A sandy-yellow, seal-like equine was slowly swimming upstream along the river. "A-ha hoa moa metia." He chanted while he surveyed the rivers banks. "A-ha hoa hoa halelekia." He repeated the refrain a few times, changing the consonant sounds each time. Passing a bend in the river, he noticed a collection of cabins on either side of the river. He paused to look over the pony craft-work. The boxy constructs formed of wooden boards and steel nails, seemed downright exotic to the water-dweller. who was used to round dwellings of coral, shell and stone.
The sound of sobbing drew his attention. He waded to the rivers' edge, and looked around for the source of the sound. On the porch of one of the cabins situated closer to the forest he noticed a pair of unicorns seated on a porch swing. One, a sky-blue mare, had her head pressed closely to the chest of the cream-colored stallion, and was trying hard to maintain her composure. The stallion had a front leg draped over the mares' neck, and was doing their best to comfort her. "Ahey!" The Mer called out.
Startled, the unicorns looked over. The sight of a medium-yellow pony waving a leg that ended not in a hoof, but in four long fingers joined by webbing, was enough to get their attention. Curious, the pair got up and approached. "Can we...help you?" The stallion inquired. His tone indicated that he didn't welcome the interruption, but still wanted to maintain courtesy.
"Could ask you the same thing." The Mer replied. "It's not good to leave folks in distress."
The stallion sighed. "Look mister,"
"Sandbar." The Mer offered.
"This is kind of a bad time for us," The stallion replied. "Our son has gone missing."
"Wait, maybe he can help." The mare replied with a sniffle. "You know how Flint loves the forest pool." She said to the stallion.
After a moment of thought, the stallion looked to Sandbar. "I don't know if you can get up the waterfall." He motioned further upstream, but the river curves around. If you take the fork to the right, that'll bring you into the forest. The pond isn't too far from the stream."
Sandbar held up a flipper. "The least I can do is check. If I see any pony, I'll tell you." He offered.
"Much obliged." The stallion muttered. "It'll at least give us something to go on."
The waterfall was more like a series of short cascades over a pile of large stones. Normally this kind of barrier marked an end-point for the river, but Sandbar had reason to go further. A quick feel around the lowermost rock, allowed him to find indentations to grip onto and pull himself up. The slippery rock didn't trouble him as much as it would one of the other breeds, since his hind flippers had a broader surface area than pony hooves, which lowered his chances of slipping. Carefully balancing with his tail, he reached up for the next rock.
Rock by rock, he worked his way up the cascade. He was thankful that the rock pile was rather short, since he had neither the strength nor desire to climb a tall cliff. He might have been more inclined if he had legs instead of flippers. It would've been easier to go around it on land as well, but the ground detritus tended to irritate the skin on his flippers.
Easiest of all would've been to not get involved, but his pod instinct was too strong to let him shirk this task. While ponies could have various levels of social interaction, ranging from loyalty to indifference to antagonism, kin were Everything to the Merae. If one member went missing, the whole pod would drop everything and go look for them. Even Mer from other pods would help if they were informed.
Sandbar settled into the stream, then took a glance around. Further ahead was a mill with a wheel built in the water. The steady rhythmic squeak of the turning wheel gradually subsided as he left the mill behind, and approached the point where the pony couple said the fork was. He chuckled, seeing that one river lead to the forest, crossing between two large trees. The other river meandered down from further uphill.
Diving underwater, he began using his sonar. The short, ultrasonic bursts relayed information about the environment depending on how quickly the signal returned to his ears and the strength of that signal. Rock reflected more than mud, which tended to absorb or scatter some of the pulse. Another factor was how and when the sediments settled. Older deposits were more dense. And deposits built up by the current tended to have a wider echo than those formed by flash floods or mudslides. If the pond was in fact, a river lake, It would be easy to find where it could have attached to the main stream.
Some time had passed before he found what he was looking for. A kink in the river were the deposits weren't as dense as the neighboring slopes. To the eye it was nearly impossible to detect. The mud didn't have any discoloration, and the river reeds didn't look much different, but sonar told a different story. A four meter wide patch of wall was less dense, and therefore, less settled. That, and the sound of a colt calling out for help were the best indicators of this being the right spot.
Sandbar climbed onto one of the rocks bordering the river, and spotted a young unicorn colt half resting on a rotted log. "Hey! Are you Flint?" He asked.
"Help me!" The colt cried. "My legs are stuck." Sandbar swam closer to investigate. The colt was up to his hips in wet mud. "I can't get out."
"Hold on. I'm gonna try something." Sandbar replied. Focusing on his innate talent, Sandbar pictured the water flowing outward from the spot. The colt scrabbled for a grip on the log, as he felt himself sinking deeper. Suddenly the mud surged outward, falling into the river and the colt slipped underwater. He surfaced a half-second later, sputtering and splashing about.
"Help I'm drowni-No, I'm free!" He half-laughed half-sobbed, leaping and grabbing onto Sandbar, hugging him tightly. The Mer returned the embrace, then swam away from the spot. After being given some time to calm down, the colt wiped away some of the mud clinging to his light gray coat. "Heeeeyyy, how did you know my name?" He asked after a moment.
Sandbar chuckled as he turned to swim back downriver. "I met your parents downriver. They told me that you went missing."
"Yeaaaah." Flint looked away. "I came up here to find some wildberries, but the bridge fell as I was crossing."
Sandbar glanced back. "That log? Looks pretty old. Maybe your town should build a proper bridge."
"Nopony ever comes up here. Well, besides me." Flint replied. "All the adults say to stay away cause of the quicksand."
"You gonna listen now?" Sandbar wondered.
"You betcha." Flint exclaimed. "Who are you anyways?"
"The name's Sandbar." He offered a flipper.
"Whoa, cool." Flint peered closely at the appendage. "An actual seapony."
Sandbar stopped and looked to Flint. "Hey kid, what's that on your head?"
Flint reached up and tapped his horn. "This? it's my horn."
"So can I call you horn-pony?"
"Why, that sounds stupid?" Flint replied. "It's like what a baby would say."
"And yet you called me a sea-pony."
Flint held his hooves up ."I'm sorry. What are you?"
"I'm a Mer." Sandbar replied.
"Still cool." The colt prodded one of Sandbars' flippers.
"Come on, your parents are worried about you."
The pair emerged from the forest, singing a tradition Mera chant together. Flint paused as he noticed the mill. "Hey wait. How did you get up here? I thought you couldn't walk on land."
Sandbar chuckled. "I climbed up the waterfall. Took a bit of effort though."
"You did that without slipping?" Flints eyes went wide.
"Its all in how you place your fins. Er-I mean hooves." Sandbar chuckled.
Flint giggled. "You like climbing?"
"Nah, It's not for me. I'm more of a digger."
"You mean like that quicksand back there? That was awesome! How'd you do that?"
"All Merae have control over water." Sandbar stated. As if in demonstration, he paddled forward, then pushed up, breaching the water and soaring over the low waterfall. Flint held tight to the Mers' neck, watching in awe. Sandbar landed in the lower stream, submerged for a bit, then surfaced again.
"Again, do it again." Flint cajoled.
"Sorry kid, I don't have the energy to go climbing up again."
"Awwwwwww."
Flint? Flint!" They heard a stallion calling out. They saw the unicorn couple running over. Sandbar beached himself on the riverbank and waited for them. The mare scooped up her colt and hugged him, while the father alternated between scolding Flint and expressing relief for his return.
After letting the family carry on for a few minutes, Sandbar cleared his throat. Flints' father turned to the mer. "Thank you so much, I'm sorry to trouble you about this."
"If you got a moment, I wanna talk to you about something." Sandbar replied.
"What about?"
"You know all that quicksand upstream? I could fix that for you."
"How?" The mare inquired. "It's been like that since the town was built."
"If my pod could get up there. We could fix it so that the mud doesn't get saturated so easily. We might even be able to get the current to move faster for your mill."
The stallion rubbed his chin in thought. "I could talk to the mayor about that. But if she agrees, we could put up a ramp over the waterfall.
"Thanks, I look forward to it." Sandbar hefted himself back into the river as the two unicorns herded their colt back to the cabin. Had they been watching, they would have noticed the current moving somewhat faster than normal as Sandbar headed back to the ocean.
