Order and Chaos

he wasn't, instead he just gonna drown. whoops. :(
should've gotten better at swimming

Milton was soon overwhelmed by the current. Oh, he'd taken a few swimming lessons, but the moat was more intense than any pool in the castle, and the few seconds of disorientation after his dive were more than enough to leave him helpless against the might of the tide. The waters washed over him, pushing him down deeper and deeper...

...until the merfolk decided that was enough toying with the King's stepson and pulled him to the surface.

Still weak from his ordeal, Milton stared ahead. Unlike his half-sister, he was barely affected by the sight of the mermaids; if he were alert, he'd simply say he'd seen better.

As he slowly regained some of his senses, the first thing Milton was aware of was the mermaid holding the royal cat, the cat he'd been so desperate to save. Frantically, he lunged forward to grab the other Milton...

eat the cat before anyone else can

...and, for reasons that surely made sense to him at the time, stuffed the cat right in his mouth.

As the cat in question, needless to say I was rather upset about this turn of events. I could only guess at his alcohol-addled thought process.

It was probably something along these lines.

Oh, I have to feed the cat. What do they like? Fish, right? There's probably fish in the moat. I'll send him there.

And then someone probably explained to him that no, this wasn't about feeding me.

Wait, it's not feeding time? Oh no, then the fish will eat him! I'd better save him!

And then after his near-death experience, presumably his thoughts went in this direction.

They're going to eat the cat! But they can't if I eat him first!

Yes, that was most likely it. Fortunately for us both, the mermaids pulled me out of his mouth before either Milton suffered serious damage, and then dropped us on the riverbank, where the human Milton promptly began coughing up water.

It was good to be safe, of course, but I knew it wouldn't matter. The apocalypse was coming, and these self-absorbed humans had long ago stopped listening to their natural instincts that should have informed them of it by now.

So that left it to me to find some way of issuing a warning; not that they deserved it, but they had a better chance of finding a way to withstand it than I did on my own. I had hoped I might be able to get through to Milton, as we shared a rapport; but even if that were still true, he was in no state to pass any information along.

How was I to warn the humans of their impending doom?