Prologue
The cull of seagulls woke up Jotaro with a start. His cream colored bed sheets tangled at his feet suggested an uneasy rest the previous night. Light poured into the room in bands of unwanted color. The young man groaned.
"Jesus…"
He turned his head to the bundle of blankets on a chair and saw a small, familiar dog.
"Iggy!" Jotaro cursed.
The black and white bull terrier lifted his head to meet the man's glare and met it with one of his own. The dog snorted and curled up more on the blankets in contentedness.
Jotaro breathed in through his nose with a deep sigh and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He was too tired to try to wrestle the dog to get off his blankets and ignored it for the time being. The muscles in calves were oddly sore and it seemed his ankles were a light shade of irritated pink. There was a dull pain throbbing in that area so he figured it best to investigate.
"The hell?"
Jotaro propped his leg on his other knee and gently grazed his ankle when he instinctually winced.
This is gonna be hard to explain… He thought.
A big wave crashed on the harbor dock outside his window and it startled Iggy enough for him to scurry out the room (not without kicking the blankets on the floor, of course). At this point Jotaro was more than fed up and angrily fixed the blankets back onto the chair after dusting them off.
"'Taro! Ya awake yet?" Boomed a voice from the other room with mild cheer.
"Unfortunately" Jotaro responded in an equally loud voice.
The young man rubbed his eye with the back of his hand and sighed as he slightly limped into the kitchen outside his room. The air smelled of burnt bacon and toast and an aged man stood before the stove. He brought the second plate of food before the table and sat down in a huff. Jotaro slumped into the other seat and it creaked in agreeance.
"Eat up, we have to reel in twice as many crates before the end of the day today."
The older man's name was Joseph Joestar and he was quite the personality, to say the least. Salt and pepper hair was the only marker for his age. He still spoke, and acted, just as young as the grandson he had living with him.
"I thought you said the market didn't need us today?" Jotaro asked as he tore off a brittle piece of bacon. He crunched on it some and quickly swallowed it down with milk to save his dry throat.
Joseph swirled around his own glass of milk before taking a sip and setting it down in a grimace.
"So did I, but Brando had a page surprise me with a letter saying that we needed double the amount of mackerel for an apparent festival this weekend."
Jotaro bit into his toast and looked out the window to the sea subtly crashing against the shore.
"He hasn't had a festival in months."
Joseph lightly shrugged at the comment in more or less exasperation.
"The King does what the King wants. And besides, if all I have to do in life is help raise you and pile in fish every once in a while, I'll take it as a blessing-"
Iggy at this time trots into the kitchen and eyes the bacon on Joseph's plate at the edge of the table. With a slight wiggle of his hind legs he springs up and the plate falls to the ground, and with it, the food the old man so quickly worked for. Jotaro chuckles some as he guards the rest of his food from the fearsome, four legged shark below the table.
Joseph shouts and curses the dog before Iggy runs off into some unseen corner of the house. The old man grumbles to himself and he gets a broom to clean all the mess up from the chipped stone floor. Waves from the distant shore crash stronger and the conversation between the two men is softly drowned out.
Chapter One
I
Jotaro went to bed that night as a fearsome rain bellowed out through the sky. The wind howled and droplets of water attacked his windows like stones. Iggy, for the first time in a while, was curled up under the boy's arm and nestled his face into the sheets.
"You're really scared, huh?"
Iggy didn't respond and trembled in the boy's arms.
Suddenly, a crack of lightning lit up the room for a split second and he saw the loose figure of someone at the foot of his bed. Jotaro sat up, eyes wide with confusion, as he bunched up his legs to get away from whatever he saw in the light. A boom of thunder rang throughout the sky and gently shook the house. Dust fell from the ceiling and mixed with the moonlight streaming from the window behind Jotaro. Nothing showed to be there. The rain went silent for a moment and Jotaro's heavy breathing soon steadied. Iggy looked up to Jotaro and put his paw on his face.
"Sorry, I uh, I got scared too…"
After a moment Iggy went back down under the sheets and Jotaro hesitantly did the same. Another crack of lightning illuminated the room and the figure became more apparent. Jotaro blinked his eyes open and turned his head to the foot of his bed yet again.
Before him was a terrified, soaking wet man with skin that shone in the light a pale green. His auburn hair was long and curled around his neck and shoulders. He grabbed Jotaro by the ankles and almost crawled his way onto the bed. The sheets dampened where the figure had appeared and Jotaro's breath hitched in fright. He couldn't see the rest of his body.
"Help!" cried the figure before he disappeared with another clap of thunder. His voice was quick and desperate like a bird's broken wing.
Jotaro was left in a shocked, almost terrified, state of mind. Was he dreaming? Was this real? Iggy didn't seem as bothered so it was hard to tell.
The rain picked up once again and drowned out any other noise in the room. Jotaro sat awake for hours as the storm raged on around him. He pet Iggy to try to lull himself back to sleep and it was starting to work. Despite his mind screaming for him to be awake, Jotaro was too exhausted to keep his eyes open. Soon enough, he convinced himself that what happened was nothing of worry and fell asleep sitting up.
II
Joseph stretched awake and looked to his bedside table fondly. Atop the table was a singular picture frame of a young blonde woman with a baby in her arms. She bore a warm smile and her hair was dressed in wild flowers. The frame was the most well kept thing Joseph owned.
"Mornin' honey," he said as he grazed his thumb on her cheek.
Joseph got up and threw on a pair of tattered overalls with some thick rubber boots. He walked with a heavy step through the kitchen and fixed himself a simple breakfast. Iggy came from Jotaro's into the kitchen and sat before Joseph's feet. The old man turned and looked down at the dog with a spiteful grin.
"If ya think you're gonna get my damn food again-"
Iggy cocked his head and innocently looked to Joseph with the standard puppy dog eyes. The dog even whimpered some to sweeten the deal. Joseph sighed as he threw a piece of meat on the floor and chuckled some. Iggy did the same, if dogs could laugh, and proudly carried his prize back into Jotaro's room.
Due to the heavy steps of Joseph's feet and the smell of food in his room, Jotaro wasn't too far behind in being awake. His neck was stiff from having slept straight up against his bed baseboard, but other than that he didn't feel much. Jotaro combed his hair with his fingers and looked at Iggy happily gnawing on a piece of meat in the corner of his room.
"Don't tell me you stole that." Jotaro said with a slight smile.
Iggy looked up to him and flashed his teeth for a moment before going back to eating.
"I'll take that as a maybe."
Jotaro looked down to his sheets and they were mildly damp around his ankles. A wave of uneasiness fell on the boy and his stomach dropped. It was all coming back to him- how else did only that part of his bed get that way if what happened last night was just a dream? He slowly peeled the sheets off his legs and his heart raced in anticipation.
"You doing okay?"
Jotaro quickly looked up to see his grandfather leaning against the doorway. The boy covered his legs back up with the sheet and swallowed hard.
"Yeah, I um, I'll be there in a minute…"
Joseph looked at Jotaro with a raised eyebrow and crossed his arms in comedic suspicion.
"I didn't walk in on anything, did I?"
Jotaro didn't respond at first and bunched up the sheets in one of his hands.
"No- Can I go out and reset the barrier nets?"
Joseph chuckled and looked out the window to check the time.
"Sure kid, make sure to tie it all back up the way I showed ya. I don't know what'll be there 'cause of the storm that came through, but knock yourself out."
Jotaro nodded and watched his grandfather as he walked back into the kitchen. Once he was gone, he lifted back the sheets that covered his legs.
"Shit," he cursed in a whisper.
His ankles were an even brighter shade of pink along with claw marks barely scratching the surface of his skin. What happened last night was definitely real, it had to be. The room's sunny disposition suddenly ran cold with anxiety. Jotaro practically jumped out of his bed to put on work clothes but quickly stumbled and had to catch himself on a wall. His ankles throbbed in a numbing pain that made it difficult to stand.
"Jesus, boy! The hell's goin' on in there?" Shouted Joseph from the kitchen.
Jotaro clenched his teeth and regained his footing.
"I'm fine, just tripped on the dog."
Getting dressed was a challenge and the boy sought it best to sit on his bed for most of it. Iggy jumped on the bed and sat with his paws crossed in judgement.
"What?"
Iggy turned his head towards Jotaro's feet then back at his eyes.
"I'll be fine, and I'll throw you any strays if I find em, okay?"
The dog wagged his tail and jumped off the bed towards the door in excitement. Jotaro grew a faint smile and tried his best to conceal his pain as he took Iggy out with him to fix the nets.
III
The early morning sun bathed Jotaro's tanned skin like silk as he went down the line of the dock checking the barrier netting. He was searching for something, anything, that even mildly resembled the man he saw in that lightning shadow, but there was nothing. Iggy got impatient from the lack of promised fish and tugged on Jotaro's pant leg in frustration.
"I'm sorry there's no strays, I was hoping to find some myself…"
The dog whimpered and sat around looking for anything stupid enough to be a meal. A big splash came from a net that Jotaro missed a little ways back and Iggy went running in hopes it was a stray. But, when he peered his head over the side, he started to growl and panic.
"Iggs, what the hell's wrong with you?" Jotaro said, annoyed.
The man slowly walked over to the dog in heavy footsteps and sighed as he crouched besides Iggy and held him back.
"Calm down, I'll check it out, okay? I highly doubt it's another shark-"
Another splash came up from the sides of the dock and water hit Jotaro's cheek in a short peck. Iggy wouldn't stop growling and bit Jotaro's shirt to try to pull him away from the net. Jotaro grew anxious again and he covered his mouth before looking around to see if anyone was around.
There was no one there on the shoreline besides him and the dog. Joseph was inside their house sipping on cheap coffee and couldn't see much of anything from the windows. Quite literally, the coast was clear. Taking a deep breath, Jotaro slowly leaned over to see what was in the net. Iggy gave up on trying to move Jotaro and scampered about the deck in protest before whining beside him. At this point, he accepted Jotaro was going to be a dumb human and ignore his warnings.
Tangled in the coarse black netting was a blistered and very sunburnt man (or so it seemed). Half his body was above the water and the other half writhed in pain below the surface. Dark red hair coiled around his arms and his head was caught to side by the net's hooks.
Jotaro quickly crawled back from the edge of the dock in shock and panic set back in. This was the figure from the night before. It was happening, it was real, and it terrified him. Jotaro slowly peered back over the edge out of guilt and curiosity.
The man looked to Jotaro and struggled against the netting caught around his arms. He didn't cry or beg for help, he didn't scream, he just looked at the boy with helpless eyes and wished for freedom.
"Hold on, I'll get a boat, w-wait here!" Jotaro said in a quick hush.
Iggy watched Jotaro run to the side of the dock and grab a small row boat. The dog snorted in disbelief and walked back to the house. He was done with the boy's antics for today.
Jotaro took a pair of shears and pushed the spare row boat into the water headed for the dock. His body was moving faster than his mind and it broke a sweat on his furrowed brow. A wave kicked up against the underside of the boat and it crashed back down in a splash. Water sprayed all inside the boat almost to warn Jotaro of what was to come.
The tangled man eventually gave up on the net and quit resisting its ties. His chest rose and fell quickly, then slowly, as if he had finally collapsed against the tide. The lower half of his body was hard to make out and Jotaro just assumed he had lost his legs when he rowed up beside him.
"Hold on, hold on, don't move or I'll nick you," Jotaro's voice wavered and lacked confidence.
The young man brought the boat to the side of the net and tied a rope to the dock post. His hands shook and he tried not looking the poor guy in the eyes. In a weird way Jotaro felt as if he caused this to happen. How long has he been there? There were burns and blisters on his skin and, and as he cut more of the net away, he found large cuts on his back.
"What happened to you?..." Jotaro questioned in a whisper.
The wind gently blew in the silence the two held. The man looked to Jotaro and barely had the strength to keep his eyes open. Jotaro cut the arms free from the net and began to work on the head area.
Jotaro leaned in close and tried to be careful as not to cut the skin around his throat. The man drowsily looked to Jotaro and coughed up sea water with small traces of blood. The guilt the boy felt was overwhelming.
"I'm sorry, I should've came sooner-"
The man weakly lifted his wrist from the water onto Jotaro's arm. His skin was soft, on the parts that weren't burnt, and smelled of a memory the boy couldn't quite name.
There was a small wave that bustled under the dock and momentarily covered the man's whole body in the newly cut net. When his body resurfaced, the lower half of him revealed a bitten and cut up tail. There was a faded trail of blood coming from a large wound on the underside of him and some of his scales were stained with dried blood. Any fins he had were bent and folded unto its spines.
Jotaro briefly stopped cutting the net free and stared at the tail with wonder and fear. He quickly looked to the creature only to witness him go limp and his eyes fall closed. Jotaro panicked and cut the rest of the net away from him as best as he could.
"Stay with me, okay? Come on!"
The hand that was on Jotaro's arm slid off and into the water in silence. Jotaro quickly took the merman by the underarms and hoisted him into the row boat; his body was slim but dense and the boy tried his best to keep any injuries from getting knocked around.
The trip back to the shore was nerve wracking. At one point Jotaro heard a couple of distant voices from beyond the dock and had to wait out of view until they passed. The sound of Jotaro's quick and heavy breathing was louder than the waves moving around him and the little warmth from the merman's body was quickly fading. Jotaro panicked and moved back to shore in reckless panic and dragged the boat on land as fast as he was able. The pain in his ankles came back to bite him but he didn't care, there were more important things at hand.