Wjae approached the atoll carefully. He’d heard from a few mer that this was where the man he was looking for lived - the human that had saved Obal, the mer prince.
It wasn’t the shark mer’s first time approaching the atoll island. He’d been surveying the place for a few days, to make sure nothing suspicious was going on. The most he’d seen was a small fishing vessel, which appeared to originate from the island itself.
As far as Wjae could tell, there were only two human structures on the atoll - a tall light tower on a thicker part of the fringe reef, and a large building on the central island. The shark mer had decided that today was when he would meet the human known as Prince Derra.
Entering the lagoon from one of the two open patches, Wjae swam confidently towards the human dock. There was another small vessel here, but he had not seen it leave the lagoon. He didn’t know much about humans, but given their poor swimming abilities, he surmised it was for leaving the atoll.
The human prince was sitting on the edge of the dock - as Wjae knew he would be. The man had done so each of the previous days, after all.
Wjae disliked humans on principle. Most saw mer as little more than animals - hunting them for sport or keeping them as pets. Some would even chase them off their own territories for no reason. The best humans, in Wjae’s opinion, were the ones that actively avoided mer.
Which was why he felt the need to meet this human.
Derra had brown skin and darker brown wavy hair, tied at his nape. Wjae watched him, trying to gain some new insight. The human prince hummed as he did something with the large white square in his hands, occasionally glancing up. Like most humans, he wore clothes - a white shirt rolled up to his elbows and brown pants also rolled up - allowing his bare feet to trail in the water.
Nothing to suggest his surprisingly positive reputation among the mer.
It had started several years ago - only one or two stories. A mer freed from captivity, a timely distraction letting someone slip away from hunters. And then there were more - more freed mer returning home, more stories of a human protecting mer.
Prince Obal had instructed Wjae to investigate - while there was the rare human that would take pity on mer, this was the first time multiple incidents were linked to one human. When Wjae had first tracked Derra down two years prior, he had seen firsthand the human protect some reckless pups - sending the hunters after them in the opposite direction.
While that had initially been enough to satisfy his and Obal’s suspicions of some kind of trick, a few months ago Derra had managed to save Obal himself.
As the mer prince’s oldest friend and a Royal Guard, Wjae felt compelled to learn more.
So - against his better judgement, against a coil of fear in his stomach - the shark mer swam up to poke his head half out of the water a few feet away from the human prince.
Derra didn’t notice immediately - but when he looked up, he stopped humming as he did a double take, almost dropping the things in his hands.
For a few minutes, they just watched each other. Wjae wanted to make it clear he wasn’t a threat - he wasn’t unaware that some mer did attack humans preemptively. Considering the three scars over Derra’s left eye had come from one of the mer he’d freed, Wjae didn’t blame the human for the wary look in his eyes.
As the human prince relaxed, the shark mer slowly swam closer. Derra watched him with cautious curiosity, heading turning to follow Wjae as the mer shifted to the side. The shark mer watched him back, approaching the side of the dock.
“Um, hello there,” Derra said, tiling his head as the mer got close enough.
Wjae sunk under the water - but only so he could surge up to grab the side of the dock and haul himself up, holding himself out of the water with his bottom set of arms.
“Oh, uh,” the human cleared his throat, “Have… we met?”
The shark mer looked back at Derra. He understood human language - most mer did by now - but he was unable to vocalize himself. He shook his head, reaching forward with his top set of arms to pull himself further onto the dock.
“Ah,” Derra blinked at him, hesitating before turning around to face his unexpected guest, “I’ve… never formally met a mer by myself. I’m Derra.”
Wjae blinked with clear horizontal lids down at the hand held towards him, unfamiliar with the gesture. Hesitantly, he reached out with one of his own hands - surprised when the human clasped their hands together.
“I… suppose you can’t tell me your name,” the prince chuckled sheepishly.
The shark mer tilted his head, keeping Derra from moving his hand away. Human skin was… so smooth and soft, and warm. Wjae had never been close enough to touch a human before, and took advantage to reach out with a second hand and run it up the human’s arm.
Derra flinched in surprise, but allowed the inspection, “I suppose you haven’t formally met a human, either…?”
Wjae shook his head, turning the human’s arm over to look at it more closely. His own skin was gray and tough, and his hands were webbed, ending in black claws. He also had rough pads on the raised parts of his palms. Holding up Derra’s hand, he noted the lack of… all of these features - and how much smaller the human’s hands were.
How much smaller the human was in general - Wjae was an average length for a shark mer, at around nine feet. The human was, by his estimate, a little over three feet shorter than that. The shark mer knew this already, but was still surprised by how apparent it was up close.
“Are you… a shark?” Derra asked, hesitantly reaching out his free hand before pulling it back.
Wjae tilted his head, then nodded. He didn’t have much leverage to move - he’d really only pulled himself up enough to keep from straining himself holding his full weight out of the water. Which still left only a few inches of dock free and the end of his tail on the water.
Still, seeing the human’s intent, he reached out with a third hand to lightly grab Derra’s wrist and pull the limb forward against his tail. After all, he was already performing his own inspection - it would be rude to deny Derra the same opportunity.
After a flinch, the prince gently ran his hand down a small patch of the scaled surface, “Oh - I thought shark scales were rough.”
Wjae rolled his eyes, then - releasing the human’s other arm - reached back and dragged his hand back up. Gently.
“Oh,” Derra winced, “Just in the one direction, then?”
Clearly, the mer thought, then turned his head toward the shore as he heard someone approach. Wjae tensed, ready to dive away.
“Oh, that’s Peyn,” the prince said, looking over himself as he reluctantly pulled his hand back, “He’s - well, we’ve been friends since we were kids, but he’s also my bodyguard.”
The new human was at least a head taller than the prince, with a burly build and short-cropped hair. He too had brown skin, and stopped at the end of the dock to catch his breath. He eyed Wjae warily, but remained where he was as he asked, “Are you alright, Derra?”
“I’m fine,” the prince replied, “We were just getting acquainted.”
A Royal Guard himself, Wjae forced himself to relax. Peyn wasn’t treating him like a threat - yet. If an unfamiliar mer approached Obal, the shark mer knew he would act much the same.
Carefully, Peyn approached - with even steps, nonchalantly opening the light jacket he wore to show he bore no human weapons.
“I see,” he said, and stopped just a foot or two next to the mer. He gave Wjae a cursory once over, clear warrior calculation in his eyes as he asked, “Are we in your territory?”
Wjae shook his head, slowly sliding back off the dock - not wanting to be between a guard and his charge. For professional courtesy, if nothing else.
“Are you leaving?” Derra asked - with a generous hint of disappointment.
The shark mer paused, then slid further back - holding himself up again. He looked back to Derra, considering - then nodded.
The human prince frowned, and asked, “Are you coming back?”
Peyn made a strained noise.
Wjae glanced at him before nodding.
“Well, I look forward to it,” Derra smiled - though there was still his own edge of strain to it.
I’m sure, the shark mer thought, sinking down into the water.
Comments (0)
See all