Vincents P.O.V
The waves were crashing over me as I struggled to get to the surface for breath. Lungs burning I bobbed to the top, getting a quick glance at my surroundings. There was a person just of the the right, treading water as if it was simplest thing to do.
"Help.... I cant... I cant swim...!" I gasp out, in between the waves sloshing me around side to side.
"What? You passed your middle school swimming test, right?" He asked, trying to keep me in his view as i was being tossed around the open sea.
"Well... yes and no!" I shouted back, suddenly feeling guilty along with desperate.
"What? How can it be both?" He asked confused.
"I cheated!" I screamed out, feeling like this was some sort of divine punishment to prove to me that cheating was bad.
"How can you cheat?"
"I stood right on the drop from shallow end and pretended to tread water!"
"So... you cheated?" It seemed like it was hard to understand this.
"Yes! I cheated!"
I watched as he started to look nervous. He glanced back at the ship that was nearly beneath the waves, the ship we used to be on.
"Try to grab onto something!"
"Like what?!"
"Anything!" He said as he was glancing around. He must have found something because he started swimming in that direction.
"Wait! Don't leave me!" I shouted. Trying to follow him which really wasn't much more than me thrashing in the water a few moments before I realized it was making me sink faster.
"I'm not! I'm getting you a board for you to use! Relax and try to tread water! " He shouted back at me, and I could tell that he was getting farther away from me.
"How?!" I shouted towards him, not unable to see him at all and getting more panicky as the minutes ticked by.
"Just try! Figure eight hands! Im almost at the board now, ok?"
I sat there like a duck on water, sinking and desperately kicking back up to the surface before sinking down again. I was wearing myself out quickly, to quickly.
"AH!" I heard the guy cry out.
"What?! What happened?!" I shouted, desperate to make sure that the person who was trying to save me was alright.
"Nothing, just pricked myself on this board. I'm heading back now, ok?"
"Please hurry.... Please... Please!" It was becoming a lot harder for me to try to stay above the water level. I had worn myself out to quickly. I look over and I can see him coming towards me, but thats not all I see. There was a distinct fin right behind him, following him.
"I'm coming! Just try to last a little bit longer ok?" He shouted back to me, almost to me at this point.
"N-no... theres...!" I was trying to stay above the water to let him know about the danger that was approaching him from behind.
"What? I'm just bringing a board for you. See?" He told me, completely oblivious to the danger lurking directly behind him.
"S-s-SHARK!" I shout right as he's pulled under the water, disappearing from my sight.
I wait there in anticipation, scared out of my mind as I try to stay above the water myself. I held my breath and waited for him to come back to the surface. Finally he popped up and I let out the breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding. He was gasping and splashing and I noticed that red had started to stain the water. My face paled as he was pulled under yet again.
"OH MY GOD! HELP! SOMEONE!" I scream, hoping someone will hear me and come save this guy from a fate that shouldn't be his own. I lost all the calm that I had, and with another wave I sunk beneath the waves, trying to kick towards the surface but knowing that I was to tired.
Its funny how peaceful it is when you've excepted the fact that your going to die.
~
Geneva's POV
I had a small break from my duties at the castle, so I was making all the use I could of it. I swear, that place was so crowded and stuffy that even the elders fled in fear after the first few hours of it. Anyways, I had decided to take a swim seeing that there really wasn't much else to do when your the crown prince of the merpeople and are banned from land for a month. If you ask me, its a polite way for my father to ground me without the whole kingdom knowing that I had done something wrong.
Had to trust your king-to-be.
I was swimming along when I smell the scent of human blood tainting the salt water. Licking my lips I swam towards the spot only to see that a shark had already claimed dibs on the delicious meal, and while I was hungry I wasn't about to battle the shark for the meal. About to turn away I notice a figure sinking through the cloud of red, as if its a angel descending from the heavens.
I swam closer, my body on autopilot. It was a human. A male human. He was loosing his air fast and I watched as he lost his consciousness, the air bubble stream from his mouth ending. Out of no where I feel the need to save him, so I hook my arms under his armpits and swim towards the surface as fast as I can.
When I get to the top I look around for anything i could put him on top of so i could rest. I see a plank a ways away and lay him on that when I notice that he isn't breathing. I panic and do the first thing that I can think of: mouth to mouth. Suddenly he starts to cough up the water that was in his lungs.
"Huh...? What just..?" he groans out, looking around with blurry eyes.
"Can you breath ok?" I ask this beautiful human hesitantly
"What..? Oh... I guess... pretty well.." He responded, gasping a little, but otherwise breathing was normal.
"Ok..." I respond to him, the shock of what I just did started to disappear. Oh wow. I'm going to be in so much trouble. Humans are food, not friends. You don't talk to them, much less save their lives! I thought about leaving him here but as quickly as the thought came into my head, something pushed it aside.
"Oh god... Oh god... We're both gunna die." He whimpers, starting to cry and looking around for anywhere to go to.
"Ah! N-no, we'll be fine! I can bring you back where I live-" Then I remembered that he couldn't breath underwater and that its highly illegal. "Um... Never mind, I think thats out of the question." I immediately start looking for a island or land anywhere near us, but I see nothing.
"Your place... Is probably to far away.. anyways..." He says with his teeth chattering and tears in his eyes. He's getting to cold.
I get closer to him, feeling the need to keep him warm and comfortable. I hesitantly put my arms around him, awkwardly holding him in my arms. I watch as his eyelids get heavier and his blinks start to take longer. Slowly, this beautiful creature falls asleep, cuddled close to me in my arms.
"Geneva! Your dads looking for you- who's that?" My best friend and the clans best tracker, Theadit asks, taking me by surprise.
"Ahh! How long have you been there?!" I cry out, turning around to look at him, nearly dropping the boy in the process.
"Only a few seconds." He teased me. "Anyways, who is he?"
"Ahhhh..." I tried stalling, but I know he would find out eventually so I let out a long sigh and answer his question. "A human. Please don't tell my father! I know that no one is supposed to do anything with them!" I told him quickly, begging him with my eyes.
"They're to eat, Geneva! Why are you saving him?!" Theadit practically screamed at me, looking at me like I had lost my mind.
"I don't know! I felt like I couldn't eat him!" I yelled back, matching his tone, confused by myself at why I couldn't eat him.
"Then give him to me! I can eat him!"
"NO!" I responded back, a little to loud and a little to quickly.
"Why not? He looks absolutely delicious." Theadit asks me with a raised eyebrow.
"Umm... its hard to explain but... I just feel a type of attraction to him... like impulses to help him..."
"Do you think he could be one of your Drei?" He asked me with wide eyes.
"I don't know! Maybe, maybe not!" I tried to defend myself, human Drei's are unheard of.
"Well how are we supposed to figure out if he is or not?"
"Lets just bring him back to your place."
"Have you forgotten? He cant breath underwater!"
"I meant your land home."
"Oh.... Might as well..." I told him, a little upset at how this boy had me so frazzled.
"Then lets head out. We can go faster is we both hold onto him." Theadit told me while reaching out to try to help me hold onto him.
I hesitantly let Theadit hook his arm through the boys and pull gently so he was in between us. I watched as Theadit bit down hard on his cheek and panic went through my brain at the thought of him getting the urge to eat this boy. Still, he started to swim off towards the direction of my land home. I matched his pace and we swam in silence for a while.
"Sorry that I'm making you do this." I apologized, no longer able to handle the silence between the two of us.
"Don't worry, I know that you owe me." He teased me, turning towards me, sticking out his tongue.
"Yeah, I already knew as soon as I saw you." I stuck my tongue out at him too.
"You know you love me." He teased more.
"Suuureeee I do." I told him with sarcastic, playfulness in my tone. "I totally love you."
At this point Theadit was laughing, I was smiling, and the mood had improved greatly, much to everyones relief. We both saw my island coming into view, my huge land home in the middle of it. We set the kid down on the shore and drag ourselves out of the water to let our fins change into legs.
"Ta-da! Safe and sound!" Theadid suddenly shouts, making me laugh a bit as my legs finished changing.
Then we heard a noise behind us. Little groans and occasional whimpers. Then a tired voice asking:
"How... How are we.... On land?"
"Ummm.... we brought you to shore after you fell asleep." I said quickly, trying to make up something that sounded reasonable enough that it made sense.
"Oh..." The boy rubbed his eyes and you could tell by looking at him that he was concentrating on becoming stable once again. He glanced around, and when his gaze fell on us and he blushed a small amount and looked away quickly.
"Whats wrong?" I ask curiously.
"W-well... Why don't you guys have clothes on?" He asked quietly and in a hurry as we lifted him up onto his feet and started walking towards the house in the center of the island.
"Oh... Um..." I tried to think of a answer quickly as I had forgotten that humans found it weird to be naked in front of others. Thankfully Theadit spoke quickly in my place.
"Its freezing. We didn't want to get hypothermia. We just thought you would freak out if we stripped you too." He spoke confidently, covering up the lie perfectly as the boy simply nodded his head in agreement.
"We can get a new change of clothes in there" I pointed up towards the giant house we were coming up upon.
"Thats..... Thats a huge house..." He stated, shivering badly, shakes rocking through his whole body till he was like a leaf in a windstorm.
"Its a vacation home. Come on, we should get you in soon." I helped him in through the doorway since Theadit was already in the house heading towards the bathroom.
"We should put him in a luke-warm bath. He looks like he's getting hypothermia." Theadit shouted back at me, entering the bathroom and I hear the sound of water running soon fill the silent house.
"Yeah. We should do that." I said, nodding more to myself as I watched the stumbling boy try to walk on his own.
"W-wait.... Lets n-not..." The boy said hastily, and it was clear that he was very self conscious and wary about being naked in front of two strangers.
"Its ok. You don't have to change in front of us. We'll just give you some clothes to use after the bath." I told him, trying to calm down his heartbeat while leading him towards the bathroom.
"Really?" He asked quietly and I nodded my head to reassure him.
We entered the bathroom only to see that Theadit had the water drawn and a towel set out. The room had a thin layer of steam in the air that the boy flinched at. His skin was pale and his lips were lost of the original rosy color I had seen when I first met him.
"Whats your name?" The boy suddenly asked, looking at me expectantly.
"My names Geneva. Thats my friend Theadit."
I nodded my head towards Theadit who gave a half hearted wave to acknowledge I was talking about him, not that I could really be talking about anyone else in this moment. I looked over to the boy only to see him nodding slowly, absorbing the information.
"What about you?" I asked him, who was glazed out staring at the water.
"Huh?" He asked, looking back over to me, snapping out of his thoughts.
"Whats your name?" I asked again, curious to see if it would give me the reaction the way a Drei's name would.
"O-oh... its Vincent."