Hidden Messages [Klance AU]

3: A Discovery

"Lance!" Hunk shouted, but Lance didn't hear it. He watched as his blue scales were covered in a sheet of red. Rolo's eyes grew wide and he backed up. He had thought that Lance was going to block his attack; he hadn't meant to physically hurt him.

Lance didn't feel much pain from the cut, as his veins were still filled will adrenaline. He saw all of the faces watching him, the older mer who had come over to tend to his wound, his friend who swam over and was trying to ensure himself that it would be okay. Lance knew he would be okay, that wasn't what he was worried about. He was worried about what his family would think of him. He'd failed. He knew he had to have failed, he didn't defend himself enough to block Rolo's attack, and during the fight he didn't make enough attacks of his own. He just wanted to disappear.

So he did. He pushed all of the mers around him away, grabbed the bandage from the sand, and left. He didn't exactly know where he was going, he just knew he needed to go somewhere where no one could bother him.

He could hear Hunk shouting after him, but ignored him. He swam until he reached a line of tall rocks, that disappeared to either side of him. The border stones, Lance thought, the name playing through his mind. Mers were strictly forbidden to pass them, as once they did it was close to the shore, which was close to the humans. Every mer grew up hearing stories about how humans were destroyers, how they plowed down mountains and forests to build their cities, killing millions of creatures that lived there. Because of that humans could never know about mers, and mers could never cross that rocky border. So, Lance decided that was exactly what he was going to do.

He slowly swam through the stone shards that stood out of the sand. The sun still shone brightly above the water, causing intricate patterns to reflect onto the untouched sand below. Lance looked behind him and saw Hunk looking for him frantically. He quickly hid behind the rocks until Hunk disappeared from view. He felt bad, but needed to be alone right now.

Lance's blue irises wandered to the large wound on his tail, which was still bleeding profusely. He looked at the bandage in his hands; it wasn't much, but it could at least stop the bleeding a bit. He lay on the sand and wrapped his tail with the bandage, then sat back and sighed. What was he going to do? He failed the trials for sure, and now he had no chance at becoming a royal guard. And even worse, everyone had seen his cuts. What would his friends think of him now? What will my family think?

A lump formed in the back of Lance's throat. No, he thought, I won't cry now. I'm not that weak. He rubbed his eyes. No.

As he tried to stop himself from crying, something shone in the water in front of him. Lance looked up. A little ways away, but not too close to the shore that he would be seen, something floated in the water. It was shiny, he could tell, but aside from that Lance had no idea what it was. I probably shouldn't go, he told himself, it's too dangerous. I could be seen. But the more he thought about it, the more his curiosity got the better of him. Lance pushed himself up from the sand and slowly approached the object despite the pain in his tail.

He swam towards the strange object, circling it as he observed what the shining cylinder could possibly be. Wary, he let out a series of cautious thrills and lightly tapped the thing with his tail. When he established that it didn't pose a threat, the merman reached out his hands to grasp the bottle.

He turned it around, examining every side of it. It felt smooth to the touch, and shone bright from the sun's rays that broke through the water. There was some sort of brown, soft material lodged in what seemed like a hole that would open the object. Nestled inside was a roll of paper that appeared to have writing on the inside of it.

Lance gently tugged on the strange cap, but it persisted to come off. He was curious as to what was inside the bottle. It had come from the land-dwellers; the humans. All his life, his family had warned him to never go close to the shore, for fear of being seen; and all his life, Lance had listened to those warnings. So how come he now found himself not only near the shore, but with a human object in his arms? Maybe it was his curiosity taking over, or the way that the sun shone through it, making it shine a thousand different colors.

Either way, he knew he would be in a lot of trouble if anyone caught him here. Holding the bottle in his hand tightly, he swam back in the direction of the village. Within minutes, he began to see the rounded roof of his house on the outskirts of the village.

His family lived in the typical style of home for his village; a circular coral building that had sea glass windows filling any holes in the walls, as well as a large window in place of the roof that was held together with coral patterns like a mosaic. Other, smaller rooms in the house were attached to the main room, some of which had a set of stairs leading to a floor underneath the ground. Lance approached the house from the back, careful to not catch the eye of any watching mers. He quickly checked the windows of the coral building to make sure no one was home. Lance opened the door and closed it softly, then swam to his bedroom. He found another bandage; the one he had was now soaked with blood. As he began wrapping his tail, he heard a quiet thump and froze.

"Hello?" He whispered, hoping that none of his siblings were home, and it was just a shark or something bumping into the wall. Lance's stomach dropped when a mer swam into view.

"Lance?" Veronica whispered, "What are you doing home?" She then saw the large gash in his tail, and gasped, her eyes widening. "Wha- what happened?"

"Duels," Lance simply responded, avoiding eye contact. He hadn't wanted any of his family to know about it yet. Veronica swam to sit beside him, and rested a hand against his back. He could feel her freeze for a second when she saw the cuts lining Lance's tail, that obviously were not from the duel.

"Lance..."

"No, Roni I'm fine, really," Lance said, finishing wrapping his tail with the bandage, and bringing it up to rest his chin on it. His sister looked at him with a look that said she didn't believe him. Which of course she shouldn't. Lance was far from fine. But, the mer simply sighed and looked around the room. She knew to not push her brother, as that would just make him more angry and push her away. Her eyes landed on the bottle that Lance was trying to hide behind his fin.

"What's that?" She asked him, intrigued and also wanting to change the conversation.

"Nothing," Lance responded, shoving the bottle underneath his tail. "Nothing at all."

"Lance," Veronica said in a stern tone. "Give me the bottle." Lance looked at her with wide eyes.

"How did you—" He sighed and brought the object into sight, knowing it was no use to fight her.

"Thank you."

Veronica observed the bottle the same way Lance had earlier. She faced him.

"Where did you get this?" Lance looked down, trying to avoid the question.

"It's a human object isn't it?" She asked once again. Lance nodded sheepishly.

"Okay." The mer observed the bottle again, and tapped it with a finger. She sighed. "Okay," she repeated, "I won't tell anyone. But you can't let anyone else know that you have this. You don't even know how much trouble you'd get into."

"I know," Lance responded. "I'm sorry."

"Hey," Veronica whispered, her voice soft. "It's okay. I'm going to help you with this, and once we figure out what's inside we can but it behind us. And this," she motioned to Lance's wound, "I can help with that too."

The younger mer looked up at his sister with wide eyes, and wrapped his arms around her. The two didn't hug often, so Veronica smiled and hugged him back.

"Thanks," Lance whispered, smiling a smile that showed in his eyes.

Maybe it would be okay that he failed the trials. Veronica didn't seem to mind at all.

A/N:
Hi! I hope y'all enjoyed this part! :D

Sorry that it's been really slow going so far but the next chapter will be more interesting!
(The photo above actually inspired this entire story, heh)

- Soni