Chapter Text
A strong gust of wind battered Enjin’s face, forcing him to squint. The clouds above were far from the bright white clusters he usually enjoyed looking at. Thick black masses loomed overhead instead, rumbling threateningly in the sky. While the waves grew increasingly violent, surging upward before crashing down with a roar. The sea seemed especially foul-tempered today.
What a shame. He had planned to stop by for a quiet morning sunbath, too.
Enjin decided the ocean surface was no longer a place where one could leisurely drift around enjoying the warm breeze. At least not until this storm passed and clearer weather returned afterward.
With a flick of his powerful tail covered in shiny golden scales, he dove back down beneath the water.
It wasn’t as though creatures of the sea were unaffected by thunderstorms. Danger lurked below as well. Raging currents were strong enough and always ready to sweep away the unsuspecting swimmer off course.
When Enjin himself had been younger and far less experienced, he had once been slammed into the jagged rocks by the current badly enough to leave him battered and bruised, taught him a fairly valuable lesson.
At the moment, Enjin was still at a fair distance away from the great reef territory he called home. If he tried heading back now, he probably would not make it in time to avoid the storm. So instead, the merman glided slowly along the sandy ocean floor as he searched for shelter.
Then something in the distance caught his eye. A shipwreck.
He absolutely had to keep this place a secret from Rudo. That kid, the moment Enjin looked away, would always sneak off to dig through scraps and ruins humans left behind, like he was hunting treasure. Enjin genuinely failed to see what was supposed to be so fascinating about any of it.
But it seemed he was finally about to get some use out of the thing.
Enjin circled around the wreck for a short while before cautiously poking his head through the massive hole torn into the front of the vessel.
He jolted in surprise when he found that the light was reflecting another pair of watchful eyes staring back at him from within the darkness.
After calming himself down, Enjin crept closer took a proper look at the one who had claimed this residence before he could.
There was barely any light inside the wreck, so he could not exactly distinguish details like the other’s face, hair, or the exact color of his scales. Even so, he could tell the figure in the dark was definitely a male merfolk, and a pretty large one at that. His tail alone sprawled across almost an entire side of the cramped shipwreck, nearly filling the space.
“Sorry. I didn’t know this place was already occupied. I’m only looking for somewhere to wait out the storm for a bit.”
No acknowledgement came from the other merman, and Enjin was not sure whether that silence counted as agreement or not. In the end, he stopped caring, then crawled further into the wreck the instant he felt the currents raging outside had gotten stronger, finding himself much more wary of nature’s force than of a stranger.
In any case, they were probably stuck in the same situation. Just two foolish merfolk carelessly caught in bad weather and forced to hide out together for the time being. Their only option now was to wait until the water outside had calmed enough before continuing on their way.
“I’m Enjin.”
The introduction attempt was short and simple. At the very least, he wanted to make it clear that he meant no harm and was not looking to start trouble.
When greeted, the other merman hesitated quietly for a few moments before finally answering.
“Zodyl.”
After that, an awkward silence settled between them, though it was bearable enough.
As more time passed, the surroundings gradually grew even dimmer. Enjin came from shallow waters, which meant his vision had never been especially suited for darkness in the first place. As his eyes slowly lost their usefulness, his other senses sharpened to compensate instead.
That was when Enjin realized something intriguing about the mer named Zodyl, something he had overlooked at first.
Oh. This one’s an omega?
Enjin could not help feeling a little surprised. Omegas this large were quite uncommon to find around the reefs. At a glance, the length of Zodyl’s tail even seemed comparable to that of an alpha like himself.
His alpha instincts instantly perked up with enthusiasm upon realization. An omega built like this would definitely be able to bear strong offspring for me!
Enjin internally screamed and forcefully smothered the thought before it could go any further. What the hell was wrong with him? That was a complete stranger he was thinking about, a stranger whose face he had not even seen clearly. Not to mention Enjin had never once bothered to look for a mate since he reached adulthood.
Zodyl likely had no clue about the heated argument Enjin was currently fighting with himself in his own head. The other merman kept to himself, and every so often shifted around restlessly in the corner he had claimed, his faint silhouette in the dark moving with unusual stiffness. After a while, Enjin eventually heard a growl, tinged with distress, slip out from him.
“Hey, are you hurt?” Enjin asked.
“Mind your own business.” And came Zodyl’s defensive reply.
“What kind of nasty attitude was that? I’m asking because I’m concerned.”
“Why would a stranger worry about someone they just met? If you’re going to lie, at least try sounding convincing.” Something pale white flashed briefly against the murky water. Enjin guessed Zodyl had just bared his fangs at him.
Enjin felt a little irritated. This was the first time he had encountered someone this prickly. Then again, maybe Zodyl’s foul mood had something to do with whatever injury he was hiding.
“It’s called basic decency. Stranger or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m not the kind of guy who takes advantage of someone when they’re already in trouble. But if you don’t want my help, then fine, I’ll stay out of it.”
Zodyl ignored him. Enjin assumed they had nothing nice left to say to each other, but the silence did not last long before quiet groans of pain began surfacing persistently. Just sitting there pretending not to hear any of it felt wrong somehow.
With a sigh, Enjin reached for the small pouch woven from thick kelp tied at his waist, which was stuffed full of different kinds of seagrass and algae with medicinal properties. Enjin’s patrol duties occasionally put him in dangerous situations, which was why he always kept supplies like these close at hand.
“Here. Take this seaweed.” Enjin said as he held his hand out toward Zodyl's direction. He could somewhat sense the other merman staring at him in confusion.
“What for?”
“To cover your wound.”
“Why?”
Enjin scratched at his head, dumbfounded. Was it possible for someone not to understand something this basic?
“You’ve never treated your injuries before?”
“There’s no point. I leave them alone until they heal eventually.”
What kind of barbaric, uncivilized way of doing things was that?
“Honestly, it sounds like you’re in a lot of pain. If you use medicine, it’ll heal faster for sure. Why not at least give it a try?”
Zodyl did not agree right away. Maybe he was doubtful, or perhaps he still did not trust Enjin. So Enjin tried coaxing him a little further.
“If you don’t know how to use it, I can do it for you. And if you hate it afterward, you can always just rip it off.”
Something brushed lightly against Enjin’s tail then. Thin and soft like a membrane, it was probably Zodyl’s fin. The mer struggled once again to shift into a different position before eventually seeming to give up.
“Fine... you can try. But if I tell you to stop, you stop.”
After receiving permission, Enjin carefully began feeling around with his hands. Zodyl trembled slightly at his touch, but otherwise stayed still obediently. Starting from the near the caudal fin and moving upward to nearly the midpoint of the tail length, Enjin found a long, deep wound carved across it.
“What happened to you? This isn’t some minor injury. A shark?”
“A whale.”
“A whale?” he repeated with a frown. Why would a whale bit merfolk? They did not even have sharp teeth, and most of them were slow, gentle creatures that lazily drifted through the ocean.
Unless Zodyl meant the killer whales. That would make more sense.
“A sperm whale. Or sometimes it’s called a cachalot.”
Neither name rang the bell, that only left Enjin even more bewildered. He had seen plenty of whales before, humpback whales, killer whales, even whale sharks and several other similar kinds he had spotted from afar the great reefs. But he still could not quite imagine what this particular whale was supposed to look like.
“Why would this one go after you? Do they hunt merfolk?”
“No. We fought over prey. I caught a colossal squid, then the whale showed up and tried to steal it. But I wouldn’t let it.” Zodyl spoke a little more than before, perhaps using the conversation to distract himself from the stinging pain in his tail while Enjin held it steady and pressed medicinal sea herbs against the wound.
“First a sperm whale, and now some weird squid... what was it? Colos-something squid?”
“Colossal.”
“I’ve never heard of it. Where did you even find something like that?”
“In the deep. Somewhere so dark that sunlight never reaches.”
Enjin paused. What did Zodyl just say? The deep sea?
Which meant—
“So you’re from the open ocean.”
Open-ocean merfolk and reef merfolk lived completely different lives. Their habitats alone were so far apart they may as well have belonged to entirely different worlds. Enjin had therefore never had the chance to meet one before. Anyone born and raised among the safety of barrier reefs would never recklessly venture into the open water to get themselves killed, while those from the deep blue likely had no reason to visit the reefs either.
“Then what are you doing here?”
Zodyl scoffed at the question, as if it was something obvious.
“With injuries like this, staying out there would be suicide. Recovering in the shallow waters for a while is better.”
Still, the fact that a mer with his tail nearly torn apart had managed to drag himself all the way here from the ocean was rather impressive in itself.
Enjin almost asked whether Zodyl had come alone, or whether somewhere out in that endless stretch of unforgiving water, there was still a pod waiting for him to return.
Because surely...
Surely someone this gravely injured would not be left behind to fend for himself, right?
A sudden wave of growing unease gripped Enjin’s chest tightly. A merfolk who could not swim was as good as dead. How would he escape predators? Or hunt for food? Enjin’s thoughts began spiraling in all sorts of directions.
“How about this? If you don’t have anywhere to go yet, you can come with me.”
“...Is this also that ‘basic decency’ nonsense you keep offering a stranger?”
Enjin clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Just because you’re not from the reefs doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon someone clearly struggling to his fate.”
“...”
“Of course, if you have enough strength to swim around on your own, I won’t stop you. But judging from your condition, the fastest thing you’d probably manage to catch right now is a sea cucumber.”
As he said that, Enjin craned his neck to look outside the wreck. It seemed the storm above had finally yielded. He kept watching as the heavy gloom blanketing the sea surface dispersed little by little, allowing sunlight to stream down into the water once more. Maybe he still had time to enjoy a bit of sunbathe before heading home after all.
When Enjin finally turned back around, he also realized he could now see the inside of the ruined vessel much more clearly.
It was a bit startling to find that he and Zodyl were sitting far closer to each other than he had thought. Zodyl did not seem bother by that fact, and was busy staring at Enjin with his head tilted slightly. The way he frowned made his already sharp features appeared more intimidating and completely devoid of softness one would expect from an omega. It looked as though he was seriously contemplating Enjin’s offer and dissatisfied with whatever conclusion he had finally reached.
Meanwhile, Enjin could only glare right back, with his own thoughts went astray.
The solid dark color was not usually a choice Enjin found attractive, however, that short black hair streaked with a lock of white made Enjin instantly think of a killer whale, and that suited Zodyl's rough personality just fine.
The open-ocean mer’s tail was not quite dull like he had assumed it to be either. Black scales gleamed with an iridescent shade of purple sheen beneath the light, it was nothing like the bright and bold patterns common among shallow-water folk. Even wrapped messily in crushed seaweed on top the ugly wounds, it did little to diminish how captivating it looked.
Enjin’s stubborn alpha instincts reared its head up once again.
Look at those lovely scales. How amazing it would be for our children to look just as beautiful?
If Zodyl had a way to know where Enjin’s thoughts wandered at that exact moment, he probably would have turned around on the spot and decided surviving on sea cucumbers alone could possibly be a more tempting alternative.