Chapter Text
Thousands of jellyfish rise to the heavens under the depths of the sea. Large, clear, gelatinous and trailed by dozens of stinging tentacles, but amongst their own they are gently ascending as if they were smoke in the air.
The orphaned fish had never seen such a display. He'd seen grand displays of migration in his eight years under the earth, but never before had the animals risen to the surface. To their deaths, he assumed. What's more, he'd never seen smoke in his life, never him to smell something earthy carried on the wind, never him to touch the grass that grew on the dirt or see the sky and clouds as they were, not warped by the surface of the water, where light and color broke and dispersed to the point he couldn't even experience that.
Because the surface world was forbidden.
The wizard, who was feeding the other ocean creatures at the moment just out of view, had drilled it into his head many a time.
Many other admirably strange critters littered the sea grass and surrounding area. All sorts of pretty little fish with shining scales that looked as if glittering gems were embedded into their skin. They didn't talk to Vicente the way The wizard did, but he understood them anyways. He understood their behavior and all that they had seen on the surface world, the danger and beauty of it all, for where Vicente and the wizard lived the sunlight couldn't extend her fingertips.
And Vicente was the name the wizard had named the orphan fish boy. He was kind enough, if strict and neurotic. He left Vicente to his own devices, and took care of him only as he took care of all the sea animals he had dominion over.
Vicente had no parents of which to call his own.
The wizard now stood at the edge of their submarine, which sported four "flippers" and was massive. A monument to the boy's isolation. A large blooming sprawl of plankton were being fed by a dropper, a golden glow blossoming from each drip the wizard gave them. Vicente watched the warm symphony unfold before him, entranced by it every single time.
But hundreds of times over eight years is enough times to see this ritual, and he looked up once more at the distorted surface of the ocean. One wouldn't guess it was daytime from the amount of light where he was swimming.
But the jellyfish knew. They had no eyes, or even brains, but they knew somewhere in their bodies, so disconnected from the modern day, so primal and ethereal it seemed they were angels.
The wizard was in a bubble, for he breathed air, unlike Vicente, who could draw life from the water. From the bubble, The wizard clumsily fumbled with his light to ward off another animal that wanted to prey on another, and the orphan boy put his long-awaited plan into action:
Slithering his small malnourished body through a port, he was silent. then, as he was out of sight of the wizard, he bolted through the water as fast as his little fins could carry him, gripping onto one of the massive gelatinous angels as it rose through the dominion he knew into the heavens.
Vicente was on the clear. He dared not look back, for fear that he might regret his spur-of-the-moment decision, or see the wizard's face painfully close and would be whisked away to safety again, the last thing he wanted.
He stared at the growing light on the surface as the moving wobbling shaped above became clearer and sharper, a symphony around him growing louder and more epic as he grew closer.
it was better this way he told himself. I cause nothing but trouble for the wizard. I just need to know....
the boy broke the surface and the noise stopped abruptly.
when his eyes adjusted to the horrific bright pang of the sun, all was silent. Vicente could hear waves in the distance, crashing against the small part of the rock that wasn't blanketed by the ocean, the horns of ships in the distance, now colorful and three-dimensional instead of a silhouette on the water. And there were people inside! not monsters from myth and legend, who held blank expressions and no thoughts as they mercilessly killed, but real creatures that could emote, that he could hear speak and laugh unlike anything under the water!
Vicente was so amazed by the sight, what seemed to be an even larger, blue-r ocean full of puffy white things above their own, and a sun! he turned his head and saw something so mind-bendingly amazing everything else stopped. A green cliff by the sea, with a large house on top. Grass swayed in the air he could finally feel, the earth was alive under the building, and something lived there...
so amazed was the boy that he never saw the net careening towards him until it was too late, and as fast as he swum against the beast, it wasn't nearly enough! within the fiber walls he was trapped, and he was dragged along with trash and the skeletons of other fish for dozens of meters until he escaped...
in a glass jar that he couldn't get out of.
Vicente was exhausted in the sun, unwavering glass bore into the sides of his little fish body. He couldn't suck in a full breath for the life of him, and he was sure he'd die washed up on the coast, the sun beating down on his body, never found again. The orphan boy was so hungry and tired he could cry, and so he did. a soft little "pi-pi-pi" to mark the end of his time on earth. At least he saw the surface...
"Tesoro! don't take too long down there!"
"I will, mama!"
A young boy, eight or nine, scuttled with his little pop-pop boat down the side of the cliff, a route he seemed to know well. The long, soft grass shifted around him and he sat in the sand. The boy took off his sandals and stepped into the cool water, setting his toy boat on the algae covered rocks around him.
something glimmered in the sun, a clear jar washed up on the shore with something inside!
Quico picked up the jar, tipping it to the side and spilling a bit of water out. The thing inside was definitely an animal...
"A goldfish?"
Quico tried his hardest to pry it out, shaking the jar, pulling on the tail. it didn't look like any fish he'd seen, but it was stuck and needed his help!
As he walked away from the shore, a large wave hummed at him, in a way that was almost alive, and pounced at his feet. odd.
holding the jar in one hand and picking up a little rock in the other, the boy gave it one hard strike and the glass shattered. The boy picked the glass off of the fish, a bit cutting his thumb before he decided to wash the glass of with sea water. Yet, the creature lay unmoving.
"is it dead...?"
Suddenly, a little pink tongue flitted out its mouth and licked away the blood on his thumb as he held it!
"it licked me! it's alive!"
"Tesoro! come quickly, we'll be late!"
the waves hummed louder, grew more violent as the tide rose and gave chase to Quico. He didn't notice however, for he ran up the side of the cliff and brought the fish home.
"mama! look! I found a goldfish!"
"i'm starting the car now!"
The boy chased after his mother, and the waves did not succeed in bringing the orphaned fish boy back to the sea.
The wizard stood on top of the submarine above the ocean, asking the sentient waves worried questions, if they found the boy. To which they answered no. They told him that the human boy ran off with the orphan fish, and the wizard began to panic.
"what?! he was captured by a human!?" He rubbed his head. "this is bad. very, very bad..."
Quico ran up the side of his sprawling house to the hose, where toys littered the ground. He found a spigot and placed a little pail painted to look like a barrel under the tap, running water inside and placing the limp goldfish into its safety. But it didn't move...
Until it spit a steady stream of water at his face! Quico laughed and sighed that his fish friend was alive, and he saved him! it swam in excited little circles in the pail, jumping and spitting water.
Then, he ran into the little car with his mother.
just as they were closing the doors, the mother saw a disheveled and strange older man, the wizard, spritzing water where he walked from a device that she was sure was weed-killer. Quico looked over and saw his mother angry, not an uncommon sight.
"I don't know who you are, sir, but we don't use weed killer around here!"
"the man seemed indignified and offended.
"This is NOT weed killer! this is the purest ocean water, and it keeps me from drying out on land!"
"Just don't spray anything around my home. excuse us!"
Before the wizard could object, she drove off, swerving across the hillside and out of sight.
"that man was awfully strange. Probably on something. Quico, don't you go talking or hanging around chusma like that, got it?"
Quico nodded.
"are you gonna take that little fishy to school? profesor Jirafales doesn't like for animals to be in his class."
"I think it'll be fine, mommy. He's a good fishy."
The mother, Doña Florinda, nodded and smiled at her treasure. It might just be fine after all, since Profesor Jirafales seemed to take a softer approach to her Quico. she blushed and smiled thinking about seeing the teacher that morning...
"don't worry, i'll take good care of you!" Quico told his fish. Doña Florinda looked over.
The fish had an almost human face, and a squishy little body. it hardly looked like a fish at all, but a small boy with freckles.
"sure is a skinny thing..."
they lived in a port town, surrounded by water and ships of all sizes, colorful buildings and bright green grass, sea birds singing all day and night. a ship was coming in for dry dock, which might make their trip to work and school a longer delay. The mother handed her son a torta de jamon.
Quico finally noticed that his cut from the glass was all gone, not even a scar as evidence that it ever existed!
"mama, i'm gonna call him Chavo! and i think he's magic! He licked my cut and it's all gone!"
"hm? is that so?"
Doña Florinda loved her son's imagination, but was too focused on the road to explain that fish were not magical.
"I saved him, so he's my responsibility now..."
Quico pulled a little of his torta de jamon apart, trying to feed the goldfish a bit of bread, to no avail. He waved it in front of the water, but nothing came of it. He lowered his sandwich, and bit off a bit of the ham inside to feed to his little buddy, but before he could give the fish the tiny bit, it leaped out of the water, spilling droplets in his lap, and pulled at the entire slice of ham in the sandwich, looking to eat the whole slice!
the boy laughed at the troublesome fish, and turned again to his mom.
"Chavo really likes ham!"
Trailing the family was the wizard in the ocean, speeding through the sea along the cliffside road so fast that trash was bumping into his face, but he wouldn't stop his pace! He couldn't stop, not until Vicente was safe and sound and couldn't cause any trouble-
a large broken boat motor knocked the wizard unconscious.
Quico showed Chavo the town around them as the beauty and allure of one thousand pearls was rivaled by a simple port town.
around them, the colorful Mexican homes with children to play outside of them, stray dogs playing just as the children did, decorations and vendors outside the streets as people young and old lined up for various snacks and toys. Doors with bars on them, vespas and plastic lawn chairs, empty barrels and trash on the ground. Quico didn't care for the beauty the world held, but how could he?
Chavo was mesmerized, eyes flicking over every which which way.
Nothing would be the same for him again, for nothing could be more beautiful, and as Chavo considered everything, including his new name he adored so much, he wanted to live here.
not as a fish or an outside observer, but as a human.