Citizen 465 Mercury

All her life so far as pup and adolescent, Mercury had been called bold, and she had assumed it the same as bravery. Now, as found herself diving into the Posian Trench for the first time, she wondered if her assumption had been wrong.

She had always been fearless in her pursuit of whatever she wanted and thought that brave of herself. But here and now, she was unsure. The darkness encroached on her vision the deeper that she dove. As the spare light became nonexistent, she paused.

The desire to turn back existed, and she felt ashamed.

If she turned back, this would have been a waste of time, but…

Anything could be swimming out there right now beside her, and she wouldn’t be able to see a hint of it until everything went wrong.

So, Mercury was scared, and for a long moment, she looked behind herself, trying to search desperately for a hint of light. …But there was nothing.

That instinctive feeling of panic if the face of the unknown grew further. This was dangerous beyond anything she had ever done before. The deeper she went, the more dangerous it became.

Why was she doing this, she wondered. It had been a hypothetical question in her mind, at first, until she recognized that it could be genuinely meant. She needed to recall her reasons for embarking on this dive.

It was hard to think, her mind coming up empty at first as she tread water in this place devoid of light. She always had a purpose to her actions, she reminded herself. Even if right now she could not recall her purpose, she had one.

Was whatever it was enough, though, to face the endless dark?

Her mind felt like a reflection of this void around her, empty and yet full of terrors.

A fragment of memory passed through her mind as she couldn’t help but contemplate those terrors further.

Bravery, she remembered some rex saying before, though she hadn’t thought much of those words until this very moment, was doing something even while afraid. She had been very young then, and she remembered proclaiming that such a statement made no sense at all, to which the old rex had simply smiled indulgently at her.

She could no longer call upon her original purpose to inspire her, but she did know she wanted to be brave. After all, one day being a guard required bravery. Her boldness would not be enough, if she wanted to be a truly excellent guard.

Mercury held this new reason in her mind and she convinced herself to keep diving. It did not get darker, could not get darker. She flinched every time her eyes seemed to play tricks on her and she imagined something lurking in the darkness.

But downwards still she dived. She was allowed to be afraid. There was no shame in fearing anything. The shame was in not facing one’s fears regardless. She would face her fears and come out all the stronger for it.

That was what she told herself repeatedly as she continued swimming deeper into the depths.

At the first glimpse of a glitter beneath her, she thought herself to be imagining further impossibilities. The darkness felt constant, it was hard to hope for its end. But just in case, she figured it could hurt to swim in that direction.

When she first noticed clearly the glowing undersea flora beneath a cliff, she found herself awestruck. There were also pieces of broken pottery scattered about. And, the glittering piece that had drawn her here was a broken jewelry chain, reflecting the light of the flora, almost hidden among the sands.

It took barely a thought for her to snatch that chain with her paws. Mercury was not a materialistic rexal, nor the type to wear jewelry. But this glittering piece was what had finally guided her here to light, and it felt right to choose it to bring with her to memorialize her discovery of the meaning of bravery.

She would always be the bold type, but Mercury now knew how to be brave as well. Together, with both, she would succeed at every goal she put her mind to, no matter the hardships or fears that tried to be in her way.

Mercury would stride forward on the path of life with a surety to face any obstacle from now until the end.

~ nonbinarypixel