Chapter Text
Chapter One
A few weeks ago you were called in to a small town off the East coast with a bit of a mer problem. It was nothing too serious, at least to you. Just some property damage and a few scared locals. And maybe a scarred one, but any time there were mer and no one had lost their life, then you felt like that was a win for the area. Usually you would promote having the mer relocated somewhere further down the coastline or to an unpopulated island. Most mer were welcoming of the change once the relocation was completed, but it all matter on what the people who hired you wanted. And this ray of sunshine wanted the mer gone. Apparently the mer sunk a very pricey boat, completely damaging it to beyond use. They wanted to use the mer’s head as a mantle piece. It was a little morbid, but the pay was enough to make you not think twice before accepting.
When you first arrived in the area, you were quick to talk to the locals and have someone guide you through the water channels where the sea met the rivers. You knew where the beast liked to roam before the end of the first day. You knew who his regular targets were before the second day ended. By the time the second day ended, you found out that the town had quiet a few ‘disappearances’. Too many for your liking.
You knew what he looked like before the sunset on the third day. He was large. He was at least three times your length with teeth that could rip into you as easily as a hot knife in warm butter. His colors were vibrant and pulsated in almost a hypnotic way. You understood why the locals named him Sun with how some fins framed his face, drawing attention to piercing blue eyes. He had thin white slits that widen when he saw you, much like a cats on toy. He looked nearly as curious as you were, but drew back when your hand strayed towards your harpoon gun. After that day, your encounters were daily.
It was like he knew the moment you were close to water. It made it hard for you to set up traps, but you were clever. You’ve had dealings like this before. You just had to grab his attention elsewhere. At the expense of a few used shirts by putting them down stream from where you planned to set up your traps, you were able to keep his watchful eyes off of you for some time, but he grew smart of you. You soon had to set up several sent traps just to keep him away from your main trap.
He was a fast beast. There was a reason why you tried to stick to land. Before you had your tricks you tried to set up a basic net through the waters. You barely had warning before his attack. You had spotted his golden dorsal fin as he sped through the water. The rental boat had no chance as he tore through the side and capsized the boat, along with you on it. The moment you had hit the water you only had seconds to react.
Your knife was pulled out and you were wildly looking about for him. Thankfully his attention was on the net, tearing it apart as if it were paper. You wasted no time getting onto land before he could turn that attention onto you. If you were a second slower, you knew you wouldn’t have made it out of the water because the moment you turned back towards the river, your eyes locked onto his. He was mere feet away and even with a knife in your hand, you didn’t feel safe enough to be that close. He could easily pounce out of the water and pull you back into its depths and no one would be able to stop him. Sure, you would have been able to land a blow or two, that you were certain of, but he would surely win.
And so you waited for him to make the first move. It felt like eternity of him staring at you before he finally ducked under the water and swam away. You didn’t relax until you were sure he was gone. That day, you had a lot to clean up. From then, you stayed out of the water as much as you could. You stayed by the edge, building traps that would capture normal mer, but he was no normal mer. You could tell he took great delight in your traps. Most of his attention the past few weeks was on your traps instead of the townsfolk. It was like a game to him. Sometimes he was gentle with your creations, other times he like to make a spectacle of it. Like today.
“Clever,” you whispered to yourself as your eyes roamed over the destroyed trap. He was good. He took apart the trap in ways that you were sure it would be near impossible to put back together or at least it would take you days if not weeks to fix. And you didn’t even hear him do it. Sometimes he would make the destruction load and obvious, as if he were boasting about it, and others he silently took it apart, allowing you to find its destruction days later, but he was always there when you found the broken trap. Even now, you could feel his eyes on you.
You turned to meet his eyes, posed to move if he made a leap at you like he had done before. Thankfully, he had never caught you, but you knew if he did, you would become another ‘disappearance’.
The kind folk around here were getting a little tired of waiting on you to finish the job. Normally a job like this would take you a week, two weeks tops, but you were on week three with nothing to show for it. You were an expensive distraction at best for the beast. Part of that, you decided, was probably on your reluctance to kill him. But you had a job to do.
You didn’t know who was more surprised when you pulled out your harpoon gun and aimed it at him, but it was definitely him when you pulled the trigger for the first time after several threats. He was barely able to dive out of the way quick enough, but it left him distracted enough not to see you cut a rope to a canopy net that dropped down over him, sinking quickly around him with its lead weights. His surprised screams was the first noise you’ve ever drawn from him and they pulled at something within you, but you ignored it. Thinking would only get you into trouble.
With knife in hand and a small breathing apparatus, you jumped into the waters after him. The river wasn’t too deep, maybe 20ft or maybe 30ft, but you came upon him quickly, watching as he battled with the net. He was panicking. Normally you would have expected him to make his way out before you even touched the water, but he looked every bit a trapped fish. It was hard for him to tear through the netting that had razor wires in it and the weights made it tie tightly around him with each struggle. The wires sliced into his scales as he moved and would easily go deeper if he moved too much. The water around him already had tinges of red.
When you swam up on him, he stilled for a moment, shock evident on his face again before he lashed out at you with his clawed hand. He had every intent to kill you, if the way his eyes narrowed at you meant anything. But he couldn’t. The more he moved, the more the net twisted around him and the further he sank. You could easily leave him here to die on his own. He would make quick work of himself. But that didn’t feel right. You couldn’t leave him to die such a horrid death. Plus, no head meant no check.
The closer you got to him, the further he pushed himself against the rock bed. You grasped the netting around his chest and pulled yourself closer to him. He still at that, his eyes roaming around you. It would be easy. You can take the knife to his neck and give a clean, deep cut. He’d bleed out quickly, nearly painlessly. It’ll take you maybe five minutes to finish the job. An hour after that to get your check and then you could be spending the rest of the month back home in your own bed without having to hunt for several months if you were wise.
So why was it that your knife was hooked around the wires instead?
Cutting through the first wire was nothing. It was quickly followed by the rope and another cut, then another, then another. You were making your way down his body. A body you injured and had planned to end just moments ago. A body you still planned to end, right?
You were most of the way through the ropes when a clawed hand knocked away your knife and grabbed you by your clothed chest before slamming you onto the rocky floor bed. The impact was enough for you to lose hold of your breathing apparatus and most of the air in your lungs. Pain splintered up your back and you didn’t have time to worry about the amount of bruising you’d have as rows of sharp teeth were bared in your face.
Shit. Shit. SHIT.
You twisted against his hold, pushing against his wrist, but he held firm. His mouth moved, but instead of biting like you were bracing yourself for, it looked like he was talking to you. Very angrily. You weren’t knowledgeable in mer speak, but the way he gestured at you was enough to know that you fucked up.
You should have just killed him. You wouldn’t be held down in the bottom of the river, moments away from drowning and becoming fish food!
His hand slammed next to your head hard enough to crack some of the rocks. It was enough to make you lose what air that was left in you and sucking in a large amount of river water. Your vision was quickly blurring and it was becoming harder not to breathe in more of the water around you, but the way your chest burned, it was hard to do anything at all. As you were about to black out, you could feel the water rush around you and your back slam onto the river bank. You choked in air, curling onto your side as you struggle to breathe in and simultaneously cough up water. It was a living hell. Everything in you burned and nothing you could do would stop it. Everything felt like knives in you. It was easily one of the worst feelings you’ve ever had the displeasure to feel.
Warm hands grabbed your shoulder and forced you on your back. Even with your vision blurred, you could make out Sun’s bright blue eyes. His hands ran frantically over your face, brushing back your hair and moving over your throat as if looking for something. You couldn’t even force anything out before he grasped you by the sides of your head and brought his face towards yours. No fear went through you, you were confused a bit, but your need for air out weighed any thought process. That was until his mouth pressed against yours and air was forced into you.
Your whole body stilled in shock. He kept gently forcing cool air into you at an even pace and for some reason it helped. There was no reasonable explanation that this should even remotely work, but here you were with a fish breathing for you in some kind of messed up CPR. You didn’t dare move, not even when he pulled away, eyes darting over your face as he ran his fingers through your hair.
“O-kay?” he asked, a little forced as if he wasn’t used to speaking. Which he probably wasn’t, most mer didn’t bother with human language, but here he was, speaking to you of all people.
All you could do was nod, watching with amazement as he smiled down at you. And then, for a reason you have no idea what it could be, he rubbed his face against yours, murping some words beyond your understanding. His body was curled up onto yours at some point, probably being what was keeping you still. You didn’t move, just in case his mood changed again. One moment he was about to kill you, the next he saved you. It would be funny if it wasn’t so ironic.
You had no idea how long you two stayed like this, but he didn’t move until a musical call filled the air. He darted up, looking back towards the water. That’s when you noticed how the sun was nearly set. He looked between you and the water before giving you a small, yet so human, wave before he slid into the water and was gone before the ripples stopped. You stared at the water until it turned dark, sure that he was long gone by then, but your mind was still reeling with what had just transpired.
You dropped your head into your hands, rubbing your tired face and tried your best to slowly breath in and out. You were tired and sweaty and probably dehydrated. At that thought, you licked your chapped lips. “What the fuck,” you whined. You could still taste him. The salt of his mouth bloomed across your tongue in ways that sent your heart into a panic and had you screaming into your hands hours later.