Bro Druid: Bro Guy in the Depths

    A portal opened high in the sky over the pure blue waters of the ocean. After a second, Bodhi leaped out with his surfboard. Free falling towards the water, the sea otter laid flat against the windsurfing board with a big smile. Sure, the City of Lost Songs famously had merpeople under the surface, but it was also an ocean that Bodhi hadn’t surfed yet. The wind whipped through the blue-striped otter’s aqua-colored aloha shirt and red board shorts. As the water’s surface quickly approached, Bodhi rolled to his side, allowing the pop-up wind sail to fly open from the hidden compartment on the board. Right before hitting the water, the sea otter lifeguard pulled himself to his feet and did a vertical three-sixty flip before landing.

    Splashing down, Bodhi immediately aimed for the nearest wave with a smirk. Sky magic channeled through the windsail, accelerating the otter and ramping up the wall of water into a spiraling jump. The surfing lifeguard landed perfectly and set his sights on the next wave. Bodhi got more than his fair share of waves as the day slipped into early evening. Taking a quick break, the sea otter sat on his board, enjoying a snack of dried fish and an all-natural energy drink from his green hip bag. Suddenly, an orange-haired woman popped up from under the waves.

    “Sorry to interrupt your fun, but I’m going to need you to make your way back toward the Borealis Enclave,” the mermaid informed Bodhi as her orange and white mottled tail just peeked out of the water. She was gorgeous but looked rather stern.

    “Sorry, bro. I didn’t mean to trespass in your waters,” the sea otter apologized, putting the empty bottle back into his bag as he stood up on his board. “I’ll head that way now. By the way, bros, call me Bodhi.”

    “My name is Amvia, bro,” the aquatic woman replied with an annoyed bite. She looked like she wanted to smite the sea otter. “These waters aren’t mine, but they are extremely dangerous, especially after dark for the uninitiated.”

    “Say no more, bro. I’ll be on my way,” Bodhi said, smiling, as he reoriented his board. “I don’t know my way around Borealis, bro. Maybe you can give me the tour and show me where I can rest for the night.”

    “Madam Amvia,” a blonde merman shouted, popping beside her. It was great timing as the mermaid was about to try to drown the sea otter. “Some teens snuck past the guards and disappeared into the depths.”

    “Organize a search party and find them before they get hurt,” the redheaded fish woman growled, annoyed.

    “No need bro! I can find them,” Bodhi confidently declared. Quickly, he uses his windsail to create an air bubble around his head. The otter dove into the water before Amvia or the other merperson could stop him.

    A vicious undercurrent in the water made the dark waters challenging to swim in. Rather, they would’ve if Bodhi hadn’t spent most of his life in the water. However, these dark waters weren’t like the ones the lifeguard was used to. Something was uninviting about these depths. After diving into the inky abyss for an eternity, several light spots broke up the dark. Bodhi finally found the bottom of the sea floor along with dozens of glowing pearls, creating speckles of illumination. He made a mental note to grab one on his way back as a souvenir. Bodhi searched the sea floor to find any sign of the missing teenagers. In the dark, he almost walked right into an underwater crevasse. Specks of light from glowing pearls broke up the blackness of the abyss far in the depths.

    “I better not stare into the abyss too long,” Bodhi shook his head. This crevasse was probably a good place to check for the teens, but it’d be dangerous. Quickly checking his air bubble, the sea otter prepared to leap. “You never know what kind of weird dudes might be staring back.”

    Bodhi swam down into the crevasse, using the dim light provided by the pearls as waypoint markers. Before continuing into the depths, he’d reach a clump of glowing jewels and look for the missing teens. Every meter into the depths brought a growing sense of dread. This feeling was not just due to the rising worry for teenagers but also something else. Some sort of alien feeling sent a shiver through the sea otter even though he’d already acclimated to the cold waters. As the bottom of the crevasse came into view, so did the group of teen merpeople. A strange octopus-like creature that somehow glowed darkness and blotted out the light of any nearby pearls held all three of the teens.

    He started to yell something, but the sea otter remembered he was underwater, and no one outside his air bubble would hear him anyway. With a strange movement, the octopi creature turned to Bodhi, revealing a dozen yellow and purple eyes that pulsed with a fascinating pattern. Pain shot through the shark bite scar on the otter lifeguard’s tail. Suddenly, he was back when the demon-tainted shark attacked the Cove. He could see his girlfriend in the path of the alpha predator as he reached for his dive knife. This time, though, it wasn’t there. All Bodhi could do was watch as the shark closed in on his girlfriend. Despair and pain wracked the sea otter’s body until he remembered that this wasn’t how it happened!

    “Not cool bro,” Bodhi shouted inside his air bubble as he snapped back to reality. His dive knife was in the lifeguard’s hands and poised at his throat. Bodhi trained in underwater combat but not to any extent that would help him fight whatever this creature was. There was a trick that the Surf Veterinarians used to connect with animals. He’d only done it once before, but it was worth a shot. With a hand held up, Bodhi channeled the pure power of Summer. “I know you’re probably defending your territory bro but I need you to let them go.”

    “It has been a long time since a druid has come this far to my home,” a voice echoed around the inside of the lifeguard’s skull. “You don’t belong to this world, but you came to save them all the same, and you broke through my visions. Tell me why you put in so much effort for such a small prize.”

    “I save lives, bro, thats what I do,” Bodhi snapped at the creature as he rubbed his skull.

    “I see in you one that saves lives without worry for yourself. For now I will grant you these kids but in the future I may seek your aid,” the voice echoed again against the wall of the otter’s skull. 

    A blinding flash of light briefly blinded Bodhi. When his vision returned, the lifeguard found himself back on his windsurfing board. The merpeople teenagers were swimming off into the sunset towards the Borealis Enclave. A sack on the board with a thank-you note revealed a small cache of the glowing pearls.

    “Wait, did any of that happen?” Bodhi asks himself, rubbing his temple. It wouldn’t be the first time he had a bad trip, but that all felt too real. Either way, he was counting that as three more saves with a small prize to go with it. “Bro, I hope I don’t meet whatever that thing was again.”