Return of the Sku'um

by Aristal

She swam fast through the Winding Way tunnels far beneath the reef. Dim glows from bioluminescent coral illuminated the many passages that wove all around in a natural maze. At every gentle yellow she turned right, and at every eerie green she turned left until, finally, she was in a great cavern with daylight filtering down through the water from one single circular hollow of black rock. That hollow opened in a sheltered bed of oysters and was too narrow for merfolk to fit through.

As the daylight came down it reflected off the pearled walls turning the cavern into a breathtaking place of utter beauty. Set within the the wall were the opened shells of countless oysters and in each of them sat a perfect pearl. These were the Memory Pearls and were the first way in which knowledge was stored before writing was invented. Each pearl held a memory cast into, saved forever for those of the future to behold.
As a young initiate, she had been introduced to the pearls and tasked with keeping them clean and free from the grit and debris that always drifted in the water. A casual touch of her hand to a pearl during a cleaning session caused her to discover she had the ability to "see" the memories within. Today, she had come here to find just one. A terrible memory predicting something terrible. Then, her hand touched a pearl and there was a flash of transparent white. She had found it! Grasping it in both hands, she closed her eyes.

********

A dozen merfolk huddled together, back to back in a tight ring in the center of the Pearl Chamber, tridents at the ready. The deformed faceless things called sku'um, with their weak glowing eyes, had entered the tunnels now and, unless the war brands destroyed them, they would be in here. The current moved as ever it does, bringing with it thin strings of blood and strands of nebulous slime. Valiant cupcake butterfly fish teamed up with their eternal enemies, the dark-striped tentafish, to destroy the slime strands.
Then, a pale shadow dimmed the daylight filtering down from the hollow's top. It was there. The translucent blue-white could not enter. It was far too big, but it used its tentacle-whiskers to probe about the opening looking for some weakness, a flaw it could send more sku'um to break. It found none. Then, it vanished. Blood and slime stopped riding the current into the chamber and hope flared in the hearts of the huddled.
Finally, a war brand swam in, coral armor chipped and scratched but still whole. "It is dead, it's sku'ums with it. The sea devils have already begun their hunt in the trenches. The Ichthiask'um and their empire will be broken."
Relief and smiles replaced their desperation. Except for one. She reached for a pearl.
"They will not be gone forever. I see them, someday, returning to retake the world." Her hands shook as teh pearl gleamed. "We must never forget. All must be ready."