crossing his arms against his body so he was as slick as could be.

It got pretty dark pretty fast when he was away from the few frondlights they'd gathered for the party, and that made the sounds so much more creepy. There was screaming, and snorting, roaring sharks, and boisterous, ugly jeering from the raiders themselves.

A chill ran up his spine, and he knew he had to hide. Hide, hide... hide where?! He whipped his head left and right, looking for something, anything!

There!

A little crack in the fields of dead, gray coral, just wide enough for him to squeeze through. Sweet! Suma lunged for it, grabbed the lip of the entrance with his upper pair of hands, and hauled himself in. He hissed as the sharp edges of the coral tore across his tail and sliced through the scales, but managed to get in and hide himself underneath the lip.

He was safe.

Someone's hand wrapped around his neck and over his head, and he gave a muffled shout.

"Shh!" he hissed behind him. "Stay down."

The hand crawled off of him, and Suma glanced back at the other dude. It was pretty dark so it was kinda hard to tell, but his tail was resting on his abs and man, this stranger was ripped. Had a pretty handsome voice too, and from what little color his night vision could make out, a wild head of green hair. Suma shuffled to try and get off of him and ow ow oh man that sucks.

He watched as a dark trace of his blood wafted from the cuts along his tail, and his eyes went wide. Wait. He was bleeding. The Raiders were here. Oh fu -

FWOOSH!

A shadow passed outside the coral cave he was hunkered in, and he pressed himself lower into the shadows. A woman's voice sounded out, hushed and quiet but deafening with nothing else around.

"What is it, boy? Smell something?"

The sound of chomping fangs.

"Alright." Her voice lifted, scratchy and cruel. "Fan out! Grab anyone trying to get away and bring 'em back!"

Rushing water as, hopefully, whoever it was went the hell away. Feeling brave, Suma lifted his head over the lip of the cave and peered out. Sharks of all species were flitting about the dim waters, raiders clinging to their backs with nets of loot in their hands. People were screaming, being caught in larger, tougher nets and hauled behind whale sharks. And among them, he saw her.

She rode atop a battle-scarred Great White, with her fiery hair dulled to seaweed green by the water's light-filtering effects. Her skin was deep blue, with patches of scales on her shoulders and her bare stomach, revealed by a tattered and well-worn war outfit that was, nevertheless, more than what most Raiders could boast. She carried a harpoon in one of her left arms, a frondlight torch in the other, and hooked swords in both of her right arms. She rode atop the beast with a fierce, beautiful elegance. There was no doubt that this was the leader of the Raiders herself; Vodain.

He ducked back down with the other dude. He didn't dare move, dare speak, dare breathe, dare pump his gills. Neither did mystery-cave-dweller-man. But eventually, at long last, one of the Raiders blew a deafening trumpet call - some kind of conch, by the sound of it - and they moved on.

Suma relaxed and leaned back into the little nook in the coral. "Holy shit." He looked over at the other guy. "Hey man, that was close, huh?"

"Dude, you know it. So, total bummer, huh?"

"I know, right?" He held out his left hands and received a double fistbump. "Suma."

"Volar," the other guy said. "C'mon, let's get out of this cave. I've got a nice bunker not too far, found lots of neat stuff."

Suma's stomach growled. "Like food, I hope?" he said jokingly.

"You know it, bro! Let's get going."

Volar led him out of the crevasse, quickly found a pair of dim, dying frondlights, and handed him one. Together they made their way through the coral reef, past the rising and falling dunes covered in the hard, crusty gray remains. It was deathly silent, with no schools of fish around, and nothing coming from above except dim sunlight.

As they swam, Volar talked about his bunker. "It's pretty rad. Apparently there's this huge underground cave filled with all kinds of crabs and scallops and, like, kelp. Good eating. Me and my guys have been hanging out there for a minute, you'll fit right in."

Suma's stomach growled, and he held his lower hands to it. "Sounds gnarly, can't wait!" He could just picture it now; hot crabs cooked on a geothermal vent, wrapped in thick seaweed and slathered with fish fat. Mmm!

"Best part? Totally hidden from the outside. No way you'll find it if you're not lookin' for it! Raiders could be right outside and wouldn't know a damn thing."

"Sounds like your own personal paradise," Suma said, grinning.

"Ha, sure is, dude! C'mon, we're coming up on it. Here."

They came to a flat expanse of the ocean floor, nothing but rippled sand as far as the eye could see. Man, if this was where it was, then Volar wasn't kidding about it being well hidden. He couldn't see anything.

Drifting closer to the sand, Volar began to sink his hands into it and feel around. "Bedrocks's pretty thick and even, but we found this little cave, yeah? Carved it into a door. Got a hinge and everything." With his huge biceps bulging, Volar heaved and the ocean floor actually upended. Suma startled and swam back a bit as a pretty big chunk of rock swung up, sand spilling off of it. "Here we go! C'mon in, just close it behind you!" Volar vanished into the tunnel.

"On it!" Suma swam over and took a look. Sure enough, there was a little craggy tunnel sinking beneath the ocean floor, dimly lit with frondlights. He sunk himself in and closed the door behind him; the shifting currents would wash the sand back over it in no time.

He swam down and came out into an atrium, mouth watering. Buttered crab, here I come!

Suma froze and blinked. Then he gestured with all four hands at the small cave. "Aw c'mon, what's this?" he whined.

The stones were brownish, like mud. There were a few stalks of kelp rising from the seafloor, but most of their leaves had been torn off and eaten up. In the middle, a bundle of frondlights had been stacked together to provide lighting. There was a cluster of open, empty clam shells stacked high in the corner. Another corner had crab shells. And so on with other corners, loaded with garbage. There were a few larger pieces of stone laid down on the ground as beds, with some hunky guys and hot babes laying on them. But seriously, where was the grub?

Volar shrugged. "Well, 'kay, we might've been here for a while. But there really was a whole bunch of food when we first got here, and it's still super safe, ya know?" At Suma's glare, he backed up and held up his upper pair of palms. "Hey, hey I get it man. Wait right here, lemme scrounge you up something." Volar swam off, leaving Suma alone with the others.

He awkwardly folded his top arms and let his lower arms dangle. He chewed on his lip. Man, this was lame. Whatever.

Suma swam over to one of the chicks lounging on her back with her hair drifting around her face. She had bright orange and yellow skin, like a clownfish, kinda had a bit of a baby bump going, and was dozing off but grunted awake when he got near. "Hey there," she said.

"Uh, hey," he said with an awkward wave. "So, like, what's there to do around here?" Everyone was just sort of... laying around.

She pointed a finger at him. "Volar just brought you in, bright?" He nodded. "Well, this is just kinda a slow day, ya know? Place gets bigger deeper down, too, this is just, like, where we go to sleep." She sat up on her tail and held out a hand. "Inu."

He shook her hand. "Suma. Show me what's there to do 'round here? Volar's fixing me up something to eat, apparently."

"Yeah, c'mon." She heaved herself into water with a grunt. "Down here."

Suma followed after her as she swam deeper into the cave, through a series of shadowy tunnels he hadn't been able to see at first. More and more paths branched off, left and right and at odd angles. Glancing back at him, she smirked. "Yeah, it can get pretty hard to find your way around, ya'know? You'll get used to it." They arrived in another open cave, lit up the same as before. The water was a bit warmer down here, though.

"There any geysers down here?" he asked.

"No black smokers if that's what you're asking," Inu said, swimming down to sit on a rock. "Got some hot spots down here, though. Makes for good bathing. So." She smiled knowingly. "Volar's lush paradise isn't everything you thought it'd be, huh?"

Suma groaned. "He made it sound like the forests and reefs grandpa always told me about."

She sighed. "Ya, I know the feel, man. Lured me in with the same bull. But hey, beats hiding from the Raiders, ya know?"

He found his own rock and laid down on it. His spine went pop-pop-pop-POP as he stretched out. "Tell me about it. At least they can get whatever they want, ya know? Must be nice to be one of them."

Inu scoffed. "Yeah, but they're not exactly, ya know, taking applications."

Volar's voice came ringing out from elsewhere. "Grub's on!"

Suma sat up so fast his spine popped again. "Aw, sweet!"

The rest of the cave's inhabitants gathered around another antechamber, this one with a crevice that spewed forth boiling water from deep below. They'd hung a stone pot over it, boiling a sludge-like mess of mussels and seaweed that Volar had scrounged up from somewhere in the endless twists and turns. They formed up, took some food in a bowl, then hung around and partied. There were a bunch of kids of all ages, too, playing tag in the tunnels.

"... so anyway, you'll never believe this," some dude named Ipa said, telling a wicked story about a party over in the ridge he'd been to. "Amar shows up!"

Everyone ooed. "No way," Suma said. "What were they like? I've never even seen Amar!"

"I know, right? Super lucky. They're kinda like, an otter or something. Three eyes." He held a thumb to his forehead to show. "All furry and orange. Got a lot of strange markings all over their neck too. Super long, super fluffy tail. And oh man, did they know how to par-tay!"

Ipa kept telling the story, about all the games and jokes and stories Amar had, and their dance moves, and how fast they could swim.

"And then, get this. They swim to the middle, put like, two of their hands on the ground." He held up his top pair of hands, palms out. "And the whole place just lights up. The coral turned rainbow, dudes, and there were fish and plants and everything. Oh man." Ipa leaned back and rubbed his abs. "That was some good eating, then. Amar kinda looked worried when we were eating it all, but like, that's why they made all that, isn't it? I dunno, gods are weird."

"Aww, dude, that sounds sick," Suma said excitedly, and everyone else chimed in. He looked down at his bowl and frowned. "I'm gonna get more grub."

"Grub's out!" Volar shouted from near the pot. "Sorry guys, nothing left. Gonna go look for some more." Volar began swimming towards a tunnel, and sent everyone finger guns. "Stay chill!" he said, vanishing.

"Aw, that sucks!" he shouted, throwing the bowl at the nearest wall. The water friction or whatever slowed it down and set the bowl gently on the ground. "I'm gonna go look too," he said, swimming away angrily in another direction.

This was stupid. Here he thought it'd be a nice little paradise, but this sucked. Like, it wasn't all bad. He got a good place to sleep, and some food he guessed, and a lover under each arm when he went to bed, but he wanted more. He wanted the gourmet piles of food that people kept saying used to be all around, he wanted to know there'd always be more food somewhere for him, he wanted to stop worrying the Raiders were gonna find them and come crashing in.

He just wanted to stop, like, being worried all the time.

... worried the Raiders were gonna find them.

And that was when Suma had a wicked idea.

Suma began swimming for the top of the caverns. He found the door to the open waters, pried it open, and found himself once more in the open, desolate ocean. He began swimming for his target.

They were screaming. They were crying.

Suma turned away and grimaced. Ugh. This blew. He felt like shit. Like, on the inside. And not just cause he was starved.

The Raiders had come and they were just tearing the underground caves to shreds. One of their whale sharks were here, carrying a net filled with the begging captives, swimming in one places as its handlers guided it. Most of the Raiders were underground, searching for what food was still left. They wouldn't leave until this place was picked clean.

FWOOSH!

Suma spun and saw a Great White approaching, its snout bloodied and its hide scarred. Atop it was a Raider who, unlike most of them, wore some type of clothes; a tattered war outfit that left her toned, scaly abs bare. She hopped off the shark and patted its side, prompting it to begin swimming a wide, lazy patrol.

She was tall, taller than him. Her fiery hair was dulled to green by the immense depth. Her skin was blue, with patches of scales on her joints. In each arm she carried a weapon of some type; a harpoon, a bola, a spear, and a hooked sword.

"Vodain," he said, super scared all of a sudden. His stomach plunged right to the bottom of his tail. "It is, uh, a pleasure to see you."

"Yeah yeah. You're the sellout who got us here right?" she asked, checking him out. Suma couldn't help himself from checking her out too; hoo boy, she was hot. Lot of nasty scars, though, and that reminded him that she had a bunch of weapons in her hands. "Not bad," she hummed. "Not bad at all. You've got guts, kid, and you get to keep'em for bringing us this haul."

Wait. That was it?

She must've seen something on his face, because she barked a laugh. She had shark teeth. "What, were ya hoping we'd, I dunno, let ya in?"

"I was at least hoping for, you know, a share of the food. I'm starving." His stomach churned as if to prove it.

"Yeah, yeah no kidding. You either ride with us or you gotta go picking scraps." She gestured to the side with her head. "Well, or go join up those weird agricultural freaks by the shallows. We were actually gonna go smash them when you showed up. Nice thing, too, we'll be riding into battle with full bellies!" She slapped her stomach to punctuate it. "But yeah. You want the food? You gotta join up. You ready for what that means?"

It meant all the food he could ever want. It meant getting to be the dangerous dude people hid from, rather than being the guy hiding. It meant long nights partying. It meant he could do what he wanted. It meant freedom. Suma locked eyes with Vodain. "I am."

She nodded cheekily. "Yeah, well let's see it then." She slung her bola net over her shoulder and brought the newly freed hand to her lips. A sharp whistle sliced through the water, loud enough to startle him. One of the Raiders who'd been overseeing the whale shark and its captives swam over, a wicked sharp spear in his hands. "Bring the kid along," she said, gesturing to him with her harpoon. "We're gonna be doing an induction ceremony. Oh, and that guy who was leading the people here. Whats-his-name. Set him aside."

Set Volar aside? he wondered.

The Raider saluted. "Right away, Voidan!" He turned to Suma with a fierce look on his face. "Come along, new meat. We're going for a ride."

It turned out, the Raiders didn't just swim around wherever and whenever without setting down roots. Suma was brought along, forced to ride behind on the Raider's mako shark, long and far with only enough rations to keep them going.

Day and night they swam until they came to a shallow plateau, with sunlight trickling down from above. There were houses made of stone, with doors and windows on any and all sides; not like it mattered, they could all swim. There was a deep and dark hole near the outskirts, watched over by guards, and he watched as a group of Raiders brought the net full of captives down into the cave. Oh man, he did not want to think about what was going on down there. There were, like, a whole bunch of buildings, probably for all sorts of stuff like holding the Raiders' weapons when they weren't in use. There was nothing alive anywhere around; just stone and sand, off into the horizon.

The worst part was the pikes ringing the area. With shriveled, rotting heads impaled on them.

Suma really tried not to look.

Schools of people began swimming out of the houses, collecting in a huge, chanting group above the middle of the camp. Vodain moved to greet them, dismounting her ride and sending it packing. She held up a scimitar, and the crowd hushed. "My people! We return with a great bounty! Deep beneath the ocean floor, in caves hidden from our eyes and ears, were riches beyond what the rest of the ocean could ever imagine!"

Didn't seem that rich to me, he thought, still on the mako.

"These riches are ours, by might and right! And we never would have found them, if it weren't for one man! Bring him here!"

Shit, that's me. Before he could even think to swim over there on his own, the Raider he'd been riding with began manhandling him over to Vodain's side, tossing him the last few feet through the water. He looked up at her, then out at the crowd. It was filled with people of all shapes and sizes and colors, and he realized it wasn't just the patterns of their skin and scales, but actual warpaint on their bodies.

"This man was brought to these riches, and upon beholding them, came and gave their location to us personally! Do we think him deserving of the rite?!"

The crowd cheered, bellowing their approval at him. It felt so unreal. All he'd done was point to the ocean floor and said 'here'.

"Then bring him out!" Vodain shouted, twisting around to shout it at another trio of Raiders, high above him.

As they began swimming down, he realized that it wasn't actually a trio of Raiders, but two of them, carrying Volar between them. His hands were bound together with rope, and his mouth was stuffed to silence him. He looked pretty beat up, with like a black eye and a few bruises over his body. And were those missing scales on his tail? Yikes! Volar stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. Suma felt kinda bad about it. But a guy needed to eat, ya know?

Vodain turned to him, and handed over her scimitar, hilt first. "Take it," she said softly, but with so much authority Suma's hands were around the weapon before he knew it. She pointed at Volar. "You want your place in the Raiders? Show us you can do what needs to be done. People want to stop us from taking what's ours, put limits on what we can and can't take. Say things 'belong' to them, and you need to be able to show them they're full of shit. Kill him."

Suma and Volar locked eyes. He stammered something, mumbled by his gag, and tried to jostle but the Raiders on either side held firm.

Suma felt... cold.

And then he felt hot. He felt nervous. He felt excited.

The sword thrust forward and Volar grunted as it sank right into his chest. Spurts of blood, dark green in the water, began to spill out as the crowd cheered.

With a heave of effort, Suma gripped the sword and flicked his tail, pulling it out. More blood spilled out as he did, and he couldn't pull his eyes away from the horrible scene as Volar trembled once, twice, and then went still in the water.

Everyone roared. He could barely even react as Vodain gripped his sword arm and raised it high in triumph. The swarm of people began closing in, shouting excitedly in his face, and he shouted back. Someone took the blood and smeared it as warpaint over his body.

The crowd closed in further. Suma opened his arms...

... and embraced his new family.

The Raiders.

It was what the people wanted most.

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