Chapter Text
==> Krakendad | 564 Sweeps | Outside of the Northern Caverns' Seadweller Pools
Patience was a virtue. It’s something you’ve heard many times before, through the soft touches of hands on your face and the soft bubble of sound through water. Little grey eyes - smaller than the tiniest suckers on your tentacles - would stare at you with a doe-eyed wetness that had nothing to do with the water around the two of you. A doe-ness that would make your heart ache now - if it wasn’t sadness that made it ache instead.
It’s hard to forget the charges you’ve had through the sweeps. You had started young and you’ve lost so… so many little pupas under your watch. One was killed in a boat accident, you remember that. One froze during the coming winter in your arms, a tiny block of hair and ice in your arms that you carried through the perigree until you had to let her go. One was stolen by a seadweller with curls to his chin and a glint of gold on the hands that pulled her out of her boat to vanish onto the land that you can’t walk on. Two were snapped up by the jaws of the Leviathan in a bitter, bitter feud. The water they swam in was cold, but the teeth of the monster was even colder and covered in maroon.
So many failures, so much heartbreak and pain but you were determined to change that. You’ll have one charge of your survive if you could help it, even if you had to drag the little thing out of the Leviathan’s cold, snakeish maw.
But first - you had to find one.
You’ve been charge-less for… a long, long while you think. The seasons have come and gone and the waters froze hundreds of times and you haven’t had a single glimpse of your shade of red in the caverns. The call of the lusii dragged you back to the mouth of the caverns every season alongside every other animal in the sea and you waited. All of you waited and even as the sharks and the fish shied away from you, you didn’t harm a scale on their heads as you waited for the grubs to fall into the water looking for their lusii. There was so much purple and the occasional pink in the clouds of wrigglers, but not red.
Not a single speck of red - so you decided to take… drastic action.
The first time you stuck your arm into the cavern, you weren’t sure what you were doing. There was a lot of fumbling and scooping and you’re sure you squished your fair share of eggs as you tried to grasp at the grubs, but you were… Somewhat successful? A long, thorough swipe brought an entire group of grubs into the water of all colors. Yellows and greens and reds muddied up the water with the usual purples and the fish around you thrashed with alarm around the grubs. You did your best to pick through the tiny, wriggling bodies but you couldn’t find one with the chrome you’re looking for.
The second time ended up the same, but you had a better time scooping up the grubs. This time, it was mostly the warmer colors. By the tenth time you did it, you had perfected the art of stealing grubs to look for your own - but season after season you’ve never found one. Once, you did find one that was close - but a quick inspection showed that she was gill-less and limp in the water. Not a nudge could even bring the little rust back up to life and you just smacked her to the sharks nearby in a fit of anger.
You were bitter. You were bitter and frustration welled up inside of you season after season and all you wanted was to bring this cavern down around the screaming jades and the empty headed fish cowering from the cavern’s entrance. Patience, you reminded yourself, was a virtue. That was what your charge told you so long ago and you took that phrase as a personal mantra. Patience. Patience, patience, patience.
So you came back, season after season after season until the seasons changed and the waters froze and unfroze, until generations of fish died around you and your clam shell home became too small for you and you had to move to something larger. It felt fruitless.
And yet, you persevered.
The latest winter was bitter and rough but you could feel the newest call to the caverns and no matter how badly you wanted to stay behind, you dragged yourself out of your home and trudged down the seabed to the caverns. The fish swarmed around you and the sharks that threaded between your legs were just slow enough for you to curl around them and stuff them into your mouth.
A little snack, you mused as you crunched on their fragile skulls. A little something to maybe make this disappointing night a bit better.
It didn’t take long to get there and you shoved the rest of the lusii out of the way to get up to the entrance. They parted easily enough - and anyone who didn’t was squished beneath your massive body. You've grown much bigger since your first foray to these caverns and you needed all the room you could get, other lusii be damned. Sucks to be them, though. Why would you care about their wellbeing when you had a mission to do? With one hefty grunt, you lifted yourself up and suction cupped yourself to the entrance and resigned yourself to another night of disappointment as you shoved your arms inside the cavern.
The jades tried their best to reinforce the caverns against you over the sweeps, but it was easy to break through the doors they put into place. It was too easy and this season wasn’t any different. The metal doors shrieked and snapped under your arms and you could hear the faint sound of “For fuck’s sake!” through the water as you started to probe.
You scooped and scooped and searched because you refused to give up, because you had a duty to your charges both past and future and you were determined to fulfill it. By fucking god, you were going to do it and no matter how many times your arms were pricked by the pins of guns and spears by jades, you were still determined to take the grubs from their pools.
The latest batch of grubs collapsed into the water in a cloud of reds and oranges and you could see some of the lusii dart forward to look for their own charge. You didn’t care if they did, not really. They won’t start eating these ones until they stop thrashing - they had long since learned what would happen if they started eating too early.
The grubs were small - Much too small for your massive body to poke through - but you were diligent. You threw away any that weren’t red and within those grubs, you looked for more exact chromes. This one was too dark, you huffed as you tossed the grub towards the giant sea stars. This one was too light, this one had long, pointy horns so unlike the horns of your other charges. This one bit you in its panic and you turned it into a smear against the rock.
None of them were right, you thought bitterly as you sorted. None of them were -
You paused.
There was one, up near the entrance of the cavern that you missed. It floated in place, curled into a little ball and if you watched, it uncurled, scrabbled forward a few feet and then curled up again when a fish brushed up against it. It had the wide, spaded tail the fishchildren had but it was red this time. A vivid red, with just a hint of pink that you rarely found in the other warmer grubs you pulled.
You reached forward with a slow, careful tentacle to the tiny little thing and it only seemed to curl up tighter once you touched it. It didn’t panic like the other grubs did in the water, with thrashing and muted, choked squeaks as water filled their lungs. No, this one was calm. Confused, a bit timid, but not panicking. It had soft hair and curled horns and as you pried the tail from its face and held it up in front of your massive eye, you could see a familiar little face.
A soft face, a kind one that’ll turn into black eyed doe-ness and a quiet voice that you once used to know. You could almost feel the aching in your body fade to something sweeter, something that made you want to hole up in your caves and stare at her for nights on end.
You curled the tiny little baby up against your mantle, tangling your tentacles tight around her so she wouldn’t go floating away. What an awful way to lose a charge this early on if she slipped away! You found another after so long of being alone, you’d hate it if you had to go through all of that again. No, you thought as you sped away from the cavern, mindful of the little ball of arms that you sequestered your tiny little charge in. You were going to do our best to make sure this one is going to survive. You’ll keep her safe, if only so you can see her grow big, just like your stolen one. Just so you can see her smile, like the doe-eyed ones.
Winter made the water cold around the two of you, but it didn’t bother you. The tiny scrabbling of grub feet against your suckers reminded you of what you had hidden away and you could feel your own heart thaw, even as the ice seeped in around you.
Patience was indeed a virtue and as of tonight, you do think you’re the most virtuous of them all.