DoA Trials: Balance 3 | Tatlitli, [Samar], (Laverito)

The ocean currents flowed on, indifferent to three beings who were resisting the pull just enough to maintain formation. After all, if they were to succumb to the currents and be pulled apart, they could not continue their heated argument. 

 

One was long, thin, and very angry. One was tiny, flailing, and very angry. The last was broad, stout, and very much sick of the whole affair. Below were the sunken ruins of fishing boats, some encrusted with barnacles, and others still smooth and recent. Above their heads, another fishing boat was bobbing on the waves, and this argument was to decide its fate.

 

Samar rippled in a flagrant display of frustration, a motion which made all those many black spots seem to slide around freely, as if they'd come untethered from skin and scale. "Just kill her! She's the worst kind of poacher; no respect. No foresight. No hindsight either, for that matter! Worst of all, she's the ringleader, the pioneer of her whole oil-slicked, barnacle-ridden, fin-boiling village!"

 

Laverito groaned. "No, no, no! That would be a huge mistake! Don't you know anything about anything? You up and go murder someone, every pitchfork-waving farmer and half-drunk guardsman and toenail-picking bounty hunter for leagues and leagues around will be after you. And by you, I mean me, because they'll hardly believe me if I try ranting and raving about great blooming sea stryx vowing to wreak vengeance on remote fishing villages!"

 

So, there was Tatlitli, stuck in between a sea serpent and a land hare, who was not-a-rabbit-thank-you-very-much. Tatlitli didn't know what a hare was, much less a rabbit, but apparently the difference was a very important thing to land-walkers. Well above any plants or corals, it would have been difficult to grasp the sheer smallness of the land-walker - were it not for the proximity of Samar's coils. This was a very small creature indeed.

 

The water around Samar's sinuous form rippled like a mirage, and Tatlitli silently allowed the currents to pull her a little further away from the blisteringly angry aqrion. Terrible idea to play tag with acid. "How dare you trespass in my waters, lacking the common decency to know even the least myth-muddied thing about me, bringing instead the blithering audacity to think only of yourself, in this time of peril for all!"

 

The many mysterious objects latched all over Laverito's tiny body were a baffling hindrance to his swimming ability. Tatliti couldn't fathom why he had, essentially, tied a bunch of barnacles to himself of his own volition. Nevertheless, he flailed all about and managed to propel himself a little closer to Samar, who took the hint and proceeded to further close the distance with an aggressive twist of the waist.

 

They glared at each other. It would have been more amusing if Laverito weren't bite-sized; as it was, Tatlitli had to worry whether Samar had any compunctions about eating fellow sentient beings. She doubted a land-walker could taste as good as proper fish, but whether that mattered to Samar, well... best not to speculate.

 

"You're the one thinking of yourself! If you go and murder people, poachers or no, you'll get us all on the bounty boards! Let me spell it out for you, since apparently you need the help: wanted posters mean attention, attention means visitors, visitors means even more overfishing. Attention is clearly the last thing you want, so don't go shouting for it!"

 

"What's a stryx?" asked Tatlitli.

 

"What?!"

 

"...what?"

 

"What," Tatliti repeated, "is a stryx?"

 

Laverito sighed. No bubbles escaped the shimmering film wrapped around his mouth, but the clothespin on his nose was less effective. "A stryx is, well, like a giant gull. Sort of. I used to have one... or he used to have me, more like, but... well, I never expected anything else, really. I just wasn't expecting it to be now... if he were still here, I'd be in and out already, and not dealing with you lot."

 

Well, that had explained exactly nothing. Great. Giving up on that question entirely, Tatliti switched tracks. "I understand that you both have your own knowledge and experience that's led you to this argument today, but my personal experience with today has led me to a massive headache, so let's wrap this up."

 

"A headache will be the least of your discomfort when we're all starving from these interlopers' overfishing!" Samar exploded. 

 

"You'll wish for just a headache when the bounty hunters are slinging great flaming spears through you!" Laverito instantly retorted. 

 

"THEREFORE," Tatlitli announced, managing to capture both of their attentions yet again. "Ahem. Therefore, I propose a simple, obvious, very agreeable compromise."

 

"There is no such compromise to be had!" Samar snarled.

 

"Laverito, as a land-walker -"

 

"I'm really more of a land-hopper."

 

"- you doubtless possess valuable knowledge of the above world, which can be used to further all of our goals."

 

"I am not helping this overgrown eel with anything! This, this, spotted sea-skunk will only get me killed!"

 

"Shut up, or I'll tell every being in this ocean that you're a rabbit."

 

Laverito gawked, aghast, but he did do so silently. Tatlitli counted it as a victory.

 

"Now, you, Laverito, will climb up onto the poacher's boat and hamper her efforts. Cut loose the nets, damage her other equipment, and such like, so that she will find future greedy endeavors that much more difficult. Samar, you will destroy any debris that comes overboard to your heart's content, but when all is finished, you will escort Laverito to a shore of his choice. And both of you will stop this incessant yammering, now that there is no need for it. Do I make myself quite clear?"

 

"You have a lot of nerve ordering me around, small fry," Samar seethed.

 

"If you don't wish to be ordered around like a small fry, then may I suggest you stop acting like one? And that goes for you too, strange little land-hopper. Now, both of you to your work, if you would kindly." And with that, Tatlitli descended, intent on finding a nice patch of kelp to shake some fish snacks out of.