Season of Summer, Day 55, 504 AV
Telos Ne'jed shifted in and out of consciousness. It was a lazy summer's morning and he was perfectly content to lie in his bed of kelp, surrounded by his brothers and sisters, safe within the coral hut that was his home. The young Charoda male was actually the second oldest in his family. Well, one of the second oldests. There were actually seven "second oldests" in his family (all of which were female, except for Telos). Five years before he and his sisters had hatched, their mother, Lelanna, had had ten eggs (out of the hundred she had laid) hatch (which was seen as a huge success, as such large numbers of hatchlings are rare), so there were actually ten "oldest" fifteen-year-old Charoda in Telos' family. So far his mother had laid eggs twice more since he was born (every five years, as is normal for a Charoda female). In all, Telos had thirty-two brothers and sisters. While this would be impossible for a land-dweller, it was quite average for a Charoda, and Telos was used to having such a large family.
The only real downside to having so many siblings became apparent every morning, like this one, when Telos' ten infant brothers and sisters would begin crying out. This would signal the arrival of a new day for the Ne'jed family as their screams would awaken every sleeping body in the little coral hut. Of course, their "screams" were actually high-pitched musical notes, as even Charoda screams are beautiful underwater. Still, it was enough to wake the entire family up, and the oldest siblings began tending to the tadpoles, comforting and feeding them. While the cries of Lelanna's children would normally bring her hurrying into the hut (if she had already awoken and was nearby), this morning she was nowhere to be found. No one really paid much attention to their mother's absence, however, as she often went out for morning scavenging for several hours.
Telos' father, Ruulan, and three of his older siblings, two males and one female, were also gone. The ten-year-old remembered them saying something about going off on some expedition or other, but he couldn't remember the details. He used to become very agitated when his father left on his expeditions for Myrian territory, but he had grown accustomed to it and no longer worried much. Ruulan had had many close calls with the Myrians, but while he was obsessed with the strange and violent culture of the warrior women and went to great risks to study and observe it, he wasn't a complete fool, and he took every precaution. Every time the story would be the same. He had tried to make peaceful contact with a lone Myrian scout and had almost gotten killed. Once he managed to steal a Myrian spear, which he was quite proud of and displayed on a wall in the coral hut, but other than that his missions had always been fruitless.
This expedition was a bit different, however, which did worry Telos a bit. His three older siblings who had gone with his father had always taken an interest in their father's work and were finally allowed to go with him on one of his expeditions. They had talked about how they were going to befriend the Myrians "once and for all", and though Lelanna had begged them not to risk their lives for a venture doomed to fail, they were determined to accompany their father at all costs. And it was by remembering this argument between his mother and siblings that Telos began to form a theory. Was his mother really out "scavenging", or was she making one last desperate attempt to save her children and mate from what she believed to be certain destruction?
"I'm going to look for mother," Telos sang in the musical Char language to no one in particular.
All six of his ten-year-old sisters, who he had shared a special bond with ever since they had hatched with him, volunteerd to accompany him. While all the children would have liked to come as well, the young ones were not allowed very far from Charbosi and the oldest had their hands full taking care of the tadpoles. So they simply wished their sisters and brother good luck and prayed for their safe return.
After the group of seven had swam toward the shore for several hours, they finally saw a blue figure in the distance, swimming toward them. As they drew closer they saw it was their mother. As they began to pepper her with questions, they stopped abruptly as they saw she was weeping.
"What's wrong, mother?" One of Telos' sisters asked.
"I tried to stop them, I tried..." Was all she could manage for a very long time.