Legend of the Mer-Mammals

Legend of the Mer-Mammals is a fanfic by PrinceBalto.

Premise
A few years ago, I did a role play about anthropomorphic mammals who were mer-mammals and had fish tails but the upper bodies of anthro mammals. I thought I'd give it a try here with Zootopia characters. Here, Nick and Judy are a pair of mer-mammals who are in love and exploring the depths of their ocean home. Prey mer-mammals, like Judy, eat sea weed, while predator ones, like Nick, eat fish, squid and so on.

Story
Deep in the depths of the ocean, many wondrous things could be found if one knew where to look, and was willing to go down there to explore it. Within the big blue lived a mysterious race of creatures known as mer-mammals, having the upper bodies of various mammal types and the tales of fish. Mer-mammals came in many types, both predator and prey, being referred to by specific type, such as mer-fox or mer-bunny, when speaking specifically and as mer-mammals in general talk. Right now, two of them raced above the tropical coral reef in which their kind lived. One of them was male, with the upper body of a green-eyed Red fox and a bright green tail, while the other was a female, with the upper body of a female bunny with purple eyes. She had a purple tale with a blue seashell chest covering, typical for female mer-mammals. The fox was named Nick, while the bunny was named Judy.

"Come on, the loser of this race is shark food!" Nick said, moving his tail flukes as fast as he could.

Judy did the same, eager to beat him. Unlike other marine mammals, like whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, walruses and dugongs, they could breathe the oxygen in the water, as well as breathe air, so they could be underwater all the time. Nick and Judy's situation was unique, as they were not just friends, despite being different types of their kind. Rather, Nick and Judy had managed to fall in love with one another. Judy suddenly swam in front of him.

"Looks like you're the shark food," she said with an affectionate smile.

Nick adjusted a spear in his hand. Made from marine mammal bones and tipped with a large barb taken from a stingray, predator mer-mammals used them for defense from predators such as orcas and sharks, as well as hunting the fish and squid that they ate. Prey mer-mammals, like Judy, ate underwater plants such as seaweed and kelp. Nick smiled.

"Lovely mer-bunny," he said.

Judy smiled.

"Handsome mer-fox," she replied.

Nick swam over, held her in his arms, and tapped his tail against hers a bit. It was a lesser version of the typical mer-mammal courtship ritual. Mer-mammals bred for life, and so doing this ritual was a serious matter. In the ritual, the two mer-mammals would fully entertwine their  tails and swim in a circular spin up toward the surface. Unbred pairs would not entertwine tails unless ready for the ritual.

"So, we have been racing awhile. Shall we head back?" Nick asked.

Judy nodded. It was getting late, and they vowed not to stay out super late, as, once it got dark, that's when the ocean's predators came out. Sharks, for example, had taken more than one mer-mammal by surprise while out late. Swimming home, they found Robin, Nick's father and the chieftain of their pod, talking with other mer-mammals. He had a dark green tail. Nearby sat a beautiful female mer-fox with a pink chest covering and pink tail. Her name was Marian, and she was Nick's mother. They were talking. Also nearby were a massive family of mer-bunnies, a male with a blue tail, Stu, Judy's father, a female with a magenta chest covering and tail, Bonnie, the mother of Judy, and 275 young mer-bunnies, which were Judy's siblings.

"What's up?" Nick asked.

Everyone turned toward him.

"We were just talking," Marian said.

Judy was curious too.

"About what?" she asked.

Stu sighed.

"A dangerous and massive new creature. They are calling it the Leviathan," he said.

Judy was curious. She had never heard of such a beast. Up until now, the community's biggest threats were orcas and sharks. Robin looked at her.

"It is an enormous beast covered in scales, long in length, with huge teeth. It preys on large fish and other creatures," he said.

Judy tried to picture such a beast. The image conjured up by her mind was terrifying.

"Who saw it?" she asked.

Marian looked at someone in the crowd.

"Finnick and Honey, as they were coming back from a squid hunting trip," she said replied.

A small male Mer-fox with a grey tail similar in color to that of a dolphin and a female Mer-badger with a dark green chest covering and tail, swam forward. Finnick looked at the group.

"The Leviathan is out there, and Honey and I saw it. There is nothing like it out there. Believe me, we have to find a way to kill it before it gets one of us," he said.

Marian gave him a look.

"But how? You said it was huge," she said.

Finnick sighed, irritated. He swam toward her.

"I didn't mean me, but, regardless of who does it, it has to be done. I mean, when I saw it, this thing ate a whole shark. It was a massively bloody scene," he said.

That got Judy's attention.

"How big was the shark?" she asked

Finnick turned.

"It was a full size shark, a big one," he said.

Judy's heart pounded in her chest. She knew how dangerous sharks could be, especially the big ones. Very early mer-mammal folklore, thousands of years old, told stories of a shark so massive that it could kill and eat whales. While one of those hadn't been sighted in centuries, and thus was probably extinct, there seemed to be a new threat. The next day, the predator mer-mammals all went down to a nearby canyon that lead into the deepest depths of the ocean to hunt deep-water squid, as they often did. Judy ate a meal of seaweed, and then decided to go and explore the reef a bit. Little did she know that she was to come face to face with a true horror. She swam out toward the edge of the reef.

"Well, it is a beautiful view," she said.

Suddenly, something massive rose up from the depths. Before her eyes, Judy saw an enormous, long-bodied beast with dark green scaly skin, four flippers and enormous teeth. This had to be the Leviathan that Finnick was describing. It was horrifying. She felt so vulnerable. Suddenly, the Leviathan opened its mouth. For a moment, Judy could even see an extra row of teeth on the top of its upper jaw. In her mind, a voice told her to swim away as fast as she could. She decided to head for the canyons where the predators where eating. Rushing toward it, she dove down just as the Leviathan attempted to grab her. A little ways down, she could see them a little bit.

"NICK!" she exclaimed.

Nick, in the process of tearing into a squid with his teeth in order to be assured that it was dead before eating it, looked up. Even in the dim lighting of the depths, his eyes, adapted to the conditions of the sea like all mer-mammals, could see that she was terrified.

"Judy, what's wrong?" he asked, removing the squid from his mouth so he could speak clearly.

Judy's heart was racing. She wished that she didn't have to go back up yet.

"I saw it, the Leviathan," she said.

Nick swam over in a flash and hugged her tightly.

"Where?" he asked.

Judy quivered a little bit in Nick's arms.

"Up there. I will take you," she said.

Nick nodded and the two swam up together. At first, there was nothing. However, suddenly, the Leviathan appeared again, very swiftly for a creature of its massive size. It beheld the two mer-mammals. Judy clutched at Nick.

"Go!" she said.

Suddenly, before they could even move, something slammed into the Leviathan. Moving back, Nick and Judy realized that it was a monstrously massive shark of the sort that they told stories of. They weren't extinct after all. They were very much still around. The two sea beasts began to fight one another.

"Time for us to go," Nick said as he swam away to safety.

When they got back, Judy nuzzled him. She was so happy to be alive after what happened today. She smiled.

"Nick, I love you, but, now I know, there is none among us that I want to be with for the rest of my life. If you like, you may initiate the courtship ritual," she said.

Nick smiled slyly.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Judy nodded.

"I am sure," the mer-bunny doe said.

With that, Nick needed no further encouragment. He and Judy entertwined their tails together and began to swim for the surface. Little did they know that the Leviathan and the shark both, having both swam away bloody but alive, were still swimming the seas.