Okay so I was in a mood for a little fantasy (and still am...) So I decided to finally start this fic properly :D And I'm saying this from the start! this was not inspired by the Disneys Little Mermaid but by this russian song www. youtube watch?v=5RLbKEIrn-w
...So! have fun guys and be sure to tell me if it's worth continuing :D
The sea.
It's untamed nature, brilliantly green and blue depths, the untold mysteries, the treasures unknown. All that power and life within it's waters. These things had fascinated mankind through the ages. It was perhaps the only thing in the world men still feared, loved and respected above all else.
All the stories and legends the seas held were well known yet never proven to be true. Sailors told stories of gigantic sea monsters that could sink a ship in seconds and of ghosts that led any man foolish enough to follow to their demise. The most popular perhaps was of the mermaids. Those beautiful creatures who saved sailors and guided lost ships to safety.
Most people didn't believe these outrageous stories. They were just that, stories made up by sailors who had spent far too much time out at sea under the blistering sun. Surely a sensible, normal person knew they were fairytales concocted to make sailors boring journeys that bit more interesting. The chance to see one of those creatures of myths. They were good for entertainment and bedtime stories for children and hardly anything more.
There were however those who believed. Perhaps they were foolish enough. Or perhaps they just wished to believe that there could be something different and wondrous and beautiful out there that differed from their dull everyday life. Or maybe, just maybe they had a real reason to believe. Maybe they knew for sure there were such things as monsters and mermaids.…
Altair had ofcourse heard all sorts of legends and stories as the next man but he had never really paid them much mind after he had grown from boy to a man. He was a bastard son of the king and he had enough troubles in his life without mixing silly stories and beliefs into the mix. Nearly daily he had someone trying to get rid of him one way or the other. That was annoying enough but to know these assailants were hired by his half-brother just because the idiot thought him as a threat was even more frustrating.
No, Altair had never had time to believe in fairytales. Never cared to….until now as those fairytales slapped him in the face so hard he nearly toppled over.
Altair didn't believe what he was seeing at first as he was staring the most strange and unimaginable creature in the world. It was clearly a fish from one end….but a man from the other. He refused to believe what he was seeing but his mind kept screaming at him that this was very much real.
As much as he was in denial, Altair crept closer as his curiosity grew by the second. The creature was strange but also very beautiful to his eyes. The tail and fins shone silver in the light of the full moon. The human part of the creature, merman Altair supposed, was that of a young boy with unruly black hair. There was silvery scales on the boys shoulders, arms and also on his face.
Altair crouched beside the merman and stared at it. There was a pained expression frozen on its face. The poor thing must have been thrown to the shore by the waves. Altair looked at the sea for few seconds. It had calmed down from the earlier storm but the waves still hit the stone and sand of the shoreline with angry force. He turned his eyes back to the creature and his curiosity peaked.
He poked the things shoulder.
He didn't expect the mix of a feral growl and a hiss that followed the contact as he had thought the thing to be dead. Altair scrambled backwards a little distance and watched the merman's eyes open and stare right back.
Altair had never seen such eyes. They were black. Just black. There was no white. No visible iris or pupil. Those eyes were inhuman. It seemed also very horrified, scared and frantic.
And in pain.
Altair watched as the merman coughed and retched for a while until it settled back onto the sand, obviously too tired and in pain to do much else than hiss lowly at the human staring at it.
When he was over his shock and his heart rate near normal again, Altair crawled closer to the merman again. The thing heard and sensed him and started to twitch and hiss nervously as if trying to warn him not to come closer.
"Hey, easy you...whatever you are. I'm not gonna hurt you..." Altair said with what he hoped was calming tone.
Altair felt a little foolish. Sure the thing looked like human from the waist up but that didn't mean that it was anything more than another dumb sea animal. Maybe it didn't really understand his words even though it's twitching did calm a little. He slowly reached out to touch it again and received another warning hiss. Altair stayed his hand just incase, even though the merman looked like it could die any minute.
"Should I.…uh.…help you back to the water? You look a little worse for wear." The merman didn't answer in any way other than a frightened stare and uneasy twitch of its fins.
Altair didn't know what to make of it so he just continued to stare at the creature. As he watched, it coughed some more and its whole body spasmed a little. As it did Altair finally noticed the gills on it's neck and rib area. The poor thing was suffocating on the dry land. Altair cursed himself not figuring it out sooner. Ofcourse it would. It was a sea creature. Right then Altair decided; to hell with the fear and all that crap. He wanted to actually help the thing. It was something wonderful and he would not see it erased from this world as it lay right under his nose.
Ignoring the merman's hissing and twisting Altair picked it up from the sand and was surprised that it didn't weight nearly as much as a human its size would have. It sure made this task easier but damn the things body temperature was sky-high. Or maybe it wasn't. How the hell should he know. No one had probably seen anything like it this close much less touched them. Maybe this body temperature was normal to it's kind.
As Altair walked towards the waves, the merman stilled in his hold. Altair glanced down at it to discover it too tired and delirious to fight any longer. He walked a bit more hastily to the water. When he was about waist deep he figured he was deep enough to let the creature go. The sea had calmed considerably from earlier and if the creature survived it wouldn't be thrown back to the gravel and sand.
"Hey fishy... you go back home okay?"
Feeling more stupid than ever Altair released the merman to the water half expecting it to bolt that instant. Instead it just sank and was mostly obscured by the night darkened water. Altair waited few moments and thought that maybe he should pick the creature up and bring it's head to the surface just in case when he noticed a dark silhouette in the water coming at him with tremendous speed.
Something hit his middle and the next thing he knew he was hitting the ground hard. Quite far from the water. He felt the pang of pain in the back of his head and felt his consciousness slip. The last thing he saw was nearly jet black tailfins disappear under the water.
ooo
Malik was infuriated. He cursed his brother as he swam restlessly around some human ship wreckage. The full moon didn't help his restlessness. He's father and he had told Kadar again and again for so many cycle of seasons to NOT swim too close to the shore but the young one had done just that.
A little while ago he had nearly died of shock as one of his brother's friends had rushed to him and told him that the waves had thrown Kadar to the shore. He had nearly tore the boys head off because he had difficulty in telling him where exactly it had happened. Not that Malik could do anything for his brother. The tide was at it's lowest and the sea was angry. If he went too close he would have ended up joining his brother on the shore. So he had had no choice but to wait the waves to calm. Now that they have he swam to the surface, still a safe distance from the shoreline. He couldn't see his brother very well but he did see something that made his heart jump from fright for a second time that night.
There was a human on the shore. Right next to his brother. Malik watched in utter horror as the human moved and picked his brother up from the ground.
He didn't care about what was safe for him anymore as he dived and swam as fast as he could towards the shore. Luckily the human was stupid enough to drop his brother into the shallow waters.
When Malik was close enough he spun and hit the human with his tail so hard he felt and heard some of it's rib bones break with the impact. Much to Malik's pleasure. He grabbed his little brother by the arm and dragged him to the deeper waters quickly. The younger seemed to be coming to thank the Spirits. Malik was relieved to notice that his brother seemed relatively unharmed. He had no idea what he would have told their parents if Kadar had perished.
Kadar was his mothers favourite for two reasons. To begin with, there were more females in their race which made Malik and his brother so dear to their people and especially their parents. And because Kadar was youngest of their siblings he was specially doted upon by them all but also worried them all the most.
When Malik deemed it was a safe distance from the shore and Kadar mostly conscious, he stopped and grabbed his brother by the shoulders shaking him a little.
"What in the name of the Holy Sun and Moon were you thinking swimming that close to a human world!?" Malik roared at his brother.
Now that the young was back where he belonged, Malik's fury flamed again to full force. Kadar shrank back a little and wouldn't meet Malik's eyes.
That didn't help his mood.
"Answer me!" He snapped.
Kadar's friends that had followed them were cowering behind some coral formations. As Kadar still refused to answer, Malik turned his glare at the two girls and a boy. They started and ducked out of sight and Malik's murderous temper.
"You three! Come here this instant!" The three swam around the coral and stopped infront of Malik in a neat little row, scared stiff by the older merman.
"What were you dong there? And don't even try to tell me you were not there." Malik hissed.
All three glanced at each other before the girl, who was a bit older than the two others answered him.
"We were there to accompany Kadar. He...we wanted to see a human. You're Highness, Sir. Prince Malik."
Any other time Malik would have been amused by so many honorific's in a row as the girl seemed to be so scared she didn't know what to call him.
Malik wasn't amused now.
He gave one more withering glare at the trio and turned his attention back to his brother.
"To see a human huh? Well you did didn't you! Do you ever consider for a moment how we worry about you!? We have all warned you for a reason! Spirits be damned! Father will lock you in the castle for the rest of your existence after he hears about this!" Malik's voice was full of venom and that made Kadar look down and shrink away further from his brother.
Malik stared at his brother for a moment before he sighed and hugged the young one. He was still spitting mad but damn him if he was not happy to see his brother safe and sound. He did know how it felt to be too curious for his own good as he had his own fare share of stupid stunts, but he himself had always heeded the warnings of humans and the surface.
"Come…." he said as he released Kadar.
"Let's go home. Can you swim? Do you hurt anywhere?" Kadar nodded for both questions and started to swim towards home slowly. Malik swam next to him and kept an eye on Kadar if he needed any help.
"I will not tell Father this time as you are safe but next time I won't be that kind. And I will not let you out of my sight for a while." Malik said and saw Kadar scrunch his face in a pouty frown.
"You're a horrible brother, Malik!" Kadar declared and swam a little faster. Malik kept pace with him easily as he was older and the stronger swimmer.
"I know how you must feel but it's for your own good. You do not believe it now but you will eventually see it."
He heard Kadar huff a little in annoyance but otherwise his brother stayed quiet all the way home.
Malik knew Kadar thought him as unreasonable and an annoyingly pushy and overprotective brother now, but he knew Kadar would come around.
He always did.
And here's what Malik (and Kadar) basically looks like :D angelofthynightmare. deviantart gallery/39741004#/d5g5dbv