SHARDS of GEMSTONES

YOUR BLOOD

The late winter cold brought in the icy waves of slumber. The rock palaces of the stonelands glimmered with life as algae and bioluminescent kelp crumbled to the seafloor like dead leaves. The savanna of rocky land that stretched from the ghost shoal to deep beyond the bay was littered with pebbles and whale carcasses. Like all stonelands, it seemed to also house a frenzy of unwelcoming inhabitants.

"Do not touch that!" A barracudina merfish slapped a shell shaped glass from out of a conger eel's fins.

The smaller conger eel cleaned the mess that had been made. This one was a buck, and his long fins that connected on his underbelly and spine were drenched in a slime, indicating his young and frail nature. While he spent time picking up the glass, his fins ran over parts of the rocky terrain, watching roots delve into the floor and slither across. When his black fins opened the roots, he found a large snake headed blade and wielded it. It pulsed with hues of purple, just like his own luminescence, and he tamed the snake right before the eyes of the rude barracudina. The other fish saw his dominance, and bowed to him, placing him right on top of the throne. The end...

"This one sucked, tell another one." Bubbled a yellow sailfish. He chewed into the spine of a fish carcass, cracking the bones with his jaws and fins.

A disappointed conger eel shook his scales. "That is exactly what happened the last time I went there, that bawta'la was as rude as a crab."

The sailfish lifted from his finished meal, heavy and fat on the serving. As his large tail swooped in and hit the rocky earth, the buck darted into a makeshift den. It was just a hole large enough to fit him. The conger eel felt his fins lay flat, and a growl shoot from his jaws.

"I'm serious, you know. Our driftnetting days will be over, Kelp." The eel bellowed.

"Shut up, Loch." The sailfish grumbled. "You need to be a mature fin for two waves and dea'laka ta maid'ala."

Loch curled himself into a small circle beside the remains of their feast. He let the ocean drift him into his den, filled with old bloody netting and moss cushion. The buck looked towards the reflection up above, but saw only the howling of whales. His skin lubed itself with a sickly mucus while he rolled in his gray den, only for a moment did he truly sleep peacefully.

The morning of winter frost touched the buck's nose, awakening him just like the flashing of luminescent lights between his and Kelptooth's dens. His eyes, damp with a jelly overcoat, opened to see the dancing bulb of light before him. It was blinding, and it was invisible at the same time. What he could not see, he made up in smell. Loch tumbled deeper into the den while letting out a loud wail on his jaws.

The eel slithered from below the other buck, twisting his tail underneath himself, and darting away with speed. He could hear the loud banging of fins on the seafloor, as if he was chased by a berserk-filled beast of malicious nature. His belly twisted in hope as before him, he saw an opening in the earth that seemed so close. From the right, a mean left hook of a tackle rode into the bubbles and crushed Loch underneath a hold.

"Release me!" The eel cried out, gurgling on his weak gills as he felt the meaty scruff of his neck be handled by an extending jaw. Just above him was the same light that found him.

A tripod fish, decorated in tight drapes of purple and black, loomed over Loch. "So you're the monster that keeps getting into our shoal." The buck laughed. "You're a little too old for that, huh?"

Loch noticed the cloths and snarled. He was being brought in by patrol. His skin wriggled uncomfortably in the bright lights of the kingdom, the same lube he kept within his pores lathered his dry skin, just before he ripped himself from the teeth of the stoplight loosejaw. Immediately, the growing pain in his escape riled up the shoal. Maids and bucks that spoke in the clearing barked out in surprise at the large eel splitting the crowd, fins still prickling as Loch climbed onto the high rock, with his jaws outwards like he had conquered something. He was high up above them all, with his black figure like a serpent in the ocean.