.+*[the little sea monster]*+.

ch.4

"what do you suppose . . ." luca asks giuseppe, trailing off with a flick of his tail and a determined twitch of his ear.
"luca . . ." grandma paguro tries to get her grandsons attention back to her, "luca!"
she gasps as luca blasts off past her, giuseppe beside him as she calls out and follows them out of the cavern, heaving as she pops out of the water with them.
"luca, what- what are you-" she sighs as she fails again to catch his attention, even clicking her fingers and waving her hand in-front of his face. she shakes her head and sighs, looking up and—
"jumping jellyfishes!"
a ship, passing right in-front of them with explosions of light and noise, like thunder and lightening!
she sees lucas giggle in delight at the light and his face harden in determination, and before she can stop him, he dives into the water and drills himself over. she follows, slower in her age, frantically calling out for him. "luca, bubble, please come back!" she loses him.
luca catches his breath as he nears the boat, climbing up cautiously and carefully as he peers onto the ship curiously.
he gasps at the scene before him, humans! two of them, making music with some instruments and objects he's seen before and things he's never found in his three years of collecting. he watches a land monsters dance, gawking.
a cat hisses and darts around, trying to dodge the stomping feet as luca giggles, making the cats ear twitch. it perks its head up, sniffing luca out before crawling towards his hiding spot.
luca gasps and hides, biting his lip before looking back, suddenly face to face with the cat, biting back a scream as it looks back at him in surprise and hisses, arching its back and fluffing out its tail to look bigger and intimidating.
before it can pounce, the cat and luca freeze as a voice calls out, ringing over the rest of the partying family. "machiavelli! here, boy!" luca yelps and hides again, the cat pouncing after him.
but it's grabbed and swiped away by to a pair of hands, ringing a whistle behind them. "hey, come on, you." he laughs as the cat hisses and presumably goes to relinquish its rage onto him, "what'cha doing, huh, machiavelli?" he hushes the creature, and luca peeks out to see the human boy cradling it in his arms, smiling at its reluctant growls, calming down. "good boy."
luca examines the boy, feeling out of breath as he breathlessly watches him. analysing the sun-kissed freckles and scared skin, like a sunrised version of the night, dazzled by the fish and big fish.
his hair bounces, brown and feral, an organised mess like lucas collection. his green eyes sparkle and shine as he grins down at presumed machiavelli, who arched his neck into the boys scratches and purrs shamelessly, comforted.
"hey there, sweetie!" he's suddenly knocked out of his trance by scuttle, whose flying frantically against the wind and waving at him with a stupid grin similar to the human boys, "quite a show, eh?"
"scuttle," he hisses, swinging around to look back at him. "be quiet! they'll hear you."
"oooh,"he drags, nodding vigorously. "i gotcha, gotcha." he limps and slumps against him thanks to the wind slamming them into each other, he shakes his head before grabbing lucas locks and blanketing it around him like a cape as he presses his face against lucas. "we're being intrepidatious."
he looks around sneakily, a playful gleam in his crystal clear eyes. before he shoots up, pointing to the cloudy sky.
"WE'RE OUT TO DISCOVER—"
he's cut off with a hissed hush, and a hand closed his beak before letting him go.
luca sighs, crossing his arms and nuzzling his cheek against his wrist as he looks up to the human boy, while scuttle rubs his beak. "i've never seen a human this close before . . ." he almost feels nostalgic looking at him, "oh . . . he's very handsome, isn't he?" he asks.
scuttle stops running his beak and rubs the back of his neck, slack-jawed as he watches the cat. "uh, i dunno." he laughs awkwardly, "he looks kinda furry and spitter-y to me." he confesses.
luca looks away from the boy, whose put down the cat now and is dancing around it delicately, to giggle at scuttle who stares in confused horror at the cat. "not that one," he helps the seagull by directing its head up to the boy with his hand, "the one playing the snarfblat."
"silence! silence!" calls the other man, the largest, and biggest human luca has ever seen. "it is now my honour and privilege to present our esteemed alberto marcovaldo-scorfano!" he clears his throat, softening his voice. "with a very special, very large birthday present."
"ah, papà," the other boy, alberto, swings a side hug around his apparent father, "you shouldn't have." he grins, bashful.
"i know," the other girl sneers, snorting a laugh as she slaps a hand on albertos back, "happy birthday, alberto!"
she rushes over to the large present and reveals a large, gaudy statue of alberto is revealed, machiavelli hisses at it.
alberto looks at it, gobsmacked before shooting a playful glare at the girl, an inside joke shining in their eyes before the two erupt into laughter and alberto bolts over, grabbing her and scooping her up to ruffle her hair as she bites and claws at his arm. "gee, giulia," he growls playfully, "it's really something."
giulia slips out of his grasp, running behind the larger male gleefully as alberto chases her around him, making lucas head spin and circle as he watched the sibling dynamic flood his gaze.
the larger male gives a gruff, before scooping the two siblings up by the back of their collars and holding them with one hand in the air, while they claw the air to reach for each other. "with some begging," the older man raises a brow at giulia playfully, "i commissioned it myself."
"of course," he continues, grumbling as he puts the pair down gently, before turning his attention to alberto as he rests his hand on his thigh, "i had hoped it would be a wedding present, but . . ."
"come on, dad," alberto laughs, but it's a little to loud and strained in lucas ears as he frowns, "don't start. look, you're still not sore because i didn't fall for the daughter of signorna mina, are you?"
giulia suddenly huffs sourly, as she crosses her arms and flushes, turning around turning her nose up in the air. "it's good you didn't, she is a grace from the gelato gods," she begins dramatically, a passion in her voice similar to the tone in lucas when calling alberto handsome, "while ercole," her eyes burn suddenly in a different kind of passion "owns an evil empire of injustice!"
behind her, alberto mocks her, smiling sheepishly when she glares back at him.
who ercole is and why giulia is suddenly talking about him, luca has no idea.
"alberto," the large male puts a reassuring hand on albertos shoulder, his voice strained. "it isn't me alone. the entire of portorosso wants to see you happily settled down with the right girl."
"or boy." giulia says suddenly, eyes wiggling as alberto pouts. the larger male nods quickly, smiling supportively.
"well," alberto hisses as he walks away and leans against the ship with his arms crossed. "he's out there somewhere. i just- i just haven't found him yet."
"well," the larger male quips as alberto swings a leg over the ships bridge and sighs, straddling it as he leans his chin on his fist, "maybe you haven't been looking hard enough?" the larger male suggests, getting a nod from giulia.
"believe me, papà," alberto nods, suddenly determined as he swings over to beam at them, "when i find him, i'll know- without a doubt!" he laughs, "it'll just- bam! hit me! like lightening!"
lightening cracks from behind him, and luca shudders as he catches his breath.
"hurricane a'commin'!!" roars the larger man, brows shot up in horror as his eyes glaze in a rare sight of fright, "stand fast!" he orders, "secure the riggin'!"
the storm hits, rain slapping into lucas back harshly as he hisses, gripping onto the ship.
"woah! the winds all of a sudden on the move here," squeaks scuttle, as they yelp and get knocked back into ropes, holding on desperately. scuttles grip loosens as he's blown away behind luca, voice echoing "oh! luca . . ."
the ship slumps to the side as a wave crashes into it, luca tries to hold onto the rope but is pulled back by the wind, falling into the water on his back making him hiss in pain, before he lashes back up to the surface, just in time to see lightening score a shot on the sails.
fire begins and a rock looms ahead, "watch out!" he hears alberto cry, but it's too late. lucas found many ship wrecks, but he never thought he'd see one happen before in his entire life, he's frozen as he watches the ship crashes into the rock, lit a flame as the family are thrown overboard. except machiavelli.
luca looks around in the water, before spotting the statue sink, seeing the larger male struggle to swim with just one arm, "papà!" he hears alberto cry, whose reaching out for him on a nearby boat, "hang on!" but the larger male is too far away, so luca swims underneath him and heaves as he pushes him towards the boat, swimming away to the ship once the father is pulled into the boat. he can see machiavelli meowing, and apparently so can alberto, who calls out.
"machi!" the boy swims back to save the cat, climbing up the ships latter and darting around fire, safely dodging a pillar collapsing as luca watches on in horror, frozen from the events.
"jump, machi!" he can hear alberto cry, "come on, boy, jump!" when machiavelli hesitates, he barks out "you can do it, machi!" when machiavelli does jump, alberto manages to catch him and run to the side of the boat, but his foot crashes under wood and gets stuck as the whiplash causes him to throw machiavelli.
machiavelli is saved, but before anyone can try to save alberto, the ship explodes.
luca is brought back to reality and dives towards the sinking ship, looking around frantically before he looks behind his shoulder, spotting alberto, whose knocked unconscious hanging off a plank of wood, before slipping off into the depths that swallow him below.