This drabble is dedicated to redeyes143 because if you hadn't mentioned a possible sequel to fisherman!Eriol in your review, I wouldn't even have thought to write one.
xxx
085. Myth
She watches from under the water as he casts his nets day after day. After he is done, he retreats to sit on the banks of the river. This is her cue and she starts to fill his nets with fish.
She thinks it is a myth that humans are destructive and selfish. She sees him share his catch with fellow fishermen and sometimes when there's too much fish to bring home, watches him release some back into the river.
She ponders why he sits by the river day after day watching the nets, he could be off doing other things the humans do. Perchance, does he not believe that she'll keep her word?
Eriol, that is his name, Eriol, always spends the day on the river bank, watching his nets and then gets up at sundown to collect his catch before finally making his way home.
Wonders sometimes if she should reveal herself to him again.
After all, he's just sitting there on the river bank watching the nets, and she's just sitting there in the bottom of the river, watching him. Conversation would be infinitely more pleasurable would it not? But always, she catches herself before she can surface, because he is a human and she is a river nymph. The less they see of each other, the better. That is the way of life.
But one day, after his usual ritual of dividing his catch among the local fishermen, he doesn't go home. Instead he sits back down on the river bank and watches the river.
She thinks he might be watching her. But that's ludicrous, he couldn't possibly see her, could he?
She doesn't realise she had whispered his name until he bolts up from his position on the grass and approaches the river, "I heard you."
He wades into the river, calling out, "What's your name?"
She starts to back away, she had watched him for long enough, she shouldn't be here.
"Hello?" He's wading deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the river.
If he's not careful, he could slip on the rocks in the dark and drown in the current. She bites her lips. Surely he is smarter than that?
"I heard you! I know you're here!" He's too deep for comfort now, she can tell.
He is desperately treading the water, looking around blindly in the dark. For a split second, she debates briefly the merits of letting him drown. She wouldn't have to fill his nets every day and she needn't watch him pathetically from the bottom of the river.
But just as he goes under the water, the current pulling him towards the deep end, she feels her fingertips brush his shirt and she pulls Eriol back onto the river bank.
"That was a very foolish thing to do Eriol." She says as he coughs violently, resisting the urge to brush away the tendrils of his hair from his eyes.
He looks up at her, the moonlight reflecting her own reflection in his eyes. "I knew you were there."
She looks away, "No longer."
In the blink of an eye, she disappears back into the river.
Eriol sits up slowly, in utter confusion, wondering if he had somehow imagined the whole encounter, driven by his desperation to see the river nymph again. Then he hears the water call out to him, Tomoyo.
Her name.
xxx
And that should be all for fisherman!Eriol and rivernmyph!Tomoyo. Because unless he drowns or she magically turns human, there probably wouldn't be a happy ending for them. :(
