~ Chapter 7 : Big Fish and Little Fish ~

The storage cave had been lined with some heather-like material that made the hard stone floor more bearable to lie on. Melody didn't say much to the Croo after dinner and told them she wished to retire immediately. The Leader King had been understanding and allowed her to sleep immediately. She felt absolutely drained after being forced this way and that from one crisis to another with only a brief moment of rest in between, and decided to savour this moment as much as she could.

Melody lay in the heather-ish bed for a long while after the Croo servants left her alone, staring at the stone ceiling. A large glowing mushroom at one of the corners provided light in the cave, which was all she needed.

The fact that there was a way to get past the cold water barrier was a relief, but it wasn't the most pressing issue on her mind (now that the dinner was over and she was left alone with her thoughts). Melody wished with all her heart that Tip had arrived at Atlantica safely with the antidote list. As long as her mother was safe, everything was all right. That was why she had become a mermaid and travelled out to find Miasma, wasn't it?

Melody clasped her locket. Slowly, she lifted it and looked at it, her fingers tracing the word Melody that had been carved with magical care on it. Then she opened it.

The small bubble, providing a vision of Atlantica, appeared. It seemed to be afternoon, or late morning. Merpeople were swimming around and through the magnificent city, happy and unawares. Melody smiled to herself, and touched the vision briefly. The bubble wavered for a moment and then restored itself.

Then she saw her grandfather. King Triton was at one of the high windows in the palace, and there was... Melody squinted... Aunt Aquata! They were discussing something, and it almost looked like an argument. Melody immediately sat up and held the locket as close as possible so she could look at the bubble clearly. She could almost read their lips...

Triton said something along the lines of, How could you let Melody go...

"Oh no!" Melody exclaimed. Aquata was being scolded by Triton for letting her go. On the windowsill was Sebastian, and while she couldn't see close enough, she was sure he had one of his sheepish looks on his face. Aquata pressed her hands to her face.

She seemed to say, I'm sorry. But I've already... Melody gritted her teeth when she couldn't read her aunt's lips properly, and peered closer. Aquata was saying, Now we have the list (something something something) the ingredients are being gathered (something something) antidote be ready...

Melody inhaled sharply. They had the list! She pumped her fist in the water, wishing briefly that the cave was bigger so she'd be able to do a little victory dance. A wide grin settled itself on her face, and although Aquata and her grandfather had turned and moved away from the window, the world was already a better place.

Melody sighed and shut the locket. That's all I need to know...

And so, despite the alien conditions and worries that plagued her, Melody slept, but not before letting her thoughts drift to her mother, father, grandfather, friends... Feeling much better about the situation, Melody fell asleep. Like before, she had no dreams and no nightmares, and while she slept soundly, certain restlessness bothered her, and she woke feeling not that much different than she had been when she lay down to rest.

It was a female Croo named Gua that woke her up. Like most of the females they were smaller in size and had softer voices. "It is new cycle morn, Princess May-lor-dee. The Leader King wishes to see you for the morn meal."

Melody didn't say much, and got ready as much as she could before exiting the cave/room. Just as she did, some of the Croo started screaming and shouting. At first Melody started to panic because she thought they were shouting at her, but she soon realised that they were shouting and pointing at something else.

Melody turned her head, and she saw that approaching the city was a group of sea creatures almost identical to the Croo except that these were red-brown in colour and had sharper markings on their shells. Their king - as Melody assumed because he had a crown on his head - was leading the troupe toward the Croo city.

Melody muttered to herself, "I knew it."

Lir appeared out of nowhere and perched himself on her shoulder. "Knew what?"

"Trouble was coming," she said, shaking her head with a sigh. "What's going on, Lir?"

"These are the Tar of the Tar City, down the vale," said Lir. "Distant cousins. Rivals. They do not like us and we do not like them."

"Why?" Melody asked.

"We both claim the mining fields for our own," explained Lir. "No true borders have been drawn between our cities and we fight for it." He sighed. "It may seem like a futile feud, but the mining fields are very rich in ore. And that is Lord Shor, their equivalent of our Leader King. This does not look good, Melody."

The Croo Leader King swam out of the Croo palace and with his own people behind him and met the Tar on an outstretch of sand. Melody swam up behind a large rock where she would be able to watch the proceedings without drawing too much attention. Lir sat on the rock next to her.

"What is your business here, Tar?" asked the Leader King.

"Ah, can a cousin not visit a cousin?" asked Lord Shor, and he smiled. Melody may not have been used to the customs between the Croo and the Tar, but she could see that Lord Shor was not a nice individual, and his smile was hardly warm.

"No, he cannot," snapped the Leader King.

Lord Shor nodded. "We the Tar have come to pay tribute to the Big Fish," he said. "With mercreatures." He snapped his pincers, and from behind a boulder a few of the Tar appeared dragging a large net which contained Jeremy and Dash, struggling for all it was worth within the confines of their trappings. "They were trespassing on our city, spying on us. Such creatures deserve death in the jaws of the Big Fish."

Melody paled. Jeremy and Dash! So they had fallen in after her! Keeping her emotions in check, she half-turned to Lir and asked, "What is the Big Fish?"

Lir looked at her sharply. "Big Fish. Big Fish. Fear - terror. Big Fish!"
 

[Author's Note: The term "Big Fish" is not a reference to Flounder, but to the movie "Mermaid Got Married". ^_^;]

The Croo Leader King looked at Jeremy and Dash, and by what little his expression could give away, he seemed to also be thinking about Melody. Then finally he said, "Since you found them in the realm of your city, you have right over them. Do with them what you wish."

Before Melody realised what she was doing, she had shouted, "No!" and swam up the meeting companies of Croo and Tar.

"Melody!" Jeremy and Dash cried at the same time as they spotted her.

Lord Shor grinned at her as the Croo Leader King stared at her in alarm. The Croo Leader King was first to speak. "Meh-loh-dee, please back away. This is matter of the Croo and the Tar."

"Those are my friends!" Melody said, pointing at Jeremy and Dash.

Lir - who had somehow managed to hold onto her shoulder - poked her in the cheek gently. "That may be so, but..." His eyes darted to Lord Shor and then back to her. "We better not speak of this now..."

"But-but... What's going to happen to them?" Melody demanded.

"I shall give them to the Big Fish," said Lord Shor.

"The Big Fish will eat them," Lir whispered.

"But why would you do that?" Melody asked Lord Shor, her voice shrill.

Lord Shor gave a half shrug (remarkable considering he barely had shoulders in the first place), indicating that he could sacrifice anyone or anything to the Big Fish if he wanted to.

Melody looked at the Croo Leader King. "Can't you do anything?" she asked.

"We... do not interfere," said the Leader King.

Melody turned and locked eyes with Lord Shor. In that brief moment Melody understood that Lord Shor had known that she was in the Croo city, and that he knew that Jeremy and Dash were her friends. That was why he had paraded them in front of the Croo, in order to lure her. Melody looked at Jeremy and Dash. They were looking at her, poor Dash with his big bulk trying not to break his back as he was squashed into the small net. He waved a fin sadly. Jeremy was quietly trying to work at the ropes of the net but she could see that it was accomplishing nothing.

Melody looked at the Leader King, who said, "You are safe if you stay with the Croo. There is nothing you can do for your friends."

Melody swallowed, her brain quickly computing the information in a way that would make her father proud. "I... I will stay with the Croo."

The Croo sighed with relief as the Tar snapped their pincers angrily. If Lord Shor had a nose, he would have snorted. He then waved his pincer and the troupe of the Tar marched on. Melody watched them leave down the valley into the darkness. Then turned to Lir, her face set in determination.

"What does the Big Fish do?" she asked.

The Leader King tapped his pincers in a way that could be described as worry. "The Big Fish terrorises us. Eats us. Comes and goes whenever it pleases. The Big Fish hates mercreatures. Hates them so much. The Tar give the Big Fish any mercreatures they find, a way of showing their loyalty. The Big Fish is their master. We the Croo fear the Big Fish."

"Why does the Big Fish hate mercreatures?" Melody asked.

"They say it is because he fears them," said Lir. "Especially the Princess Red mercreature."

Melody quickly processed this information into shocked realisation. "You think I'm the Princess Red?"

"Please help us!" Nom shrieked. "The Big Fish fears the Princess Red. We don't know why, but we believe that it is because the Red has the means of destroying the Big Fish. The Princess Red will free us!"

All the Croo chorused, "The Princess Red will free us!"

Just my luck... Melody thought. Just my luck I'm a princess and I have a red tail. Then she narrowed her eyes. "Is this why you were nice to me? Because you think I'm the Princess Red? Because you thought I'd help free you from the Big Fish?"

The Leader King had the decency to look embarassed. "Yes."

Melody held his gaze, narrowing her eyes into a thin piercing gaze of concentrated anger (not that much unlike her grandfather's), nostrils flaring. The Leader King, known for being all high and mighty, shriveled up under her stare. Lir tensed up, ready to stop her in case she suddenly decided that she'd enjoy killing anything in the immediate region, Croo included.

Then suddenly she relaxed. "Ah well, politics," she shrugged. "Fine, fine, fine. Say I am the Princess Red. Now what do I do?"

"Defeat the Big Fish!" the Croo announced together, as though they had been rehearsing the line many times before.

Figures, Melody thought. "Ah, well. I'll help you as much as I can."

It took plenty of willpower for Lir to stop himself from laughing when he saw the relief that took over his father's face.

*****

I am the most stupid merman that ever lived, Jeremy was thinking. He adjusted his position in the net next to Dash, although the uncomfortable factor was not reduced much. Melody's going to rescue us. Stupid girl. She doesn't even know what the Big Fish is, which probably makes her feel like she take it on all the more. Then he smiled grimly and sighed. She's probably going to succeed.

Jeremy caught Dash's eye. They were both thinking the same thing, and has already prepared themselved for Melody's imminent rescue. They didn't dare say anything for fear that the Tar would hear and be alerted. Not that Jeremy actually knew for certain that Melody was following, it was just that... Well, Melody was Melody! She'd rather wrestle a giant octopus with her bare hands than let her friends go to their deaths without raising a fin.

How ironic, thought Jeremy. We thought we were going to rescue her, and now she's going to rescue us.

"We are here!" announced Lord Shor.

Jeremy looked. At first he couldn't see anything in particular that could mark exactly what "here" was, since it looked just about the same as the rest of the vale the small troupe had been wandering down. And then he saw...

"That's a big cave," Dash whispered, eyes growing as wide as saucers. "To hold a big... b-b-big..."

"Big Fish?" Jeremy remarked helpfully.

"Don't say things like that!" Dash shrieked, squirming within the net.

"Call the Big Fish and then release the mercreatures!" Lord Shor ordered.

One of the Tar marched up in front of the small group and then raised a gong. He hit it a few times and then shouted in the distinct voice of someone who had done it a hundred times before, "Supper time!"

"Nyeh?" said Jeremy as the nets were opened up partially, with the open end facing the entrance of the cave. He stretched his arms carefully. "Anything that answers a call like that can't... be... that..."

Their eyes bulged as the Big Fish came into view. It grinned at them. "Well, well, well..."

*****

"That's Dash!" Melody exclaimed and sped up her swimming. "I know that scream anywhere. He's brave, he really is, but he just tends to panic sometimes."

Lir was clinging onto Melody's dark hair as her fins propelled her forward, and the young princess immediately thought of Sebastian, who would under different circumstances be doing to the same thing. She felt Lir clench his pincers a little nervously. "Have you ever done anything like this before?"

"Oh, sure," said Melody. "Another day in the life of the headstrong princess who never listens to her parents. No biggee. I'm surprised your father let you come along, just for the record."

"Oh, he doesn't know I'm with you."

"What?!" Melody almost halted swimming but another scream, closer this time, helped her regain her focus. "But-but..."

"I hid in your hair as you left. He thinks I'm in the city somewhere," said Lir dismissively. "I've always wanted to see the Big Fish up close. Father always has me hidden in the palace whenever the Big Fish passes over our city."

"But that's... You're being here... That's bad behaviour." Melody grinned. "We have more in common that I thought."

"Do you think you can defeat the Big Fish?" asked Lir.

"Well, the way you describe it, long torpedo-shaped body, smooth, two side fins, one dorsal fin, sharp angular tail, big mouth, lots of teeth, sounds pretty much like shark. I can take sharks," said Melody, grinning a bit.

Lir smiled. "I believe you're as ready as you can ever be... Oh, we're here."

Melody immediately hid behind a rock and carefully crept over the rim. The Tar were pressing themselves as much as they could to get away from the action, although that wasn't really what had her attention at the moment.

"That's the Big Fish?" Melody breathed.

"Yes," answered Lir.

So it was a shark. Not just any shark. A BIG shark. And not just any big shark either...

"It was an accident, really it was!" Dash was pleading. "Undertow, you can't be keeping a grudge after all this while..."

Undertow, in all his ridiculously large glory, laughed. "Hah! Of course I keep a grudge, you think it's been peachy being stuck down here all this while with no way to get past that cold water barrier? All your fault! Yours and..." He squinted at Jeremy. "I don't know this one."

"Hi. I'm Jeremy," said the young merman. "Pleased to meet you, Mr Undertow, sir."

"And where's..." Undertow's large head swooped around. "MELODY! Where's SHE? I know she's here!! And that penguin! WHERE ARE THEY?!"

Melody gripped the rock as the soundwaves of Undertow's shouting rocketed through the water. Lir clung onto Melody's hair for dear life. When the overlarge shark was done bellowing, Melody relaxed her grip and dared to peer out at the scene again.

"We fell down here by ourselves," said Jeremy.

"There is another mercreature here, Big Fish," Lord Shor said. "A female, with black hair and a red tail."

"The Princess Red..." Undertow snarled. "I thought I told you to get her first!"

The Tar shivered under his bellowing.

"Wow," said Melody, still in her hiding place behind the rock. "Without Morgana to keep him in check as a sidekick, Undertow sure has developed supervillain delusions."

"Huh?" said Lir.

"Nevermind," said Melody. She looked around quickly, surveying the surroundings. "Not much to work with," she muttered. No conveniently loosely-perched boulder, no sharp rocks... She drew her lips together, feeling rather annoyed that nothing remotely resembling a plan had formed in her head. "I guess we just have to wing it."

"Wing - it?" Lir asked. "You have strange sayings, Princess Melody."

Melody nodded with a smirk. She wound her shoulders, loosening them up. Play your strengths. And what strengths do I have? Oh, yes... "We'll wait for when Jeremy and Dash are released from the net, and then, we - or rather I - attack."

Lir looked at Melody, then at the six Tar and the angry overlarge shark. "The odds are rather against you."

"All the more reason for it to succeed," Melody reply. "What you need to do, is just get the Tar to go a different way, I don't think that'll be too hard, if what you told me is right. Got it?"

"Got it."

The Tar were starting to remove the net from Jeremy and Dash. Melody eyed them carefully.

"On my mark... Three, two, one... Go! Go! Go!"

Melody charged at Undertow screaming a mighty sixteen-year-old-mermaid-princess war-cry and the half-second of recognition and shock that crinkled the shark's face gave Jeremy and Dash, who had seen her coming, to spring apart immediately in opposite directions. Undertow flailed a little, his eyes trying to go in three directions at once - before settling for turning to Melody and charging right back.

"Hah! Let's see how good a swimmer you are," Melody chuckled.

Imagine a sea creature, smooth and aerodynamic, agile and able to turn sharp corners, with a powerful tail and absolutely no regard for what could possibly be up or down. That's Melody. She whirled up and down and around Undertow, who although being very large and very scary, also had a very big inertia that prevented him for keeping a good radar on the mermaid mosquito.

"Stay still!" Undertow bellowed.

Melody felt like sticking her tongue out at him, but figured it wouldn't do much good because he wouldn't see it anyway. She settled for drawing him back into the cave, away from the Tar - although she was swimming too fast to see what was actually happening with the Tar, she hoped everything was okay - and Jeremy and Dash.

Melody soon found herself at the far back of a cave dimly lit with glowing fungae, and she was too high on adrenaline to notice that she still had absolutely no idea how to stop Undertow. Swim him to exhaustion, maybe?

"I got you trapped, princess!" Undertow chuckled, blocking her way out. He paused, eyes crossing momentarily, then started to wheeze.

"Haven't been working out, Undertow?" Melody asked, crossing her arms. She was hovering right in front of the hard stone cave wall. Anyone, really, anyone could have seen a mile away what she was about to do.

Undertow stopped wheezing and glared at her as he twitched his tail, ready to charge. "I got you now! Nyahahahahahaha-gah!!"

"You fell for it! I don't believe it!" Melody laughed. "That's twice!" She, of course, had swum out of the way with split-second timing just as Undertow charged at her.

Undertow peeled himself off the cave wall and watched sadly as another batch of beautiful little shark teeth fell from their sockets in his gums. He turned to her, a stunned look in his eyes. "Not again..."

Melody saluted him. "Should've stuck being a sidekick, Undertow."

Undertow glared at her. "It'sh all your fault. After Morgana wash gone I had nowhere to go. I jusht happened to... fall in the job here."

"Oh, so I'm supposed to be sorry that you've been eating seacreatures and those little Croo, now is it?" Melody asked, hands on hips. "Honestly, Undertow!"

"I'm a shark! That'sh what I do!" Undertow wailed.

Melody backed a bit, a little surprised at how the situation had changed. Undertow was still gazing at the fallen teeth sadly, and in the new light seemed to be nothing more than a bully whose only advantage was his size. He even appeared to be a little lost, which was quite possibly the fate of all abandoned sidekicks everywhere. How could anyone possibly be afraid of him? Melody frowned. "You've been terrorising the Croo."

Undertow blinked at her. "They're shtupid little crab thingsh. They desherve to be terrorished."

Melody, feeling very brave (and in retrospect, probably very stupid), swam up to Undertow and whacked him smartly between the eyes. "Look at you, you sorry excuse for a seacreature! Those Croo did nothing to you! They live in fear of you! And what about those other seacreatures that the Tar have sacrificed to you, eh? What did they do?"

Undertow screwed his eyes, as though trying to make sense of the strange language Melody was speaking. "Um..."

Melody sighed. "Just because you're a mighty big shark, that doesn't give you the right to bully others."

"It doeshn't?"

THWACK! "No, it doesn't!" Melody glared at him, her dark eyebrows furrowing together like two angry thin caterpillars. "You will stop. Right now. You will not bother the Croo, or tell the Tar to make ridiculous sacrifices to you. The Croo won't be afraid of you anymore, once I tell them what a guppy you really are."

Undertow stared at her.

"And anyway, it'll be a while before you can chomp anything," Melody said, eyes flicking to the dropped teeth. "I know sharks regenerate their teeth pretty quickly, but I don't think that quickly."

From the entrance, or near the entrance of the cave, came Jeremy's voice. "Melody! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Melody yelled back. Then she turned back to Undertow, raising a finger threateningly. "You will STOP. Do you hear me?"

"I'm a big shark," Undertow said quietly, in the same tone of voice a small boy would have after being caught stealing cookies from the jar and yet still persists his innocence.

"A big shark with no teeth. While I, on the other hand, have a grandfather with a really big trident," Melody said matter-of-factly. "Do you want to spend the rest of your life as an anchovy?"

Undertow's eyes widened briefly, then drooped. "Fine. I'll shtop."

"Good."

"But then what am I shupposed to eat?!"

"There's plenty of good edible fungae stuff down here, I've heard," Melody said.

"Sharksh don't eat fungi!"

Melody half-screamed. "That's it! Now not only will you stop - and I mean STOP! - you will come with me and apologise to the Croo."

Undertow blanched. "What?!"

"You heard me!" Melody shouted at him. "Come on!"

That's why, when Melody and Undertow finally exited the cave, they were met with bulging eyes and a few dropped jaws. Of course, who wouldn't be surprised when the sight consisted of a skinny little mermaid half-dragging a shark ten times her size, while said shark is behaving like a dog that had just been hit by a newspaper for being a *bad boy*.

"Uh... what happened?" Jeremy asked, eyes darting from Undertow to Melody.

"Undertow is going to repent," said Melody.

Undertow sputtered and Melody slapped his underside with her tail. The Tar, Lord Shor included, were all watching the scene with shock from beneath the net that had previously housed Jeremy and Dash. What had happened, as Lir eagerly told Melody, was that all the Tar had immediately charged him during the panic - after all, he was the son of their enemy - and then Jeremy and Dash had taken the net and dropped it right on top of them. Lir couldn't stop grinning.

Dash slowly grinned. "Wow, Melody, you sure have a way with... tremendously large rather violent sea creatures."

"Thank you. Now let's go.
 

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