Deep Sea and Loss

The deep ocean held many secrets and mystery that a few could find glimpses of. The dull cloudy skies had prevented most sunlight from reaching the waters, further obscuring its depth. Vyrloss paced the shore, thinking of what to do. She soon caught sounds of foot steps and chatter then glanced to her right. She spotted a young group of 5 draks of various breeds. She saw three Kelpie crosses with two of them being Nightmares along with a Kainu and a Kainu-Mystic cross. The remaining Kelpie cross was a Dracus that was flying near the group instead of walking.

She trotted to the group and called out a greeting. She saw a mix of confused and some suspicious looks in her direction as she slowed to a stop, smiling. “Sorry to be a bother, but I was swimming over there and saw something in the dark waters. I don’t want to go alone, so do any of you want to come with?” She watched them exchange glances.

“We would be of no help,” a green Kainu said, gesturing to a black Kainu-Mystic cross and herself.

The Kelipe-Dracus cross waved her hands in a no-no motion while saying, “I’m not good with dark scary waters. Of course, you two don’t have to…”

“I am curious what the Kelpie found,” the brown with red and orange belly Nightmare-Kelpie said, looking over to the brown Nightmare-Kelpie. “If you don’t want to, I won’t go.”

The brown Nightmare-Kelpie gave an annoyed sigh. “Fine, we’ll come and check it out. At any sign of danger, we’re getting out.”

“I’m glad,” Vyrloss replied, smiling. “Oh, I’m Vyrloss. What are your names?”

“I’m Chalkos!” the brown with red and orange belly replied, grinning.

“I’m Keldarean. The flying one’s Honeysuckle,” the brown Nightmare-Kelpie said, gesturing the gold Dracus-Kelpie cross. Honeysuckle gave a small friendly wave.

“I’m Erina,” the black Kainu-Mystic replied, giving a bow.

“And I’m Lanata,” the green Kainu said, giving a nod. “The rest of us will wait up here. Let us know what you find.”

“We will,” Chalkos replied before following Vyrloss. Keldarean took up the rear.

The trio reached the waters Vyrloss was looking at earlier. There was nothing strange within the water other than it was clearly deep. Vyrloss hopped in which followed by Chalkos leaping in. Keldarean shielded herself from the splash and sighed before wading in.

Once underwater, the irregular rocks sharply steeps down into the inky depths. With Vyrloss biolumence and darksight from both Nightmare-Kelpie crosses, they carefully swam down into the dark. The irregular rocks eventually smoothed out to sand, but they had not reached the bottom. They decided to stop and look around, seeing if the rocks or the vast waters had something of interest.

While the waters was almost void of life, the rocks had plenty of crevices and small caves for small to medium creatures to live in. “I saw some green glowing eyes down here,” Vyrloss explained as she looked. “I didn’t stare at it for too long before fleeing to the surface. Now, where would they have gone…?”

“You sure it’s around here?” Keldarean asked, as she searched. Nothing other than eels and small sharks was seen swimming. Very few regular fish would been swimming at this depth.

“No. I did not make a landmark or see something to determine how deep it was.” Vyrloss played with a dead plant that was floating around. A particularly brave fish swam by to snatch it from her and swam off to eat its meal. She watched the fish for a moment then turned to look elsewhere.

Chalkos found a large patch of sand to gently dig through. The clumps felt heavy and didn’t wash off from his paws well. “The sands are kind of strange…”

Seeing nothing of interest where they were at, they continued down. Once they reached the bottom where only Vyrloss’s glowing spots were the only source of light, they looked around. The bottom was a thick sandy floor similar to what Chalkos dug through earlier.

“I-is there something wrong with the water?” Keldarean commented, trying to see into the dark. “It looks foggy?”

“There is something floating around, yes,” Vyrloss replied. She gestured to her glows and from the light reflecting dark particles suspended in the deep.

While they observed and pondered about the mysterious particles floating around, there was a sudden brightness from a singular source. Confused, they turned and saw the bright blue-green light in the distance. They barely were able to observe the strange shape when a ear-splitting crack resonate in front of them. The far away shape suddenly appeared in front of them, rooting them in their spot. The stranger was a kelpie cross, but none of them could be sure which. The face was of a Nightmare-Kelpie with ram horns, multiple glowing eyes in a circle, and fuzzy antennae-like ears. Their body was more of a Dracus-Kelpie, longer than average and their webbed hands had long curved claws. Alongside their body was glowing stripes, pulsing in irregular patterns. Their silken tail gently swayed behind them.

The strange being had parts of itself shifting like it couldn’t keep the shape. As they remained transfixed upon the strange being, the cold water started to warm up. Chalkos growled at the being and tried to lunge at them. HIs front paws was ensnared with thick heavy sand and pulled him down. He barely managed to turn his head to avoid crashing the sea floor head first and rolled alongside his side. He shook his head and attempted to get up. That was when he saw the sand taking appearance of vines to hold him down.

Keldarean tore her gaze from the strange being and tried to swim to Chalkos. She snarled when she realized the sand was slowing her movements and dragging her down till her legs were stuck.

“Calm yourselves,” a voice told them. Chalkos and Keldarean glared at the being who was staring back at them. Once the being was sure the Nightmare-Kelpie crosses will not interfere, they turned their attention to Vyrloss.

“Vyrloss,” the being said in a gentle tone with a tendril gently brushing the Kelpie’s face. “I sense much sadness and loss. But, there’s a spark and hope as well. Don’t come looking in the dark for death, only to survive and live another day.”

A soft high pitch whine sounded from Vyrloss as she sobbed. The strange being gently touched their foreheads together and calmly breathed, waiting for her to match them. “Be well, Starlight of the Sea.”

After a small moment between them, the strange being suddenly swam upward, bringing the dark particles with them.

Chalkos got up first, having felt the vine-like sand lose its grip on him. Shaking off the excess sand, he trotted over to Keldarean and helped her out of the sand no longer keeping her down. They glanced over to the sobbing Vyrloss, curled up. Slowly, they approached her and lied down.

“What did you see?” Keldarean asked, softly.

“M-my deceased mate,” Vyrloss replied after several hiccups. “My son is the only memento I have left of him.”

Neither of them knew how to comfort her and decided to simply keep her company until she was feeling better. They both looked up, seeing the mass of darkness growing farther away.

“I hope the others will be fine,” Keldarean said, quietly. “That being is going up there.”

“I hope so too. She isn’t in a good state to swim up at all,” Chalkros added, observing the sad Kelpie. “Say, what did you see? They looked like a water version of a large weasel. It was snickering and mocking me.”

“I didn’t hear that. They were standing there being quiet and scary with 5 glowy eyes. I didn’t think to go after it until you did.” She paused, thinking. “Wait, did it change form near the end before leaving? Maybe that’s her mate?”

Chalkos gave a moment to think. “Yeah, I think I saw something like that too. Weird.”