SHARDS of GEMSTONES

YOUR LOVE

A blooming light within the darkness of shoal life emerges. Between the black slugs that roamed around corals and plains, the falling marine snow wafting blizzards through their scales, and the bioluminescence of hanging lights, a true world blossoms and comes together as one being; the ocean.

It is said, hundreds of years ago, when the ersboric chemicals were first being found by mimics, the world they lived in was horrid. The grass was greener without the pain of death at every turn. Whether you were, as a parasite, eaten by your host, or shot and killed by a human. Those who studied mimics took them in, and still do to this day. The number of merfolk stolen from the ocean hails not counted, dismissed, and praised for science. Yet, merfolk still remember the calls of Mast along the sea shores. He was a simple man, a family man, and fought a merfish with his bare arms. A beast, one strong like a whale. Mast froze the sea by using these ersboric gemstones against the merfolk. Stealing their power by forcing a young buck to aide him. That buck's name was Mane'ais. He was dragged by his hair to the shores of which he was called to remove the power from the sea, the very thing that was feeding it and saving it's nutrients. Winter was what Mast had brought upon them, for the sea never shivered like it did at that moment.

The winter, it worsens, and it becomes harsh every new cycle without the Grand Gemstone. The Dryland season batters the cold against howling winds, only to send it into the ocean. All merfolk know of this tale, for the Whali folk who swam with their guardians to the surface saw him commit. As the oyewa's foretold, the Great Freeze would occur and a human was to wield the sea's downfall. Mane'ais, the buck who had no other choice, was left within the shackles of the ocean. Torn by the blistering cold, the buck knew no other than warmth of a laboratory. Yet, he survived. Those lifetimes, he bred into the shoals alongside his future generations, and when he finally had no more oxygen to grasp for, the oyewa's spoke of a curse he imbued to his last generation. From his son, to his mate, and to their child...

A maid, of dark skin and black hair, a conger eel with a blistering love for the surface. She went upwards until the winter came, and she knew of the snow that battered the frosts of the surface. The maid huddled in her den, located far from any shoal, structured with false tunnels and dens. She meets her eggie's face. And brings a smile. Her brain scattered, only focused on the winter's curse, one she spoke to her son..

We built the seas they travel on, and bless the food they steal, so with this treasure, I call upon the anchored...

The landscape churned and twisted as Loch's eyes shot open. He felt his skin curl with prickles of cold air. He sneezed once he felt the weight of the chill, mewing out beyond blurry eyes, "Where am I?" He asked with uncertainty, feeling around his limbs to see if he had been shackled or caged in.

Pearleye crept over with a basket of tools in her mouth, muffled she spoke, "You're in the way."

The buck slowly rose, eyes now clearing up, and when he shifted his tail under his belly, he knew that he was in the nurse's den. Eyeing the nest in front of him, a small glider laid with bundles of sheets along his frail body. His wounds were cleaned and patched, yet his breath from his dry gills still called for longing suffering. He must have fallen asleep while resting by Zale's side.

A slow rise in his belly meant that Loch was hungry, and as he turned to Pearleye's packed lunch, he felt a worrying string of thought pull him close the the entrance of the nurse's den. He had not eaten in a while, and if he was to skip, he wouldn't be be able to go through his plan. But he did not want to fatten himself either. The buck looked back at Zale, and grumbled, then paddled out of the den and out the cave. Above the cave's tunnels, he grinned as he flashed his colors at a few swimmers he had bonded with, specifically Clawwhisker, who was licking at her eggie's forehead.