~portum Arcanum

Looking out over the city, Kiriton smiled, but it was a sad smile, knowing that his true job was about to being very soon. His client had given him very specific instructions, the royal family had caused them more grief, and they were going to pay for it. Apparently a member of the royal was on land, and it was a princess as well. He was not to harm her, only to get information, since she was not part of the conflict going on. Luckily, since he worked with information databases on a regular basis, finding the girl was an easy matter. He found out that she worked at an animal shelter, and he couldn’t help but smile. He had always had a fondness for all animals, whether it be of the sea or on land. He asked the shelter if they knew where she had gone, and although they asked him why he would be looking for her, making up a lie about being an old friend visiting town was easy enough. He found out that she went towards the beach, not a bad spot. As Kirition was walking along, he couldn’t help but gaze up at the sky. Looking at it from the sea was nice enough, but being on land to see the sunset was just an amazing feeling. As he was walking along, he found the girl easily enough. She was sitting on a bench.

“Lovely view of the sky, isn’t it? This place has some amazing views, they’re a bit different from where I come from. I’m a bit new to this place, perhaps you can help me find my way around?” Kirition asked, still looking out at the sky

 

He hated getting violent, because violence and adrenaline brought back all the pain and he lost control of himself.
His knife and truncheon were slick with blood, specks of white dotting the reddened wood. He was shaking, panting, gasping for breath. The forest was quiet, like it always was.
Four of them. Drunk off their minds, heard there were some stags in these woods, some foxes, there were even rumors of a sasquatch. "That one's probably me," he said to himself, out loud.
He hadn't killed them. Even in the depths of the red mist, right before knife met cartilage and oak met skull, he pulled himself back. But these men were probably not going to see the outside of a hospital for a year or so. One guy might not even see again.
But he didn't care about that.
In front of him, so still and lifeless it could be nothing but dead, was a beautiful red vixen. Red splotches simply darkened its fur, and he saw a few cubs dead around it. Only one kit, on shaky paws, still moved. It tottered up to its dead mother, nudged her muzzle a few times. It barked a high-pitched, panicked and confused bark, and looked around as if suddenly seeing the horrible terror of the world it lived in for the first time. It saw its dead brothers and sisters. It started howling, terrified, begging for something to happen, anything to change the horrible stillness.
Actaeon gently lifted the kit from the ground and passed it a severed finger to give it some sustenance. The kit started to chew on it, licking up drops of blood.
"Well," Actaeon said out loud, looking at his mangled hand where a bullet had passed straight through the middle three digits. "Not like I haven't got seven more. And still got both thumbs. Gotta love thumbs. And I gotta get you," he said, smiling at the little critter in his arms, "to some kind of shelter. Wonder if any of these assholes had a phone."
He was still in shock. He had to pick up the phone eight times before his fingers could manage to dial the numbers off a flyer he'd seen on the back of their vans, for an animal shelter. He was operating on autopilot, and he knew he had maybe five or even two minutes before the fact he'd been shot in the hand, the chest and the ear kicked in. He had long stopped caring what happened to him. This little kit NEEDED him. He was all it had. If he left it alone it would die. He had to make sure it was safe before he did anything else.

The animal shelter was closed, and the kit was starting to cry. To his amazement Actaeon found that he was crying too, his tears dampening the little fluffball. He had heard the address and was familiar with the town. It was a forty-minute walk. Through uneven rough woodland, in the middle of the evening. With a traumatized kit and three bullet-wounds. He was pretty sure one was still there in the wound.
He started walking. One foot. Two drops of blood. Another foot, in front of the first. Another two drops of blood. The kit was mewling now, so he absentmindedly fed it another one of his fingers to keep it quiet, and as it happily chewed on his own flesh he staggered off through the trees, shaking his head every now and again to get the buzzing out of his right ear that was now missing its upper half.

 

"Is there any particular place you are looking for? I am sure I can help you"
she tilted her head and smiled

Kirition couldn’t help but smile, and even blush a bit. This girl was cute, her smile making the air seem vivid and warm. But he had a mission, and couldn’t let petty emotions get in his way. She was still part of the royal family, after all.

“This may sound strange, but the place I’m looking for is quite different from many other places in the world. I found out from some searching that it is located in this city. Supposedly this place holds a map to a mythical place far out in the sea. I know it may sound strange, but I believe that some myths hold a bit of reality to them. The myth tells of a kingdom of people of the sea, mermaids if you will. They are of royalty, and have many subjects. And it also tells of a princess that left the kingdom, and lives on the land. It is something to romanticize over, a beautiful legend if you will.” Kiriton said

“However, like I said, some myths do have a bit of reality to them. This is no exception, as I’m sure you are aware, Princess Nerrisa. Yes, I know who you really are, and what you really are. I myself am also of the sea. My name is Raleigh, and I would like to know about the kingdom you are from.” Kiriton said, now having a cold gaze in his eyes

 

Kiriton had a feeling she would be like this, luckily he knew of a way to convince her. He took out a water bottle, and poured some of it on his hand. He then ran up behind her, and put his hand on her shoulder, allowing the water to freeze, forming ice on her shoulder.

“You can try and fool the others, but I know a lot about you. I know that you left the sea to live here on land, but when you go into water, you turn back into a mermaid. I was specifically told not to harm you, but I will get the information that I want. Your family has been causing problems, and my client wants to put a stop to this.” Kiriton said, his mercenary skills coming out. But maybe this wasn’t the best way to do it, so maybe doing it a bit differently might help.

He then sighed, and let go of her shoulder. “I personally don’t care about the royal family, or anything with the kingdom, but since it is my job to find out, the information is crucial. I know what it is like to be around the royal family, I used to be a guard, but I refuse to be involved with them. I do know that if these problems keep happening, then more conflict will result, and it could affect things going on here. Most of the world doesn’t know about us, and I intend to keep it that way. Please, if there is anything you can tell me, it would help me out a lot.” Kiriton said, hoping he might be able to get information this way

 

"The rain is letting up."
Tristan walks out of the cover and back onto the the streets. He walked down the alley ways, past the small shops, past the beggars and back onto the street. The streets still with cars driving by, but not that much people.
"Its nearly rush hour isn't it."
Tristan walked across the streets and into some shops. Every time he came out of the shop he had more jewellery. He walked down the streets with a pocket watch, a diamond ring, ear rings and a normal silver ring. He walked down the streets, he stopped at a building. Apartments, he walked up the steps and went to his apartment door, number 131. He opened up and walked in, he put everything he earned today into a box, except for the silver ring. He started to wear that one, made him feel happy. He went to his computer, booted it up and starting using it. He spent hours on the computer, rush hour past so he got up. Went to his door, opened it, exited it, shut it and locked it. He went down the steps and back onto the streets.
"This world is boring."

 

The sky had darkened.
He wasn't sure why on earth he was still standing. Or how. The kit was gnawing his remaining fingers, but he'd long since transcended pain. He had no idea of time or space, or what he was going to do after he'd put the kit down. Buildings, hazy and vast, floated into his vision. His head was filled with a tremendous buzzing from his right ear, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever hear again. People said things, gasped, some pulled out their phones.
"How am I still bleeding?" he muttered to himself, the world tilting sideways. "Bullet must have clogged the wound."
Someone approached him, he looked like a policeman. Words, fuzzed and indistinct flew around his head.
"Get..." he mumbled, thrusting the kit at him. "Get...to....animal... shelter..." The policeman took the kit, which licked his face.
At this point, the only thing that had been keeping him standing complete, Actaeon went down hard on the road.

-------------------------------------------------------------

He woke up.
"How am I not dead?"
A man sat opposite him, a man he'd never seen before. He wore a tie with a sapphire in the top.
"Because of me. Hello, Actaeon. How are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts."
"The fox has been admitted to an animal shelter. It's doing nicely. I believe you fed it your own fingers."
The fact that this man KNEW HIS NAME suddenly hit him like a thunderbolt, and he made it as far as the door before everything in his body demanded he stop moving. Nurses took him straight back to the bed.
"Are you going to arrest me?"
"It's tempting. I know what you were charged with. I know the evidence all pointed to you. I know for a fact that, had you not fled, you would be dead or in jail."
He hung his head. "Quit torturing me. My statement stays the same. I DIDN'T KILL MY FAMILY."
The man sighed. "We know. And that's why we're not arresting you."
Actaeon's eyes flared. "You a cop?" The man returned his gaze evenly. "No. But to put it in a way that you might understand, the bulk of the police force in this town are... under my thumb, so to speak."
Actaeon strugggled to rise. "So... who did it? HUH!? WHO KILLED THEM!? WHO SET ME UP LIKE THIS!?"
The man's eyes lowered. "If you calm down, Ill tell you everything." Then the eyes came up to meet his. "Actaeon, your mother caught the eye of a person who I'm not at liberty to name. Said person refused to take no for an answer and proceeded to ensure that if he couldn't have her, no-one could. But this person... if he had been caught, the ramifications would be GLOBAL. It would have turned man's understanding of the world UPSIDE DOWN."
Actaeon's chest was heaving, in and out, and every second that passed his eyes became more and more wild. His lips peeled back over his teeth in a uncontrollable snarl. "...FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!" He thrashed, his body screaming in protest as he tried to wrench himself free. "THAT'S BULLSHIT AND YOU FUCKING KNOW IT!! WHAT THE FUCK IS SO IMPORTANT YOU NEEDED TO TEAR APART MY LIFE EVEN FURTHER?! WHAT MADE THIS PERSON SO FUCKING SPECIAL - MORE IMPORTANT THAN MY ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY!?!?"
His restraints stretched, he was almost on the verge of breaking free in a feral rage. "Tell me. TELL ME!! TELLLLLL MEEEEEEEEE!"

The man straightened his tie and took a deep breath.
"Actaeon... your family were killed by a merman."

OOT: Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun...

 

Absolutly perfect

 

Calliope's anticipation of being able to see a storm for the first time quickly subsided as she noticed the rain letting up. She sighed and leaned back, ignoring the sharp pain of the edges of rock jabbing her. It seemed like nothing was going to go her way today. Frustrated, she let out a wail and loudly started to sob. Her vision starting to blur as the tears filled her eyes and obstructed her view. All she wanted was to not feel alone for once. It had been a long three years.

Tears stopping, she felt the salty tracks left vertically on her cheeks and cupped her hands and dipped them into the tide pool and splashed her face with the water and quickly washed her face. Patting her moistened cheeks, Calliope sighed again and looked to the city. There was something about it that beckoned her but the voice in the back of her head reasoned against it.

Something stirred in her and words formed to dance on her tongue, pushing against her lips, trying to escape. Throwing her head back she looked to the sky almost as if searching the clouds for the answers to see what she should do; swallow her words or whisper them to the wind. Forgetting the rocks behind her, Calliope hit her head on one of the blunt edges of the natural wall. Everything started to go blurry as she started to fade out of consciousness from the blow. It didn't take long for her to fully black out, leaving Calliope limp against the wall with shallow breaths.

 

OOT: Sorry for the wait :/

Lilly couldn't respond. The words wouldn't form in her brain so that she could say them aloud. All she could do was stare with wide eyes at the creature before her. Steadily her breathing increased until her breaths were deep and panicked. The thing before her was a nightmare come true. Growing up in the Deep hadn't held a guarantee of survival, but there was an even more dangerous place than her abandoned home. The beings of the Deep didn't speak its name, but the tales of its fearsome inhabitants had led to a collective fear of them. And now right there in front of her was the thing that had been her worst nightmare as a pup.
Drawing her knife in a shaking hand she backed away as quickly as she could flop in her transformed state. The long tail and flipper were less than ideal for movement on land. In a fearful voice she managed to squeak out, "I... I never thought... y-you're kind ex-existed."

 

OOT: No problem, it happens. So...apparently, my character is pretty scary. Makes sense; he is a hydra, after all.


I knew this would happen. As I look at Lilly's terrified face, the last part of me that was hoping she wouldn't be afraid of me fades away completely. But it's not like I can blame her. Hydras are terrifying by nature. Our serpentine tails, the dragon-like scales that cover our upper arms and part of our torso, the vicious claws that form on our hands, all of it makes us look like the ultimate predators of the deep...which we just might be. The worst part is, this is only the first stage of transformation. If she saw a fully transformed hydra with a pair of legs, scales around the side of the face and the brutal fangs where our teeth normally are...poor Lilly might have a heart attack. Still, it hurts to see her pointing a knife at me. In fact, it hurts a lot more than I ever thought it would...even more than when I saw that kind of reaction back home. I know why; it's because she's the first person I've met up here who is just like me, so I was hoping she would accept me no matter what.

"That's right, Lilly...my kind exists. The hydras of legend, some of the most terrifying creatures in the sea, feared and hated by all but their own kind."
I slam my fist into the floor, fighting to hold back tears.
"And what does your own kind expect from you? "Be strong. Become a warrior. Fight until the day you die." It doesn't matter what you want because fate has chosen you to become a cold-hearted, ruthless predator. And then they talk to you about glory and honor and carrying on the family's legacy. Emotions are for the weak. All that matters is fighting, warfare, killing...all because of what you are."
My voice starts cracking...and my vision is blurry as my tears fall down to the floor.
"I hated that life. Everyone was afraid of me when I just wanted friends. Everyone else told me what to feel when I just wanted to be happy. So I left it all behind and came here, where the humans live. I'd pretty much given up on finding anyone like me, but still...I was happy. I managed to wipe the slate clean and start over as a human. Then I saw you out there, and...it was more than I could have dreamed of. Someone else from the ocean who came here to start over, just like me...for just a few seconds, it was like I had the best of both worlds."
I let out a weak laugh, still exhausted from carrying Lilly back inside.
"I should've known it was too good to be true. Well...you've got a decision to make now. The way I am now-- both physically and emotionally-- I'm in no condition to fight back if you want to use that knife on me. And make no mistake, this is the best and only chance you'll get to do it before I fully transform. What do you say, Lilly?"

 

"Do you have anyplace that you know of that would work? from there I can tell you all that I know"

“Yes, I do know of one place not far from here that we can talk.” Kiriton said, and headed towards one of the buildings he passed on his way over.

The building didn’t look like much, it was mostly just an empty warehouse, but Kiriton was able to set up his equipment that he used for his work in quite a few places. He brought Nerissa to an empty area, and softened his gaze on her

“For a princess of the royal family, you sure don’t act like one. Then again, I guess I can’t blame you. From what my client has told me, apparently there is a lot of tension going on in the kingdom. They want to stop it, since conflict would do more harm than good. I want to know why your family has been involved in this whole thing, since last I knew, they were neutral.”

 

It was hard, but she slowly managed to bring herself back to thought, instead of the very new feeling of being prey. Her eyes were still wide with fear, but she considered the being before her.
I'm always killing. Back home, if you didn't fight you'd be killed. The strong ran everything, the weak either figured out how to manipulate, or they were recycled. Even up here on the surface, all I've done is kill. Aside from the few trips out with research or fishing vessels, it was always combat, fighting, killing. It was partly the blood hunger of her kind. But even then, it was the way her kind was. It kept on going, an endless obsession with murder, with consuming those weaker than yourself. Up here on the surface, she finally found the creatures more vicious than her kind. The humans were conniving, they clung to the weak so that the strong could manipulate them. She fought well up here, was stronger than most, but not the strongest. They were after her now. She'd tried something, it didn't go as planned and now she ran.
The knife clattered on the tiled part of the floor. Something was clawing at her, it was familiar and needy. The addiction pounded in her and she struggled to keep it down.
Lilly laughed then. It was a fragile sound that carried nothing behind it but sorrow.
"I'm running too. Running because I wasn't as strong as I used to be. Coming up here, I was the stranger. I couldn't move the way i used to, if you kill someone, others react to it. This place, I came up here to be different, but I'm still the same. The blood hunger still drives me."
With a half sob, half sigh, she fell back and lay on the floor.

OOT: STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE

 

Tristan walks down the streets, he grabs a packet of gum from his pocket. He takes some out and starts chewing on it. He sees a group of people chatting to each other, he walks pass them.
"Hey, have you heard. Alison saw a mermaid."
One of them starts to laugh
"Seriously? I think she's just high on that weed again."
The group starts to laugh, Tristan smiles.
"Mermaids huh. Cute."
Tristan walks down the street, he sees two people enter a warehouse, female and male.
"Now that's a site you never see."
Tristan starts to tap his right foot, 'Peek, don't peek, peek, don't peek.'
*Sigh*
Tristan walks the other direction.
"Well I guess its good that there is no information leaks."
"No rumours spreading, only the ones from fairy tales."
Tristan stops and looks at the sky.
"I should really go information hunting."

 

Something tickled her cheek causing her to finally come to. Not knowing how long she was out, she looked at the sky. There was a sharp pain in the back of her head, reaching her hand behind her head she felt the sharp edge of the rocks she fell back against. That explained her pain. Pushing herself to sit up, the pain radiated to her neck. Calliope groaned and looked down to see while she was out, something else had changed. She had legs.

This was one of the most inconvenient times for Calliope to turn human. In a state of distress, she remembered one of the few things she had stashed away in her cove, a small water tight package stuffed to the back. She crawled over to the space and pulled everything out, finally getting to the package. Turning it over in her hands, she saw something was written on it, "In case you need something, don't be afraid to come find me. -F" She smiled and carefully opened the package. Inside was a was a yellow sundress with daisies on it, there were other things in the package as well including a sunhat. She put the dress on, but was immediately stuck due to the zipper in the back and out of her reach. Momentarily giving up on the zipper, she put everything back into the cove and sealed it up with the rock. Once everything was put away, she wandered around the beach in circles trying to zip up her dress. Finding stairs to the street, Calliope crawled up, not yet acclimated to the legs and immediately face planted into the pavement.

 

OOT: What is it with you and the whole staring thing lately???


I feel bad for Lilly, seeing the condition she's in and hearing what she's gone through. But...a small part of me is happy, too. She came here to change. She came here to live a new life, just like I did. I know I can help her. Lilly...I'll get you through this and give you the second chance you need to start over, just like how I started over. Just as I'm thinking that, I notice my body slowly changing again. Not good...I'll be in my fully transformed state soon. Summoning up all the energy I have, I start crawling on my hands and...fin to where Lilly was sitting before-- the place where she left the towel I gave her. I finally make my way there, pick up the towel and start drying myself off. I can already feel my body reverting to its human form. As I wipe off the last few drops of water, my body takes on a fully human shape and I stand up on my feet.
"There we go...much better."
With a smile, I throw the towel to Lilly.
"I knew you'd make the right choice. Don't worry...stick with me and I'll help you overcome that blood hunger of yours. I've heard it's different from species to species so it might take a little while, but I'm sure we can pull it off. What do you say? It's got to be better than mercenary work, at least."
I pause for a moment and my expression becomes a little more serious. I reach out my right hand towards her.
"You know what I really am, so I understand if you don't trust me anymore. You can just walk out the door and pretend we never met, and that'll be the end of it. But if you can look past the fact that I'm a hydra and trust me, I'll do everything I can to help you. That's a promise!"

 

Actaeon blinked.
He blinked again.
Then he laughed, a sharp bark through pained lungs. "You're insane. Merpeople? Of course, why didn't I see it before? And now that I think about it, my sister was having an affair with Dracula whilst my brother turned into a werewolf every full moon. It's the little things you don't notice, huh?"

The man's face didn't change. "We needed a believable scapegoat. One the human police would chase. We regret what we had to do to you -"
"YOU. ARE. INSANE."
The man raised an eyebrow. "I'm not the one currently wanted on several counts of murder, thievery, grievous bodily harm and is currently hurling insults at the man responsible for his continued existence while strapped to a hospital bed."
Had Actaeon's hands been free, there would have been no relinquishing the deathgrip he would form around that man's neck. "YOU ARE TALKING, ABOUT PEOPLE THAT ARE HALF-FISH AND SWIM IN THE OCEANS, AS THOUGH THEY ARE UNEQUIVOCAL SCIENTIFIC FACTS. MERPEOPLE DO NOT EXIST. YOU ARE CLEARLY DELUSIONAL AND IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE THIS ROOM IN TEN SECONDS, I WILL TEAR YOUR MOTHERFUCKING GODLESS HOLLOW HEAD STRAIGHT OFF YOUR GODDAMNED SHOULDERS!!!"
The man's response was to take a glass of water from the side table, and pour it on his leg.

The flesh... changed. It seemed to harden, morphing from soft haired skin to smooth plated scales. The legs seemed to fuse, forming one limb that replaced the ambulatory ones. The trousers tore off in seconds, as the bottom broadened out into a long webbed fin, to aid propulsion through aquatic terrain. At the waist, fish and flesh seamlessly flowed into one another, scale changing to flesh like the subtle weaving of colored cloth. The transformation took roughly the same amount of time as it would take to butter a slice of bread.

Actaeon's mind did not accept what it was looking at. It couldn't. It WOULDN'T. "What... what the hell did you put in my painkillers?"
The man sighed. "Absolutely nothing. What you are looking at is the truth. There is no drug in the world that may simulate this kind of experience." The tail lifted and moved, clearly a powerful muscle. "If I touched you with it, would that further aid belief?"
It's a trick. An elaborate prop. Some kind of prank, or joke, a CGI screen. A virtual reality simulation. Maybe I've just gone mad. Yes, that's it. My time in the woods has driven me completely bonkers. I've completely lost my mind. Gone off my rocker, round the bend, absolutely cuckoo. Because I AM NOT BELIEVING IN MERPEOPLE.

The tail brushed against his leg.
Dear God. It's true. This is real. This is all horribly horribly real. I'm letting a merman rub his tail on me.

He fainted.