Chapter Text
The death of your father was heavy on your heart. The last mote of family you had left, at least the last that was close. Your distant family was just that. Distant. In both physical and emotional meanings. Your father had been a successful fish monger, owning a number of fishing rigs and selling all that he and his employees caught all over the world. He had accumulated a small fortune. A fortune that had been willed out to you. Whilst his close business partner took the reins on the fishing business, you were given all the money that he had made and a share of the sales that the business continued to make from then on. He had ensured that you would be able to live in the lap of luxury if you so chose to. But instead, you chose a simpler life.
When he was still alive, you had told your father that you had wanted to be a landscape painter. Whilst he had hoped you’d want to take his place, he still supported your desire, buying you all that you needed to follow your dream. You had practiced and practiced, even managing to sell a few pieces. He had been proud of you for finding your path in life.
But, then he died. That rock you had built your foundation on had crumbled, turned to sand beneath you. It had taken you a while to recover from the rubble of your emotions. Your paintings were a reflection of that as you had started to paint without colour. White, gray and black were all that you saw and all that others were shown. It was until you started to see sales plummet that you finally realized what had become of your work, your art. Paint and canvases weren’t getting any cheaper. You needed a change in scenery. A new landscape to discover, to immortalize in brush strokes. You had been looking for a new home anyway. One listing had the potential to revitalize your muse. A beach side cottage. You’d rarely painted the ocean, this would be the perfect opportunity to paint it more often. And, considering the location and property size, it was a steal of a price.
_ _ _
A few weeks later, you arrived at the cottage with a team of movers. The place looked a little rough around the edges, nothing you couldn’t handle on your own. It was stable and was leak free, that is what mattered at that moment as the movers started to haul your furniture into the old place. You aided them in placement, having visited the place often to figure out a good layout in your head. It was quick and clean, no mistakes and no damaged furniture. After paying the movers and thanking them for their service, you finally had the chance to admire your new home. The somewhat fancier furniture felt a little out of place in an old cottage like this but you were confident that that feeling would fade as you adjusted to the new surroundings.
Taking a deep breath, you could smell the ocean just outside, the scent having permeated the walls over the course of years. It was salty and, for you, nostalgic as your father would often come home smelling of the briny sea. It made you feel warm in your chest yet also cold as one last tear from your mourning heart trickled down your cheek. Looking to the painting on the floor next to the door, you leaned down and picked it up. You had asked for the movers to not hang this one up, as you wanted to do so yourself. Moving to the fireplace, you lifted the painting up and hung it over the mantle.
“Welcome home, dad.” You muttered softly, admiring the portrait of your father that you had painted before his last job at sea.
Glancing at the clock on the mantle, you let out a quiet sigh. Dinner time. You were glad that you had bought food from the local burger place before meeting up with the movers. Though, you were sure it was cold by now. But considering your fridge and cupboards were barren at the moment, cold food was better than no food. You had put the paper bag in the kitchen so you departed the living room, collected said bag and sat at your small dining table. Unwrapping and digging in, you were pleasantly surprised that the food wasn’t as cold as you expected, still being slightly lukewarm, and very delicious. You would be sure to order from there again and actually eat the food fresh.
Upon finishing your meal, you tossed the wrappers in the bag then the bag in the trash. You had had a bad habit of not keeping your space clean, so if this was to be a fresh start, you needed to change your habits starting now.
With a full belly, you could feel exhaustion clawing at your brain. And despite the stereotype of sleepless artists, you chose to go to bed. Walking into your room, you noticed the large empty wall above the head of your bed, the perfect spot for a painting of the ocean. Scooping up your journal from your art desk, you jotted down a note to yourself, reminding you to paint the ocean for your room first thing the next morning. Once you noted down your next project, you undressed from your outdoor clothes into your favourite set of pajamas, flopping onto your comfy bed and snuggling your pillow to get comfortable, sleep quickly claiming you.
_ _ _
Streamers of sunlight poured into your room, filling the space with natural illumination, the dark of your closed eyelids turning orange as you slowly began to wake. Your mind slowly became aware of your body, your breathing, your chest, your fingers, your arms. Every part of your body slowly reconnected to your mind until the sudden urge to stretch overcame you. You slowly sat up and reached your arms over your head with a sleepy groan. Relaxing your form, you yawned deeply and glanced out your bedroom window, admiring the view of the deep azure ocean outside, sparkling in the sun’s light. Once you felt you were ready to start your day, you jumped out of your bed, walked to the bathroom and took a quick shower. Though you knew it wouldn’t matter once you got out there into the ocean breeze. Once cleaned, you hopped out of the shower, got dressed and rushed to collect your painting gear. You were all too excited to get out there and paint something new.
Being mindful of the size of your wooden easel, you slipped out the back sliding door and followed the sandy path down to the beach. You stopped short of the shore front and looked over the horizon, searching for the best spot and the best angle. The wind blew over you, through you. You could almost feel the ocean breeze pass through your chest, through your heart. You felt at home here already. You paused your search to close your eyes and take a deep breath of the air. You felt elevated, like you were ascending in the wind that welcomed you so openly. Opening your eyes again, you caught a glimpse of something in the water, but only for the briefest of moments as it quickly dove under the waves, disappearing from sight. It almost looked like a head with a halo of orange rays. The sight had left you stunned, thoughtless, breathless. Had you really just seen something or someone in the ocean just now?
You shook off the thought quickly. There was no such thing as merfolk. They were but a myth that sailors told to seem like they were strong of will to resist the sirens’ calls. You then spotted the perfect spot to set up your easel, a small distance from a gentle cliffside that overlooked the deep blue horizon. You set your painter’s bag on the sand and began erecting your easel. It was an old thing but still sturdy. It was like a loyal friend to you at this point. You had brought a medium sized canvas with you, it wasn’t the exact size to suitably fill the space above your bed but it would suffice until you can next head into town to purchase a bigger one, for which you would then sell this smaller painting.
As you painted, you became lost in the process, your hand moving as though it were sentient. The brush gliding, dappling and swishing paint on the accepting canvas effortlessly. It wasn’t until the painting was finished and the sun was starting to set did you finally come back to reality to admire your work. You set your palette and brush down and moved to take a step back only to bump into something large, damp and scaly. Something that had not been there before. You froze, your eyes widening in shock. You took in a slow, quiet breath, hoping that whatever was behind you wasn’t what you thought it was. Your head meekly tilted back and your eyes looked upward. Above you, loomed a light orange face with a halo of nine orange, axolotl-like gills, a set of brilliant blue eyes looking down at you in return. You noticed a closed mouth smile on its mouth before you quickly spun around and backed away from the creature.
“Wh-what the fu…” You trailed off as you tried to get a little more distance from the creature whilst also trying not to damage your equipment or the painting you had just finished.
The creature tilted its head, the gills swishing behind the movement, its smile fading as confusion overtook its face. Now that you had gotten a bit of distance from the large creature, you were able to examine more of it. It was truly huge, its shoulders and collarbone were adorned with red flaps, those same flaps encircled its hips. Said hips led not to legs but to a large powerful looking tail, a deep crimson stripe waving along its sides until its anal fins. The large tail fin at the tip was two toned, the same orange that coloured its head gills rimmed the jagged tail, that deep crimson filling the inside surface. A large dark orange spinal fan fluttered atop the back of the tail whilst two medium orange pectoral fins aided in keeping the creature sitting upright.
“What are you?” You asked, partially out of curiosity, still not willing to believe that what you were looking at was a mer-creature. You only received clicking and chittering in response. “Ah… right. I guess neither of us would really be able to understand each other, huh?” You spoke mostly to yourself.
“Um…I’m j-just gonna collect my stuff and head home…” You slowly leaned down and started to gather your supplies. The creature watched curiously, leaning down slightly to better observe your actions. It didn’t seem hostile, at least you hoped this wasn’t some sort of polar bear behaviour, where the beast could suddenly attack you if it deemed you a suitable meal. Though you had hope that that wasn’t the case when the creature grew bored of watching you and shifted its attention to your painting. It seemed fascinated with your work as it leaned in and examined the work closer, purring and chittering gently. Once you had collected all that was on the sand, all you had left was the painting and easel to collect, but you would have to pry them away from the creature’s attention.
“Um… I need to take those with me.” You spoke meekly, reaching for the canvas. A set of blue eyes shifted from paint on canvas to your nearing hand, making you freeze in place. The creature leaned closer to your arm and gave your skin a few sniffs. Suddenly, it purred loudly and nudged your hand with its head. Your breath became caught in your throat as you carefully pet the creature’s head, scritching between its gills to receive a series of, what you hoped were happy, chitters. The large creature lowered its body to the sand as it leaned its head closer to you, soon nuzzling your chest.
“Ah… um…” You were at a loss for words. “As much as I would love to stand here and pet you all night, I-I should really be going.” you gently pushed against the creature’s face before gently grabbing the painting off the easel. The large being whined when it was pushed away, but it allowed it regardless. It watched as you folded up your easel and started to slowly head back toward the path to your house, backing away at first before turning around when you were a safe distance from the ocean beast.
You scurried into your house and locked the door behind you, though it was glass so doing so wouldn’t have stopped a creature of that size and strength from breaking in. You pulled the stutters closed and backed away from the door, leaning against the dining table that resided next to it.
“Th-they’re real? Mer people?! Seriously? Of all the things…” You took a deep breath in through your nose and released it through your mouth to steady your pulse. You straightened your posture and set about putting your equipment away. When you returned to your living room, you glanced over to the sliding door, still blocked by the shutters. With a groan, you walked up to it and peeked out between the slats. What you expected to see was the beautiful scenery you moved out here for, the ocean, the beach, that sort of stuff. But instead you were faced with the creature’s own orange features pressed to the glass. The sight startled you so much a scared squeal escaped you. You swiftly lost your balance and grabbed for anything to keep you from falling onto the floor. Unfortunately, you grabbed the slats which promptly tore from their rails in a chain reaction wave of destruction. They also revealed the whole creature to you. It seemed a little startled by the events taking place inside the house but otherwise unfazed. Once all had calmed inside, the creature tapped on the glass with one of its sharp index finger claws, almost like it was asking to be let inside.
“I’m not gonna let you inside my house.” You grumbled, more annoyed by the creature at this point. Especially since it seemed like it wasn’t interested in trying to kill and eat you.
It seemed to understand your tone as its gills drooped down the sides of its head. Those same gills suddenly flared as a surprised expression painted its face before it was suddenly dragged backward across the sand and dirt. This had you curious as to what could have done that to such a large creature. Your curiosity was soon turned to realization as you spotted a darker mer just behind the orange one. This one was slightly larger, its face was mainly white with a large black spot on the left side covering nearly half its visage. Its left eye was dark, only a red iris was visible in the light level of early nightfall. Its other eye was similar to the orange mer’s, a bright blue. This mer’s black tail bore glowing crescent moons and circular spots running along its length, the moons on its belly and the circles on its sides. This one’s gills seemed to reside in the sides of its rib cage. Atop its head looked akin to a nightcap with a glowing orb at the tip. This mer was better equipped for night than its companion seemed to be. The pair seemed to argue with each other as they seemingly snapped and snarled at the other. You wondered what they might’ve been talking to each other about. Curiosity turned to fear as the new mer shifted its gaze to you. That fear grew slightly as it approached the glass door to get a better look at you. You heard muffled chittering before the dark mer turned back to the orange one and huffed. The orange mer seemed to deflate as it reluctantly turned and departed for the ocean.
The dark creature peered back at you before following the other. You watched with confused relief. A part of you hoped you’d never see this pair again but since they lived in the ocean that you now lived next to, you had some very powerful doubts about that being true. You needed a good long nap after so much ‘excitement’, if that is what you can call fearing for your life.
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ART
Here's a pic of the mer bois!
