Who Will Protect Me? (Open)

[Deleted]

Alana wanted to go home. She hated it here. She hated having legs and she hated living on land. She just wanted to go home and now she couldn’t go home even if she did know how. They kept talking about a portal, whatever that was and now it was closed and there was a war coming. Lana hated it. She hated all of it and she just wanted to go home.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them snuggly. War sounded terrifying. Alana wasn’t sure what to do. Andy and Ariel had always been the brave ones. They would help and do whatever they could. But what about Lana? She was pretty useless when it came to actually doing something useful. She had no skills. Just the sight of blood would probably make her faint and she was too afraid of people to try and help them in person. What else was there to do? The only thing she could possibly do was sing and that wouldn’t help anyway. Besides, her sisters were much better singers than she could ever hope to be so why bother trying?

Lana was frightened by the upcoming war. War was a scary word. People fighting and killing each other sounded horrible. She’d never seen a dead person before, but it would probably be awful. Dead things were awful. Anything dying was awful. She should know, after all. Her mother had died when she had been a guppy and that had only been an accident! Now people wanted to hurt each other. It was the worst thing Alana could imagine. Where other children going to lose their parents because of war?

The mergirl didn’t want to think about that. That hurt too much to think about so instead she pulled herself to her feet and began to walk down the beach. The waves crashed beside her and she hugged her middle, looking horribly worried and afraid because she was afraid. Daddy wouldn’t be happy about this. He wouldn’t be happy at all. Not one bit. If only he were here. He would tell her what to do and what to think and then everything would be okay because Daddy would protect her. Who would protect her now?

[chesh]

In general, Chesh didn’t particularly like the beach. He found it sandy and wet, two things that did not exactly agree with his pelt. However in his human form, things were a little different. Skin was much easier to brush off than was fur, and he had grown rather fond of the beach once and a while. Now it seemed like it was the furthest away he could get from campus without crossing the barrier.

He could see it glittering just beyond the horizon. A prison.

He didn’t yet know who he should speak with about getting to the other side of that barrier.
But he planned to do it. And soon.

He turned his head in just enough time to see a fragile looking girl walking in his direction.
Chesh liked fragile things, though he had a reputation from breaking them. He propped himself up on his elbows, still laid out in the sand in his shorts and a t-shirt, wiggling his toes with interest. “Where are you going, princess? Assuming you are a princess, in which case I suppose I should actually refer to you as ‘your highness.’ But in the case you’re not, we’ll stick with princess.”

[Deleted]

Alana had seen the boy on the beach long before she had gotten there and was dearly hoping that he wouldn’t speak to her. If she didn’t look at him and just kept walking, then no one would talk to her. Well, that was the plan anyway. Alana just kept looking forward and walking, pretending that she didn’t see the boy. It was a fool proof plan. Or at least she thought it was until he started talking to her.

Lana stopped abruptly when he called her princess. She hadn’t thought that anyone had known. She looked over at him, but he wasn’t finished talking. Oh, he had just called her princess assuming that she might be. The mermaid had heard that there were several princesses around here, although she was sure she didn’t know any personally. Well, aside from her sisters anyway, but they didn’t really count.

The boy was being very confusing. If she was a princess and if she wasn’t. Lana wasn’t really following anymore. She just looked at him looking a bit alarmed. “I’m just walking,” she told him. “I’m not really going anywhere. I just like the beach because it’s familiar.” She nodded awkwardly, like she wasn’t quite sure of what she was saying.

[chesh]

Chesh had a terrible habit of noticing things that didn’t want to be noticed and talking about them. Or to them, in the case of people. He was a meddler like that.

He tilted his head up at her, wondering if she even understood anything that came out of his mouth. Oh well. Few did. “Familiar, you say? Are you here very much? Would you perhaps like some company in your walk?” He was still laying down, and gesturing vaguely to the beach around him. “Sometimes I grow tired of sand. Quite easily and often, in fact. But you looked interesting, so I suppose it was worth my time.”

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Lana was starting to think that this boy asked a lot of questions. It made her a bit uncomfortable actually with all of the rapid fire questions. She didn’t know which question to answer first. And then, by the time she answered the first question, she’d probably forget the others. She really didn’t have a very good memory. One of her sisters was much better and remembering things than she was, but that wasn’t really hard. Alana wasn’t really very good at anything. Well, she was extraordinarily good at being so bad at everything. It was a miracle that her sisters still wanted to hang out with her. She was such an embarrassment.

The mergirl wrapped her arms around her middle, standing awkwardly on one foot, the other itching her leg. “I’m just used to the ocean. Where I’m from. Lots of ocean.” She shrugged awkwardly. This was why she didn’t talk to people. She never seemed to be able to say anything intelligent. “I mean, the ocean is practically my home. I’m a decent swimmer and stuff. You know, nothing special.”

She hadn’t really answered any of the questions though. She was kind of just talking, because that’s what happened when she was nervous. Words just came out of her mouth without any rhyme or reason and it was terrible. “I’m really not that interesting,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m just your average girl, really. Well, less than average. I’m just not interesting. That’s all. I’m sure you’ll find much more interesting people than me to talk to. I’m about as interesting as a dead fish.” She tried to laugh at her poor attempt of a joke, but it was awkward and nervous sounding. Talking to people really just wasn’t a good idea at all.

[chesh]

“I think swimming is quite special. I generally hate the water, except when I don’t, which really isn’t very often. Cats don’t swim very well.” He explained, watching the girl’s nervous gestures with the practiced interest of a predator. She was certainly frightened, very frightened, but Chesh wasn’t sure if she was naturally inclined to be frightened or if it was the impending danger of war that frightened her (as it did with most people).

Princesses were quite an interesting lot.

When nervous laughter bubbled out of her mouth like an unstoppable well, Chesh only chuckled with genuine humor. For a girl who claimed to be rather boring, she was awfully interesting. She reminded Chesh of a small mouse, caught in a corner and running in circles. “I hate to tell you this, but for a cat a dead fish can and is quite interesting. I find you fascinating, mostly due to the way you seem to be trembling inside and yet you manage to stand mostly still.” He gestured vaguely to her. “With the exception of that nervous twitching I mean. But I don’t mind, I think it’s rather pretty.”

[Deleted]

This boy was very confusing. She didn’t understand what he meant. Swimming wasn’t very special, at least not where she was from. Everyone swam in Atlantis. She tried to follow the boy’s rather dizzying intellect, but it ended with something about cat and she was really sure she hadn’t followed any of that. “Oh,” she said confused, her brows knitting together. What did swimming have to do with cats anyway? She didn’t exactly follow the logic there, if there was any logic, which Alan was kind of sure there might not be.

Alana’s confusion quickly turned into concern. If cats were interested in dead fish, then he must see himself as some sort of cat. And it was like he could see what was going on in her head. That scared her because she hadn’t thought she’d been that transparent. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Maybe, I should go. My sister might be looking for me.” She took a step back away from the strange, confusing and kind of scary boy. Maybe he would buy her lie and she could leave and run away to the lake where Andy was. She’d do anything to get away from here right now.

[chesh]

Chesh’s eyes flicked to her feet as she backed away. He huffed slightly. It was awfully no-fun for her to run away so quickly, but her certainly didn’t want to keep her around if she didn’t want to be there. That wasn’t any fun either. He shrugged, slightly put off.

“Well, I suppose if you must. Then there really is no keeping you.” Chesh rolled onto his back again, folding one arm behind his head and brushing the sand off his belly. “Though if I might give you some advice, I would recommend that you make your own way, and leave the influence of your sister out of it.”

[Deleted]

Alana could tell that the boy was disappointed. She hadn’t meant to disappoint anyone, but this was very strange and she didn’t know how much longer she could take standing here. But she really hated to disappoint people. That was even worse than being afraid. It was bad enough that she disappointed her family all the time, but now she was disappointing a complete stranger.

She could breathe a little bit easier when he was letting her go, but it was still crushing to know that she was disappointing someone. Lana stood there awkwardly for a moment and as she began to step away the boy began to speak again. She waited to hear what he had to say, but she almost wished she hadn’t. How could she ever leave sisters’ influences out of her life? There were six of them and only one of her. They protected her and took care of her when she couldn’t. “I don’t think I can,” she replied softly, shaking her head. “My sisters are all I have, even if I’m not the best sister back.”

[chesh]

“Oh no, I don’t suppose you’d think you could. I’d wager that you don’t think you can do much of anything.” Chesh guessed based on the piss poor way the girl held herself and her fearful desire to be part of a fold. She was more like a sheep than a dead fish, in Chesh’s opinion. “I’d also wager that if you could find the courage to leave your sister’s behind, even for just one day, you would find that not only are you an excellent sister, but an important part of…oh something, I’m sure.”

Cheshire chuckled. “Everyone is part of something, especially now that there is a war going on.” He peeked up at her, his striking eye roaming over her curiously. “What will you be doing?”

[Deleted]

Lana didn’t understand how this boy seemed to be able to read her mind. Was he a mind reader? She’d heard about mind readers, but she’d never met one before. She wasn’t even sure they were real until right now. This boy seemed to know everything about her and they only just met. How else would he know so much about her unless he could read her mind? How did he know that she didn’t think of herself as anything important? Of course if anyone spent a while with her then they’d see that she wasn’t much of anything anyway.

Alana shook her head. “I’m not that important.” She might be a princess, but she didn’t deserve it. She should have been a servant to the princesses. She wasn’t worth much and couldn’t do much. “Courage isn’t exactly something I have. Must have skipped me, but when there are seven girls, it’s bound to happen.” She wasn’t courageous at all and she didn’t have much of a backbone either. She had so selfconfidence, but she didn’t really need it. She didn’t mind floating along in life completely unnoticed by everyone and everything. It really didn’t matter at all.

Then the boy brought up the war and it made Lana feel guilty for even thinking about leaving and heading to the island. She should be out there getting ready to help with the war, but here she was thinking about turning fin and swimming away. She looked down at her feet. “I might go to the island. I can’t fight and I’d be useless at anything else. It’s easier to leave. It’ll be safer.” She kept trying to convince herself that it was safer to go away, but she still felt like she was running away. It seemed like that was the only thing she’d been doing lately was running away. Daddy would be so disappointed.