Raephier woke up in what he decided was his new favourite way. With a kiss from Jacob.
He hummed in contentment and tried to pull Jacob closer but something got in the way. Raephier finally opened his eyes to see that Jacob was already fully dressed.
"What time is it?" he asked Jacob.
"Time for you to do your thing," Jacob said with a smile, before kissing Raephier again.
Raephier let himself lean into the kiss for a second before Jacob's words finally filtered into his brain, which made him pull back in alarm.
"What?! We're there already?!"
"Yes, look," Jacob said, as he pointed to the small round window with a sparkle in his eyes.
Raephier scrambled out of bed and shot over to the window. Sure enough, there on the horizon was one of the most astonishing and beautiful sights Raephier had ever seen. The island looked like it had risen out of the water, almost like it had been sculpted that way by giants. Raephier had seen cliffs before. But they were never brilliant white. The sun was bright in the sky and the reflection off the cliffs was almost dazzling.
"Wow," Raephier breathed out.
"I know, she's beautiful, isn't she?"
Raephier giggled at Jacob's use of the word 'she' but didn't say anything. He was still too mesmerised at the sight and overwhelmed that he was finally looking at the place that Jacob called home.
"Come on," Jacob said, gently squeezing Raephier's shoulder. "Let's get some food in you before we reach the estuary."
For the first time since they'd set off, Raephier felt a flutter of nerves in his stomach. Everything had gone smoothly with their journey up to this point, and Raephier really didn't want to be the one who let them down.
He tried his best not to think about it as Pete handed him some soup and biscuits.
The night before, Jacob had gone through a set of hand signals that Raephier could use from the water to communicate with the ship. As he ate, he went over the signals in his head again, just to make sure he could still remember them all.
"We're coming up to Finkles's point now," Pete said, coming over to the table where Raephier and Jacob sat.
Raephier pushed the remainder of his soup towards Jacob.
"Can you finish this? It's not great to do heavy swimming on a full stomach."
This wasn't exactly the true reason why he hadn't finished, but Raephier didn't want Jacob to know how nervous he was.
Jacob nodded, but just pushed the soup to one side, before getting up and pulling Raephier with him.
Once they were on the deck, away from prying eyes, Jacob took hold of both of Raephier's hands so he was facing him.
"Are you sure you're ok doing this?" he asked.
It made Raephier's heart glow on hearing the gentle concern in Jacob's voice.
"Of course I am," Raephier replied. "I just don't want anything to go wrong."
Raephier saw Jacob looking at something over his shoulder and turned to see Lyle, James and Pete stood waiting for them.
"Well I guess this is it then," Raephier said, taking a deep breath and turning back to Jacob with what he hoped looked like a confident smile.
Jacob stared into Raephier's eyes with such intensity that Raephier had to focus on keeping his knees from shaking.
Jacob leaned in and gave Raephier a slow kiss before pulling back slightly and connecting their foreheads.
"I love...." Jacob paused and Raephier held his breath. "I love that you're doing this for us. Please be safe," he continued before he gave Raephier one last kiss to his forehead.
Raepheir tried his best not to be disappointed, but he felt as though his smile was forced. Technically Jacob had said the L-word to him before, but that was under the influence of other things.
He didn't really have much time to dwell on it though as Pete came over and started pointing at features on the coastline, and directing him to which were the most likely routes.
It felt like just a minute later that Raephier was lowering his naked body into the water. It was a really weird feeling when his body changed. The first thing he noticed was the rise in his body's temperature. When he first got into the water, his whole body shivered with cold, but within seconds it was like the water around him turned warm. The next was the tail. He could only describe it as feeling as though someone had tied his legs together, but then with just a couple of swishes, it felt natural to him again.
Raephier dived down into the water and for a brief moment he forgot what it was he was here to do. He was totally distracted by the memories that came flooding back to him, the feel of the water pushing past his body, the freedom of movement. He suddenly remembered how limiting it had felt when he was first on land, only being able to move around on one level. Out here in the sea, he could move any way he wanted.
He dived down until he found the ocean floor and then tore upwards towards the light, breaking free of the surface and leaping through the air like a dolphin before diving back down.
He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. He'd missed this.
It was only on about his fifth leap that something caught his eye in his peripheral vision and he suddenly remembered the task at hand. The shell had been removed and the ship was now visible. This was necessary for Raephier to be able to guide it, but it also meant that it was visible to any enemy boats that were patrolling.
He quickly surfaced, feeling a little embarrassed and swam over to the ship where he could see all the sailors staring at him from over the side.
"ARE YOU OK?" Jacob shouted down.
"YES! SORRY I WAS JUST GETTING USED TO THE TAIL AGAIN," Raephier shouted back.
He saw Jacob laughing and felt the sudden urge to show him what else he could do in the water.
"ARE YOU READY?" Pete shoued.
"AS MUCH AS I'LL EVER BE," Raephier replied, then with one last wave he dived into the water heading for the coast line.
It wasn't long before Raephier could see what they had been talking about. What looked like deep water was actually full of rocks and boulders as big as the ship itself.
Raephier worked as quickly as possible, scanning the sea bed and finding a route in. It was kind of like trying to solve a maze. He'd think he'd found a good route for the ship to take, only to then come across a large boulder blocking the way.
Eventually Raephier was sure he had found the best route so he surfaced and began signalling to the ship. Before long Raephier was entering the estuary with Jacob's ship right on his tail.
It was a weird feeling, swimming this close to land. As a merman, Raephier had been taught to avoid land at all costs. So actually going past the border between where the land met the sea was like crossing a mental barrier or resistance. It would have probably been even harder to Raephier if he wasn't putting all his concentration into guiding the ship.
The further up the estuary they went, the narrower the margin for error. Raephier did his best to guide the ship, but there was only so much control Jacob had over a ship that was powered by the wind.
There had been a few sticky moments when the ship scraped across a rock, but no significant damage was done.
When a small port came into view, Raephier heard the sound of cheers coming from the deck.
The estuary suddenly widened out again and there was a clear route for the ship into the harbour.
Reaphier swam towards the shore but stopped when he saw small figures beginning to line the harbour wall. His instincts kicked in immediately, and he dived down to the safety of the sea bed.
It suddenly occurred to Raephier that they had never discussed this part. They had all been so focussed on getting the ship safely up the estuary that they had never discussed what happened after that. He couldn't exactly swim to shore and risk being spotted. Just because he trusted Jacob and his men with his secret, didn't mean he wanted anyone else to find out. What if they were disgusted by him, or worse, sent him back into slavery?
It also wasn't like he could swim further down the coast and try to get out of the water unseen, because even though his tail would disappear as soon as it was on land, he would also be very much naked, which he had learnt quite quickly, was unacceptable if you were an adult human.
But curiosity soon got the better of him, and Raephier slowly swam to the surface. He made sure to stay away from Jacob's ship, assuming that all eyes would be on that, and surfaced near a small rocky outcrop just a short distance from the harbour wall.
He was close enough from here that he could see the faces of the people on the shore and hear some of what they said. The thing that was most evident was the excitement on the faces of these people. Some of them were laughing and cheering, others were crying, but it looked like tears of happiness and relief.
The Flying Bounty slowly and majestically drifted into the harbour. The people were clapping now, and there were definitely more of them than there were a moment ago.
"JACOB!!" came a shout from on land. Raephier quickly scanned the crowd to see who had shouted.
"DAVID!!" he heard Jacob holler back.
Raephier's gaze zoned in on a man with the same colour hair as Jacob. He looked slightly older, but he definitely shared a resemblance. A brother maybe? Had he mentioned a brother?
Raephier felt a funny unsettling feeling pool in his stomach. This was totally foreign to him. He'd had a similar sort of feeling the first time he went onto land. Like he didn't belong there.
There were more shouts between Jacob's men and the people on the shore. It was hard to separate one voice from the other, but it was like no one could even wait the few minutes it would take to moor the ship before they spoke to one another.
Finally the ship docked and Raephier heard the gangplank being slid across onto the harbour wall. And then there was a flurry of movement as the men poured off the ship and launched themselves into the arms of their loved ones.
It was such a beautiful sight that Raephier felt tears trickling down his face. But even though he was so happy for Jacob and the other men he'd grown fond of, the overwhelming emotion he was feeling was a lot less positive. It was an emotion that he'd grown used to feeling over the years. It was the feeling of being alone.
Watching the families reunite, he couldn't help but think of his own at home. What kind of reception would he receive if he were to go home? Would his mum throw her arms around him? Would they clap and cheer?
Raephier knew the answers to those questions and it left a sour taste in his mouth.
All the while his eyes were scanning the harbour looking for one particular face. Eventually he found him. He was standing with the man he'd picked out earlier - David? And there were two young children now at David's feet, staring at Jacob with wide eyes. Raephier watched as Jacob bent down so he was on their level and began to talk to them. They both looked shy, but even from here Raephier could see that Jacob had said something that made them smile.
Then another woman approached them. She had long blond hair that was swept up into a knot at the back. The smallest of the two children ran across to her and she scooped the child up before giving Jacob a one armed hug while he kissed her gently on the cheek. David then went over and wrapped his arm around the woman. The picture was one of a perfect family.
The woman then started waving someone else over. Another woman. This one looked younger. Even from here Raephier could tell she was very pretty. Her hair was much more styled than David's partner. It was glossy and dark and was pinned up in elegant curls, with some left to dangle over her soft looking skin.
It didn't look like Jacob knew her particularly well, but he reached out and took her hand and gave it a small kiss. Raephier had seen this gesture a few times while he was on land, but it still made him feel nervous.
The mass of curls seemed to blush in front of Jacob and was doing her level best to look coy and pretty. Raephier found that he really wanted to look away, but for some reason he couldn't.
Maybe he needed to see this. Maybe this was how things were supposed to be.
More people started joining the mass of bodies on shore and soon the view of Jacob and his happy family reunion was obstructed by other people. By the time these people moved, Jacob and his family were no longer there.
Raephier waited and watched for a while. It might have been minutes, it could have been hours for all he knew. But eventually the people began to leave the harbour wall and disappear out of sight. It was like the land had opened its arms to it's missing brothers and absorbed them back to where they belonged.
Now that there were no longer eyes to observe him, he let himself drift away from his hiding place.
The gentle rise and fall of the waves were surprisingly calming which was fortunate as Raephier was trying to make sense of the torrent of emotions that were now flowing through his body.
He was happy for Jacob and the rest of the men. He was sad that he was out here on his own while they were surrounded by family and friends. He was also scared too. Scared that he was on his own again. Scared that he had no path to follow and for the first time in a long time he had no one telling him what to do. But along with that fear there was also a small dose of excitement. He was free. He no longer had a master. He knew he'd not really had a master since Jacob had relinquished that title a while ago, but it was different now. There were no expectations, no repercussions.
But despite all this, Raephier was still at a loss as to what to do. For the first time in his life, now that he had no one telling him what to do, he desperately needed someone to do just that. Or maybe give him a sign.
Raephier felt a familiar tingle of anxiety sweeping over his body. His breathing felt tight and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He needed to do something. And quick. So he did the only thing he could think of.
He swam.