Nia had been swimming for only a couple of minutes when she, all of a sudden, saw something fairly weird above her head. There was some sort of commotion on the surface, but she was still far from the reef and usually, that part of the ocean was quite calm. She wanted to ignore it but something told her to go slightly closer to the surface and see what was happening.

the higher she got the more she realized with terror that what had looked like just some fish swimming frantically, was actually a long dark figure surrounded by small but very vicious creatures. She halted and finally, she was able to recognize a very well-known board, and from it, two legs were dangling, more like kicking. Oh my Poseidon, it’s him!

The human she liked so much was being attacked by small sea monsters with very sharp teeth and claws. Beagphèists, that’s what they called them. Nia didn’t know if that was the actual name, or if it was just how her community called those pests, but they were a total menace. They were rarely seen in their territory, but for some reason, they seemed to love visiting the reef in search of humans to annoy or worse.

Nia had to act quickly, the little monsters were biting the human’s legs, not yet strong enough but for sure scaring him to death and trying to tilt his board to make him fall into the water. What to do? She couldn’t let them hurt him or worse eat him, but also… exposing her and her community to a human was such a bad idea. Her sister was going to definitely scold her if she did.

Her trail of thoughts was immediately halted the moment she saw the board flipping and the human falling into the water, with so many bubbles surrounding him as he desperately tried to get back out. Nia didn’t even realize she had swum right in the middle of the bubbles, screaming “Let him go!” as she was being bitten on her arms and tail. She pushed away the little feisty creatures and without even thinking, she hug the young human and pulled him away from that situation.

She had to think fast, way too fast because obviously the beagphèists were swimming right behind her, and they were getting closer despite her being faster. The boy in her arms was heavy. She looked up and met his gaze. He looked surprised and scared but more than that…he looked like he was struggling. Damn, he needs oxygen to live.

The beach was way too far and too dangerous for her, shallow waters were the best hunting territory for small creatures such as those, and she couldn’t bring the human deep down either. Only one place remained and she had to be incredibly fast if she wanted for him to survive. She reached a rock that was very large and instead of going up, where there was no room for her human to sit, she quickly went down, a couple of tens of meters, where she finally found the opening to a very small cave. Said cave was luckily connected to a small room that was not always filled with water, with a small opening towards the sky, in between rock cracks.

The human had passed out when she was able to push him onto the rock surface inside the cave filled with air. She had to use all her strength to be able to push his torso to lie outside. She then auscultated his chest. The heartbeat is still there… so why isn’t he breathing? Ugh! How was that thing? Right, they can die if there is water in their lungs, how the heck am I going to pull water out? Maybe push?

Nia never really interacted with humans and the few they had found dead…well, were dead, so no one really cared to resuscitate them, and even if they had been salvageable, generally speaking, mermaids didn’t always save them. Humans liked to think they did, but truthfully falling into deep waters was always a death sentence.

She pushed his chest a few times, trying to unclog him, and all of a sudden he coughed out water, curling up on the rock and away from her. His eyes were still closed yet his survival instincts already made him look for land and safety. She smiled bitterly, he was safe, for now. His eyes snapped open and he looked at her with fear. Poor man, his long blonde hair was all ruffled and sticking to his face, his hurt arm was completely soaked and both that one and the other had bite marks on them. Same with his leg, one of the little pests had chomped on it and he was bleeding.

Nia didn’t know what to say she could only stare back at him with matching surprise and confusion.

“Merrow” the man whispered, but his words were soon cut off when Nia was suddenly attacked and pulled slightly underwater, screaming in pain while her poor tail was being scratched by the beagphèists. Stupid creatures they had finally reached them, and the space was too small for her to overpower them. She was way bigger and stronger but they were three and very fast.

She didn’t even have time to think that a very strong grip pulled her out of the water. The man used his good hand and then quickly hugged her tightly with both of his arms, pulling her completely out of the water. Nia ended up sitting basically on top of him, while the small creatures made gargling sounds from underwater, bubbles and splashes of water reaching both her and the human, but no dirty little hands could come out and crawling on the rock was not an option for them.

The mermaid was breathing heavily as she watched where she had just been, the sole idea of being bitten and parts of her flesh being eaten was terrifying. 

“Are you ok? Oh my god, look at this you’re hurt,” the boy almost whispered, he was still holding her firmly, but was caressing her tail with a very gentle hand. Bite marks…they were going to heal eventually, and scarring wasn’t a big issue.

Nia turned around surprised. The human! They stared at each other for a long second once again, petrified, both of them. Then he looked down to inspect her face and suddenly looked away as he reached her chest. Nia wondered what had scared him, maybe her gills on her neck? She reached up to touch her neck. No, her gills disappeared when she was out of water, she was using her lungs to breathe oxygen. So what was he so scared about? She looked down confusedly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to look” he whispered, he looked slightly red on his cheeks, maybe the fear and the sudden lack of oxygen had affected him. She chuckled and then moved to inspect him. His right shoulder had been bitten and was bleeding, the side of his chest too. Poor man. She gently caressed his skin, stopping the bleeding. She could have done that at least. He saved her after all.

He looked at her, and for the first time his eyes softened “Thank you, you saved my life” he said smiling. her heart skipped a beat. He was real. She really was talking to the human. But while she understood him, thanks to her mermaid powers, he couldn’t. They always knew the native language of the humans that lived in their same area; obviously hearing the sailors speak on their boats helped them a lot. The human was completely unable to hear or understand her unless she did something about it. She debated whether it was a good idea or not, and looked down at her hands on her lap. “You got hurt because of me” the human said reaching out to barely touch her tail where another bite mark was. He immediately retracted his hand, uncertain if he could have touched her maybe. But honestly, she was still sitting on him, his weird casted arm around her waist, and yet he was worried about touching her tail. She blinked a few times looking at him. The whole situation seemed surreal.

“I’m so sorry, you don’t understand me right?” he asked with a incredibly sweet worried expression. Nia smiled softly and looked down, unable to hold that gaze. She shook her head “you understand me?” he asked with a confused tone. She nodded, then finally reached up and ever so gently caressed his temple. A white sparkle travelled from her fingertips to the skin of the human as he widened his very pretty blue eyes.