Ocean Blue

Chapter 1

The boy was delirious with heatstroke, and Shiro had to soothe sunburns that covered the kid's neck, face, feet and hands, but he slowly nursed the castaway back to health.

"Keith."

Shiro looked up in surprise. It was the first time that his charge had spoken. "What?"

The castaway looked at him with luminous purple eyes. "My name is Keith."

"Oh. I'm Shiro. Mind telling me what happened?"

"Pirates," Keith said hoarsely, "The captain blew the ship to bits and sent the cargo to the bottom of the ocean rather than let them get it. The explosion from the gunpowder took the pirate ship down too"

Shiro busied himself fixing a net. "Oh. Sounds like a brave man."

"Or a stupid one." Keith's fist clenched on his blanket. "Why would he just doom us all like that?! The rest of the crew was killed, as far as I know, and I nearly was! He could've just handed over his cargo!"

A small smile played on Shiro's lips. "Maybe he just refused to ever lose to pirates."

"So he sank two shipfuls of people just for a sense of stubborn pride?!"

Shiro shrugged. "Or maybe he just wanted to be sure that those pirates couldn't prey on anyone else ever again. Maybe he was protecting future ships."

"It's stupid. I spent nearly a week out on the ocean, starving and dying of thirst and heatstroke because of him."

Shiro shook his head. "I get it, if it was the second option. Wanting to keep people safe. I was on a navy ship. Pirate attack. Whole crew- dead or captured. Cargo taken. Ship captured. I'm the only one who got away. If I could blow up that ship, sacrificing myself in the process, to save other ships from them? I would. I would for most pirate ships."

"Oh." Keith was silent for a moment. "Do you have a big pirate problem here?"

Shiro shrugged. "Occasionally one will show up, get drunk, reveal himself and get a rope around his neck for his trouble. And who knows? We might get pirate ships in harbor, but we can't tell, and as long as they behave, pay their fees and not get drunk, how are we going to catch them? But we don't get raids, no." He glanced at Keith, whose face had gone pale. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Is- is being a pirate immediately a hanging?"

Shiro shrugged. "I suppose so. They might get a trial, but I doubt it's fair. The more of them at the gallows the better is the general town feeling."

"Oh. Is- is that your feeling?"

Shiro's steel-grey eyes met Keith's purple ones. "If I found a pirate, I'd turn him in," he said firmly, and Keith nodded. He looked a little... sad, Shiro thought. A little haunted. And a little scared. Shiro smiled at him.

"Let's not talk about it, okay? You know how to mend nets?"

Keith nodded and took one, his hands working deftly. The hole in the net quickly disappeared. Shiro eyed it appreciatively.

"You did this kind of thing?"

Keith shrugged. "I was a swabbie. I did a lot of things." His nose crinkled. "Typically the jobs no one else wanted to do."

Shiro made a face. He knew how that was. "Navy for five years before we were sunk by pirates. It was decent pay. Relatively neat."

Keith chuckled. "Merchant ships... not as much."

There was a knocking on the door, and Shiro opened it to a young girl, in a nice purple and white dress but no shoes. She was holding a dainty pair of high-heeled boots in her hand, as if she'd taken them off to run. "Matt and Dad need your help today," she told him breathlessly, "Dad's back is giving him problems again."

Shiro smiled at her. "Sure, Katie. I'll be right there. How's your job?"

"Oh, well, you know. Bit annoying. Don't see why I have to dress like this in order to help out a lady. Gotta dash anyway, speaking of that job. Gonna be late if I don't get moving."

She ran back across the sand, picking up her skirts and sprinting towards town. Shiro gave Keith a small smile.

"I'll be back. You just stick around the beach. I should be back around sunset-ish."

Keith nodded. Shiro gave him another smile and left. Keith paced the cottage, restless, then went out onto the beach. He wandered along the coastline, looking into the ocean for any sign of- nah. That couldn't have been real. The merman had been a figment of his imagination. Right?

"Hey! You!"

Keith turned around to see a man, waving frantically. "Yes?"

"You know how to get to the nearest town? We're a bit lost."

Keith nodded. "We?"

The man jammed his thumb up towards the cliffs. "My caravan. We're a traveling circus, see. Best collection of oddities."

"But no maps?"

The man let out a short laugh. "It appears not."

"I can get you to town."

"Good lad."

Keith scrambled up the paths that led to the top of the cliffs, the man not far behind him. He brought them to the road, which wasn't far, but was hard to see through the vegetation.

"There."

"Thank you. I'd like to show you something. Come here, come here. Don't be shy. You live by the sea, yes? You'll find this interesting, then."

Keith followed the man, his curiosity outweighing his caution. The man pulled a tarp off of a wagon, and Keith stepped back in shock. It hadn't been a hallucination after all.

Mermaids- or mermen- were real.