I’m not sure I follow.
You commune with water creatures. I’m one right now. I resumed swimming as fast I could as the tunnel wound up and down, and took sudden turns. It felt like I was being flushed through an elaborate plumbing network.
True, but I never communed with you to find you.
The naiads did. They probably guided—don’t worry about it. I hated explaining things. Let me focus on getting us out of here. I felt her awareness pull away like feeling a partner rolling away from me in bed. The sudden extra space helped me focus on my winding trek and gave me back my personal space. I really didn’t want to share my deep dark thoughts. Jessie being able to commune with my demon form made logical sense, after what I’d seen with the whale flounder and nereids.
Ugh, I couldn’t wait to turn back into my human self. I needed to ground myself in reality as I wanted to pretend it was.
Modest light seeped in the final stretch of the tunnel. I sped out into a deep sea coral colony growing on some geometric formation…
…And stopped at the sight of thousands of nereids, naiads, and bigger water monsters positioned between us and our path to freedom. Well, here was the danger part Rhode mentioned. Hold tight. We have a lot of company. I made sure I was holding Jessie nice and close so she wouldn’t be bouncing around and glanced up. We were in maybe five hundred feet of water with a modest amount of sunlight reaching down. Jessie wrapped her arms around a finger as I took in our unwanted company. Every last one of them was looking our way, waiting, I guess, for their cue to attack. I had no intention of fighting a single one. I’d defend us as I had to, but I had a crew to get back to. The little ones I could out-swim, but the ones as big as me, and a few bigger? This might turn into a lengthy chase.
No monsters swam behind me. They were one huge mob ahead and above me, meaning I’d have to go straight through them. I drifted a little closer, just to see what they’d do.
All the nereids swam a little closer as well. Demon pet must go back. Punishment will be worse if you don’t.
That’s nice. I don’t care. Like hell I was going to let Amphitrite dictate my behavior when I was free to choose, free to make mistakes. No way I was turning around after having been her sex slave.
Every last nereid surged towards me.
Time to flaunt my power. I swam in a circle and hurled a current of water at them, sending their thousands flailing like leaves in the wind. I charged through them, letting those in my way bounce off as they tried to regain control. They gave chase after I broke past them, and the bigger monsters waited for me to get near. Once I drew dangerously close, I veered away, parallel to the surface, and sent another current of water at them. I didn’t look back to see if it had any effect. The nereids were catching up already, latching on, and biting and clawing. They were too small to hurt any more than a mosquito, but their sheer numbers slowed me down. I rolled and twisted, shaking them off and dozens more took their places. Angling towards the surface, I swam in an erratic pattern as I continued to shake off hundreds of them. Their dolphin-like calls bombarded my sensitive hearing, but I tuned them out and focused on reaching the surface.
Something huge rammed me in the stomach, stunning me. I retained enough control to keep Jessie safe in her bubble as I absorbed the blow, then resumed swimming and getting swarmed. A water serpent came at me head-on. I veered at the last moment, letting it snap on water, then felt something tear my dorsal sail. I rolled and winced at the sharp pain, then forced myself to shrug it off. The chase had only begun.
Another big monster bashed me in my spine before I could roll back over, and then a sharklike monster dived at me. I tried to veer away but its jaws sank into my shoulder, just missing my hands. Pain lanced through my body. I coiled my tail around it and tore its body in half as I pried its jaws off with one hand. The sea clouded with blood.
I resumed swimming, holding Jessie down with one hand. I thought of sticking her in my mouth, since it’d make swimming easier, but chances were I’d need my fangs more than two hands. The nereids were unrelenting with their swarming and biting, but they weren’t causing any real damage. I had a tough hide with scales that acted like armor. I changed tactics and just ignored them. All the big monsters were closing in. They would play my cargo handicap to their advantage.
They attacked me in ones and twos. I retaliated with blasts of water, tore gaping wounds with my claws, and severed spines with my fangs as needed. I didn’t care how many I killed, didn’t care how much this would piss Amphitrite off. I was so sick and tired of letting my curse run my life.
After what felt like an eternity, the nereids’ numbers began to dwindle. I’d chomped a good number of them and spit them back out. Hopefully that’d broken their morale and they were more interested in preserving their survivors. However, the big monsters kept coming at me from all sides. I dodged and lashed out, and presented my back whenever I couldn’t get out of the way. There were just so many of them, and they attacked in rapid succession, barely keeping out of each other’s way as they took turns trying to take chunks out of me.
One evasive roll put me in the path of another monster shark. I tried to keep rolling but it bit down on one of my forearm fins and swam away with almost the whole thing in its mouth. I scored three lines in its flank as a second shark took a chunk out of my tail. My blood began to cloud the water, and I blocked out more pain.
The loss of my fin hampered me more than my shredded sail. My agility suffered and I began to miscalculate more and more as I drew closer to the surface. I braced against blows as I tried to swim away as fast as I could, slowing to lash out whenever something clamped on and didn’t let go. I soon lost count of my injuries. I was hurting all over but nowhere near tiring. The nereids disappeared altogether and the water serpents’ numbers dwindled. I’d torn up dozens of them and hundreds of nereids, but they still kept coming at me as I reached the surface and kept fleeing. I snuck Jessie a fresh pocket of air.
By then it became an all-out chase. I got bitten all over and rammed in the stomach several more times before they gave up the assault. I swam at full speed without looking back, using my command over water to propel me forward even faster, now that I wouldn’t run the risk of sucking unwanted company along with me. And good god I was in so much pain. I wanted to curl up into a ball and let the current take me wherever.
Some time later, I recognized the landmarks that belonged to the Straight of Gibraltar. I finally slowed to a stop and rolled onto my back, floating along the surface. I winced as salt water flushed my wounds, then released Jessie from her bubble. She still clung to my finger as she squinted at the sunlight and looked around.
“Is this the Strait of Gibraltar?”
“Yeah.” I let her sit on my chest and protectively held my hands around her. She leaned against one of them. “Are you alright?” I didn’t see any injuries on her, but she looked a bit rattled.
“I’ll be alright. I feel like I’ve been through the tumble dry cycle in a clothes dryer. I got jolted every time something rammed you.”
An apology sat on the tip of my tongue as I caressed her cheek with a finger. I didn’t say anything since I wasn’t the one who owed her an apology. Amphitrite did. Jessie held my finger to her cheek. I could sense gratitude emanating from her. No wonder Mido had fallen so hard for her. She was such a sweet, innocent thing. I felt so guilty for dragging her into my cursed life. I owed her so much for getting me out of there. I just… “You’re so different from the other avatars.”