Seafoam
Title: Seafoam
Rating: Currently R for language and partial nudity
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Wish I did though..
Summary: A young merman dreams of something a bit more.
Partially betaed by catlover_2x
Author's note: This fic will not be continued.
The day had begun like most days at sea do: cool in the `very dawn, and slowly getting warmer. By now, around midafternoon, it was as warm as it was going to get.
Three merpeople were more or less grouped around one of a series of large rocks overlooking a sandy beach near a human settlement. The oldest, and quite possibly the most mature of the three, Sara was like most of the mermaids in the sea, very beautiful and very aware of it. Her long brown hair was held back by a series of miniature mother of pearl shells, keeping it off her face. Her dark brown eyes in the gorgeous heart-shaped face were always moving, letting anyone who wanted to look know that the mermaid was constantly aware of her current situation and how to handle herself, should the manner arise. The brown eyes seemed to compliment her long hair, as much as her tawny skin was complimented by the shimmering pale greens of her tail. A strand of purple and green shells hung round her neck and her edge of her tail was embellished with various colored starfish, who clung until they found something else to interest them, giving her tail an ever changing array of decoration. Sara was the type of mermaid who knew her place in the sea, and frequently had to remind people of it. She wasn't a crab; it was just in her nature to let other merpeople know she was as smart as she was gorgeous. Currently, though Sara was perched up on one of the rocks that faced out to sea, the tips of her paler fintips resting in the warm water.
The second oldest, Archie, was resting his back against the rock, lower half still
submerged, a few inches away from her. His straight black hair hung down his back, contrasting with the golden tint of his skin, which, in turn, caused his own dark eyes to stand out. His aqua tail almost exactly matched the water around it until the sun caught the visible part of his tail and flashed the shades of lavender that was mixed in with the turquoises and pale blues. Like Sara, Archie was smart and he knew it, though unlike Sara, Archie usually hid his smarts behind a grin designed to disarm -- and frequently charm -- the casual viewer. If Archie had a weakness, though, it was his love of humans and their possessions. There was nothing Archie didn't know about humans and while it sometimes got on his friends' nerves, it was a constant topic among the three, and many times resulted in coming to the surface to see if they could see any.
The youngest, and frequently as immature as Sara was mature, Greg, was still completely in the water, close to the rock, chin almost resting on the surface of the ocean as his sunstreaked hair -- a prize from frequent surface trips with his close friends -- fanned out around in the water, his dark eyes contrasting with his pale smooth skin. His tail was the most handsome of the three, iridescent with tints of purple, blue and green shining off the dark blue scales. He wore a bracelet of shark's teeth around his upper left arm and he was quick and slender, able to cut through the water with a flick of his strong tail. Another thing that was always on him was his dashing grin, flashing perfect white teeth. If Sara's smile could promise secrets, and Archie's could charm the recipient, Greg's own smile could threaten -- and in the past, actually had -- to break hearts. He had an innate knack of looking at people in such a way that promised them the underwater world and more.
The three pairs of eyes occasionally scanned the horizon for incoming human ships, one more often than the others. Sara sighed, her brown-eyed gaze dropping from its most recent study of the horizon, as she pulled her hair up over her shoulder, unconsciously looking like a human artist's rendering of what her kind looked like. Or so the cause of her sigh was telling her.
"Humans are always drawing mermaids playing with their hair." Archie continued, seemingly blissfully unaware of the annoyed look said mermaid was giving him.
"I suppose you've seen enough of those paintings." Greg teased from where the younger merman was in the process of following, and scattering, a school of fish. The school took off abruptly, startled more by the sound of his voice than his presence.
Sara's brown eyes scanned the horizon again, looking for any ships that could be coming in (one never knew), then rolled over to check the beach for signs of anyone crossing it. Like the dozens of other times she'd looked that afternoon, there was nothing; no sign of humans or anything enslaved by them. She couldn't fight the premonition that something was coming, but couldn't see anything to merit the nagging feeling.
A whistling sound caught the ears of all three. Sara slid off her rock quickly, hitting the rock with a soft splash; they knew that sound quite well.
"Dolphins!" Greg almost squealed in glee, diving under to meet the pod. Dolphins were some of the biggest gossips in the sea, and were usually a good way to find out how close to shore a human ship was. They were also the most amusing. In the trio's experience, whales could tell the longest stories, turtles had the furthest reaching ones, but dolphins had the best.
The younger merman easily outdistanced the other two and by the time Sara and Archie had caught up to Greg and the pod, the pod leader and merman were talking quietly, heads close together. As they waited for Greg and the pod leader to finish their discussion, Archie and Sara chatted with the other dolphins in the pod.
Presently, the pod leader and Greg separated, the leader whistling to gather his pod, and Greg staring off in the direction the pad had come from.
As Sara's fingers lightly dragged across the rubbery side of the hindmost dolphin, her brown eyes watching Greg quietly, Archie kicked over to Greg.
"Well?"
The young merman said nothing, still staring off in the direction the pod had come. A tanned hand reached out, lightly touching Greg's shoulder. "Greg? You okay?"
For a brief moment, Greg looked ready to answer, but the diffused sunlight shimmering over them as they floated was suddenly blotted out. Three pairs of brown eyes glanced up, taking in the underside of a sailing ship, heading in the same direction the pod was.
"That's what the pod must have spotted..." Sara breathed.
Suddenly, Greg took off after the ship and Sara and Archie were hardpressed to follow as he led them back the way they'd come. As unexpectedly as he'd started, Greg stopped, eyeing the side of the ship, as if his gaze could bore a hole in it.
Archie practically flopped against a rock nearby. "What was that about?" he panted.
Greg turned on his back so he could get a better look up above without actually surfacing. "The pod leader said this ship felt special. I wanted to know why."
"Couldn't you have just asked them?" Sara frowned at him then glanced warily up toward the surface.
"I did, they didn't know why it was special." Greg admitted, checking to see where the sun was in the sky. It rested near the horizon, so that meant that they'd been following the dolphins and ship for most of the latter part of the afternoon. It also meant that they could surface without too much fear of being sighted by humans. Greg surfaced, glancing around and up. He couldn't see anyone on this side of the ship, which was good.
The screeches of a pair of seagulls nearby caught his attention. He turned his head to a nearby rock and caught the two seabirds looking at him.
"Mine?" One of them greeted. The other looked equally interested.
Greg sighed, bringing his tail up to send a wave their direction. If it had been any other type of sea bird, he had no doubt in his mind that he could have found out what was so special about this ship. He was personally fond of albatrosses; they were distance travelers and every time he had a chance to, Greg and his friends would hold long conversations with the large birds, enthralled by the stories of what they'd seen in their journeys.
The seagulls shook themselves and took off, shrieking at both him and the ocean. Greg glanced up to see if anyone had come to investigate the splash. No one had, but that didn't mean no one would. Distractedly, he heard Sara and Archie surfacing next to him.
"Are you nuts?" Sara hissed in his ear. "Do you want to be seen?! I'm sure my uncle would just love to find out a human saw you!"
Greg glanced up again. Still no one was coming to investigate the splash. "No one's investigating that splash and the sun's almost down. We're fine."
Sara looked cautiously up the side of the ship. As much as she hated to admit it, Greg was right. She sighed. "If you're wrong, it's on you."
Before Greg could say anything in answer, the sound of music wafted down to the three. The trio closed their eyes as they listened to the song. It was as haunting as the sea itself and seemed like a story about their home. Each felt as if the song was trying to tell them something; something important that they would need to move on with their lives.
When Archie and Sara opened their eyes again at the tune's end, they realized two things: the sun had gone down and Greg was no longer with them. Startled looks passed between them and then their eyes were raised toward the ship. The deck seemed to be aflame with torchlight and two merpeople could almost make out the pale shape of their friend against the dark side of the ship and the darker sky beyond. The darker sky told them there was a storm coming, so they should be leaving soon, to seek safety in the depths of the ocean.
Sara had to bite back a yell and Archie quickly pulled himself up the side of the ship, hands quickly finding the small handholds Greg must have found to pull himself up to where he perched by an opening in the otherwise solid rail. The normally stubborn merman was leaning against the railing, chocolate brown eyes dreamily gazing onto the deck, with no hint of any of the stubbornness Archie usually found in the handsome face. The older merman hastily glanced around the deck of the human ship, saw nothing of note, and grabbed Greg's bare shoulder to shake it.
"Are you insane?!" He hissed in Greg's ear, trying to break the dreamy concentration. "We don't get seen by humans and you're asking to be seen by watching like this!"
Greg looked Archie's way, the dreamy look never leaving his face. "I'm not stupid." The chocolate gaze slowly went back to wherever it had been before the older merman had arrived.
Archie frowned, looking again at the group of humans having a good time. "What are you even looking at?"
A small smile crossed the attractive face and Greg pointed to a small group of humans almost directly across from where the two mermen hid. "The one in the middle."
There were actually three in the middle, Archie noted: two humans, one taller and darker than the other, and a large furry, golden creature sitting by the feet of the lighter human. Both humans were dressed like normal sailors, or so Archie's knowledge of humans told him, but there was something in the stance of the shorter, more muscular one that hinted at something almost royal. Even at this distance, Archie could tell that both humans had attractive smiles, for humans, flashing white teeth whenever one of their companions told a joke. He took a moment to focus on each human that Greg had pointed out, to form his own opinion. The taller one, dressed in light colors, was darker than anyone Archie had ever seen, and although this angle was wrong to accurately tell, the man was lanky and loose-limbed, and looked as if he were about to fold into himself. The other, shorter one was very tan, and the short sleeves of the loose-fitting blue shirt the man was wearing showed the merman that the man was muscular and Archie had no doubt that this was a man who could handle himself in a fight. Faces and better details were hard to distinquish with the distance and flickering torchlight, so the merman didn't know if his friend had gotten a good look at one of their faces, and that was the cause behind the dreamy look in his friend's face.
Archie blinked, trying both to figure out which one of the three had attracted his friend's undivided attention and what was going through his friend's mind. It wasn't unusual for Greg to be distracted by humans. After all, it was well known that Archie himself found humans and their artifacts fascinating and frequently convinced Greg, and sometimes even the reluctant Sara, to go explore sunken ships with him. But to allow himself to be seen like this was beyond even Greg's usual curiosity. This was so unlike his friend that Archie was almost worried.
As Archie tried to think which one in the middle his friend was gazing at, the furry creature rose up onto four legs and wound its way out of the group and over to where the mermen were hidden. A long pink tongue shot out and licked both mermen's cheeks. It sat by Greg, panting and wagging its tail in what seemed like complete bliss. Greg stared at it in something akin to shock and Archie flicked his gaze between the creature and where it had come from, trying to see if its movement had been noticed, knowing they should leave. One of the humans, the lighter skinned one that the creature had been sitting by, was looking in the direction the furry thing had gone. Looking in their direction.
Greg was too busy still eyeing the creature to notice the man, but Archie grabbed his shoulder.
"We have to get back to Sara." Archie hissed in Greg's ear as he saw the dark-haired human excuse himself and begin walking to where the mermen were. A hint of panic shook the older merman's voice. "Right now!"
The fright in his friend's voice and the grip on his shoulder broke through Greg's shock, causing him to look up and lock eyes with the most beautiful, kind brown eyes he'd ever seen. A heartbeat later, he and Archie had dropped back down into the sea. Archie quickly went under, but Greg snuck a final look up. The human he'd been staring at was now leaning over the rail, staring down at him. Before he allowed the human a good look at what he was, he ducked under, taking care not to splash his tail.
Under the water, Greg soon found Sara and Archie a safe distance from the ship. Sara was, understandably, livid.
"Are you fucking nuts?!" She screamed at him, using her strong pale green fish tail to smack Greg in the torso. "Not only did you have to go up there, but now you've probably been seen by a human! What are you, some kind of lovestruck little mergirl?"
Greg's brown eyes followed a small school of brightly colored fish, ignoring the insult amidst Sara's rant. She tended to insult when she was mad or worried, and pretending to be mad to cover it. "He'll probably forget." He felt an odd pain in his heart as he said that and tried to not let it show.
Some of it must have shown, though, because Archie sighed. "Maybe I was wrong and the human didn't see us." His dark eyes pleaded with Sara. "Can we just go home?"
Sara still looked livid, but she relaxed somewhat. "Alright." She glanced up toward the surface and two gazes followed hers. "It's getting late and it looks like a storm is brewing above."
Greg glanced back anxiously toward the human ship. Sara sighed and reached out to lay her hand on Greg's arm. "I don't think it'll be that bad, Greg. Besides, they're close enough to shore by now that if there is trouble, they'll be safe." Greg nodded, but still kept looking back Sara turned. "C'mon."
With a cascade of bubbles from the kick of her powerful tail, she swam off and Archie's pale blue tail added more bubbles as he followed. Greg was almost of the mind to follow when he quickly changed his mind to check the surface again. As he surfaced, Greg realized that the storm was closer than Sara had thought. Rain pelted his face as he looked around, trying to gauge the distance to the ship as well as how bad the storm was going to get. Dangerous enough from the looks of it. Greg turned slightly to follow in the direction his friends had taken, his mind and instincts telling him to go home and let the humans fend for themselves. Sara was right, Greg admitted sullenly to himself, the human ship was close enough to shore that if they needed to, they could go ashore.
That's what his mind was telling him. But his heart was telling him to go back to the ship. Just in case.
Some moments later, Greg was back by the ship, keeping his head low and keeping a wary distance, noticing the lifeboats already lowered. The ship, battered to either side by the massive waves produced by the storm, was taking a terrible beating against the sharp rocks that Greg and his friends had been playing around earlier, and a quick, careful glance at the soaked sailors in the nearer of the two lifeboats from the ship told Greg that if this ship went down, so did a good part of their livelihood.
Another quick glance at the lifeboat told him that the human he'd been mooning over earlier was not in that lifeboat. Greg took advantage of an incoming rolling wave to dive under the surface, resurfacing near the other lifeboat, checking that one as well. With help from flashes of lightning overheard, he could see that the darker human his interest had been with was in the lifeboat, but not the human he was looking for.
Over the howling winds that threatened to deafen him and the roiling waves that threatened to push him under came the sound of frantic barking. The darker human swore over the howling and as Greg turned his head to the ship, he could see why. The furry creature that had licked him earlier was still on the ship, along with the human he'd been watching.
Greg swam closer to the ship, wary but concerned. Even though he lived his entire life underwater, he knew the ship could break and he knew lightning could start a fire on the wooden monstrosity. Either way, despite being worried for his human, he also knew that he himself could be injured.
A stunning flash of lightning left spots before Greg's eyes. As he blinked them away, he heard a loud crack over the wailing winds and a splash nearby. He turned toward the sound and saw the furry creature paddling toward the nearer lifeboat. He watched, distractedly, as the creature was pulled in before he realized he had only heard one splash, not two.
He spun wildly, eyes going back up to the ship. The loud crack had been caused by the mast being hit by that bright flash of lightning that had blinded him, and not only was the mast broken in two, but fire had started that was quickly making its way down to the deck, despite the pouring rain and massive waves. Greg watched, as horrified as the humans behind him, as the top of the tall mast came crashing down to the deck, near the place he'd last seen his human. The heavy wood cut through the layers of the ship like a typhoon ripping through an empty patch of ocean and Greg dove away as it crashed into the sea.
When he surfaced again, he saw that the ship, still burning brightly, was beginning to sink. For one heart-wrenching moment, Greg was afraid that the mast had fallen on top of his human, but was soon relieved to spy him clutching a nearby crate, despite the giant waves that were pushing him up and down. He glanced toward the lifeboats, but they seemed to be heading to shore without their fellow human. He blinked at that, turning back toward the human, and found himself staring up at a massive swell that slammed into
him and shoved him under the surface.
It took a bit of struggling to reach the surface once more, but when Greg did, he saw the crate, but the human had vanished.
Rating: Currently R for language and partial nudity
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Wish I did though..
Summary: A young merman dreams of something a bit more.
Partially betaed by catlover_2x
Author's note: This fic will not be continued.
The day had begun like most days at sea do: cool in the `very dawn, and slowly getting warmer. By now, around midafternoon, it was as warm as it was going to get.
Three merpeople were more or less grouped around one of a series of large rocks overlooking a sandy beach near a human settlement. The oldest, and quite possibly the most mature of the three, Sara was like most of the mermaids in the sea, very beautiful and very aware of it. Her long brown hair was held back by a series of miniature mother of pearl shells, keeping it off her face. Her dark brown eyes in the gorgeous heart-shaped face were always moving, letting anyone who wanted to look know that the mermaid was constantly aware of her current situation and how to handle herself, should the manner arise. The brown eyes seemed to compliment her long hair, as much as her tawny skin was complimented by the shimmering pale greens of her tail. A strand of purple and green shells hung round her neck and her edge of her tail was embellished with various colored starfish, who clung until they found something else to interest them, giving her tail an ever changing array of decoration. Sara was the type of mermaid who knew her place in the sea, and frequently had to remind people of it. She wasn't a crab; it was just in her nature to let other merpeople know she was as smart as she was gorgeous. Currently, though Sara was perched up on one of the rocks that faced out to sea, the tips of her paler fintips resting in the warm water.
The second oldest, Archie, was resting his back against the rock, lower half still
submerged, a few inches away from her. His straight black hair hung down his back, contrasting with the golden tint of his skin, which, in turn, caused his own dark eyes to stand out. His aqua tail almost exactly matched the water around it until the sun caught the visible part of his tail and flashed the shades of lavender that was mixed in with the turquoises and pale blues. Like Sara, Archie was smart and he knew it, though unlike Sara, Archie usually hid his smarts behind a grin designed to disarm -- and frequently charm -- the casual viewer. If Archie had a weakness, though, it was his love of humans and their possessions. There was nothing Archie didn't know about humans and while it sometimes got on his friends' nerves, it was a constant topic among the three, and many times resulted in coming to the surface to see if they could see any.
The youngest, and frequently as immature as Sara was mature, Greg, was still completely in the water, close to the rock, chin almost resting on the surface of the ocean as his sunstreaked hair -- a prize from frequent surface trips with his close friends -- fanned out around in the water, his dark eyes contrasting with his pale smooth skin. His tail was the most handsome of the three, iridescent with tints of purple, blue and green shining off the dark blue scales. He wore a bracelet of shark's teeth around his upper left arm and he was quick and slender, able to cut through the water with a flick of his strong tail. Another thing that was always on him was his dashing grin, flashing perfect white teeth. If Sara's smile could promise secrets, and Archie's could charm the recipient, Greg's own smile could threaten -- and in the past, actually had -- to break hearts. He had an innate knack of looking at people in such a way that promised them the underwater world and more.
The three pairs of eyes occasionally scanned the horizon for incoming human ships, one more often than the others. Sara sighed, her brown-eyed gaze dropping from its most recent study of the horizon, as she pulled her hair up over her shoulder, unconsciously looking like a human artist's rendering of what her kind looked like. Or so the cause of her sigh was telling her.
"Humans are always drawing mermaids playing with their hair." Archie continued, seemingly blissfully unaware of the annoyed look said mermaid was giving him.
"I suppose you've seen enough of those paintings." Greg teased from where the younger merman was in the process of following, and scattering, a school of fish. The school took off abruptly, startled more by the sound of his voice than his presence.
Sara's brown eyes scanned the horizon again, looking for any ships that could be coming in (one never knew), then rolled over to check the beach for signs of anyone crossing it. Like the dozens of other times she'd looked that afternoon, there was nothing; no sign of humans or anything enslaved by them. She couldn't fight the premonition that something was coming, but couldn't see anything to merit the nagging feeling.
A whistling sound caught the ears of all three. Sara slid off her rock quickly, hitting the rock with a soft splash; they knew that sound quite well.
"Dolphins!" Greg almost squealed in glee, diving under to meet the pod. Dolphins were some of the biggest gossips in the sea, and were usually a good way to find out how close to shore a human ship was. They were also the most amusing. In the trio's experience, whales could tell the longest stories, turtles had the furthest reaching ones, but dolphins had the best.
The younger merman easily outdistanced the other two and by the time Sara and Archie had caught up to Greg and the pod, the pod leader and merman were talking quietly, heads close together. As they waited for Greg and the pod leader to finish their discussion, Archie and Sara chatted with the other dolphins in the pod.
Presently, the pod leader and Greg separated, the leader whistling to gather his pod, and Greg staring off in the direction the pad had come from.
As Sara's fingers lightly dragged across the rubbery side of the hindmost dolphin, her brown eyes watching Greg quietly, Archie kicked over to Greg.
"Well?"
The young merman said nothing, still staring off in the direction the pod had come. A tanned hand reached out, lightly touching Greg's shoulder. "Greg? You okay?"
For a brief moment, Greg looked ready to answer, but the diffused sunlight shimmering over them as they floated was suddenly blotted out. Three pairs of brown eyes glanced up, taking in the underside of a sailing ship, heading in the same direction the pod was.
"That's what the pod must have spotted..." Sara breathed.
Suddenly, Greg took off after the ship and Sara and Archie were hardpressed to follow as he led them back the way they'd come. As unexpectedly as he'd started, Greg stopped, eyeing the side of the ship, as if his gaze could bore a hole in it.
Archie practically flopped against a rock nearby. "What was that about?" he panted.
Greg turned on his back so he could get a better look up above without actually surfacing. "The pod leader said this ship felt special. I wanted to know why."
"Couldn't you have just asked them?" Sara frowned at him then glanced warily up toward the surface.
"I did, they didn't know why it was special." Greg admitted, checking to see where the sun was in the sky. It rested near the horizon, so that meant that they'd been following the dolphins and ship for most of the latter part of the afternoon. It also meant that they could surface without too much fear of being sighted by humans. Greg surfaced, glancing around and up. He couldn't see anyone on this side of the ship, which was good.
The screeches of a pair of seagulls nearby caught his attention. He turned his head to a nearby rock and caught the two seabirds looking at him.
"Mine?" One of them greeted. The other looked equally interested.
Greg sighed, bringing his tail up to send a wave their direction. If it had been any other type of sea bird, he had no doubt in his mind that he could have found out what was so special about this ship. He was personally fond of albatrosses; they were distance travelers and every time he had a chance to, Greg and his friends would hold long conversations with the large birds, enthralled by the stories of what they'd seen in their journeys.
The seagulls shook themselves and took off, shrieking at both him and the ocean. Greg glanced up to see if anyone had come to investigate the splash. No one had, but that didn't mean no one would. Distractedly, he heard Sara and Archie surfacing next to him.
"Are you nuts?" Sara hissed in his ear. "Do you want to be seen?! I'm sure my uncle would just love to find out a human saw you!"
Greg glanced up again. Still no one was coming to investigate the splash. "No one's investigating that splash and the sun's almost down. We're fine."
Sara looked cautiously up the side of the ship. As much as she hated to admit it, Greg was right. She sighed. "If you're wrong, it's on you."
Before Greg could say anything in answer, the sound of music wafted down to the three. The trio closed their eyes as they listened to the song. It was as haunting as the sea itself and seemed like a story about their home. Each felt as if the song was trying to tell them something; something important that they would need to move on with their lives.
When Archie and Sara opened their eyes again at the tune's end, they realized two things: the sun had gone down and Greg was no longer with them. Startled looks passed between them and then their eyes were raised toward the ship. The deck seemed to be aflame with torchlight and two merpeople could almost make out the pale shape of their friend against the dark side of the ship and the darker sky beyond. The darker sky told them there was a storm coming, so they should be leaving soon, to seek safety in the depths of the ocean.
Sara had to bite back a yell and Archie quickly pulled himself up the side of the ship, hands quickly finding the small handholds Greg must have found to pull himself up to where he perched by an opening in the otherwise solid rail. The normally stubborn merman was leaning against the railing, chocolate brown eyes dreamily gazing onto the deck, with no hint of any of the stubbornness Archie usually found in the handsome face. The older merman hastily glanced around the deck of the human ship, saw nothing of note, and grabbed Greg's bare shoulder to shake it.
"Are you insane?!" He hissed in Greg's ear, trying to break the dreamy concentration. "We don't get seen by humans and you're asking to be seen by watching like this!"
Greg looked Archie's way, the dreamy look never leaving his face. "I'm not stupid." The chocolate gaze slowly went back to wherever it had been before the older merman had arrived.
Archie frowned, looking again at the group of humans having a good time. "What are you even looking at?"
A small smile crossed the attractive face and Greg pointed to a small group of humans almost directly across from where the two mermen hid. "The one in the middle."
There were actually three in the middle, Archie noted: two humans, one taller and darker than the other, and a large furry, golden creature sitting by the feet of the lighter human. Both humans were dressed like normal sailors, or so Archie's knowledge of humans told him, but there was something in the stance of the shorter, more muscular one that hinted at something almost royal. Even at this distance, Archie could tell that both humans had attractive smiles, for humans, flashing white teeth whenever one of their companions told a joke. He took a moment to focus on each human that Greg had pointed out, to form his own opinion. The taller one, dressed in light colors, was darker than anyone Archie had ever seen, and although this angle was wrong to accurately tell, the man was lanky and loose-limbed, and looked as if he were about to fold into himself. The other, shorter one was very tan, and the short sleeves of the loose-fitting blue shirt the man was wearing showed the merman that the man was muscular and Archie had no doubt that this was a man who could handle himself in a fight. Faces and better details were hard to distinquish with the distance and flickering torchlight, so the merman didn't know if his friend had gotten a good look at one of their faces, and that was the cause behind the dreamy look in his friend's face.
Archie blinked, trying both to figure out which one of the three had attracted his friend's undivided attention and what was going through his friend's mind. It wasn't unusual for Greg to be distracted by humans. After all, it was well known that Archie himself found humans and their artifacts fascinating and frequently convinced Greg, and sometimes even the reluctant Sara, to go explore sunken ships with him. But to allow himself to be seen like this was beyond even Greg's usual curiosity. This was so unlike his friend that Archie was almost worried.
As Archie tried to think which one in the middle his friend was gazing at, the furry creature rose up onto four legs and wound its way out of the group and over to where the mermen were hidden. A long pink tongue shot out and licked both mermen's cheeks. It sat by Greg, panting and wagging its tail in what seemed like complete bliss. Greg stared at it in something akin to shock and Archie flicked his gaze between the creature and where it had come from, trying to see if its movement had been noticed, knowing they should leave. One of the humans, the lighter skinned one that the creature had been sitting by, was looking in the direction the furry thing had gone. Looking in their direction.
Greg was too busy still eyeing the creature to notice the man, but Archie grabbed his shoulder.
"We have to get back to Sara." Archie hissed in Greg's ear as he saw the dark-haired human excuse himself and begin walking to where the mermen were. A hint of panic shook the older merman's voice. "Right now!"
The fright in his friend's voice and the grip on his shoulder broke through Greg's shock, causing him to look up and lock eyes with the most beautiful, kind brown eyes he'd ever seen. A heartbeat later, he and Archie had dropped back down into the sea. Archie quickly went under, but Greg snuck a final look up. The human he'd been staring at was now leaning over the rail, staring down at him. Before he allowed the human a good look at what he was, he ducked under, taking care not to splash his tail.
Under the water, Greg soon found Sara and Archie a safe distance from the ship. Sara was, understandably, livid.
"Are you fucking nuts?!" She screamed at him, using her strong pale green fish tail to smack Greg in the torso. "Not only did you have to go up there, but now you've probably been seen by a human! What are you, some kind of lovestruck little mergirl?"
Greg's brown eyes followed a small school of brightly colored fish, ignoring the insult amidst Sara's rant. She tended to insult when she was mad or worried, and pretending to be mad to cover it. "He'll probably forget." He felt an odd pain in his heart as he said that and tried to not let it show.
Some of it must have shown, though, because Archie sighed. "Maybe I was wrong and the human didn't see us." His dark eyes pleaded with Sara. "Can we just go home?"
Sara still looked livid, but she relaxed somewhat. "Alright." She glanced up toward the surface and two gazes followed hers. "It's getting late and it looks like a storm is brewing above."
Greg glanced back anxiously toward the human ship. Sara sighed and reached out to lay her hand on Greg's arm. "I don't think it'll be that bad, Greg. Besides, they're close enough to shore by now that if there is trouble, they'll be safe." Greg nodded, but still kept looking back Sara turned. "C'mon."
With a cascade of bubbles from the kick of her powerful tail, she swam off and Archie's pale blue tail added more bubbles as he followed. Greg was almost of the mind to follow when he quickly changed his mind to check the surface again. As he surfaced, Greg realized that the storm was closer than Sara had thought. Rain pelted his face as he looked around, trying to gauge the distance to the ship as well as how bad the storm was going to get. Dangerous enough from the looks of it. Greg turned slightly to follow in the direction his friends had taken, his mind and instincts telling him to go home and let the humans fend for themselves. Sara was right, Greg admitted sullenly to himself, the human ship was close enough to shore that if they needed to, they could go ashore.
That's what his mind was telling him. But his heart was telling him to go back to the ship. Just in case.
Some moments later, Greg was back by the ship, keeping his head low and keeping a wary distance, noticing the lifeboats already lowered. The ship, battered to either side by the massive waves produced by the storm, was taking a terrible beating against the sharp rocks that Greg and his friends had been playing around earlier, and a quick, careful glance at the soaked sailors in the nearer of the two lifeboats from the ship told Greg that if this ship went down, so did a good part of their livelihood.
Another quick glance at the lifeboat told him that the human he'd been mooning over earlier was not in that lifeboat. Greg took advantage of an incoming rolling wave to dive under the surface, resurfacing near the other lifeboat, checking that one as well. With help from flashes of lightning overheard, he could see that the darker human his interest had been with was in the lifeboat, but not the human he was looking for.
Over the howling winds that threatened to deafen him and the roiling waves that threatened to push him under came the sound of frantic barking. The darker human swore over the howling and as Greg turned his head to the ship, he could see why. The furry creature that had licked him earlier was still on the ship, along with the human he'd been watching.
Greg swam closer to the ship, wary but concerned. Even though he lived his entire life underwater, he knew the ship could break and he knew lightning could start a fire on the wooden monstrosity. Either way, despite being worried for his human, he also knew that he himself could be injured.
A stunning flash of lightning left spots before Greg's eyes. As he blinked them away, he heard a loud crack over the wailing winds and a splash nearby. He turned toward the sound and saw the furry creature paddling toward the nearer lifeboat. He watched, distractedly, as the creature was pulled in before he realized he had only heard one splash, not two.
He spun wildly, eyes going back up to the ship. The loud crack had been caused by the mast being hit by that bright flash of lightning that had blinded him, and not only was the mast broken in two, but fire had started that was quickly making its way down to the deck, despite the pouring rain and massive waves. Greg watched, as horrified as the humans behind him, as the top of the tall mast came crashing down to the deck, near the place he'd last seen his human. The heavy wood cut through the layers of the ship like a typhoon ripping through an empty patch of ocean and Greg dove away as it crashed into the sea.
When he surfaced again, he saw that the ship, still burning brightly, was beginning to sink. For one heart-wrenching moment, Greg was afraid that the mast had fallen on top of his human, but was soon relieved to spy him clutching a nearby crate, despite the giant waves that were pushing him up and down. He glanced toward the lifeboats, but they seemed to be heading to shore without their fellow human. He blinked at that, turning back toward the human, and found himself staring up at a massive swell that slammed into
him and shoved him under the surface.
It took a bit of struggling to reach the surface once more, but when Greg did, he saw the crate, but the human had vanished.