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..."
