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The whole crew joined in the celebration, drunkenly dancing around the deck, the captured mer sneering at them from the net.
Only the quartermaster refrained from drink, a careful eye near-constantly watching the creature. A tall, lanky man, Andrew had been dubbed by the crew as ‘The Writer’, and was one of few literate men on the ship. As the quartermaster, Andrew was often the main voice of reason.
Yet Andrew was the only one still wary of the beast they had captured early this morning. The thing held a certain intelligence in its bright blue eyes Andrew couldn’t help but fear.
He grew warier still when the mer lifted a finger to its lips, then dragged it across its throat.
“Captain Skulker, sir? I really think we should move the mer below deck. I believe it’s planning something.”
The captain and lead hunter laughed heartily, giving his quartermaster a sharp slap on the back.
“As though these things are smart enough to understand what we’re saying, let alone plan an escape! Come now Writer, get some grog in you! We meet with our employer in three day’s time, you can worry then. For now, we celebrate!"
As Skulker pulled him away from the mer, Andrew cast one last look over his shoulder and shivered. He would need quite a few drinks in order to forget the creature’s slow wave and ominous grin, sharp and feral and filled with far too many teeth.
~~~~~~~~~
Danny snickered as the thin human shuddered and turned away. Out of this whole deplorable group, that one was his favorite, if only for the shiny circles he had on his face.
Almost as if summoned, one of the stinking men decided to remind Danny why he so hated this group. The mer yowled like a pup, flailing madly as the brown sweet-smelling liquid burned at his dry, flaking skin.
“There y’ go! All nice n’ hydrat’d!” the human slurred.
Danny hissed and shot his hand out to scratch the human, but yanked his arm back with a hiss and a cry as two more dumped more of the liquid on him.
“Cap’in! Are y’ sure we can’t keep it? It’s fun t’ play with!”
Danny hissed again, but shrank back into the net as one of the humans shook a mug near his face. He shrank back further as the leader appeared, this time without tall and skinny.
“That’s enough for today! The client requested the beast as undamaged as possible. You are only to water it with sea water!” the large human turned to Danny with a sneer. “At least… until tomorrow that is.”
The man shoved the net violently to the side, heading inside the door behind where Danny was hanging.
“Writer is in charge until I return from my quarters. Don’t harass the fish too badly.”
The humans cackled gleefully, and Danny quietly hissed as the net slowly came to a stop. He just had to wait until nightfall. Then he could call for Phantom.
~~~~~~~~~
A few long, miserable, tortuous hours later, the sun was dipping below the horizon, and Danny was tempted to call his mate right now. While the humans hadn’t doused him with the brown liquid anymore, they had continued to mock and threaten him with it.
Now though, the humans were going below deck to their quarters. The last one to leave was tall and skinny.
He still seemed wary of Danny. He was right to be so of course, not that anyone knew that.
As the man joined the rest of the humans below-deck, Danny waved once more, though his toothy grin was absent this time.
The man still shivered.
~~~~~~~~~
Andrew was slowly pulled out of his sleep, though it took him a few moments to gather why. As he gazed around the bunks, he couldn’t see anything off…
Other than a few of the men stirring slightly, nothing was out of the ordinary. So what woke him up?
Then, a sound registered to his ears. It was like a mix between singing and a wail, low and haunting and… muffled?
The mer.
Andrew scrambled out of his bunk, the thin blanket tangling his legs in his hurry. Shoving his glasses onto his face, Andrew rushed for the stairs leading to the main deck.
Throwing open the hatch, Andrew was met with a picture he would never forget. The captured mer was still singing? wailing? dying? --whatever the noise was supposed to be-- and pressing itself up against the netting, a huge grin spread across its face.
The mer began to quiet, but the sea did not fall silent. As the mer finished its song, a much deeper tune answered it, carrying through the water on the starboard side. Andrew paled. So it was a call of some kind. Maybe a mate, or its pod, or possibly just a general call for help.
Whatever it was, Andrew felt dread pool in his gut.
The sea grew agitated, and lightning flashed somewhere in the distance. Skulker stormed out of the captain’s quarters, a few of the men joining them on deck just in time to see a massive creature rise out of the sea.
Even with its lower half still submerged, the thing was easily twice as big as the ship. Its skin was a light tan, parts of its face and chest peppered with black scales. It had a shaggy mop of pearl white hair, and the large earfins were a similar color. Four arms held the ship in place, sharp black claws digging into the wood.
A thin seam split its lower jaws, and two horse-sized fangs protruded from its bottom lip and over the upper lip. Five huge glowing green eyes stared down at the crew, each of the slit pupils focused on a different part of the ship.
The mer still in the net made various trilling and chirps, looking up at the beast with a huge smile. Two of the five eyes focused on the captured mer, the rest continuing to stare at the crew.
The mer trilled over and over, the same few notes again and again as it reached through the net towards the thing.
As one massive hand reached for the net, Andrew was finally able to put a name to the creature.
“It’s a leviathan…”
~~~~~~~~~
“Phantom! Phantom Phantom Phantom! Over here! I’m over here!”
Danny desperately strained against the net, doing his best to reach out and get closer to his mate.
He trilled and whistled and chirped for what seemed like a lifetime, before two beautiful green eyes swept across the ship to focus on Danny.
Danny thrashed and struggled in the ropes as one of Phantom’s hands reached out towards him. Phantom plucked the net from the ship like a pearl from a clam, and let out a deep, rumbling chuckle as Danny shoved the net away and pressed kisses onto each of Phantom’s fingers.
“They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“I’m ok. I missed you though. I missed you a lot.”
“Missed you too.”
Phantom lifted Danny up to his face, and they nuzzled briefly before Phantom set Danny on his head, nestled comfortably in his hair.
The ship was given one last haunting glare as Phantom sank back into the water, his massive tail sending a wave over the men as he swam away.