Riley woke with fire raging through every limb and she winced. Working through the pain in her aching muscles, she propped herself up on an arm and blearily glanced around. She blinked a few times to clear her blurry vision. Once everything came back into focus, she found herself sprawled haphazardly across the various rocks along the ocean floor.

She glanced up to observe the time and found the waters reflecting a pink-gray light. It was on the cusp of dawn. Riley groaned.

She had never over-exerted herself like that before. Blacking out was incredibly dangerous, especially while on her own. She was incredibly lucky that she hadn’t been attacked while she was unconscious.

Her tail was draped at an odd angle over a particularly tall, pointed rock that was digging into her scales. As she went to shift it to a more comfortable position, her hip locked painfully, and she grunted. Her fingers curled into fists and she grit her teeth. It was not normally a problem, but if she laid too long in one place or in a particularly awkward position, the joint got stiff and painful to move. Bubbles shot from her gills as she forced air out slowly, grinding her teeth more as twisted and felt the locked joint pop with a painful noise.

After, the muscles loosened, and she was able to properly sit up. She brought a hand to her head as another wave of dizziness crashed over her. She had made the wrong choice in taking that current; it had nearly cost her everything, and still might.

Still feeling woozy, she pushed off the ground and drifted her way over to a few strands of kelp. There was plenty of nutrition in the plant, but it was not very filling or good for quickly refilling stamina, but it would have to do; she was in no fit state to go chasing after fish.

She ignored the advice she had given Do’horun a few moonrises ago and simply tore off what she could reach. The plant follicle was a little tough and stringy, it was clearly not fresh or blooming in highly fertile soil, but it would suffice.

She forced herself just to sit and eat, and gradually her body began to readjust, and the dizziness faded entirely. She still felt rather sore and weak, and like she had turned herself inside out, but at least she was confident she would not pass out again.

After she had finished eating, Riley closed her eyes and took a breath. At the start of her journey, locating her birth family had been difficult. She had to push hard past the much stronger instinct urging her back home to Sophie. Now she knew she was very close because the homing instinct thrummed noisily in her head.

She sighed. She would certainly meet up with them before the sun was high in the sky, perhaps even before dawn had passed.

It was going to take a lot more energy and strength than she was convinced she had, but she had no excuse to delay, so she pushed herself up off the ground once more and began swimming up over a large dune of sand and rock.

Because she was in unfamiliar territory – and still scrambled from her blackout – Riley tried to keep her senses as open and observant as possible, and she repeatedly scanned the waters around her and the seabed beneath her. The area was rather desolate, with only a few crabs that scuttled to the safety of the rocky shadows as she passed. One clicked its claws at her in warning before taking off and she laughed.

She swooped down on one, scooping it off the sand and cracking through its hard shell before it could use the sharp pinchers on her. It twitched once in her grasp, then fell still, and Riley absently pulled it apart to chew on the shell and meat alike as she swam. She was beginning to feel a little better now that she was moving and was getting some energy back. Her pace was still slow, however, but she was too tired to force any more speed into her strokes.

As she swam, the desolate, rocky expanse gradually began to morph into a tangle of brittle coral. The water grew dangerously shallow and it forced Riley to carefully pick her way through the twisting branches of the thorny coral stems.

She winced as her fins scraped over them. Her pod had certainly chosen a strange pace to settle, even if it was temporarily. By the time she reached the top of the shelf’s incline, Riley’s fins were flapping up above the surface with every flick of her tail.

She was beginning to worry that her instincts were wrong. No pod would linger where the water was so dangerously shallow. There was no cover and no deep water to make for an easy escape.

Finally, her clambering adventure came to an end as the dune slumped back down into deeper, sandier waters. Riley had to drag herself over another coral branch in order to dive down into the pocket, but once she did, she took a moment to rest. Her gills were flaring with exertion despite the relatively small amount of effort she had put in so far. She really needed to give herself time to rest properly and recuperate.

But now was not the time to allow herself that, not when she was so close to her goal. She did not like being in this area either – it gave her an unsettling sensation in her gut that kept her gaze shifting uneasily around.

With a shudder, she forced herself to press on. The sand rose in another hill shortly after the former dropped off, but this one was thankfully barren of prickly coral to creep through. It stretched up above the water and Riley sighed again. She rose to lift her head above the surface and examine her surroundings.

While the open ocean stretched unendingly around her, Riley was easily able to see the reason for the unusual terrain. The sandbar in front of her stretched quite far in either direction but was thankfully thin enough to jump. Beyond it, however, was the shore of an island. Riley took a moment to observe the sparkling sand and flat rocks that jut out over the water. They gradually gave way to tangled grasses and palms heavy with coconuts and bananas. A few trees braved the sands to stretch their roots into the sea water, and Riley could see various hermit crabs and mudskippers crawling among the tangled mangroves.

She parted her jaws and inhaled deeply, tasting the air and smelling it. The island had too many natural scents to be inhabited by modern human dwellings. It made more sense now, why her pod had felt safe resting or living here.

She propped her hands on the sand of the bar before her. It was still cool from the dark of night, but Riley enjoyed the pleasant chill as she pulled her tail up onto the sand. She glanced up at the sky, but rather than seeing the fading stars as night waned into day, she saw thick rolling wisps of clouds, and there was the strong taste of fresh water hanging in the air. There was likely to be quite a bit of rain on the way.

Giving herself a shake, Riley refocused on the task at hand – a bit of surface rain was hardly anything to fret about – and she shoved off the sand with her tail and launched herself the rest of the way over the sandbar to plunge down into the water on the other side. She immediately veered out into deeper waters as her beckon guided her down the slope of the island’s shore.

The water grew deep quickly and gave way to more rolling dunes. Riley continued, only to come to a stop at the crest of a particularly large dune. Her belly rubbed over the shifting sands as the tide pulled at her prone form. Below was a sprawling, multitiered reef buzzing with life.

Riley squinted. It was still early in the morning, not many were likely to be awake, but she could see a few sleeping forms scattered among the coral tubes and plateaus. Her heart stalled in her chest. She had known she would have to face the group she had not seen in over five full turns of the seasons, but it had not quite hit her until now. She chewed her lip. She was not quite sure she was prepared for what the day was going to bring.

Riley was not given a chance to ponder it further – in her daze she had let her guard down and now paid for it dearly – as a strong weight crashed into her, pressing her further down into the sand until grit caught in her gills and she began to cough.

Reacting on instinct, Riley pulled her hands in under her and thrust up with all her strength, jerking her tail in the process to help buck her attacker off.

She twisted around to snarl at the assailant. He glared at her and bared his fangs back. His tail was a deep, coconut brown, with a jagged, triangular fin that was a soft, azure green. It contrasted sharply against the dark of his scales, and a long, spiked fin stretched down his tail. He wasted no time in barreling into her again.

Riley grunted as he bowled her over into the sand once more. She growled loudly, finding herself half draped over his shoulder as he followed the momentum of his assault. She dug her nails into his back and clawed, watching plumes of blood erupt into the water as the skin split.

He snarled loudly and then she felt a sharp pressure on the side of her tail. His hands ripped at her gliders so she folded them tightly to her sides to protect them from the onslaught.

She thrashed her tail and he bit down harder in response. She winced as she felt her scales begin to crush beneath the power of his jaws.

With another furious hiss, she turned her head and sunk her teeth into his shoulder. She flared her fins again so that her glider arm caught him sharply across the face. He grunted and released her tail. She opened her mouth and spat his shoulder out, then curled her tail sharply to connect with his chest. The force knocked him back a ways in the water. Riley grinned triumphantly, trying to show off confidence rather than the concern coursing through her veins. The scuffle had barely lasted a few moments so far and already she felt exhausted and heavy once more. She was not sharp enough for a fight, and this Mer was out for blood.

He was clearly on guard, and she did not recognize him – meaning he would not know her either – though she felt that his reaction was rather brutal given she had displayed no aggressive or malicious intent prior to him attacking her. If she did not end the battle soon, she would lose it.

“I have no wish to fight,” she protested as she spat blood from her mouth.

The Mer hissed at her in response. “Trespassers are a threat,” he roared before tackling her down again. He flipped her back onto her stomach, but one hand curled around her wrist, trapping her arm painfully beneath his weight so she could not attempt to throw him again. She turned her head and snarled, lashing her tail, but he merely pressed on her cheek with the other hand so that the gills on one side of her neck were simply stirring sand around. She began to cough.

She was at a sore disadvantage in the fight, not even at a portion of her usual strength. “I am not trespassing,” she hissed as she bucked again, before falling against the sand once more. She could barely breathe, much less muster the energy to keep up the fight.

“Enough!” another Mer growled. Riley heard the Mer holding her down yelp and then suddenly his weight vanished from above her. She remained sprawled in the sand, her chest and gills heaving as she fought to catch her breath and expel the granules that had gotten lodged in her gill slits. “What are you doing, Garroth?”

“I am defending the border against invasion. Why did you interrupt?” her assailant snarled back. Riley could feel the rising tension in the waters. She knew she needed to get up and either defend herself or slip away to return later, but she could not muster the strength to rise just yet.

“She is alone,” the newcomer yelled back. “She is clearly a loner or wanderer. She can pose no threat to us! This is not how we treat newcomers. Now go.”

There was another sharp hiss and a huff, then retreating grumbling as her attacker was dismissed.

Riley had not yet seen the Mer that had come to her rescue, but she was fairly certain they knew each other. He sounded familiar, though he clearly did not recognize her either.

She shivered as she felt him settle in the sand beside her and place a hand on her shoulder. The skin of his fingertips was rough and calloused, but gentle nonetheless. “Can you sit up?” he inquired.

Riley winced but nodded and began to prop herself up.

“I am sorry about Garroth’s behavior; it was inexcusable. He is young and arrogant – a skilled fighter, but this is his first guard shift and I believe it may have gone to his…” the voice trailed off. “Riley?”

Riley huffed and pushed herself the rest of the way to flip onto the butt of her tail and finally look at the Mer beside her. She had opened her mouth to speak, but the words gurgled in her throat as her heart stalled in her chest.

The Mer was a couple cycles her elder, in his second seasonal decade. He was watching her with deep obsidian eyes. His skin was brown-gray, and his hair like a shale of slate, waving in the tide. It had gotten a bit longer since she had last seen him. Deep crimson stripes like thick claw marks wrapped around the sides of his hips and extended down onto a dark gray tail.

Rather than the thick, fish clusters of tightly packed scales like most Mer that Riley encountered, his scales were thick and stretched, growing as he did much like a shark. She knew from her youth that it yielded a rough, sand like texture to his tail, but was as thick and effective an armor as hers. His dark dorsal jutted from his back, curving into a thick point, and two smaller pectorals dug into the sand three quarters of the way to his fin as he twitched the long limb.

Riley’s head was spinning as she struggled to comprehend exactly what she was looking at – who she was looking at. She could not handle many more ghosts reappearing into her life, but this was one reunion that was as wonderful as it was unexpected.

Finding a small reserve of strength, Riley lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him. “Nero,” she murmured. “You are alive.”

After a moment, she felt his arms settle around her shoulders and he pulled her closer. “It has been a long time,” he agreed.

“But I do not understand,” Riley frowned as she pulled away from him. “What happened to you?”

Nero shook his head. “It is a longer story than I wish to tell on this bank. Are you alright?”

“I am,” Riley agreed. “Just drained. I took the twister past the sandbar to get here.”

Nero frowned and gazed beyond her. “That would have killed you.”

“It gave it its best effort,” she coughed. “I blacked out the moment I left. I have not fully recovered.”

“Why would you take the risk?”

“I had to,” she pressed with a shake of her head. “It has been so long since I have been with the group, I was not sure where you were or if you were migrating. This time of year, the pod usually is. I had to catch up.”

“Why?”

Riley grimaced and shook her head. “Not a story I want to share on this bank,” she responded. “Do not take offense, but it is not information for you to hear first.”

Nero nodded and draped her arm over his shoulder. He did not press further, but instead pushed off from the sand and began down towards the reef. Riley slumped against him and allowed him to pull her. While she normally would prefer to get there on her own, the battle had taken too much out of her.

“I am surprised to see you,” Nero said finally, and Riley frowned at the bitter edge that had dripped into his voice. “I did not expect I would. I was not sure I would want to.”

“What do you mean?”

“You left, Riley. I could forgive that normally; I know the relation you have with Aunt Iliene, everyone expected you to hit a breaking point eventually,” he broke off with a sigh. “But you left my mother alone.”

Riley made a soft strangled noise and her heart clenched.

“I was not able to return at first, though I too am guilty of staying away longer, but losing Kera nearly broke her, you know. You should, you were here. You know she considered you one of her own. You left her when she had lost her other children, and you did not come back.”

Riley squeezed her eyes shut and her fins drooped. “I know,” she whispered. “I never wanted to leave Aunt Becca behind. Never. But I was young, and I felt I had no choice but to get away. I ostracized myself from many of our family that day. It hurt too much to come back; felt like I could not. I am sorry.”

Nero hummed in agreement. “It is not me you should apologize to, but I no longer bear you any ill will, Riley. You were a child. I was simply angry at my own failings to my family when I returned.”

Riley nodded. She understood a similar internal conflict.

Nero set her down in the sand between two branches of coral. “I will find my mother; she can help with your fatigue. Wait here,” he instructed.

Before he could leave, however, another Mer approached. “Nero? There you are, I was worried. Oh…hello.” The Mer that approached had wide brown eyes that sparkled in the light, and her head tilted slightly as she smiled at them. Her skin was pale – as was her soft blonde hair – and her orange scales contrasted brilliantly as they shone like a sunset. Soft, peach colored split fins twitched at the end of her tail, and her head was framed in what looked like large, curved scales, thick and rounded rather than sharp or pointed. They circled her skull like a mane.

“Hello,” Riley responded. She had never met this Mer.

Nero swam over to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to nuzzle her cheek. “Karina, this is my cousin, Riley. Riley, Karina is my mate.”

Riley stared in stunned silence. Nero had always been a silent, solemn loner. He tolerated her, he had loved Kera dearly, and was always helpful and kindly towards his mother and father, but he had always preferred keeping to himself and was shy enough that it took days to warm him up to the notion of speaking to a stranger. She could not picture him with a mate.

Her heart swelled. “It is lovely to meet you,” she said as she nodded at Karina. Her gaze drifted down and noticed the Mer’s rounding middle and the translucent, gossamer maternity fins that were beginning to grow from her sides, and her smile widened. “Congratulations.”