Chapter Three
Fight Tooth and Claw
Sam kept up the fast pace on towards home. A thudding sound echoing in his ears that he assumed was just his heart or his fins and ignored it. The cliff was in view now through his tear filled eyes. It would still be a bit before he could reach the crack in the cliff where he usually hid out when he wanted some alone time or when Dean was out with his friends and his parents were busy talking to each other. He's pretty sure Dean knew he had a secret place, but he never said anything about it. Sam briefly wondered if Dean had such a place of his own then forced it out of his head just as quick. Dean can do whatever he likes now. Sam told himself that if his older brother wanted to be left alone, then he should be. Sam wouldn't force Dean out of their nest. He'll just move out on his own. This crack in the wall is his own space and he can live here now instead.
Sam angled his swim now that he made up his mind, to the crack instead of home. Hoping that Dean didn't know exactly where it was before today. Fresh tears spilled across his cheeks to be swiped away by his angry fist. He's not a baby anymore. He's not. He's moving out tonight. He just has to wait there long enough for his parents to forget about him too. Maybe they'll give Dean a better younger brother instead. Or little sister. Someone that Dean can play with and not be embarrassed by.
The cliff was larger now that he was closer and that thudding in his side fan ears was growing incrementally louder. He cursed it out. He's too big to be scared of his own heartbeat. He suddenly realized that it wasn't coming from within when he slowed to avoid running into a school of fish. The loud thudding remaining even though his fins slowed their frantic pace. His muscles burned now that the cool water stopped flowing around him. The water warmed slightly from his body temperature. His wing fins angled horizontally and flapped slowly to let his tail rest as he tried to suss out where that thudding was coming from if it wasn't caused by him.
Sam slowed to a full stop when he noticed a shadow moving along the ocean floor. Draping everything in darkness. He looked up, expecting to see his parents overhead but instead found a massive shape skimming loudly over the surface of the water. It was such a foreign shape, he was struck dumb by it. It was too far away to make out clearly but that didn't stop him from seeking shelter among the rocks and tall coral that laid between himself and the cliff. Hidden along with all of the other colorful fish on the reef. There was a deep trench not far away that his parents warned the boys away from but now it actually started to look inviting as a hiding place. He felt terribly exposed curled up around a coral umbrella and hoped that his coloring would hide his shape down here. Freezing all movement as best he could after a hard swim like that. The thudding was near deafening and shook everything around his hiding place.
He saw that not even predator fish were going after the distracted littler fish nearby. Even they were scared of the thing overhead.
Sam held his breath and tried to remain calm through the panic. Remembering the many lessons that he was taught by both parents, that when he sees something strange to hide immediately. To not call out to anyone and wait for the danger to pass. His parents said that they'd come find him when the coast was clear or would call for him if it was safe. So he stayed still and waited. Hidden underneath a large coral umbrella and hearing the deafening, relentless, thudding sounds above. Putting his hands over his side fan ears to block out the painful percussion's when they became even louder. Crying harder when even that didn't stop the bone shaking thuds. Splashes were heard like the dolphins make but times a thousand. Sam was too scared to look up, curling tighter into himself with his wings straining to hide him from sight but only managing to grip around his sides and part of his front. His tail curled up and over his head to help block it all out but he couldn't escape the feeling of dread the longer this attack on his senses went on. His head ached with the sounds and pulses of pressure against his whole body. Several fish around him actually died because of it and started to float away. He was startled into looking at them when several brushed by his sensitive fins along the sides of his tail.
He'd only seen that happen when his dad showed him a neat trick he'd learned from some special specie of shrimp. His dad quickly clapped his hands together next to a school of fish and nearly every one of them were stunned into stillness for several minutes. A few of those had simply died from the large thump of pressure so close to their fragile bodies. Dean thought it was awesome and kept on trying to recreate it but he just managed in scaring the fish off.
Now... Sam is watching through squinting eyes as fish after fish start to float away in the currents. His fear kicking up again that he'll soon join them.
He stayed there. Curled up and scared. Waiting. After the first half hour, the splashing and thudding slowed in intensity but never fully stopped. It became a distant pulse of pressure. Telling Sam that the danger hadn't left yet so he should remain hidden. The splashing sounds weren't as loud and he tried to take comfort in that. Whatever that thing was, was calming down. It helped ease his mind slightly but he refused to let it lull him into a false sense of security. Thinking it just wanted to draw him out of his hiding place. He wanted to come out though. His tail muscles were cramping painfully from the strenuous swim and then being pinned to his body for so long.
Distantly he heard thunder and thought that that was strange since it wasn't raining. A weird clanging sound echoed in the water, like nothing he'd ever heard before. Chancing a glance upwards to see that the thing that floated on the surface was almost out of sight beyond the cliff face. He wasn't in a good position to see further in. His mom and dad told him not to venture onto the cliff side in the very shallow waters. That the warm waves and the light would burn him. He wished that the floating thing would learn it's lesson in those warm waters and be burned and scared off but it seemed as though they wanted to be there. Figures, they were above water after all. Maybe they liked the warmth. Sam shivered at the thought. He hated that they were so close to his home. He couldn't risk going there, ending up closer to the floating thing, so he waited and remained hidden. The splashing sounds kept coming from the floating thing and he wished that it'd just go away and leave him alone.
Once, he thought he could hear Dean's voice but it must have been the sea echoing weirdly. Maybe one of the dolphins was the one clicking and chirping due to the overhead intruders. He worried for their safety but wouldn't dare give away his hiding place to call or say anything back. He felt like a coward but his dad warned him with a beating if he disobeyed those rules specifically. Especially while he was still a dolphin sized kid. He was not to try and 'be a hero' when he's in danger himself. Sam wasn't big or strong enough to help anyone but himself right now, so he was forced to wait it out. He hated every second that he heard those chirps and clicks. Telling himself that it's just his imagination that he's hearing them as Dean's calls instead of some dolphin's. They faded even more, never being strong enough to clearly hear from his spot anyway.
A minute later, Sam could smell and taste blood in the water. His fear escalating when he realized it was the same blood scent as his parents. He first recognized his dad's from their training sessions. Teaching young Sam how to hunt down injured fish by following their blood trail. It was easier for John to keep Sam from wandering off if he himself played the role of bait. Injured fish rarely stay in the area of the one that injured them, and Sam needed to practice multiple times before leaving the safety of the nesting site. He learned how to detect that scent very well after the months of training between lessons. Those days, he was almost thrilled to find it because that meant he was doing well. Now? He's terrified that it means what he thinks it means.
Sam hoped that he was wrong, that maybe his dad's blood was smelled because John had cut himself on some coral while getting dinner. Or maybe his dad cut himself while hiding just like Sam was. But, the longer Sam stayed there with his head tucked into his tail and wings over his head, the stronger the scent became. He could even see it in the water now, drifting softly down into all the coral pits and cracks. Red tinged swirls dancing in the water that spun out away from his panting mouth and gills. Soon it was all he could smell and taste. It left his senses burning and even hurt his lungs and gills with just how dense it was becoming. Disgusted with how much of their blood was getting into his mouth since he couldn't filter it from the water.
He choked on the thick red cloud. Sam just couldn't take it anymore and came out of hiding only to wish that he stayed put. The sight of a massive body greeted him nearly directly above his hiding place. Thick blood clogged the waters, scaring most fish away but drawing in tooth filled others. The red soaked waters made it hard to see beyond a hundred feet in any direction. A deep sea moss green and brown arm dropped down and Sam cried out in alarm at the recognition. Long gash marks and wounds dotted and dragged along his forearms as if he'd been fighting something vicious off. Each wound oozed blood into the water but at a much slower pace than he'd seen before with injured fish. His dad's heart wasn't beating anymore. The blood wasn't pumping though his body. Now it was just spilling out of him like sand from between his fingers.
His dad was dead. Floating lifelessly in the water, tied to that horrible floating thing that was even larger than his immense father. Several glinting vines connected to poles were embedded deep into his dad's body. Each poll dug in deep into his dad's flesh all over the limp body. He was being towed along behind it as the thing started loudly thudding in the water again. Sam could just make out a series of circular fins all along what he assumed was the back side of the thing. Every one of the circular fins spinning fast and hard to get it moving.
He stared at the sight of them dragging his father away from him. Away from their home.
Sam was just about to chase after his dad when another massive floating thing appeared from the shallower waters above the cliff. He'd known vaguely that there was a wide plateau up there, but didn't realize just how big until he saw that both of those floating things had been up there this whole time. Doing who knows what and for how long, battling with his father. All those massive splashes made more sense now. It was his dad fighting for his life. Sam swallowed thickly at the thought that he was so close. He could have gone up there. Caused a distraction. Done something to help but he just hid away from the strange scary sounds.
Sam knew the floating things didn't come from up in the shallower waters because his mom and dad would never have settled here if they knew they'd be in danger.
The rest of the second floating thing was half hidden from view as it waited for the first to get far enough ahead of it. His dad's body drifting behind, tugged along by those metal vines and poles. The things went around the old sharply rising rocks that climbed above the surface of the water as they headed deeper into the ocean.
The second monstrous floating thing was lower into the water than the other, and he realized why when the full shape appeared overhead. It was weighted down by another Merperson. Sam sunk down to the sand, sharp coral biting into his tail fins underneath him but he barely felt the sting. That Merperson had the same coloring as his mom, the same blond hair that dragged listlessly behind the floating thing. The shape of her body was distorted by the waves above, but he could still tell how she was positioned. She was folded nearly in half with the ends of her tail fins dipping down to the water. Leaving red eddies in their wake. Mirroring how small and compact his body had been while in hiding. Blood poured down from three sides of that second floating monster. There was no way she was still alive.
The same smell of death in the water. Both of his parent's blood now clogged his senses and his chest heaved painfully, struggling to breath. He couldn't sit here any longer. Couldn't bear to see this. To smell this. To taste. To know without a shadow of doubt that they were dead. They were dead and being taken away to be eaten like they'd eaten so many fish themselves. Sam's mind tried to come up with a reason why they had to die. Why they, of all the beings around, had to die. They never bothered anyone! What other reason would they have for taking them away? Sam didn't think they'd needed to kill both of of his loving parents just for food. Those floating monsters were only slightly bigger than them! There was no point in killing his mom and dad when there was so many other animals that were stupid and slow and easier to take out for use as food. There were plants and things that are far more abundant than two Merpeople! Sam's rational mind tried to make sense of it but his mind kept swimming in circles.
Sam stopped and just swam away from it all, desperately heading to clearer waters. Hoping that clear waters means a clearer head. He had to figure this out, he had to think things through like his dad always said. But... his dad was wrong. Wasn't he? He made up the rules Dean and he were supposed to live by but the rules didn't save him. The rules kept Sam safe but did nothing to protect them! What good were they anyway? Why did they die?!
Sam kept on swimming away only fleetingly aware that he was heading over the deep trench. What did it matter? His home wasn't safe, here isn't safe, nowhere is it safe! Panting hard and fast at the horrors he just witnessed. His parents weren't supposed to die! They were the biggest things around! The ocean currents themselves change course at their passing! They are invincible! His thoughts and feelings crashed around in his head at the absurdity of it all. This wasn't supposed to happen. He must be dreaming all this. A nightmare. If he just tires himself out, he will stop this restless dream and sleep peacefully and wake up and it'll all be ok.
The sting of his eyes told him that this wasn't a dream. The ache in his lungs was never felt before, so it couldn't have been repeated in a dream. The bone crushing agony felt in his trembling heart is unmatched. Those floating monsters were so alien to him... there was no way even his craziest dreams could have made them up. This was real. His mom was dead. His dad was dead.
Wait... there. There is a shape up ahead, a long fin on it's back. Sam sighed in relief that at least his brother was still alive. Thoughts and worries flashed through his mind. Dean must have seen him and was swimming as fast as he could towards him. Dean must have been looking for him. Sam felt biting fear at having to tell his older brother exactly what happened, but at least his older brother was alive to hear it. To be warned to stay far away from the floating monsters. No matter what Dean says or wants, he needed to know about the threat they cause. Sam would tell him and then let Dean decide what to do. To lead them both now that they're all that's left of their family. Two small young Merkids in the ocean. Sam refused to think about it right now. His brother was swimming towards him. It'll all be ok.
Sam would promise anything Dean asked if he would take him back. To not be angry anymore at him because he just saw his parents d-... and he couldn't take it if Dean hated him for it. For not saving them somehow. Sam choked on his emotions and pushed at the water to get himself over to his brother. To reunite that much sooner.
"Dean!" Sam cried out, everything burning hot in him. Swimming as fast as his aching muscles could towards his brother.
But Dean wasn't stopping or calling back Sam's name. He was unreasonably moving even faster. His head and shoulders must be down. Can he see where he's going? But that's also not right... Dean wasn't swimming normally at all. Almost like he wasn't even using his hands or all his fins correctly. Is Dean just using his tail in a too smooth side to side motion instead of his usual up and down and ...
Sam's eyes widened at the realization and was too stunned to stop right away. The smooth gray shape was getting dangerously larger and too fast for him to dodge. Sam's wing fins snapped out in surprise at the rows and rows of sharp teeth as the giant red jaw of the Bull shark opened up.
Sam's tail beat once from shock alone and the Bull shark missed the first bite that would have left him with a hole in his chest. The side of the shark's nose still ran into Sam's chest at full speed and knocked the young Merman spinning to the side. The vicious 11 ft long shark then spun around itself, and found it's prey floundering in the water gasping for breath. Unable to react fast enough to get away, the bull shark took the opportunity and circled wide around to come back in for the next try. It's jaws slammed down hard onto Sam's exposed hip, tearing up the fin there and making Sam scream in terror. It latched firmly on and dove down quickly to keep it's prey from orienting itself enough to fight back. The Bull shark was nearly twice as long as him and far wider. The sheer strength and bulk of it meant that Sam was near powerless to stop the attack. The bull shark was the breed most known to the Merpeople as infant killers and Sam's racing mind added kids to that list as well.
The realization hit him that the shark was only there because it was drawn in by all the blood in the water. That meant more were sure to follow. Bull sharks don't often hunt alone and he knew he was powerless to stop even one. He frantically dragged his clawed fingers along the side of the shark, trying to dig in as far as his small claws could go. The pain in his hip all consuming. He flailed about when it changed directions and headed upwards. Sam twisted his arm down and around and was able to claw at it's nose and eyes and that distracted it for only a few seconds before it spun and bit at him again. This time further down on his tail where he couldn't easily reach it. It jerked Sam's weak body around and he flipped and spun with each wild jerk. Sam screamed for help. Tail thrashing, wing fins arching up and back in a hopeless attempt at swimming out of the firmly locked serrated teeth.
He could taste his own blood in the water now, and knew that he was going to die right here right now. The world spun around him as the bull shark changed directions yet again, disorientating Sam into forgetting which way was up or down anymore. All he knew was pain and terror.
Just as he was giving up hope, he felt the shark's jaw come loose from his tail but left a few teeth behind. He reached a shaking hand to the back of his tail and couldn't believe that he was free of it.
Sam hazily looked up and around to see where it was going to come from next, but saw a light brown shape tangled around the large gray shark. He blinked the thick tears from his eyes and saw his brother suddenly there, clawing and ripping flesh from the shark with his clawed hands and sharp teeth. Dean kept clear of it's toothy maw, faster and more agile than the bulky predator. Dean's time spent playing with the dolphins had taught him how to maneuver around the smooth super fast bodies and this shark was no contest.
Its huge bulk meant that it couldn't twist out of Dean's grip fast enough to avoid having it's skin and fins shredded. Dean went after the arm fins next after the vulnerable gills. The shark's gills were easy to get his claws into and dig the tender flesh out from underneath the thick skin. Dean twisted his own long tail and wide fins around the shark's cone-shaped tail to keep himself attached while the shark bucked and thrashed. But Dean just kept on going. Hissing and growling curses between bites of his own. "You dare attack my family?!" Dean shouted, clawing and punching wherever he could reach. Dean wasn't as big or round as the shark but he was almost as long and far faster. Sam had to back away when the shark blindly started to swim towards him but Dean used most of his frilled tail strength to keep the smooth gray muscular tail from moving them forward. "Oh no you don't!" Dean growled and tried head butting the shark but became dizzy himself instead. "Crap!" Dean blinked away the spots in his vision and saw Sam's shape ahead. "SAMMY GO!" The shark bucked again and was nearly free of Dean's grip.
The shark wasn't alone, there were more smaller sharks and predator fish, snakes, and eels coming in fast. The majority of them were drawn to the massive shapes that were slowly thudding away from the reef, but a few took notice of the bloody fight. An opportunistic shark that was only as long as Sam's arm came in to bite at his fresh wound but he just instinctively grabbed it in his hands and bit it's head clean off, spitting it out as more came in for the frenzy.
Sam's tail throbbed in time with the dwindling thudding sounds above, but he kept on killing every single shark and fish that came in for an easy meal. He wanted to go help his brother but his tail refused to bend without agonizing pain shooting up and down his whole flexible spine. Even staying upright with his remaining tail fins was torture so he relied on his wing fins to keep himself from sinking into the abyss below. Best he could do was to take out these little bastards.
Every chance he got he would look over at Dean to see the fight drag on and was glad that the Bull shark was gradually loosing the battle. Chunks of it falling off as Dean continued his relentless attack. Finding and tearing out the more tender areas as it made moaning sounds in the water.
Dean managed to take off the big shark's back fin, but just as he turned to help Sam, the shark used up the very last of its energy to get free of Dean's grip, swing its huge head around and savagely bite Dean's chest.
Dean's mouth hung open as his eyes were filled with intense pain as he looked over the shark's twitching head towards his little brother. His claws struggling to push the head away from himself but only managing to make the shark's teeth pull more at his skin. He wanted to pry the mouth open but his hands refused to move. Claws scrabbling weakly at the sides of the shark's head. Pain so intense his vision was blanking out
Dean was loosing blood far too fast and the swarm that had been around Sam changed course and went after Dean instead. Blurring even the outline of his brother's shape with just how many went in for an easy meal. Dean, helpless to stop it. To stop any of it. Blood came out of his mouth in wispy tendrils as he soundlessly gasped for breath. The shark made one last jerk of it's head that tore a large chunk from Dean's chest before it finally died.
Sam clawed frantically at the water with his hands and ignored the burn in his body as he struggled desperately to reach his sinking brother. The shark's entrails floating up past them to be attacked at eaten by the ever growing swarm of fish and smaller sharks.
"Dean! NO! Deeaan!" Sam cried out, muscles burning, tail bitten deeply, and right hip fin shredded. He watched as Dean's pain filled eyes lost their light. A low moan escaping his bared teeth before his mouth went lax and more blood seeped out. Dean's hands drifted up from the shark's head, giving up on prying it off of his chest where the teeth were still buried past the bones. Dean reached up towards Sam but it was too late. A column of blood rose from the sinking bodies as more and more fish engulfed the area. Pushing the bodies down faster with the force of their feeding frenzy. Some returning to bite at Sam, but most going after the easier meal made from the shark and his brother.
Sam absently tore at every fish and shark that came to attack him. Thankfully, the other large Reef and Bull sharks were bypassing them altogether. A far bigger meal on the horizon. His parents... his brother... reduced to food for bottom dwellers, scavengers. For creatures he hadn't ever seen as dangerous before with how small they were.
Sam could feel himself dying inside. His aching wounds should have been the worst pain in his life right now, but they paled in comparison to the fact that his whole family was dead. They were dead and he was all alone.
Sam let himself sink down, angling himself slightly towards home, if it could even be called that anymore. He had no where else to go. He could try and follow Dean into the deeps, but he wasn't as good at echo location as his big brother was. He'd get lost for sure. He was too young to be alone. Dean said so. Dean said he'd always be there for him anyway and there was no need for Sam to worry about it. To worry about anything dangerous.
Dean said he'd be there. He promised! His mom and dad, they said they'd be together, forever! That they would find other Merpeople to bring into their group. To start a new Pod. He was told about the old Pod a little while back, but no one in their family told him where it was exactly. He had no idea where to even go to find help. No one to tell that his family had died.
Sam found himself just outside of the nest and painfully crawled in and curled up into the kelp and sand bed they'd made. His hand covering the still bleeding wound at his right side. The one lower down his tail couldn't easily be reached until he was curled up and laying still. He remembered his mom using some kelp as a wrapping for his finger cut before, and knew that if he didn't wrap up the bite wounds, that he would get infected. Or bleed out. Bleed out just like his family did.
As Sam's hands worked at the long strings of kelp that made up their beds, he paused briefly. Wondering if he should even bother trying to heal. His family was dead. All of them. By things from the surface and things from below. He wasn't safe anywhere anymore. Maybe it was better if he just gave up and laid down and let the fish eat him too?
Sam's face burned at that thought and he cried hard into his arms as he curled up tighter. Desperate to know what to do now. He didn't know any other Merpeople. He'd only known there were more from his mom and dad. Dean never saw any either.
The day turned to night and finally the stench of blood was mostly gone from the waters. The thudding sound long since faded into the distance. Sam felt a tingling sensation on his side and discovered a few small fish, actually eating part of his torn hip fin. He hadn't felt it before because apparently they were eating the parts that were nearly torn off already and they were now biting into still living tissue. He grabbed the nearest one to stare blankly at it. Blood on it's teeth and a small chunk of his blue and brown scales floating away from it's mouth.
Sam's eyes never went too clear as he regarded the fish before shoving it towards his mouth and biting it in half. Chewing it up and swallowing it, bone and all. He finished it off, and his stomach stopped growling as much. He reached down blindly while still laying on his good side and discovered the next opportunistic feeding fish, and ate that one too. Anytime a fish, eel, or sea snake came by, he ate it. Soon becoming stuffed. It was an odd sense of justice to him.
He pushed aside the thought that he was eating the fish that had probably taken a bite out of his family. A sick feeling sinking in his stomach at the morbid thought. He killed the next half dozen and let the remains float down and away instead. Not daring to look at them and have his mind compare their dead bodies to how Dean's and the shark's looked when they sank away from sight.
Sam shuddered and decided to take care of his wounds better than letting them lay open and raw. He wrapped up his numerous injuries with the wider strips of kelp to cover as much as possible before his energy waned again. Doing it as best he can because feeling those nibbles was more annoying now than anything. If they weren't going to kill him in one go, then what's the point?
Sam turned to his stomach because he couldn't turn to his right side or back without that sharp pain shooting up his spine. His wings draped over his shoulders and sides and he tiredly pulled over a bulk of the kelp bed to cover up the rest of himself. He rested his head on his folded arms and peered out at the dark ocean. Without his parents around there was a lack of sounds he'd known his whole life. The soft breathing, loving murmurs to each other, the huge forms bumping and brushing against the cliff side or ocean floor with their every move as they relaxed. And even if they were swimming, the sounds of the currents changing course around their forms was a comfort. Knowing that with them, nothing in the wide ocean could hurt Dean or him. But those things that killed his mom and dad... they weren't from the wide ocean. Couldn't be. Too noisy and unnatural.
Sam sighed and didn't want to think about it anymore. Didn't want to think about anything anymore. The ocean was silent.
The quietness of it should be frightening but he was just indifferent to it now. Drained of all emotion, he finally fell into a deeper sleep. Thankfully, he didn't dream.