"Hanasemasu ka, Onamae wa nan desu ka?"

Audrelina didn't understand the language the boy spoke, but she was angry at him. She was angry for the death and devestation below the depths and she was furious at how he'd dragged her and shoved her to where she was now. Absorbed into the crush of suffocation and raised above the water, she had struggled to breathe. When all movement settled she had thought she was dead, until she heard voices, laughing and teasing. Caked inside her confine, in her last moments of consciousness she told herself that if at all she could have a chance to see the commander of this floating death net, she would pick him up and chuck him out to sea to see how he'd fair with the sharks. She would cause a whirl of wave and t:hrust all their boats back to their beaches. She'd take them all on, causing a war, Sea against Land. And now here she was, just one girl seething to rip up all their nets, glaring at this Commander on board his own boat.

"Anata ga nan desu ka"

"I want to know your name," Audrelina demanded, "I want to know who you think you are?"

The boy startled leaning back on his spot staring at her, confusion evident.

"What's your name?" Audrelina demanded again pointing a finger at his face?

When the boy pointed at his own nose slightly bobbing his face to indicate himself she nodded.
"Takanori."

"Why are you doing this!? I'm going to drown you anyway, so you might as well tell me."

The boy pointed back at her nose.

"As if I'd tell you!"

"Boku wa Tah-kah-noh-ri, ...Onamae?"

Shaking her head at his gall, she threaded her fingers into the roots of her blond peach hair in frustration, supporting the aching weight of her head, elbows leaning on arching red tentacles cooped up against the boxes infront, her back pressed against a box pile behind her. Her ribs felt crushed, her seaweed bodice was screw whiff and she couldn't calm her breathing.
"Or-drè-lee-nah," she replied mimicking the boy's form of speak.
"Umi no :a ni sunde iru?"

"I can't understand you!"

"Wakarimasen," the boy shook his head pitifully, shivering from the cold.

Footsteps and loud voices arose from outside their room and Takanori flinched, cowering a little. Audrelina watched as he put a finger to his lips and blew a "Shhhh" upon it.

"Takanori!"

"Seaweed?"

Sensing trouble Audrelina shifted her tentacle colour to blend into the environment, camourflaging against the boxes. Her upper human body and hair paling to a blue hue to match the ice crates.
When the doors flung open on them both, brightening their room, silhouettes of men in the door way, she watched as Takanori was grabbed by the arm and hauled up before he could dash away.
~***~

"I'm sorry about the net!"
"Nevermind the net, that can be replaced, but the fish needs processing or the expense of lost stock and a costly net will have to be explained. You're going to have to help," the Skipper named Aoki huffed. "You're Dad can't really afford all this mess can he, so let's prevent as much of it as possible."

"How on earth have you ripped such a hole?" Shinya looked at Takanori, mouth agape, brows knitted.
"I said 15 was too young, Shinya."

"Everyone s up on their first time, Aoki."

Everyone was looking at Takanori accusingly.

"I h-had to h-help someone, she was suffocating, I couldn't remember how you released it. I cut the net where I was stuck and she s-sort of ripped it wider."

"'She'? Who's 'She'? The Mermaid on the Bow? I wondered where she went."
Subtly turning back to peer in at Audrelina, Takanori caught Shinya's attention and he was passed to Aoki who held him sternly.

When Shinya screamed, Takanori clamped his eyes shut. Ripped out from the doorway, the freezer door slammed and bolted, Takanori was dragged away.

~***~

Audrelina heard a clunk and knew she was trapped. She knew she should've strangled the boy, barged out and dived over board. Or taken him with her to demand they empty their nets and turn back lest she drown him. Now she was left to crouch uncomfortably beside crates of dead water creatures. Untwisting her woven bodice to fit her chest correctly and keep better modesty, she palmed off all the fish gut slime from her tenticals and skin. Having lost half of her seaweed band twists from her hair she began to pull them out and as she combed with her fingers she dropped her head and cried. Cried for her ordeal, her dead sea creatures in boxes and those still scared and dying, and she also cried for the unknowing of her fate. She just wanted to go back home to her beloved Ocean.

*

It wasn't long before she heard hushed voices.

"Kujo, Junbi Shinakereba ikenai."

"Fuzakeru na, Shinya."

At the clunk of the door, Audrelina stood up and stanced protectively. Light poured into the fish hold revealing two men stood in the door. Not too much taller than herself they were lean and slender in build. They had fabrics like the boy tied around their heads sporting worried expressions. Audrelina felt no need to hide, she was going to fight them.
"Are! Nante kotta!"

"Kore wa genjitsu da!"

"Move aside, I'm leaving. I'm ripping holes in all your nets and then I'll be on my way."
"Heh?"

"Umi no gengo wo haneiru ka?"

"Stay away from me."

As one of the men ventured inside, Audrelina clasped a top tray of dead fish with two tenticals and raised it threateningly.

"Ochitsuite kudasai!"

The man stretched out the flat of his palm infront of his eyeline. He didn't like Audrelina's threat, but he tread closer, so she had no choice but to lob the tray directly at him and pick up another.

"Ii kagen ni shinasai!

"Ki wo tsukete, Kujo."

If she were to raise to her fullest height of tentical point tip she'd not be too much taller than the men, but they were two, she was one. She wouldn't be able to lift them and throw them but she may be able to tangle round their ankles and drag them off their feet should she need to.

The Octopus Maiden soon found herself lobbing dead fish crates at the two men as they didn't take heed of her warnings and kept trying to reach her. Even when they tried to block the hit of boxes and move back to the door, Audrelina kept chucking them. She didn't care she was barricading the entrance to the door of her escape. Her rage saw her shove over their stacks and kick others to crash, ice and fish bits spilling all over across the floor.
"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME! HOW DARE YOU!" she screamed.

When the men made it out of the fish hold, Audrelina was left in the low lit room to herself. The door was again slammed and rebolted.
Clenching her teeth and threading her fingers to grip into the roots of her hair, she slid down the back wall to flump on the floor. She still hadn't managed to get out, having let her rage get the better of her.