Churning waves, restlessness of the water, burning sensation of saltwater when you open your eyes, and sudden loss of reality were things Arthur constantly finds himself in everyday.
Even when his lungs started burning, starving and needing oxygen, Arthur can't help but want, oh so needily, to stay for a just a bit more. Just a few more fleeting moments, before he starts seeing spots in his vision. He feels a constant need for it. A constant itch, driving him mad every time he has any interaction with the Ocean in his front yard.
He found it strange, annoying, irritating; nonetheless he enjoyed the feeling. His mother on the other hand...found it more worrisome than anything. His father amused by it. His brother found it odd, but didn't mind. And even though Arthur swore that he was okay with it, he still found himself questioning the odd quirk.
'This isn't remotely healthy; why do I enjoy it so much?' he questions. Arthur was still beneath the waves, still trapped in the tempting oasis; in the same waters that he (strangely) considered his home. 'Maybe I should stop coming here...but that means no more reefs...no more fishes, or water,' he thought again, not caring that small spots were starting to slip into his line of sight.
Slowly, the blonde Brit slowly moved his arm; just ever so slightly above his body. Strangely, or not so, since water was never predictable, the waves calmed. Allowing his body to not be moved harshly, but remain rather still.
Ah...it hurts...everything's becoming...so...confusing,' he thought. Just before he would have passed out, and surely drowned, his forearm was suddenly gripped and his upper body was lifted to the surface.
Suddenly the sound of splashing, seagulls, and the bright summer sun, assaulted Arthur. He began taking in large breaths, engulfing and taking more and more oxygen that his lungs oh so needed. Vivid, mesmerizing emerald eyes squinting, trying to prevent the sun from harming him further. As soon as the blonde calmed down, another arm grabbed him and pulled him out of the water, right into a rather small white boat.
"You're so odd, little one. Your obsession has become worse, дa?" a soft, cheery voice stated, rather than asked.
Arthur stayed motionless on floor of the boat, his breathing the only movement of his body. Eyes closed as he cataloged how long until his euphoria wore off. Not a minute passed before his bliss had successfully left him. His brows furrowed, a sigh slipping from his pale pink lips.
"Just like yours with sunflowers and vodka?" he retorted, voice slightly rough but elegant nonetheless, and notably foreign; just like the boy before him. A frown was still on his, beautiful, face. Even if he had thick, caterpillar like eyebrows.
"If you weren't my favorite brother, I would have hit you with my pipe," the silver haired and paler boy chuckled out softly. His face still held baby fat, making him seem so childish, voice matching it well. A pale and faded cream scarf wrapped around his neck, something extraordinarily strange seeing that it was currently 80 degrees.
"I'm your only brother, git," he spat, though his voice held no venom at all. A small twitch of his lips expressing his amusement. A hum of agreement was all he got, before a paddle was handed to him, somewhat gently. A groan escaped from the chapped pink lips, belonging to the Brit.
"I almost drowned, give me a break," Arthur whined, sitting up anyways; paddle in hand. A small snort came from the bigger of the two, as the silver haired boy placed the worn out paddle in the water. Furrowing one brow, looking at the wet boy in front of him with amusement.
"That's hardly my fault."
0-0-0-0
As the two boy paddled along, Arthur was mindlessly pondering. He glanced at the bulkier boy, analyzing his movements, and how the boat dipped more on his side than his own.
'It's amazing how we've haven't sunken this boat yet. The weight difference is probably hysterical.' A small smile appeared on his face for the first time in hours, Arthur finding it hilarious that his brother could cause their demise in the open, cruel ocean.
As time passed by, Arthur's mind started focusing on something more bothersome. Looking at the water as they kept moving, he glared at it. He couldn't understand, nor would he want to, but he kept thinking back to his recurring dreams. Was it ironic that his dreams were now plagued by his only real comfort? After turning sixteen, he's been haunted by strange dreams. Strange dreams, and terrifying memories of what happened on his birthday.
0-0-0-0
"Arthur! I swear that if you keep scaring Peter with your scones, you'll be banned from swimming for a week!" Hawika, Arthur's adoptive mother (who he loved dearly), shouted from the grill. A stern look on her tanned face as she glared at the two boys, who were currently running around their sandy backyard, a completely petrified expression plastered onto the blue eyed 9 year old.
Arthur immediately stopped, to the relief of Peter (who ran off while Arthur wasn't paying attention).
"But Muuuuuuuuum!" Arthur whined out, acting like a small child because he knew it was the only day he could get away with it.
"Don't 'but Mum' me mister! Now leave your cousin alone. The poor boy looked ready to wet himself," she tutted, shaking her head. Arthur grinned, innerly cackling as he succeeded in scaring Peter. He deserved it after all, what with all the teasing he did to Arthur about his cooking, it was only a matter of time before Arthur would get his revenge. Even though his mother, a Hawaiian native to the Island of Kaua`i, condoned the idea of revenge, his father Greg (who was a marine biologist at a local college, originally from Wisconsin) thought otherwise.
Walking towards his mother, Arthur pecked his mother's cheek swiftly and sweetly. He looked down at the rather short, brown eyed, dark skinned woman. A smile on his face as he saw his mother's own smile.
"Fine. Only because I love you, Mum. And because you're the one in charge of the grill," he said fondly. "I'm going into the water, okay mum?" he asked.
Hawika took a moment to think about it. She knew her son would whine her to death if she said no, or would end up getting into the water one way or another. But the sun was close to setting and then it would become too dangerous for him to be in the water. Weighing the Pro's and Con's, she soon figured the Pro's outweigh the Con's and so she let her son go with a nod of approval.
"Thanks." And with that Arthur made his way to the open waters, already in his swim trunks.
Relishing the feeling of the cool salty water engulf his entire body, Arthur began swimming farther out and not having a care in the world. Just as he began swimming back to the surface to check on how the sun was positioned, he heard a high pitched distressed scream, pleading, wailing for help.
He frowned, and went ahead to the surface. Knowing that he would need more oxygen if he was going to investigate. And so he did, expelling the air in his lungs and taking a lung full of air after breaking the water's surface, before diving back down.
Thoroughly looking around the water as he kept swimming closer to where the sounds were originating, he spotted the problem. A juvenile dolphin had a plastic soda ring tightly around it's snout. The poor thing was thrashing around kept letting distressed sounds. Arthur's heart broke at the sight of it, and quickly swam over, though he started swimming slower and calmer as the dolphin became more agitated, scared that Arthur would harm them.
"Stay away! Don't hurt me!" It shrieked.
Arthur was stunned. Had he actually heard the dolphin speak? No. It couldn't have been. Dolphin's don't speak with human words, nor do humans hear or understand what dolphin's say.
"Stay back! I'm warning you!" It shouted, trying it's best to look threatening to Arthur.
Arthur tentatively reached out with his hand, trying to show that he was not going to harm the poor thing, just help it instead.
"Calm down, I don't want to hurt you. I just want to help you," Arthur said calmly.
The dolphin looked surprised, and startled by being able to hear Arthur. It looked at Arthur more carefully, trying to figure out if Arthur was just human, or something else... Slowly, the dolphin swam closer to Arthur, though still hesitant about the situation.
"That's it, just let me help...," he murmured, pulling out a pocket knife from his shorts. At the sight of the blade, the dolphin started moving away from Arthur. Scared out of its mind, thinking that Arthur was going to hurt them again.
"Hey! Calm down! I just need to cut the thing off! Hold still!" He scolded and finally got the dolphin to relax as best as it could. With quick movement, Arthur managed to cut off the ring from the dolphin's beak. Though as he cut away, he started to run out of air. He knew soon that he would have to resurface.
After being freed from the nasty prison, the dolphin quickly put some distance between itself and Arthur. It kept analyzing Arthur, trying so desperately to figure out what was going on with him. Unbeknownst to it, Arthur was now struggling to keep himself in the water.
"Thank...you...My name's Sandy. As a token of my appreciation, call out my name whenever you're in trouble or need help," Sandy hesitantly spoke, keeping her eyes on the pale human before her. Arthur nodded, still finding it odd he could speak to a dolphin, but then figured this was all apart of his oxygen deprived brain. He was about to ask Sandy for help to the surface, (god knows why he would have actually asked since it was all part of his brain) when suddenly a sharp pain arose within his neck.
One hand went to clamp around mouth, trying to prevent himself from screaming and losing all his oxygen, while the other when to touch his neck. Trying to sooth the intensifying pain that grew with each second. The pain was too much, that Arthur couldn't hold back his scream anymore. To any human in the water, they wouldn't have heard it. Just the disruption of his bubbles, which floated to the surface. But to the animals around, they could hear the painful screams of agony.
Sandy was no exception. She heard it loud and clear, and was honestly terrified for Arthur. Quickly, she started pushing Arthur up to the surface with her head and snout, wanting to make sure that he wouldn't drown on her.
Arthur just could not focus on anything other than the constant waves of pain hitting his neck. Soon the pain started traveling towards his midsection and legs, crippling him beyond belief. He felt as if his lower half was being slowly placed into a tub of acid, while hundreds of blades started shredding at his neck. Halfway to the surface, Arthur had blacked out. He just couldn't handle the pain anymore, and everything just went black.
The next thing he knew, he was awake and had an oxygen mask on his face. He was disoriented by the sudden bright lights, the sound of machines beeping away, and the overwhelming smell of sterile conditions. Groggily, he tried to turn his head to the right, but immediately stopped when he felt a sharp jab of pain. Blinking, the overly bright room finally came into focus. Just as he finally got his bearings, someone came into the room.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Arthur. I must say, you gave us quite the scare. We didn't know if it we got you here too late and permanent brain damage had occurred. Luckily for us, you seem to have no permanent damage. Just a really sore neck, legs—which by the way, I don't quite know how, maybe over working them—," he tutted lightly, "and some minor liquid in the lungs, but don't worry we got it all taken care of," the doctor rambled on, while checking Arthur's vitals and his chart.
"Now Arthur, I really recommend you don't go back into the water for a couple of weeks, a month at the least. I'm going to tell your parents about this, okay? Don't give me that look, it's for your health." The man scolded lightly, a small frown on his tanned face, brown eyes looking sternly at Arthur.
Arthur whined, not wanting to be away from the water for so long, but knew it would get him no where. The doctor took this as a sign of acceptance and signed a few papers on the plastic blue clipboard.
"Alright then, I'll go tell your family that you've finally regained consciousness. And remember, no swimming. Got it?" And before Arthur could mumble a response, the doctor was out of the room, and on his way to inform Arthur's anxious family.
0-0-0-0
"We've arrived, little one," the silver haired boy murmured sweetly as he got out of the boat, and into the shallows of the water before grasping the left side of the boat and dragging it ashore, along with Arthur in it.
Arthur was brought out of his small flashback, and got out of their small wooden boat once it was on shore.
"Hey Ivan, do you believe in the possibility of being able to speak with dolphins?" He suddenly asked, as he helped flip the boat to its side in order to lift it up into the air and carry it home.
Ivan stayed quiet, thinking for a moment. A pensive look on his chubby face. Soon, as he picked the boat up and lifted it to where Arthur could also carry, he responded.
"I think doctor Johnson missed something on your last MRI scan. You surely are becoming crazier than usual, little brother," Ivan teased. A smile on his pale face as he heard Arthur scoff from behind him, a scowl surely on his face, marring his beauty slightly.
"Oh go and do fuck yourself on that blasted pipe of yours, brother," Arthur hissed. Clearly he was annoyed from Ivan's jab at his level of imagination. Of course it wasn't possible that some dolphin had talked to him, just like how Flying Mint Bunny didn't exist. Nor did Uni the unicorn. Or at least, that's what he kept telling himself.
A giggle was all he got from Ivan, so Arthur just sighed and mumbled a quiet apology for his harsh words. At the very least they were close to their wood shack, painted white and blue by their mother and father, where they would store their boat.
After putting away the boat, the two brothers headed inside of the house. The house was white, the window frames painted a navy blue. The porch had three steps leading up to it, and a swinging sofa hanging in it, the sofa colored white with blue stripes and small square pillows with blue pearls printed on it. Both boys knew their parents were still at work, so they made their way to the 3rd floor and into their separate rooms. Arthur walked towards his small desk and sat down. It was a varnish coated black desk with drawers beneath it, and two small cabinets on top of it, able to become bookshelves. He smiled as he remembered it took a lot of work for this little desk to be here. It was an IKEA desk, so naturally, it drove his father mad.
One small chuckle passed his lips before he began looking through the books in his shelves. All the books were organized alphabetically by Author's last names, so he searched the B's until he found the book he wanted. Slowly he pulled the book out, and reached for his rectangle, thick black framed glasses. Placing the lenses on the bridge of his nose, he gently traced his finger along the golden gilded words of the cover.
Mythical Creatures Around Us
By: Daniela D. Beilschmidt
The book was a hard cover. The cover itself was a royal blue, though the outlines were a seafoam green. Humming to himself, appraising the choice in style, and how the words were a golden color, he opened the book and read from the beginning. He chose to ignore the fact that he didn't quite remember ever getting this book, only knowing for sure that his father said it was with his stuff when he moved into his room.
Time flew past him, and before he knew it, it was already 5 pm. He was lost in the last chapter he read and was still currently reading. Each chapter in the book was named after a city, or village, that according to the book, was important to each magical being within the book. The book also held supposed tales of each mythicals creation, and culture. The current chapter was explaining a mythical that had bothered Arthur, and at the same time, ravished his attention.
"The Mermaids used to live within one great kingdom, Serenity. Their goddess, Selene, a woman with brown skin, luminescent silky white hair, and eyes that rivaled her beloved blue waters, had created a paradise on Earth. She had force herself to weep, and told her handmaiden to collect her tears with her silver goblet, whose rim was encrusted with jewels that held galaxies within them. The handmaiden, Yerina, a young pale beau with raven hair, silver eyes with flecks of purple here and there, obliged.
Once the tears were collected, the goddess took the goblet and brought it to her lips, whispering a faint prayer and blessing to the water before pouring it onto the giant, exposed valleys and holes from above her palace in the sky. As the water filled the empty spaces on Earth, the goddess and her handmaiden collected stars from the vast sky, and forged life from them. She and the maiden had created fishes, sharks, dolphins, and every creature in between. Placing a kiss on each creations forehead before gently sending them into the waters, the two watched from above as the new life thrived.
Years passed, and soon the goddess became lonely. She loved her first creations dearly, but they could not communicate with her, nor could they worship her. Seeing what her older brother, Aroldo, had created, it made her loneliness ache more. Her brother had created Earth, and created animals to roam his lands but, he had created one animal that her brother loved dear.
Humans. Strange creatures, appearing like the gods. They could stand on both feet, could speak in a tongue and communicate well with others of its kind. Each similar, but also unique. All roamed in peace, lived in harmony with the animals on their creators land, and most importantly, loved their creator. Completely devout to her brother, and talked to him as if he was a close friend, but also held a high respect for him.
She seeked this. Wanted to create a creature like this, who would talk to her, love her, and just loved her presence. And so it was, that the goddess collected a mass of stars, and commanded her handmaiden to slice her wrist, and let her blood drop onto the stars. With a smile, she kissed the glowing mass and went down to her heaven, personally watching as her new creation was formed.
Out of the glowing ball, five pairs of two creatures were formed. One pair had beautiful tails, one had a orange scaled one, several scales colored gold and the fin itself was a pale yellow. The other had a dark blue tail, one able to blend into the darker waters. It's scales were a combination of navy hues and lighter royal ones. The fin was a light, baby blue with flecks of white. As the two looked at their creator, a smile appeared on both. Selene was elighted, and touched both their tails. Suddenly their tails had begun to glow, swirls and intricate patterns formed and glowed.
"You two shall roam the Middle Waters," She said, receiving a nod from the two. She looked at the pair next to them.
The two there had tails like that of one of her most beloved animals, the Orca. Thick, yet smooth and sleek tails white a white underbelly, and the back of their tail being black. On their own back, they had firm and proud standing black dorsal fin. Kissing their foreheads, receiving smiles from them as well, she went to the other pair. On and on she continued admiring her new creations—no, children, as she loved them so, she let them roam free.
Through the years, the peace between all her children lasted. And her favorites had multiplied, growing in numbers and created civilizations grander than her brothers. Built out of gold, natural sea reefs, eye catching corals, and astonishing sea rock carvings. However, being beings that had free will, and a more advanced mind then the others, her favorited children attacked. And just like her brothers creatures, had rebelled, save for her smallest child and most beautiful one.
Amiss all the bloodshed and horror that was going through her beloved waters, the kind goddess became a vengeful one.
"I loved you near and dear. You were my children, and favorited; but now, I see. I see the unforgettable mistake I have made in loving you so. As punishment for your heinous crimes against your siblings, your children will suffer," She announced calmly and collectively, voice cold and chilling. More so than the waters of the north and south which her youngest inhabited. She had appeared in her childrens grandest city, Serenity. Commanded all her favorited there, and looked at them with a stoic expression, something so strange and terrifying to the mers as they've only seen her have a loving smile at them.
"For the mass slaughter of young from the East and West, I demand that the Kingdoms and pods of the East and West give me their pups." The goddess was stern, and left no room for argument. The families cried in anguish, pleading for their mother to not take their children. Their cries and pleads fell on deaf ears as the goddess collected the children with a swipe of her hand.
"For the crimes that you have committed, all shall be punished." And without another word, the mighty goddess lifted her hand which glowed brightly with a red hue, and swiped across the water. The glow spread rapidly around each mer, capturing them and wrapping around them. As much as it hurt her to hear the screams of agony, she did not let her stoic face drop.
Symbols were seared onto the mers, three different types were made. A black 'A' was burned onto the backs of the strongest mers. A β colored blue was burned onto the smaller, yet strong mers right back shoulder. A grey Ω was burned into the smallest mers lower back.
"And a harsher punishment will remind you, that you are creatures as well. Slaves to your own biology," She spat, launching another light at the biggest and smallest mers. A blue one hit the biggest, while a white one hit the smallest. They kept screaming in agony, waiting for it to stop. Soon, it was all over and the goddess left, moving back to her place in the sky, along with the pups she had taken. A tear had fallen during her trip, and that tear brought mercy to the mers. It gave them hope, and faith that they would regain their mothers forgiveness. Though the Western and Eastern mers had already given up and vowed to never forgive her for their new found curse, the North, South, and Middle mers held on to their hope. Wanting to have their mother love them again.
The mers found that along with being slaves to their newfound biology, as in the strongest mers going into a rut , and the smallest going into insatiable periods of lust and attracted many strong mers without having a mate, their once beautiful speech was gone. Instead they had to click, squeak and shriek to communicate. And, they no longer were the only ones to understand the concept of speech or could keep a conversation private from other animals.
It scared all of them beyond belief, but soon they used their minds. Even if they weren't the only ones able to speak, they could still outsmart the others. And that they did, wrangling other animals and bonding with them, using them as pets or helpers to hunt. The Middle mers decided to bond with dolphins, and befriend them. Allowing the dolphins to learn their language and speak freely with other mer—'
Arthur quickly closed the book, hissing in pain as his head started throbbing. All of a sudden his memory of that dolphin—Sandy? Did he actually talk to her, or was she just a hallucination? If he actually did talk to the dolphin, maybe—No. No. There was no way, no how, no possibility. It was impossible. It was just a hallucination and it would stay just that.
'Maybe I need a high dosage of that medicine Dr. Johnson prescribed...," Arthur thought as he rubbed his temples. A sigh passing through his lips before he placed the book back into it's space on his shelf. Standing from his chair, he took his glasses off from his face and placed them on the top shelf that held nothing aside from his family picture, one of him and Ivan as children (which never failed to bring the slightest of smiles on his face, and this time was no exception), and one of his small stuffed unicorn plushies.
Walking towards his twin bed, he lied upon his plaid green and blue comforter and rested his head on his forest green pillows. Staring up at his cream colored ceiling, he started feeling drowsy and the familiar becoming ache in the back of his head. He slowly closed his eyes, bracing himself for the sharp stinging to happen, but was surprised—pleasantly so—that he didn't. Though, a cool, wet and soggy sensation started appearing on his back. It took him a few moments, but then he realized that he hadn't changed from his swim trunks and white wife beater. Groaning in irritation of having to dry his sheets or sleep on the couch—which he dreadfully hated—he got up and headed to his closet, picking out a simple gray t-shirt and black shorts, along with red briefs.
Making his way to his bathroom inside his rather spacy sea foam painted room, he stripped and turned on the water.
After making sure the water was lukewarm with a free hand, he dried that hand and folded his clean clothing, placing it on the lid of the toilet, he checked himself in the large vanity above his sink. He wasn't one who cared that much of his own looks, but he was still sensitive about his brows. Looking at them made him wince, wishing he could do something to rid them from his face, but after a not-so-quite-sober-party at his best friends place, he knew it was just best to ignore them.
Admitting defeat, he grunted and slid the frost stained glass door before entering his much needed shower. As he was pouring a good amount of his blue colored shampoo into his hand, and then applying it to his light blonde hair, he couldn't stop his mind from drifting back to the book and his interaction with Sandy.
Was it really just all in his head? Or was it real? Or maybe it was just a mix of the both?
'Oh for the love of God, am I really going to drive myself completely and utterly bonkers over something so stupid?' Arthur scolded himself, massaging the shampoo into his hair before washing it all the suds away with the water. Since Arthur kept thinking back to it as he showered, right as he finished drying and dressing, he marched downstairs and checked the weird, cow clock that was sitting on the dining table. Checking the time, Arthur tutted and walked over to the cupboards above the kitchen counter. Opening it and grabbing a long purple colored case from it, he flipped one tab open and nodded.
"Knew it. It was all in my mind and because I forgot to take it, it keeps pestering me." He concluded. Taking the pills from his container, Arthur walked to the other cupboard containing the glasses, this one being next to the refrigerator which had a water filter, he filled the glass half way before pulling it away. Placing the pills in his mouth, Arthur quickly drank some water and grimaced as the pills went down. Being distracted from his growing hate for his pills, Arthur didn't notice Ivan walking down the stairs and watching in amusement from the kitchen door.
"Forgot to take your pills again, young one?" He asked, amused and slipping into his mother tongue.
Arthur jumped and nearly dropped his glass. Settling the class on the counter, Arthur slowly turned around to face his brother and glared daggers at the taller teen.
"For Christs sake! What's with you and scaring people! You complete arse!" Arthur shouted, hand over his heart to try and calm it. Ivan, the cheeky bugger, simply kept his smile and tilted his head to the side, keeping up his cute look.
"If I didn't scare people I wouldn't be able to have so much fun, right?" He replied, giggling as Arthur kept glaring at him, though he knew that his little brother would forgive him eventually. And if he didn't, well someone would have loose lips and tell their parents about the drunken incident Arthur tried so hard to forget.
Unknowingly, Ivan had caused Arthur to forget about his trouble with Sandy and the book. Though, nothing could distract Arthur from his nightmares, or keep them away. That night would be no exception.
A/N: So...there ya go! And to those who still like the old version better, I'll post it on my AO3 account later today or when I come back from school tomorrow.
Hope y'all like?