ashen seas and salty skies
"Is there no way to convince you to stay?"
Munto folded his arms and stared out at the vast expanse of glittering blue below him. Beyond the shroud of clouds lay his destination, and he knew his resolve could not falter.
Though the voice behind him seemed to try to convince him otherwise. "Should I even ask how you managed to locate me?"
"Sight does not always determine navigational skills, Munto. I will always know where you are."
The double entendre of that statement did not go unnoticed by him, and Munto folded his wings back to their natural closed-state.
"Don't worry, Ryuley." He turned to face the woman staring at him with blank eyes. Frayed wings lay adorned on her back like a cloak. The mere sight brought pity. "When I do this, your futures will be saved. There is little need for me to remain when my absence will bring about your safety."
"Fate can be altered, Munto." She pointed a straight finger down at the seas below. "Like the force of the salt waters. Visions are a mere echo of an infinite amount of possible pathways. There is no need to throw your life away for it." [1]
"You did not blind yourself to give me a mere echo." Ryuley did not flinch when he put a hand to her cheek, but instead leaned her face in his palm as his thumb traced under her eyes. "What you showed me that day lit the hope that has been dimming for generations. You know why I must do this."
"I thought we agreed never to speak of that day." She whispered, putting her hand atop his. "It brings us both too much pain."
"I know, Ryuley. I know." He took a breath. "But… that day, you gave me a chance to save my Kingdom. To save you. So, please, allow me to give you this. From all that I have stolen from you, for all these damned years," his voice quietened, and hung his head low. "Let me give you a future this time.
"Munto-"
"Please."
Ryuley took his hand away from her face, and sighed. She rubbed her arms and bit her lip, blinking fast. "You never needed to give me anything, child." The steely expression melted with each second. "You... you know that you are my everything." [2]
"And you are mine, Amma." The title made Ryuley's lip tremble. It took the resilience and strength of a King to hold himself back from comforting her. "But," he steeled himself. He had to. "I must do what is just for the future, and for this world to survive. Forgive me, if that causes you more pain in the process. I never wished to harm you, Amma. I hope... you find some happiness again, someday." Munto gazed at the trembling woman-his Amma, sadly, before taking one last look at his homelands.
The skies were such a vast place. Limitless in possibilities and potential. With islands in the skies and beings that danced in the air, it was the epitome of natural beauty and innovation. Their homes carved into the rocky strongholds, every winged being in this land was strong.
It was the place he was born and bred. Where he was raised with the greatness of his ancestors words, his parents tutelage, and his Amma's gentle embraces. But with recent years, he found that even within the sky, limits could not hold greed or bloodshed without the structure collapsing in on itself. Each land bled it's own lore of horror, some beyond comprehension of even the most hardened of his warriors.
Munto closed his eyes, and turned away from the sight. Spreading out his wings, he saw how the red and golden-trimmed feathers caught the light of his Kingdom once more, and allowed himself to feel the sentimentality to wash over him. For then, he walked toward the edge of the craggy cliffs, and stared down at his destination.
Green was such a strange colour, in his eyes.
"Farewell, Ryuley."
Long live the King, indeed.
She wasn't supposed to be there.
To haul her scaled body onto dry rocks above the surface could be considered taboo amongst her people, and to gaze at the skies with such wanderlust and intrigue could land her in correction if one caught wind.
Yet Yumemi ventured there everyday, because she was curious. To seek out the vision of floating islands in the sky! To see the winged creatures dance in the air like fish in water… it was haunting and terrifying, and warmed her to the very bone. [3]
But it didn't take long before she became captivated. The blue lagoons of her home were deep and wide, vast and beautiful, but she grew weary of the currents that could push and pull fins like seaweed. Shrill songs could deafen another to do their bidding. More than anything… she found that she was tired of being sheltered.
"Yumemi," her friend's anxious tone was apparent, as she tugged on her arm in vain. "We shouldn't be here."
Yumemi brushed off her hand and stretched her head to look more. "Ichiko, don't worry so much! I'm only looking."
Ichiko pouted. "Even looking could land you in trouble."
Taking her hand off her shoulder, Yumemi grinned. "You don't have to stay here with me."
A chilled blush spread over Ichiko's cheeks. "Well-you're my friend, idiot. I just don't want you to get in any trouble!" Ichiko submerged herself back in the waters, only popping her head out. "You know we shouldn't be looking at the islands in the sky. Only bad things come from there."
Yumemi rolled out her eyes, and puffed out the translucent green fins on her head. "You don't need to repeat the elder's superstitions. We have them spoken to us everyday."
"And you don't need to break their rules. We have them for a reason, Yumemi!"
"...Look," Yumemi dipped her tailfins in the water. "I'll be back home later, I promise. I'll stick to the deep waters, and I won't be seen by anyone. I've got my bag, so I'll say I was collecting food for Chikara and my family. Sound okay?"
Ichiko frowned. "...You promise?"
She nodded. Ichiko didn't look convinced.
"Trust me, I will! I promise I will, Ichiko. Besides, you know by now that I won't ever break promises to you."
"I..." Hesitating for a few seconds, Ichiko seemed to relent and her shoulders relaxed. "Well, I... I can't exactly change your mind now, can I? Once it's set on something, that's it. No turning back." Yumemi laughed sheepishly at the truth. "But if you don't come back when you said you will, then I promise I will be back to get you." She grinned. "I'll drag you by the tail if you refuse me!"
Yumemi pushed her shoulders playfully and grinned. "Get going already, mother. I'll be fine."
"I hate it when you call me that. I'm younger than you!" Ichiko chuckled. "See you soon, Yumemi."
With one fell swoop, Ichiko dove back into the sea, treating Yumemi to a cold spray of water. Probably on purpose, if she knew Ichiko.
Yumemi paid little care for it, however, rolling over onto her stomach and resting her chin in her webbed hands. Sometimes, she saw those winged creatures, dancing on the skies with dry scales of red.
She always found red to be such an unusual colour.
She turned her head to stare up at the skies above, and at the colourful creatures she would never see up close.
I guess I can dream about them in the meantime, though.
The arrows shouldn't have surprised him, but the pain wasn't a welcome expectation.
"So, they've found me, huh?"
He had little time to observe. He was dead if he stayed still.
Streams of red trailed after him as he plummeted. His vision obscured. His heart was pounding so fast it drowned out the air cutting against his ears.
"There he is! Aim for the red wings!" [4]
Munto smirked. As if I'll let them hit me so easily. But I guess the suicide plan didn't quite suit them. Better make it a sight to remember, then.
His body was cast upward as he arched his back and made for the cloud banks. Faster. Faster. Faster.
"Gah-!" His hand immediately grasped his shoulder, and felt himself pale when he found an arrow sticking out. With little effort, he snapped the arrow in half, leaving the tip lodged in.
I've got to get out of sight. If they see-
Another arrow pierced the flesh of his leg, and it didn't take long before the pain swallowed up the rest of his common sense.
The sun had begun to disappear over the horizon when Yumemi saw it.
Her eyelids had grown heavy, and it was when they partially covered her eyes did she first catch a glimpse: streamers of red falling down from the skies. Parts of it splattered over her mouth, and she spluttered at the metallic taste.
She wiped her mouth and frowned. "What…?" Red liquid dripped from her fingers. Yumemi looked up, and shuddered.
For up in the sky, did a winged creature fly. Avoiding flying spikes that came from all rounds of the cloud banks, it's very body dripped this red liquid.
Is this a common thing for those winged beasts…? Her breath hitched in her throat. No, that one is in danger!
Yumemi dove back into the sea, and began to trail directly under the distressed creature. She opened every fin, launching herself to-and-from the surface in the desperate bid, all the while keeping her head to the skies.
The seas turned red on her trail.
THe winged creature moved as if possessed, and each limb was thrown about without a care. As if there was no skeleton to hold it back.
In a way, it was enthralling to watch. Such a spectacle was foreign in her eyes.
But seeing such distress in a mystical being, was sickening. Her stomach lurched with each second that passed.
Opening her palm, she propelled her arms to add extra strength to her swims, and nothing but basic gravitation could hold her back.
For it was then, the creature fell.
Yumemi had always thought something "falling" from that height would be graceful. Something slow and timeless.
But it was so simple. Fast. Heavy. Feathers and red liquid trailing after it. Like a rock falling into the water after breaking off a clifftop.
Head-first, it was headed straight for the sea.
Flesh tore from his hand as he clawed at the cliff tops in a panic. Skidding down the side made pain burn in his skin.
And then, nothing.
Open air.
The smell of the salt waters lingered. Linger… wafting…
Drifting…
No more arrows… it had worked...
Amma…
This was one place she feared to tread.
Yumemi peered over the side of the rocky bank, beady eyes wide as she stared at the winged creature. She dared not get any closer.
Garbed in red, in both the wings and in the cuts on it's body, the creature was barely alive. Strange fins that were loose streamed from it's head, the same colour as it's wings. Around it's waist were a strange cloth that concealed the rest of it's skin. Golden circles decorated it's arms.
But the wings, oh, the wings were beautiful.
They were wider than any fins, and were made of… were they called feathers? The feathers were a strange texture. Almost like wet seaweed, but dry.
The creature had landed head-first in the water, a mere swim away from where she had been. It hadn't been easy, but Yumemi had managed to throw his unresponsive body onto the nearest rockbed.
Is it alive? The thought wouldn't stop playing in her head. It was worse than the siren's call.
Her hand trembled as she poked him, before quickly retreating back to the rock.
She waited. When there was no response, she peeked up again.
The sleeping creature hadn't moved. But it's chest heaved, however faintly, so she was sure it wasn't dead yet.
Yet.
Yumemi bit her lip, before she rummaged through her bag. Several seaweed wraps, unused, lay there. She glanced over at the wounds on the arms and the…
And the…
Yumemi grew puzzled.
What were those things? [5]
She let go of the rock to swim down a little, before hauling herself upon the rough surface. Gently, she took the strange limb in her hand, and tilted her head.
She had seen similar things before-brief glimpses of sea birds using those claws to hook fish that swam too near the surface, taking them away to nests on the cliff-side. Such things were on these winged creatures too? They were certainly longer than she had expected them to be.
They must be terrible for swimming. Still-
She yelped when something clamped around her wrist, gripping so tight she felt the blood in her veins slow.
Golden eyes leered at her. The winged creature had woken up.
Her stomach lurched.
It was breathing heavily, and blood dripped from it's mouth. It held her wrist up high so she couldn't flee, even if she willed it with all her being. The glare rendered her exposed and scared.
"Who…" It coughed heavily and shivered. "What… are you?"
Everything was messy in his head.
Every thought. Every memory. A blur and a vivid picture, all at once.
Ryuley. Amma. Kingdom. Arrows.
Blood.
Munto looked down at himself. He was bleeding. A lot.
And then there was the fish-woman.
The woman (he assumed-however, those musings were rather inaccurate at the time) with the gills and fins, stared at him with fearful intrigue. Green eyes were wide and doe-like, and her head fins puffed up.
Stories had been passed down. Never to linger for too long near the waters. Salt waters. They harbinger death and foreboding. Soul-stealing. Dangerous.
Then, there were the beings that lived there. Mermaid? Merfolk? Common nicknames. Childhood songs. There were no names otherwise. Mere superstitions that became logic in the older minds of his people, and instilled fear into an entire generation.
And one was staring right at him, like it were he that was the odd sight.
"Who…" He coughed and spluttered, and a shiver went through his spine. The air down there was cold. Must be the salt. "What... are you?"
That ambush has swallowed your common sense. As if she can understand the words you speak. Even your own kind don't understand you. [6]
The fish-woman stared at him, and blinked. (Oddly-did she have two sets of eyelids for each eye?) She opened her pale blue lips to speak, before sealing them shut again.
He glanced at the hand he had clamped around her wrist, and immediately let go. Trained instinct. But no way to win answers.
Open approach.
"Can you understand me?" He coaxed with a soft voice. "Who are you?"
She paused for a few moments, before pointing at a his chest. Looking down, he noticed a large pool of blood spilling out.
When he looked back at her, she had something in her hand. Green. Some sort of plant. Medicinal properties, perhaps?
His hand covered the wound, and he felt beads of sweat roll down his forehead. "Ah. I… failed to notice." He gestured to the plants in her hand. "Can those help?"
The fish-woman pursed her lips, before breaking off a piece of the plant, and wrapping it around her wrist. She first pointed at the wrapped wrist, and then at Munto's bleeding wounds.
I suppose that is her way of confirming it. Well, this help is the best I can get for now, so there's little use in arguing with her.
Munto winced in pain. Any longer and I may as well have made that suicide plan a reality.
"I would… appreciate it."
Olive skin that was warm to the touch.
Yumemi had never felt anything like it. Radiating warmth like hotsprings, yet soft to the touch. Eyes that caught the glinting of the sun. He was an utter alien [7] to her eyes, but the uncertainty was the only thing that connected them.
As she wrapped the seaweed around his bleeding wounds (and after he'd hissed at her in pain more than necessary), they had sat in an awkward silence. Two species side by side, watching as the night cast it's veil over the sun. It was a testament to their species's attitudes toward one another.
Elders of her lagoon home warned her and her friends daily never to look to the sky. That the creatures there would snatch them away and feast on their flesh, or take them to be slaves, or other such words that begged proof. Stories were the only thing they had, and it was all they based their logic on.
But she was different.
As a child, the skies had called to her. Dreams of a different view-to look down on the seas rather than up-to feel the sky water (clouds?) in her hands. Could they swim in it? How was it held up there? Everything was fascinating to her.
She tied the last knot, and the winged-man flexed his knuckles. "Thank-you." He said.
She wasn't sure how to respond. Her voice was usually her biggest weapon. Only those she trusted could hear the normal tone.
So instead, she nodded.
The winged-man drew a leg (that is what he had called it) up and rested his arm upon his knee (also what he had called it), and stared at her with quizzical wonder. Such an intense observer made her squirm in her seat, made her head fins open up.
"Are your kind unable to speak?" His jaw clicked as he spoke. "Or are you afraid of me?"
If I was afraid of you, then I wouldn't be here. Nor would I have saved your life in the first place. She argued back mentally.
But instead, she opted to shake her head.
He sighed deeply. "From the frown on your face, you are not afraid. Yet you still refuse to speak to me."
For a moment, she opened her mouth. Unlike water from a stream, however, nothing flowed smoothly. Mere gasping noises and a small "click".
Her hands clasped each other into a tight fist and she settled it on the lap of her light-green tail. She then sighed.
"Do you at least have a name?"
Her head snapped up to look at him.
"I assume you know what a name is.
A small nod followed.
"Are you allowed to tell me what it is?" He asked, thought it followed with his lips curling into a smirk. "I do not wish to keep thinking you as a woman who stole the tail of a fish."
Her head fins puffed up as she restrained a squeal, and her skin swept with a blue, chilled blush.
I am NOT a...he called me a FISH! [8]
"Oh?" A laugh played on his lips. "You take offense to that?"
She folded her arms and huffed, looking away. Obviously.
"Well, then." His voice took a gentler octave, and she peered back around again. "Is there something I can call you by? If not your true name, then something you wouldn't mind me addressing you as?"
Yumemi paused for a moment. "True" names were something passed around easily. But it were voices that were precious to use. Family, close friends, elders. Only they would ever hear a Siren's true, protected voice. The voice that could not lure.
"..."
The winged-man smiled a little at her. He wasn't pushing. Just waiting.
She took a deep breath, then whispered;
"Yu...me...mi."
Yu-Me-Mi.
Yumemi.
Yuuumeeeemiiiiii. [9]
Such a strange name it was. But fitting for someone born of salty waters. Not a name he would associate with royalty or nobility, but Munto wasn't going to presume. Perhaps the world under there didn't work in the same manner of those who ruled the skies.
He was surprised she knew his native tongue, but he had heard legends of the merfolk songs. Perhaps she had learned it via mimicry. Or maybe he had picked up on her language. After the fall, he wasn't sure of much beyond his own name.
But one thing did puzzle him.
"A-and you?" She stammered. "Your name is…?"
Her voice was so quiet.
Munto glared. "It's not "you". You may call me Lord Munto."
She tilted her head. "Lord? Munto? Why do you have two names?" [10]
This may take longer than I thought. "I don't." He explained. "Lord is a title. Munto is my name."
"So I should call you… just Munto, then."
"Lord Munto, I-"
"Lord has no meaning where I come from. Why should I use it?"
"Because it connotes respect where I am from."
"I saved you. If anyone is deserving of respect here, it is I. Don't you think?"
That silenced him.
If there was one thing that Munto prided more than his title or heritage, it was his affinity for the truth. It was something he would never deny, no matter the cost of his pride or dignity.
And the look on her face tested him to the very brink of that moral code.
"...Munto it is then, I suppose." He gave in, finally, though his shoulders slumped a little as he massaged his temples.
She hummed in satisfaction.
"Do not be so smug." He growled, "if I wasn't in your debt, I wouldn't condone it."
"But you are in my debt." For a moment, her voice slipped, though Munto figured that she didn't notice. "So I shall be smug."
Munto's only response was a weak growl.
"So… these feathered wings." He turned his head to see her fingertips barely touching one of the frayed red feathers. "Are yours broken?"
Beyond belief.
"I will be able to fly soon." He told her, folding his wings so she could get a better look. The plumage had lost it's sheen, the ends of the golden trim were frayed, and he was stranded on a crossroads between salt waters and utter death. Yumemi didn't know these things, though. She just stared at the wings like they were gold. "But the condition they are now… I will be stranded here. For the time being."
"Stranded?"
"Yes." He stroked his chin. "Meaning I cannot go anywhere, even if I want to."
She held a webbed hand over her mouth, and her eyes widened. "That sounds like a horrible thing to happen to someone!"
He shrugged. "The options for me were limited."
"What were those things that hurt you?"
"Creatures with that were desperate and had nothing to lose. You'll be surprised how terrifying that combination can be if you put a weapon in their hands."
Yumemi seemed not to have a word to respond to that. She dipped her tail in the waters, creating small ripples that disturbed an otherwise peaceful ocean.
"Oh..!"
Yumemi's head shot up.
Munto looked around. Nothing was in sight. Everything was peaceful.
"Is… everything alright?"
"I…" She glanced nervously toward the salt waters. "I need to go back, now."
His head lifted off of his hand. "I understand."
"..." He noticed she couldn't bring herself to speak.
Yet he couldn't resist asking the question hanging in the air: "will I see you again?"
She pursed her pale-blue lips tightly. Waiting. Thinking.
He had all but given up before she finally answered.
"You...shall."
A second later, and she had vanished beneath the salt waters, leaving little evidence of her being there in the first place. Just the empty air, and the rock looking more open than before.
Munto blinked, watching her strong tail flick her further down into the depths of the dark waters, before she was a mere moving dot in the dark blue. It was like she was flying in the waters. "Swimming", was what they had called it in the stories his mother once told him.
His heart clenched, and he tore his gaze from the sight. He lifted his wrist to look at the wrappings, and felt his eyes sting.
He laid back on the rock, his wings spread out. The sun had all but vanished, and his homelands were so far they may as well have been stars.
Tears from a King of his people had fables that they could heal even the most grievous of wounds.
All he felt were the emotional scars tear wide open.
This is how low I have fallen…? Shot down by my own kin, stranded and cared for by a childhood fable? Unable to even fly away to assist my own?
"Cursed child."
Were they right all along?
He covered his eyes with his hands, and bit his lip so hard that it bled.
Forgive me, Amma...
a/n: Based on my good friend Ari's AU "The Bird and the Fish", hence the quotation in the summary. This is a piece that I've written in a time where my head was all askew, and I had a fair amount of free time on my hands. Therefore, this piece was created! I will be updating chapters to this, but college life for me begins soon, so yeah. ^_^ Notes are undercut:
[1] - "Visions are a mere echo of an infinite amount of possible pathways." - Based on Steven Universe's character Garnet, and her description of her "Future Vision" powers. Also explains how Ryuley "sees" the future. She sees it sort of like logical conclusions/alternate takes. Except for her eyes to be blinded, she saw the true path, or the one most likely to happen. And she saw every detail, which blinded her.
[2] - " "You... you know that you are my everything." - THEY ARE NOT ROMANTICALLY INTERESTED. Just if I didn't make that clear, Munto is not in love with his Amma. But keep that line in mind. It means everything to Munto.
[3] - "It was haunting and terrifying, and warmed her to the very bone." - Instead of "chilled" to the bone, she's "warmed". Yumemi isn't cold blooded, but she does live in cold waters. She's not entirely warm blooded, more like lukewarm. Hence the "chilled" blushes, too.
[4] - ""There he is! Aim for the red wings!" - Munto is royalty. He is a King. His is proud of his red wings. Red = royalty.
[5] - "What were those things?" - Referring to Munto's legs, Yumemi has never seen a land mammal. Hence, no legs. The closest she's seen is are otters and sea birds. (She likes them though)
[6] - "Even your own kind don't understand you." - Munto baby likes to angst a lot. Ryuley's "you are my everything" links in well in later chapters, don't worry. It will make sense. :D
[7] - "He was an utter alien in her eyes." - Just a reference to the anime when Yumemi says Munto is a "stalker alien ghost". Eh, I thought it was a nice little tidbit.
[8] - "I am NOT a...he called me a FISH!" - Yumemi has little head fins on her head that open and puff up when she's embarrassed, shocked, angry, or flustered. She's also got little fangs too. Being called a "fish" where she's from is actually pretty offensive. Not derogatory, but she doesn't like it very much. There's a good reason for it, though.
[9] - "Yuuumeeeemiiiiii." Munto just being a dork and testing out Yumemi's name in his head. It also sounds familiar. Maybe.
[10] - "Lord? Munto? Why do you have two names?" - Yumemi speaks in italics because she's pretty much whispering and disguising her voice. Sirens often use loud voices to attract prey (human males), whilst using their real voices only around those they trust. She doesn't want to hurt Munto because she's curious, but she can't use her true voice, either. It's pretty taboo, too. Also, the Sirens/Merfolk don't have last names. They don't need them.
Please review, and I hoped you enjoyed the first chapter!