MERMAIDS ARE REAL

Myths and legends are tales passed down by parents to lull children to sleep, to feed their imaginations and help them dream or to keep them from doing something the mother or father deems wrong. They’re fantastical and romantic, dark and grim, everything in between, capturing the hearts and minds of a wide audience.

Some love the thrill dark stories have, some love the happy ending lighthearted stories have. But one thing is the same: Everyone loves a good story. And if its fantasy its better. It provides escapism from the mundane, an outlet for creativity in a dull world. The painters paint them, writers expand upon them, musicians sing of their glory and, through this, the stories carry on.

But every tale has its start, every story has an origin. Myth is often based on long forgotten fact. Fiction is truth long removed from the present.

In this world the sea hides and covers many of the long lost artifacts of history, of the roots which make way for humanity’s ongoing inspiration in the magical. Sailors traverse the waves every day only remotely aware of what lurks below their vessel.

The ocean is beautiful and dark, captivating but dangerously mysterious, pushing them forward as they let their awe keep them safe on deck from its depths. Its in this darkness that beings lurk, one being sprcifically. A being of the same mythology, fantasy, and tales people speak of at a distance.

Some think she drags sailors down to their deaths, blaming overboard mishaps on her beautiful voice, betwitching appearance, sharp hands and alluring lips. It’s enough to deter some peoppe from setting out on the open sea at all.

Little do they know of how life below the surface actually is, how she keeps under the reefs, eyeing the ships above but never daring to venture close. Shes just as afraid of the men above as they are of the idea of her beneath them.

The ocean is the most beautiful thing Shand has ever seen before in his life. He sees it every single day, and mostly nothing but it every single day, but it still captivates him. He thinks it will never stop captivating him.

They're having a rare lull now, between the sailors hauling in empty nets on the other side of the ship and the sun starting to go down in the purple and orange painted western sky. Thankfully it's not his day to haul in before nightfall, because the weather is perfect for oceangazing.

He alternates between stargazing and oceangazing, but this evening, with the sky clear for miles and miles and the water just as crystalline, he gladly turns his eyes from the heavens to the depths.

There are miles and miles of unknowns down there, just below the tiny rickety rowboat that doubles as his bed and his observatory. From where he is, he can only see down to the reef, where shoals of fish glimmer as they change course and zig zag across the brilliant colors, catching the last little bit of sunlight to be had.

He reaches his hand down to let his fingers play across the surface of the water, wishing there was more time in the night, time enough for him to dive and explore as well as sleep in preparation for the next day's work. If it were up to him, he'd swim and swim and swim until he grew gills and could stay under forever.

But unfortunately it's his job to catch fish, and not be one.

Something dark flips back and forth in the water, something large, and he can't quite catch a full glimpse of it before it's gone. He leans over the side of the rowboat, holding onto it to anchor himself, so that his face in inches from the water's surface.

He's squinting, trying so hard to see what in the world it could have-

There's a gentle plunking sound, and before Shand can register what's happening or even react to it, his pearl, his prized possession and the most costly thing he's ever seen or owned, slips from around his neck and plummets into the deep.

"NO! Dammit, no-"

He darts his hand out to try and scoop it up, but it's falling too fast, and he immediately dives after it. But the sunlight is betraying him, fading too fast and it just barely drops from his line of sight into depths where the last bit of sunlight can't reach.

There's a sudden splash from above and the shadowy form darts into the reef, hiding under the wildlife, eyes peering up at the water above. It's the human she had seen looking down from the small object attached to the bigger one.

He's diving and flailing, trying desperately to reach where she's at for... What? She's never seen a human so willingly jump into the ocean before, jump into her sea. It would be a lie to say she hadn't wished one would, she always watched to see one better, but this one looks like he's on a mission.

Bubbles spill from his nose and mouth after some time and he's darting back up to the surface. His movements aren't like hers and he kicks those two things humans move on when they stand on their vessels to swim through the water. It's so much different than her tail. Around the time she thinks her short window of observation is over, she catches him dive back.

He continues over and over and she can notice the floating thing he calls home is beginning to move from him, keeping on its course like they always do eventually. He's looking for something but what? And each time, he tries to push himself deeper into the water and makes the time he has to get to the surface even shorter.

One thing she has noticed about humans, one thing she's been taught for years, is they cannot survive in water like she and the fish can, they need the dry air above. He's going to kill himself like this.

Stay away from them, my love.

The overly sweet tone plays in her head and fear keeps her hidden, obeying it, watching the man struggle for some unknown reason. On his next round his movements slow as he reaches the surface and shes nearly sure he won't make it.

They're nothing but trouble.

He takes longer with his head above the gentle waves but he's having a harder time staying afloat now. Still, he's back under again. She can feel her heart race watching him, moving from her spot to a different one to catch a different view of him.

They'll only want to harm you.

He looks exhausted, eyes nearly closed, his turn for the air much slower. She can vaguely hear choking noises from above and her eyes dart to the ship that gets further and further away. He surely can't be planning to try again-

The human starts to angle himself to dive again.

What is he looking for? She frantically looks around her, but doesn't see anything she thinks a human would want. Though, hadn't she seen humans wearing necklaces with shells tied to them before? A shell then? Her attention lands on a particularly large, uninhabited conch shell with a soft pearlescent finish. It's certainly prettier than one she's ever seen another human wear, is this what he's after?

Just as he takes the plunge again, she snatches the shell up and propels herself up to him in record time, so fast he's barely several feet below the surface by the time she makes it to him.

He's handsome, dark hair, odd colored eyes that look almost like seaweed and he's wearing that strange cloth over his body all humans wear though it clings to him in the water differently than it does on dry humans, and she's very aware of his lack of tail now.

Her deep blue eyes stare at him, long purple hair suspended around her, matching the darker undertones of her long flowing tail that glistens with lighter highlights of lavender and ice blue. And she also now becomes very aware that she isn't wearing that strange human cloth over her. Is that wrong? She's not sure.

As he stares, she extends the large shell to him, hoping he'll take it, hoping it's what he wanted, hoping he'll notice his floating home getting further away.

His lungs are burning and he knows he can't keep it up much longer, but that pearl is everything. It can't have gone far. But the depths he needs to plumb are too far, and even though he's worked on his breath control for years and years, it's not enough to get him as deep as he needs to go and then back up.

His head is getting lighter and lighter every time he bursts back through the surface for the quickest of gulps of air, and his limbs feel heavy and deadened with each dive. But he still can't get to the bottom, or even see the bottom.

He takes one last gulp of air above the surface- he's going to make it this time, no matter what- and dives, but nearly recoils in the water at an unexpected obstacle right in front of him.

She's beautiful. Long, purple hair that floats in curling tendrils all around her head and perfectly white shoulders.

She doesn't have legs, just this long, glistening, scaled over tale that ends in long, graceful looking flukes that beat the gentle undercurrents as she remains unmoved in the water. And her upper body- she's completely naked. It takes him a second to get over that, her beautiful milky skin, her breasts.

A mermaid? They're real? Is this just a hoax?

But she's shoving something in his face- a conch shell? If this is a mermaid, what is she doing there with him all of a sudden? How come he's never seen one before?

All these thoughts freeze him and his eyes go wide at her, treading water and suddenly feeling very clumsy about it. While he's thinking, or trying to think, his lungs start to burn and he realizes they're all but played out. The last thing he wants to do is take his eyes off her, but his chest is so tight and he feels like he might explode.

He darts the few feet up to the surface to break through, and he can see her through the glassy surface swimming up with fluid, undulating movements to follow him.

Why did he pause?

She looks down to the shell in her hands, examining it closer. Was this not what he wanted? He looked at it after looking at her so she thought that maybe she had guessed correctly, but apparently not?

A quick flick of her tail and she's breaking the surface with him, feeling the slight weight of her hair without the water to hold all of it up and out for her. He's still staring like he can't believe what he's seeing and she supposes it makes sense. If she's never interacted with a human, what are the odds one has interacted with a mermaid?

"..."

Again, she tries to hand him the shell, now thinking maybe he wanted to see it above water to make sure it's what the water, lifting it up and down, trying to get his attention on it. He seems focused on everything but her offer at the moment, staring her over like she's a mirage.

The waiting gets a little tiring so she looks away for her second timer of this moment. Eyes widening, she lightly taps his shoulder then points off in the direction of the boat to see it slowly sailing further away. It's not impossibly far or anything, but seeing how he was wearing himself out worries her.

But he still isn't moving so she turns back to him, eyebrow arched, silently trying to question what he's doing while also stay calm in the face of his intent gaze, ignore the weird warmth she feels under it.

"Are... are you a?"

Shand shakes his head, almost disbelieving that he's about to ask the question.

"You're a mermaid, aren't you?"

She just stares at him, pushes the shell closer to him. For some reason, she wants him to take it from her?

He obliges, but holds it with less interest than he has in her, studying her, watching how gracefully she keeps herself afloat while his muscles burn and ache and pull.

When she touches him, he almost jumps, her fingers leaving a warm, wet trail across his shoulder, leaving goosebumps under the wet, thin fabric.

His ship has been sailing further and further, but it's not out of his sights yet.

Is she concerned about him getting lost? Is she concerned about him at all?

She's still not answering his question, so he thinks maybe his phrasing was rude. Maybe she doesn't even speak English?

"Sorry, I'm- I'm Shand."

He holds his hand out above the water to shake hers, his treading movements under the waves making him bob up and down a bit. She stares at him, looking more and more puzzled at his gesture.

He lets his hand fall- of course if she's a mermaid, she wouldn't know about handshaking. This is such a paradigm shift.

"I've never seen you around here before."

His voice is quiet amidst the gentle lapping and far off rush of waves, but despite how it blends in with the ocean, he can tell that she can hear him by the way she cocks her head at his words.

"I'm around here a lot, but I️- what's, what's your name?"

He finds himself speaking louder and louder, as if his volume will help her understand.

Ah. He's asking her questions. She should have known this would come up. How is she not prepared for this? Then again, she hasn't had a conversation with anyone but her master in... Decades now? It's been so long. Fish and dolphins, whales and seals... They're all great companions but they're not really ones for discussion.

She attempts to sign out a symbol for her name but he seems absolutely lost. Maybe her signing has grown rusty over time without much use. Or maybe he doesn't understand signing?

Something else then: She mouths his name back to him, trying to show she understands, pointing to his chest as she does. Then, she points to herself and mouths "Fengari." It doesn't seem to help. He's trying to pick up on the letters she's forming, confused by the lack of sound even though he can see her lips moving. She needs another plan.

The evening is getting darker and she uses this to her advantage, pointing up at the now visible moon as it comes into view in the night sky. This will only work if he knows Aterkin, she's aware of that, but it's a better starting point than nothing.

She mouths "Fengari" again while keeping her hand towards the sky, a little unsure why this couldn't wait until he's back at his ship where he can rest, seeing that he's clearly tired, but he seems to think this is very important so she obliges. Must be human tradition, just like how he stuck his hand out to her earlier.

She's moving her mouth, but the shapes her lips are making look foreign to him. All he's picking up on is how perfectly pink they are as they move.

She's pointing to the moon, continuing to mouth a strange word.

"The moon? What about the moon?"

His brow is furrowed as he tries to decipher her movements, letting his arms move back and forth across the waves, trying to take some of the pressure of keeping him afloat off his legs.

It hits him that every second he spends trying to communicate with this creature is another second his pearl is lost to the depths. But somehow this seems more burning, more important. The way her eyes search his as she tries to somehow get him to understand something. It's mesmerizing.

"The moon, does that have something to do with your name? Your name can't be moon. I️ mean, maybe it can? Maybe that's a common mermaid name, I️ wouldn't know. Sorry if that's offensive, I️ don't mean to offend you, I️ just. Moon...what else could it be? Luna? I️ mean, do you have the same names as humans would? Luna, maybe?"

He knows he's babbling, but she keeps studying him like every word out of his mouth is as captivating as her silence is to him.

He keeps fumbling over words like every thought he has needs to be said out loud. Not that she's complaining, she's honestly enraptured by the sound of his voice and hearing exactly what's going on in his mind, so much so that she just finds herself nodding to his question.

Then she catches herself. Luna? That's not her name, why did she agree to that? From what she understands, though, it means the same thing as her actual name so what's the harm in going along with it? It gets them one step closer to an understanding. So she points towards his chest, mouths his name, points to her chest and mouths "Luna."

And now she's very curious in him. She swims in a few slow circles around him, trying to see him from every angle, stopping at his side to pull on his wet shirt, examining the now transparent cloth. What is this? It's nothing she's ever seen before. When he jumps, she pulls her hand away and backs up in the water, sinking down so only her eyes and the top of her head are above the surface, looking about ready to swim away at his sudden reaction.

He calms and almost frantically tries to motion for her not to go so she stays, lifting up out of the water a bit again, looking up at him with the same inquisitive expression. It's only now that she notices his disinterest in the large conch.

She rests a hand on the shell then points at him to below the water towards the reef, trying to ask if this is what he had been diving for, knowing the question is going to be hard to get across but she tries the best she can.

"Wait, is that really your name? Luna? Did I️ actually guess that right?"

At the nod of her head, how her lips reform the word back at him, he tries not to look too proud of himself, he doesn't want her to feel like he thinks he's better or anything. Just from looking at her, it seems obvious that she's the superior being. He'd give anything just to hear her speak to him.

She circles him a few times, observing him, taking him in, and then goes back to the conch, pointing at it, then back down to the water.

"Yeah, it came from the reef...it's beautiful, conch shells are great."

It doesn't seem to placate her though, and she keeps pointing. He narrows his eyes to try and understand, to think harder, to think outside the box.

"Something about the reef? What's down there? I️ don't understand- I️ mean, you just came from down there, I️ was diving-"

He stops himself and nearly smacks his own forehead at how dumb he must sound.

"Yes! The reef! My pearl is down there, I️ lost it."

He's talking to her like she knows what any of this means, but there's seldom anyone who will sit and listen to him like this on the ship. It's mostly just full of grumpy sailors who'd rather pretend all the other people on board don't exist. So Shand doesn't get a ton of meaningful socialization, and he's sure it shows.

If mermaids know what that sort of thing looks like, anyways.

Luna's face lights up as he explains what he was looking for, understanding now why he was acting as he had, very happy to finally have this comprehension and it shows all over her expression.

She motions for him to wait where he is, double takes to make sure he's listening, then dives back under the water, her iridescent long wisps of her tail flicking above the surface before she disappears entirely into the shadows of the ocean below.

Her large tail propels her along the reef, searching for minutes on end, looking into every glint, big or small, that may catch her eye in the hopes it's the right object. There are some pearls she finds along the way, ones that she takes just in case, but has a feeling aren't it.

But, with how vast in number these are, she can't begin to fathom why he's so worried about one specific pearl but he seemed utterly desperate to get it back so she tries not to question too much.

Every now and then her gaze drifts up to make sure he's still there, make sure he's still okay and, every time she sees he is, it spurs her to search a little faster, knowing she's not working with unlimited time.

It takes longer than she would like but she spots a single pearl on an odd looking string of metal. This has to be it, she's never seen a pearl come like this from any oyster so this must be a human invention attached to it. If it's not his, then she's not sure what to do next.

She rushes back up to join him, bobbing up out of the water halfway from her speed along then sinking back down so she's eye level with him, holding out her cupped hands. There are a good solid twenty pearls in her palms and, on top of them all, is the one she's hoping is his.

"I️- you found it? How did you-"

Shand knows he must look utterly flabbergasted, but her hands are spilling over with pearls, and his sits right on top. He's confused, delighted, taken aback, but he snatches his necklace and slips it right back over his head in one fluid motion, looking down at how it floats around his chest, feeling more secure with it back on him.

"Thank you, I️ can't believe you found it."

He's wearing this stupid smile, he can feel it, but he doesn't care. She'd found his pearl- this Luna, the mermaid, found his pearl, which also must mean-

"So, wait, you can actually understand me? Can you?"

She nods at him, still watching his every move closely, still holding all the extra pearls she'd gathered in her hands.

A smooth waves rolls dangerously close to taking him under with it, and he can't deny that his limbs are starting to feel useless. Even he can't tread water forever.

He looks over to see that by now, his ship is even further away than it had been before and the thought of the swim back makes him ache and burn even more.

He's breathing deeply, chest heaving from just the small exertion of trying to stay at float and he's at once hit with how jealous he is of her grace and effortlessness in the water.

He's also hit with dread because he doesn't want to leave her.

He catches a mouthful of saltwater, but spits it out like it doesn't even bother him.

"Are you, do you live here on this reef?"

He wants to come back here, to see her again, to never leave this spot.

She shakes her head, closing her hands to keep the pearls in her grasp, lowering her palms back below the water.

Truth be told, she doesn't live anywhere. She swims all over each and every ocean without a home, stopping one place for a day then another for a week. But how does she explain that she's a nomad to him?

Clearly, he's one so maybe he'll understand faster than she's giving him credit for.

Luna shifts all the pearls to one hand, dropping a few to sink back down without a care, placing her free palm on his chest. She watches closely as he points to himself to understand if she's meaning him, to which she nods. That out of the way, she points to his ship, then she points to herself before allowing her hand to skip across the top of the water like the motion of her tail when she swims.

To the best of her ability, she's trying to get at the fact they both travel but she understands that's a hard concept to sign and also grasp from a sign so she repeats it a few times to make sure he can see it.

There's never been a time in recent memory she's called a reef her own though the idea sounds appealing, even if it's not feasible.

She moves to his side again and tugs on his arm in the direction of the boat, very clearly worried by the distance between it and him but he initially refuses to follow which confuses her so she tugs his arm some more.

He's surprised when she touches his chest, a whole palm just flat against him like she's not hesitant at all, and he thinks maybe physical boundaries are different for mermaids, not that he really minds at all. Her hands are light, gentle, soft even through the wet fabric cling of his shirt.

"You....the ship? You follow my ship?...no, I️ would have seen you before... you swim around the ship... no, that's the same thing, Shand, you idiot. Uh."

He brushes some of the wet hair stuck to his forehead out of his face as she pulls at him, as if she has something urgent she wants him to see. She seems determined to take him closer to his ship, and he can't blame her.

The nighttime has descended quickly, and the stars are almost all out by now. That sight arrests him, even in the middle of all this, because the stars are so bright and beautiful, like they always are. A path to light his way home, the captain would always say.

That is, if he had a home.

"That's it! You wander around, like me. You don't have a home."

He says it, excited to have maybe guessed correctly again, but the excitement fades as the words sink in and he wonders if she feels as empty as he does without people to love and care for or a place to feel safe and secure.

"I️ don't want to go back there."

She's pulling him toward his ship, and he knows he sounds childish because he has to go back, he'll literally drown if he doesn't, but he doesn't want this to be over.

She nods with a smile, shoulders shaking like she should be laughing but no sound comes out, it's just the expression and the motion.

It's odd to see him so excited at just guessing what she's trying to say and then nearly exploding with joy when he gets it right. It's pure and earnest and she's never seen another human like him.

It's even stranger to laugh over him guessing how alone she is but something tells her that, out of every human she could have met, this one, Shand, understands how she feels more than most people would. And maybe that's enough to keep her spirit light for the time being.

That goes double for when he admits to not wanting to go back. Luna cocks her head to the side, still trying to pull on his arm. She could very easily just drag him to the ship if she wanted, she's the one with more power in this situation, but she keeps hesitating each time he brings up something new.

Why?

She mouths the one-word question, starting to slowly drag him back, tail hitting against his legs every now and then and the flinch she gives is enough to show that she's apologetic for smacking him, constantly trying to make an effort not to.

He clearly knows he's going to drown, it's written on his face, but he's still pulling against her with some resistance she doesn't understand. Does he want to die? No, there's no way. She's seen sailors die and they have a certain defeated look in their eyes as their final breaths bubble from their mouths. He doesn't have that look. It's a different look entirely, one she can't place.

He wants to pull against her, assure her that he's the best swimmer he knows, that he can hold his breath half of forever, that he's practically a fish, but all of those things sort of fall away in the face of her presence there. She clearly has him beat.

And he can feel himself giving out in every way. The motion she makes as she tries to swim with him, to pull him along, is lulling and soothing and his body wants to give in to the rest and let her swim him back to the boat where he can fall asleep.

But he's not willing to let go.

"How will I️ see you again?"

He asks, his voice a little breathless now, his exhaustion becoming clear in his his eyelids are even growing heavy.

"I️ can't go back and never see you again."

It's clear that in his sleepiness, he has less inhibition than normal even, and he just keeps talking.

"Why won't you talk back to me? You can hear me and understand me, I️ think, but why won't you talk? Can you even talk? I️ didn't mean even, like to make you feel bad about it. But I️ wish you would. Or could, or something."

He accidentally breathes in a little water as a wave rushes right over his head and he comes up coughing and spewing. Part of him feels like free floating out in the open ocean with her for as long as he can hold out would be better than going back.

He doesn't have any friends on that ship. Really, he's no better than a slave, working in the hot sun all day with barely any kind of break or even food, and then coming near to collapsing at the end of every day.

To be honest, he's surprised he's made it this far without his body giving out yet, but she keeps pulling him along back to the ship like she thinks it's what's best for him.

They're almost to his ship now so she feels comfortable going just ever so slightly slower. She touches her throat at his question and shakes her head.

She can't speak, ironic, she knows. What good is a mermaid that can't speak or sing? It's tragic in its own right and makes her more isolated than she already is.

Actually, no creature has taken the time to try to communicate with her half as much as he has in their short time together. Maybe that's this warm feeling she's getting, this new energy from interacting with someone finally, with someone who is actually trying to understand and work with her even though he has no clue what's going on.

His words sink in and make sense, she feels them on a deeper level than she initially thought. She wants to see him again, too. She can't go back to wandering aimlessly alone after a human has spiked her curiosity in such a way. She'll never be the same no matter how much she tries to go back to how it was before she saw this strange man diving into the open ocean for a pearl.

She helps him back up into the rowboat, keeping herself in place by propping herself up on the side, looking up at him from the water, head still tilted like she's perpetually trying to understand him more and more, even when he's not speaking.

What if she were to follow his ship, check in on him from time to time?

The knocks against the bottom of the small boat with her tail under the water and then points towards the noise with her hand like she's trying to alert him to some sort of signal.

His lungs heave a huge sigh of relief once he's stretched out in the rowboat, and it hits him that she's not like any mermaid he's ever heard of.

In the stories that go around every seaside village he's visited, the women who live in the sea are vicious, cunning, will take shipwreck victims and hold them under just to watch them drown.

She'd saved his life- if he had had to swim back to the boat himself, he'd have sunk out of sheer exhaustion. And now she's trying to tell him something else.

"You don't want to get in here too, do you? I️ mean, I️ don't think being out of water would be very comfortable for you.. this is, this is where I️ sleep. It stays with the ship."

He cocks his head trying to watch her movements more closely, the way she's gently rocking the boat now with the slap of her fins.

"Will you- I️ mean, do you want to come back? Can you come back? When do you sleep? The ship should be anchoring soon so it's not like it will drift all night. We'll be around the same spot in the morning. Do you sleep? I️ mean, duh Shand, she sleeps. I'm an idiot. Do you, like, do you sleep at night, too?"

He holds his forehead in his hand for a second out of embarrassment as his face flushes slightly.

She smiles with that same silent laugh motion of her upper body, clearly enjoying his little speeches as he tries to figure her out.

But she also realized she could frustrate him very easily with her lack of voice. How long until he stops trying? Before he tells her to go away, that speaking with her is a pain? The thought brings a lump to her throat and it surprises her how easily she’s attached to his bright eyes and quick speech.

Luna points to the night sky then rests her head down in the side of the rowboat with her eyes closed, trying to tell him she sleeps at night, just like she’s heard that humans do. Granted, she doesn’t sleep all night. She sleeps for a few hours during the night and a few hours during the day, but it feels too complicated to try to sign out to him.

Her eyes open again and she lets go of the boat, swimming small little circles around the side, diving into the shadow and then coming back up with another shell, smaller, a dusty pink, and she sets it on the ledge like a symbol of some kind of promise, trying the mouth that she’ll visit again if he wants.

A man from above stomps to the side of the deck, waving a lantern and peering down at Shand. Luna dives quickly below the surface with a soft splash, gone into the depths, hidden by the night sky reflected in the ocean they ride.

“Boy, go to sleep. Its late.”

His voice is hoarse and irritable, stomping away muttering something to himself, having completely missed the sight of the mermaid who is now long gone.

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Shand has an oops, I've been caught smile, his eyebrows raised high and the corners of his lips turning down with a smile in between.

"Sorry!"

He laughs a little bit, like the correction hadn't rattled him in any way, turning back around to see that she's gone completely, with nothing but the slightest ripple of water to indicate that she'd ever been there in the first place.

Had he even seen her at all? Had he made her up in his mind?

But there's the shell on the edge of the little rowboat, a delicate pink with orange stripes. He lets his finger run over it a few times before he picks it up, turns it over gently in his hands.

She has to have been real, or else how did this get here? Something in his heart sinks, preparing himself for the inevitability of never seeing her again.

But something about the shell gives him a little bit of hope, stupid and foolish or not. Maybe she'll bring him another one next time.

He lays back in the rowboat and lets his gaze turn finally to the stars, out full and bright in the night sky. One shoots across the sky, there and gone again before he can even blink, a lot like her.

He tries to close his eyes and sleep, but the excitement makes it hard. In the end though, his muscles are aching and his eyelids are so heavy he doesn't have much choice but to give in to the gentle rocking of the waves under him and let it lull him to sleep.

The sunset rises the next day and the world is warm and bright, open and inviting, sweeping the night and yesterday away for a new dawn.

The ship, just as he said, is still in the same spot but the anchor is rising and the crew is preparing to continue forward. And she’s there, watching the large metal piece rise slowly out of the water, swimming over and under it like it’s an obstacle course for her. The fun stops when it gets close and she darts under the shadow of the boat.

She’s not sure why she came back, the smooth voice echoing in her mind telling her the dangers of humans. But he wasn’t dangerous. Actually, he appeared anything but which, while shocking, was a welcomed surprise.

Her lips move and mouth his name to herself, something she’s been doing to make sure she wouldn’t forget it. Now that she can call out to him anyways, but still.

Just as she had last night, she hits her tail against the bottom of the rowboat and listens. There’s no one there, he’s already awake and on deck. She frowns and moves from the shadow, peeking just her eyes above the surface of the water to look for him. When she doesn’t see him, se swims to the other side of the boat to do the same but she still doesn’t see him.

Maybe it was foolish to assume he’d just be ready to speak with her at any moment of the day but she was hopeful. Upsettingly so.

She sinks back below the surface, trailing to his rowboat, running her hand along the under side of it. This is stupid, isn’t it? Putting herself out here, attaching to a human... She should just leave, shouldn’t she? Its not like there’s anything forcing her to follow his ship around, so why is she still here?

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Since before sun up, there have been nets to haul and cast and fish to store and salt and a long list of things to do that never seems to end, even on a normal day.

Shand is tired even before it's begun, his muscles straining and aching from yesterday's antics. But his pearl is safely tucked under his shirt, and he has her to thank for that. Luna.

His eyes drift back to his rowboat periodically, as if she would actually come up to it and wait for him there in plain view of everyone else, in broad daylight.

The work crew overseer has yelled at him one too many times to keep his eyes on what he's doing unless he wants to end up overboard. And he's had to, more than one time, bite his own tongue from answering back how much he'd rather be overboard right now.

By midday, the sun is hot and glaring overhead and he's a sweaty mess, like always, mopping his forehead with the hem of his shirt, feeling his neck burn with sunburn on top of sunburn on top of sunburn.

Before long though, it's time to move to a new fishing spot off the reef, and he starts to search the surrounding waters desperately for her. Will she know to follow? Will she even want to?

He should have told her last night that his days were always occupied, filled to the brim with work. Maybe she'd already been to see him and gotten impatience and swam away.

He'd left the shell she'd brought him right where she'd left it on the side of the boat, and he hoped maybe she would take it as a sign that he'd come back, that he hadn't just up and left.

In her boredom, she sinks back down into the water, searching the reef, feeling it over with the tips of her fingers, just as she always does, picking up shells to examine, tangling her favorites in her long hair.

While she searches, she comes across several pearls and they cause her to hesitate in her search. That necklace he likes enough to dive into the ocean for had a pearl at the end of it... Are they just his favorite object to keep?

She picks one up and examines it. Its not the same as his but maybe he just likes them in general, so she continues, picking up more along the way. By the time the sun is moving overhead, she’s established a little stash, so much so that she has to fashion a small pouch out of seaweed to hold them all.

Satisfied with the amount, she weaves around the remaining nets from the ship, back up to the rowboat, slipping the pouch tucked against the side of it, dropping below the water when a sailor walks by the railing of the deck.

The man passes and she pops back up to listen to the men move about curiously, trying to understand what’s happening up beyond her sight, what Shand does all day. Its only now that she finally notices the pink shell perched on the side of his makeshift room like it’s waiting for her and the sight makes her smile a little... All before diving again at the sound of men getting close to the edge.

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By the end of the day, Shand is exhausted. His skin feels naked, like always, and he’s covered in small lacerations, net burn. He’s always the one who gets caught underneath the pull, the tall and lanky one.

He manages to pawn off his late night duties on one of the deckhands who asks for diving lessons in return. Shand feels tempted to tell him that there are better candidates for a teacher out there apparently, but he keeps it to himself.

Easing down into the rowboat, he grimaces at all his new bumps and bruises, but settles in and sighs at finally being able to rest. He sits up, cross legged, in the bottom of the small boat and wonders how he’ll get her attention, if she still is even around and wanting to see him again.

Then he remembers something she’d done the night before, something he hadn’t understood then.

He opens his hand flat and smacks the bottom of the boat with his palm several times, making the boat rock in the water, sending ripples into the waves.

There's a long pause, long enough for Shand to wonder if she really isn't coming, if she really was gone for good or if it had all just been an incredibly vivid dream.

But just as the water calms, she pokes the top of her head above the water, looking up at him, a slight pout apparent on her face that he can see when even only her eyes are completely visible to him. It doesn't last long though because something about him catches her attention and she's hoisting herself up on the side of the small boat in no time, resting against her stomach to keep her there.

She taps his red cheek, watching the color turn white then dissolve back out to the bright burn and she seems fascinated by it, though she does stop when he winces at the pain it seems to calm him. Her head is tilted, she doesn't understand the bright nearly neon color to his skin and she's waiting for an explanation when her eyes drift to something else.

He's winching again as she pokes at his shoulder, seeing a small cut through his sweaty shirt. Her hand is back at her side in an instant but she's looking up at him quizzically, mouthing:

What happened?