
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Suspicious Seaweed - 3. Yellow Scales
The following morning, Peter stealthily left the caverns, his heart pounding with a fierce determination not to let Balar interfere with his time with Griffin. He sped past the bay root and reeds, his anticipation building with every stroke until he arrived at the spot where he hoped to find Griffin.
At first, he saw no one. But a sudden movement behind a boulder just beyond the brackish water barrier, the boundary that separated their waters, caught his attention. As Griffin swam over to the edge of the barrier, Peter was taken aback. In the lighter waters of daylight, he could see more of the other merman clearly, like how well-defined he was. Peter did not doubt that someone with Griffin's physique could easily make short work of a bully like Balar.
"Peter," Griffin greeted with a broad, warm grin, which led Peter's heart to skip a beat again. The blond had a feeling he was developing a secret crush; barrier be damned.
"A bag?" Peter asked, his attention drawn to the woven bag Griffin carried across his shoulder at his side.
"This is for you."
Peter's green eyes widened as Griffin held something through the barrier. When Peter reached in to take it, his hand emerged with a long, pale green oval stone that was sharper on one end. The slim design reminded Peter of a hair stick. This stone, a gift from Griffin, would come to symbolize their friendship and Peter's growing courage.
"We use it as both a projectile with handheld slingshots and to write with," Griffin explained. "The color reminded me of you–ah, of your eyes, I mean."
"Thank you!" Peter responded with a bright smile. He then immediately tested the sharper end of the stone, drawing patterns on the ground. As he continued to draw, he asked, "Is it true that Angelfish are your leaders?"
The smile on Griffin's face fell. "Angelfish are our line of Royals, yes."
"Do you not like them?"
"I used to work for them."
"Used to?"
"I used to be one of the queen's royal guards," Griffin explained, his voice carrying the weight of his past. "She favored me so greatly I was shunned by my fellow guards."
"Jealousy?"
Griffin nodded. "The advances she made towards me were not appropriate. But, even my admitting I was of a different persuasion fell on deaf ears."
"So, you left?" Peter asked in a far happier tone than he had meant to. His spirits lifted when Griffin admitted he preferred his gender.
Griffin nodded. "No one supported me or even believed I would quicker take a male for a partner over the queen. I've been searching for a more inclusive clan to join ever since."
They were the same in that regard, and the revelation did nothing to deter his budding feelings from growing. At least, until he remembered, they were two different types of mermen separated by a barrier of brackish water in which neither of them could survive for long. Peter then began pouting again.
"Why did you leave so suddenly last night?" Griffin asked.
Peter glanced to his left and right before leaning closer to the barrier. "My blue coloring triggers a blue-finned betta to attack me every time we cross paths. I'm afraid one day we'll end up Locked in combat."
"You've tried talking things out?"
"There is no talking to Balar," Peter admitted. "Only brute force can get through to him, and it's something I severely lack."
"I could teach you how to fight back if you'll allow me to," Griffin offered.
The betta merman reached right into the brackish water with his free hand to hold one of Griffin's in gratitude. "You would? Oh, please do. I'd be so grateful-"
Suddenly, a blue blur dove down right into Peter from above. The attack knocked the sharp stone right out of his hand. Balar began to pluck Peter's scales off his tail. Helpless, Peter tried to push him away, but the assault continued, one scale after another, leaving him feeling helpless and powerless. "Balar, stop it!" Peter cried out as he continued to thrash beneath the rough hold.
For the briefest of moments, Balar did stop. Peter had never seen such fury in the other male's red eyes. The blue-finned betta leaned down. "You go and touch a stranger so easily?" Balar growled, his voice filled with a mix of jealousy and rage.
Balar then let out a hiss when his shoulder was pelted with a stone. However, he didn't immediately retreat. He glared at the gramma basslet through the brackish barrier. Balar then deliberately ripped one more scale off, causing Peter to whimper in pain and shame before he finally moved away.
When Peter finally got a good look, he noticed that all of his yellow scales were gone. Strange, why had Balar targeted the yellow and not the blue? If the pain didn't begin to radiate up the rest of his tail, he'd have questioned him about it.
But Balar merely tightened his grip on the bloody scales in his hand, a symbol of his victory over Peter. His gaze wasn't even on Peter but on the lavender merman on the other side. The blond noticed the determined look in Griffin's eyes as he kept swinging a sling with a new stone over his head, ready to defend him again.
"Odious outsider," Balar hissed as he finally left the area.
"Why is he such an asshole?" Peter wailed as he inspected the damage. All of the yellow scales in his colored segments were gone. He'd have given more thought to the odd choice if it weren't for the gentle hand he felt on his shoulder. When he looked over, Griffin was holding his breath with most of his torso inside the brackish water.
"Griffin, that's dangerous!" The blond chided as he took hold of Griffin's upper arms and quickly shoved him back to his side of the barrier. "Don't risk your life to comfort me."
Griffin's jaw was tense, but he covered one of Peter's hands with his own as delicately as he'd touch a newborn. "I've heard those words spoken by my father, and it still resulted in his death," he confessed. "This time, that blue-finned betta stopped. What happens next time if he doesn't?"
"I've managed to avoid him thus far…"
Griffin moved away from Peter in frustration. "And here he caught you this time. Peter, we need a new place to meet so that I can train you to fight back. He's already aware of this area."
"Right," Peter agreed. "I was careless for him to have found me so easily." He glanced to the side. "How far down does the barrier go?"
"It leads all the way to one of Maren's temples and fans out into a larger brackish water pocket," Griffin admitted. "I couldn't go anywhere near it, but I found it while searching for other clans."
"Then, we can train somewhere near there," Peter suggested.
"We'll make that sea snake think twice before ever messing with you again," Griffin declared with unwavering determination, his resolve shining through.
Peter's eagerness to start training was discernible in his voice as he asked, "How soon can we start?"
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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