Depths of War

Prologue

Maran swirled through the murky depths of the sea, her spiked tail creating complex patterns of bubbles in her wake. The tiny changes in pressure tingled against her skin. The feeling was thrilling in more than just physical ways. A storm was moving up above. It was what the Gaharaee, the merfolk of the depths, had been waiting for. With the surface swimmers distracted by the chaos of the storm there was less chance of the Gaharaee’s warriors, the Sena, being noticed among them.

Maran turned her glowing eyes in the direction of a disturbance she felt in the water. A shimmering torpedo shot her way. Her sharp, white teeth glowed in the darkness as a knowing smile spread across her face. The torpedo stopped abruptly revealing itself as something far more dangerous, her fellow Sena, Proneetha.  

“Do you feel it Maran?” her sister in combat asked. “The silt is stirring. The storm above is raging.” Proneetha spread her tentacles behind her, the tips catching at tiny particles of mud, sand, and micro-bits of shattered shell.

“Yes,” Maran answered. She could feel the silt seeping into the pores of her bone-white skin. “And now is the time for our own storm to rage. Varun and his Surfies have kept us confined to the depths for too long.” She slid a webbed hand along the length of her arm, peeling away silt and algae. The effects of living a century in the depths had become too much to bear. The Gaharaee would no longer tolerate the banishment handed down by the vainglorious lord of the sea. Today was the day they rose up from the murk and returned to Kshithij, the world where the sky meets the sea.

Next Chapter: Chapter One