Out of Odda
One
Author Note: Here's a little thing I dreamed up.
DISCLAIMER: Please note that Odda is a real place in Norway. I have never been to Odda, let alone Norway, and all my information has come from a few, random Google searches. Please treat the Odda in this story as an AU to its real counterpart, as it will be riddled with errors if you were to compare this story's version and real life. Nevertheless, feel free to look it up on the map to see what sort of location I envision this story taking place!
I do not own Hetalia or its characters. However, this story is my own creation.
I hope you enjoy this adventure! -Apple xo
Lukas did not often find himself so desperate to escape the confines of his house, so when the feeling to flee overtook him, he wasn't exactly sure how to respond. He stood, wavering in the front hall of his house, shaking and unsure of what to do. He was in no real distress; his brother, Emil, was quietly reading by the fire with his stocking feet up on the coffee table, toes wriggling.
Emil turned a page and Lukas flinched, lurching for his heavy coat and woollen scarf hanging together on the wall by the door. He slipped into his sneakers and called over his shoulder, "I'm going out," before wrenching the door open and stumbling into the chilly, autumn air. He heard his brother hum in response before the door closed behind him.
He buttoned up his coat and adjusted his scarf, glancing at the sky and the pale sun sliding lower into the sky, descending on the mountains across the water from his house. His breath fogged into the air; it smelled like sea salt, frost, and the smoke that curled from the fireplaces in cozy homes, the logs half collapsed on themselves and glowing with living embers, the air smelled like home. He contemplated going back inside for some gloves, but shrugged the feeling away before turning down the road at a brisk walk, stuffing his hands deep into his coat pockets for warmth.
He wasn't sure where he was going, but he found himself drawn to the water, moving along the edge of it until his little town was nothing more than twinkling lights at his back. The restlessness was consuming him from the inside out, driving him forward blindly until his feet splashed into the water and his shins knocked against a small rowboat. He blinked dazedly down, surprised at his predicament, his eyes having been trained on the horizon for an unmeasurable amount of time.
Without thinking, he untied the boat and climbed inside, shoving off of the shore. He removed his shoes and poured out the water, resting them at the end of the boat before nestling down into the bottom. He stared up at the sky, listening to the lapping of the water on the wooden sides. He did not bother to check for oars before pushing off, drifting towards the centre of the fjord. A sense of calm descended upon him, easing his earlier anxiety and restlessness as he stared up at the darkening evening sky. His breathing came easier, the weight in his chest lifted, and his limbs popped into place as he relaxed. The chill of the breeze off the water was broken by the sides of the boat and he felt quite cozy as he lay, hands folded at his belly, listening to the water beneath him, gently rocking him.
He meant only to close his eyes for a second; when he next opened them, the sky was dark and stars were little little pinpricks in the sky above him, the cool night air had frozen his nose beyond feeling. He started when there was the distinct sound of knocking on the side of the boat like it was a door. His breath caught and he held it, waiting to see if he had heard correctly – perhaps it was nothing more than some flotsam in the water bumping alongside him. He nearly cried out in surprise when the sound came again, very distinct and deliberate knocking.
Very slowly he eased himself up on his elbows, craning his neck to peer over the side of the little boat; his town was nothing more than a handful of glittering lights on the horizon and he could not tell where the fjord waters ended and the shadows of the mountains and cliffs began. In the gloom he saw a pair of hands rise up over the side of the boat and grasp onto it. With wide eyes he watched as a soaking wet, blonde head and glowing sky-blue eyes rose up over the side and blinked at him. Their corners crinkled in what could only be a wide smile before the rest of the face popped up, dragging the boat sideways as the person held on, holding himself up and out of the water.
Lukas gripped the wooden plank seat near his head and hauled himself to a fully sitting position, shimmying as far away from the person at the side of the boat and hoping to restore the balance before he tipped into the inky, freezing waters. The person briefly lost purchase, sending the boat rocking and water splashing up on the sides, before the hands returned and steadied, pulling themselves, a man, out of the water again. His upper body was entirely bare, but he did not seem to be bothered by the chill of the waters or wind curling around both of them as they stared at each other.
"Where did you come from?" Lukas finally managed to choke out, squinting along the shore for another boat and listening for calls of worried friends nearby – this person had to have come from somewhere, but there were no other boats on the water that he could see. The stranger lifted himself further out of the water, the boat tipping dangerously on its side and water splashed in; Lukas scrambled to balance the weight, his heart hammering in his chest. "Be careful! You're going to capsize it!" the stranger only grinned wider.
He opened his mouth to say something, but instead of words, a terrible noise escaped his lips. It sounded choked, warbled, and distant, like Lukas was trying to hear what someone was saying on the other side of a roaring waterfall. The stranger seemed just as confused and he quickly snapped his mouth shut, covering it with one of his hands, his eyes mildly panicked. He hesitantly tried again, lowing his hand and opening his mouth, then he slapped his hand to his lips when the same sound resulted. He seemed to consider this, Lukas staring on in morbid fascination – should he pull him into the boat? He must be freezing. Why was he so unconcerned by being in the water? How were his eyes glowing like that? And most importantly: where were his clothes?
The stranger suddenly let go of the boat and disappeared over the side, Lukas had to throw himself across it in order to save himself from being dumped into the water behind him. He gripped the sides and carefully looked over. He could just barely see the man sink down until only his glowing eyes broke the surface, bubbles rising up around his mouth. He rose up again, grinning, and motioned for Lukas to come closer. He cocked his head at the stranger in the water, trying to decipher what he was getting at.
"Are you ill?" he asked, eyebrows knitting together as the man kept motioning for him to come closer, then putting one of his ears to the water. "Do you need to get into the boat? I can take you to the hospital in-whoa!" the man reached forward and started tugging Lukas towards the water. Lukas held on to the side of the boat and pulled back, trying to escape the stranger's iron-tight grasp. "What are you-" they struggled for a moment, Lukas momentarily forgetting how to breathe when a tail rose up out of the water behind the man and splashed down, the force mixed with Lukas' surprise was all the strange man needed to rip him from the safety of the boat and pull him under the icy surface.
The water roared in his ears and he cried out, his voice bubbling around him as he kicked for purchase, his feet finding nothing beneath him but frozen emptiness. His coat was heavy while dry, but now wet it was dragging him down, his scarf tangling around his throat and eyes while he battled to break for the surface. Strong hands gripped his arms and pushed him upwards, Lukas gasped loudly for air, clawing at the sky above him for help before he was pulled under again. The stars did not save him, they only silently observed while he was pulled further down, their light being choked out by the water around him and Lukas squeezed his eyes shut tight. His heart drumming in his chest and pulsing in his ears was drowned out by the frozen, deafening silence pressing into him. He wanted to scream, to cry out, but he held his breath silently and weakly fought against the strange hands that gripped him, keeping him from sinking further and rising up.
A long, clear musical note rang through the water, piercing him right to his core and sending a shiver down his spine that was not from the cold enveloping him. He stilled, those hands released him and he was left floating in the blackness; he opened his eyes and we met by the stranger's glowing blue ones, illuminating his smiling face and his open mouth as he spoke. His words did not make sense to Lukas, but they no longer sounded garbled like in the open air. Now, they were strong and clear, like singing, echoing through the water in a haunting melody. His breath would have been whisked away from him listening to the strange, eerie song had he not been submerged in the water. His lungs began to burn and he kicked for the surface. The man reached for him and pushed him up until his face met with frozen air and he breathed again. He begged whatever gods he could think of that he would not be pulled under again – he didn't want to die like this, with the silent stars the only witness to his struggle.
Death often crossed his mind, but always in the daylight and never in the frozen fjords of his homeland. He had always considered himself unafraid of the inevitable, death was chasing everyone and to resist was to fight a losing battle. Death had always been a companion of his, a silent observer in his life, closely following him around just out of reach. It had never bothered him until now, while he felt it was sneaking up on him an an unexpected way. Drowning at the hands of an unknown creature in the dark was not how he envisioned his demise and it startled him, how hard he fought against his old friend. He had had many conversations with death, and Lukas always felt that dying was promised to him later, at home in his bed or at the very least in a hospital. That was where he would go, not here, and not like this.
The man, the creature, rose up beside him and Lukas clung to him, those strange hands helped hold his head steady above the water despite the weight of his clothing; his boat slid out of his grasp, rocking in the waves he was creating in his struggle to remain afloat and drifted further away from him. Lukas was afraid.
"W-what are y-you?" he asked, his teeth beginning to relentlessly chatter. The stranger said nothing, he could not in the open air it seemed, but smiled kindly at him. He felt the water currents beneath his kicking feet shift as a silken tail moved beside him, sending both of them rocketing for the darkened shoreline, boat forgotten. Lukas coughed as water splashed up in his face, down his throat, and into his eyes.
He was shaking with adrenaline, fear, and bitter cold. He could not help but cry out in relief when his feet struck solid ground, and he wriggled out of the strangers grasp, clamouring for the shore. He collapsed onto it, his legs still in the water and he rolled onto his back, breathing heavy.
The stars overhead glittered, mocking him, shining with amusement. They knew all along he would not die tonight. He scowled at them while he caught his breath, his soaking clothes clinging to him and freezing stiffly while he lay still half in the water.
He felt something nudge his foot, but he chose to ignore it. Surely this was some strange dream and not reality. He must have fallen asleep in the boat, he needed to figure out how to wake up. Unless he had died... he let his eyes drift closed, blocking out the laughing skies and he focused on the pounding of his heart and his quickened, burning breaths. His nose was so frozen he could not smell the salt or trees on the air. He could not feel his fingertips as he scratched at the muddy shore beneath him.
No, he was still alive.
He spluttered as a splash of water was doused across his face and he struggled to sit up, wiping away the water from his eyes.
The strange man – creature – was dragging himself out of the water, reaching a hand to touch Lukas' leg, a low keening noise escaping his frowning lips.
His flaxen hair was shaggy, dripping from the frigid waters, hanging into his eyes and around his long, pointed ears which were decorated in piercings made up of bits of bone and painted shells. His sky-blue eyes, glowing in the night like a cat's, flashed when he moved, catching the light of the stars and moon that had risen up over the mountains and was sitting fat on their outlines, casting the landscape in an eerie, milky light.
The man had gasping gills on his neck, lines of three on each side, like thread-thin scars, reddening around the edges. His outstretched hand, now clinging to Lukas' soaking pants, were webbed between each of the fingers, his nails long and pointed. His skin was pearly, almost translucent, and shimmered with each of his movements as he made his way closer to Lukas.
There was a tail curling out of the water and over his bare, human torso. It was long and silvery grey-blue, like the sky in the very early morning of a clear day. The fins on the end caught in the moonlight and glittered as they dipped into the inky fjord and flicked forward, raining water down on Lukas' face.
Lukas had been told many fairytales as a child growing up. Some he knew to be nothing more than stories; some, he had always fancied to hold some truth; and many of the creatures he counted as his friends, like lumbering trolls or hidden, elf-like people that watched from their stone houses or from around the trees in the forest. Mermaids, however, he had always chalked up to Disney. There were no tales that he could recall mentioning mermaids in the fjords near where he lived. Mermaids lived on the pages of books in warm seas, in coral reefs, daring each other to swim out into the open ocean where the white sand beneath their tails gave way to darkened depths. As far as he was concerned, they did not live in the nearly 3 kilometre wide fjord.
And yet, Lukas forced himself to stare into the glowing eyes of seeming one such creature, rising out of the water on his forearms with a silly grin spread wide across his face; Lukas collapsed back onto the ground as the merman crawled closer to him, sliding further out of the water until he was laying on the muddy shore next to him. He reached a webbed hand out and brushed the hair out of Lukas' eyes. The merman had a handsome face with high cheekbones and an elegant nose; he looked so human aside from the glowing of his eyes and the gasping gills on his neck. Blonde lashes blinked drops of water away as he stared right back at Lukas, studying his own features. Those strange fingertips with sharpened nails gently brushed along Lukas' face, tracing its outline from his temple to his chin, as if this was the first time he had seen a human. The merman became fascinated with the shape of Lukas' ears and keened quietly as he leaned closer to look at them. Lukas held still while the creature poked and prodded him, exploring his head and playing with his freezing, platinum hair. The merman finally stilled, satisfied with his inspection, and leaned over Lukas, their noses almost touching. He rest one of his webbed hands on Lukas' cheek, the other grabbed one of Lukas' own and placed it on his face. His skin was cool and felt like smoothed stone, the feeling finally returning to Lukas' fingertips as he traced small figure eights under the stranger's glowing eyes.
His breath would have hitched had he not been holding it.
"Who are you?" he finally breathed out. His throat burned with his question, like the whispered words had clawed their way from his chest up his throat, finally escaping out his cracked lips. He knew what he was, he had seen pictures in fairy books, but he didn't look like one would expect a mermaid to; he looked more wild with his flashing eyes, pointed ears, and clawed hands.
His focus snapped away from the smiling creature hovering over him when he heard the distinct sound of someone calling his name on the wind. A beam of light from a flashlight was sweeping along the shore, searching, edging closer. Lukas looked back to the creature, his smiling face having melted into one of panic. He pressed his forehead to Lukas' and brushed his fingertips gently along the curve of the top of his ear once more, before surging back towards the water, disappearing beneath its inky surface.
"Lukas?" He heard called; he did not bother to respond as he struggled to sit up, propping himself up on his elbows. He could not tear his eyes away from the spot where the creature had sank below the surface, rings of ripples reflecting the moonlight in the water was the only sign that the stranger had been there at all.
The flashlight fell upon Lukas' face, blinding him, and he winced.
"Oh my God, Lukas!" There was the sound of rustling fabric and heavy footsteps as someone scrambled down the steep embankment from the road to reach him. "Down here!" they called, "I've got him here!" Lukas could not tell who was kneeling beside him, he heard a faint reply from a familiar voice drift in on the wind. Warm hands fell to his shoulders and he slipped into darkness; the cold, the shock, the weariness took hold of him and ripped him away from his consciousness like a rug out from under his feet.
To be continued...
