Work Text:
July 2001 – Cody’s third summer away
As much as Jess liked to call them a pelagic species, based on the colorations of their tails (dark mottled patterns on the dorsal side, lighter underside), Cody – somewhat cheekily – liked to think of the whole ocean as their natural habitat. Open waters, coral reefs, kelp forests, rocky undersea cliffs and mountains – he liked all of it, pretty much.
That said, the spot he and his mom had been hanging around the last couple days had a new thing to find. Most remote islands in the Pacific were volcanic, underwater, surrounded by coral reefs and lava rock; this one was no exception, but, as his mom had shown him, had a rare freshwater spring up on land, which created a moderately-sized river running through the middle of the island, and an outlet into the sea. At the mouth of the river, the water was less salty, an interesting taste on Cody’s tongue, and the sediments carried by the river down from the mountains and through the forests meant that the coral hadn’t spread to this delta of estuary. The seafloor, instead, was sand flats, pockets of algae here and there, the water column somewhat murkier. The substrate was silty and smooth and a little bit too sticky-on-your-scales for Cody’s liking, at least for laying on. He had half a thought to, maybe, phase back to legs and explore the island…but decided better of it.
Legs are fun and all, but tails are just cooler.
Still, the new seafloorscape was an interesting new area to explore.
With this being his third summer away, Cody’s mom was a little more OK with them spending time apart; she stayed nearby, of course, but this morning had said she was going to venture closer into the land. Images of the river, of mangrove trees, even a distant view of the mountain above threaded through, and a gentle instruction to meet her near the sand flats around noon.
Cody had been a little lazy that morning, and a little more, for lack of a better description, marine-mammal-ish, spending time at the surface more than usual. The remoteness of their location meant no chance of humans seeing, after all.
Sea otters had the right idea, honestly: hanging out just floating on your back, basking in the sun, letting the lap of the surface bounce you along, gathering up an armful of tasty clams and piling them up on your tummy to leisurely snack on was a perfect set of activities for the morning, all the way into the early afternoon.
Eventually, though, he figured he should venture over to the sand flats.
He had also run out of clams.
Cody brushed the last couple shells off his stomach and rolled over, drifting vertically down and savoring the way the wind brushed on his tail as he submerged. The discarded clam shells flutter-sunk below, back-and-forth like tiny umbrellas drifting down. A speedy armada of eager green fish, small and torpedo-shaped, darted up from the coral tabletop off to his left, snipping at the shells for any remnants of flesh, then whirling back away at finding them empty. Cody snickered to himself at the way they whipped around, almost like they were annoyed with him for getting their attention but providing no reward. Schooling fish could be persnickety like that.
In human terms, it might seem kind of gross, but a merman knew that nibbling a clamshell clean was a perfectly tasty way to finish them off.
He ‘smelled’ the sand flats before he saw them appear over the distant ridge – the corals here thinned, the sweeter scent of the river water not to their liking, giving way to brown lava rock, worn smooth by the sediments. He passingly thought that a few of the curves and crooks looked like they could be comfy to nap on later – something to try out, maybe. He wasn’t completely sure what his mom had wanted to meet up about.
Even odds it was just checking in and swimming together. That was fun too.
Up over the ridge, and the rolling stretches of flat sand came in sight. The water rushed ‘backwards’ compared to the rest of the island, or at least lacked the normal to-and-fro, with the flow of the river pushing out away from the land.
Cody did a slow spiral, just for the fun of it as he cruised along -
- then stopped short, worry hitching in his throat:
A banded sea-snake, writhing along the sand below, looking extremely agitated.
Normally, most sea creatures didn’t mind a merperson – but they were still part of the ecosystem and food web all the same.
The snake swished back and forth, and Cody back-fluttered, waving his arms fast to reverse toward the surface, watching closely whether it would strike. Sea snakes were venomous.
Except, after a second, something bizarre appeared in the snake’s midsection:
Two tall eye-stalks, pointy and peering at him, as the rest of the snake’s body folded up into coils impossible for any vertebrate….
….then several more coils emerged from below the sand, forming an oblong sort of flounder-shape, a little pulsating bag of a mantle coming out last.
Cody had seen plenty of octopuses in his time, but this one was certainly something else. Angular, graceful, strange in the way it wrapped itself into a disc and scooted off and away. It was beautiful, it was weird…and also clearly rather annoyed with him.
So he kept his distance, idling in the water and watching…ugh, OK, it was keen on getting out of sight in the dimmer water.
Well, he did have a standing promise to his favorite marine biologist to report back on interesting marine life. The way Jess would perk up, give him that cute little smile at a new anecdote – that brought a grin to Cody’s face, and then a smooth nudge in his mind that rippled down into his tail flicking powerfully to follow this weird octopus.
He caught up relatively easily: it wasn’t large, or hard to see now that he knew what to look for. He’d never heard of an octopus mimicking a snake, and then a flatfish of some kind – gosh, Jess was gonna love this!
The octopus had settled on the sand again, flatfish-shape forgone, and was sitting on the silt and worming its arms under the surface, obviously foraging. Cody stopped a healthy distance away, not wanting to startle it again.
Its color pattern was kind of unique: cream-white and brown-black striping over its whole body, body very skinny and small compared to the armspan, two stalks on the top of its eyes, swaying a little as it looked around. Its arms were like busy noodles, but its body made Cody think of a meerkat or prairie dog.
He watched as it worked its way along, like a tiny work truck or excavator, pushing the sand around with its slow progress. Cody couldn’t see it, but imagined that the tips of the arms were occasionally delivering small food bits from under the silt to its mouth. Slowly, keeping as casual and not-interested-in-predator-stuff in his body language as possible, he followed along, all attention and interest, both in the moment and stashing all this awesome new sea creature stuff for sharing with his best friend next month…
~ / hey ~ !
He whirled around in surprise, wiggling away reflexively, but finding his mom grinning loving-mischievously behind him, finger still extended from where she’d stealthily stroked it down his spine to surprise him with the goosebumps.
She laughed at him silently, images of the forest and beaches above washing over his mind, with a suggestion of curiosity.
See | looking? ~ attention, easy to sneak up!
Cody smiled bashfully, but then twisted and beckoned her over, pointing in the direction of the weird octopus:
Who, at the extra bit of activity from the merpeople, had taken up a third choice of disguise.
Floating in the water column, all its arms out in a graceful set of curves, stripes still on display, and unmistakably looking like a lionfish.
Look!
His mom smiled and nodded – well, mostly. She got some kind of strange eyebrow furrow, and Cody sensed an unexpected stream of…concern? confusion?
With a slow beat of her tail, the mermaid moved pensively toward it, hands out wide and non-threatening, looking it over. After a few seconds, Cody followed, then found his mom reaching out to take his hand.
| beautiful ~ see?
coral snakes / danger / cleverness /
~ other octopuses / far friendlier / this one likes space ~
~ / ~ far from home.
Cody felt the sliver of sadness in there. He squeezed her hand, a vague question in his mind, asking for more.
She looked around, projecting images of the sandy flats.
| far off – south and west to the setting sun ~ weeks of travel to reach
other rivers | other forests
silt on your scales / silt on your hands
~ a different taste | scent in the water \ more humans \ boats and nets
more of them / very, very far.
Cody got the message, the images in his mind, especially of the hazy images of people and boats, indicating that in human terms, she was likely describing Indonesia or southeast Asia. More estuaries there than the middle of nowhere Pacific Ocean with a rare freshwater rivermouth.
He looked back at the octopus, still floating along like a lionfish, tiny eyes glaring at them. Cody felt a weird pang in his chest.
This poor little thing. The only one, so far away from anyone else like it. Sure, in a safe enough place, something that had become home…but almost certainly would never see another like itself again.
His mother picked that up, threading their fingers together and giving him a knowing – almost apologetic – look…but no elaboration. Instead, she pointed to the octopus, then outward toward the open sea.
Storms and currents | strange streams \ long journeys
this one - lucky to live through such a long trip
She turned her face back to the octopus, just in time for it to drop the facade: it suddenly went torpedo-like, and spat a small squirt of ink in their direction.
They both giggled silently, like two eddies in each other’s minds, merging together. Their afternoon companion clearly had decided that the social engagement was at an end.
The mermaid reached over with her other hand to scratch the back of her son’s head affectionately.
~ food? | clams and algae – stands of barnacles back at the coral
/ sleeping / noticed last night
Cody wince-smiled and put his hand on his belly; no telepathy was needed for his mom to tell that he’d already eaten.
That said, he was still 15 – just ‘cause you ate a ton of clams that morning didn’t mean you weren’t also down for more snacks.
He brightened up and let go of her hand, then spun a spiral before looking back, echo-repeating the images of various foods back to her.
~ sure Mom! | race?!?
For a moment, the mermaid looked like she might say something else…
…then, instead, didn’t wait for any further answer, dashing forward suddenly and tagging Cody’s shoulder as she passed, teasing-bragging laughter at how surprised he looked, and with absolutely no intentions of giving up her head start.