Monthly Challenges - 2021: August - First encounters

The gentle rays of sunlight barely pieced through the deep body of water. Seaweed gently drifted with the currents, being pushed around by the swells of water. But that did nothing to stop the jaws of an orange giant and a yellow and black polar from snapping down on various tails of fish, pulling them away from the bait ball, chewing down on them with a small rumble of satisfaction. Nothing was as good as having something as juicy as that! Well, aside from squid... But that was just her own, personal opinion. It was a good thing that Unorthodox agreed to help her with hunting down this bait ball, the two working together to make sure it didn't swim away and they kept nice and close together. Each bite was a mouthful of delicious flavours! Even the polar was enjoying the meal, especially in the cooler waters. She tended to hunt the fish towards the bottom of the ball of fish, whereas Spessartine had been working on the top where she could feel the rays of sunlight warming her scales, even if it was just to give her little, black and yellow slug a small bit of vitamin D as well. She knew that her pet liked it, simply because of how it seemed to be humming in delight from the warmth.

She was distracted suddenly as something plopped into the water, snapping her attention away, her magenta-esq eyes being drawn to it as it sunk down near her. She stared at it, the dull object seemed small, the size of a tooth, if that, but held a round, spherical shape. Something just seemed odd about it and it slowly bubbled down, pulling two shinier objects with it, the trio attached by some sort of string, but these two seemed to each have a curve, which bent down and come to a point, interestingly enough it almost seemed barbed too. Curiously, the gentle Giant moved one of her amber flippers, clearly wanting to touch it.

"Wait, Spess. What is that? Shouldn't you have a better look at it before deciding to touch it...?" Unorthodox asked, having noticed the fish were moving away from her and quickly came around to see what the fuss was about. Spessy seemed surprised that the Polar had come closer towards her, she must have been more distracted than she realised by the new... thing. Spessy shook her head, raising her flipper towards it again, but much slower and more purposeful, "I'm not sure, I haven't seen anything like it..."

"Well, if you have to touch it, perhaps avoid the sharp pointy bit? Maybe touch the string it's attached to." The Polar suggested gently, trying to help the Giant not manage to stick her flipper with the sharp, pointy thing. It looked dangerous, or it did to her at least and the last thing she wanted was for her new friend to accidentally become a porcupine! Though that thought did amuse her for a brief moment and she heard Spessy giving a small huff, attention diverted as she then pouted at the Polar... Who, quite clearly, wasn't having any of her protests or garbage, judging by the expression on her face. With a small chuckle, she nodded.

"True, maybe not the sharp thing, but this sinking device, I think that's fair game." Spessy remarked, after all, it was still moving down through the water. Curiously, she rose her flipper the stroke the string, thoughts running through her mind. What was it, why hadn't she seen anything like this before throughout her whole life?

The reaction was instant, those strings suddenly pulling up sharply. Those two pointy pieces of metal speared up, the two hooks jabbed into her flipper and started pulling up. Spessartine yelped, her pet slug squeaked in alarm from her yelp, the Polar gave a very unhappy growled. But the Polar also heard some sort of excitement through the water,... Was it... voices? Gargled voices? It was echoing around them, but how it seemed as if it was coming from above them? With a growl, the Polar pushed herself through the warmer waters, her claws hooking the string as she tugged it, gently, towards her, before quickly snapped the string with her jaws, teeth shearing it in half. The thud from the metal object above them was loud enough for even Spessy to hear and the now not-so-happy-or-friendly Giant speared through the water, her poor pet clinging on for dear life. She broke through the surface of it in a marvelous display of showering droplets, with a look of anger deep in her eyes as she turned her wrath to those creatures who dared to find enjoyment out of hurting her. But she hesitated as she saw the two smaller creatures on the boat, sticks on either side of them, the scent of juicy, smelly fish stinging her nose, making her crumple it slightly. Resisting the urge to tip the boat over, she lifted her pricked flipper and rested it against the boat, those fishing lines dangling off it and dripping into the water as the Polar decided to keep an eye on Spessy to make sure she didn't do anything she would regret. Unorthodox circled the boat, slowly, not sure if she should tackle the Giant away or not, but instead, she kept an eye on her for now.

"Did you have to do that?" Spessy tried to ask, her voice curt and annoyed, but the two bipedals had stumbled over one another as they heard her voice, looking up at Spessy with no small sign of worry in their eye. She gave a small growl, pushing her flipper further onto the boat, "Why did you do it?" She tried to ask, again, glaring at them both, noticing though that they were rugged up, wearing some sort of thick coat to keep them warm. She was about to give up trying to be patient with them, especially as she could see Unorthodox occasionally through the water, but eventually, one of them noticed the blood dripping down her flipper, pointing to it and uttering words to their friend. She could see the nervousness on their face and she gave a small grumble, her tail breeching the water as she flicked it in annoyance.

"Why?" She asked, just one more time, though it was almost clear now, to her at least, that these... Critters didn't know what she was saying. She'd think about eating them, but they didn't smell all that appealing, if she was honest... But eventually, the one who had noticed her injury shakily got to their feet. Slowly, they moved closer to the flipper, glancing up at Spessy with worry with every inch that they moved closer towards her flipper. She flinched slightly as felt them touch her flipper, their weird warmth odd against her skin, before a sharp pain tore through her. She yelped, almost slapping them overboard with her flipper, but before she could even do that, it was quickly followed by another tug and pull. Without even trying to see what they did, the Giant dove back down into the water, growling, "I'm going to tip their boat over, they're absolutely useless apes which don't understand a thing!"

"Wait, Spess. Look, they pulled them out, you don't need to do that!" Unorthodox protested, gently, her own clawed flipper gently grabbing Spessy's, both to calm the Giant down and to stop her in her tracks, trying to make sure that she didn't, in fact, tip their boat over. At the same time, she tried to show her that the hooks were indeed gone, that the injury had already clotted. The Giant looked surprised at it, rumbling quietly. Did they actually understand what she meant? Did she take them for fools when they were more intelligent...? Surely not... She truly was sceptical of what they'd apparently done, especially as they reminded her of those humans she'd read up about a long time ago.

"They did... But we should go, they looked like humans and the last time any Aqrion messed with humans, only bad things happened." Spessy declared suddenly, turning and darting away, her pet slug flipping off her back, chittering with quite the amount of annoyance, making Unorthodox blink, looking a bit surprised as she sped away. Quickly, or as quick as she should, she followed the Giant, catching her pet on her shoulder as she swam down.

"But it does make you think, what if the legends were wrong? What if there are good humans..?"

Spessy paused... Before giving a small rumble as she shook her hear, almost as if to silently try and answer the Polars statement. If only that were true... Things would have ended differently so long ago.

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Woo! Finished this months MC, looks like Spessy and Unorthodox had an encounter with some fishermen! Oops!

Unorthodox belongs to  rayxray

Spessartine belongs to me~!

WC - 1463