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“So where did you say you were heading?” Chip asked, flicking his tail and pulling himself forward in the water after Gillion, struggling to keep up with the other Triton’s fast pace. He blew a mouthful of water out through his gills and kept going, using his hands to help propel him forward when the winding of his tail wasn’t enough to keep up. “Like, I know you said you were going to the surface ‘cus some family stuff, but do you have somewhere in mind?”
Gillion hesitated, his fins and hair rippling in the water as he swam, the light from the surface just barely reaching all the way down to where they were to reflect onto his shimmering scales. He stopped swimming and allowed himself to drift for only a few seconds before humming and lightly flicking his tail again to propel himself forward. Even his casual movements were still faster than Chip’s swimming speed, Chip noticed.
“I don’t know much about the surface,” Gillion admitted, his voice rough as it passed through the water and his ears twitched in Chip’s direction, claws stretching to widen the webbing between his fingers to get more grasp in the water. “I suppose I am just going to go wherever I end up, who knows where that will be.”
“I’ve heard there’s some nice cities above the water,” Chip flicked his tail as hard as possible to keep up with Gillion, trying to clamber all the way up so that he could swim shoulder to shoulder with him. His long, winding tail trailing behind him with splotches of gold-yellow dotting all over. “Uhm… All-Port, and Liquidus… those are some nice cities I’ve heard of. Or at least those are the only cities I know.”
“Hm…” Gillion furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a moment, moving his hair out of his face when the water caused it to flow in front of his eyes. He looked at Chip for a brief second, then looked up and down to judge how close to the surface they were. “Do you know where any of those places are?”
“No,” Chip was the one to furrow his eyebrows this time as he thought back to the last time he had heard anyone mention the names of any oversea city. “I’ve heard they’re cool though.”
“Oh…” Gillion chewed on the inside of his mouth and frowned, Chip saw the way that his gills rippled in the water seemingly every time he took a breath.
Chip opened and closed his mouth a few times to mimic the sensation, pushing water through his gills every time he swallowed another mouthful, it cleared his mind like a breath of fresh… water, he supposed. Gillion always looked amused whenever Chip did that, and now was no different if the shift to a small smile was anything to go by.
“I guess you’re on the nomadic path,” Chip decided after a moment of thought and a clear head after a breath of fresh oxygen in his gills. “Going wherever life takes you, riding the waves.”
He swam forward, ahead of Gillion for once, and flipped over to his back to relax for a moment, feeling the current slide against his body. His tail rippled in the water, his long dorsal fin making waves around him to propel him forward, the dynamics of it only occasionally getting caught on the few chunks missing from his lengthy dorsal fin. He felt the hiccups of the waves as they hit his back and it forced him to swim a little lopsidedly. But he smiled, sharp teeth poking out behind thin lips.
Gillion knocked Chip’s tail out of his face when he flicked it in Gillion’s direction and swam up next to Chip to playfully shove him a bit in the water. Chip yelped and flailed lightly to flip back over to his stomach, his tail shaking.
“I suppose I am,” Gillion said with a shrug, his dorsal fin rippling like the rest of his fins, “No home and no destination, just… going where the current takes me.” His voice almost sounded a little sad, but he shook his head quickly and cleared his throat, forcing himself forward with confidence.
“Must be nice sometimes,” Chip said, and Gillion hummed, but didn’t respond and just continued swimming. Chip turned his attention to that since there wasn’t much else to focus on besides his own body and the one odd way that he swam.
Gillion flowed so well in the water, it looked like he really belonged with the way the water curved over his form, pulling through the thick, wide coils of his hair, or how he cut seamlessly through the waves as if it were no effort to him.
He swam so… beautifully in a way that Chip had never seen before. Like he was the only one in the whole ocean that actually belonged here. When the light reflected off his scales whenever they swam too close to the surface, Chip swore that Gillion had millions of turquoise and royal blue diamonds embedded into his skin. Or the orangish patches of scales would practically shine golden in the afternoon sunlight (although rare to see even this deep under the water).
Sure, they both had tears and rips in their fins, all together Gillion probably had more tears in his fins than Chip did (but Chip had fewer fins, and his dorsal fin was much smaller, which made any tear much worse). Gillion staggered slightly whenever a wave hit him on the left side too hard where his fins were much more damaged and he had a hard time reorienting himself. But he recovered easily righted himself in the water and pressed on, never losing that seemingly endless confidence that he wore like a badge on the front of his chest.
Chip loved to watch the way Gillion swam in front of him (Chip rarely managed to take the lead anyway), content to swim in silence and watch the rippling of his fins in the water. If Chip believed in the Gods, he would have been convinced that Gillion’s beauty was of divine nature.
They swam like that for a while longer with Gillion in the front leading away as the sun above stretched higher into the sky and the sunlight penetrated through layers and layers of water just to illuminate a bit of the surface where they were.
They had to be coming up to some sort of island soon, or coming up to something significant. They were still close to the bottom of the ocean, enough that they could see the sand below and the rocks and crevices, but there was enough light in the midday sun to shine down on them to see, and for Chip to admire the reflection of Gillion’s scales.
They had been swimming like this for a while, not so close to the surface that they were at risk of getting spotted by any boats (Chip shuddered at the thought), but just far enough away from the bottom that they weren’t drifting with the fish on the bottom of the ocean. It was a nice, peaceful drift, and they could easily find a nice crevice to sleep in on the floor when the day turned into night and the ocean got dark.
“What about you, Chip?” Gillion asked suddenly after a while of silence as if he had been mulling over the conversation topic in his head the entire time and only now thought to bring it up. Chip up at him, a little confused by the question.
“What do you mean?” Chip asked, tilting his head to the side and pulling himself forward using the webbing between his fingers and his hands to propel himself forward in the water.
“Do you… Do you follow the nomadic path, as you said?” Gillion rephrased, using his hands to speak and gesturing as he tried to chew through the words that he was trying to communicate. His ear flicked in Chip’s direction and he consciously slowed his pace so that Chip could catch up and swim next to him.
Chip made bubbles in the water and mulled the question over. He thought of his cave and all the things that he had left behind (taking only the essentials with him). He thought of the old caves that he used to hide in, his old families, and his old friends.
Chip was very, very far away from home, away from his cave, the only place that he ever actually felt safe in lately. He was suddenly aware of how exposed he was and he shuddered at the thought, the open water brushing against his fins and his skin and hair, and how he was unprotected on either side. Traveling from place to place just to find food was enough to make him nervous, this was the furthest from a cave that Chip had been in months. Though it was a little easier now that he wasn’t alone.
There were few hiding places in this part of the ocean, and there were rarely any caves nearby big enough for the two of them to squeeze into for the night (upon Chip’s request), and find a place to duck down and lie low during the day on short notice was even worse.
The nomadic life thrived off of traveling and finding a new place and a new adventure every day. It required traveling (leaving the safety of a cave or a crevice), and living life as it came. Chip could be fine with all that if it didn’t require having to be so exposed and vulnerable all the time. He felt like anything might come up and try to attack them at any given moment. The only thing that kept him from darting into the nearest crevice and hiding there until the water eroded it enough for him to wiggle around was that Gillion was with him.
“No,” Chip finally answered, realizing that if the life they were currently experiencing was anywhere near the nomadic life, it definitely wasn’t for him. He loved getting to travel with Gillion, but he was constantly on edge. “I usually like to stay in my cave. It’s safer that way, there’s less… Predators.”
Chip hesitated to use the word predators, but he didn’t know what else to use. Outside his cave could be monsters, could be people trying to hurt him, could be navy, could be hunters. Predator was a good word to encompass everything that he was afraid of. No matter how animalistic it sounded.
He was an eel anyway. He thrived in small crevices and caves, hiding until someone happened to walk by (or stumble into his cave looking for rest). He wasn’t the greatest swimmer, so if he came across some dangerous creature, getting away wasn’t his best bet. It was easier to just wait it out in his small crevice in the rocks and bide his time until something happened and he needed to find a new cave.
“Does it get… Lonely?” Gillion then asked, his voice soft and while he seemed mostly curious, there was also something sad in his tone. “Being in your cave all the time?” If Chip knew Gillion any better than he did, he might’ve noticed the soft, cautious familiarity in his tone. As if he were expressing a longing for connection from something that they unknowingly shared.
But Chip didn’t catch all that. He just thought for a moment, drifting casually in the water since while their destination was somewhere on the surface, they weren’t in any rush.
“No, I don’t think so,” Chip allowed his tail to propel him forward, his dorsal fin rippling as his tail moved with the waves, curling back and forth like a snake slithering through the water. “I’ve been alone most of my life, I’m kind of used to it at this point. Besides… Other eels are a pretty solitary group… I learned that pretty quickly.” Chip tilted his head to the side and shrugged.
“You were content then?” Gillion asked, and Chip didn’t know where all the questions were suddenly coming from. Gillion was interested in the lives of other people outside of the trench, especially anything that Chip knew about the oversea (which wasn’t a lot), but his questions were a bit more vague, and less specific to Chip as a person.
“Yeah, I was pretty content,” Chip slid his palms over his hips where a belt of rope held his thin, flowing pants up as he swam. The fabric rippled along with the waves. “A nice comfortable space to call my own, food, things to do. Just had to move around every once in a while when some people got too close. But besides that it was nice.”
“I see,” Gillion thought for a moment, an expression of deep thought crossing his face. Chip watched him curiously for a while as he seemed to mull over his thoughts. “Are you ill content now?”
Was he discontent to travel with the only person he’s called a friend in… years? Was he no longer happy to be with someone that he had willingly joined an adventure with? Was he upset now that the routine that he had had for years was finally broken and he got to be with someone that—for now at least—seemed kind to him?
Was he ill content that finally, after years of longing despite everything in his species pointing to the exact opposite, he was no longer alone?
“No, of course not!” Chip insisted, his eyes widening. He bumped himself into Gillion. “It’s nice to have someone around for once.”
Gillion looked genuinely surprised at that answer, his eyes widened slightly and his expression softened. His ears pulled back in a way that made him seem like a lost puppy with his tail between his legs.
It looked like he was about to say something, but before he could, a shadow of something large began to pass over the two of them from behind, a massive, oppressive darkness clouding out the few rays of sun that reached this far down into the ocean. Even from this deep down, Chip could hear the crashing of waves, the rumbling of a deep threatening hull as it cut through the waves like a knife through a fish’s gullet.
Chip froze. The color drained from his face the moment he looked up and saw the underside of a boat right above them. A fishing boat? A merchant ship? A whaler’s vessel?
A navy fleet?
Were there more where that one came from, somewhere that Chip couldn’t see yet? An entire swarm prepared to swallow the ocean whole and take over every part that it could reach. A fleet so massive that there was no hint of sun all the way down to the bottom and the ocean turned as black as the trench.
The sea around them darkened from its shadow, the water chilling despite the tropical southern area they were in. Chip felt his blood run cold and an icy panic roll all the way down his spine. The scar on his back throbbed with each pounding beat of his heart and for a moment he froze, unsure of what to do. He felt so small compared to the boat above them, helpless and tiny.
In his mind, flashes of memories from years ago when he was no bigger than a guppy popped into his head, things that he tried so hard not to remember. Things that while he tried to block out of his mind, he couldn’t help but think of whenever something a little too big passed above him in the water.
The sea turned black with shadow, the harpoons… the nets… the blood. His ears were ringing so loudly that he could barely hear the sounds of his family around him as the chaos started. The roaring of waves and blades, the sounds of so many different languages and voices rippling through the water.
He remembered the boat and all the prizes taken, or the fresh meat killed and left to be eaten by something else at the bottom of the sea.
He looked at Gillion, eyes wide and pupils dilated with fear.
Oh gods. Gillion . Gillion was bigger than Chip, Gillion was a bigger target. Gillion was a bigger prize.
If they wanted anyone, they would want Gillion. They would kill Chip and take Gillion as a trophy.
Chip grabbed Gillion’s arm in a grip so tight he didn’t even care that his claws were digging into the soft flesh of the other man’s wrist. He bolted down towards the bottom of the sea floor as fast as his body would allow, eyes frantically scanning around for some sort of rock or crevice to hide in or under.
He should have been more aware of his surroundings, should have seen something like this coming, and should have been paying more attention to the hiding spots around them so that if something like this did happen, he would have been more prepared. Chip had gotten too comfortable with Gillion. He had started to get careless and forget everything he learned throughout his life.
Chip was frantic as he searched around, tail whipping back and forth to quickly change directions when one area didn’t seem plausible. Gillion could barely keep himself upright as Chip pulled him around, an odd burst of strength from the eel Triton. The shadow above them continued to pass as Chip made frantic chirping and clicking noises, his gills flaring at his neck.
“Chip—” Gillion started to say, noticing the hull of the ship and how it just seemed to be passing peacefully above them. He wanted to reassure his friend that they were alright and there was nothing to worry about, but he barely managed to get a few words out.
Chip finally found a crevice in the sand shaded underneath a rock formation that curved up and over the sand to provide a little bit of shelter. He let go of Gillion’s wrist to push the other man into the hiding spot with as much force as he could muster, frantic and shaking so badly he could barely push himself underneath the hole as well.
The sand kicked up around them in a cloud of a tan-gray fog as Chip thrashed in panic, struggling to get them both somewhere safe and out of sight from the boat that he assumed to be a threat.
Gillion felt his dorsal fin hit the rough rock and his shoulder wedge uncomfortably underneath the rough stone. He pulled his tail inside and curled up so that he could wrap his arms around Chip’s waist and pull him to his chest, cradling the smaller eel against him to further hide him under the small overhang that was way too small for even one person to hide under.
Chip burrowed into Gillion’s arms, pushing Gillion deeper into the crevice with their bodies flush against each other. He tucked his face into Gillion’s shoulder, hiding under his arms and tangling his legs and tail around Gillion’s as if he were trying to dig into the other Triton like he were a burrow.
Gillion could feel Chip shaking. With how close they were together, not even an inch of space between them in their rough, cramped hiding hole, Gillion could feel Chip’s frantic, fluttering heartbeat in his chest as it rattled and hammered like a caged animal. It pounded against his chest, enough that Gillion felt it against his own rib cage and he could sense the panic from the other man.
Although Gillion had little experience with life this close to the surface, he had a hard time seeing how the object above them was threatening enough to reduce Chip to such a state. It did not look like an animal and didn’t even seem alive as it slowly floated above the ocean.
But he could sense Chip’s panic, he could feel it in the way that he had darted off, immediately looking for a place to hide (a trait that he had noticed before in the eel Triton). He could feel it in Chip’s pounding heartbeat, his intense trembling, his gills flaring in and out with his mouth bobbing to try and get oxygen into his bloodstream. He had curled his arms around Gillion, clutching tightly to the skin-tight shirt that Gillion wore.
Since Gillion didn’t know what had caused such a panic in Chip, he just held him tightly, hoping to ease some of the panic by running his hand up and down his back, doing his best to avoid the marred scar on his dorsal fin. He rubbed his shoulders and listened to the sounds of Chip's distressed whines and chirps. He squirmed only a little bit in Gillion’s arms, wrapping his tail tighter around his legs and somehow managing to cling tighter before going completely still.
He didn’t say anything, Gillion wasn’t good at comforting people anyway, and he figured that if he tried to say something it would just make it worse. If Chip needed them both to hide due to a perceived danger (maybe one that Gillion didn’t even understand the full risk of), then he would hide quietly until whatever the danger was passed. Gillion could still hear the thing above them passing slowly, and he was sure Chip did too even if his ears were pinned all the way to his skull.
Gillion rubbed his back, tucking his chin over Chip’s head and squeezing him in his arms. The rock behind him dug uncomfortably into his back, the sharp edges poking him and scraping his skin through his tight shirt. But he dared not move and readjust to get more comfortable, he just remained where he was.
Eventually, after what couldn’t have been more than five, maybe ten minutes, the sound became so distant that not even Gillion could hear it anymore. Chip seemed to relax only a fraction in Gillion’s arms. His heart was still pounding and Gillion could feel the way he frantically popped his mouth open and closed (to help filter water in his gills, he claimed after Gillion asked).
“It is alright,” Gillion murmured, hoping that his tone at least sounded slightly reassuring to Chip, “It has passed.”
Chip trembled, but nodded faintly into Gillion’s shoulder. Gillion just continued rubbing his back up and down, up and down, the pads of his fingers massaging the tight muscles in Chip’s shoulders.
His tail squeezed one of Gillion’s legs with an odd rhythm of tightening and relaxing, tightening and relaxing as if he were trying to soothe himself with the sensation to get his heart rate under control.
It took a while longer, but Chip eventually managed to calm himself down, his grip relaxing around Gillion’s shoulders. He blew bubbles out of his mouth and peeked his head up from where he had burrowed into Gillion’s shoulders. He looked around fearfully, checking their surroundings to make sure they were alright. Gillion didn’t move and allowed Chip to do what he needed to do to fully calm the rest of his fear.
Carefully, Chip wriggled his way out of Gillion’s arms to which Gillion released him easily. He slithered out into the open water, his tail flicking and winding to build up a current to help him crawl out of their crevice into the sand. His hands curled around other rocks sticking up and he used that to pull forward, keeping his belly to the bottom of the ocean while he craned his neck to look up and around to make sure that the thing was long gone.
The sun, in its wake, was starting to fade as well. Now the ocean just seemed to darken from the clouds covering the light in the sky, or the sun deciding it was time to set.
Chip sighed after deciding that they were in the clear and flopped down, his tail flicking and twitching. Gillion eventually crawled out from under the rock as well, his body stiff and his back aching from being contorted awkwardly into a hiding place that was too small for him.
“Can we stay here… for tonight…” Chip asked, turning around and slowly crawling his way back to Gillion, moving slowly and cautiously with his stomach pressed to the sand. He looked at Gillion with his eyebrows furrowed and a worried expression on his face. “I want to make sure that thing is far ahead of us before we continue… and I’m tired.”
Gillion fully pulled his way out from under the rock, stretching his limbs and flicking his tail to stretch it out and swim closer to Chip.
“It would be good to get some rest,” Gillion decided. Chip had to be exhausted after panicking like that, and they had been swimming for at least most of the day. Gillion knew at this point that Chip had much less stamina for swimming than Gillion did, so breaks were often and their days spent swimming short.
“Thanks,” Chip yawned wide enough that Gillion could see the second set of jaws in the back of his throat which often made an appearance when they stopped to eat. His tail flicked lightly and he moved closer to the crevice that they had just come out of.
“If you would like to rest, I could remain out here and keep watch, if that will give you peace of mind,” Gillion offered, watching as Chip slipped underneath the rock to hide in the crevice once more, clearly a much safer and comfortable option for the eel.
Chip laid down on his stomach with his chin on his arms in a much more spread-out and leisurely position than before. He yawned again and rolled over a bit onto his side, his tail flicking lightly as he curled his legs up to his chest.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Chip muttered, eyelids already drooping with sleep. “There’s room in here.”
Gillion did not want to go back underneath the rock, it was quite uncomfortable, but he knew how much the other man loved hiding in small spaces. He didn’t want to discourage him.
“I am alright out here,” Gillion insisted, shifting so that he was leaning up against the edge of the opening. He slipped his tail into the hole and curled it around Chip’s tail, tangling the two of them together so that if Gillion ended up accidentally falling asleep (which he would do his best not to), they wouldn’t drift apart. And if the waves picked up, it would be nice to not have to keep himself swimming the entire time to not get pulled away from Chip hiding in his burrow.
“Get some rest, Chip,” Gillion said once the two of them had settled comfortably in their respective places. Chip blew out another mouthful of bubbles and shifted so that he could tangle his tail with Gillion’s. He nodded faintly and burrowed himself a little bit into the sand, his eyelids slipping shut.
Gillion smiled to himself and settled down so that he could relax for now (he wasn’t particularly tired, but Chip needed a chance to rest, so he would let him sleep and then they would find something to eat and continue their journey).
If Chip were not in such a hidden spot, Gillion would even think to hunt for food while he slept so that he wouldn’t wake up hungry. But Gillion worried he might not be able to find Chip’s hiding spot again if he left their spot. So he remained and settled for waiting until Chip was awake to look for food.
They both could use some rest anyway, it had been a long day of swimming, and there was an even longer day of swimming ahead of them after Chip woke up. So Gillion allowed himself some time to rest as well, knowing that he would need it too eventually.