Chapter Text
The ocean had never felt so much like a cage than it had before now. The water was uncomfortably cold as it rushed past his gills, and the flavor was all wrong as he breathed it in.
Avid swam up to the surface to see if there was anything of importance above the water, but all he saw was the vast blue of the ocean.
He had been swimming for almost a full day now, finally debt-free and ready to go home. It had only been an hour later when he realized he didn’t know where home was. He and Mr. Oli had been traveling together for over 10 years! Where could home be? Where were mom and dad? Are they still waiting for him? Is he even going in the right direction??
He popped his head back under the water and kept swimming. What had Mr. Oli always said when he lost a pearl… oh yeah! “Just retrace your steps, son. You’ll find it even’chuly” with the weird accent too. Sooo… he just had to retrace his steps!
Ok, where was he before right here. Over there! He swam a couple blocks over and looked around. Right, maybe he should think back farther than that. Ok, take two. So, before here, he was at the night market. Aw man, this is gonna take forever! And he was tired from all this constant swimming.
He swam all the way down to the ocean floor. The sand at the bottom was never his favorite type of bed (a soft plush one is best), but he knew he was probably going to have to get used to it for the next couple of days before he could get back to his old bedroom. He laid down and looked up at the ocean surface, letting the pattern of the waves up above lull him to sleep.
Right before he closed his eyes, he thought he felt a shift in his scales, a movement of sand beneath his hands, a subtle temperature change. He was too tired to keep his eyes open to check.
When he opened his eyes again, he immediately knew he was not in an ocean. He shot up, but it felt slower in the murky water. He looked around and saw land around all sides of him, creating the walls of the body of water. What was this? He remembered fairy tales of this kind of stuff from when he was just a small guppy, about sirens straying too far from the ocean and getting stuck in these things called “ponds.” After spending so much time traveling with Mr. Oli, he had assumed that they were just myths, though the weird fishing place did spook him a bit.
His head bobbed out of the water, and he realized he was surrounded by a forest. He had never seen a forest before, and now in the past day he’s seen two! This one looks more grey-er though. Or was that just the sky?
Then he noticed the small island in the middle of the pond. And a tower? This place felt awfully abandoned for such a structure, but who is he to judge where someone lives. Actually… he can judge and that tower looks awful.
He turned to look more around his surroundings when he noticed a white thing in the distance. He swam to get closer when he noticed it move. A human.
He instantly stalled, and ducked most of his head under water until the surface hit his lower eyelashes. Ok. Humans. He never did good at interacting with those weird things, but he had gotten a lot of practice recently. And Cherri seemed nice. And that elf — Scott, was his name — said they can be nice.
He mustered up the courage and swam to the shore, sticking all of his body except his tail out of the water.
“HEY!” He shouted, the human turning around with a speed he didn’t know was possible. “DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO THE OCEAN?” The human stayed frozen for a moment before walking over to Avid.
“Hello.” Huh, that’s weird, he sounds exactly like Scott. Maybe the thick accent is more common for the humans than he thought? “And who might you be?”
“Oh! My name is Avid. Do you know the way to the ocean?” He asked again. The human- wait a minute. Was he human? His skin seemed paler than it should be… “Also, are you human?”
“Umm…” he hesitated, seeming to think something over. “Would it be bad if I wasn’t?”
“Oh, no! It would be a good thing. Humans always jump to the conclusion that I’m like a monster or something. Non-human-things are great!”
The human—he should really ask for their name—laughed, shaking their head.
“Oh, Shelby's gonna love this.” He muttered under his breath, probably thinking Avid couldn’t hear it. “No, I’m not a human. I’m a… elf!” Ohhh that would explain the ears and weird eye color.
After a moment of awkward silence, Avid asked again, “Soo… how do I get to the ocean?”
“I’m sorry, but there is no way to get to the ocean right now.”
“WHAT?? But I just got out of debt! I need to get home! What do you mean “there is no way to get to the ocean right now” Mr. Fancy Pants? Great name Avid, great name.
“Well first, this lake has no river, and second, there’s an invisible wall surrounding this place.”
“What is this place? And what do you mean by an invisible wall??”
“This is Oakhurst, Avid. And the humans in town are keeping us from leaving because of some annoying ancient magic.”
“Ok but… I need to go home soo… if you guys can just stop fighting that would be great. Fighting is a dumb human thing.” He crossed his arms and said it as if it was obvious. Because it was! Why would they fight anyway? This man seemed okay. Speaking of, “What’s your name?”
“Scott. Scott Goldsmith. And I would love it if we could stop fighting.” He gave Avid an oddly big smile, but maybe that was just how the ma-Scott smiled. But he did notice the fangs. He reached out to touch them before Scott knocked his arm away.
Wait, Scott?
“I know a Scott! He’s got the same accent as you! Actually, he’s got the same everything about you. He’s even an elf too! Are you guys related at all?”
“I don’t know anyone else named Scott, no.”
“Oh. Well you guys should meet! Though I really think I should get to the ocean first. This water is so gross!” He ran a webbed hand through the water.
“Well, there’s a good river that surrounds my castle that I could take you to.”
“YOU HAVE A CASTLE?!?” Scott chuckled at Avid’s excitement.
“Well of course. What did you take me for? A peasant?” He gestured to himself, bringing attention to his outfit.
“Well, I guess not, but a whole castle? That’s a lot! Do you live with other elves?”
“Oh yes, three others at the moment. But it is my castle.”
“Okay! Do you have, like, a bucket of water or something? I can leave the water if I can keep my gills wet.”
“Oh, no I don’t, I’m… allergic to the material buckets are made of. Would a bottle work?”
“Oh yes! Last time a scary knight lady gave me one.” He grabbed the bottle Scott offered him, plunging it under the water. He watched bubbles escape and rise to the surface, giggling. He turned back to Scott who had a confused and amused look on his face.
“Scary knight lady?” He asked.
“Yeah! So I had just set up shop in a new location and it didn’t seem super populated with humans, but this whole storm of them came in! They were all like-“
“Hold it.” Scott interrupted. “How about we talk about this when we get to the castle?”
“Sure, but how do I get there?” He stuck the tip of his tail out of the water. Scott smiled, catching Avid once again surprised at the sight of the fangs.
He walked closer to Avid. Avid went lower into the water, a little intimidated by the elf. Why was he intimidated by the elf? The other Scott seemed to be nice. While thinking, he felt hands grab his shoulder.
“Can I grab your tail?”
“Um. Yeah that’s okay.” He blushed a little bit, but put on a big smile.
Scott suddenly lifted him out of the water.
“Eek!” He let out a squeal mixed with a siren screech. Scott flinched a little at the noise. “Sorry! Just surprised! How are you..? I feel like I should be heavier!” He wrapped his arms around Scott, worried that he would be dropped.
Scott let out a full laugh, rather than the chuckles from earlier. His body shook and Avid held on tighter panic flowing through him.
“Don’t worry, I think I got you.” He winked at him, and Avid felt a tinge of blush rush to his cheeks.
They started walking into the forest, moving under the trees. Avid stared at the leaves, the shadows on the dirt-covered ground, at the moss stuck to the sides of tree trunks.
“This forest is so much different than the other one I was in!” Avid excitedly chattered to Scott. “The trees are so much darker, and the grass too!”
“Well, Oakhurst always has a gloomy sky,” He sighed, “What is this other forest you speak of? I can’t imagine a merperson visiting them very often.”
“Oh yeah! So as I was saying, before I came here, I was in some serious debt.” He grimaced. “So I traveled with with Mr. Oli and ran night markets! The most recent one was next to human land, and they liked to visit us underwater often.”
“I think they liked me–except for the knight girl, she stabbed me with her weird spear thingy–and tried helping me get out of debt! At first they were just helping me get gold, but those silly humans didn’t feel like doing that very long.”
“So we made a plan to kill Mr. Oli!” Scott raised his eyebrows at this, but didn’t interrupt Avid. “We led him onto land, that was the first time I had seen the trees and grass. The humans trapped him in this stone, cave, arena thingy and left him to dry out. I do feel kinda bad, but not owing a hundred thousand gold is much better!”
“So to get out of debt, you killed him.”
“Yep!”
“I think I like you already. So, how did you get here after that?”
“I-” How did he get here? He assumed right off the bat the he must have drifted in his sleep to get here, but if there was no river that wouldn’t make sense. And his color hid him in the ocean with the coral, so bad humans wouldn’t have been able to find him, let alone away from any visible land. “I don’t… know.”
Scott sighed, as if he was hoping for a real answer. Before Avid could ask, he heard the quietest of grumbles from Scott’s chest.
“Are you hungry?"
Scott startled for a moment, looking down at Avid from the forest in front of them.
“Yes, but I don’t have any bl- food in my inventory right now. And I don’t want to leave you where the pesky humans can find you while I hunt.”
“Oh! I can help with that!” He took in a deep breath, struggling a little without water around him. He listened for anything around him, hearing a faint sheep’s baa in the distance. Perfect!
“Ohhhh sheeep~!! You wanna come over here so badddd~!!!” He hummed a little, a soothing yet upbeat rhythm he had practiced over many years. “Sheeeppp~. Come over hereee~!!”
Scott stared at him, confused and a bit transfixed at Avid’s song. Avid looked up at him, giving him a big smile and a wink as he continued his song.
“Oohhh sheep! Your white fur would be so pretty stained redddd~!!!” He’ll admit, the lyrics aren’t the best, but they get the point across well enough.
Scott’s head snapped up as they both hear a twig snap. The sheep Avid was luring emerged from the thick forest in front of them. Scott gasped a bit, his grip on Avid tightening for a second.
“Yesss~, that’s right!” Avid chuckled. “Mmm hmmm, come a little closer, I know you want toooo~!” He beckoned for the sheep to come closer with his arms, continuing the hum. “Scottt~lower me so I can reach the sheep.” Avid directed his voice to Scott, realizing how high off the ground he was.
As soon as he could reach the sheep, he grabbed its wool and yanked it off the ground. He brought its neck up to his mouth and bit down, letting his sharp teeth sink into the warm flesh. He had never tasted sheep before, and he did not like the taste.
“Bleck!” He let go of the sheep after it stopped struggling against him. “That’s disgusting!”
“Did you just…” Scott stared at the dead sheep in awe. Avid wet his gills again while he waited for Scott to grab the sheep.
“Well? We need to get to the castle before this bottle runs out of water.” He looked down at the half empty container. “Soon.” He did not just get out debt just to die.
“Yeah.” Scott adjusted his grip, leaned down to harvest the meat and stick it in his inventory.
They resumed walking a moment later. Avid noticed the trees starting to thin, more light creeping through the canopy.
Then he saw it. A huge structure just appeared out of the fog. Was that Scott’s home? Surely not…
“Here we are!” They stopped a little far away. Avid was about to ask why when he realized the crumbling bridge in front of them. “There’s a river down there.” He gestured the best he could with Avid still in his arms.
Scott made his way down the steep hill before reaching the river. He lowered his arms and let Avid jump into the river.
The water was so much nicer over here! It was definitely colder and felt good on his currently very dry gills. And it was actually running! He dived deep under water, catching and tearing into a fish on the way down. So much better than that dumb sheep!
He swam back up, spotting Scott sitting on a big rock on the shore observing him. He was chewing on some meat, noticeably raw, but he probably had some raw fish in his own teeth.
“Thank you~! This water is so much nicer than that… lake.” He singsonged to Scott.
“Of course! You are always welcome in my home~” he sang back.
Avid gave him a big smile, truly showing off his dangerously sharp teeth.
“You’re so much different than him…” Scott muttered, obviously at a volume he didn’t want Avid to hear.
“Different than who?”
“Just someone I know.” He deflected halfheartedly .
“Okay!”
“Well, I have to go tell the others that there’s a siren living in our river now.” He got up and gave a small wave to Avid, turning around and leaping up the mountain. And he jumped really high! He should ask what kind of elf Scott was when he saw him next.
He sank back down into the river, humming a little tune as he found a small incline in the rock below to settle in. He grabbed some moss and covered the rock with it, and then added some small boulders to create a makeshift entrance. He swam inside the small thing he just made, proud of how cozy it was when he only spent a couple minutes making it.
He looked through the entrance and up at the running water above. So much had happened in the past hour, and he was exhausted. Maybe a small nap would be good. The rush of water from the river was much different than the sunshiney stillness of the middle of the ocean, but he was able to be lulled to sleep by the sight.