The sudden but familiar feeling of coldness washed over her skin, encasing her body.
Kai swam towards the bottle-nosed dolphin, the water making his purple hair get all over his face as he moved closer to it. Kai reached out his hand, spreading it over the wound on the dolphin's pectoral fin. Pulling out the healing seaweed he had gotten, he wrapped it around the fin, securing it after it had been tightly wrapped around multiple times. "Those human fisherman are really getting on my nerves, " he told the dolphin. The dolphin squealed back at him, in appreciation and in agreement.
Kai pushed his hand up the dolphin's body and up to its snout, which is when he spotted a piece of jewelry at the tip of its snout. "Human trash is going to kill you all, he said, pulling the strip out of the dolphin's mouth. The dolphin chittered happily before pointing at Kai's pale, purple fin.
"Wait, this is a tailet. What are you doing with this?" He asked, having only seen these with merpeople, and never with dolphins. The dolphin replied by gesturing towards his tail again. "You want me to wear it?" Kai hesitated before bending down to snap the bracelet around the bottom of his tail, right before the start of his fin. When he straitened, the dolphin had disappeared.
Kai pouted, "Am I really that bad of company?" He muttered. "I thought we were getting along! He shouted out into the empty ocean. At least, he assumed it was empty, which is why the tiny voice made him jump out of his scales.
"Hiya, friend! I'm Fynn. what's your name?" The tiny dolphin spoke. It spoke. This was the scariest thing Kai had experienced since the chance of being blown up by bombs in the ocean a few years ago in 1776.
"Hello?" Fynn repeated, "I'm sorry, it's my first time, are you going into shock? Poisy said that might happen." It spoke. Again, How was it speaking?
"Poisy?" Kai said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah!" Fynn said excitedly, "you met her! Isn't she amazing? The wisest guardian I could have. Although, I will say, her parties are wild. I hope you get invited sometime. What's your name, by the way? My name's Fynn!"
"Fynn?" Kai asked, still rigid in shock, only moving because of the soft current in the ocean.
"Your name is Fynn too? Wow! That's so exciting! Maybe we could be besties. Poisy said that was a merpeople thing. Could we be besties?"
"Kai shook his head, "wait, no, I'm Kai, not Fynn."
"Wowie, that's a nice name, Kai!"
"What's the pink marking on your back?" Kai asked.
"Hm?" Fynn said, "where?" The tiny dolphin spun around, trying to spit the pattern on his own back,
Kai held out his hands, desperate for the dolphin to stop, "I can describe it to you, please stop doing that before you get hurt." Fynn stopped, keenly listening to what Kai had to say, "Poisy said you were like that."
Kai brushed off the comment, "it's a pattern that looks like an anemone, or a flower, like the ones on land. I've only seen one, though, so I'm not sure how accurate that is.
"Land?" Fynn questioned.
"It's the world above the ocean. One only certain sea creatues can go up to. Me and normal dolphins can do it, I'm unsure about you, sorry, Fynn."
"Could you describe it for me?"
"Well, it's so much brighter up there. The sun , the magical, warm ball that floats and makes you happy whenever you look at it, shines beautifully. Then there's the seaweed up there. It comes in different shapes, sizes, and colors, each type unique and beautiful.
"Wow, I wish I could see it sometime," Fynn said, the big eyes he owned glazing over in wonder.
Kai smiled sadly, "I wish I could take you, Fynn, but I can't for safety reasons. I sincerely apologize. The people that live on land are dangerous and kill at sight. It's how I lost the only family I ever knew. It's not worth it."
"Well, now we can be a family, Kai, because I don't have a family either!" Fynn said, smiling wide.
"You know what? I promise I'll do all I can so that you can see the world above. My father told me we should take risks for family, and I can take that risk for you."
"Thank you very much Kai!" Fynn span around in another circle, flapping his tail around happily.
"What are you, Fynn?" Kai said abruptly, realizing he knew nothing about the strange creature.
"I'm a kwami! I give you powers of the ocean!"
"Powers of the ocean? What are you talking about?"
Fynn grinned, "you'll figure it out, just say 'let's swim!'"
Kai raised a questioning eyebrow, "let's swim?"
Fynn squealed in happiness as he got sucked into the tailet. Kai squealed in fear as a sparkling substance encircled him. His tail turned pale blue and his fin turned into a deep magenta. A mask surrounded his eyes and a trident appeared in his hand.
"What did you do, Fynn?" Kai asked, beginning to panic. He got no response. "Great," he sighed, "two mysterious dolphins have cursed me. You really are quite the charmer, Kai."
Out of the blue, three seals flew from past him in terror. Usually the seals never left their little island. This was not normal at all. Kai turned around, keen to find out what could've scared these seals so bad.
As soon as he saw what it was, Kai wished he had gone after the seals. Well, not a what, but a "who". A big "who". The biggest "who" Kai had ever seen. Battle scars covered her body. She was 6 meters long, the biggest Kai had ever seen.
The great white shark hurdled towards Kai at full speed. Kai could tell that she was pregnant, which only made her bigger and more dangerous. Especially to anything between her and her meal. K ai squeezed his eyes together and held out his hands, hoping he'd be able to redirect her safely, although he knew that was close to impossible.
Kai braced for impact, but it never came. Slowly, he opened his eyes. The shark was in front of him, her mouth wide open, but she was frozen in place. Kai noticed that the current had completely stopped around him. The shark was still moving her fin, trying to get to him, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not reach him. Kai swam out of the way, and dropped his hands. The shark moved freely out of his grasp and continued moving forwards, her senses only focused on the seals.
Kai laughed and cheered.
The cold feeling left as quick as it had come. Lydia woke up, startling Fynn who was resting besides her.
"Another one, Lydia?"
Lydia sighed, rubbing her head, "Fynn, I still don't understand why this is happening."
"I don't either, whose story did you see this time? Oceana? Azula?"
Lydia shook her head, "no, it was someone new this time. Someone named Kai."
Fynn giggled, "Poseidon, that's what he called himself. You understood everything he said?"
"Yes, is that not normal?"
Fynn shook his head, "he spoke Mernin, he doesn't know English. You must be able to understand languages I can as well as have the same dreams."
"You said he was your first?"
"My first person. I had been the kwami to dolphins before, but not to people. I love you, Lydia, but he was my favorite."
Lydia smiled warmly, Fynn's excitement making her happy, as he had also faced exhaustion due to these dreams. "Why is that, Fynn?"
"He loved helping others. He saved so many creatures from fishing nets. He never protected the prey from the predators either. He accepted that that was how the ecosystem worked. The other holders never did that. Kai saved great whites and orcas as well as seals and turtles."
"You must really look up to him."
"Who wouldn't, Lydia?"
Lydia smiled again and patted Fynn's head, "how are you feeling?"
"Better than before. I always love it when I see Kai in my dreams."
"Did you share dreams with any of the other holders?" Lydia asked, lifting Fynn up in her hands.
"I've given them good dreams, but never shared mine with them. I'm sorry you have to deal with this, Lydia. I'm even more sorry that I don't know what to do."
Lydia stroked the kwami's head, "you have nothing to apologize for. We'll figure it out together, Fynn."