A/N: So I was reading an incredibly well written story in the Hunger Games verse and had this idea that just stuck and wouldn't let go so I had to write it out. BTW if anyone wonders it's The Sterling Nightingale by CrashingPetals. I loved all but one part in it, mainly because I think it's an overused trope, but even that was so well written that I couldn't put it down.

Anyway, this will be part of a longer series about the Mariners. So here we go.

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Much Love

JR

Sea Glass

There are legends that survived past the war that lead to the formation of the thirteen districts. Legends that only the oldest of the those left in the districts whisper in the darkness. Stories that go back further than history itself.

But nowhere is that more true than in district four, with its connection to the ocean that not even the capital could control. There were tales of creatures like the Kracken or the Selkie, the water nymphs, or the even older ones of the old gods and goddesses of the sea. But there were also newer stories, these slightly more true. Of a people called the mariners.

According to the stories, Mariners were people who lived at sea. Not next to the ocean, as those of district 4 did. They didn't go to sea for the days catch and then come back to the land where their families were, where their home was. No, they lived at sea. They were born at sea. They died at sea. Some of them never even set foot on land over the entire course of their life. They would at times come to shore to repair their boats, maybe even trade for goods that they couldn't get any other way, but they never stayed. According to legend anyway.

According to the legend though, you could always tell who they were. They dressed in fish or seal leather, maybe even sharkskin. They always had shells or sea glass tied in their hair or worn as jewelry. They always were tanned by the sea with skin as tough and rough as sharkskin itself. Their eyes were always the colors of the sea, blue or grey or green, maybe even purple. Their hair was normally tangled by the sea winds and salt. They were a bit too wild for normal people. And they were as slippery as eels.

"Never trust them." Children were warned in their beds at night like the Mariners were ghosts and monsters to keep them in line. "Don't speak to them. They like to carry off the unsuspecting little boy or girl to live with them."

"They steal." Shopkeepers muttered counting and double counting anything that a Mariner brought in for trade or anything they touched, just to make sure they didn't carry off anything they shouldn't. "They lie. They cheat."

Mothers hid their daughters away when a Mariner boat was seen at port. Fathers kept their sons hard at work so that they couldn't even look to see if a pretty mariner girl was on the boat. Not that there wasn't curiosity.

Mariner boys were said to be able to seduce anything on two legs… And some with fins or so the stories went. But the girls… the girls were said to be in a different category all together. Wild and as untamed as the ocean and just as beautiful. One thing was for sure, so the stories went, a lot of fights broke out any time one of their ships was in port.

And if someone went missing after a Mariner ship was spotted, obviously they were taken along never to be seen or heard from again. Heaven forbid they actually go willingly.

One day, when the sunlight shone of the gently lapping water like glass, a young Finnick Odair was running along the shore shrieking with laughter as he ran from one of the dogs that were always on the boats. The dog barked and bounded at his heels, his tail wagging as he chased the boy in and out of the water.

Not looking where he was going, they barreled into a little girl just as she bent down to pick up a tiny piece of blue-green glass that had been tossed and tumbled by the waves and tides until it was rounded and smooth, making her tumble into the water just as a wave rolled in.

Jumping back in embarrassment, he bent to help her up and cringed. HE just knew she was gonna cry. All little girls did when they got their dress wet or their hair. Didn't matter that most of the girls he knew were fishermen's daughters and had been in and around the water most of their lives. If they were in a dress and heaven forbid had their hair done in any way that was supposed to be pretty, he would be in trouble if he bothered them. And pushing one, however accidentally, would be considered bothering in his tiny, conservative fishing village. And yes, she was in a dress, and her hair was braided with shells and other tiny sea jewels twisted into the strands.

"I'm sorry!" He immediately began, pulling her from the water as she struggled to sit up out of the water. "I didn't mean to knock you over."

She giggled, twisting away from his hands like an eel when the dog nosed at her face to make sure she was okay in his own canine way. "I'm alright." She coughed, sliding her tiny hands into the dog's thick fur and scratching behind his floppy ears. "Are you here to rescue me from the depths, brave doggy?" She asked, burying her face in his dripping neck. Giggling again, she pushed to her feet and turned to Finnick with a grin as bright as the sun around them. "What's doggy's name?"

"Splash." He answered, barely breathing as his stormy green eyes met her eyes that were the color of the sky around them. So bright they were almost glowing in her tanned face. It was like the tides had stopped and the very ocean beside them stilled its ever-present motion.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners of her eyes as her smile grew wider, her pristine white teeth glowing between her lips. Saltwater dripped from the tendrils that had worked from her braid with the help of the wave. She turned to the dog and wrapped her small arms around his neck. "Well hello Splash. What a good name for a doggy who likes splashing in the water."

"And I'm Finnick. Finnick Odair." He added quickly, trying to pull her attention back from the dog as heat filled his cheeks. "Who are you?"

Glancing up, she giggled again. "I'm Ran."

"Like running ran?" He asked, confused.

She shook her head, tossing her heavy wet hair. "No. Like the sea goddess. Daddy says I'll be a heart breaker one day."

He could believe it, Finnick would have thought if his brain wasn't stuck on a permanent stall. Round and round in his very young mind all he was able to think the feeling that she was his. Or would be one day. Or something. His father had told him that he felt like that seeing his mother the first time he saw her walking down the street.

"Are you new in town?" He asked when she turned away looking for her dropped sea glass.

"I don't live in town." She answered, crying out happily as she scooped up the little piece of cloudy glass.

Pushing Splash away when the dog shoved against him, trying to get his attention, he caught her small wrist. "Where do you live?"

Blinking, she spun to face him, her eyes growing wide in a mixture of shock and fear that looked out of place on a face so young like she just got caught doing something she shouldn't have. Pulling her wrist from his hand, and held his within hers and folded his fingers over the sea glass. "The ocean." She whispered. "I gotta go. It was nice meeting you Finnick."

Quickly she dropped his hand and raced off without a backward glance down the path back to the town docks leaving the glass that was no bigger than a pearl in his palm.

"Finnick!" His mother called from the back porch of their small cottage. "Dinner!"

Splash barked then when the boy didn't respond, took the wide leg of his shorts in his teeth and pulled gently. "I know Splash." He muttered, watching until the little girl in the faded blue dress and wet hair was out of sight beyond the dunes.

Huffing in frustration when her son didn't answer her second and third summons, Stormsa Odair swept down to the beach like the hurricane she had been named after. "Finnick! What are you doing! Didn't you hear me calling you?"

Nodding absently, Finnick turned to his mother, his jaw slack and eyes glazed over slightly. "Mom, have you seen a new girl in town? Named Ran?"

Taking her son's hand, Stormsa turned to look over her shoulder down the path that the little girl she had glimpsed with her son had run. Her son was wearing the same look that his father had when he had been shoved into the diner by his friends just off the fishing boat. That look, equal parts possession and hunger and pride, that she knew oh so well from every time her late husband had looked at her. But she had only seen one new little girl in town when she had gone into the general store for groceries.

A tiny little Mariner girl with the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen, hugging her mother's leg while the shopkeeper glared at them like they were making off with the most precious things in the store. She had offered the little girl a treat, a small piece of the saltwater taffy that she had bought for Finnick. The little girl had thanked her and almost reached for it until the shopkeeper began yelling at her about stealing. The mother and little girl had held their hands against their thighs, palms facing outward to show there was nothing in them while they left the store quietly.

She had seen the mother again later on. But not the little girl.

"Little girl with shells in her hair?" Stormsa asked, brushing her fingers through her son's perpetually untamed hair futilely. When he nodded under her hands, she sighed. "She's a Mariner. You remember the stories I told you about them?" Again he nodded. "Well, I doubt you'll ever see her again anyway."

"I'm gonna marry her one day." He argued, familiar green eyes glaring petulantly up at her.

Pursing her lips, she tapped his nose with a finger. "You said that about Annie last week."

Wrinkling his nose in thought, Finnick compared the beautiful and delicate redhead to the tiny girl with flashing neon blue eyes that laughed until her own body shook and didn't care when a dog slobbered all over her face or when she tumbled into the ocean water. "No. Annie's a good friend. But I'm gonna marry Ran."

"Whatever you say, Guppie." She sighed tiredly, walking him back to the cottage. "Whatever you say."