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Sunstone holds his egg close with a soft trill, smiling brightly as he gently strokes the dark shell. Moonstone is asleep next to him, curled tightly around his own, paler, egg while their bonded rests across both their tails. He nuzzles his cheek against it, being extra gentle with his small egg. His precious little gem. His soul pulses warmly inside him as he concentrates, feeling the little life growing inside.
Softly, Sunstone hums a tune against his baby, purring happily when he feels the egg twitch in his hold as his pup reacts to his voice. His little soul gem has loved his singing since the moment Sunstone first got the idea to try. Sunstone barely contains himself from wiggling too much and risking waking up his mate and twin, he’s just so excited to meet his pup! It’s nearly time, and Sunstone is getting so impatient! He hopes they look like him- and something from his twin too! He loves his twins colouring, even if Moonstone resents that they don’t have more matching features like most eggmates, no matter how much he tells his twin he loves their light shine.
He's pulled from his musings when the egg rattles, making him chuckle as he carefully rubs his cheek along it and starts up his lullaby again.
“I’m sorry little one, I shouldn’t have gotten so distracted when you want your bedtime song,” Sunstone coos, curling down and holding the small egg under his chin so his throat and chest can vibrate softly against its shell. He closes his eyes and relaxes for sleep, gentling the hum in his throat. “Goodnight, my little Solstone.”
There was so much blood. Somewhere near him his twin was screaming, and Sunstone could taste both their blood in the water. His side ached, but he kept clawing and biting at whatever he could. He had to protect them. His family was counting on him, he wouldn’t let them get hurt. Their bonded was out hunting, it was up to Sunstone to protect his precious gems.
Sunstone cried out in pain as he was rammed backwards into the stone outside of their nest, causing him to lose his grip on their attacker. He screams out for his brother, desperately pushing himself forward and darting after it into their nest. He grabs the beast’s tail and yanks it backwards with all his strength. His ribs creak, his breath coming short as something stabs his lungs, but he ignores it.
It shrieks, but Sunstone digs his claws in and shreds with a vicious howl. It flails in his grasp and turns away from the nest. Good. Sunstone bites down on a flailing fin, tearing it off and spitting the offending meat from his mouth with a snarl. Something crushes onto his arm and he screams, swiping blindly with his claws to get it off. His body is jerked harshly, there’s a sickening crunch and then Sunstone finds himself falling back.
His vision is spotty as he gasps for breath, the blood in the water making it difficult to see. Distantly, he hears his twin screaming, sees a blur of white dart over him, the sound of tearing flesh… then silence.
Sunstone tries to get up, but his ribs flare in pain and he finds himself struggling to draw in a full breath. He coughs, gills shredded and membranes being smothered in blood. He looks to the side, struggling to focus on the nest. Just barely, he can make out the shape of an egg. Did he do it? Did he protect their babies? Good. That’s… that’s good.
Moonstone suddenly appears in his view, arms roughly pulling him up to be cradled sideways in his arms. Sunstone knows his brother is saying something, can hear his lovely voice and he smiles. His twin looks distressed, so he tries to lift his arm but finds he can’t. He glances down and, oh, that’s why. Weakly, he raises his remaining arm and brings his fingers to Moonstones pale cheek, smiling as he instantly lifts his own hand to hold his hand in place.
Gently, Sunstone strokes a thumb along the pale blue under his twin’s eye, brushing away tears. He… wishes he could understand what his twin was saying. Struggling, he lets out a soft trill, and smiles brightly when he can make out the tone of it being returned. The sound they’ve made since they were pups, their own little language to express their love before they knew the proper words.
He feels his head loll back, struggling to keep his eyes open as he coughs and sputters against the weight filling his chest. He trills again, eyes finding the egg nest over Moonstones shoulder and feeling his smile strain. He understands what’s happening now. Moonstone always did say he was a bit slow on the uptake, he muses drowsily. But at least… at least his family is safe. Moonstone will still have the pups, and their bonded will be there to help take care of them.
Breathing gets harder and he winces as Moonstone shakes him, drawing his eyes back to his twin. He forces his wavering smile to stay, unable to hear his brother’s anguished screams. He takes the deepest breath he can and trills. His vision dims and his chest stills against his will. He feels for his baby and lets himself relax, only just barely able to feel them now, but that’s okay. They’re safe. He wishes he could apologise for never getting to meet them.
Solstone watched in horror as his parent devoured the arm of another mer that had been travelling through their territory. His breath caught in his chest as he ducked away to hide, coving his mouth with both hands to stifle a terrified sob. It doesn’t get any easier to see his uncle do such a horrible thing.
He had known for a long time that his uncle wasn’t well. He doesn’t remember a time where he didn’t look sickly, and struggled to remember what he used to look like when his scales were more white than grey. He used to ask after his health, concerned over how ragged his fins were getting, but he eventually learned not to say anything. He got less bruises that way.
He misses when he was still a young pup, when his uncle was better and would tell him stories about his dad and their childhood. About how they met their mate and what Sunstone used to do to take care of the eggs and fret about their nest. He treasures those stories close, repeats them to himself over and over so he doesn’t forget. His dad died protecting him and Sols refuses to forget any detail.
As quietly as he can, he sneaks past his uncle and into the little hole he’s slept in for the past several years. He hopes his parent will be back from hunting soon, uncle is always a little better when they’re here. He falls asleep crying quietly that night, and is visited again in his dreams by a vague figure humming a tune he can never seem to place. He loves and hates this dream, because it feels so much like home that it’s cruel.
Solstone screams as claws dig into his tail and pull him from his sleeping hole. He scrambles for something to grab onto, all trace of sleep vanishing as adrenaline pulses through his rapidly beating heart. His uncle is snarling and growling, and the sound brings such terror that he instinctively freezes and allows himself to be pulled out into the open cave area.
Moonstone looms above him, roughly releasing his tail with such force he sinks to the floor as he struggles to gain his bearings. Solstone can only stare in horror at the feral look on his beloved uncles face. His mismatched eyes are pinpricks, the red and orange irises trained on him like he’s prey- and maybe his is.
“Worthless monster!” Moonstone shrieks, before he lunges.
Solstone yelps, twisting himself out of the way in time to avoid the worst of pale blue claws. His back burns with new cuts, but he does his best to ignore them and make a break for the entrance. If he can just get out of the cave, he can find somewhere to-
His sidefin shreds as his uncle stabs his claws through it, yanking him down the cave floor. He tries to get up, but the pale mer pounces on him and slams his chest down, claws digging deep into the muscle of his shoulder.
Solstone cries out in pain, struggling to get away but it hurts. “Uncle! Uncle please! It’s me!”
Moonstone just snarls, flipping him onto his back. Solstone pants, eyes darting around looking for anything he can use as a weapon or distraction, but there’s nothing. Sharp teeth lunge for his neck and he twists away frantically, screaming as his lower headfins are cut through like rotting seaweed under his uncles bite.
He thrusts his tail upwards and slams his hands against the bony chest above him, pushing himself back just enough to get out from underneath the older mer. Claws rake down his tail when he doesn’t dodge the next swipe in time. Moonstone growls behind him, unintelligible sounds Sols thinks might have been words spat in his direction as the mer stalks forward after him.
Solstone pressed himself against the stone wall, clutching his bleeding face and trying to catch his breath. He’s cornered. His uncle is between him and the only exit, Sols hadn’t realised how much their positioned had changed in the tussle.
He whimpers, begging through sobs, “Uncle please! Please I love you, don’t do this!”
A hiss is his only response. Solstone shuts his eyes tightly and braces himself, hoping it will be quick and he can finally meet his dad.
There’s a sound of shock, and Sols feels the water shift as Moonstone spins around and immediately tackles the intruder with a rage filled scream. His eyes snap open and he watches in horror as his uncle pins his bonded to the ground and starts tearing at every bit of flesh he can reach. Tears at their chest like he’s trying to dig out their heart.
“No!”
Without thinking, Solstone shoves himself forward and grabs for one of his uncles arms, but is quickly thrown back when he turns and swipes him deep across the chest. He whimpers, not knowing what to do and looking down at his parent.
His parent smiles weakly at him and shakes their head at him, before turning to his uncle and wrapping their arms tightly around him to pull them close. They say something to the attacking mer, but Solstone can’t hear what it is over the sounds of tearing flesh and the feral sounds coming from his uncle.
He can’t watch anymore. He hurts so badly, he just wants to wake up. Wants to go back to when this wasn’t happening. He wants this nightmare to be over with right now. He sobs, painfully flicking his tail to propel himself back to his sleeping hole where he can hide. He curls up as tight as he can and presses his palms against his ears, sobbing hysterically as he tries to block out the awful noises. Between stuttering breaths and sobs, he tries to hum that song from his dream to distract himself.
It'll be okay. It’ll all be over soon. He just- just has to wait here and then he’ll wake up and this will all have been a bad dream.
He doesn’t know how long it is before he realises the sounds have stopped. Doesn’t know how long after that that he finally mustered up the courage to peek out of his hiding spot. There was blood everywhere, and neither of them were moving.
…Were they okay? He wasn’t sure. He wanted to check, but just the thought of leaving made him shake in terror. What if his uncle woke up and went after him again? He didn’t know what to do, and he hurt so badly. It was difficult to breathe around the bloody water, and he weakly pressed his blanket against his side to try and stem where he thinks the worst of the bleeding is coming from. He has to bite his lip to stifle the whine that wants to escape. It stings. Every injury throbbing like dozens of extra heartbeats.
He lays there for what he thinks might be days, but its hard to tell and he still hasn’t heard a sound. His cuts have mostly stopped bleeding except when he picks at them accidently, but he still feels weak. He carefully peeks out again to check if his parents are still there and freezes, choking on a sob.
Their bodies are where he last saw them, except there’s much less of them than before. He watches in stunned silence as the scales slowly disintegrate before his eyes. They- they’re dead?
Solstone didn’t think he had anything left to cry with, but turns out he was wrong. His throat closes as he pulls himself away to curl tightly back into his safe place, uncaring of how it pulls at his wounds. He’s all alone now. He misses his uncle so badly. He knows his uncle was sick and mean, but he still loves him. He wants his parent. Wants them to hold him and help him figure out how to clean the hard-to-reach spots of his scales. Wants his uncle to take him hunting again like when he was a little pup figuring out how to hunt crabs and snails.
He cries and cries until he’s got nothing left, then sticks his head back out and lays down, looking at his family for the last time as they fade away. He must fall asleep at some point, because when he opens his eyes again there’s much less of his parents left and it hurts so badly to see. He can’t make himself look away, can’t make himself move from this spot until there’s nothing left to see. Only then does he pull himself back into the hole and hug himself.
His stomach hurts from hunger, but just the thought of eating anything gives him flashes of his uncles teeth and he wants to throw up.
He doesn’t know how much time passes before he forces himself to crawl out of his hole, weakly swimming over to the corner of the nest they used to store food. The smell makes him wrinkle his nose, but he shakily lifts a slightly rotted fish to his mouth and bites down anyway. He wants to gag at the taste, but he’s so so hungry. Thankfully the oysters aren’t as bad as the fish and go down much easier, but there wasn’t many of those left. Their parent had gone hunting because they had been running low and- and now…
Solstone looks around the nest, food sitting uncomfortably in his belly. He hopes he can keep it down. He doesn’t- he doesn’t know what to do. He can’t stay here. He just can’t. Maybe there was another pod near here? There was that mer that his uncle had… so maybe he could find them?
Slowly, he makes his way to the exit, keeping close to the worn rock walls he’s known all his life as he tries to avoid the spot he last saw his parents. The water is clear and bright in the daylight, the current feeling calm. With one last glance backwards, Solstone leaves the cave and picks a direction.
Sols blinks his eyes open to the sound of worried chirping and gentle pokes to his face. He frowns, sluggishly looking around until his eyes focus on two tiny faces way too close. He flinches, and the faces dart backwards with startled squeaks.
Painfully, he manages to lift his head from the rocks he’s wedged himself between. He’s exhausted and it takes effort to keep his eyes open. Two tiny figures come into focus and with a start he realises they’re pups. Very young pups at that, much too young to be on their own. Why are there babies here? Is their parent nearby? Are they alone?
In his fretting, he tries to push himself up but his everything flares in pain and he whimpers, collapsing back down. The babies chitter worriedly as they dart around his face, the blue one with yellow spots patting gently at his cheek while the yellow one with blue spots tugs gently at his dangling fingers.
“Who?” Comes a tiny voice amidst the babbling. Then again, “Who? Who?” they both trill in unison several times.
Despite himself, Solstone finds himself huffing a short laugh. They’re very cute, and he can clearly tell this is a new word for them as the sounds are all a little off as they do their best to shape the word properly. Very little pups indeed.
“S… Solstone,” he manages in a rasp. Both pups instantly stop their chanting, which had quickly turned less asking a question and more just having fun repeating it back at each other, before zipping around him excitedly with happy little trills.
“Sols!” The yellow one exclaims with a full body wiggle, flapping the tiny fins on his sides rapidly.
Solstone opens his mouth to correct him, but the blue one jumps in before he can, copying the other. Then follows several long moments of the twins- for they have to be twins- chanting a shortened version of his name. He smiles tiredly, resting his head back down. Close enough.
Suddenly the babies cheep at him, then they both rush off and he can’t help but whine quietly, reaching weakly out for them and clicking sadly. No no, wait, please don’t leave. He doesn’t want to be alone…
Time must pass, because the next thing he’s aware of there’s a large green and blue mer approaching him. She’s making sad concerned noises at him, but she’s getting too close too fast and he panics, hissing at her as he tries to shove himself away so he can escape. He doesn’t know what she’s going to do to him. She’s so much bigger than any other mer he’s ever seen- what about the pups? Are they okay?
She raises her hands and ducks her head, trying to look non-threatening. Sols wants to trust it, he really does, but he can’t do anything as she gets closer and closer. His pathetic hiss dies in his throat as he loses his breath, not that it had any affect anyway. Her hands disappear out of his field of view and he tries one more time to get away, but he’s so tired… His strength leaves him in a rush and he collapses fully onto the rocks once again. A strange, tingling warmth touches his skin and his vision fades to black.
He flinches awake, shying backwards from the green glow and weird tingling feeling near his face with a hiss. He barely registers that everything hurts less than before when he’s abruptly swarmed by the twin pups from before. His hiss sputters out as he startles.
Both pups babble at him rapidly, patting his face with concerned little expressions and inspecting his fins with even tinier hands. He freezes, not sure how to react.
“Are you feeling better now, sweetie?” The adult mer asks softly, but her voice startles him none the less and he squishes himself back as far as he can. “It’s okay, my name is Earth! I won’t hurt you.”
His voice leaves him as his chest tightens with indecision. He isn’t sure what to do. He’s found other mer, which had been his goal, but he hadn’t really thought of what to do once he found them. He doesn’t know what other mers might do to him.
“Do you want to come with us? We can bring you somewhere safe to sleep,” she coaxes, but Solstone finds himself shrinking further into himself with a painful lump of anxiety lodged in his throat.
Earth backs away after the silence stretches for a while longer, and Sols finds himself able to draw in a full breath now that there’s a decent amount of space between them. If she wanted to grab him, though, it was nowhere near enough room for him to have even a chance of escaping. It still made him feel significantly less crowded though- ironic as that thought is with two baby mers still prodding at him.
The twins peep at him and he feels them grab a hand each and start pulling. They’re so tiny they really don’t have the strength to do anything, but Solstone finds himself slowly climbing out from between the rocks he’d been wedged in.
The babies tug at his fingers the whole time as Sols slowly follows behind Earth, doing his best to keep an eye on his surroundings. Soon enough, they approach an area with a strange shadow being cast from above and two other mers who look to be talking near it. Solstone freezes, panic making his headfins tremble as he stops swimming. A low, deep growl echoes through the water from the gigantic dark blue mer.
In a flash, he yanks his hands back from the pups and darts back down, frantically swimming for a big rock formation he saw as they approached. He knows growls like those. He just hopes the smaller mer will be okay, but he really doesn’t want to watch it happen again. His muscles ache from his burst of motion, and he’s forced to huddle down behind a smaller rock sticking out from the main formation. He covers his mouth with his hands and tries not to make a single sound.
Oh gosh, he left the babies behind. What if that bigger mer attacked them? He wants to go back, try and grab them and escape- but his body won’t let him. He’s shaking so badly he’s sure even surface dwellers could feel the vibrations.
He huddles himself behind the rock as much as he can, trying to make his body obey him. He wants to cry, but he refuses to let any sound escape. His belly hurts and his wounds ache still- though not as much as before. He’s so tired.
He wants to go home. He misses the squid his parent would sometimes bring him as a rare treat. He misses his nest and his uncle and all the little nooks and crannies around their cave he could squish himself into. He misses when his uncle still liked him enough to hug him while he fell asleep. Tears burn his eyes and he presses harder against his mouth in response.
“Hello?”
Solstone startles at the soft, lilting voice, and opens his eyes to find the smaller mer from earlier a little ways in front of him. The other mer slowly swims closer, much to his dismay. He’s scared and he wishes he’d never left his home to find others- but then his eyes widen as he takes a moment to actually look at the mer in front of him.
The other is covered in scars, the frills around his face looking a bit ragged- and most horrifyingly of all, half of his fins have been torn off from his tail. His crooked tail. There was a very noticeable hump a little over halfway down. How did this mer get so injured? He was smaller than his parents were, and as a twin his uncle was smaller than average too!
“My, you look as if you’ve been through quite a lot little one,” the mer starts, settling down on the sand in front of him. Strangely, it doesn’t feel as unnerving to have this mer quite so close to him. Maybe it’s because he looks like he’d be a slow swimmer? Sols’ parent had always said that losing your fins was a death sentence. “What’s your name? My name is Ruin.”
The other mer seems so nice. He just has this calm feeling around him that reminds him of something from a very long time ago. He lowers his hands from his mouth hesitantly, hugging himself as he decides what to do. He… he wants to answer. Wants to try. He opens his mouth to respond, but no sound comes out. He frowns and tries again, feeling tears well in his eyes as frustration sets in.
“Ah, none of that now my dear,” Ruin soothes, ducking his head down to try and meet Solstones eyes. “It’s perfectly okay if you aren’t quite feeling up to talking just yet, you look like you could use a good nap, yes?”
Sols can only nod, sniffling miserably. The longer he sits here, the more tired he feels. He can’t remember the last time he slept comfortably. His mind once again drifts back to thoughts of home, and this time he can’t suppress the sobs that bubble from his mute throat.
Ruin starts to say something, before he makes a startled little noise that prompts Solstone to look back up. Two little blurs emerge from behind Ruin’s head and tackle his chest. Sols squeaks in surprise, looking down. The twins are doing their very best to hug him, little arms spread wide over what they can reach of his chest. They’re honestly hugging each other more than they are him, but the simple affection sends a stab through his heart. He unwraps his arms from himself and scoops the babies into his hold, pulling them close through choked breaths. The babies chirp happily and wiggle against him, rubbing their tiny heads against his chin.
When he looks up again, Ruin is smiling in fond exasperation. “Little troublemakers, those two are. I told them to wait because you were scared, but clearly they decided enough was enough.”
Sols huffs, sniffling. He’s never met pups before, only seen them in passing when he was much younger. He wonders if this is how his uncle used to hold him when he was this small… he shakes the thought away before he gets upset again. He doesn’t want to think about that anymore right now, it hurts too much.
“I don’t know what’s happened to you, but for the moment you seem to be on your own. Would you like to come with me and my bonded for a while? At least until we can figure something out for you, you’ll have somewhere safe to sleep and enough food to get your strength back up,” Ruin offers, holding out a hand, then adds, “You’re looking a tad too thin for my liking.”
Sols shies away from the outstretched hand instinctively, before hesitantly reaching out to carefully grab Ruin’s fingers. The mer smiles brightly at him with a trill-click, and carefully pulls him up to begin leading him back the way they came.
Solstone presses closely behind Ruin to hide when he spots Earth and the giant blue mer. The mer looks his way as they approach, and seems to wilt when Sols does his best to conceal himself from view. Ruin gently tugs his hand to direct him upwards, towards an odd shape on the surface. Solstone hesitates, confused as to why they would be heading up there, but decides he’s too exhausted to care anymore and continues to follow.
They breach the surface and Sols is once again startled by a new voice, snapping his gaze towards it only to freeze in shock. What… what is that?! It wasn’t a mer or a human, at least not any human he’d heard described to him before. It’s body was red and black, shiny like the metal of what he now recognises as a boat, but it also has fins around its head like he and Ruin do.
“Ruin?” The deep voice rasps, sounding tired and ever so slightly strange- like when Solstone used to rest his head on his parents chest as they spoke and it made their words sound a little funny. “What took you so long- ah.”
There’s a deep sigh, and the strangely shaped head turns towards Ruin, who is grinning much too innocently at the other. “Eclipse, my dear! How is the fishing going? Good? Yes? Perfect! The peas found a new friend!”
There’s a long moment of silence as ‘Eclipse’ stares down the mer, completely expressionless. Solstone starts to feel anxious, questioning if maybe this was a bad idea and he should take his chances on his own again- but then Eclipse turns to look at him. Strange lights in his eyes examine him, lingering somewhere near his jaw, before drifting down to where the pups are cradled in his arms. By now they’d settled down and were purring sleepily against his chest.
Eclipse lets out a massive sigh, looking upwards for a moment before putting down what he was holding and reaching over the side to grab Ruin under the arms without preamble. Ruin squeaks, but lets it happen- only yelping a little when he’s dropped unceremoniously onto the floor. Sols doesn’t have time to worry before his frilled head is popping back up, cap swaying behind him.
Ruin reaches down and Solstone meets him halfway, allowing himself to be lifted from the water to settle within Ruin’s lap. He stares at the legs and much shorter tail. He knew this was possible, but he’s never seen it before.
He must make a face, because suddenly Ruin is chuckling behind him.
“Don’t worry little one, you’ll get used to it in due time! I might even be able to teach you how to do this yourself if you’d like?”
Solstone finds himself nodding, relaxing back into the warmth of Ruins chest. He doesn’t protest when he feels arms circle around him, doesn’t bother to open his eyes when they drift shut. Not even the strange movements and vibrations of the boat can make him open them even if he wanted to. He felt warm and safe for the first time in ages, and he was so tired. Maybe he could sleep, just for a little bit?
He drifts off slowly to the sound of a strange song rumbling against where his cheek rests. Maybe he would be okay with these two? Even if he still wasn’t sure what Eclipse was.