Chapter Text
The water was freezing, but what else was new. It was always cold here no matter what time of the year it was. Not only that, but I wasn’t the only predator around in the area either. There were strange creatures here, ones that seemed to blend into the ocean itself before they revealed themselves and devoured you. Luckily they were frightened of me and left me alone for the most part, but I was still curious about them.
Actually, that was what I was doing now, I was following one of them. They were fast in the water so I normally lost sight of them rather quickly, but this one hadn’t noticed me yet and went on its normal business. It was strange watching them move through water since they looked so strange in it, like they didn’t belong here, and yet, when they moved through the waves, it was hard to imagine them anywhere else.
Four long legs struck out at the water, but none of them had fins, which confused me to no end. Instead of fins and scales they had fur and hooves, at least that’s what Petra told me they were. I still wasn’t sure about it and since I had all the time in the world I figured I might as well try and capture one. They were tricky though, almost impossible to capture and the one time I’d grabbed one, my hand had gotten stuck on it’s hide and I’d barely managed to get away with just a kick in the gut.
I grumbled under my breath at the memory and hid behind a rock as I watched the creature. It had stopped moving and it’s strange, triangular shaped ears swiveled around. I stayed quiet and watched it slowly move forward towards the shore of the island. For some reason they really liked this island and there were even more around recently. I shivered slightly at the cold current that swept past me and noticed what had caught the creatures attention. It was a nice smell, one that I had never smelt before and I was suddenly more curious with the scent than I was with the prey I’d been stalking for months now.
I watched as the creature swam back and forth, obviously waiting for whatever it was that belonged to the scent to step further into the water. I took my eyes off the pacing creature and headed to the surface, something I wasn’t supposed to do, and poked my head out of the waves. I could only imagine what my face looked like when I saw the boy. Actually, I didn’t even want to think about that. He was captivating to say the least and even stranger than the creatures I’d been hunting for months. My tail flicked happily and I attempted to stop it, but the damn thing had a mind of its own.
I grumbled a bit at it before looking back at the boy. His skin was covered by thick clothing, but what I could see of it intrigued me. Most humans I’d seen had pale skin, especially in the winter, but his was still slightly tanned. I noted dully that his skin was actually darker than mine and I’d probably seen a lot more sun than he had this season. His dark brown hair fell messily in front of his face as he looked out at the ocean, obviously looking for the creatures I’d stalked all fall.
I inadvertently sighed and my tail continued to flick happily in the water. I caught myself before I did anything else stupid and noticed he’d started to walk down the beach. I felt slightly disappointed when I realized he was walking away from me and decided I’d observed enough for one day. I slipped back into the waves and felt my body shiver at their cold touch. I hated this place so much, but at least the boy was a bonus to it now. I looked back at the creature and decided I might as well scare it off so it didn’t eat the kid.
I whistled and the creature’s ears swiveled back at me before its head swung around and it looked at me. It looked both startled and pissed off, but slightly happy that it would have a different meal. Not like I’d make it easy for it, I’d only whistled for one reason and it wasn’t to get the things attention. I snickered at it as it charged, ears pinned flat against its neck, mouth open and flat teeth barred at me. It was easy enough to dodge the attack since maneuvering was easy for me. I noticed one of my pets at the same time the creature did and smirked. Two against one was kind of unfair, but I knew more sharks would show up, they always did eventually.
With a snort the creature bolted and vanished into the darker waters. I hadn’t moved and watched as the shark swam up to me. It poked me lightly with its snout before waiting. I rolled my eyes at it, but decided I might as well rub it between its eyes. For some reason they all seemed to enjoy that and would normally leave afterwards.
After it started to swim away I turned back towards the shore, that appetizing scent was back again and I found myself already moving towards it. I didn’t even want to try to fight the urge, I knew whatever will power I had wouldn’t work either; the boy was just too captivating.
I’d reached the shallower water and slowly brought my head out of it. I was still behind the break line for most waves, so I was still hidden from his sight, but I could see him well enough. His back was to me and the slight wind ruffled his hair gently. I felt my tail move on its own accord and the result was a loud splash. I ducked under the water quickly and hoped he hadn’t seen me; although, a part of me wanted to get closer to the boy, another part told me to hide. It probably had something to do with being a predator.
I swam closer to the shore, but moved a little ways down it. Suddenly, I had the urge to mess with him and play around. I snickered at the thought of scaring him. It had been awhile since I’d had any fun in my life. I lifted my tail out of the water and brought it down hard on the surf. The resulting noise made the boy look towards me, but I’d already moved from the spot.
I was close to him, really close actually. I slowly raised half my tail out of the water before slamming it down again. The boy nearly jumped out of his skin as a wave crashed into him. I resisted the urge to jump on him then and moved into the shallower areas. I was thankful, for once, to have the ability to control the oceans waves like this. I suddenly realized how much fun it could be. I poked my head out of the water and watched him sit up slowly, water rolling off of his dark hair and down his face. He coughed loudly and looked completely soaked with salt water. I snickered at the same time my tail flicked across the water happily.
He jumped and I felt slightly terrified that he would discover me before I was done toying with him. I ducked back into the waves as he turned to look in my direction.
It was hard to actually swim in these parts of the shallows because the currents were all screwed up and confused about which way they wanted to go. That made my mission of getting behind him difficult since each current wanted to drag me a different way. I cursed under my breath when he started to get up and luckily I was directly behind him. The thought crossed my mind that maybe I wasn’t in a very good spot if he wanted to walk over me he could. Well if he tries to escape I can just jump him then, I thought, but I wasn’t done amusing myself yet and he was the perfect thing to mess with.
I sat up out of the water, balancing on my elbows. I thought about whisking my tail across the top of the water, but settled instead for just snickering at him. He spun around so quickly he knocked himself over and back into the freezing ocean. I had to suppress the urge to snicker at him again and watched as his eyes landed on me and widened. I wasn’t sure if it was out of surprise or not, but it took a lot of effort to not stare at him with wide eyes as well. I decided to just smile at him as he stared at me with those eyes. That was the shocking thing about him I realized. He was captivating before, but those eyes were so enchanting to me that I found myself slowly leaning further just to look into them.
They were the most alluring color I’d ever seen, probably because they were the same blue-green color of the sea I used to call home. At first look they were bright blue, but I quickly found the specks of green around his pupils as he stared at me wide eyed.
He noticed me leaning in closer and leaned back ever so slightly before losing his balance yet again and toppling back into the water. I snickered at him before he could break out of the ocean for breath. My tail swished against the top of the rushing waves on its own violation and drew his attention. His eyes widened even more, which was pretty impressive, when they landed on my tail that just happened to be toying with the waves. I tried to stop it, but gave up on it. I was starting to think it would never listen to me again after today.
He looked at me again and opened his mouth. “Uh, hi,” he said shakily and waited for me to respond. I was already breaking a lot of rules, but I still decided to not talk to him, yet anyways. “I’m Eren,” he offered and tried to smile.
I cocked my head slightly, saying his name over in my head again. Eren, there was something about the way he said it and the look on his face that made me open my own mouth and tell him my name. I was leaning forward again, his scent was just as intoxicating as his eyes were and I wanted more of him.
I stopped when I felt something move in the water and looked down. For some reason, the fact that he didn’t have a tail hadn’t actually registered in my mind until this moment, I knew he was a human when I first saw him, but it hadn’t actually registered in my mind until now that he had legs. I felt stupid, but blamed him for being so god damned mesmerizing that I hadn't had the time to actually think about things like that since I’d been focused on him.
I could feel him staring at me, but I didn’t care at all. I heard him sigh, and then he moved. It was so sudden that it shocked me enough to get me to pull back from him. Of course I leaned back in again as soon as he started to stand. Legs were strange, then again he was strange with those perfect blue-green eyes that made me feel homesick for the first time in months.
Salt water ran off of his body when he stood up out of the sea and instantly I was drawn back in out of curiosity. He wasn’t really paying attention to me, so when I brushed my hand over his lower leg he flinched and jumped back slightly. I didn’t bother looking up at him, but heard him sigh irritatedly. He was probably ticked off at being scared by me every few seconds. I noted how bumps had formed over his skin and how he shook slightly in the cold wind. I was used to the freezing temperature, but only because there was enough sun out to warm my skin when the water was half frozen.
He started to move away from me slowly and everyone of my predatory instincts kicked in suddenly. I was slightly curious where the sudden urge came from since I hadn’t been hunting the kid and had only been driven by curiosity to get closer to him. Nevertheless though, my hand was gripped around his leg and I had easily yanked his leg out from under him, which got a startled cry out of him. He landed back in the sea and thrashed around until his head came out of the water again. He was hacking and gasping for air and I realized that humans probably couldn’t breath under water. I’ll have to remember that one for later, I decided and watched as his breathing somewhat returned to him after he’d propped himself up on his elbows.
“Ow,” He growled at me and attempted to glare at me. I had to admit, it was a good attempt but it was more cute than it was intimidating. I was still staring at his leg though, it was so strange, like how did these things even work? I’d have to ask Petra about it later, she knew more than I did about humans.
He kicked his leg in what I could only guess was a feeble attempt to break free of my grasp. He’d have to do a lot better than that weak attempt to get away from me and I wasn’t anywhere near to being done toying with him. He shivered, but for some reason had a feeling it wasn’t from the chill but from my grip tightening around his leg.
“Seriously, let go already!” He yelled and tried to pull his leg out of my grasp again. If anything he seemed more pissed off than scared and I suddenly had the feeling it would be difficult to ever scare him off for long. That made me happy for some reason and I felt like messing with him a little bit longer even if I’d get bitched at by everyone as soon as I got back. I didn’t really care though, this kid was just too amusing to leave alone.
I tried not to smirk when I pulled his leg over my shoulder to stop his kicking. The shocked look on his face and the startled yelp was all too amusing, but I had to admit he had a decent balance since he didn’t fall back into the water this time. I did snicker though, which got him to glare again. Honestly his glare looked rather cute since he was completely soaked with water and it was running down his face.
“What?” He snapped at me. It was easy to tell he had a short temper and probably being knocked into the ocean wasn’t helping matters. I had a feeling that at this point in time being scared shitless wouldn’t get him to run away, instead it would be his temper that got him to leave the cove. I felt my lips turn up and I showed off my fangs. His reaction was definitely worth it. Those beautiful eyes widened in shock at the sight. I couldn’t stop myself, his scent was just too intoxicating to not do it. So I did. I gave him a gentle nip above where I was holding his leg.
He tasted like the sea, but there was something else there, under the taste and smell of the ocean water. I wanted it. I bit him again, attempting to taste whatever it was under the surface of his skin. It was a slight ways above the last one and I was rewarded with a startled and pained cry. He sat up quickly and slapped me across the face. It didn’t hurt, but it stung slightly and wanted to get back at him.
I looked up at him and grinned widely, showing off my teeth. His skin paled and his eyes went wide. “You’re really creepy you know that? And that last bite hurt.” He spoke up and attempted to glare at me, but it didn’t work since he still had this freaked out look on his face and he was still pale. Unfortunately, my tail started to flick around in a happy manner, again. “Let go, I have to leave.” This time he actually attempted to pry my fingers off of his leg. I had to admit, he was persistent, but that wouldn’t work since I had a death grip on his leg. He groaned frustratedly and gave one last tug at my fingers. He was so amusing.
“Let go of me already!” He shouted and looked at me fiercely. I could tell he was getting fed up with my little game and I was getting tired of him trying to leave. “What? I’ll be back here, just not today . . . maybe tomorrow.” The last part was mumbled and he seemed to be pouting slightly. Well, if he says he’s coming back. . . I thought and realized my grip was already loosening around his leg. My tail twitched and lightly hit the surf at the thought of seeing him again. I would definitely have to bring that up with Petra.
I was going to just let go of his leg, but I suddenly felt like messing with him a little bit more. I slowly released his leg, letting my claws scrap lightly against his soft skin. He shivered at the touch and began to move away when a sudden urge rushed through me. I resisted most of it, since it entitled pinning him to the ground and biting him just for that taste I hadn’t gotten yet. Still, I wasn’t able to stop myself from leaning into him and licking his face. The look on his face was definitely worth it, but that didn’t stop me from making a quick getaway to hide my slight embarrassment. I scolded myself for licking him, but I had to admit he did taste pretty good, aside from the layer of salt from the ocean still coating his skin.
The ocean was darker now that the sun was dipping below it. Only the surface had the golden glow on it, making my trip back harder than it should have been. At least I was used to this part of the ocean now and could actually get back to the city I was supposed to live at for the remainder of my life.
I grumbled at the thought of going back, but Petra would scold me like no other if I “got lost” again. It had happened once and no one believed me. Well, I wouldn’t have believed me either since hunting and finding my way around places is a specialty of mine. But dark, murky waters can get confusing, especially when you’ve never been to a place like this before. I still was getting used to the chilly water and lack of sunlight, it didn’t help that it was almost winter too.
The cove was long behind me now, but that stupid boy was still stuck in my head and his taste was still in my mouth. It was enough to distract me from the inevitable argument and scolding I would receive from Petra when I got back, but I could care less about that.