Hallows Eve 2021: The Thorned Moon

Small CW - A tiny bit of violence. Your warning is here ^^

WC is 1263 words

Now, for the story!

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Something woke her. Spessy didn't know what it was, but just an odd feeling woke her from her slumber. Her head raised, groggily looking around, blinking her eyes to try and wake herself up a bit more, her bright eyes trying to adjust to the dim light around her. Malachite was wrapped around with their younglings, Geode, Zincite and Flourite, the single yellowish egg wrapped up underneath his chest, cuddled against him and in the still warm sand. But something seemed off to her. The light wasn't the gentle blur that she was used to. She shook her head again, clearing her head that little bit more. The light shimmering through the water was darker than normal, it had a very abnormal shine to it, the once gentle grey seemed to have a brownish hue to it.

Why though?

She carefully shifted herself towards the entrance of the cave that was her home, the light slowly coming through a bit clearer, slowly but surely showing that it wasn't the colour that she remembered. Thinking she was almost in some sort of dream, the Aqrion moved her flipper to her mouth, gently nibbling at it. The pain shot through her, normally, it would jolt anyone sleeping to be awake almost instantly. But instead, she... well, she remained awake, confirming that she'd never been asleep in the first place. Which, to her, was incredibly odd. Especially because everything around her seemed to be so dark... So abnormal. So red. And that was a colour that she didn't ever expect to see!

She peered out of the entrance to the den when she finally got to it, her head peaking out from its entrance, the whispy kelp hiding her for the most part as she looked towards the water's surface. Where they had made their den wasn't very deep, which allowed those crimson rays of light to break through the water. The moon seemed dark, emitting a blood red glow to it, a colour which made her shiver right to the bones. But something seemed a little... Worse than that. The ocean was silent, even the creatures which came out at the night for their feed were nowhere to be seen. A small chitter came from underneath her and she turned her head towards it, giving a small chuckle as she saw her cute little slug chittering up at her, quizzingly. Almost as if asking her just what on earth she was doing up so late at night.

"You wouldn't understand." She simply told it as she moved her tail to scoop it up, placing it by her shoulder. The softly glowing creature seemed content with that, looking around as Spessy lifted her flipper.Spessartine curled her flipper around the edge of the den, slowly pulling herself out, the slug almost making a squeaking noise as it was pulled forward with her. But that was much to her annoyance as she was trying to make next to no noise as she looked out, wanting to see why there was nothing out there. But, it seemed as if that little interaction didn't do much to startle anything, if didn't even move the sand by her feet. Though, Spessy frowned. Even looking out, she couldn't figure out why it was just.. different. Different though was honestly saying the least. There was nothing there, and that was beyond alarming. Even at this time of night, small crustaceans would be skittering about and fish would be swimming, but right now in the blood red light, not a single thing seemed right. Her small slug chittered quietly on her shoulder, also disturbed by what they were seeing.

Spessy turned her head, eyes scanning around the sandy banks which lapped against the rocks underneath her, at the base of the entrance to the den, before dropping down several metres to the shallow ocean floor. The seaweed was surprisingly still, hanging like strings. But in the darkness, something looked seemed to move. The first sign of movement! It excited her for a moment, but then she paused. What was it?

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to focus in on whatever was moving, the large shapes making her have a small snarl on her face. Something was there. Small, glowing red orbs moved through the darkness, between the seaweed, snaking their way forward, long, twisted bodies, creatures looking for something... Hungrily, their noses flaring, trying to pick up something. A scent of anything they could eat.

Spessartine felt the scales prickling at her while she watched them move around, the slug also wiggling back away from those creatures in terror, not liking what they saw at all, as those things were scanning the floor for anything they could find. As one brushed against one of those stationary grasses, a small fish tried to dash away, but instantly one of those creatures dove forward, their jaws snapping it up as another creature tried to pull it away from its mouth to eat it for themselves. The original shrieked in anger, snarling as it made quick work of its meal, making sure that their food wasn't ripped out from underneath it.

Red wisps of blood seeped through the water, but the famished, crazed look in their eyes, present on their faces... Hungry, almost like a silent Hunter. But the state of them made Spessy want to wince. Large tears and holes through their flesh was enough to make even the grown Aqrion both flinch and double guess just what she was seeing.But she knew that she couldn't stay in view, especially with how vigilant those creatures were... Especially with her family so close.

When those creatures became distracted once more by a small piece of prey, Spessy pulled herself back into their den silently, slowly backing away from the entrance as their unholy shrieks echoed through the small den. She pulled herself back, looking around for something to block the only entrance to their den up. Block it and hope that the creatures weren't strong enough to break through the stone that she put there... That is, if there was any stone. But she did have something quite similar to it.

Thinking as quickly as she could, Spessartine summoned her element and opened her maw, blasting the entrance to their den with a thick sheet of ice, clogging up the entrance with her ice. The sound was piercing, making a deep voice ask from behind her; "What was that..?"

Before she could answer him, those creatures suddenly appeared behind the ice, crimson eyes shimmering like fire behind the ice, black shapes moving and shimmering in the red hued ice.

"Those things." Was Spessy's only answer as she retreated to Malachite, her flippers moving to hug and hold her still slumbering children as Malachite moved himself to watch over her, his element at the ready as she watched those creatures, their jaws unhinged and trying to gnaw through the ice to their next meal.

It made Spessy shudder to see their malformed bodies twisting and trying to break through the ice. To see those creatures want to get in... But thankfully, they weren't going to get in. She held her slumbering children close, her eyes narrowing as she watched them, her slug hiding dropping off her shoulder to hide underneath her flipper.

Maybe it was time to find a new den, a safer one, away from the creatures which could come at night... But would they just come back again next year? Something always seemed to be odd around this time of year, after all.