Chapter Text
El Fantasma, which is what the humans called him, the Ghost, felt a little more awake as his body was roughly dumped into the water. It wasn't as cold as he expected and it was the right amount of salty. He was in a sea, or in an ocean. There were no restraints on his body and Ghost suddenly felt a little bit of hope he didn't know could ever feel again.
He was free.
Or was he? He tried to blink the weird haze of sleep away. It was dark outside and he could hear the boat with the cruel humans leaving quickly.
He couldn't believe it. There was an infinite amount of water around him and he could finally take a deep breath without those ugly chemicals humans put in his tank. His lungs still hurt from all the little injuries he sustained and his lower stomach was pretty much constantly cramping, but all that pain was pushed back now that he could focus on more than four bare walls in the empty tank.
The tank he had used to have lots of stuff in it, but the old human kept taking everything away until Ghost was left with just the water and a thin layer of sand at the bottom. It was a small tank, barely twice his length in each direction making him feel claustrophobic and bored out of his mind. He probably preferred the pain to the endless boredom. Well, except for the biggest pain the humans gave him. He absentmindedly touched the skin where his slit used to be. He couldn't understand what the humans did exactly, but right where his sheathed cock was hiding, there was only a big scar on the skin that was not supposed to be there and an almost constant dull pain.
Ghost quickly dove down to the bottom of the sea. He couldn't see or hear any more ships but that didn't mean there was no one watching so his first priority was to hide. He needed to survive first and heal properly, then think about what exactly happened. One moment he was lying pressed against the furthest wall of his tank and the next he was waking up on the ship. They gave him the sleepy medicine so he wouldn't fight back, but why they moved him, he had no idea.
When he reached the bottom he swam slowly trying to find a suitable hide. He was over 7 meters long so finding a place that would comfortably hide the entirety of his body was quite rare. He was quite used to feeling exposed in the tank, but here in the open sea where he could get attacked, he needed something that would protect him. But since he was still very sleepy he would honestly just crash at the first somewhat acceptable place he could find.
After a few minutes he stumbled upon a thick kelp field and hoped it would be enough for the night. At least he got far enough from the place they left him.
----
Ghost woke up with a start. He quickly looked around, but all he could see was the swaying kelp all around him. When his shock about being free subsided, the pain came back. And he was hungry. The humans forgot to feed him the day before they made him leave. Ghost slowly made his way to the edge of the kelp, peeking out into the open sea around him. Was this supposed to be his new home?
Everyone in his pod was dead. He was alone. The vastness of the sea didn't look as appealing anymore. Ghost retreated into the kelp. He reached down and scratched his itchy scales. He didn't know what to do. What was the point anyway? He was completely alone in the world. He swam back and when he was sure his entire body was hidden he lied back down for a nap.
----
When he woke up again, the sun was still up. He turned to his other side and squirmed in the sand. The rough texture scratched him nicely. He absentmindedly reached down to pick at the broken scales and tore a few out. He remembered the time when he used to have such a beautiful tail with shiny black and white scales, but now he was left with an ugly blend of muddy grey mixed with pale bald spots. The scary predator ruling the sea who was feared by the humans turned into.. he didn't even know what he was anymore. When was the last time he hunted? Oh, that was such a long time ago. When he was on his revengeful rampage against humans after he was forced by them to carry weird little boxes across the sea, that's when he hunted for himself to keep his strength for the fights. When was the last time he hunted for his family, his pod? He couldn't remember. The humans kept his pod captured in a little pool far on the land to keep him pliant. But they didn't allow him to hunt for their food because they wanted him to keep carrying the boxes all the time.
He thought they would let his pod go if he did a good enough job, but there were always more boxes. He couldn't understand why the humans couldn't use their machines to carry it for them. He only understood that he would be allowed to take his pod back into the ocean if he carried enough boxes. But that never happened as once he came back from his trip and found the place ruined. There was a lot of mess and dead bodies. Ghost swam around in distress shrieking at the weirdly clothed humans that were exploring the place until one of them shook his head with a sad expression and pointed to the other bay.
When Ghost swam there, he got a sight he will never forget. The discarded bodies of his podmates floated near the boats that the humans had hidden behind some rocks. He remembers swimming in their blood trying to see if someone, anyone, survived the disaster.
No one did.
Ghost floated around for days, unable to leave. Even when the bodies got bloated and mostly eaten by small animals Ghost couldn't keep away, he stayed with them. His loud wails could be heard along the coastline. Some humans came and took the remains that washed up on the shore. Ghost snarled and hissed at them from the distance, but couldn't get closer as he feared he was too vulnerable on land. He definitely wasn't in the right state of mind back then, because he wanted something to remember his family by and the only thing that he could come up with was breaking off pieces of his brother's skull and keeping that.
He fastened the skull on his own face, to keep his pod close. To be with them as he took revenge on every ship he had the strength to sink. That was the time of his life when he focused on hunting humans. He barely had time to hunt for food and honestly he didn't care much for food. Why would he? He didn't have anyone to come home to, anyone to protect..
He was brought out of his thoughts when he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his tail and flinched violently. There was a fish swimming around him that ripped off one of his loose scales. Ghost snatched the fish and ate it. The small snack only reminded him how hungry he actually was. He hadn't eaten in more than three days, but the thought of getting up and going for a hunt was quickly shunned by his tiredness. He also didn't really care. What would he get up for? So he could see the life outside and feel even lonelier than he was now?
He ripped out a few more of his scales and watched the tiny mist of blood dispersing around his body. He managed to catch three more fish like that. Is that what kind of predator he became, using his own body as bait? He used to be the biggest and fastest hunter of his pod and now he can't even be bothered to get up from the ground to take care of himself? Yeah. What's the point? He can't be the biggest and fastest of his pod when he has no pod.
He was completely alone.
Those little snacks barely made a dent in his hunger. Ghost wiggled in the sand until he found a comfortable position and his face was hidden from the annoying rays of sun. He scratched his scales once more and then went to sleep.
----
He was woken up by a ship cruising above him. He instinctively curled up to seem smaller in case they saw him with their machines, but ready to bolt if it stopped above him. Maybe the kelp wasn't a good enough spot. It wasn't even very deep, Ghost could see the hull clearly over his head. Thankfully the ship continued and the disturbance it created helped Ghost catch two more fish as the small animals tried to hide from the ship's shadow in the kelp.
Perhaps he should look around.. He waited until the ship was so far away he couldn't hear its engine and then he slowly swam up to the surface. He lifted his head above the water and looked around. He was near a small island, but almost completely surrounded by land. The ship came from the direction of an open sea and aimed for the tiny harbor Ghost could see. There were a few ships, mostly small vessels that Ghost could sink with no trouble. The land was hilly and not very human friendly as the hills came straight to the sea changing into rocks that were steep and barren because of the waves hitting them periodically. That was good. It was always safer when it was difficult for the humans to get in the water.
Ghost let himself float close to the surface. The boat docked and two humans got out of it. A male and a female, probably. It was sometimes difficult to tell with all the human clothing and hairstyles. Ghost hid as he noticed they were carrying weapons. So it wasn't a very friendly place after all. Maybe he will sink their ship later when he gets into shape..
That thought gave Ghost a pause. So now he wants to get into shape again? Does he want to continue with his revenge?
No, he didn't. He spent so long in the old man's tank his rage was long gone. What remained, he did not know. All he knew now was that if he wanted to eat, he had to hunt for himself again. No dead fish will just appear above him anymore and the lazy way of waiting to snatch whatever came to eat his itchy scales was not going to work for the amount of food he needed to keep his energy.
He needed a plan. There was an open sea close by, he could swim out of the bay and disappear in minutes, never to be found by any human ever again. Ghost looked back at the little island where the kelp field was. The open sea had a lot of big and dangerous predators and Ghost needed his strength first if he didn't want to get eaten immediately. His size was not going to be much of an advantage if he can't back it up with strength. He was already tired and he barely did anything.
He sank and swam back to the kelp. He needed another nap. He hoped to catch something on his way back, but everything he could eat avoided him and only the tiniest fish swam closer. Ghost didn't bother with those, he would have to eat like a hundred of them. He needed some nice salmon or perhaps sturgeon. Those would probably not get so far into the bay, Ghost would have to move closer to the mouth of the bay to have a chance of finding bigger prey.
----
The next time he woke up it was dark outside. That was perfect. He swam out of the kelp and moved silently closer to the sea to hunt. It was so much easier to hunt at night as Ghost could rely on his superior hearing. He managed to snatch a salmon and just ate it on the spot. There was also less need to be careful as most humans slept. He caught another one and decided to drag that one back to his little kelp home. He already felt much better after eating the first one.
With the thrill of a successful hunt he didn't even register the boat that rocked silently with its engine off in the middle of the bay.
He got startled so badly when there were suddenly lights and the engine roared he almost dropped his food. He quickly dropped down to the bottom and swam away at his top speed. It was much slower than it used to be but still hopefully enough to lose the boat. He dropped the salmon to his kelp and circled the small island. On the other side of it he surfaced and listened to the boat movements. He cursed himself out for being so reckless. That's how they caught him the last time..
The boat went further into the bay so Ghost returned to his kelp and started eating. This might be his last chance to get some energy before being hunted. In a few minutes he heard it coming back so he curled up at the bottom, trying to wiggle his body into the sand. Fortunately the boat didn't go above him so it probably didn't notice him and continued to the open sea. He should be safe for now.
----
When he woke up in the morning, he decided to explore more. He needed to know where the humans lived and how to best avoid them. He swam closer to the big house that was near their small dock. The spot opened a nice new view to a small beach protected by rocks and cliffs on both sides. There were a few humans on the beach, Ghost clocked them immediately, but then he had to do a double take.
There were mers with the humans. Ghost immediately felt the rage rise up. He didn't even notice they were seals. Humans were surely hurting them! Ghost swam closer, keeping only part of his face above the surface. The white skull of his brother will strike fear into the humans' hearts as he tears them apart for touching the poor little mers..
As he got even closer, a boulder in the water came into his view. There was an almost naked man holding a tiny mer pup. Ghost changed direction for him. He could pick up the speed and jump over the boulder, taking the man with him, ripping him to pieces and throwing those to the others at the beach as the only warning.
The pup in his hands squealed... with joy.
Ghost stopped. The pup waved its little hands and the man threw it in the air, which got another excited squeal out of it as it fell into the water. The pup immediately swam back to the boulder and the man kneeled down to pick it up and throw it in the water again. He was playing with the pup, Ghost realized.
He looked at the beach. Another mer, quite big for the species and clearly the pod elder, was having a serious discussion with another human. There was another one, an adult male with a weird tuft of fur on his head who was listening to the conversation and flopping his tail lazily in the sand. He looked strong, probably the pod hunter.
Ghost noticed a few more, some adults, some juveniles and some small pups. What was crazy though, was that none of them seemed in any kind of distress. Ghost stared at the scene in front of him completely perplexed until he noticed the man on the boulder squinting in his direction. He immediately dunked down and sank to the bottom. He was probably lucky his scales were just grey because if he still had the prominent black and white colors, the man would have surely recognized what he was looking at.
Ghost was sure the man didn't see him as there was no alarm, but decided not to push his luck and retreated to his kelp hide. He lay down in the sand. He couldn't even remember when he last heard a happy pup squeal. He couldn't even remember when he last saw a mer being happy and relaxed. The adult seals would make a perfect sized meal for him.. the entire pod would give him enough strength to swim across the entire ocean. Ghost wiggled his tail to bury it in the sand. He wouldn't touch them. He couldn't imagine being the one to cause the little pups to yelp in fear. He couldn't be the one to leave them in the cloud of blood from their dead podmates. He could just go closer to the sea and get himself some nice big fish as the day before.
----
Ghost knew he should leave as soon as possible. The humans on boats started making more patrols both during the day but even at night and he was pretty sure it was because of him. He tried to stay at the bottom when he was moving but there were a few times when the ship noticed him and started following him. He always lost it but was sure the humans got some glimpses of him with their bright lights.
The problem was that he just.. couldn't make himself leave. The beach with the happy little pups was like a magnet to him. He saw a few mers pampering their pregnant mates and even though it made his lower stomach hurt more he couldn't look away. He will never have that. He felt so alone. He often looked at the young adult with the tuft on his head going down over his entire spine. He didn't seem to have a mate on his own, but he was exactly what Ghost used to be. A strong hunter taking care of the entire pod. Ghost would bet that he was also the strongest and fastest of his pod. And he was also so beautiful. His fur looked so pretty and healthy.. just like Ghost's scales used to be.
The orca looked down at his own tail. There was not a single scale on him that would be pretty. They were either pale and dull grey or broken and missing. The only shiny white thing on him was his brother's skull. Another reminder that you are absolutely nothing in the world without your pod. Ghost sank down to the bottom and slowly swam to his kelp. The visits to the beach left him depleted of energy, like a drug that was ruining him but he couldn't stop going back for more. He knew he had to go and hunt before his visits, because when he came back from the beach he could only bury himself in the sand and cry silently.
What was he going to do all alone? Even if he could find an orca pod somewhere in the ocean, they would take one look at him and chase him away. Not just because he was ugly but because he was weak and broken. Who would accept a scarred male who couldn't father or have pups? Ghost scratched the big scar that was left in place of his slit. Sometimes he was so frustrated he scratched it until it bled, creating more ugly scars. The problem also was that so many of his scars didn't come from a battle so he couldn't even present himself as a strong warrior to a potential pod. The circular scars from bindings, burns from the smoking sticks..
The smoking sticks made him think of the seal pod leader. He sometimes saw him with those sticks, inhaling smoke and hiding it from the humans. They didn't like it when they saw the mer with them and it was funny to watch the older mer hiding them in the rocks along the beach. From what Ghost understood they didn't work if they got wet so the seal had to crawl over the beach to find his hiding spots on land and the humans then spent time trying to find them. The young pups loved that game and watched the humans with interest, accidentally revealing the sticks locations when they chirped nervously if the humans got close.
The tuft seal had a few scars of his own, but those undoubtedly came from hunting. Ghost once wanted to follow him and watch him hunt for his pod but the small (big for seal standards, but like barely half the size of Ghost) seal hunter had eyes everywhere, often making crazy maneuvers in the water, changing directions unpredictably and noticing almost every little movement, so Ghost gave up on that and fell into a routine of avoiding the seal hunters in the morning and watching the beach all day until they were coming back with food. Later at night he would hunt a little bit for himself so he would have enough energy for the next day's beach trip.
Sadly with the human patrols and the seals becoming more vigilant as the pregnant mers grew their bellies and required more protection, Ghost couldn't keep making his trips to the beach anymore. If he went for a hunt it was still only done at night because then it was easier to avoid the boats. He even made sure to check for the ones that had their engines off. The activity in the bay should have given him the idea to finally leave and stop torturing himself with what he could never have when he couldn't even watch it anymore, but it made him want the exact opposite.
Besides, why leave when he will always be alone whenever he is? He concentrated all his energy to avoid being spotted and didn't hunt much for the same reason. So instead of following his first plan to get better so he would have energy to leave for the open ocean, he felt even worse than he was when he got dumped there.
He felt horrible. Some days he only moved when he heard a boat above him. Sometimes not even then. His pod was dead, he was alone and now he couldn't even go and see the happy seal mers. What was the point anymore. At least his ugly scales got him free meals every now and then as the fish moved to the kelp to pick on them.
He scratched on the scales. Maybe if he makes them bleed they will hurt more than they itch. The stupid fish started getting suspicious and either picked only on his lower part of the tail where he couldn't reach them quickly or didn't swim close at all. Ghost turned on his back. He saw the swaying kelp above his head. He was so hungry his stomach had been constantly hurting for the past few days.
He got a crazy thought.. lots of fish ate kelp. Right?
He reached out and ripped off one stem of the kelp. He brought it to his mouth and licked it. It was salty. He didn't know what else he expected since his sense of taste could only differentiate between salty and not-salty. He bit into it and started chewing. If he cared he would probably be glad no one saw him because that was probably the most pathetic thing he had ever done. The apex predator and 100% carnivore chewing on kelp because he couldn't be bothered to get up. It was disgusting. He didn't care. He didn't have energy to care anymore.
He spat out the kelp and threw away the rest. He couldn't eat that.
Ghost lied back down and watched the kelp floating above him. He'll just try to sleep the hunger away, just like yesterday and the day before that.
----
Something tugged harshly on his tail. Ghost expected a big fish so he instinctively tried to catch it. Finally some good food. He jumped up and sank his claws into his prey, holding it tightly and preparing to tear into it with his teeth when he recognized the wild tuft of fur and bright blue eyes. Ghost froze. He caught the little seal hunter.
The seal mer just stared at him with wide eyes and mouth open in surprise. He made no move to wiggle out of the hold or to defend himself.
Ghost carefully removed his claws and swatted the little clouds of blood away. The seal kept staring at him, as if he was in some trance, not caring about the wounds. Ghost bared his teeth, snarled at him threateningly and pushed him away. That should scare him.
The seal floated away a few meters from the shove but instead of swimming away in panic he stayed and kept staring at Ghost and his entire body in awe and curiosity.
Ghost was so surprised by his lack of survival instincts he couldn't do anything else than stare back. He flopped his tail to push himself off the ground and towered over the little seal in his full height. Perhaps that will scare him, seeing the orca, a natural predator of seals and more than twice his size, in his full size instead of lying half buried under the sand.
The seal chirped happily and swam up to be face to face with Ghost.
"Hi." He squeaked excitedly. "Sorry I touched you, I thought you were dead."