The Ocean's Tears

Nera looked up at the surface of the water with a heavy a heart. He was such a fool. Now he stood to loose everything he had ever lived for. He should have never left his mate at the nest alone no matter how the man told him to leave! His poor mate! The siren was so heavy with eggs. Laying period was probably due tonight or in the morning. Maybe that was why his mate had told him to leave the nest and gather more food. Now the siren was gone and the traces of humans had been think around their nest and it was obvious to the eye that Nera's mate hadn't gone with the humans without the fight. Was he okay? Where the eggs unscathed? Where was the poor siren so in need of rest and protection?

He failed.

Nera wasn't there for little Leitan when he was needed most. And now, Nera couldn't even go after Leitan to save him from the humans' torture. He himself was trapped inside a twisting net tied to a human boat anchored to a harbor. Lost in his panic and distress for Leitan, he hadn't been thinking clearly and darted right into the midst of the net and got himself tangled up with every swish of his tail and movement of his body until the creature could no longer move himself. The cords were digging into his flesh and dark purple scales. His tail fin and those on his arms were of a lighter violet and both his eyes and hair were as dark as the caverns of the ocean's depths. Only a few strands of hair showed the lighter strands of violet.

The distressed merman hissed in his anguish and tried to free himself once more. He yanked and turned and did anything he could but the net would give him no freedom. At last, he stopped fighting and just lay in his trap defeated. He panted for breath and stared out at the open waters. He wondered if he would ever see it again. This served him right for letting the humans take his precious Leitan from their home so easily.

Nera groaned and closed his eyes before he raised his voice to let out his call to the others of his race. Maybe they would hear him and come to his aid so he may continue his search for his lost mate and unborn children.

"Tell us what to do...bloody fox..."
"Heh, what do you think we'll get for 'im?"
"In that state, maybe a nice coat."
"Heh-heh, and a good couple of scarfs."
"Hee-heeh...Take anything interesting from the fleabag. I might have the shiny thing he nearly came at me with."
"Aye, aye."
"We got one! Over here!" Boots thud away to the hissing splashes as a massive, meaty hand grabs at salt-matted fur.
"Don't think he'll have much on 'im..." Material is ripped. His white t-shirt is sliced through first after his largely empty pockets are assaulted. A whistle and a few, really odd gold coins. Most of which can't be spent here.
"What the hells that?!" Another pair of hands yank the chain around the corpses neck away. They both stare at the soft, warm glow from the pendant's stone.
"It's pretty..." A quick spit of flame from the stone and the hands catapulted the jewellery onto the deck.
"Ahh!"
"What'd you do that for?"
"It's really hot!" He blows on his hands in a vain attempt to stop the stinging. "Ahhh..."
"Hey...the thingies doing something else..." More whips of flame shot out from the pendants stone, settling in the air as the temperature rose a little.

Then a hand appeared over the pendant. A black furred hand that seemed to be being forged at the glowing edge of the appendage. It was like watching something burn in reverse as an hand became and arm became a torso and neck. Legs covered in the same dirty scarlet as everything else with white tipped tails covering the ashen-coloured paws. The white muzzle was growling heavily as the eye's where burned into place.

The two men that had been searching the corpse of the monster they;d shot, stood looking at a double for that same monster. It looked ready to bite them. They were freaked. One reached for his gun. The monster snapped one of his new fists into his cheek. That was followed by a roundhouse to the other man's temple. Quickly, the fox put the pendant's chain around his neck before touching both of the men on the neck. For a moment they seem to be getting up, but the next, they lay still. The fox steps over them towards the hissing commotion.

"Pretty thing. Over..." A good bam and the rest of those words sort of fumbled away as the Fox stood, holding his suddenly red hot axe-esque weapon at the rest of the crew, their Captain in a heap on the floor. The burn didn't look like it wouldn't heal...
"Release the net!" The Fox barked. The three men left sniggered and leisurely reached for their weapons.

The Fox was, for this feeling could not be summed up in any other way, pissed of beyond belief however. He leaps forwards and slaps two of the drawn weapons with the glowing weapon while smacking the third man in the face. His gun fires up into the air as the Fox strikes for one for one of the men's legs. One man throws a punch, the Fox stops it with his weapon before throwing his own. It barely makes a dent. The burning hot weapon does when it clobbers him over the head. Then, the Fox jabs one of the men in the stomach, making him double over before grabbing him by the back of the neck. Slowly, the strength in the muscles of his arms and legs turns to jelly. He collapses to the floor. The Fox then almost manages to brand the last man as he catches him on the forehead with his weapon.
"Sods..." The Fox spits before turning to the net.

He makes a few sweeping observations about the net system and how it works. Also, how to put it in reverse but them he just decides that braking it would be easier. With a careful lick of flame, The Fox blows a small jet on one of the more important ropes of the net. In a few seconds, it and it's contents flop into the water below.
"You all right?!" The Fox asks before looking over to the two recovering crew members and the captain. Hastily, The Fox leaps into the sea after the contents of the net.
"Kiss me, quickly! Kiss me! Take me under! Now! Quick! Kiss me!" The Fox pleads.

Voices.

Nera tried his best to move a little more to stare up where the voices were coming for. He was quick to stop his song and listened. Humans. How many where there? He strained his ears and could hear quite a few of them mumbling and laughing with each other. Oh, sea dirt, this was going to be hard to get out of. He could fight maybe one or two humans the way he was on land, but he didn't think he would be able to get out of this mess if there were more of them. They'd easily pin him down with their combined weights and probably damage his fins. They were such a thin membrane. He hissed up at them and his eyes once dark, took on a golden hue and his fangs grew.

A human hand never touched him. Not even a human face came to look down at him. He wondered what was going on up there. Then, the rope snapped. Nera dropped with the net towards the sandy floor of the water. Now that the net wasn't restricting him, Nera was able to pull the netting off of his body. He shook himself out in the water and assessed the damage on his skin and tail quickly. He had rope burn, but nothing too much really to hinder his swimming ability.

The sea creature was about to dart away from the ship when he felt the splash and wet fur brushed up against his scales. He whirled around to face the new threat and gave a hiss. His claws extended and he was about ready to lunge at the foolish thing that jumped into the water after him. He was not about ready to get caught in another trap after being released from one. He wrapped his tail around the... the... fox. He hesitated then. The furry creature was asking for a kiss? Was this the thing that set him free? Nera glanced up at the surface. Might as well give him what he asked. If he was danger, Nera could out-swim him.

Nera leaned forward and kissed the fox's lips and slid his tongue into the open mouth to force any oxygen out and let water enter as he transferred a little bit of magic to the land creature. After a small moment, gills began to form on the fox's neck to allow him breath. Once that was over with, Nera pulled away from him and started to swim away. He didn't want a human to catch him.

Right! Now drag me down or something, right? Right?

He was rethinking his initial plan when a male decided he was going to make out with him and not so they could dive to the floor without either dying. He'd done a little research when he was in the town but there wasn't something quite right. Yes, his rather insistent request that his mind was still deciding whether it was something he was enjoying or not, was being fulfilled. Great...or not, his minds in too minds it seems. Stuck between 'Missed this' and 'I'm not that kinda guy'. It's just that they'd slipped under the waves instead of being dragged while the mermaid supplied oxygen like he'd thought. Or rather books had told him anyhow. Made it sound like a cross between a drunk prom date and a scuba mask.

Then, like his throat had been lacerated from the inside, jagged scalpels and needles seemed to bounce around before slitting through his neck on exit.
"GAAH! BUGGER IT!" That seemed to carry better than he'd thought...At least in his ears...That might be sound travelling through his skull or something though...
The mermaid...or merman, probably, kicked off him to dart of into the night-time tides.
"Oi!" Tyro called back at him. His large black paws kicked with his arms to try and follow the Merman. Then he stops as a few chunks of lead smacks the water. They create streamers of air before sinking.

He's spent far longer down here than he should. He reaches to his sore, but numbing, neck. Small, perfectly good little flaps that he guessed where gills. Maybe he took more from that kiss than he really should have...A glint of metal on the sea bed showed where his weapon had fallen. He dives further, happy that he seemed to be a weird fish-fox, to pick it up.

Now he had to catch up to the Merman....Err...Well, normal swimming techniques kinda work by being on the surface. If he did that, he'd be shot. Not a great thing, he'd rather not do that again. Oh! That mermaid kick thing! Yeah! He's got two tails! That'll do.
"Hey!" He calls again, louder. "Did you see where the 'Happy Monkfish' went?! The one that took another couple of your guys tonight?! Hello?" He took off from the floor, attempting to make like an otter and wiggle most of his body like a tail. A little harder to pull off but it worked. He was no longer swimming like he was tied to something.

Nera wanted to just swim away from the land creature. He gave the furry thing what it asked for. It was a small thanks for helping him out of the net, but something kept nagging at him. Nera was never one to leave someone behind. If the humans were still on the surface somewhere, they would probably be scrambling about trying to throw another net or shoot one of those very painful arrows down into the water. The furry creature was still so close to the boat and the humans. He'd be an easy target in the water. Nera bit his lip trying to ignore the situation and just keep swimming. The more he swam, the more he realized he wasn't getting anywhere. He was going in a circle.

The merman hissed a little before he turned back towards the creature and listened to his questions. That was for later processing. Right now, he just wanted to get them out of range. Once they were safe, they could talk. The magic that let the land creature breathe underwater had a long while before it faded away and forced the creature up to the surface for air. Nera grabbed the things arm before he moved his powerful tail and dragged him faster through the water. His speed however was slowed considerably by the new weight it had to bring along.

Once they were farther out at sea, Nera let go of the fox and turned around to face him. "Happy Monkfish?" he asked him then. "I've never heard of a fish by that name. Why would a fish take away others of my race? They would not have the power do such a thing unless it was some type of shark." Nera started to swim around the land creature and looked him up and down. He looked so strange! He had never seen a being like him before. "What are you?" he asked. "You don't look human, yet you have the shape of one. You have more hair than they do... and claws. "Thank you for saving me, by the by. Why did you save me?"

The kicking seemed to be working reasonably well but he could still hear shells being fired into the water above him but they were getting quieter. Then something grabbed his arm, tugging him to the side. Apparently, he wasn't doing that well maybe? Still, he had been showed a little bit more trust...

Then the questions flew at him when they stopped a reasonable way away from the gunfire.

"Happy Monkfish?" he asked him then. "I've never heard of a fish by that name. Why would a fish take away others of my race? They would not have the power do such a thing unless it was some type of shark." He asked, cogs clearly jarring in the attempt to understand what Tyro was on about.
"Fish! Wait no!" He waves his black furred hands to show that the stick had been gotten at the wrong end. "'The Happy Munkfish' is a boat. One of the fishing trawlers kidnapping you guys. Did you happen to see it go anywhere?"

The Merman looked Tyro up and down...Only in a sort of confused, and regularly seen fashion where they try and think where they'd seen one of these before then fail to get an answer.
""What are you?" he asked. "You don't look human, yet you have the shape of one. You have more hair than they do... and claws. Thank you for saving me, by the by. Why did you save me?" Yes...so, plenty of questions had been shot at him like a quizative machine gun.
"Errrmm...Yeah, I'm not a human. I'm a Kitsune. It's a sort of giant talking fox. In my case I also breath fire...Err...Adn I saved you because no-one else seems to bothered about where their lovely new jewels are coming from. You might not want to know where they're taking them but that does mean I really need to know where that boat went."

"Oh," Nera answered and thought about the answers for a moment. He had seen many boats passing through here. How was he supposed to know which one was which? He had seen letters on the boats but he could not read them. Was there a name on the boat? There were too many of them that was for sure. He didn't know which boat took his mate but maybe this Monkfish ship did. If they were all going to the same place, maybe his love would be there as well. This kitsune thing seemed to want to save his people. He cared, but he didn't know why. Didn't really care. Maybe he would ask him that some other time.

"I don't know what ship you are talking about, but I have seen many pass this way. I do not know if it is the same ship that keeps coming through or if there are multiple ones. Recently, there was a ship that went through here and went towards the sun. It went through the nesting grounds," he answered him. Just the thought of it made him angry. His fins flared up again and he growled in the direction he had lost the ship. Then he turned his gaze back to the land creature and debated with himself. Maybe this creature could help him.

"Kitsune," he began, "I'll make you a deal. I'll give my vow that if you help me, I will give you anything you ask of me that I can provide and if you ever seek help or are in danger, you'll only need to call on me and I'll come to your aid if you help me save my mate. He was taken from me this morning and he is heavy with eggs. I do not want those two-legged bastards hurting him or my babies. I would die if they were used for whatever gain the humans want.

Ooo...Kings, the well-off, random damsels, a farmer with a slightly larger potato harvest than normal and a young girl that have tried to use pencil shavings as currency with the near-by sweet shop have asked whether he'd help them out or not. This was the first time for mermaids for some reason. He extends his hand to seel the deal.
"Sure thing. I'm looking for where their trying to take tears anyway. We could help each other." He was still debating what the heck he could need from this deal. A soft bed somewhere seems pointless under the sea. Maybe a little bit of grub? He was ignoring the part of his brain suggesting a kiss.

Anyway! To business.
"Right! Where we going?" He asked.

Nera stared at the man's hand when it was offered to him. What was he supposed to do with his hand? Did it mean something to the furry creature? He reached out his own hand and touched the extended limb. It looked more awkward than anything really. He shrugged it off and looked around in the water to see if there was any other clue that could possibly tell them where they should go exactly. He only had his memory and grief to guide him.

"Follow me," he cooed before he started to swim away from him. Upon realizing that the man probably didn't swim as fast as him, Nera changed direction and went back to him. "Hold onto me. I'll take you faster through the water. You only have a limited amount of time under the water. My magic is not permanent for you. When it runs out, you will need air."

With his warning complete, he grabbed the fox's hand and sped in the direction he had seen the ship take away his mate. He could feel the other merman in his chest. His heart pearl ached for him and maybe it ached to with his shared pain for the poor young thing he called his mate.

(Sorry for the time this post took. Writer's Block.)

The hand sort of floated there while Nera pondered the wonders of Tyro's greeting. The hand is slowly dropped to his side as Nera decides to ignore it instead.

"Follow me," he cooed before he started to swim away from him.
"Uh...sure..." He kicks off the seabed, starting to kick again at his comparatively pedestrian speed. But he seemed to realise that they would only need a week to get anywhere, Nera changed direction and went back to him. "Hold onto me. I'll take you faster through the water. You only have a limited amount of time under the water. My magic is not permanent for you. When it runs out, you will need air."
"Oh right...." Tyro said, taking Nera's arm. So, it's more like a spell then...Huh...alright but why would the books on land get that wrong?That's just misleading and possibly dangerous....

"I'm Tyro." Why not? They'd be working with each other. Shouting "Hey you!" at each other isn't helping towards a working partnership of any worth...

(It is okay. I was gone for a while as well. Computer problems and stuff XP)

Nera nodded to the man. "I am Nera," he explained. Maybe now with this furry creature helping him, he would be able to get his mate away from the humans. He didn't know what they would do to his babies his mate had to begin laying them. His heart seemed to be squeezed by an invisible hand. He didn't want to think about the dangers. He would force himself to think positively. He would rescue them and nothing bad would happen. He could do this, there was yet time, and now he had someone else he could rely on to.

It didn't take too long before Nera swam up to a docked ship. "This is the ship I saw around my nest," he said quietly to his foxy friend. "There are other boats here and I assume that the place they are going to on land is close by. They wouldn't want to hurt their precious cargo," he snarled a little and looked up at the ship. He wanted to rip it apart but even his claws alone would be useless against it. Wasting his energy wouldn't be a good thing either.

"What should we do? I can become human, but if salt water touches me, I'll turn back into this form. It is risky, but I don't want to just sit here and do nothing. What can I do to help you?" he asked.

"Really?" Tyro said, looking over to Nera with surprise. "You can do that? Cool! That'll be handy because I would have to do this all on my own. I just hope you've got some experience with humans. If not, I'll have to say your a purist elf I'm escorting. We'll be OK as long as we done have to get drunk at the beach." Tyro said, slowly wafting upwards towards the water's surface. Just before then though, he stops and looks back down.

"Yeah. Fun fact: a Kitsune, like me, can't keep up any kind of human form when drunk. Never have. It shuts the brain down, stops it functioning and doing this;" Tyro is currently naked, having left most of his clothes back on his last body aboard that ship, somewhere. Knowing, this Tyro made sure to leave his bottom half unchanged. However, his top half lost almost all of it's fur to the aether, it seemed. The fur revealed human looking skin underneath. Tyro's face also changed, the muzzle vanishing to in favour of a nose and chin. His hair turns from scarlet to a very dark brown like his eyes and slight laughter lines seem visible now. The ears were from black triangles to large clamshell-shapes.

He looked human from the waist up. A physically unintimidating, almost weedy human but human none the less.

"So, I guess a couple of rules. No booze or drugs for me and no going near water for you? Good?"

Tyro swims to the surface, his head breaking into the air. He looks around, searching for clothes on a washing line, maybe...Something he could borrow for a bit...
"I need something to wear..."