The soft calming sound of waves hitting the beach, washing up tiny jellyfish and every now and then some wooden boards, or trash. Keith was lying on his stomach, on a rock close to the abandoned side of the beach. Nobody came there. Too many crabs, and rocks to sunbath there. The water, however, was fine. By now, that side of the beach had become Keith's place of peace. Hidden behind two large rocks, was a somewhat flat rock, just big enough for Keith's body to lay, and his tail to be in the water. Keith gradually opened his eyes and glanced out on the open waters. In the far distance, he could see a ship. Every ship was filled with interesting humans and funny things. However, Keith had no interest in them anymore. He had not had any interest in anything for roughly 4 months now. Not since then.
He gently let his tail flop up and down in the water a few times, to keep it from drying out. His fins were slightly damaged, even torn here and there which was slightly painful, but they were getting better every day. The red colour of his tail was no longer as red as it could have been. Due to the time spent in the sun, the colour was slowly fading day by day. The bruises and marks on his skin were also fading day by day. Slowly but surely. The once bloody and painful bite marks and claw marks were now transparent bruises on his otherwise pale skin. The fracture he had on the corner of his lips was still very visible. Every now and then he would touch it, scratch it even. It never had enough peace to heal, so it was still a mess. He was a mess. His skin and his tail was a mess. His body and mind was a rotting dying mess day by day. Keith gently closed his eyes and started humming quietly to himself. The lullaby his mother had hummed when he was a child. He still had vivid flashes from that day. The faithful day his world was turned upside down.
It happened roughly 4 months ago. His life had been fine. Keith had always been a loner by nature, but he lived alongside the rest of the mermaids and mermen. Females and males of all shapes, sizes and colours. None as red as Keith though. He arrived alone with his mother, so no one really knew where Keith had gotten his red colours from. He never played with anyone, nor spoke much to anyone unless required. Few tried to get close to him but gave up quick. However, he felt home there. He had lived there since he was very small. It's never easy to flee what you call home. But his mother had told him to swim as fast as he could, as far away as possible. He did as told, but had not seen or heard from her since. The day the sharks attacked. Grey, vicious with desire for chaos and destruction, and a taste for blood no matter who it came from. Nobody had seen the attack coming. Some kids had told the king that they had seen sharks lurk around, but they were not taken seriously. Everyone probably regretted not taking them seriously now. If anyone was even still alive. The sharks tore up everything. It was easy since it was not just one or two sharks. They did move in herds. Huge flocks of big sharks, in need of food. It was simply bad luck that the mermaids were in their path. They swam in, using their tails to destroy the statues and houses mermaids had spent generations building. It was the first time Keith had seen how a kid could fit perfectly into a sharks mouth. The first time he had seen so much blood in the otherwise so clear water. Pieces of mermaid tails, skin, fingers, hair, flowing around in the water that had been perfectly clear only moments earlier. Everywhere he looked there were mermaids crying, trying to swim away. Till this day, Keith knew there were some out there who got away just like him. There was no way he could be the only one to escape the attack.
His mother had protected him till her own tail got caught in the teeth of a grey shark with black spots. Keith met the shark's eyes at that moment. It scared Keith, despite him not being a little kid anymore. He was 18, yet got so scared. He watched as his own mother cried in pain, through tears in her eyes, yelling at him to swim as far away as possible. He was frozen till her screams mixed in with other screams, and he finally swam away. He swam as fast as his tail could carry him. As far as his energy could take him. It must have been the adrenaline because he got pretty far away. He was not left unharmed though. He was bruised, wounded, and he left a trail of his blood. So he decided to stay on the shallow water, to make sure the sharks could not follow him. Which led him to where he was now. He had not been out on open waters since. He kept close to the beach at all times. The only time he went slightly further out was to get food. And even then, he would be careful and stay out of plain sight. That was the day Keith lost everything. His mother. His friends. His home. Even parts of himself. There was no way he could have done anything. But he watched as his mother cut the shark with her knife, fighting it. Thinking back at it now, Keith felt bad for fleeing instead of helping. Could he have done something? Or was this the best choice? Keith did not know, but he was growing weaker day by day. He wanted to go back but was too scared to. His mother had been so strong, so why was he not? Was she alive? Was she looking for him? What about his friends? Shiro? the rest of the mermaids?
A rumble from Keith's stomach brought him back from the flashes of his past. He was hungry again. 'Again' was an understatement. He ate too little as it was. His ribcage was starting to show. His body had surely gone into starvation mode long ago. Keith slowly sat up and ran his hand through his black hair. His blue eyes gazed over the water, before peaking by the rock that covered him. He always made sure nobody saw him. Sharks were one thing, but humans were another. Keith had heard tales of how ruthless humans could be. Still, Keith felt comfort close to their beaches. Safe almost. He was still more terrified of sharks than humans. So far the humans had kept away. Nobody came to this side of the beach, and surely they would not randomly look for anything by the rocks. But sharks would never come so close to human territory. As far as Keith was concerned, the sharks were more afraid of humans than he was. Or perhaps the other way around? Or maybe, sharks just did not go into such shallow waters. They would surely get stuck.
Keith's eyes suddenly landed on something white on the beach sand. From the distance, it was impossible to see what it was exactly, but it looked much like a box. A white box. In the middle of the sand. Keith stared at it for a while before his eyes glanced around on the beach, the cliffs and the rocks. Nobody was around. However, this white object did not look like anything that had been washed up from the sea. It was too far in, and to perfectly placed. Every thought told Keith it was a trap. But Keith's curiosity was almost overwhelming. He let himself slip into the water. Carefully as to not hurt his body anymore. He swam closer to the beach, with only half of his face peeking above the water surface. His eyes darted around him to make sure he was really alone. He was on guard. As vigilante as ever. As he drifted closer to the beach, the water around him started disappearing. The box was a little further from where the waves flowed back into the sea. But close enough for Keith's tail to still touch the water. He carefully peeked into the white box but pulled back quickly as the content inside made a sound. Whatever was inside the white box was moving, and making sounds. Keith was considering going back to the water, till a pair of furry ears, two blue eyes and little nose peeked over the top of the box, with a tiny meow. Keith's eyes went wide. His face peeked closer before he gently reached his hand in and touched the tiny creature's nose. He pulled his hand away quickly as the creature let out what sounded like a sneeze. Keith had never seen anything like this creature. He had witnessed a slightly bigger creature bark out to him once before a human called out to it. But that was 2 months ago. This creature was smaller, and it looked more fragile. The creature inside the box moved slightly, clearly trying to escape the white box prison. Keith's eyes narrowed slightly as his hand waved down the box to the side, and the creature jumped out of it.
This creature was special. It had ocean deep blue eyes and black fur with white spots. Some of the spots looked very pale turquoise rather than white. Its nose was pink, and so were the little pillows on its paws. Keith had never seen anything like it. The creature, however, was fascinated by Keith. It went closer to Keith's face and placed it's two front paws on each of Keith's cheeks, while it vigorously sniffed at him. Keith watched the creature carefully, almost mesmerized by it. It then stepped down and started walking around Keith. It sniffed Keith's skin and tail. Even paid special attention to every little wound it found on Keith's skin and tail. It then jumped onto Keith's back, with no warning.
"H-Hey!" Keith wiggled slightly to get the creature off, but the creature refused to jump down again, and shamelessly continued to sniff Keith's skin, up to his hair. As the creature came up closer to Keith's face, it let out yet another tiny miaow.
"I, I don't understand you, sorry" Keith muttered as he sat up and picked the creature up in his two hands. Its eyes followed Keith, and it looked rather happy for someone who had just been picked up into the air.
"What are you?" Keith questioned as he carefully studied the creature.
"Miaow" The creature answered.
"Is, Is that your name?" He looked into the creature's eyes.
"Miaow. Mioooow!" The cat answered once again. Keith then put the creature down on the sand again. He studied the creature as it jumped happily around on the sand, and played with the waves that gently brushed onto the sand. The creature looked genuinely happy to be there and alive.
Keith looked around, but there were still no traces of any humans nor bigger creatures. He still had no clue why he was still there. He was hungry and needed food. He slowly pushed himself out towards the water, but stopped once he watched the creature try to follow. He had never seen a creature like that in the water, so surely it did not belong out at sea. Keith let his tail submerge into the water before turning to look at the creature. It was so small, and water quickly covered its four feet, and it stopped to look at Keith. Keith frowned slightly.
"Stay there. You'll probably drown" Keith sighed. He watched as the creature jumped out of the water and sat down on dry sand. It was simply watching Keith, as Keith slowly made his way out into deeper water again. He ducked into the water and started searching for food. He found some seaweed, along with some underwater berries. He would try to catch a fish, but he had nothing to make a net, nor any weapon. So up till now, his diet had consisted of seaweed, berries, and now and then small fish that were easy to catch. He returned to the surface again. His attention was quickly caught to the sounds from the shore.
Keith swam up to his peaceful rocks. The creature was still by the white box, but it was not alone anymore. There were so many confusing things happening on shore now. A metal bucket. The little creature. And a human. The metal bucket was sitting beside the white box. The little creature was carelessly jumping around the human. The human boy had a smile as he played with the creature. What if the creature was dangerous? Perhaps it was not. It did, however, have teeth and claws. But it looked happy to see the human boy. The human boy had brown hair, way shorter than Keith. His skin was also way tanner than Keith's skin. He had an army green jacket wrapped around his waist, blue shorts, and a grey t-shirt on. He looked really happy as he played around with the tiny creature. Keith's eyes caught a crab escaping the metal bucket while the boy was distracted. Keith leaned his head towards the rock as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. The boy and the tiny creature looked happy. Perhaps they knew how to communicate. God knows Keith had no idea what the tiny creature was saying.
It did not take long for the creature to notice Keith, and it immediately started meowing out to him. Keith's eyes went wide, and the human boy looked up. Keith quickly ducked under the water, to remain unseen.
"What's up, gatita?" the boy looked out in the direction the creature was moving at. Keith was praying that the human had not seen him, despite the unwanted attention the creature had brought upon him. Keith slowly made his way back out into deeper water, away from the shore. At least till the human was no longer there. He let himself sink to the bottom of the water, falling softly onto a bed of seaweed. He looked tiredly up at the fish that swam by above him. He needed actual food soon unless he really wanted to die young. His eyes closed slowly as he drifted into a more relaxed state of mind. The water was calming at the moment. No disturbance besides the occasional speedy fish, zooming by faster than the rest. It did not take long for Keith to fall into a light slumber.