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The human ship passed overhead and Dream swam out of his hiding spot, continuing his hunt for food. Luckily they hadn't decided to stop and fish in this area, so he wouldn't have to worry about being caught in a human’s fishing net. However, the human ship had scared away all the fish in the area.
“Great. Just great,” Dream muttered to himself as he swam away from the reef, lime green scales shimmering in the sunlight that peeked through the water. That ship had shown up right as he was about to catch a fish! This reef was almost always full of them. It was an easy place to hunt in. Now though, it was empty. All the fish would be hiding from the human ship and other predators like Dream.
He thought about what he should do now. Dream didn’t want to go too far from his cave. It would be getting dark soon and he didn’t want to be out all night. He could just wait for the fish to come back out, but that could take awhile. Once, he’d waited nearly six hours for them to come back after a ship had passed by.
He did not feel like waiting that long. He could go hunt in the wasteland. It would definitely have fish in it. It always did. It wasn’t too far either. Only about a thirty minute swim. Of course, the wasteland did have quite a few problems though. It was basically a living water hell.
He really didn't want to hunt in the sandy wasteland. It was guaranteed to be crawling with sharks, sea snakes, and other things that would love to have him for dinner. It was a dangerous place for merfolk like him.
But it was also the only place that might have food. The sandy wasteland had some of the tastiest fish around. He could remember his father bringing back food from the wasteland once, and it had been the best thing he’d ever eaten. He debated it for a few more moments before coming to a decision.
Dream grit his teeth and swam to the wasteland. He could deal with predators. He was pretty strong if he did say so himself. And smart. Plus, he’d dealt with a few sea snakes before, what could go wrong?
The sandy wasteland was known for being just that… a wasteland. There were no plants, no coral, almost no caves, nothing. It was just hills of sand with a few skeletons scattered around. One quick look around proved that there were no predators close enough to disturb him. Smiling to himself, Dream lay on one of the sandy hills and waited.
It wasn’t long before a fish swam right in front of him. It was a nice size. Definitely enough for him to eat. Dream jumped up from his spot, quickly chasing after the orange-scaled fish. It was quick, somehow managing to dodge Dream’s clawed fingers as he tried to catch it. He barely even noticed himself wandering further into the wasteland as he chased it.
Finally he caught it, sharp claws piercing the skin as it struggled in his grip. The fish didn’t live much longer after that. Dream let out a satisfied hum as he examined the fish a little more closely. It looked really good. He turned around, starting to swim back towards the reef where his cave was when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
There was a group of sea snakes on his right, circling above something. He swore he could hear their laughter from where he was. Normally he would ignore the snakes. Everyone knew you weren’t supposed to get too close unless you wanted to be turned into food. Still, Dream’s curiosity got the best of him. Being as quiet as possible and gripping his fish in one hand, he cautiously swam towards the snakes.
He found a nice sand hill nearby that would block him from their sight and hid behind it. Only his dirty blonde hair and emerald green eyes peeked out from his hiding place. Now that he was closer, he could see what exactly the group of snakes were circling above. It looked like there were about 10 of them. Below them on the ocean floor was a red and white egg. A mermaid egg.
Dream watched as the sea snakes took turns hitting the egg back and forth. They weren’t even eating the egg, they were just playing with it. Normally he would just ignore it. It wasn’t like he could do anything to stop this. Still, something about it just felt so awful to watch. How had an egg even ended up in the wasteland? Had the parents abandoned it?
Well, it didn’t matter how it got there. Now all that mattered was getting the egg away from the sea snakes. Maybe it was stupid but he had to at least try. He couldn’t just let the poor, defenseless egg be eaten. Dream waited just a few more minutes to gather his thoughts, then went into action.
He quickly swam directly into the circle of sea snakes and grabbed the egg, the fish he’d caught earlier gripped tightly in his mouth. Almost instantly the sea snakes turned all their attention onto him, angry that he’d interrupted their game. All at once they attacked, attempting to bite him or hit him with their tails.
Dream ducked and swerved, doing everything he could to dodge them, all while holding the egg carefully. He searched for a way out of this, but he was surrounded on all sides. It seemed like he was doomed. The sea snakes hadn’t given up on their attacks and it was becoming harder to dodge all of them.
That was until one snake foolishly bit the tail of another. The two snakes turned to face each other, seemingly focused on arguing rather than attacking him. The gap left in the circle by the two snakes gave Dream the perfect opportunity to swim away. He didn’t look back as he left the wasteland, trying to put as much distance between himself and the sea snakes as he possibly could.
—-------------------
It took about twenty minutes for him to get back to the coral reef. By now some of the fish had come back out. Guess I could have just waited. Dream ignored them, instead focusing on bringing the egg back to his sea cave which lay at the reef’s borders. It wasn’t anything too big, just large enough to house himself and a guest for whenever his parents or friends visited.
He pushed back the lichen that hung in front of the entrance, concealing it from passing creatures outside, and swam in. Dream went straight to his bedroom and gently set the egg on top of his seaweed bed. He took the orange fish out of his mouth too and let it float in the room. It wasn’t like the fish could float very far. Plus, the egg was more important than the food anyway.
He sat down next to it, looking for any cracks. He hoped the little mermaid inside hadn’t been hurt by the snakes hitting it. Or worse, killed. He spent about an hour examining every inch of the egg for cracks. He didn’t find any, but there was still a chance that the sea snakes had caused internal damage. If they had though, he couldn’t do anything about it until the egg hatched.
Sighing to himself, Dream grabbed the orange fish again and lay next to the egg to eat it. He didn’t want to let the egg out of his sight in case it did hatch. Plus, he was pretty sure there were certain things he had to do to care for the egg. Stuff like making sure it wasn’t too hot or too cold, keeping it from breaking, and probably more. He decided he’d worry about that later though.
Just as he’d expected, the fish was delicious. It was probably the best fish he’d had in years. Dream devoured the whole thing, proud of himself for managing to catch such a good fish. Soon enough it was nothing but a pile of bones that he took outside to bury. It was considered rude to leave the bones of your previous meals lying around, and Dream wasn’t a slob.
He buried them somewhere to the left of his cave, making sure nothing was peaking out before heading back inside. By now it had gotten dark as the sun had set, leaving the moon and stars to illuminate the water. Yawning, Dream curled up around the egg, holding it close to his chest. He wondered if the mermaid inside could hear him.
Well, if it could then maybe he should sing a lullaby. The poor thing had been through a lot today, it might be nice for it to hear a song. Singing would help it feel safe. That’s what Dream told himself as he started singing, “You are my sunshine. My only sunshine.”
It was one of his favorite lullabies that his parents used to sing to him as a kid. Something about the song had made him feel so safe and loved when he was younger. “You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you.” As he approached the end of the song Dream closed his eyes, already starting to fall asleep.
“Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
—-------------------
It had been almost a week since Dream had found the egg. He had been taking care of it, singing it lullabies each night, and overall being a good parent. At least he thought so until he saw the crack.
Dream had just come back from hunting, two small fish in his hand and a smile on his face as he swam into the bedroom. “I’m back!” he called out. It was stupid, it wasn’t like there was anyone but the egg there. Still, he felt like it was polite to talk to it.
His smile dropped the moment he saw the egg. There, staring him right in the face, was a crack starting at the top and going about halfway down. Dream dropped his fish and rushed to the egg’s side. “What happened?! Oh my god are you ok? I’m so sorry.” Tears welled up in his eyes. How could he have let this happen?
How could Dream have failed to keep the egg safe? He carefully held the egg, his fish forgotten as he hugged it. Tears streamed down his face as he cried for the little mermaid he’d failed to protect. He stayed like that for nearly fifteen minutes until he heard the egg crack some more.
He quickly looked up to see the crack had spread. How had that happened though? Dream was being so gentle with it! There was no logical reason for it to crack! Surely he wasn’t that big of a failure?
And then he realized something. The egg wasn’t broken, it was hatching . The sea snakes hadn’t killed it! The mermaid was finally coming out. Dream’s tears of sorrow quickly turned to tears of joy as he watched the egg hatch. What would he name the mer-child?
He needed two options. One for a boy and one for a girl. Melissa, Sarah, Shannon… no. None of those sounded right. Whatever, he’d just think of boys' names for now. John, Jackson, Shawn… Still no. Dream was awful at naming stuff. Maybe he’d just wait for it to hatch and then pick a name.
He saw the two fish he’d caught earlier floating around, remembering he still hadn’t eaten yet. Dream got up from his spot beside the egg, grabbing the two fish and sitting back down next to it. He didn’t take his eyes off of it as he ate, excited for the kid to finally hatch.
Dream had never pictured himself having kids, but now he was ecstatic. The egg had come to mean so much to him over the past week, he couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if he hadn’t saved it from those snakes. Actually that was a lie. He’d probably be living the same way he had been living.
The sentiment still stood though. Dream loved this child and he hadn’t even met them yet. He was hesitant to go bury the fish bones when he was done eating. He didn’t want to miss seeing the egg hatch. He knew he needed to do it though, so he rushed out his cave and buried them as quickly as possible.
The egg still hadn’t hatched when he got back. Dream mentally patted himself on the back for not missing it. He sat down on his bed and carefully pulled the egg into his lap. He wanted his face to be the first thing the mermaid ever saw. While he waited, he told the egg stories, hummed songs, and just spoke words of encouragement each time the mermaid made some progress. The egg finally hatched two hours later.
Dream had been starting to doze off when he heard a particularly loud crack. His eyes snapped open to see a beautiful red tail poking out of the egg. He couldn’t stop himself from letting out an “Awww” at the sight of it. Then there were two little arms bursting out the egg. Dream watched in awe as the little mermaid finally broke out of the egg, big blue eyes gazing up at him in wonder.
“Hey there little guy! Welcome to the world! Oh you’re so cute! I still don’t know what I’m going to name you though…” He didn’t even notice he was rambling, too excited to care as he held the freshly hatched mer-child close to his chest.
He was the cutest little boy Dream had ever seen with eyes as blue as the ocean, a tuft of blonde hair, and a little red tail that shimmered like the most precious gems. “I know! I’m gonna call you Tommy! Tommy Wastaken!” Tommy stared at him for a moment, eyes blinking serenely at him until he reached up and grabbed a bit of hair that was hanging in front of Dream’s face.
He broke out into a huge smile as Tommy just played with his hair. He moved his head closer to the kid so it was easier for him to grab. “There, is that what you want?” Tommy babbled happily and continued to grab every part of Dream’s face that he possibly could. He smiled at the boy, already falling in love with this kid. His son.
—-------------------
Tommy darted out of his hiding place in the seaweed, chasing the small blue fish that’d had the misfortune of wandering into his sight. It tried to swim away but Tommy was too quick, easily catching it between his hands. He watched as the fish wiggled in his grasp, desperately trying to get away. “Tommy, don't play with your food!”
He turned to see his dad swimming towards him, a fond smile on his face. “I wasn’t playing with it!” he protested. Dad rolled his eyes and gestured to the blue fish still struggling in his hold. “You sure about that?” Tommy looked back at the fish in his hands. He felt a little bad, but in his defense fish were absolutely delicious. “Ok, I didn’t mean to play with it.”
“Alright, just go ahead and kill it and we’ll head back home to eat,” dad said, putting an arm around his shoulders. He nodded and dug his claws into the neck just like how dad showed him. The fish stopped struggling, quickly going limp. “Nice job! That looks like a good catch Tommy!” He glowed at his father’s praise, gladly letting him hold Tommy’s hand as they swam back home.
The cave wasn’t anything too special, it just had three rooms. One was the main area when you came in where they normally ate or hung out with friends. The other two were Tommy’s and his dad’s bedrooms. They sat down together in the main room, Tommy eating his blue fish and dad eating a yellow one.
They sat in a comfortable silence, both just thinking. Tommy wondered if he could hang out with Tubbo tomorrow. They hadn’t talked in three days and he was getting bored. Sure he loved his dad and enjoyed spending time with him, but he also liked to be around a kid his own age. “Dad?” he asked after a minute. “Yeah? What’s up?”
“Do you think I could hang out with Tubbo tomorrow?” Dad shrugged. “I don’t see why not. We’ll have to ask Mr. Sapnap but I’m sure he’ll say yes.” Tommy smiled, glad that he might get to see Tubbo tomorrow. They had been friends for as long as he could remember. Dad and Mr. Sapnap were close friends, so when they’d found out that they both had kids around the same age, they’d immediately introduced them to each other.
“By the way, what do you want to do for your eighth birthday? It is in a week you know.” Tommy had no idea. He hadn’t thought too much about his birthday. He didn’t know what he wanted.
Well, that was a lie. He did know. He’d wanted this since he’d first heard about the wasteland, but dad always said no. Maybe he’ll say yes this time. “Can you take me to see the wasteland?” Dad sighed. “No, Tommy. It’s dangerous. I don’t want you going anywhere near that place, alright?”
“Why not!? I’ll be careful! Careful is my middle name! Tommy Careful Wastaken.” But dad wasn’t budging. Like always, he’d explained that the wasteland was nothing but a graveyard crawling with predators. Tommy didn’t see the problem though. Dad had found him in the wasteland! He wanted to see it!
Dad also pointed out that his middle name was not Careful, it was Innit. Tommy Innit Wastaken.
After a while, Tommy backed down, realizing that nothing he said would change his dad’s mind. “Alright, well what about a horn? I’d be great at playing the horn!” Dad thought for a minute, then nodded. “If that’s what you want, then of course I’ll get you one!”
Little did dad know, Tommy was already planning all the pranks he’d pull once he got that horn. He was going to be an absolute menace.
—-------------------
Tommy swam behind dad, hands flapping in excitement. They were going to see Tubbo! Even though they’d only been apart for four days, it felt like four years. “Alright Tommy, now remember we’re not gonna get upset if Mr. Sapnap says no, ok? They might have other stuff to do today and we need to respect that.” Tommy nodded his head in agreement. He was a big boy, almost eight years old! He could handle hearing the simple word ‘no.’
That didn’t stop him from pulling out the guppy eyes though. They arrived at Tubbo’s cave and dad knocked against the stoney door frame. “Oh hey Dream! Hey Tommy! What’s up?” Mr. Sapnap said, coming outside to talk to them. Mr. Sapnap had a bright orange tail like fire.
Actually, Tommy didn’t know what fire was. Dad said it was something on the surface that was really hot. That wasn’t important though. Mr. Sapnap also had brown hair and hazel eyes. He thought they were more brown with green, but dad told him that was called hazel. Adults and their fancy words .
“Tommy has a question for you.” Dad put a hand on his shoulder and gave him an encouraging nod. Tommy closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and put on the best guppy eyes he’d ever done.
“Can I hang out with Tubbo today, please?” Mr. Sapnap chuckled and crouched down to be eye level with Tommy. “Come on, you’re gonna have to give me better guppy eyes than that.” And oh he did. He pushed out his lower lip and put every ounce of cute mer-child he had into his eyes. “Now that’s more like it! You could probably get anything you want with guppy eyes like that!”
“I don’t think so. Dad’s immune to the guppy eyes.” He said, frowning a little. Dad laughed, “They used to work on me but I’ve learned to ignore them.” Mr. Sapnap giggled and ruffled his hair, moving out of the way so Tommy could go through the door. “Alright, go have fun with Tubbo. Don’t get into any trouble!” He didn’t say anything as he swam inside, heading straight for Tubbo’s room.
Tubbo’s tail was a dark green, and both his eyes and his hair were a chocolatey brown color. Tommy wasted no time in tackling the shorter mer-child to the ground. “Tommy! Get off me you shrimp!” Tommy cackled but made no move to get off Tubbo, instead using his tail to scoop sand into the older boy’s face.
“Oh that’s it!” Tubbo shouted, grabbing a handful of sand and throwing it right into Tommy’s face, successfully getting some in his mouth. It resulted in Tommy immediately going into a coughing fit, sputtering as he attempted to spit all the sand out. “What the heck!” Tommy managed to say in between coughs.
Tubbo was barely able to speak because of how hard he was laughing. “Hey, you did it to me first!” He gave Tubbo a glare as he kept coughing. Finally, after a few minutes Tommy managed to stop choking on sand. For a moment the two boys layed next to each other, just enjoying the other’s presence. It was calm. Peaceful. And it didn’t last long.
“Hey, we should go exploring!” Tubbo suggested. That gave Tommy an idea. Dad wouldn’t take him to see wasteland, but maybe he would if he could prove he was able to handle it. “We could go check out the wasteland.” Tubbo’s eyes widened in shock. “The wasteland? But my dad says that place is really dangerous. Shouldn’t we have a grown-up go with us?”
Tommy shook his head. “No way. We can do this ourselves. Plus it’ll be cool Tubbo! No one could say we’re too young for anything if we went there alone!” Tubbo still seemed skeptical, but with a simple “Please Tubbo?” Tommy was able to win him over. “Alright. But promise we’ll be careful?”
He smiled and held out his pinky, which Tubbo shook. “Pinky promise.” Tubbo grinned back at him, and together they got up and headed towards the door. “Where are you two going?” Dad asked. He felt Tubbo tense up next to him. Tubbo hated lying. “We’re just gonna play outside!” Tommy said. Dad smiled and nodded, shouting a quick “Be safe!” out the door as the boys started to swim to the wasteland.
The journey there was anything but quiet with both Tommy and Tubbo constantly bursting into song, arguing, or just talking. It was thirty minutes of constant noise until they finally arrived. The song they were singing died on their lips as they got their first sight of the place.
The wasteland was exactly what dad had described it to be. It was barren and devoid of any life, consisting only of sandy hills and skeletons. It looked like an abandoned graveyard to Tommy. “Yikes. Your dad found you here ?” Tommy shrugged and nodded. “That’s what he said. He stole me from a couple of sea snakes when I was an egg.” Looking around Tommy could see why his dad hadn’t wanted him to come here. It looked scary. But he wasn’t a baby! He could handle seeing a few skeletons! “Come on,” he said, swimming farther into the wasteland.
“I don’t like this, Tommy.” He tried to ignore the fear in his friend's voice. “It’s fine. Nothing’s going to happen.” If Tubbo heard the way his voice shook, he didn’t mention it. They made their way towards one of the tall sand hills, keeping an eye out for predators. When they reached the hill they sat down together, just looking at the landscape.
So far nothing had happened, and Tommy was starting to relax a little. “Maybe this isn’t so bad!” He said, putting his hands on his hips as his confidence grew. “There isn’t anything out here! Dad was worried about nothing!” Tubbo didn’t seem as appeased, but he too was getting over his nerves. “Yeah! There aren’t any predators out here, we’re fine!”
Of course everything had to go wrong then. Not even five minutes later they heard a low growl from behind them. Slowly, the two boys turned to see a shark behind them, getting closer by the second. It was clear that this shark was not friendly, because it bared its fangs at them, obviously looking to have two little mer-kids for dinner.
Tommy screeched, grabbing Tubbo’s hand and swimming for their lives. “What the fish-sticks!” Tubbo yelled, doing his best to keep up. “What do we do?!” Tommy looked to Tubbo for advice. He was the smarter of the two, surely Tubbo had some idea. “Don’t ask me, just keep flipping swimming!”
Oh he did. Tommy swam like his life depended on it, because it did. That shark was not giving up, coming dangerously close to catching the two boys. He looked around for anything that could help them escape. There wasn’t anywhere to hide, so that was out of the question.
He kept looking around, and then he saw it. Right ahead of them was a huge sand hill, and suddenly Tommy had an idea. If they weren’t swimming for their lives, Tommy would’ve called himself a genius. “Tubbo, we’re gonna split up at that hill. You go right, I go left.”
“What?! Why are we splitting up!?” Tubbo exclaimed, eyes wide with fear. “Because one of us has to go get help! I don’t know who that shark will follow, but I’d be willing to bet it’ll be me because I’d make a larger meal. You just go back and get help, I’ll be fine!” Tubbo looked like he wanted to protest. To tell Tommy that this was a horrible idea and would probably result in him getting hurt.
But what other option did they have? When they got to the hill, he let go of Tubbo’s hand and swam to the left. Just as he’d expected, the shark followed him. He didn’t know how long it would take for Tubbo to go get help. He just had to pray that he could hold off on his own til then.
Tommy weaved between the wasteland’s hills, hoping he could throw the shark off his trail, but it was no use. The shark was still close behind him, and Tommy was starting to get tired. He didn’t know if he could keep going for much longer and that scared him. He didn’t wanna be shark food!
Maybe he should have listened to dad. He shouldn’t have snuck out here. Dad was right, it was dangerous. Tommy wanted to go home. He wanted to tell his dad all about his day with Tubbo. He wanted to be back in his bed as dad sang that lullaby that he loved. He didn’t want to die .
Tommy noticed something on his left and nearly sobbed in relief. It was a cave. It looked small, but he could fit in there. He quickly turned, swimming into the cave and watching as the shark tried to follow him, only to hit its head on the entrance. He sat against the back wall, taking deep breaths. He was safe for now.
His relief ended quickly when the shark didn’t go away, instead seeming to circle the cave, clearly waiting on Tommy to come out. He jumped when he heard something bang against the cave wall. Was… was the shark trying to break in? What if it did? That shark was massive, it’d manage to break the walls eventually.
He started sobbing as the shark continued to circle the cave, throwing itself against the wall and entrance every few minutes. “I’m so sorry, dad. I never should’ve come here.”
—-------------------
Dream and Sapnap had been chatting in the main room for hours as the kids played outside. He wasn’t too worried about them. Dream trusted Tommy and Tubbo to not get into any trouble, but something still felt off. It was quiet. Too quiet. He couldn’t hear the sound of the two boys giggling and screeching like they usually did. “Hey, does something feel off to you?” He asked Sapnap.
He’d just opened his mouth to respond to Dream when he was quickly cut off by loud screaming outside. They both immediately got up, swimming outside and looking around for the source of the yelling. He saw Tubbo swimming towards them, seeming very distressed. What worried Dream was that Tommy was nowhere in sight. “Dad! Mr. Dream!”
The two adults swam out to meet Tubbo, Sapnap grabbing the boy by the arms and carefully looking over him for injuries. “What? Did something happen?” Dream anxiously scanned the horizon for any signs of his own son. “Tommy- I’m sorry it was a stupid idea- we should’ve listened-”
“Tubbo, breathe. Tell me what happened.” Sapnap said, carefully pulling Tubbo into a hug. Dream felt his anxiety grow worse by the second. Something was seriously wrong and he didn’t know what. “We went to go explore the wasteland cause we thought we could handle it, but we got chased by a shark! We got split up and I don’t know where Tommy is, I’m sorry Mr. Dream.”
His heart dropped to his stomach. He tried to ignore the tears welling up in his eyes at the idea of Tommy, his 7-year-old son , alone with a shark. He could feel Sapnap’s worried gaze on him, but he couldn’t speak. Not without breaking down. “Ok, it’s ok Tubbo. We’ll figure this out. Go ahead and go inside, I need to talk to Dream.”
Tubbo nodded and swam into the cave, leaving Sapnap and Dream alone outside. “Go.” Sapnap said. Dream looked at him, confused. “Go get Tommy. I’ve got everything under control here.” He took a deep breath in, getting his thoughts under control before nodding. “Thanks Sapnap.” He turned to swim towards the wasteland, not looking back as he moved as quickly as possible.
What would normally be a thirty minute swim to the wasteland turned into only ten. His heart was pounding, anxiety filling every inch of his body as he desperately searched for any sign of his son. The wasteland was as barren as ever, and he hardly saw any predators. The ones he did see weren’t sharks, so he ignored them.
Each minute felt like an eternity. What if he was too late? What if Tommy was hurt? What if he was already dead? No, he couldn’t be thinking like this. Filling his head with horrible fantasies did nothing to help him find Tommy. He swam up to the top of a hill to try and get a higher view of the wasteland. At first he didn’t see anything, but then he noticed a shark circling above something.
It was circling above a small cave, occasionally slamming its body into the cave wall. It looked like the shark was trying to force whatever was in there out of the cave. Tubbo said he and Tommy had been chased by a shark, and that small cave looked like the perfect hiding spot for a small mer-child.
Dream quietly swam closer, staying far enough away so the shark wouldn’t notice him. As he got close, he swore he could hear crying . The sound broke his heart and he wanted nothing more than to hold and comfort Tommy. To tell him that everything was ok and keep him safe. He could do that later but first he needed to find a way to get that shark away from the cave.
He looked around for something he could use and found some bones laying around. If he remembered correctly, his mother had told him once that sharks had good hearing. He hoped that was true as he picked up one of the bones and threw it somewhere to his right, away from the cave.
The shark paused in its circling, looking in the direction Dream had thrown the bone. He threw another that way, hoping it’d encourage the shark to go check out the noise. He watched as the shark cast one last mournful glance at the cave, then started heading towards the noise. He threw a final bone as a safety measure, and immediately swam to the small cave. “Tommy?” he called out.
“Dad?” Dream had never been so relieved to hear his son’s voice. Before he could even respond he felt something crash into him. He looked down to see Tommy shaking and clinging onto his neck, sobbing into his shoulder. Dream wrapped his arms around the mer-child, holding him tightly. “It’s ok. Everything’s ok. Let’s get you out of here.”
He started swimming back home, constantly murmuring assurances like “It’s ok,” and, “I’ve got you.” He kept a close eye out for any predators, but luckily he didn’t see any, and they were able to make it back home safely.
Once they arrived he immediately carried Tommy to his room, sitting down on the bed and carefully prying him from his neck. “Are you hurt at all?” He asked, worriedly looking over his son for even the tiniest scrape. “No, I’m just scared.” Dream’s eyes softened as he gently wiped tears from Tommy’s face.
Once he was sure there weren’t any scrapes or bruises on Tommy, he pulled him into a hug, letting him keep crying into Dream’s shoulder. He laid down, curling himself protectively around his son. Almost like he was shielding him from the world, protected from any and all danger. Dream combed his fingers through his hair, just like he always did when Tommy had nightmares.
For a while they stayed like that. Dream did everything he could to comfort him, and soon his sobs turned into small sniffles and hiccups. After a moment Tommy spoke. “Sing,” he whispered quietly. Dream paused, confused. “What?” he asked. Tommy huffed a little. “Sing, please.” Dream was happy to comply with the request.
“You are my sunshine. My only sunshine,” He could feel Tommy immediately relaxing in his arms as he started singing. Dream only held him tighter. “You make me happy, when skies are gray.” He wiped the tears from his face as the mer-child closed his eyes, starting to fall asleep. “You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you.”
Tommy was asleep before he even finished the song, but he still sang the last words. “Please don’t take my sunshine away.” Dream felt his own eyes growing heavy with sleep. He pressed a gentle kiss to his son’s head, whispered a quiet “I love you,” and let his own eyes slip closed.