by Starla Night
He twisted his mammoth tentacles as though making excuses.
The megalodons were over there. He was over here. He’d jump in if they threatened his city, his cave. The mermen had led the prehistoric sharks here themselves. Octopus Kong had no patience for whippersnappers and their pranks. They should conduct themselves more intelligently, like octopi.
“That’s all fine, but that is your city.”
His song shifted to increase the buzz. No one had asked him to intervene.
“I’m asking you.”
He trained both eyes on her.
“Yes, really. I told you, I only hug in a professional capacity.” She raised her arms. “If we are going to work together, go ahead.”
One tentacle reached out and curled around her. It squeezed gently. The massive stub at the end of the tentacle brushed her cheek. Tasting. Getting to know her.
Feeling her determination.
Ciran kicked from a huge distance. His voice just reached her. “Queen Aya!”
“Alright.” She pointed at the megalodon hovering over the Life Tree. “Let’s go save the day.”
Octopus Kong raised his tentacles and changed colors from gray to white to streaked green. His song changed from off-tune gargling to a strangled seagull thrown into a blender. Clearly, the war cry of the battle octopus.
“To war!” she shouted.
Octopus Kong jetted across the ocean.
Behind them, Ciran’s shocked, slack-jaw awe was all the tingling, feel-good reward she needed.
Octopus Kong flew across the distance like a watery dragon of olde. Aya rode in front, coiled in one tentacle. He reached the outer edge of the fleeing army. The fleeing warriors gaped and pointed in shock.
What? Had they never seen a woman riding a giant octopus into battle before?
Before her, the two megalodons loomed like horrifying vacuum cleaners of death, suctioning mermen off the carpet of the ocean bottom. The army of her enemies fled in horror from the beasts they had unleashed.
Octopus Kong aimed for the closest megalodon. It shied away, leaving the warriors to face the giant octopus.
“No! The Life Tree.”
Octopus Kong shifted direction with a huff. His battle urges must be pumping. His war cry increased in volume.
The second megalodon turned warily to follow their progress across the battlefield. The giant sharks respected the giant octopus as an adversary.
Excellent. She chose her partners well.
At the Life Tree, Elyssa rose. She held her arms wide and her head was thrown back like an angel experiencing the rapture. A white energy barrier shielded her.
The third megalodon focused on Elyssa. It lowered its mouth.
Aya knew that monster. She raised her fist. It was not going to destroy another part of the Life Tree.
Kadir flew into the barrier. Elyssa grabbed his hand, holding him safely.
Wait. Were the other warriors nearby? How—
Soren flew past the barrier, purposely missing it. He lofted his trident. Rage filled his war scream.
He was attacking the megalodon? He was crazy!
The megalodon would eat him. Just like in the trench, when there was nothing she could do but scream in horror.
He flew into the mouth.
The jaws closed.
Soren disappeared.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Octopus Kong flew at the megalodon, but it was already too late.
The megalodon closed its jaws. Soren disappeared inside its mouth.
He was gone.
“No!” Aya shrieked.
Her hands glowed. Elyssa’s white barrier glowed also. With Aya’s power added, the barrier flew forward and punched the megalodon in the nose.
The megalodon jerked backward and coughed.
Soren flew out of its mouth.
Kadir swam forward and dragged Soren into safety. The barrier reformed around Elyssa and the two males.
The megalodon thrashed, making a choked, coughing noise. More warriors flew out of its mouth. Friends and enemies, bruised and bloody, were suddenly given a reprieve. They scrambled for escape.
Octopus Kong released Aya and flew at the third megalodon with all arms waving.
The megalodon flew backwards, exhaling hard. More warriors puked out of its mouth. Octopus Kong zigged and zagged, tentacles curling to thrash the prehistoric shark. The sucker-scarred megalodon kept its teeth facing the octopus. Both adversaries thrust and parried for an opening to attack.
Aya swan-dove into the middle of Elyssa’s barrier.
Soren was holding his head. A new, jagged scar ripped down one cheek. He looked up, saw her, and his arms opened.
She crashed into him.
They tumbled.
“You are so reckless,” he growled, holding her tight.
“Says the male who dove into a megalodon’s mouth.” She kissed him hard on the lips. “You are never doing that after we get married.”
He was alive. He was whole. All her fears were put to rest by holding his big, solid body in her arms and squeezing, and in the instant after he melted away his surprise, he kissed her back, hard and solid.
He stroked her hair and pulled back. Concern darkened his eyes. “You were supposed to go to the surface.”
“Not without you.” She gripped his shoulders. “Didn’t you hear? There are predators on the surface. It’s unsafe.”
He snorted, shook his head and squeezed her hard. “You do not need me to protect you.”
“That’s true.” She pulled back and kissed him again. A stamp of her possession. “I don’t need you. I just want you. I hope that’s good enough.”
His dark eyes fired with possession. “You are mine.”
“Same.” She stroked his hard brow. “Okay then. Let’s finish this.”
The megalodon scooted backward into the battlefield. The other two megalodons also flew back, exhaling to evade Octopus Kong. Warriors were regurgitated all over the ocean floor as the giant sharks avoided their wily foe.
In comparison to their size, the megalodons were much larger than the mammoth octopus. He was like a Smart car attacking a semi truck. But he was effective.
One of the megalodons scooted the wrong direction. Octopus Kong wrapped his arms around the megalodon’s middle. The megalodon thrashed, bending to bite the octopus but not flexible enough to do so. The octopus squeezed.
The megalodon dive-bombed the ocean floor.
Octopus Kong shoved off it at the last moment.
The megalodon crashed into floor, scraping its body along the sharp rocks. Great gouges scored its sides and blood stained the water. It flew unsteadily away from the city.
Octopus Kong wheeled to face the other megalodons.
They both backed away.
Octopus Kong selected one and flew at it.
It shot backwards, exhaling full force. The mammoth octopus followed, arms waving furiously. They raced across the ocean floor, the megalodon clearly racing, like the other one, back to the safety of its abyss.
Only the third megalodon remained.
It was the one that had attacked them in the trench. All around it, injured warriors filled the water, scrambling away. It ignored them, instead moving across the debris-clouded field toward the Life Tree. Its mouth opened. The eerie inhaling began.
Soren and Aya were sucked into Elyssa’s barrier.
Elyssa linked hands with King Kadir. “I don’t know how much longer Lucy can make this barrier.”
“Lucy’s making it?”
“It’s her talent. I can amplify it. That’s my talent.” Elyssa looked to Aya. “Tell me you have a plan.”
A plan was forming…
The third megalodon floated over them. Its endless gullet of hunger stretched into a black pit. Jagged teeth jutted from gums scarred with the stabs of desperate, helpless victims. Its eerie inhaling made the Life Tree shudder.
Soren and Kadir kicked forward, placing themselves between the megalodon and th
e women.
“This one will not turn aside,” Soren growled. His empty hands flexed as though searching for his lost trident. “It will not rest until we are in its gullet.”
“Then that’s exactly where we’re going to be.” Aya slung her arm around Soren. “Come down. Shrink the barrier.”
King Kadir and Soren regarded her with concern.
“Trust me.” Aya descended into the sanctuary, tugging Soren’s fin. “Hurry.”
Elyssa floated down with Kadir. The barrier shrank inward to the edge of the Life Tree petals.
“What are you doing?” Soren dove with Aya to the dais of the Life Tree. The bubble continued to contract and the megalodon’s large teeth followed them. “It will swallow us.”
“Yes.” Aya clung to him as the shadow of the megalodon closed over them and its teeth passed their level. “That’s the idea.”
Lucy rested in Torun’s arms, his back against the Life Tree, focused on her birth. Faier and the beat-up lure braced in the entrance. Faier’s terrified eyes tracked the teeth passing outside, only the slightest light of Lucy’s barrier preventing them all from getting sucked out, into its maw.
Elyssa floated to Aya’s level. Her eyes opened and she reached out and clasped one of Aya’s hands. She laughed, excited and carefree, as though they were planning another Unicorn Mermaid Girl excursion. “Now what?”
“We’re going to wait. Lucy?”
“You’re the boss, Aya.” Lucy kept her eyes closed and raised her hands. Elyssa took one. Aya kicked forward, dragging Soren with her, and released him to take Lucy’s other hand, so the three women united in a triad.
“Is your queen well?” Kadir asked Torun with concern.
The gold-tattooed warrior looked as tired as Lucy. He held her, sloppily satisfied. “Yes. She is having a quiet transition. It is well-earned, too.”
Kadir nodded and then, inspired by Torun’s hug, moved behind Elyssa and nuzzled her. “How can I help?”
She snuggled against him. “Oh, this is good.”
Aya straightened, holding both women’s hands in her own. “Soren, I need you.”
He flew to her and held on tightly.
The Life Tree shuddered.
Faier cried out. “It is closing over us. It will sever the stalk!”
“It will not sever the stalk,” Aya told him.
Lucy and Elyssa repeated her.
The Life Tree stopped shuddering.
Warmth filled her chest. She had proved Faier wrong. She was right. He was wrong. It felt so very, very good to be right.
Overhead, the monster’s gullet created a black night. The Life Tree’s quiet cherry blossom – silver radiance was their only source of light. In the belly of the beast, the warriors hugged their queens.
“Now?” Soren murmured, his chest vibrating against her back. “Your plan?”
“We expand the barrier outward, fast and hard. We’ll pop this fish like a balloon.”
Lucy cracked an eye. “I don’t know if I can expand the barrier so fast. Even with Elyssa’s augmentation.”
“No problem.” Aya grinned. “Pushing things away is my talent.”
Faier looked down the stalk. “It is releasing the stalk.”
“Now!”
White light filled the chamber. The Life Tree tinkled with power. Their iridescent barrier expanded.
Aya imagined the megalodon thinking it would eat them. She imagined proving it wrong. She imagined the satisfaction.
The barrier flew wider and wider. The Life Tree tinkled louder and louder. Warmth filled her chest and crackled along her hands where she linked to Elyssa and Lucy.
And then it stopped.
She cracked an eye.
The megalodon was still hovering over them. Its gullet stretched like a dark pit of hell over the hole in the sanctuary.
Uh oh.
“What’s happening?” Aya asked Faier.
“We are wedged,” he said. “The megalodon’s mouth is open but it cannot spit us out. You must push harder.”
Elyssa floated in King Kadir’s arms, her face peaceful and radiant. Lucy squeezed Aya’s hand so tightly it left a white mark. And Aya was right.
It wasn’t enough.
“How can I support you?” Soren growled. Clearly this was beyond him.
She needed him to tell her she couldn’t do it. Then, she would imagine his face when she proved him wrong, and increase her resonance.
“Do you think I can do it?” she baited him. “Will I fail?”
“Can you use the energy of the Life Tree to expand the barrier until it causes injury to the megalodon?” Soren squeezed her. “Of course you can do this. You are the most powerful queen who has ever lived.”
The others glowed and channeled their energy into expanding out the barrier.
Wait. Did he say she could do it?
It wasn’t even a question. Soren had complete faith in her abilities to use a super mystical power to blow up a giant fish.
Oh. Well, so did she.
Aya flowed her power into the barrier like the superior wizard Soren knew she was.
It was okay to be strong. It was okay to be powerful. It was okay to try her hardest.
Soren would still love her.
She was worthy of love.
The barrier exploded outward with a sudden synthesis of their three energies. It reached the wall of the megalodon’s flesh and tightened. The creature groaned.
And then, again, the barrier stopped.
“A little more,” Faier called.
More? They needed more?
Lucy shuddered. The barrier shrank, unstable. She moaned. “The babies. They’re coming.”
“You are doing well.” Torun stroked her hair with his free hand. “You are a wonderful mother.”
The barrier eased inward again. The megalodon wriggled. It was getting free.
No!
“Soren.” Aya tightened down on her power. “You are an honorable warrior, a caring lover, and you will be a wonderful father.”
He thrummed. “Your faith makes me so.”
“We’re getting married. Right now.”
He pressed his forehead against the back of her head as if she were the trunk of the Life Tree. “I, Soren of Atlantis, present Aya as my chosen bride. Shower your blessing and healing on our union so she may give us a young fry.”
Power flowed into her. “I, Aya of Miami, present Soren as my chosen husband. Shower your blessing and healing on our union so I may give us a young fry.”
The barrier expanded outward.
“Elyssa!” she shouted. “King Kadir! Renew your vows.”
Elyssa grinned radiantly, her eyes closed and her head tipped back to rest on her husband’s broad shoulder. “I, Elyssa of America, present Kadir as my chosen king. Shower your blessing and healing on our union so we have a wonderful baby.”
“I, Kadir of Atlantis, present Elyssa as my chosen queen. Shower your blessing and healing on our union so she may give us a wonderful baby.”
The barrier shoved outward.
It was happening. The Life Tree pulsed with power.
“Lucy. Torun!”
“I, Torun of Sireno, present Lucy as my chosen bride. Shower your blessing and healing on our union so she may give us two young fry.”
The megalodon thrashed, its mouth open, the Life Tree a choking hazard it had made the mistake of trying to eat. Its flesh stretched tight and its bones cracked.
Lucy’s mouth opened. She grimaced.
“Lucy!” Aya shouted.
Instead of vowing, she groaned. “The baby…is here!” She leaned forward and pushed.
The Life Tree glowed so hard it vibrated with a holy white shimmer. The barrier exploded outward.
Pop.
The monster exploded into white, fleshy chum. Fish steaks the size of VW buses tumbled past the entrance and fell to the sea floor. The entire back half of the megalodon slipped backward and disappeared.
Chapter Thir
ty-Three
Queen Lucy groaned and collapsed against Torun.
Soren thanked the Life Tree that he was present for this amazing miracle. The megalodon was destroyed, the army routed, and the first young fry of Atlantis was born!
Torun lifted his young fry tenderly. The tiny infant wiggled his fists and kicked. His chest vibrated in a newborn cry.
Queen Lucy wiped her face and reached out. Torun pressed her son into her arms. She held him and rocked, and Torun hugged the both of them. Heartbreaking joy and awe flowed between the two new parents.
Warmth glowed in Soren’s chest and a lump formed in his throat. They were so beautiful. This was how it should always be. Husband and wife and young fry. Together. Secure in their love. Happy.
And then Lucy pitched forward again. Torun held their newborn son while the second was born.
“She is a female,” Torun exclaimed. “A queen.”
The warriors gasped.
Kadir caught Soren’s eye. Triumph lit his face. He had foretold this miracle.
No female had been born to the mer in a thousand years. Not since before the great crisis that destroyed old Atlantis. Now, a queen was once more born. The problems were reversing. Their race would survive.
Queen Lucy finished with the birth. Torun hugged her again as the beautiful creamy-blue infants cried and nosed for her breasts. Soon they were suckling contentedly. Queen Lucy stroked them, awe lighting her exhausted features, and they all rested against the sparkling, holy Life Tree.
Everyone moved back, toward the edge of the broken dais, to give them privacy.
Aya swallowed hard several times as she observed them.
“Are you well?” Soren asked, thrumming for her ears alone.
She nodded, finally looking away. “I’ve always wanted kids, but I was worried. I thought I was missing an important gene. But that,” she swallowed again, hard, and her eyes rimmed in red, “was more affecting than I thought it would be. I’m not worried anymore.”
Good. “You will be a fierce mother.”
“Yes.” Aya rested her head on Soren’s shoulder. “I will.”
“So.” Queen Elyssa teased Kadir with sparkling eyes. “I expect our birth story to be just as amazing.”
