With a yawn, Eret stretched when he woke. A low groan answered him and when he blinked his eyes open and turned his head, a lazy smile tugged at his lips when he found Hiccup still lying next to him. To Eret's deepest relief, him sleeping longer again in the morning without getting up to draw or getting lost in gazing at the ocean had become normal again lately. Apparently, they were getting used to living here, after all.

Quietly so as to not wake his boyfriend, Eret left their bedroom. It was a lovely summer morning, not yet as hot as it would become during the day, and it only took him a few seconds to decide to go for a swim. During the past weeks, that had become a nearly daily occurrence, with the warmth of summer and the ocean directly at their doorsteps. Only yesterday, he'd lamented how he might not get the chance today with how he'd have to be in town nearly all day to talk to his publisher, but he certainly had time to do so now before breakfast.

He downed the coffee he'd already brewed, burning his tongue a little, then grabbed a towel from the bathroom and headed outside. That was one of the perks of being this isolated from anyone else – they never needed to bother with swimming trunks. With having a bit of practice by now, his eyes scanned the waves on either side of the headland their home was on. When the water was calm enough it was possible to swim on the side that faced the open sea, and it seemed as if he was lucky today.

With a huge grin, Eret threw himself into the waves and enjoyed how the cool water had him wide awake in an instant. He made a few testing strokes so his body and muscles would get used to the movement, then headed out to his favourite goal – a rock-formation that loomed out of the water at just the right distance to swim around and then head back. He reached it far quicker than he'd anticipated though, the daily swim training apparently showing results. The thought made him a little giddy, but his mind also directly tried to come up with what else to do now that simply swimming here and back again wasn't much of a challenge anymore. He couldn't come up with something right away though, with the outer sea stacks being a bit too far for now, so he tried to at least vary his normal routine a bit. Instead of just plain swimming back to the shore, he decided to try what Hiccup often was so fond of. He took a big gulp of air, dove down – and couldn't believe his eyes.

Gasping for air, he broke through the surface again. At first, he felt as if his body would freeze – whether in shock, surprise, or disbelief he couldn't tell – but then some sense came back to him and he rushed toward the solid ground, faster than he thought possible.

Was that… had that been real? No… no, that couldn't be! It wasn't possible! He just had an overactive imagination after all his research lately. Yes, that was it. Just a weird fantasy. With a shaky laugh, Eret shook his head. As if what he'd seen could have been real… He went back to their cottage without looking back again, determined to not think about this any longer. And yet, he wasn't able to entirely shake off the uncertainties that kept lingering in his mind, not even when Hiccup greeted him with breakfast and a loving smile.

"Ah, there you are, and just in time. The bacon is ready any moment now. Good morning."

Hiccup stretched a little, clearly expecting a good morning kiss, and Eret gave in, if only by sheer reflex. He was still unable to form anything resembling a coherent thought. He sat down at his usual place at their kitchen table, mechanically accepting the fresh mug of coffee and a generously laden plate of bacon and scrambled eggs with a nod.

"Is everything all right?"

"Uh? Oh, yeah, sure. I was just… I don't know, distracted."

"Yeah, I noticed," Hiccup stated with a dry smirk. "I doubt you heard anything of what I talked about in the last five minutes."

Eret winced and threw Hiccup a sheepish smile. "Sorry?" Had he really paid that little attention?

"Don't worry," Hiccup chuckled. "It's not as if I never drift off like that. What were you thinking about, your book? Today is your appointment with your publisher, right? Do you have everything ready for that?"

Hesitantly, Eret nodded. "Yeah, something like that," he evaded giving a direct answer. "But yes, everything's ready. In fact–" he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and grimaced, "–I think I better get going soon." Reluctantly, he gulped down the breakfast Hiccup had prepared for him, then got ready to go. He had a bad feeling about leaving Hiccup alone here. Not that there was a reason for that! No, certainly not; what should that be anyway? But still… He was almost out of the door, his laptop and a lunch box filled with small delights in a rucksack on his back, when the feeling became too strong not to act on it.

"Hey, Hiccup?" he called as he turned in the doorway. "In case you were thinking about going for a swim today… I'd advise you not to. There was… well, there were some rather strong currents earlier, and… yeah, maybe you better stay away from those."

Then he left, but the uneasy feeling still lingered.

. o O o .

The creature was in shock. Something like this had never happened before. It shouldn't have happened! Nobody had ever seen her, ever.

But then, she'd never come this close to humans before.

During the last moon or so, she'd come closer to them than she'd ever imagined she would. But ever since that first time they'd entered her world, she felt even more connected to them than before. Since then, every time they'd broken through the ocean's surface, she'd been there to watch over them. They seemed capable enough but nobody knew these waters better than her. The least she could do was keep them safe from sudden currents or too-high waves.

Or that's what she'd been telling herself, at least. But deep down, she knew that this was more. With every day, she'd dared to come closer to them, to bask in their warmth, and the closer she got to them the lighter she felt. As if she needed to be close to them. She couldn't understand the strange noises they made to communicate, but judging by their behaviour, they seemed to have fun, be it while playing between the waves or during their strange play-fights on the shore when they apparently tried to eat each other.

Yes, she'd dared to come a little bit closer to them with every day until she'd glided through the water right beneath the bigger one of her humans today, accompanying him to her rock and easing his way. Every now and then she'd come so close to him that she could almost reach out and touch him. It had made her giddy and careless, diving up and down, watching him move and enjoying the company. And then...

And then he'd dived beneath the surface. From one second to the other, his face had been right in front of her own, and there was no question whether he'd seen her. The surprise and disbelief in his eyes had been clearly identifiable, even to her, and him leaving the water in a hurry told her the rest. He'd seen her – and had been afraid of her.

She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Getting too close to humans was dangerous and could only end in death; she knew that by instinct. But why had the human been afraid? Was it possible that they knew that too?

For she didn't know how long, she simply floated in the bay's calm water, buried too deeply in her thoughts to notice how the sun moved in the sky or how the sea-life moved around her. Anxiously, she tried to decide on what to do now? Could she risk staying so close to them? She'd thought she'd been careful enough, but obviously, that wasn't the case. No, she had to put more distance between them again, even though just thinking about that made something deep inside her ache.

Trembling, she ran her fingers through her hair and pulled at the strands. Transitioning into an at least somewhat more solid form had happened practically on reflex as this kind of intense emotions were easier to cope with this way. But still, she barely took in anything of her surroundings, curled into a tight ball – until she sensed something solid moving in the water around her, too big for it to just be another fish.

Afraid of not having been observant enough again, she whirled around toward the movement, froze for a heartbeat when she found her fears confirmed – and then dashed away into the depths of the ocean where it was dark and no land-living creatures could follow her.

. o O o .

Gasping for air, Hiccup broke through the ocean's surface. With his heart punting in excitement, he first threw a not very helpful look around then dove back down. But no matter how many times he repeated that process, he always came up empty-handed.

But what he'd seen… That had been her, hadn't it? The Undine!

Eventually, he gave up his fruitless search and swam back to the shore. With wide eyes, he looked back over the waves but couldn't spot anything that didn't belong there. But he hadn't just imagined it; he refused to believe that. Yes, they hadn't felt much of the Undine's pull throughout the last couple of weeks, but that didn't mean that she was gone – even though Eret seemed to have been happy about not approaching that topic again. No, she was still there, and Hiccup was certain that he'd seen her just now.

For a few minutes, he kept searching the waters, trying to wrap his head around what just happened. Despite Eret's warning of strange currents, he'd decided to go for a swim anyway. The weather was too nice not to. But he'd still heeded the warning, partially at least as he'd opted to swim in the calmer bay instead of the open sea. And as so often, he'd dived down until he was surrounded by only silence and the eerie light beneath the surface. He loved doing that, the sense of peacefulness down there.

But today, instead of fish and sea plants, he'd seen something else: a beautiful face, crystal clear, surrounded by a cloud of light hair. It had a greenish touch just now, but he imagined that, in bright sunlight, it would be golden. He hadn't seen much else of her, only the vague and blurry outline of shoulders, arms, and the hint of a chest, all translucent as if made of coloured water.

But she'd been there!

Hadn't she?

Well, he was certain that he'd at least seen something, even though that something had disappeared after only a second and no matter how much he'd looked, he hadn't been able to find her again. Was it possible that he'd just imagined it all? Chewing his lower lip in thoughts, he slowly wandered back toward the cottage. He was relatively sure about what he'd seen, but he also knew that Eret wouldn't believe him and Hiccup couldn't even blame him. So far, all their talking about the Undine had been more or less joking, nothing serious, just idle 'what if's. This now though? This changed everything. What if the Undine was real?

Still pondering, Hiccup entered their home and more out of reflex than anything else dug out his old-fashioned easel. For most of his work, he preferred his drawing tablet, the layer option making it easier to work with. But right now, he needed something else, something more solid and something bigger.

He closed all the curtains and only lit one lamp for indirect light, similar to how it had been down there. Then he tried to recreate what he'd seen; the dark and shapeless background of the ocean's ground with rocks and plants, the eerie light from above, a shoal swimming by in the distance. And that face in the centre with its round shape, a pointy chin, and a chubby little nose. Her hair had been a wild mess but there had been something like bits of seaweed, wrapped around her head and woven into the strands. And her eyes… There had been something about her eyes. He hadn't been able to see their colour but he had noticed how… how deep they'd been, endless like the ocean itself. And no matter how often he tried, he couldn't quite get them right. Something was always off, and he just couldn't–

"The eyes… they're bigger."

Yes, that was it, Hiccup thought with a satisfied smile and lifted his hand to–

Startled, he whirled around and stared at Eret standing in the doorway. He hadn't expected Eret to be back already, so it had taken him a moment to realise those words had been his. His first impulse was to ask why he was back already, but only one glance out of the open door showed him how late it already was. Once again, he'd lost all track of time.

Then what Eret had said sank into his mind.

His gaze shot back to his boyfriend, bewilderment keeping him from forming a sensible question. But Eret knew him well enough, saw the disbelieving question in his eye.s He nodded, slowly, and said, "Yes. I've seen her too."

. o O o .

Uha! No pretending she's only a legend anymore...