The next day Zoro returned to the lake. He had told his sister that he would be riding around in his car for a bit to get to know their surroundings. Kuina wanted to stay home and said she would call him if anything happened.
The man didn't say it, but he was glad his sister wanted to stay home. He didn't want to tell his sister that he was going to try and capture some kind of monster yet. He didn't know if he was going to succeed and he didn't want to bring her hopes up.
He had taken his swords with him in case the creature in the lake turned out to be hostile towards him after all. He also had a small basket with food with him for when he got hungry. He would be staying there for most of the day after all.
When he arrived at the East Blue Lake he parked his car on the same place as the previous day. He grabbed his things and walked towards the big rock. The rock was the best place to sit because you had a good view of the lake and it was the place he had seen the monster the previous day.
The man didn't know what to expect. It could take a while for the monster to come to him, if it came at all. Zoro knew he had to be patient and wait for it to come.
After about half an hour, the creature had yet to show up and the man was starting to doubt that he had really seen the monster the other day. Then again, Zoro was an impatient guy. Feeling a little bit tired Zoro decided to take a nap, just like the previous day.
When Zoro woke up, he once again had the feeling he was being watched. He guessed it was the creature again. He knew that if he made a quick, sudden movement, he could scare who of what was down there away. He didn't want that.
He slowly sat up. His eyes scanned the water below the rock. He couldn't see anything at first, but after about two minutes of watching the water below he saw it.
The creature was far below the surface. It probably saw Zoro waking up and had moved further down in the water.
Zoro didn't move a muscle as he and the creature stared at each other. The man didn't see much of the monster because the water was dark, especially further down. The only thing he could see were two eyes. The same eyes that had watched him the previous day.
The man didn't know what to do. He knew that trying to catch it now would not work. The bartender had told him that all the people who had tried to capture it had failed. Why would he be an exception? No, he had to think of an other way.
He slowly moved backwards on the rock, his eyes not losing sight of the creature. He decided to just observe the monster for now. He wanted to know what it was, what it did and if it really was as hostile as the man at the bar had said.
Suddenly, his stomach rumbled. He reached over to the basket and took out a sandwich with some kind of meat. He began to eat it.
The creature watched him like a hawk. It came a little bit closer to the surface as Zoro grabbed another sandwich. The man raised an eyebrow. He wondered what it was thinking.
Zoro didn't remember when, but at some point the creature was so close it almost touched the surface of the water. It was kind of scary considering the rock he was sitting on was only a few feet high which made the distance between him and the monster not more than a meter.
Zoro could now see almost everything of the creature. It had a long shark-like tail and a dorsal fin on its back. They were almost completely red, except for the tips of the fins. Those were black. Weird colours for a shark. Then again, everything was weird about this creature.
The upper body of the creature looked human. It had a torso, arms and a head that looked just like that of a human. The monster didn't look that old. If it was a human, it would be a teen. Probably a male teen because it didn't look like it was a girl.
The creature followed every movement as Zoro ate. It stared almost longingly at the food in his hand. This gave the man an idea.
Zoro grabbed another sandwich. He tore off a little piece of the sandwich and threw it in the water. He made sure to not throw it too hard into the lake so it wouldn't scare the creature away. At first, the creature backed up a little, probably a little startled by the small splash the bread made.
Then, after about a minute, the creature slowly swam back up towards the piece of sandwich. Zoro watched as a hand slowly grabbed the floating food. The bread got pulled underwater. The creature stared at it for a few seconds before moving it towards its mouth.
The monster opened its mouth and Zoro could see sharp teeth. A lot of sharp teeth. The creature took a small bite of the now soaked food. After it ate the small piece of sandwich, it put the rest of the bread in its mouth. A few seconds later the creature spit half of the bread out which floated back to the surface.
Zoro chuckled. The only thing the creature had eaten completely was the meat that was on the sandwich. It apparently didn't like bread that much. The monster looked at him with questioning eyes. The man thought for a bit. If the creature was part shark, didn't that mean that it ate a lot of fish?
Zoro grabbed the basket with food and looked for something else to give to the creature. He felt like he was feeding ducks or fish like he did when he was little. Except for the fact that this fish was a lot bigger than those in the pond near his home.
He didn't have fish, but he still had a few sandwiches with meat left. He grabbed them and removed the meat from the sandwiches. He wondered if the creature would eat these too. Fish and meat is almost the same, right?
He grabbed a piece of meat and turned his gaze back to the water only to get scared half to death by the monster. It now had its head poked out of the water and was looking at him curiously.
Zoro calmed himself down as looked at the creature. He now could clearly see its features. It really looked like a male teen who was not much younger than him. It had short black hair and big round eyes with a small scar below one of them. He could see a little bit of the creature's teeth as its mouth was slightly opened.
Zoro didn't really know what to do. Should he speak? He wasn't even sure if the creature could talk, or understand English.
He slowly moved to the edge of the rock. He moved his hand with the piece of meat in the direction of the creature.
"Do.. do you want some food?" He asked softly. The monster looked at him. It seemed a bit confused by the other's movements. "You're a predator, right? How about some meat?" Zoro asked the creature again.
The creature watched Zoro as it made its way towards the outstretched arm. Zoro knew this could end up really bad. The monster only had to grab his arm to pull him into the lake. He had his swords with him, but he didn't know if those would help in a fight against something that lived in water.
His movements were risky, he knew. But if he wanted to win the creature's trust he needed to take some risks.
He watched as a hand submerged from the water and moved towards his own. He now could see the sharp nails on each finger and the webbing in between them. The hand didn't feel slimy, like he expected it to be, as it touched him.
The creature grabbed the piece of meat and retreated its hand. It sniffed at the meat before taking it in its mouth. Zoro watched as the creature chewed on the small piece of meat.
Unlike before, the monster didn't spit the food out. Instead, it swallowed the piece of meat and looked expectantly at the man on the rock.
"Do you want more?" Zoro asked. The creature nodded. The man's lips twisted into a small smile. It did understand him. It reacted to his question, so it must have known what he said.
The man took another piece of meat from his basket and reached his hand back at the creature. It took the meat immediately out of his hand and put it in its mouth.
Zoro watched the creature in fascination. He really wondered what it was. He had never seen or heard of such a creature. If he didn't know better he'd say it was some kind of merman. But those don't exist, right?
Some splashing of the water pulled him out of his thoughts and back into the real world. He turned his eyes back to the creature in the water. It was still looking at him with that questioning look in its eyes.
He grabbed the last piece of meat and once again moved his hand in the direction of the creature. The monster grabbed it quickly, but dropped it in its greed. The creature dove underwater and submerged after a few seconds with the piece of meat dangling from its mouth.
"That was the last piece I had." Zoro said to the creature as it chewed on the meat. The monster swallowed what he had in its mouth and looked at Zoro with sad eyes and.. was that a pout?
"Sorry." The man said before looking at the sky. It seemed to be late afternoon. How long had he been there?
"I have to go. See you next time." Zoro said before standing up. He brushed off his pants and grabbed his stuff. He was halfway to his car when a voice caught his attention.
"Thanks for the food!"
Zoro turned around quickly to see where that came from, but was met with silence. There was nobody there. The creature was gone too, the only remainder of it being small waves in the water on the place it had been just seconds ago.
Had the monster just spoken to him? It must have. There wasn't anyone else around who could have said something to him. He stared at the lake for a few more seconds before turning around and walking the last few meters to his car.
On his way back to Kuina Zoro started thinking about what he was going to do. His first thoughts had been to win the creatures trust, capture the monster and collect its bounty. Now, he wasn't sure anymore.
The creature didn't act hostile to him, like the bartender had told him. And it didn't look frightening either. It looked more like an innocent teen in his eyes. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't imagine this creature to be evil.
He kind of felt bad for thinking about handing the creature over to the people of the town. Who knows what they'll do with it. He didn't know why, but he didn't want the creature to get hurt.
Not only that, but he also found himself enjoying the creature's presence. He wanted to know more about the creature, like what it was, where it came from.
Its name.
Zoro hated the thought of having to ruin someones life for the sake of his own. But maybe he could convince the people from that town to just let the monster go after he brought it to them. An other option was trying to find an other way to get money for Kuina's treatment. The chance of finding a way to get money they hadn't tried already was very slim though.
Well, he would think about this later. Right now, he was hungry. He wanted to go home and eat something and go to sleep. He will think of what to do tomorrow.
AN: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
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