Beached

17~Docks~

She treads water under the dock, arms clutching the barnacle entrusted support column.

She feels so overwhelmed with helplessness and loss. Two of her people. Gone. And what can she do? She looks down beneath the murky water at her dark, blue tipped scales. She can't travel on their land. She can't communicate with any of them. If her family was on land with them... there's absolutely no way she could do anything to get them back.

A single drop of water overflows from her eyelashes, trails down her already wet cheek, slips off of her jaw, and leaves a ring of ripples in the water below.

Her sense tell her to go back to the rest of her group. They pleaded with her to not to leave in the first place. They told her it was too dangerous, that she'd never see them again.

Still, she finds herself unable to turn back leave the other two behind.

"You think this will work?"

Footsteps clunk against the dried wooden planks above. Her head dips down, only her eyes above the water. The sun shines through the cracks in the dock, painting her and the water around her in stripes of light.

"It's a good plan. It has to."

A boat to her left rocks, sending baby waves through the water. Her dark hair bounces with the water's surface.

"Hurry, bring her in."

The backtracking footsteps shadow over the cracks, blocking out the light as they pass.

Then her brain lights up with a familiar presence. She pulls her head above water and grips the slimy wood post in excitement.

The boat rocks again as the second figure steps aboard. The sound of an engine hums to life, and within a minute, the vehicle is in motion.

She stares at it with equal amounts of fear and hope. But something else overpowers them both: determination.

She dives under the water and swims toward the vessel.