Chapter Text
Cory narrowed his eyes, glaring out into the vast open waters from the small cave he called home. The water felt undisturbed, suspiciously so, but a quick glance upwards told him all that he needed to know.
Spotting the top of the water was an array of human vessels, roaming about the surface with their noisy metal contraptions. The vibrations drove any nearby schools of fish far away, with fewer and fewer coming back to their spawnpoint every year. Needless to say, hunting was getting difficult, and was damn near impossible on days like this.
Most merfolk would just follow the schools’ migration to farther waters, and continue hunting there.
But any rational merfolk could see that this part of the ocean was dying and so were its inhabitants.
The surface wasn’t the only part of the ocean that humans polluted. More than once before Cory had to reluctantly change homes due to the water condition in the surrounding area; It seemed they deemed his kin’s territory their dumping grounds, draining toxins into the water and throwing whatever wasn’t wanted over the sides of their boats. For a while the shiny things that drifted to the ocean floor had interested him, but even that just became more of their clutter. They were disruptive, loud, dirty, and in no way deserved anything more than a grimace from the mer.
If he saw one drowning, he would not save it.
He had a heart, of course, but over time it had blackened like the oil that they spilled beneath the waves.
Pushing the thoughts from his head he carefully pressed on through the corals, towards the deeper, open waters. He was by no means the smallest mer to roam the reefs, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have to watch his back. He’s seen shadows of those much bigger than him passing by overhead, seen hands as big as ships reach out of the deep blue to snatch those who got too close.
He knows that he’s not the scariest thing down here by far, but that doesn’t stop a small burst of pride from creeping in under his skin and spreading a menacing smile across his face at the sights of the smaller marine life ducking away from him at any given chance. But unfortunately, a sense of power could not fill one’s stomach. The mer’s grin faded as his stomach growled something fierce, an extra warning sign to anything close enough to hear it. He flicked his light green tail in agitation, gaining speed as he reached the edge of the reef.
With bated breath he prayed that he would find something easy, some small fish lazy or stupid enough to just wander into his idle jaws. But as the coral and vegetation began to thin, revealing to him the sandy ocean floor, his hope for a low-effort meal steadily faded.
Much like his stomach, it was empty. Truly, utterly, empty.
Not a school of fish in sight, not a single crab scuttling around without a care in it’s world. Even the most active currents remained unridden by fin - his grimace turned into a deep scowl. His home was dying once more, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Nervously Cory looked around, hoping that maybe the absence of life was just thanks to a much larger predator in the area. If it was, then he could sit out their passage and wait for the seabed to return to life as normal.
If it wasn’t.. then, well, he might have to turn towards more desperate measures.
His anxious glances finally landed on the large crevasse in the ground a little ways away, where the water grew cold and dark so fast it’s said it could freeze a reef mer solid. Not many dared to travel into it and see what secrets it held-- Most of those that were stupid enough to try had never come back out, and that fact alone often deterred the rest of the ‘brave adventurers’ that once passed through these parts by the dozen.
But now, there was no one. No one to whisper about what horrors lie beneath the blackness, no one to place bets with about who would return with how many limbs, and who wouldn't return at all.
No one to stop him from going closer.
After making sure the coast was clear, the blonde slowly hovered closer to the edge with a morbid curiosity. His eyes widened as they landed on the depths unfolding beneath him. His hands curled against the lip of the rock and he gripped hard, a part of him knowing that was the only thing holding him back. As he stared, a piece beneath his fingers shifted and crumbled forwards, quickly disappearing into the inky blackness as it fell into the deepest reaches of the water.
Cory’s stomach sunk at the sight and he chuckled humourlessly at the thoughts of a pebble being braver than him to brace the icy depths. Cautiously, he pulled himself away from the edge. He was hungry, ridiculously so, but his sanity still remained. There would be no glorious meal waiting for him at the bottom of it, or at least not one that he could see.
No, if he wanted to find food instead of being it, he’d have to stay up here. Once again, his eyes narrowed in search. If there was nothing on this side of the crevasse, then maybe there was something on the other? One last look at the barren sand around him told him that it was at least worth a shot to look around.
He could see the other side perfectly fine, littered with small human trinkets glistening softly in the sun. It was so incredibly enticing, as if to say “Look at me, I’m full of goodies!” and it was only a short swim away. A short swim over a very deep, very scary, seemingly endless hole in the ground. A hole deep enough to let something sneak up on him without him noticing until it was far too late. A hole that he never thought he’d cross.
Until now.
As much as he hated being driven farther and farther away from his home just to eat, he knew that this would be his best bet. After a deep sigh he steeled his nerves, and readied himself for take off.
The rush of cold water that engulfed his body as he flew over the deepest part was a cold unlike any other. It was a cold that felt unwelcoming, like he was trespassing and about to be caught. But no crushing grip ever came, no giant creature rose to swallow him whole. True to the surrounding waters, it seemed just as empty as it looked. Cory swallowed the lump rising in his throat, refusing to look down any longer as he closed off the distance of the gap.
When he hit the other side the mer was immediately greeted with a wave of warmth once more, making him sigh in relief. It hadn’t felt as big of a deal as his brain was making it out to be, but with how today was going he wasn’t about to try his luck.
After making it past the worst part, it was time to look for a snack.
He decided that in his search he’d leave no stone unturned-- for all he knew, an entire family of shellfish could be hiding beneath any of this junk, just waiting for him to dig in. Cory’s mouth watered at the thoughts, and he quickly got to work.
He swam slowly, stopping at every single knickknack buried in the sand. He was thorough with his inspection, but it was still yielding no results. His scowl returned as he flipped over what had to be the twentieth piece of human junk, to no avail.
Slowly he lost his patience, and over the sound of his own internal annoyance he was oblivious to the whirring and clicking of the giant vessel above him.
It was by sheer blind luck that he had seen the shadow far above, and turned around in time to act.
Trailing behind him, gaining speed, was a fishing net the size of the cave that he slept in. It dragged across the ground, stirring up sand and catching everything in its wake, pieces of debris and mer alike.
Cory cursed under his breath and dove into action, quickly abandoning his search for food in favour of high-tailing it out of there as fast as his fins could take him. How stupid he’d been, to have let down his guard so much. How blind he felt, to not realize that the reason every living creature abandoned this area was thanks to the humans extending their treacheries to where they weren’t invited. They were messing with his life more than they could ever know, and with each passing day his seething resentment only grew.
The mer pushed on, propelling himself forwards over the sand as fast as he could go. A quick check over his shoulder revealed that he was slowly winning this race with death, but when he looked back down, something else took over his triumphant thoughts entirely.
What was that?
In the blink of an eye something tiny and bright red had darted across his vision, diving into a small glass bottle. It stopped him momentarily in his tracks, long enough to get a good look at what it was. His heart raced at the prospect of food, but when his eyes landed on the wide, terrified eyes of another mer, he blanked. Any sense about what to do had completely left him. For a moment he hovered there, staring into the glass, but that moment didn’t last long as he remembered the looming threat of the net growing ever closer.
And the bottle was right in its path.
In a split second decision Cory wrapped his hands around the bottle and continued to speed off, promptly ignoring the tiny squeak of fear that emanated from inside the glass.
After gaining enough speed to duck to the side, Cory quickly pulled the two of them out of the net’s way just as it began to pull back up to the surface. He continued on in a random direction for a few moments longer for safe measure, watching as the net disappeared entirely before returning his attention back to the matter in hand.
Literally.