A/N: Prepare yourselves.
" Hoolan, I really don't think that this is a good Idea." You said as he set you down on the raft he had crafted. It was not a very big raft, only really big enough to fit you. Made of smoothed out tree logs and firmly tied together with vines from the trees. He had spent the last three days crafting it.
Taking the logs and smoothing them himself over the rocks. Picking out the best vines, and checking out its ability to float on the water by making himself heavier than normal, even though he already weighed more than you did. He did this all within eyeshot of you.
After the fiasco with the creature in the crab the other day he has hardly left your side. Only doing so when he gathered food and water, and the stuff to make the raft, and he has been very quick about it, quicker than usual. As if afraid if he was gone for too long then it would come back to hurt you or something.
So it was quite possible that one of the reasons for him building a raft was to help ease his mind. He most likely thought being on the water would ease your mind too. Although it was doing quite the opposite.
Only when he was absolutely certain that it would not sink under pressure did he allow you on it. although, you really did not even want to be on it in the first place.
If anything happened and you fell into the water how would you swim? You guessed Hoolan would catch you in an instant but you still did not want to do this.
It was sad. When you had gotten the notification that you had been one of the six chosen to go down into the first underwater research center you had been ecstatic. It was your dream come true. A young marine scientist off to make history and discover the secrets of the ocean. Of the beautiful animals that called it home.
You never could have guessed what true horrors awaited you in the fathoms beneath the waves. You never would have guessed that sirens and Giant monsters ruled supreme there. That one of them would form an obsession over you and kill your friends to kidnap you and keep you all to himself.
As you were set onto the raft you tensed a bit as it slightly shifted under your weight. You brought your leg in closer too you, wanting to be as far from the sides as possible. You grabbed onto the logs and tying vines as hard as you could. So hard that your knuckles turned white. Even though it was only half in the water.
Hoolan either did not notice your stressed state or did not care. he checked all over the raft again, making sure you were safe on it before looking up and smiling at you.
" The Reef is beautiful Polyp, I want you to see it." He said, his black eyes sparkling like obsidian in the sunlight. His teeth haunting you from his smile, white and pointy. You squirmed a little under his stare.
" Hoolan, I really don't want to do this." You complained, but he waved you off before you could get anything else out.
" It will be good for you Polyp! besides, you can't stay on the mat forever." He said, moving around the raft and onto the beach again. You huffed and looked down at the empty space where your leg had once been.
'You're the fucker that put me on the mat in the first place.' You thought angrily, clenching your hands even tighter on the logs.
" Besides, the idea of swimming with one leg is not very appealing." You said, giving him a stern look. He paused for a second, then looked at you sadly.
" Polyp, if I could give you your leg back I would." He said sadly. You gave him a disbelieving look before turning your head to the side. You heard him sigh before you were swept out of your thoughts by a sort of slurping sound and a thud from behind you. You quickly whipped your head around and found Hoolan laying practically lifeless on the ground.
" H-Hoolan." You whispered out his name, what was wrong with him? That's all you could think to yourself before the raft suddenly started moving. You yelped and looked around frantically. There was not enough wave power for it to have pulled the raft completely off the sand. Plus it was not fallowing the waves, it was going away from the beach steadily.
The cool wind pulled your hair back gently and cold water splashed over the sides of the raft and onto your fingers and leg. Looking around, the water was a light blue, and clear at the same time, clear enough to see the ocean floor if you leaned over enough.
And you did, but only to get a better look at an untied vine that only what you could guess was attached to the thing pulling the raft. You leaned over the raft and looked into the clear waters below. Looking down the vine to its end and seeing a pale figure under the water.
You could not make out a lot because it was under the water, but it was pale, very bulky but swimming very smoothly, and you could barely make out the little black eyes on the front of its head. It was Hoolan. He left the body and was now in another form.
You leaned up and took a look back at the beach. It was a bit of a distance away and the body looked to be the size of a toy soldier now.
You looked back in the direction Hoolan was pulling you in and gasped. You were now above a blooming coral reef with fish and other ocean life everywhere! the coral was bright and vibrant, mostly being a light shade of pink with red, blue, green, and yellow dotted in here and there.
You learned a bit closer to the edge, absolutely mesmerized by the glorious natural painting in front of you. You reached your right hand into the water and felt it swoosh away as you were pulled through the reef. It was cold, but not freezing, and if it was not for your condition you probably would have leaped in.
Hoolan pulled you through little cities of fish and you laughed as they swam away in a flurry. Some even leaping out of the water and flopping onto the raft. You quickly returned them to their home though.
You layed on your side and rested your chin on your arms as gazed lovingly into the waters below. catching sight of hundreds of fish, Starfish, and sea urchins. Watching the Crabs, shrimp, octopi, sea turtles and even a shark that swam close, but seeing the thing pulling you, quickly sped off. oddly enough though, the sea turtles paid Hoolan no mind.
They continued to swim calmly as Hoolan pulled you past them. One breached the surface for air, and you were able to slide your hand over the top of its shell as you passed it. it was smooth and felt like moss over marble. It looked that way too. emerald green and white brown under a thin layer of sea moss.
You watched it dive underneath the water again, then turned back to the sight in front of you to watch the sea life as you were pulled along the surface.
It took you a minute to realize that you had stopped moving. The raft now floated and slightly bobbed on the calm waves over the Reef. You leaned over the edge where Hoolan was, only to find the vine swaying freely in the water. Hoolan nowhere to be found.
You wriggled around to one side to peer over the edge, then to the other. All the while being careful as to not accidentally tip the raft and go sliding into the water.
You screamed as something burst from the water behind you, grabbed you, and pulled you into the cool ocean water. Bubbles floated in your vision as the world around you grew blurry, but the saltwater for some reason did not sting your eyes.
You tried to propel yourself back up with your arms, kicking your leg wildly. Hoolan had you in a strong but gentle grip, however, so you remained in his hold as the two of you sunk deeper into the reef.
Hands very similar to humans cupped both of your cheeks and lifted your face to meet a blurry pale one with black eyes. You stared in shock as what you could make out as tentacles on the things face slowly reached out and lovingly stroked your face.
The thing was no bigger than a big dog. You knew that was on purpose though. When Hoolan told you about himself, he had mentioned just how big his kinds juvenile state was. plus the shadow in the ocean you saw three days ago when Hoolan returned after the crab had left.
The two of you stared at each other for a little bit, before the need to breathe reached you, and he drifted you up to the surface.
- -
You happily bit into a mango as you sat on your mat on the beach. The sun was now going down and the sky was a brilliant shade of pink and orange. The water now being a very deep blue.
You were a little cold as you were still slightly wet, But the crackling fire in front of you helped keep you warm and dry you off. That's right, a fire! Hoolan dug up from the Hawaiian guy's memory how to build one after you requested it. Even though he has never seen a fire in his life.
It took him a little bit, but he finally managed it. Burning himself in the process when he was not careful enough. In the fire at the moment was a couple of clay pots that he had found discarded on the Island. That brought you great comfort, knowing that at least at one point there were people here. Even if they were super old.
He was able to boil some fresh water he found on the island too, so now you were off the Coconut water. In one pot, was some crabs that you had boiling. Hoolan was in the Reef collecting more for the two of you right now.
You wanted to see if they were done but Hoolan said if he came back and saw any sign of burns on you he would never build another fire again, so you did not want to risk it, but it was ok, he would be back within moments.
You took another bite of your mango, loving the sweet flavor and licking the juices off of your hand. A splash from the beach grabbed your attention and you looked up. About 30 feet to your right Hoolan emerged from the water, a hand holding a sack no doubt filled with crabs. You wondered where he got the cloth from but that was soon answered to you.
He walked all the way out of the water and you saw that he was... BUCK ASS NAKED!!! His trousers were missing and la de da! you realized where he got the cloth from. The mango dropped from your hands in shock and rolled away from you as it collected sand.
You stared wide-eyed at his dark figure as he approached the fire. our mind screamed at you to turn away but you were just too dumbfounded. Only when he got into the light of the fire and you saw a glimpse of the manly area did you snap your head back to the direction of the fire, hand still upholding a phantom mango and a blush spreading furiously across your face.
You heard his footsteps coming closer until they were right next to you, but you refused to look up. You heard the clanking as he dumped the crabs into the pot, and felt a little bump from his knee as he sat down next to you.
" What's wrong Polyp? You look as if you've seen a Goblin Shark," he asked slyly. You knew that he was teasing you, knowing full well why you were so flustered.
" Why did you take your pants off." You asked while avoiding looking in his direction. You heard him stand up and walk around the fire.
" Clothing is such a hassle. I don't know why you bother with it." He said slowly and he layed down on his stomach across from you on the other side of the fire.
The orange glow lighting up his dark tanned body and highlighting all the muscles and curves. You quickly brought your hands up to cover your eyes with a squeal. He was trying to be seductive.
You had always known you would see plenty of mortifying moments. But a Horny sea monster definitely took the top of the list.
To your relief though, he made no more advancements and instead, just stared at you lovingly until the crabs were done. Then he got them out for the two of you to eat. when they cooled off of course.
He sat next to you again as you cracked open the shell to get to the meat. Hoolan, not even bothering to crack the shell, just took a bite out of the whole thing. You could hear the crunching and grinding as he chewed. After a minute of silence, you decided to break it and begin a small chat.
" So, for some reason today, when you dragged me into the water, the saltwater didn't hurt my eyes." You said to him, trying to make small talk.
" Probably leftover traces of my venom still in you." He replied after a minute. " My kind's venom can sometimes give slight aquatic life attributes." He continued. You could believe that, after all, you remembered when you fell through the opening in the cave and you did not feel the pressure of the entire ocean on you. That was shortly after Hoolan had injected you with venom after he had taken you from the base.
You moved on to another thing you had been wondering about for a while.
" Hoolan... have you ever... taken control over someone while they still were alive." You asked, looking over at him and ignoring his nakedness. He looked at you as well and shook his head.
" No, I don't want to deal with keeping their conscious detained. But I can imagine the benefits. They would be easier to maintain and heal if they got injured."
" You can heal them if they get injured? But if you have never done that then how do you know?" you asked. He shrugged.
" It's just common knowledge among my kind." He replied plainly. You continued with the questions.
" How much could you heal a person?" You asked? He thought for a minute before replying.
" Quite a bit from what I have heard." He said. " when we are inside them, we can use our own healing abilities to help heal our vessel, to an extent I would..." He suddenly trailed off. A Look of deep thought crossing his features.
" Hoolan? are you ok?" you asked, leaning forward a bit. But that concentrated look remained on his face for a good few minutes. You looked at him in confusion before going back to your crab for another bite. Instead, yelping when he gasped suddenly and snatched your shoulders in an iron grip, looking into your eyes excitedly.
" Y/N! maybe I can give you your leg back!"