Chapter 8: The Outcast
The pod is near the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. They swim mid-water, about a mile under the surface. Triton Kaiken looks onward with keep, sharp eyes with his son, Adra Merrick, scanning ahead of him, at his side. From a far distance, Triton Kaiken spotted a moving object, however, he decides to allow Adra Merrick the chance to see it himself.
Noita Umiato mutters lightly to Adra Savarna as she conjures a shimmering ball of light, with the smaller mermaid doing the same thing. Savarna grunts and cringes as her light flittered, and died out, pouting at the failed attempt, before trying again.
The merfolk of the pod mingled amongst themselves, conversing about what they found or of what they did during the time they had in the Hawaiian waters, while the young meryin swam about excitedly, playfully chasing each other in and out of the pod of mermaids and mermen.
Merrick sends out a moderate signal up ahead, before he feels something up ahead.
"Father... I sense something ahead of us." Merrick said.
"Yes, Merrick. Can you tell me what it is?" Kaiken replied. Merrick narrowed his eyes, and sent more thorough, far-reaching signals.
... It's headed for the pod, but it doesn't feel like a threat... Something, a little warm... It's not big... It's shorter than him, to be sure... Its feels weak, like it's dying. It's also fairly small.
"I think it's a-"
"Do not tell me only what you know. Not what you think it to be. As a Triton, you must always be able to learn from sight alone. Anything less may lead the who pod into demise." He said sternly.
"... Yes, Father," Merrick replied, feeling irritated, "It is an Amnien merman. Probably from the Northern Waters."
"You are half correct, Son," Kaiken stated, "It is from the Arctic Waters, but it is not a merman,"
"... Father?" Merrick turned to look at the much larger merman beside him. He's sure that's a merman, unless this was something else, but it gives off the presence of merfolk intelligence.
"What you are seeing is not a merman anymore..." Kaiken's big, dark eyes narrowed with a cold glare, "It is Coshiton."
Umiato's eyes lowered, saddened by the mention of Coshiton. The sphere of light faded from the majestic mermaid's hands.
"Mother?" Sarvana said as she looked up, "Mother, why are you sad? Mother?" Umiato then softly took her daughter's small hand, and smiled.
"Come, Daughter," She said gently, "The moon has risen. Let us practice your song."
"Yes, Mother." Savarna said as she glided up onto her mother's chest, and held onto her shoulders, as the white mermaid gracefully draped her arms around the young Adra, and ascended angelically upward from the pod. She did not want Savarna to see her father in the presence of a Coshiton.
Merrick pondered for a moment as they approached the creature, "Father, what IS it, if not a merman? It looks. It feels. It sounds like an Amnien. I don't understand."
"Your eyes are still young, Son," Kaiken said, gripping his long trident, "You are yet unable to see which that of exists, and should not exist."
"Father,"
"Coshitons have forfeit their right to be, yet they still cling to what is forbidden to them..."
Intimidated by his father's speech, Merrick decided to stop talking. Soon, the young merman could make out the Amnien up ahead.
From the waist below, the furry merman is bipedal of two, thick webbed paws that paddled weakly as he moved. Behind him, trailed a thick tail at least two feet long, give or take. While his lower body is brown in color, his pseudo humanoid upper body is cream-colored, except for his webbed hands and the top of his head, along his back, and on the top of his head. His face shows otter-like features around the mouth and eyes, with a cluster of short whiskers on either side, a pair of small, rounded ears on his head. The left pec, there is an intricate, black symbol seared onto his flesh. His weary, dark brown, orb-like eyes looked up, and spotted the crowd of Piscien merfolk swimming in his direction!
The pod started swim around him, when he quickly paddled towards the Triton.
"P-Please, Piscien Triton!" The young otter merman spoke, trying to keep up with him, "I'm all alone! I can't-"
"Be gone, Coshiton!" Kaiken commanded, brandishing his mighty trident, "You'll know no refuge from my, or any pod in all of the sea."
"Please, please help me!" The otter begged desperately, "I was never taught to hunt, 0-or or or forage! I haven't eaten in suns!" Kaiken prodded the merman's chest, pushing him back several feet away.
"It is no fault of mine that you've forsaken yourself before you learned to survive. And now you dare ask for assistance after you have been punished for your unforgivable crime?! As if you have the right to insight pity?!" Kaiken said, his anger growing. Everyone in the pod starred at the large, furious merman as he towered the quivering otter merman.
"Please, I don't want to die! Please, just let someone of your pod teach me to-"
"Enough!" Kaiken bellowed, pointing threateningly at the Amnien, "You have been deemed nonexistent. You know full well you are beyond redemption, and thus cast away. Leave now!"
"N-N-No! Please!" The small male persisted, "You can't-"
"DO NOT CLAIM WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO!!" With a swing of his trident, Kaiken brandished his weapon, and jabbed the forked top onto the otter's neck, catching his throat between the middle and right prong. The Amnien gagged as he was slammed into a reef wall, pinned down by the trident, "Do not waste my mercy, Coshiton," Kaiken growled with dark anger. The Amnien squirmed and whined as he struggled, terrified by the sheer force and rage from the Triton, "You were reduced to NOTHING when you sealed your own fate. Blame naught but yourself! You may only pray to the Guardian Charybdis that the Capricorn will NEVER find you..."
Kaiken pulled his trident out of the rock, and drifted away. The startled merfolk followed suit, leaving the otter to curl up, and weep. As they swam, Merrick looked over his shoulder at the young Amnien, feeling himself scared and near tears.
Meanwhile, on the surface, a small ice chunk bobbed up onto the water. It then grew and crystallized into a mini iceberg. Savarna crawled onto the ice as she was placed there, before the larger, veiled mermaid slipped herself up, and sat onto the cold platform. Savarna looked around, and saw the waning, orange light slowly draining from the sky. As usual, their gills closed so that they're able to breath the air.
"Mother," Savarna said, "The sun is still awake. Why are we here under the sky right now?" Umiato sighed, and stroked her daughter's cheek.
"Because a Coshiton was coming." Savarna blinked as she tilted her head.
"What's a Coshiton, Mother?" Umiato then hovered her hand over apart of the ice, where several tiny pillars melted and reformed on the ice like small geysers.
"You know there are laws, my Daughter. These laws are very important, and are deemed unbreakable. To violate even one of these laws is an unforgivable crime," She then twirled a finger around one of the figures. An X then carved itself on it, "When a mermaid, or a merman breaks one of these laws, they are marked with a symbol," The marked symbol then moved away from the rest of the figures, "And are banished from the rest of the pod, never to return." Umiato then looked in Savarna's eyes, "To be a Coshiton, means to not exist. To forfeit the right to be of their own, or any pod. In the eyes of merfolk, they have lost their honor."
Umiato then waved her hand over the figures, and made them splash back into water, where it froze on the ice, "Your Father, in particular, gets angry when he sees a Coshiton," She said as her shimmering tail wavered in the water, "I did not want you to see him in such a rage."
"Is Father scary when he's angry?" The small mermaid asked. Umiato simply nodded.
"Yes... Very much so..." The young mermaid looked past her mother, then smiling gleefully as she looked onward.
"Look, Mother, look! It's a floating whale!" Umiato turned, and gasped. She picked up her daughter, and slipped back into the water, swimming quickly down into the water, hoping that they were not spotted by the humans and the landmass that they build; that atrocity they call a ship.
The Amnien otter groaned as he laid on the reef. He's so weak... So hungry... His father never told him how to find food. He could've taught him before he was banished, why DIDN'T he??? Didn't he parents love him?? The otter merman whimpered as he imagined crunching into a whole log full of clams and mussels. Oh, what he wouldn't give for a nice, crispy, tasty sea urchin to right now. His mother always told him not to bite directly on a clam or mussel shell, but he didn't care, he loved to crunch.
He then heard a disturbance. The Amnien turned his head to see a strange figure, heading in his direction. As the creature approached, the otter squirmed feebly on the rock he is on - not that it mattered, it's been so long since he's eaten, he can't swim any further, not even to the surface for a breath.
Soon, he could make out the image of the creature. A third-dimensional face with glowing golden eyes, and a pair of spiraling horns on its head, its skin a deep purple/blue mix along its head and torso, leading to a semi-spirally fish tail. It has two more appendages on the front that identify as legs, with fins along them instead of hooves. On its chin, trailed a long, thin silvery beard. It's appearance and existence itself seemed to be cloaked in a mystical presence.
New fear spawned in the otter as the goat like creature came closer. No! He forgot to pray to the Charybdis to protect him! The Capricorn has come! It's here to take him away! It's here to end him!
Soon, the legendary Capricorn came to the quivering Amnien merman. The otter pressed his back harder against the reef as it inched closer to him. He whimpered and cried as it nudged its muzzle on him, almost sniffing him. The otter clenched his eyes shut as he braced himself for any pain that his death will surely bring. The Capricorn sniffed until it pressed its mouth onto the elaborate symbol on the left of his chest.
It murred before turning around, and swirling its lengthy tail, emitting an eerie, echoing bleat as it soon disappeared into the open ocean. The otter shook, still waiting for his end. He peeped one eye open, blinking both eyes open to realize that the Capricorn had gone away.
