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Rafayel did not know the boundaries between the Ocean and the Sky. He always thought the two were the same - or at least it seemed like it. He remembered only a few vivid colours painted clear in his mind. The bright orange clown fish with black stripes, the pink hues from neighbouring corals, the dark grey from rocks deep in the crevices he did not dare explore.
So, when he woke up, sand on his face and a dry feeling in his throat, he almost did not dare to open his eyes. The last thing he remembered was swimming away, far away, from his home. His tears mixing with the salty water, until his lungs could not take it.
Then Rafayel passed out from exhaustion.
The last thing he expected was a blinding light through his thin eyelids. Or the cradled warmth surrounding his head—a feeling long ago forgotten many years ago from a blurry vision.
Dragging his eyelids open, he saw the kind, yet tear-stained eyes of a young stranger. They could not have been a few years older than him, if not the same age. The people in Lemuria always warned him to stay away from humans—how terrible, wicked, treacherous they were. Merciless in war and pitiless in battle. But their eyes were so, so kind. How could he not trust them?
“Oh, thank heavens, you’re finally awake!” The stranger exclaimed, relieved at the sight of Rafayel waking up, “You have no idea how worried sick I was–I was just out here, building sandcastles on the beach when suddenly you washed out here, not moving at all!”
Rafayel was speechless, either from the utter generosity of this person towards someone they barely know, or the stupidity of their actions from interacting with someone with a damn tail for legs.
“Are you going to say something? Or are you mermaid people mute?” The stranger grunted, lifting themselves up from the kneeled position into a more comfortable one crossed-legged.
“Excuse you–mermaid? I am not a mermaid!” said Rafayel indignantly.
“Then what are you? Are you those people who dress up and believe they are one?”
“I’m—” Rafayel wavered. His caretakers taught him not to tell humans who they are unless they want to be enslaved for life. Instead, he thought of the next best lie, “I’m just…a sea creature.”
It wasn’t wrong.
The stranger grunted, as though they did not buy into his cheap lie at all and continued staring at him. It was getting quite uncomfortable. Finally, Rafayel took the second the evaluate his surroundings and figure out where he was.
The beach was devoid of all signs of life, except for the overgrown trees bordering the edge of the white sand and grass. Large rocks dotted across the far left of the beach, waves crashing into it relentlessly. Overall, it was empty. Abandoned.
He let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. Satisfied with his evaluation, he turned his head back to the kid looking back at him like he was the only person left in the world.
Rafayel turned away.
“I am going to go back now,” Rafayel stated. This finally jolted them awake.
“Wait, what–you’re just going to leave?”
Rafayel didn’t give a reply, and instead tried to lug his body across the fine powder without looking a complete idiot. When he was about to breach the water surface, turned back to face the stranger one last time. The stranger had the courage to speak once more.
“At least tell me your name, please?” They begged.
Rafayel paused.
“Rafayel.”
They smiled. “See you soon, Rafayel.”
Rafayel couldn’t get their damn smile out of his head. When he swam back to Lemuria, of course with a beating buffet from his caretakers, it felt like a fever dream. Something his brain cooked up to forget about her.
It must be the loneliness – he reasoned to himself. Otherwise, why would they be stuck on his mind all the time? Surely, enough time with other Lemurians was going to kick them out for staying rent free.
Of course, it wasn’t loneliness that drove Rafayel back to the beach a couple days later. It was just curiosity, which is all.
Rafayel lifted just his hair and eyes out of the water’s surface, scanning the beach for a small figure. He almost gave up hope when he spotted them again. He ignored his heart jumping in his chest at the sight and cautiously waded towards the rocks. They were perched at the edge, legs kicking in the air, eyes distant towards the Ocean.
He let himself think it was just flattery while a fleeting thought entertained the maybe’s and possibly’s. That maybe they were looking for him just as he was for them.
He waited a few seconds before making his presence known.
“You won’t catch any fishes by staring into the ocean.”
They jumped up a few feet in the air, catching themselves on the ledge of the rock before they plummeted into water.
“Give me a heads up!” They nagged, hand firmly on their chest. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”
Rafayel tilted his head, crossing his arms defiantly. “I am surprised you didn’t see me in your sights, with how intently you’re looking.”
They coughed.
“I didn't managed to get your name. So, I came back.” Rafayel continued. They raised an eyebrow.
“After 5 days?”
“Time is relative.”
They laughed. He really liked the sound of their laughter. They told him their name. He asked to repeat again, just to check how it sounded like again.
“Why were you out on such an empty beach?” Rafayel inquired, back leaning against the grey mass as the stranger was sat a couple of feet above him.
They shrugged in response, “I was finding treasure.”
Rafayel laughed but stopped after seconds of silence from the other. “Wait, wait – you were actually trying to find treasure?”
“Yes!” They said bashfully.
“Oh, my goodness.”
“Stop making fun of me!”
“I’m not!”
“The look on your face says otherwise, Rafayel!”
His laughter turned into howling.
Mon Trésor was staring blankly into the space in front of them again. Rafayel didn’t want to interrupt their thoughts, and instead closed his eyes and listened to the waves crash into the shore. Thousands of sea creatures beneath the surface, and humans could only see a handful. They were out here for 3 hours now, and Mon Trésor has not spoken a word. Yellow, orange, pink hues cascaded down into the sea, rippling in time with the waves.
Rafayel wanted to capture this moment in a bottle and store it safely where no one else could find.
Suddenly, Mon Trésor stood up, snapping out of their longing gaze.
“I have to head back! My mom is going to kill me otherwise,” They quickly babbled, the long sleeves on their oversized shirt flapping around akin to birds flying, “Will you be here tomorrow?”
Rafayel nodded silently, watching as the kid essentially like someone gave him a thousand gold. And then they dashed across the shore, kicking sand up to be pushed along the breeze. Their figure grew smaller and smaller, before they disappeared into the treelines, gone from Rafayel’s sight.
Mon Trésor and him had been meeting together in secret for about 3 weeks now. Everyday, at around 3 in the afternoon, Rafayel would punctually stream through coralline, schools of fish, beside dolphins and sharks to the abandoned land and lean against the rock, waiting for them to come. 5 minutes past 3, equipped with a few buckets and shovels, they ran towards the rock, jumping across familiar gaps between rocks and sit above Rafayel – just metre to his right.
Rafayel brings along tales from forgotten times, of myths from pirates to sirens. Mon Trésor absorbed as much as they could, butting in here and there with stories of their own. Of a true love’s kiss waking someone from deep slumber, or a magical island of Neverland. Exchanging stories till the sun sets, and both would retreat to slumber in their homes, before coming back to the same shore at 3 again.
When Rafayel’s friends questioned his missing presence in the afternoon, he rubbed it off as “exploring”.
It was not wrong.
Just exploring into a forbidden place of human shorelines and legends.
“What’s that?” Rafayel pointed out, his index finger pointing to the weird bright red brick in Mon Trésor’s hand.
“This is a Gameboy.” Mon Trésor replied, rapped on the flashing screen in the brick. Rafayel cursed quietly and brought his arm across the rock edge, pushing himself up to see. He had not been this close to them in the weeks they known each other. His curiosity was far too big to ignore.
“Are you the character on the screen?”
“No, that’s the boss I’m fighting. You see, the blue hedgehog at the corner? That’s me.”
“You can only move in two directions?”
“Yeah, and I can jump too.”
“Duh, you have legs.” Rafayel snorted.
Mon Trésor deadpanned, and Rafayel gave them a placating look. They sighed and tilted the screen closer, moving inches closer to him. The slight movement when his heart tremble in excitement. They definitely had not been this close to each other before, Rafayel noted, catching his eye drifting way too often to their face as opposed to the device they were kindly showing him.
Shortly after, they offered the brick to him, showing the various buttons he was supposed to press to make Blue Hedgehog move.
The two did not move until Rafayel beat the level, which in all took the entire afternoon. He was pretty terrible at games.
“I got you something, Rafayel.” Mon Trésor shuffled comfortably onto the usual grey seat. “You said you wanted to listen to my favourite song, so I created something for you.”
They handed a now smaller white brick to Rafayel, which he hesitated. He didn’t have an excellent record of human bricks making weird sounds and movements. Mon Trésor shoved it in his hands, vigilant in convincing him humans had technological wonders. He still wasn’t impressed. Why would humans find games fun if you can’t even beat them?
Rafayel grabbed the brick, a split second of fingers grazing the other. He prayed they could not feel the heat radiating from the palm of his hand to theirs. It would be a clear indicator.
Subsequently, he placed the one long wired metal into his eardrum, and Mon Trésor pressed an arrow key on the screen. Suddenly, long tunes, low harmony, sinful melody flooded his senses. He never seen music so rich. The water would mute all the wonderful sound waves, so Lemuria founded different ways of enjoying this type of art. Who knew humans could access it so easily, on such a small machine, at a finger’s touch?
He did not notice when Mon Trésor grabbed the other side and slipped it into their ear. He also did not notice when they leaned against his bare shoulder, eyes at rest.
He just knew this was home.
“Rafayel! You’ve been slipping away every day for the past month. There is no way you could not finish exploring already!” A blue-haired Lemuria pestered, swimming in suspicious circles around Rafayel, to the other’s annoyance. He waved it off with a gesture, “You are overthinking it, Kai.”
“Like hell I’m overthinking it! You stopped hanging out with us after lessons from the old lad.” Kai continued, now facing Rafayel in a stand off akin to what one might see in an old Western movie.
Rafayel tried to sidestep him, and Kai responded by blocking his path.
“All we want to hear is an explanation. And no more deceiving us.” Crossing his arms, Kais bore a stern look on his face, if it weren’t for the fact he was a few inches shorter than Rafayel.
“What would I get if I told you?”
“Our trust.”
“So, you don’t trust me already? What a shame.”
“Come on now. You know that is not what I meant.”
“Should have thought about it before it came out of your mouth.”
Kai sighed, “Fine. Do it your way, Rafayel.”
“When’s your birthday?” Mon Trésor asked, now lying on the rock. Beside them, a Lemurian with dusty purple hair, arms interlocked with each other.
“You wanna guess?”
“Hm – May?”
Rafayel made a noise of disagreement.
“December?”
Rafayel made it again.
“March?”
“Correct. Third time’s the charm.”
“What day?”
“On the 6th.”
“What do you like to do on your birthday?”
“I don’t normally celebrate them, to be honest.”
“Huh? Why?”
Rafayel shrugged, or at least tried while lying horizontally. He diverted the question instead, “How about you? Eat cake or get presents—”
A loud crash interrupted them. Then, a concoction of noises in an unfamiliar language to the human brain.
Rafayel bolted upright.
“Stay right here. Don’t move.” He instructed. Mon Trésor nodded. Rafayel took a deep breath and tried to focus on the voices.
“He swam in his direction, uh, I think.”
“You think?! Wow. We couldn’t have asked for a better bloody navigator. Who in the right mind asked her of all people to lead us?”
“Because you assholes won’t keep your mouths shut!”
“Rafayel?” They whispered, eyes darting back and forth across the ocean surface.
“They followed me…” He whispered back, voice raspy. He could not believe Kai would snitch on him and tell the rest of his friends about his expedition, no less follow him through it.
And he didn’t even notice.
Perhaps he was getting careless, the path familiar, and wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. The one time he was way too excited to not observe—to see them again—forced him to not think. To just act.
He did not want to know what they would do if he was caught fraternising with the enemy. What they would do to them.
Rafayel gave them a quick hug, quietly smelling the essence of their existence. Their warmth and presence. The reminders of a home he never thought he had the chance to experience. All of them. They firmly gripped him back, not questioning the sudden intimacy of the moment, whispering, “Will I see you again?”
“Yes.”
Mon Trésor tightened their grip and echoed a thought Rafayel had for a while, “I didn’t know how love felt like until I met you, Rafayel. Please don’t go. Come back for me.”
Rafayel didn’t want the tears to well up in his eyes again, but it was inevitable.
He nodded, worried his voice will give away the pain in his heart. Why had this moment felt like it would be the last time he would see them?
“Rafayel,” An irritated voice shouted, “We know you’re here! Show yourself!”
He muttered a prayer—ridiculous really—he didn’t believe that kind of stuff. In miracles and opportunities, but maybe he would give in once. If it kept them safe. Rafayel smiled and pulled away, memorising all the features of his Mon Trésor, and dived back into the ocean.
It would be another 800 years before Rafayel would see them again.