Chapter Text
Tenga was not about to admit how fucked he was.
He knew the waters by his home had mermaids in them. Of course, he never called them mermaids. Most people just affectionately referred to them as maneaters. As much as he loved fish, those things scared him to death.
Obviously, with a problem like this, it’s common safety knowledge to never go boating alone. Needless to say, Tenga thought he could simply defy statistics. He wanted to get away for a while, and he thought there would be no harm in taking the risk only once.
Of course that was coming to bite him in the ass now. He groaned when he looked at his boat’s dashboard, reading the gas tank was close to empty. He hit his head on the wheel only thinking one thing: he was fish food.
He looked over the side of the boat again, trying to save as much gas as he could while still moving. He could still see the figure in the water, following much too close for comfort.
Taking the chance that luck was on his side, Tenga had to think fast if he didn’t want to die. He wasn’t going to lose this maneater, so he had to find a way to get to land as fast as he could. He could try and book it back towards the docks, or even just the shore. He gripped the steering wheel trying to think of anything else he could do. He had a net, but that would be useless if the maneater decided to tip his boat.
Yeah, there’s nothing else he can do. Tenga decided to book it, attempting to confuse the mer by taking a sharp U-turn around it.
“Stupid fish,” he muttered to himself as the boat quickly gained some speed. It looked like he was going to make it, no way that ‘stupid fish’ would be able to swim this fast. He was quickly proven wrong as he felt an impact, causing him to sway to the side and nearly lose balance.
“FUCKER,” he belted out, trying not to let his voice break. He gripped the wheel tighter, he’d be damned if he let this boat sink.
Damned he was. With another shove from the maneater, he was in the water faster than he could scream another profanity. As bad as it looked, he was too pissed off to go down without a fight. He began swimming back up towards the surface, but unsurprisingly was quickly being dragged deeper by the maneater. He kicked against it, trying to hit it’s face or it’s gills just to stun it for a moment at the very least. A swift thrash to it’s head let him break loose for a moment. Tenga was hopeful for a second, but choked when he saw how far away the surface was now. As his vision started going dark, he saw another mer swim in his direction.
Great, dinner for two is the last thought he had before everything goes black.
He was only right about one thing today; luck was on his side.
Tenga woke up, at first thinking he’d somehow made it into a favorable afterlife. He was quickly proven wrong again as he started coughing up water. His body hurts, he’s cold and he’s soaked. It takes him a minute to realize he’s not the only person on the dock.
“Oh my god, I thought you were dead!” Mameta was next to him, and Tenga noticed he looked like he’d started crying. He was further shaken awake when his friend aggressively pulled him into a hug. After he pulled away, he took Tenga’s shoulders in his hands.
“What were you fucking thinking!?” He shook Tenga gently. “Everybody knows not to go out alone!! Your ass is lucky I know CPR! Oh my GOD, I thought you were dead, don’t ever do that again!”
Tenga needed to take a second to cough a few more times. He let Mameta continue talking, although he’s not exactly able to catch every bit of his scolding.
“Listen I just…” he thought for a second, trying to come up with an excuse that didn’t make him sound like an idiot. “I was just… I wasn’t thinking okay, I just wanted to take a short trip for some quiet.” Great job.
“You know better than that,” Mameta said, rubbing his temples.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Probably wouldn’t have gotten outta there without my lucky neckl-” he cut himself short as he reached up to his chest. There was nothing where his necklace should’ve been hanging. He patted down his pockets, trying to see if it was there. He stood up to see if it was on the dock. It was gone. He lowered his voice to a grumble.
“Stupid fish.”