Reshfen Kelp Forest, Seafaes | Late Spring

The shadows of the sparse kelp above danced through the round window and animated on the stone floor. His room was dark and snug, his sleeping hammock positioned so that the light from outside never shone in his face while he was tucked away.

The click of his door opening drove Naoto to further burrow into his nest of blankets.

“You’re not up yet?” Ondes let out a disappointed huff.

Naoto turned over and flicked his black, white-spotted tail in silent, sleepy protest to what he knew would happen next.

“Come on, get up. You said you’d help me open the clinic today.” When there was no response, Ondes opened the door fully and swam in. He grabbed the edge of his son’s cloth hammock and yanked it upwards; tipping it upside down and spilling out Naoto and his nest of blankets. “The Atmosa caravan is still due into Reshfen. I could really use the extra hand, Naoto.”

Naoto closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to the stonework under him, his hazel hair splaying out around his head. “Dad, you said the same thing yesterday,” Naoto whined into the floor. “You promised me I could have a day off.”

“I promise that once the caravan’s come and gone you can have a whole week off from helping your poor, overworked father,” Ondes offered. “But until then we need to be ready.”

Ondes left the room and Naoto lay on the floor for a moment longer in peace before wiggling out of his blankets. He leaned on his hands and stretched his body in a wave motion, ending with a shake of his golden tail fins. When he was finished he placed the blanket-lump back into his hammock.

Naoto glided over to his mirror; a simple silvered glass set in a plain roped frame. He quickly ran a seashell comb through his fine hazel hair and tied his shoulder-length locks back into a low, messy bun. Naoto leaned closer to the mirror and focused on his reflection. Staring back at him were his narrow, sleek eyes - more amber iris than any white, with only a dark pupil in the center. He then spent another minute arranging his bangs just-so - he liked them hanging over his face enough to obscure his eyes.

Unlike normal mer, who had scales that trailed up their backs and spread across their shoulders, Naoto’s white-splotched black scales ended suddenly at his hips. Smooth, light skin continued up from there. He got cold more easily than most nereids, however indoors he was generally fine.

Naoto swept down the hallway and lifted the wooden trapdoor that covered the porthole to the clinic below. Nestled in dark, old stonework, he and his father lived on the upper level of their home while the lower level was comprised of four patient rooms and a main waiting area.

He checked each patient room. No one had spent the night, so nothing had changed since the day before. In the pale green light of the ever-lit algae orbs, he could tell each shelf in each room had the same amount of bandages, tincture vials, gorgonian pastes in little jars, and scratchy blankets.

Naoto rolled his eyes and floated to the main waiting area, lined with a couple benches and a small desk that Naoto sat at and played secretary on slower days. It was the same there; not a paper out of place and none of the algae orbs in the upper corners had died overnight.

The clinic was in good condition should an influx of patients looking to avoid the lines in the city come. His dad was worrying for nothing.

He was about to find and bother his father about getting a day off anyways when a horrible, uncontrolled feeling crawled up under his scaleless skin and gripped his chest. It was fear. And it wasn’t his own. Naoto could feel the source of the fear upstairs in the kitchen.

He swam as fast as he could.

Ondes had rigidly steadied himself against the stone of their kitchen table as his muscles twitched and spasmed, short flashes of bright blue light erupting from under his back and shoulder scales. His gills glowed hotly with his unstable Will. Naoto could feel Ondes’s voice stuck in his throat, his father’s fear now replaced by a mild anger and frustration.

Naoto called his own Will to his fingertips, and a soft, white light danced between his unwebbed fingers. He carefully placed one hand at the middle of his father’s spine and the other at the base of his skull, and, slowly, Ondes relaxed as he regained control over his own body. Naoto caught him as he slumped forward. It was a quick, easy way to end the episode without Ondes accidentally straining something, but left him more tired than if he had waited it out.

“Felt that one a little late,” Ondes breathed, trying to make light of it. Golden hair hung down into his face, though Naoto could see how his face was now practically devoid of color.

“Someone had me checking on stuff he knew was fine,” Naoto quipped back. He placed Ondes’s arm over his shoulder to support him as he towed him out of the kitchen and to his room.

As soon as Naoto opened the door to Ondes’s room, Ondes weakly tried to pull himself out of his son’s grip. “I’m fine. We’ve got to be ready-”

“For the caravan that’s totally not coming?” Naoto’s fine brows climbed high on his face and he again stared his dad in the eye. Ondes broke eye contact by diverting his unfocused attention to the floor.

The merchant caravan from Atmos had been due in the day before. And the day before that. Actually, Naoto was sure the caravan may have been several days late. It wasn’t uncommon for groups using the northern clear currents that ran through the wastes to be off by a day, though two or more was strange.

“You rest,” Naoto told Ondes as he helped him into his own hammock. “We’ll keep the clinic closed. Just for today.” Naoto made sure to emphasize the ‘for today’ part. “You can rest and I’ll go into Reshfen, maybe see if anyone knows why the caravan’s late.”

So you can stop stressing about it, he wanted to add, but held his tongue.

Late spring brought warmer waters than winter, though the water still carried with it a cool chill. The black wrap tunic covering his torso was enough to stave off shivering - Naoto would warm up once he got moving. Plus, strangers would never guess the skin underneath was scaleless.

With the strap of patched bag slung over his shoulder, Naoto locked the clinic door behind him as he left.

The midmorning sun shone down through the swaying, late spring kelp above and the water was calm enough that the newer foliage didn’t dip into the pathway. There were a few purple urchins stuck fast to the kelp stalks closest to the clinic, Naoto made a mental note of removing them.

As he turned, something long, brown, and very fuzzy darted past him in the water. When Naoto did not immediately give this something the acknowledgement it wanted, it started trying to pull him back by his bag.

Another dark, furry streak rushed by, squeaking delightfully.

The otters reached out to him with their playful emotions. One rolled under his right hand, wanting a belly rub. The other gripped his left hand, repeatedly pressing a flat stone into his palm, wanting to show off a new oyster rock. They wanted attention.

He had played with the otters growing up and they had been his only friends, before he befriended other nereids his own age. His dad had told him stories about how otters had traditionally never lived so far east, and were very scarcely around when Ondes was a kid.

Naoto scooped the belly rub-seeker up into his arms and fulfilled her wish for tummy scritches before letting her drift away, gently sending her sailing towards the urchins. She was delighted and quickly snatched one, the other otter behind her excitedly doing the same, their furry forms then shooting towards the surface.

From the edge of the kelp it was an hour-long swim over several deep crags and half-buried overlander ruins to the edges of Reshfen.

Naoto looked down at the old world wreckage below him as he swam - crumbling concrete with sharp, metal bones jutting out. What hadn’t been salvaged from the overlanders’ remains had been repurposed - a lot of the ruins made perfect shellfish plantations, their walls covered in a swath of mussels.

As Naoto reached the final crevice, a light, off-key trilling caught his attention. Hanging in the deep water below him, two nereids - both Naoto’s age, one a bright blue and the other was a more neutral lavender-gray - were stroking the noses of a small pack of needy dogfish. They swam up to greet him and the dogfish scattered in all directions.

The first to reach him was the blue mer, who all out tackled him at such a high speed that they tumbled head-over-tail in the water. Very long and very blue, Lluvan Tiago was a mer who boasted a tail almost as long as a syren’s; Lluvan was a bright sapphire color, from his scales, to his eyes, to his short, curly hair. His scales gave way to dusky skin and a sharp face.

The other nereid was not as definable in form. Keyes Falcata was half-mer, half-syren. His tail wasn’t as nearly as long as Lluvan’s - and though he had more defined musculature than Lluvan or Naoto, he wasn’t bulky. Clawed fingers tipped feathered arms. Lavender tail scales crawled up to give way to purple, waterproof feathers - underneath it all was pale, silvery skin. Black eyes, similar in shape to Naoto’s, peered out from behind shoulder-length black hair.

“You got the day off!” Lluvan cheered. Keyes trilled at him and Lluvan, rolling his eyes, let Naoto out of the hug. “Fine.”

“Not exactly,” Naoto sighed. His mouth pulled to one side. “Dad had an episode this morning.”

Keyes frowned. “Are you guys still expecting business from the Atmosa nereids?”

Naoto gave a small nod. “Yeah. The caravan’s late.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Dad doesn’t want to say anything, but we’re getting low on food. The usual.”

“You know my family wouldn’t mind sending over some leftovers,” Lluvan offered. “Mom cooks enough for an army anyways.”

“That’s because between you, your dad, and all six of your sisters, she’s basically cooking for one,” Naoto chuckled. Keyes cracked a smirk.

Lluvan shook his head, hands on his hips. “You both should know by now she’d offer up any extra food. To either of you.”

“My mom is too stubborn to accept handouts.” Keyes huffed out bubbles.

“Same, but with my dad,” Naoto agreed. “Otherwise you know I’m always ready for free food. As long as it’s not gross.”

Naoto glanced towards the white wall he could see off in the distance. Keyes and Lluvan both lived in Reshfen with their families. Naoto was not an unstable nereid, but he still occasionally had trouble getting into the city. Before his mother had joined the civil guard, Keyes had trouble coming and going too.

The brief memory of the first time Naoto had heard a gold-and-jewel covered mer mutter “notareid” at him as they swam by was quickly dismissed.

Naoto pursed his lips in thought. “Hey, Keyes, is your mom on duty this morning?” he asked.

Keyes slowly blinked his black eyes. “Yeah. Main gate.”