The Lost Secret of the Silver Sea

Chapter 22: Help Needed

              Kaelonne grunts as Hartley gets him into the passenger side of the car hastily, tracking the human through squinting eyes as he dashes back into the house to grab the keys and get into the driver’s side. The young royal chances a glance at the injury on his leg, having to reassure himself that it wasn’t actually caught in lava. It was now bleeding black, and the veins rising up from the wound was spreading steadily. Hartley peeled out from the driveway without warning, tired screeching in his haste.

            “Just hang one, I have a friend who can help.” The young human sounded as though he was trying to reassure himself more than the Mermatian.

            “Are you sure that your friend would be anywhere able, or equipped to deal with something like this?” Kaelonne dared a huff of laughter, hands clutching tightly at his thigh, nails close to ripping through the pants.

            “Honestly… no, but it might be our only chance.” Hartley glances at him, bottom lip held hostage between his teeth in worry. He was sitting ramrod straight in the driver’s seat, much unlike the usually relaxed stance he carried when he was in charge of the vehicle.

            “That is not reassuring.” Kaelonne mutters as he thumps his head back on the headrest, back slightly arched unwilling at the pain spark at any small movement, “And, if I may ask, what does your friend do for a living exactly?”

            “He’s a marine biologist.”

            “Marine is the only word I know, and the context is not fitting.” Kaelonne huffs as he glances at Hartley with a slight frown.

            “In this moment, basically a fish doctor.”

            “A fish doctor.” Kaelonne snorts with a slightly incredulous look, “You’re betting my leg on a fish doctor, do I look like a fish to you?”

            “Wha…” Hartley scowls at him, the high-tension situation getting the best of them, “Are you not a fish?”

            “What makes you think that?”

            “You live in the see, you have a tail, you breathed through gills!” Hartley shoots back fiercely, the heat was not directed at him, but there was a genuine underline of confusion.

            “That does not make me one of those half-brained things!” Kaelonne growls back, cursing in Mermatian as his leg was jostled from another rough turn.

“Then what are you?” Hartley screeches back. The car goes silent for a sturdy minute, only the sound of the road under the tires and the growling engine of the car filling their ears.

Kaelonne glances at Hartley, the human’s bright, brown eyes were plastered on the road ahead, jaw clenched and fingers tight on the steering wheel .He was honestly surprised at the daring speed the human was using on the moving vehicle, but he didn’t want to question the person trying to help him. The unnecessary anger in him deflated, leaving him guilty and tired, “Sorry.”

“No… I shouldn’t have argued back.” Hartley sighed through his nose and slumps slightly, some of the tension draining out of him. “How’s the hole in your leg holding up?”

“Like Lokaltan’s burning forges.” Kaelonne huffs as he tried to pull himself slightly up on the car seat where he’d slid down. It was a lost cause, so he leaned his shoulder on the door in hopes to make himself a little more comfortable.

“I assume that’s bad?”

“Yep, Lokaltan was a powerful Mermatian, smart and strong. He’d set the starting line for some of the best creations we have at the moment, but according to the old stories, he went crazy. He let power get to his head and created a place of fear and destruction instead of the paradise he’d prayed for.” Kaelonne rubbed the bridge of his nose, annoyed at the heat and cold that seemed to crash through his like waves. It left him shaky and exhausted, as though he didn’t spend the last week resting.

“We…We’ve been together for a week, and you’re now telling me about something so cool?” Hartley’s voice was high-pitched and incredulous, the young royal had a passing thought that the human would probably be able to mimic the Mermatian’s whistles with ease. The human only growled more as Kaelonne let out an unintentional chuckle, huffing as he turned his eyes back on the road. From his odd position, the Mermatian could see that the world around him turned from grey buildings and loud noises to trees and grass without his notice.

“I’m not even… sure if it’s true.” Kaelonne hisses as Hartley goes over a rough patch on the road again, waving a hand at the unneeded apologies that came from the human. “Do you humans have an equivalent to it?”

“Burning forges, pain and suffering?” Hartley snorts as if his words were of irony, “We do, but after hearing your propensity to use your language when you’re in pain, I’m not about to teach you anything in my language that can be used in the same way.”

“Fine.” Kaelonne scrunches his nose at the human to show his displeasure, but to his chagrin, it only served to make him laugh. “At least tell me more of this fish doctor of yours.”

“He helps injured creatures from the sea for a living, along with doing research on how to better help or take care of them.” Hartley takes one hand off the wheel to wave a nonchalant explanation, clearly hurried to get the words out before he invoked anger from any mention close to fish doctor again. “He lives at the coast of the city, the business and him are a package deal. It’s a couple miles of protected area, so it’s pretty away from the city life.”

“And you suspect that this marine biologist would be able to help me over a real one?” The young royal askes tiredly, eyes slipping close without his permission, he fights to keep his head up.

“It’s better than trying to explain that,” He waved a hand in the direction of Kaelonne’s limp leg with huff, meeting his pained eyes with a grin tinged with a slight maniacal look, “to someone in the very same hospital you ditched a month ago.”

“In the human’s most interesting phrase, touché.”

“Doesn’t quite fit, but you’re getting the hang of it.”

“Explain it to me when we’re out of this mess?”

“Sure, if you promise to keep your damn eyes open.” Kaelonne groaned in irritation as he felt Hartley’s hand taping in his face , peeling his eyes back open. It felt grainy and very heavy, a dangerous exhaustion that he had never felt before. He sniffed and raised his head a little higher, daringly letting his head lean on the door of the car.

“Sure, if you learn to drive your moving vehicle without so many bumps.”

“Blame it on the road, not me.” Hartley spits out with a disgruntled tone; it was so similar to his father that it reminded the young royal the true event they should’ve been partaking in hardly half an hour ago.

“Your father.” The words were slurred, almost impossible to get out, but it was enough to pull Hartley’s attention.

“What about him?” He glances at the slumped, blurry-eyed Mermatian on the passenger seat, a worried look on his face. He pulls into somewhat long, empty street at the same time, passing a large sign to the side of the road to fast for Kaelonne to read it.

“We were supposed to meet him, for him to finally take the day off, did we not?” Kaelonne huffs, noting that his leg did not pain as much, that could either be good, or really bad. Taking note of the events of the last month, he was unwillingly leaning towards the latter idea. “And this is his transport as well, is it not?”

“He’ll… be fine, besides, mines just came home from the garage, he can meet us there.” Hartley purposely left out how Ford was supposed to get home to get to the car in the first place but Kaelonne was too tired to call him out on it.

“You put your father through a lot.” Hartley left out a bark of laughter in surprise, trailing off into a series of snickers as he pulls up to a barricade with a screech of tires.

“I do, don’t I.” He mutters idly as he reaches out of the window to poke as a small, strange box planted into the dirt. “I really need to start giving him more thanks, but something or the others keeps getting in the way.”

“I understand that all too well.” Though the words were intended for himself, Hartley hummed in agreement. Kaelonne’s words were growing faint, even to his own ears, the veins travelling up his leg much faster than he’d anticipated. They were already crawling up his hip, visible right by his pants line. It felt like the heat from the lava from the forges when he got too close to melt down ore.

“Alister, you there?” Hartley’s rough voice startles him out of his musing, but it was not directed at him, but rather at the same, small box he’d been poking at. He was almost certain that the human had lost him mind when a small voice responded.

“Name and purpose.” It was rough and grating, almost painful to the Mermatian’s ears. The voice sounded nothing like a human’s, better suited for a conversation with the car’s engine.

“It’s me, Hartley. I need your help!” He almost shouts back at the voice, his hands clutching white-knuckled at the steering wheel. Kaelonne wanted to reassure him, but just pulling himself up to see out of the window left him dizzy and drained, head resting on the glass.

“Hartley? Is that you kid?” The voice that returned for a little more human this time, worry thick in the single sentence .

“Yea, I have a friend with me that could really use your help, open up.”

They hardly had to wait seconds before the single barricade rises, granting them access, Hartley revs the engine and speeds through, much faster than he did on the crowded streets. Kaelonne would genuinely admit that he was distracted by the sight of the sea hardly meters away from them. It was somewhat obscured by trees, but he could still here the sound of crashing waves faint over the growling car engine. A feeling of homesick struck at him without warning, so close but so very far.

Hartley grips his arm roughly to grab his attention, the young royal opening his eyes with a soft gasp, not remembering when he’d had them close. They approached a large building, driving around he side instead of stopping, moving on road that turned from pitch and tar to gravel and sand.

Kaelonne pushes himself up a little higher in the seat as they pull to a stop in front of a middle-aged male human with a worried face, hands clasped on a black bag.