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You hear the light thumps of your footsteps as you make your way across the docks, sitting right on the edge and greeting the sea. Taking a breath, you memorize the ocean air. How it smells, how it feels on your body.. A pleasant feeling, for sure.
The stars shine brightly in the sky, twinkling over you as you stare into the sea water and smile down at yourself. Turning your head back, you glance at the hotel you'd recently checked into, relieved they allow their guests to swim late at night. It's such a perfect time to..right under the stars, stretching across the open sky, and reflecting onto the water below, which has a sort of glow to it.
Sliding off the suit cover you'd been wearing, you lean back a bit to make sure nobody else is coming outside, before jumping down into the cool water and putting on a mask. You shiver at the feeling before slowly adapting to it, shaking your head once you rise and breathing in before swimming further out without a care in the world. You lie on your back, staring up at the moon as you float..before closing your eyes and sinking into the depths. You open them again and swim without a clear goal in mind, coming up for air when you feel you've gone too far and need to breathe.
You collect shells along the way, small enough to fit in a small bag on your side. These'll be lovely for starting a collection! You smile, swimming back up once you need to breathe again, before going a bit deeper. A few different kinds of fish swim by you, staring in curiosity before turning their direction to other things. A part of you wonders what it would be like, to be a fish. Living in the sea all day long, swimming around.. not having to worry about anything other than..well, survival.
Being caught up in your own thoughts, you don't seem to notice a bright greenish light that's become rather fixated on you..a spotlight from the depths. Waiting for you to go deeper..to travel too far..
You gingerly pick up shells you find, waving to some fish and even flipping over a turtle that had fallen over. Such a curious soul.. perhaps too much so. You go up for air once more, before swimming down again, going even deeper. Finding yourself beginning to reach darker territory, you debate swimming back up..everyone knows darker waters are very bad places to go to.
The light comes into your view..you flinch at the sudden appearance of it, narrowing your eyes to try and see what it is. Reaching your hand towards it, it flinches itself and swims away. You start to call out to it, but remember you're literally underwater, and decide against it. Not a good idea to swim after strange lights anyway..you begin swimming back up.
As you kick your legs back and forth in your attempt to reach the surface, you find yourself getting stuck on a group of coral. Panicking, you reach down to try and free yourself, pulling as hard as you can before bringing your hands up to your neck. If you stay down here for much longer, you'll drown!
Nobody knows you're out here, nobody will find you, nobody will know you've died, you'll be quite literally SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES-
You struggle. A light is cast onto you again that you don't notice in your panic. A massive form swims over to you, practically surrounding you due to its huge size. You turn your head as you struggle to hold your breath, coming face to face with the creature.
A black skeleton faces you, an inky like substance on his face that makes it seem to melt. His body glows, if you weren't struggling you could count the several tentacles below his torso that are currently keeping him afloat and moving around. They each glow and illuminate you as he leers over you.
You move one of your arms to point down where you're stuck, his..eyelight? Following. He seems to come to an understanding when he moves down to assist without a word. You do your best to help, but eventually lose your control and open your mouth, only to inhale water and fall unconscious. The skele..octopus? Pulls you free, looking up at you with curiosity in his eye before taking your form in his arms and swimming up to the surface, moving quickly towards the beach somewhere he wouldn't be seen.
A few minutes pass before you cough up water, spitting it out onto the sand he'd laid you on and staring at said sand in disbelief. You..thought you'd died. You'd fully seen it coming, so how are you?..You lean up, pushing any hair you may have away from your face, spotting the figure leaning onto the sand while still half submerged, resting his face between his skeletal hands. He simply watches you with a bored expression until he realizes you're awake, eyelight widening when he freezes.
You..he saved you. Your life was just saved by a skeleton octopus. ..Not every day something like that happens.
You scoot a little closer, he scoots a little back, until he realizes you have no harmful intent. As he leans forwards again, you smile a bit.
"Thank you." You say, he tilts his head in reply. Maybe there's a language barrier here?.. What languages to mer speak? Surely there's some way to communicate. You try signing, and he perks up.
"So, you know how to sign? That'll work."
He holds up his hands.
'Almost died'.
You sign.
'But didn't. Thanks to you.'
He simply nods, looking over you with curiosity. You find yourself staring, before apologizing and looking away. He puts his hand over yours, so you quickly look back at him.
'Okay.' Is he saying it's okay to stare? Oh. Well, that's not as awkward.
You take in the sight of the monster, the lights along his tentacles making him glow under the moonlight. His eye moves over you as you observe the various scratch marks and dents in his bones, likely from battle, as well as the several tentacles attached. The ink-like substance over his eye has you curious, so you hesitantly hold out your hand to touch him. He seems to understand what you're trying to do, leaning his head forward a bit.
You gently press your hand against his cheek, cringing a second at the goopy sensation before..being pretty okay with it. It's kinda like slime..but a slime that you'd be chill with touching. He leans into your hand, which makes you pause. You assume he must be pretty touch starved..
He moves his other hand, reaching up to touch the side of your face, curious to feel you. You decide to let him. It's the least you could do for his gesture.
He gingerly moves his hand against your cheek, being careful not to scratch it with his sharp nails, likely used for hunting prey. He's cold, which makes you shiver. You hear a chuckle come out of him when you make a sound, turning to look at him. ..He..has a really nice smile..
You turn back to the hotel, gently moving your hand away from his face. He puts his hand around your wrist almost immediately, pulling you slightly towards him with a frown.
'Gotta go. Late.' You sign, once he releases your hand.
'Don't.'
'I'll come back. Promise.'
He looks at you sternly. 'Promised.'
You nod in understanding, rising and taking one last second to look at him..before turning to head back to the hotel. You lost your mask in the water..you'll just go get another one.
His eyelight never leaves you until you're out of sight, and he descends back into the sea begrudgingly. He can already hear his brother's ridiculous lecturing on how he was gone for too long..
Oh well. He's going to do it again tomorrow anyway.