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Heavenly Tides

Chapter Four, Meet me Halfway

By Relm

It was a strange feeling when you were being watched. You didn't necessarily need to see the person who was staring at you or know there was somewhere there to know there was someone looking at you. It was some strange sixth sense people seemed to have that was hard to explain. Perhaps it was some sort of genetically inherent survival trait to warn people of potential predators.

That moment sitting high perched up on that rocky hill Gourry wasn't thinking about predators. He had just finished his food and was just staring out at the ocean aimlessly. He didn't have a transfixed spot he was staring at. Gourry was just looking at the vastness of the water. And why should Gourry be thinking about predators? What creature could possibly be a danger to a wingling so high up? Only another wingling so Gourry wasn't too concerned.

But as Gourry sat there up high he felt the hairs go up on the back of his neck. Something was watching him, something close.

Gourry's first thought was it was a wingling up in the sky somewhere. But a quick scan of the sky showed him nothing. He also didn't see anything on the land behind him, as that area was far away and all grass. There wasn't a place for someone to hide and spy on him from the land. There didn't seem to be anyone flying or standing in a spot where they could be watching him from the land or the sky. By process of elimination the sea was only spot where someone could be. But that didn't seem plausible as Gourry would have noticed someone swimming by the rock face. A human can only hold their breath for so long after all.

Even though he didn't think it was Gourry still looked to the sea doing a quick scan to see any person wading in the water. But as Gourry looked all he saw in that big blue ocean was just more blue. 'I must be imagining it.' Gourry wrote off the feel as being in his head and just sighed.

Try as he may he couldn't ignore that strange feeling. Even if you did decide there wasn't something watching you you couldn't stop looking around. You always felt like there was something you missed. So there you were trying to ignore that feeling and your eyes were still unconsciously looking for the source of the eerie feeling.

'Knock it off brain there's no one around by me!' Gourry scolded himself but still his eyes wandered. While doing another pass of the sea Gourry saw something he didn't notice before. Floating and bobbing in the ocean was something almost the same sparkly blue of the ocean. It was hard to focus on as the sun was reflecting off the water making each small ripple light up with a thousand shimmers. Eventually Gourry managed to make it out, it was the top part of a person's head. And just above the water Gourry could see a pair of eyes looking up at him.

'Is that a human?' Gourry wondered. He tried to get a better look at the figure in the water without trying to be too obvious. As he looked he did notice one thing, the person's lower half of their face was in the water. It was very unlikely this person could manage to breathe in the water or hold their breath for that long. So that left three possibilities. One this wasn't a person at all and Gourry was just seeing things. Two it was a person but they had drowned or died and their body was just bobbing away in the ocean currents. The last possibility felt the most likely to Gourry; that he was staring at a merperson.

In the water Sylphiel knew she should look away. She was risking being spotted the longer she stayed in one spot. And she still didn't realize that part of her head was exposed. She just couldn't stop staring. A wingling, a real live wingling! Sylphiel had always wondered if she would ever see one in her lifetime. And after years of looking up into the sky she finally got to see one. Sylphiel wanted to come out of the water and say something to him. But what would you say to a wingling? Not that Sylphiel could do that. She wasn't allowed to go to land or talk with the wingling. So this was just a tease to Sylphiel. 'It's almost as though he's looking right at me.'

Gourry wanted to fly down to get a better look at the figure in the water but he knew he couldn't. Even if he didn't have to worry about being penalized for talking to a merperson him flying would certainly scare whoever it was away. He didn't realize as he was staring he was leaning forward. In an effort to see the person better he unconsciously leaned. But doing so on such a precarious perch was a dangerous thing to do. As Gourry leaned part of the rock race crumbled causing him to almost fall right off. Using his wings as balancers Gourry righted himself and quickly sat back down. Looking out at the ocean he lost sight of the person who was staring at him. If he/she had been there he/she wasn't there now.

'Great I scared the person away.' Gourry mentally grumbled. 'Either that or there was never anyone there.'

The wingling's sudden moves had startled Sylphiel and shrunk back down into the sea. It was then that Sylphiel realized that she hadn't been completely submerged in the first place. 'He really was looking at me! Because I was stupidly letting my head stay out of the water!' Sylphiel could have kicked herself for doing something so stupid. Well she would have kicked herself if she could, but that was a hard thing to manage for someone who didn't have legs to start off with.

Spying a look up again Sylphiel saw the wingling frantically looking at the ocean. It was clear to Sylphiel that the wingling had seen her and now was trying to find her again. That spooked Sylphiel and she turned herself around so she could swim downwards. 'You're so stupid Sylphiel! And after just being in that gathering too! How could you let yourself get spotted so easily?'

As Gourry tried to re-spot the person that had been watching him a green fishlike tail broke the water surface flapping upward before going down into the water again. If Gourry hadn't been sure it was a merperson who had been watching him before he was sure now.

'It was a merperson!' Gourry's eyes were wide. 'And I scared it off too... I wish I could see one up close...' He thought miserably. But as he was about to beat himself up for startling the merperson he realized something. Yes he wasn't supposed to engage a human or a merperson in a conversation but that didn't mean that he couldn't get a closer look at one. Well Gourry still shouldn't try to get close to a merperson or a human but he was too curious not want to bend the rules a bit.

With a decision to look and not talk Gourry flew off his sitting spot and landed at the base of the rocky island. Though his feet were standing on some rocks he was still ankle deep in ocean water. Gourry almost recoiled at the feel of the water at his feet. After sitting in the sun all day the water was almost unbearably cold. After taking a moment to refocus himself, Gourry turned his attentions back to the water. He tried to see what lay in its sparkly depths. But all he could see in the blue water was just blue.

After swimming down a bit Sylphiel turned herself back upwards and looked to the land once more. But what she found wasn't a person sitting on a rocky looking down at the water but a man standing right at the water's surface. The wingling had come down closer to the water.

Sylphiel knew the wingling couldn't see into the water too well so she felt safe enough to study the wingling since he was so close. From afar she could tell he had golden hair and bronzed skin but she hadn't realized how handsome he was. Wrapped around his waist he wore a sky blue cloth that was just long enough to cover him mid thigh. It did nothing to hide the fact that his body was very well defined with lots of muscles. His blond hair was much longer than Sylphiel had anticipated and it was so shiny in the sunlight. Part of his bangs swept across half his face covering one of his perfect blue eyes. The hair did nothing to hide the wingling's angelic looking face. To Sylphiel she had never seen a man that looked so perfect.

'He's a wingling, you can't talk to him.' Sylphiel reminded herself. But as her sensible side wasn't being quiet Sylphiel couldn't help but be drawn to the wingling. Usually Sylphiel wasn't the type of person to be entranced by a person's looks. To Sylphiel it wasn't the way the person looked that made them appealing but the person they were on the inside. So for Sylphiel to let this strange attraction over rule her senses was very strange and out of character for her. Again she felt like kicking herself, this time for being so weak.

'It's just because he's so different from you.' Sylphiel told herself. 'It's not that you're shallow, you just find him so attractive because he's something you've never seen before.'

Try as Sylphiel did, Sylphiel couldn't ignore his attractiveness. The more she looked at him the harder it was to look away. But she deep down there was something about the way the wingling looked that drew her in that was nothing to do with his outward appearance. Looking at him Sylphiel could see a sense of purity in his eyes. This wasn't an evil man meaning to do her harm. Why she'd bet her left fin that this wingling had never hurt anyone before in his life. There was just no way he could have. There was a good kindness to his face that made Sylphiel want to trust him.

Even if Sylphiel was entranced by his looks she wasn't stupid. She wasn't about to risk her own safety to satisfy her curiosity. Or at least that what Sylphiel thought. Even as she looked up at him Sylphiel was fighting the urge to swim back up to the water surface.

Gourry frowned as he looked at the ocean. He couldn't see anything besides water. "I guess the person left. Probably swam down to the bottom of the sea." Gourry mumbled to himself feeling very envious. Knowing he shouldn't spend so much time on land Gourry decided it was probably be best to go back to the sky. With one last lingering look at the sea Gourry went to take off.

Sylphiel saw the wingling jump from the rocks take to the sky. She had managed to keep her impulses at bay but seeing the wingling fly off just put Sylphiel over the edge. She had to see him. So quickly up to the water's surface Sylphiel swam in time to see the winging fly away.

Though Gourry was disappointed to not get a chance to look at the merperson more closely the moment he took the sky all ill feelings left him. Winglings were creatures of the sky and flying was something they were born to do. So as Gourry flew in the sky he wasn't content to just fly up to the clouds and go home. No Gourry had to do all kinds of areal tricks. He did loops and fast turns showing just why he was one of the best flyers of the winglings in the eastern clouds.

Sylphiel just couldn't stay in the water for this show. No she had to get her head into the air and see the wingling's flight properly. She'd seen birds fly in the sky before but it was nothing like what this wingling could do. It almost as though the wingling was dancing in the air to unheard music playing in the wind. 'It's so beautiful...'

Gourry may have been enjoying his areal dance but he couldn't ignore that feeling that stuck him again. Someone was watching him. Looking down as he spiralled around he managed to get sight of the person who had been watching him. It wasn't just a merperson; it was a mermaid, and a beautiful one at that. Her long dark hair was a raven blue that shimmered from the sea water that dripped off it and her skin looked porcelain white. She wore a pink seashell bra that was just a few shades darker than her skin and Gourry could see just the edge of where her mermaid tail met her smooth skin around her waist. Never before had Gourry ever seen someone look that beautiful. When you were used to seeing nothing but tanned people with light hair to see something so different was awe inspiring.

Being so captivated by someone's beauty was possible to stop a person dead in their tracks. It happened all the time, a person is walking and sees something so beautiful that they have to stop and stare. This wasn't usually a dangerous thing to happen but that wasn't the case when you were flying. Because Gourry was so distracted by the mermaid in the water he lost his focus and started to spiral out of control. Before he knew it he was heading for a collision course with the ocean he so admired.

"Oh no!" Sylphiel exclaimed in horror as she watched the wingling she had been admiring crashing into the water with a big terrifying splash.

Hitting the water rather than diving into it can be a very painful thing. But for someone who wasn't accustomed to driving or 'belly flopping' into the water it wasn't just painful, it was shocking. Almost the moment Gourry's hit the water he was out cold.

Sylphiel knew she wasn't supposed to be go above water. Sylphiel knew she wasn't supposed to be seen by humans or winglings. Sylphiel knew she wasn't supposed to engage winglings or humans at all. But there was no way Sylphiel was going to let someone die when she could stop it. With all the speed that mermaids can Sylphiel swam over to the fallen 'angel'.

...

When Gourry awoke the first thing he saw was bright light. All around him was bright warm light. Gourry's first thought was that he was dead and in heaven. Because that's what heaven was supposed to be like right? It was warm and filled with pure bright light. But if you were dead and in heaven you wouldn't feel pain. Gourry was feeling pain.

The sounds of the water and the feel of the rocks under him told Gourry he was alive. A dark figure loomed over him blocking out some of the light. The silhouette was that of a female.

"Are you okay?" The womanly silhouette questioned him. Her voice was soft and almost melodious.

Gourry just blinked as he tried to remember what exactly happened. It didn't help matters that the woman's voice was so soothing and distracting. "I fell... in the water..." Gourry groaned as he tried to sit up. His body felt heavy, sore and cold from the ocean he had fallen into. But he forgot about all that when he looked into her perfect emerald green eyes. Resting on the rocks with her fishtail out of the water was that very same mermaid from before. He had thought she was beautiful from afar but he had no idea how much till he sat there across from her. "Did you... save me?"

Sylphiel blushed as she shied away from the wingling's intense gaze. "I pulled you out. You would have drowned otherwise."

"Thank you for saving my life." Gourry flashed her a bright smile exposing his pearly white teeth.

"It was me that made you fall wasn't it?" Sylphiel's voice was soft almost withdrawn.

"Well...I..." Gourry didn't know what to say. He didn't want to tell her that it was her that almost made him kill himself but he didn't want to lie to her either.

Sylphiel didn't need to hear his answer. She could see it all over her face. Her father had warned her not to go engage in contact with winglings because they could hurt her. And instead she almost got one killed. "I shouldn't be talking to you. I need to go." Sylphiel went to swim off.

"WAIT!" Gourry called out to the mermaid before she could swim off.

Sylphiel looked back at the wingling.

"I'm Gourry." He said to her.

"Sylphiel." She responded before swimming off.