Chapter Text
Šime was busy exploring a wreck ship, swimming happily and humming the tone of Marica. The bag at his side was already full with human cutlery that he would take the time to examine back home. They would be great to use as accessories when he was singing, for sure!
Above him, the sun was slowly starting to disappear, but the young merman didn’t notice. His friend Luka had told him a thousand times not to wander outside late at night, though, but Šime was too caught up in his task to realize it was getting dark.
Night was a dangerous time for his kind. Mersharks roamed the sea looking for preys and easily attacked imprudent mermen, seeing them as concurrence for fish hunting. But Šime was fed up with everyone telling him to worry about mersharks when he had never encountered one in his life. For all he knew, maybe they were just an old legend used to scare reckless young mermen such as himself so they would be nice and go to bed early.
Still, as darkness fell upon the sea, he didn’t feel as confident as before and was considering heading his way back home. But at the very same moment, he spotted a chest laying in the sand, a few feet away from the ship. Its lock shone brightly, just begging to be open, and Šime just couldn’t resist the temptation.
He decided to have a look, swearing to himself that he would go back to the safety of the reef once he checked what was in it.
Opening it was a real hassle, though, and Šime struggled a lot before he managed to pick on the lock with one of the forks he had found earlier in the boat. He opened the heavy lid of the chest, only to find old papers ruined by time and water. The merman sighed, disappointed, but he soon had something more important to worry about when the waves around him grew more violent all of a sudden.
He tried to escape and to hide behind some rocks, but the storm was too strong. He was engulfed back into the current as he cried for help, even though he knew his whole family was certainly asleep in the safety of their home by now. Šime cursed himself for his imprudence as the current carried him away, towards deeper, more dangerous waters.
Suddenly, a huge rock crashed on his tail and he let out a cry of pain. He found himself stuck in the middle of the storm and he started to panic, knowing that he could die buried under other debris. He thrashed around, trying to free himself from the stone, but to no avail. He sobbed in pain as the efforts teared his fin apart, red blood soiling the waters near him.
Despite his hurting, he tried to move the stone away once more but didn’t get any results. He was starting to despair when he saw a vague silhouette getting closer to him. Suddenly, his hopes rose up. This had to be Luka or Domo! His friends surely noticed his absence at nightfall and now they were coming to his rescue!
Another powerful wave hit Šime in the face, and he was forced to close his eyes so no sand would get caught in them. When he opened them again, he found himself staring at a stranger. The other mer was close enough to touch him, his eyebrows furrowed in worry. So not Luka and Domo, then. But at this point, Šime would gladly welcome any kind of help.
“You must get out of here or you won’t survive that storm!” The man yelled at him.
“I can’t! My tail is trapped under a rock!”
The stranger looked down and grimaced at what he saw.
“Shit. Try to stay still and I’ll remove it.”
“Did you see the size of that thing? You’ll never be strong enough! Please, go and find some help, I beg of you.”
But the man didn’t listen. Facing the currents, he dived so he could grip at the rock. Šime held his breath. Even though he knew such an exploit was impossible, he still felt the desire to root for that strange, charming mer.
He yelped in pain as the rock started to move, but it soon faded as the stone was removed from his tail. However, he didn’t spend long marveling at the strength of his savior because the moment his fin was free, his blood started to spill into the water at an alarming rate. Šime felt dizzy as he prayed the underwater gods that no shark or even worse, mershark would catch onto his scent.
“Thank you, I’m going to go back at the reef now, before the weather gets too bad.”
“Are you out of your mind? You’ll never make it out alive, not with that injury! You can barely swim and the reef’s too far away anyway. Just hold onto me, I know a place where we’ll be safe!”
Šime wanted to protest, because he was pretty sure there was no safe place so far into mershark territory, but his state didn’t really leave him any choice to argue. The stranger was right, he could barely move his tail without crying in pain. So he nodded and wrapped his arms around his savior’s neck as the man lifted him up.
“Alright. Now no matter what happens, just don’t let go, okay?”
Before Šime could agree, the man started to swim through the maelstrom. The merman shivered in fear as the whole sea seemed to spin around them. He hid his face against his savior’s neck and closed his eyes so he wouldn’t get sick. It was still a frightening ride as the sea roared in his ears and slapped his face. More debris hit them, but they managed to make it to calmer waters. Only then Šime allowed himself to breathe again.
“You alright?” The other mer asked.
“Yeah, a little shaken, but it could be worse. Thanks for saving me, I thought I would die in there. The name’s Šime by the way.”
“Dejan.” His savior introduced himself. “Don’t worry, we’re getting close to the cove I told you about. I’ll take care of your injury once we get there.”
Šime should have been more worried about a complete stranger taking him to a closeted space, but Dejan’s presence reassured him. He relaxed against him even though he tried to stay awake despite his blood loss. They quickly entered a small cave linked to a few underwater tunnels. Dejan carefully laid him down on a small couch made of fabric coming from the human world. Šime smiled. So Dejan shared his passion for the above world, too.
“Thank you so much, I owe you my life. If a mershark had found me before you did… I don’t even want to think about it. How can I repay y-”
Šime lost his voice as he looked properly at Dejan for the first time. He didn’t realize it sooner, but because of the storm, he didn’t get a good view of Dejan’s body past his waist. But now, He could do nothing but stare at his shark tail as it moved from right to left. As he paid more attention to his savior’s appearance, he also noticed that his eyes were dark, too dark too be those of a merman. Šime would bet his teeth were sharper, too.
“Wait, you are… Did you take me here so you could kill me easily? Or do you plan to feed me to one of your pet sharks?”
Šime’s whole body shook as he shivered in fear, curling up as far away from Dejan as he could. He knew he was vulnerable. With his hurt tail, he couldn’t even try to run away. He was about to break into sobs when Dejan knelt next to him.
“Oh no, don’t panic, please. I have no intention of harming you in any way, I promise. I have no idea what you’ve been told, but we -mersharks- we don’t do those kinds of things anymore. We strayed from the old barbaric ways a long time ago. I just want to help, I swear.”
The young merman stayed cautious, but the sincerity in Dejan’s voice troubled him. Mersharks were strong, he had witnessed it earlier when he freed him from the rock. He was almost sure Dejan could have broken his neck easily while he was carrying him out of the storm. So maybe he could trust him. Not that he had another choice, though.
“So you won’t feed me to your sharks?” He asked in a small voice.
Dejan laughed softly at his question, shaking his head.
“Of course not. To be honest, they hate the taste of mermen. Our ancestors had to train them really hard so they would attack your kind, during the old wars. So don’t worry, I think the sharks living here would rather eat seaweed than you. But talking of seaweed, we still need to bandage that wound of yours. Can you let me do that? I’ll need to get close to you for that.”
Šime understood that from the moment he discovered Dejan was a mershark, his savior had made sure to leave him some personal place so he wouldn’t panic. The attention moved something in him and he struggled more and more to associate Dejan with the tales of blood-thirsty mersharks he was taught as a kid.
“Yeah, no problem, go ahead.”
He tried to sound confident, but fear still slipped through his voice. Dejan nodded and gathered some seaweed growing in the cave. Then he sat next to Šime to examine his injury. In order to do so, he moved the merman’s tail so he would get a better view of the wounded area. Šime’s heart raced at feeling of his warm hands wandering on his scales and he tried to convince himself he was only reacting out of fear, and not because Dejan looked devilishly handsome.
“Damn, it’s even worse than I thought. Just putting seaweed on it won’t be enough. You need to see a healer.”
“Really? It hurts, but not that bad.”
Šime rose up so he could get a better look at his injury, but he paled the moment he took a glimpse of it. The base of his tail was almost split in two in the middle and some of his bones were showing through the wound. The sight made him nauseous and he started to panic.
“There’s so much blood… Oh no, what if I can never swim again? I should have listened to Luka, exploring that wreck was the worst idea ever!”
Šime flinched when Dejan put an arm around his shoulder. The mershark looked pained, but he stayed calm.
“I’ll do everything I can to help you, I promise. We just have to wait for the end of the storm here. Just stay strong until then, okay? I’ll try to stop the hemorrhage for now.”
The merman nodded his agreement and Dejan started to work on his injury. However, Šime soon started to feel himself doze off. He tried his best to stay awake, but he was tired, so tired. His eyes closed on his own and Dejan’s voice became nothing more than a far away sound.
“No, stay with me! Šime, please! Šime!”
The merman noted the desperation in Dejan’s voice, but he felt too far away to do anything about it. A second later, sleep engulfed him completely.
“You’re an idiot and a fool! You’re putting us all in danger!”
“Then what did you want me to do, Mario? Let him die?”
Šime groaned when he came to his senses to the sound of yelling. His whole body hurt and he suffered from a painful headache. When he tried to open his eyes, his vision was still blurry, so he decided to lie down and try to understand what was going on.
“He’s a merman, Dejan! It won’t take long before his friends start looking for him and if they find him here, what do you think will happen? They’ll come here to eradicate us all!”
“Calm down, both of you. You’ll argue about what to do with the merman later. He’s waking up.”
“Šime. His name is Šime.” Dejan corrected, but that didn’t keep him from rushing to the merman’s side.
Šime heard his footsteps getting closer and he tried to open his eyes again when Dejan put a hand on his arm. This time, his sight was good enough to make up the contours of the mershark’s face.
“Hey, are you alright? You frightened me, back in the cave. Thought I would lose you.”
“What… Where I am?”
He blinked a few times, until he got a better view of his surroundings. Once it was done, he started to panic when he realized that he was surrounded by four mersharks. He jumped in fear and tried to run away, but his tail refused to respond to his commands. One of the mersharks, the tallest of the group, rushed towards him.
“No, don’t move! Your tail is still anesthetized, you’ll only hurt yourself.”
That didn’t help to calm him down, not until Dejan trapped his face in between his big hands and forced Šime to look at him.
“I know you’re freaking out, but please listen to Čarli’s advise. He’s the healer I told you about, remember? He tended to your wounds. There’s no need to be frightened, we’re here to help you, I promise.”
“Speak for yourself, Dejan. I still believe we should get rid of him as soon as possible.”
“Stay out of this, Mario, or I swear I will fight you!”
“Come on, then. I’m ready to beat your ass any time.”
“Stop it, you two. We won’t solve this problem by fighting among ourselves.” The fourth mershark intervened, stepping between Mario and Dejan to keep them apart from each other.
“Very well, then what do you suggest we do, Ivan? Wait for the mermen to come and find us?”
“I didn’t say I knew how to handle this. What I know, however, is that we definitely will get into trouble with mermen if we kill one of their kind.”
“Who talked of killing him ourselves? We should just throw him out of here, let him find his way to his land on his own.”
“Are you out of your mind? If we do that, he’ll die from his injuries, if humans don’t capture him first!” Dejan shouted.
“Yeah, that’s the idea. We would get rid of him and those bastards from the reef wouldn’t hold us responsible for his death.”
“That’s it, Mario. Enough is enough. We’re not going to kill anyone here. Now we should give our guest here some space. He must be confused enough already.”
For a second, Šime feared the angry mershark would attack this Ivan, but he turned around, although rage was still radiating from him.
“Fine, do as you wish, but don’t come crying when the mermen will come for us!” He yelled before swimming away.
Ivan sighed and followed him, maybe to reason him. The healer decided to do the same, leaving Šime and Dejan alone.
“Please don’t mind Mario. He’s a good guy, I swear, he’s only trying to protect us.”
Despite Dejan’s efforts, Šime stayed skeptical. He could barely move and hated the idea of being trapped with mersharks who could kill him at any moment. However, a strange, warm feeling blossomed in his chest when Dejan pulled him a bit closer to him, worry in his eyes.
“Say something, please. I know you must be startled by all this, but…”
“What do you want me to say? I’m far from my home, and I’m hurt, and I’m scared, and your friend want to kill me, and…”
Without warning, Šime broke into sobs. He wanted to hear his friends’ voices again, wanted to hear Luka ranting about how he should me more prudent, wanted to fall victim to one of Domo’s pranks again, wanted to feel safe knowing Suba was here to have his back if something went wrong…
But he wasn’t home, he was in mershark territory and his only ally there was a man he just met.
“Oh no, don’t cry! Everything we’ll be alright, don’t worry. I’ll protect you, I promise. No one will hurt you. Not under my guard. Just rest for now, okay?”
Maybe it was foolish, but something told Šime he could trust Dejan. So he held onto him, crying his heart out as the mershark whispered words of comfort in his ear.
The mershark called Vedran, the healer, came back to Šime a little later to announce to him that he wouldn’t be able to swim for a while, the time for his fin to recover completely. But the merman could have guessed that on his own. He was slowly regaining feeling in his tail, even though he wished he didn’t. The pain was almost unbearable and he felt like crying once more.