Chapter 6: Meet the fam, chump
"Why are you guys up so early...?"
Ray looked over to see an older mermaid, she had iridescent white-ish hair. Her hair was shorter and in a messy bun, she had a purple tail decorated in pearls and brush.
"Oh, uh, the guest woke up." Coral answered.
The woman's face lit up with delight.
"Oh! Have my children been causing you trouble?" She gave them a death glare and Sandy shivered.
"No they haven't ma'am." He responded.
"Good! I'm their mother, Catsi, you can call me Mrs. Ren though."
"I'm Ray..."
'You hungry?"
"No,"
"You've been out for a day! You need to keep your protein up, you've got some muscles there. Don't you want to keep them?"
He looked over at Coral who nodded at him furiously.
"Um, I guess I can't say no."
"You're right, so do you want crab, lobster, shrimp?"
"Uh... lobster I guess."
"Ok kids, I guess we're all having lobster." She looked at them with a cheerful yet intimidating smile.
She swam over to chairs made from coral and a sandstone table.
Tortie, Sandy and Coral swam over as well. Sandy and Coral sitting next to each other, leaving the the head chairs to their parents and the other side to him and Tortie.
Tortie sat down, Ray following shortly after. Setting his head down on the table, looking closely at the details in the sand stone.
"You never accepted my apology..." Tortie whispered beside him.
"Huh?"
"You never accepted the apology." He repeated.
"Oh! I accept your apology."
Tortie smiled. "Good."
The smell of fresh lobster wafted towards the table, Ray looked over to see that a fresh lobster was resting on a plate, uncooked, but dead and ready to be eaten.
"Tortie honey, can you carry this to the table?"
"Sure mom." Tortie pushed the chair back and swam towards the sandstone counter tops. He picked up the plate, he seemed to struggle at its weight being he was relatively skinny and not well worked out. His mother went to the table and sat down, while Ray swam over to help Tortie.
"I got this, go sit down." Ray said, taking the plate away from Tortie.
Tortie looked another up at him, "Thanks!" And swam to the chair.
Ray made his way towards the table and set the plate in the middle.
Sitting down next to Tortie he soon realized that there were shell plates and broken plates from sunken boats already laid out in front of each of the spots. Catsi looked at the chair on the other end of the table and sighed.
"Reef!" She yelled.
A groan came from another room.
"I know you're tired just come eat with us. The guest is awake." She closed her eyes, resting her head on her hand, elbow on the table.
Ray looked over to the hallway and saw a slight shadow coming closer until a merman with red hair and a yellow tail swam out, he wasn't as intimidating as Mrs. Ren was, almost the opposite actually. He had slightly tanner skin than Catsi and he also had neat, longish hair that was smoothed to his head. The skinny merman swam towards the chair on the other end of the table and sat down, sitting with perfect posture. He looked closely at Ray and Tortie, an unpleasant expression came upon his face.
"So, Sandy, how's school been?" Reef grabbed a chunk of the lobster and put it on his plate.
"Good, dad." She ate a small amount of the lobster on her plate.
"Tortie, could you pass the knife?" Reef said looking at Tortie with despise.
"Sure dad- I mean, Of course Mr. Ren." Tortie picked the knife up by its handle and set it down near Mr. Ren to where he could reach it.
Ray could sense the tension at the table, Mrs. Ren looked depressed that her husband couldn't accept Tortie, Tortie and Mr. Ren were glaring at each other, one with a calm face of masked emotions; the other with a face of pure hatred. Coral was just eating nibbles of her food while Sandy what chowing it down, oblivious to the tension.
Ray on the other hand was picking at his food, not really eating it. He never was comfortable eating with somebody else's family, non-the-less with so much tension in the air.
Mrs. Ren looked up, "So Ray, why were you passed out in the sand so close to the gorge?"
"Oh... I fell... from the top..." He didn't make eye contact, instead he looked down at his food.
"Why... were you up there...?" Her voice sounded stunned.
"Because its where I live. Somebody, or 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, pushed me off."
She dropped the fork she held in her hand.
"Y-you're human...?" She asked with a shaky voice.
"Yep." Ray responded, still staring at his food.
"Oh my gosh! Dear, why didn't you say so sooner!? You must be so confused."
"I already gave up on trying to understand this dream."
"Dear this isn't a dream! The prophecy is coming true!"
Ray raised an eyebrow and looked in her direction, "Prophecy?"
"Yeah, when the ocean started to get polluted sure the Great Spirits of the Sea decided they needed to save it, but magic works in a weird way."
Ray looked down at his hands, he wasn't fit for this.
"The prophecy goes, ''An angel from the heavens falls to the depths of the ocean, echoes will guide their way''."
"What does that mean." He looked lost.
"It means you have to find something and save the ocean." She smiled as if it was clear in her head.
"But what if I get lost-" Ray's face looked so confused.
"I'm gonna send Coral with you." Catsi looked sure of herself.
Coral looked at her mother. "Why me?! Send the Seals with him! I'm not ready for this."
"Because, it's good training for when I kick you out." She pulled a sweet yet scary smile.
"Can I go too?" Tortie pushed his hands on the table and stood.
"Hmm, let me think," Mrs. Ren put a finger to her chin. "How about..."
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Sento_Writes_Stuff It's hard writing from the perspective of under water,
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