AN: Woohooow, a new chapter! Only took over three months to get it done... And that's with me having been SO eager for this chapter! Did you see that there's a new cover picture for this story? I drew this over half a year ago! And since then, it's been waiting for this moment. xD

. o O o .

Wide.

Wide and beautiful.

That was all he could think about as he gazed out over the ocean. So magnificent and alluring, as if it would hug him and keep him warm as soon as he stepped into the water. The longing was overwhelming, and he couldn't quite figure out why he wasn't doing those last steps, why he stayed where he was.

So wide...

So beautiful...

So tempting...

"Hey, love. Did you zone out again?"

Eret flinched and, blinking to clear his mind of the foggy sensation that always followed one of these episodes, gazed at Hiccup and his godsdamned smirk next to him.

"Uh," he grunted, shaking his head after Hiccup had stretched to give him a light kiss in greeting. "You're back?"

Chuckling, Hiccup nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry, talking to that one customer took a little longer than planned. But I still got all the shopping done; we should be good for a week or so now."

Eret nodded, silently accepting the fact that he must have lost hours again. Hadn't Hiccup left only minutes ago? Once back in their kitchen, he sat down and watched quietly as his boyfriend prepared dinner for them both, steak and a fresh salad to go with it.

"So, did you find out anything new?" Hiccup asked after they'd both eaten up, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smile.

Eret shook his head. "No, not really. I... well, I didn't have time. I think I didn't even get to sit down and open my notes this time." This was so frustrating. So many hours of possible working time – all lost.

"Well, I'm glad you're taking the Undine serious now," Hiccup went on, carefree and relaxed. "But after she apparently enchanted you again today, I'd say there's at least one thing we can be absolutely sure of."

Eret cocked his head, even though he could already guess where Hiccup was going with this.

"She really is no threat to us."

Eret nodded, though reluctantly. It seemed as if Hiccup was right. Glancing at the picture Hiccup had drawn and that stood in a corner of the room, he tried to sum it all up for himself.

It was two weeks now since he and Hiccup had both seen the Undine. They hadn't spotted her again since then, but the fact that they'd both seen the same face was proof enough. But proof enough of what?

That she was real? Probably.

But did that also mean that she didn't mean to harm them? Maybe Hiccup was right and she really posed no threat. But what did that mean for them? Of course, they could just go on like before, happy with the knowledge that a literal living legend resided in the ocean next to their home.

But how bizarre that fact alone was aside, all these episodes of one of them getting drawn to the ocean and basically becoming unconscious for hours... they bothered Eret. Yeah, nothing bad had ever happened. Yet. But they were disturbing nonetheless – because they were getting more frequent! Lately, barely a day passed without one of them ending up outside and gazing at the ocean as if it was all that mattered. And Eret just wasn't sure what to think about that.

Because, surely, those were connected to the Undine, right? They had to be, even though he couldn't say why or how. It felt like too much of a coincidence that there could be two unexplainable phenomena at work here. And wasn't it part of the legends about undines, mermaids, and the like that they were able to lure humans into the water and into their death? It wasn't that he really feared this creature wanted to harm them… But he couldn't entirely accept her being harmless either.

"Maybe you're right," he evaded giving Hiccup a direct and possibly controversial answer. They'd discussed it often enough lately, and without any further proof of any sort, their different opinions on this matter wouldn't change. They agreed to disagree, and that was enough for now.

"Still, I'd like to go through my notes again tonight, since I didn't get the chance to do so earlier. Look up all the legends that mention sirens luring people in with their song and such."

Hiccup shook his head at that, but chuckled and smiled fondly. "If that's what you have to do to find your peace of mind…"

. o O o .

For a while, Hiccup simply watched Eret as he stared at his screen, ruffled through pages in his books, and typed some new notes into one of his documents. He was adorable like this, biting his lip and with this tiny crease between his eyes when he was entirely focused on his work like this. And the fact that he was taking the Undine and her existence more serious now wasn't exactly off-putting either.

And it wasn't as if Hiccup didn't understand why Eret insisted on gathering as much information as possible. Odin, he wasn't much better if he thought about it. It was just that Hiccup didn't believe some old legends, myths, or fairy tales could really tell them what all this was about. Mrs Ingerman might be their best option, but with how vigorously she'd been in her bad opinion about the Undine, Hiccup didn't feel like bringing her up as a source of information. He couldn't say why, but he just knew that the Undine wasn't here to harm them.

If only they'd seen her again, maybe even had gotten the chance to interact with her. That would certainly have taught them more about her and her motives. But she hadn't shown herself to them again, no matter how determinedly they'd looked, and by now, Hiccup wasn't putting much hope into finding her anymore either. She was probably still around, but as long as she was hiding so sufficiently, nothing would change.

Sighing, he watched Eret for another minute or three before he got up to clear the table and clean the kitchen. Or… that was what he'd meant to do.

He couldn't even say when exactly it happened, whether it was right after he entered the kitchen or whether he at least started washing the dishes. All he remembered was that he suddenly felt too warm, the air around him too stuffy, and that he decided to go outside and get some fresh air instead.

It was a lovely evening, the sun just about to set. The air was still relatively warm with only a light breeze blowing over from the ocean. His eyes settled on the glistening surface, smiling as the faint thought of drawing this one day came to his mind. But only a heartbeat later, it was gone again, along with pretty much every other thought in his head.

He took a deep breath but it still felt stuffy somehow. Maybe the air would be cooler closer to the water? Hiccup made an unconscious step toward the water, then another. And another. The closer he got to the ocean the lighter he felt, his smile getting wider, his eyes brighter.

On and on he walked…

. o O o .

With a heavy sigh, Eret stretched, the muscles in his back complaining at the lack of change in posture. He shushed them though, far more frustrated by the lack of progress in his research. There were so many stories, but none of them fit the case of their Undine. Nearly everywhere, the siren or mermaid was described as an evil monster which lured men in on purpose, direct and almost aggressive in their behaviour. And none of that fit to their Undine, he had to give Hiccup that much.

And… where was he anyway?

"Hiccup?" Eret called, surprised that he wasn't sitting on the couch anymore. When had he left? He got up, stretched some more, and then went in search of his elusive boyfriend. He had enough of all those frustrating thoughts and dearly preferred cuddles over pretty much anything right now.

However, it quickly became apparent that he wasn't inside the cottage anymore, and with a slight uneasiness, Eret stepped out the backdoor, expecting Hiccup to have gotten lost in the view, too. But he was nowhere to be seen, and somehow, that made it even worse. Calling his name again, Eret jogged around the house to check on their car, but it was still where it was supposed to be; Hiccup hadn't driven off for whatever reason. His uneasiness grew as he ran a hand through his hair, looking around the wide-open landscape as if he expected to spot Hiccup there somewhere; which, of course, he didn't.

"Hiccup, this isn't funny anymore," he called, louder, but there was still no response. "Dammit!" he cursed under his breath, jogging back to the other side of the house. Reluctantly, his gaze landed on the ocean but he found that, for once, its allure was gone. Or maybe his worries for Hiccup were just overshadowing it. Slowly, practically against his will, he walked closer to the small stony cliff that separated the higher field of grass from the water.

And prayed with all his heart that he wouldn't find what he feared to find.

. o O o .

With her incorporeal arms soothingly wrapped around herself, the creature sat at the foot of her usual rock, deep below the ocean's surface. As so often lately, she was quietly humming to herself, the only thing that seemed able to keep the loneliness at bay – a little bit at least.

She felt raw inside, torn between the urge to watch her humans whenever possible and to keep this safe distance at any cost. It wasn't working. She could feel it, how her determination crumbled. It was only a matter of time before she would give in and go back, would risk… whatever could happen to her if she got involved with humans.

But whatever it was, it couldn't be worse than this hopeless longing for something she didn't even know. And she was certain that, to a degree, they had to feel it, too. When she felt the worst, almost ready to give up existing, more often than not one of them appeared outside, barely moving and just watching the waves, just like she liked to do, too. It was odd, but it made her feel connected to them. As if they specifically came for her, to keep her company. As if her loneliness had called them.

And it was getting worse.

She'd already spent part of this day with the bigger one as she called it. But where she'd been content with doing so every couple of days, she now already missed them again. How was she supposed to cope?

Her cold heart skipped a painful beat when she felt it – one of them was close again. Not close enough to find her, but inside the water. Even over the distance, she thought she could feel the warmth he radiated, making her whimper. Resisting was so hard.

Impossibly hard even.

With something like a soft cry, she gave in to the overpowering force that drew her toward them, floating close enough to spot him near the surface. It was the smaller one, and just seeing him made her feel lighter inside. Hopefully, this tiny bit of closeness would be enough to give her the strength to keep her distance a little longer.

But then she saw it. Something was… off.

Usually, the humans took off their additional skins when they entered the water, or most of them at least. And it made sense, she thought as she watched her human struggle. All those skins made it apparently difficult to move. Worried, she watched him more closely. He appeared to have problems with staying at the surface, as if the wet skins were dragging him down against his will.

It didn't look good.

Not at all!

She didn't hesitate for even one second longer. From one moment to the other, she didn't care about consequences anymore. Within a few heartbeats, she was at his side, her body condensing into a more solid form to hold him and lift him back up to the surface. He instantly gasped for air, arms and legs flinging around wildly. His eyes were open but equally wild so she couldn't be sure whether he even noticed her or not. She hoped he didn't.

She also hoped that lifting him back up here was enough, that she could go right back into hiding now. But as soon as she let go of him, he sank down again, helpless against the waves and the weight of his soaked skins. Whining in distress but without thinking twice about it, the creature wrapped her arms around her human again and slowly dragged him back toward the shore. It was difficult, her body not used to such exertion, and she had to pause several times, gathering her strength and holding him up almost more than she could manage.

He'd stopped struggling by now which made it easier but also worried her. Terrestrial beings needed to breathe, didn't they? Was he still breathing? She wasn't sure but she also had no way of making sure. So she put in more effort to get him back to the shore and even managed to drag him onto solid ground, even though she barely remembered how.

Frantically, she looked him over, unsure of what to do now. He still wasn't moving. But before she even had one moment to think about what to do now, she heard the sounds; footsteps rustling through the grass above her and the weird but distinct noises humans made. The other one was coming here and quickly. That was good. He would know what to do with this one.

With two quick jumps, she was back in the water, diving in head-first and disappearing between the waves.

. o O o .

When Eret reached the cliff, heart hammering in his chest, he froze when he found exactly what he'd feared. Hiccup lay on the rocky ground below, pale and unmoving, his clothes and hair dripping wet.

"Oh, FUCK!" he cursed, hastily climbing down to his hopefully just unconscious boyfriend. In the back of his mind, a voice was ranting about how Hiccup had been wrong, about how the Undine had lured him into death after all. But Eret determinedly shut it out. Now was not the time.

Instead, he quickly scanned his body for any visible wounds, relieved when he couldn't find any, and directly went over to reanimation. They'd taken courses before moving to the seaside, but never in his life had Eret imagined he'd one day have to use it on Hiccup.

"Come on, Hic," he gasped in-between. "Don't do this to me."

To Eret, it felt as if a small eternity passed as he alternately pressed down on Hiccup's chest and blew air into his lungs. But in reality, it probably took far less than a minute until Hiccup reacted, coughing up water as his body convulsed.

"Oh, thank Odin," Eret gasped as Hiccup regained at least some consciousness. He was groaning, his hands fluttering up in search of something, and Eret caught them eagerly, reassuring him that he was safe now. "You scared me there for a moment, do you know that? Don't ever do that to me again!" He was only babbling, really, too scared and relieved and shocked to make any sense. And it wasn't as if Hiccup was all that perceptive right now anyway.

For a while, Eret just held Hiccup. He had both arms wrapped around him, slowly rocking him back and forth and giving Hiccup time to recover and regain his senses. At first, all Hiccup did was groan and cough, but after a minute or three, he apparently found his voice again.

"She was there," he croaked, followed by renewed coughing. "I saw her. Felt her. The Undine."

Eret's fingers around Hiccup's shoulder twitched as he helped him back onto his feet. Somehow, he wasn't surprised the Undine was involved in this incident. "Yeah, I guessed so. Maybe you believe me now that she's dangerous. All these legends about her kind luring men into death – they can't all be wrong!"

Getting Hiccup up the rocky cliff wasn't easy but eventually, they managed. Once they were back on grassy ground, Hiccup shook his head though. "No, you don't understand," he insisted, his voice still hoarse but urgent. "She… she was helping me. Dragged me to the surface and the shore. She rescued me, Eret! She's not evil, not–"

Hiccup broke off, coughing again, and nearly fell when he dizzily stumbled to the side. Eret caught him quickly, his arms firmly around him again as he led him to their home. He wanted to argue against Hiccup's words, how that didn't explain why he'd ended up in the water in the first place, for example. But instead, he just pressed his lips together, forcing himself to stay quiet. They would get the time to discuss this, but not now. Not, getting Hiccup inside to warm him up and let him rest was more important.

"Whatever. But come on now, we have to get you out of these wet clothes." Usually, a comment like that would have drawn a smirk from Hiccup's lips and probably a comment about if Eret wanted to see him naked he only had to ask.

But today, none of that happened. All Hiccup did was nod mutely, his eyes weirdly dazed and empty.

. o O o .

The creature didn't get far before she paused and turned back to look at the shore. Too big was her apprehension for the human's health; she had to know how he was doing and hiding deep in the ocean and out of sight was out of the question right now. Anxiously, she watched as the bigger one took care of him, for once not caring whether anyone might spot her head between the waves.

Please, oh, please. Let him live!, she thought, desperately. Usually, the life of humans didn't matter to her, but after all these weeks, she didn't want to lose them.

The relief she felt when the smaller one moved again was beyond anything she'd felt before. Her heart was flowing over with lightness, unable to contain her emotions any longer, and there was an odd stinging in her eyes, more wetness than usual on her cheeks.

He was alive. As stupid as her thoughtless reflex to help him might have been, it hadn't been for nothing. He was alive, and everything else was secondary to that.

However, as she watched them retreat into their construction, something else came up in her mind. The happiness and relief from before got accompanied by the returning longing as they walked away from her, but that wasn't something new. No, what was new was the sense of dread she felt. As if it had been her fault that he'd almost drowned in the first place.

But that was ridiculous… wasn't it?

With blank eyes she watched them as they disappeared out of sight, inwardly fighting against the voice inside her head. What if she'd been right before? What if she wasn't the only one feeling that strange pull toward these humans? What if, somehow, her presence affected them just like theirs did her?

Was she responsible for him almost drowning?

As often as thinking about them had elicited some strange warmth inside her before, all she felt now was a weird coldness instead. She couldn't even explain it to herself, but she just knew that she'd been right. Them spending more time outside where she could see them lately was somehow because of her, because they felt the same yearning she did. And it had almost killed one of them.

Throughout the entire night, the creature stayed close to the shore, closer than she'd dared to in a long time, watching the building even after the lights had gone out. Something like today wouldn't happen again. She wouldn't let it happen again.

For hours, she pondered even though, deep down, she already knew what she had to do. Her only option. Leaving was impossible, she'd tried that already. She'd thought that staying just close enough to watch them would be enough, but the past weeks had been anything but easy on her – and obviously, it wasn't a real solution anyway, not when it put them at risk. So what option was left to her? She knew that she wasn't allowed to interact, that it could have deadly consequences if she did. But apparently, that was true for not interacting, too.

Yeah, she already knew what she had to do, but she still needed the hours until dawn to gather her courage. Above her, the sky was already turning grey and orange as she got closer and closer to the water's edge. Once, the sensation of skin forming around her, of confining her, had put her off enough to throw herself back into the ocean, but today, it felt like little more than an unimportant inconvenience. Earlier, when she'd dragged the human onto solid ground, it hadn't bothered her either, hadn't even registered in her mind, and ignoring it now was almost easy.

Once her feet touched nothing but sand and rocks and her legs had gotten accustomed to carrying her weight, her gaze locked on the small construction further up on the headland. Slowly, she took one step up the rocky ground, her eyes never leaving her goal. Before she knew it, she felt grass beneath her bare feet, such a weird and unfamiliar sensation, but even that wasn't able to distract her from taking another step.

And another.

And another...

. o O o .

Uh Oh... I wonder how that's going to work out... O:)