Title: Air
Author: LucridLucifel
Genre: One shot.
Fandom: The Little Mermaid
Rating: G
A/N: Based on the ship-wreck scene in the film.
Summary: I was dying until she came. [EricxAriel].
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to The Little Mermaid; Disney rightfully owns TLM.


Air

There was a moment I thought I was going to drown. That death was surrounding me like the water was filling my lungs.

I couldn't breathe.

The ship was burning and sinking down to the deepest depths of the ocean. In a flurry of confusion, I think of random, scattered thoughts; my crew, the lives lost, the spices that we traded gone to ruin and my sheep dog, Max.

I worry that he drowned as well. The thought made my panic rise up a notch and my body slowly was sinking in the ocean. I felt like dead weight. I lost too much air. My blurred vision becomes a total kaleidoscopic hues of spots focusing and un-focusing.

I could have sworn I saw a shimmer of red floating around my face, but I have lost too much oxygen and the darkness dimmed everything before I give in to that serene darkness. Momentarily I feel a pair of arms warp around me and pull me.

The next time I know I'm on my back on the beach. I'm covered with sea weed, grimy sand caked my skin. My lungs hurt. My chest felt the burning sensation as I coughed up and regurgitated a generous amount of sea water all over the wet sand. I sucked in the air as thought I haven't enough to spare.

My eyes burned. My body ached everywhere. The taste of salt drying my mouth. I look up and squint as my vision clears up and a rather large green fish tail propels in the water. It disappeared immediately. A seagull that was staring at me square in the face took off, squawking in the skies.

I was very confused and bewildered by everything happening all of a sudden. One moment I'm drowning in the ocean as pandemonium occurs to my ship and crew and then the next, I'm on the beach with life.

I forced myself to get on my feet. I wobbled on the sand. My boots missing were sea somewhere. My bare feet touching the cold, squishy sand as I wobbled across the shore. I searched for anyone that could be alive. Anything really. I felt a looming sense of doom at the pit of my stomach thinking of everyone that was on the sunken ship. Max was mainly in my thoughts.

I tried to rack his thoughts. Try as I might, nothing came to mind. Everything was a mixture of confusion. Nothing made sense to me. Slips of the memory here and there. One unclear memory that came to mind came in the form of lots of red spots and hazy smudges.

I stopped and settled back down on the same. I watched the waves crash onto one another and slowly foam up at the shore, wetting the sand, just to retract back into the ocean to repeat it all over again.

As exhausted as I was, I couldn't leave the unclear thought alone. Red mane?

What does it mean? I thought. Red what?

I closed my eyes and a clearer image formed in my mind. Flaming red locks tumbling over one another and in the center of all this wet redness was a face of a distraught person. Was it a man?

I tried to focus the thought more in-depth. What was it about really?

A woman's face. The face of a beautiful young woman leaning forward and giving me the kiss of life and air forces itself into my lungs. Driving out all the water inside me.

Air. She gave me air and brought me back to the living.

But, who was this person? I thought deep about it.

The next set of thoughts didn't get a chance to register when a barking caught my attention. As I looked out into the distance, the sun beaming down, a white and gray running form of a dog ran to my direction. To my utter surprise the large white and gray figure was my shaggy, large sheep dog, Max.

Max excitedly ran toward me. He jumped on me and licked at my face. "Max! Oh, thank god!" I said and embraced my loyal pet.

I was glad he survived. It made the day less gloomy for me.

I stare off into the ocean and behind the collection of rocks that formed into a cliff was red hair and female face. She peered over here and I stared at her, stunned. I start off, trying to steady my footing to reach her, but as soon as she caught wind of it, she slipped under the water and disappeared.

It wasn't until a few months later I realized who she was and what she would mean to me.

For the current moment, I always regarded her as the girl who gave me air and my life back.

The End.