From Beneath the Waves

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So many things were missing from the seaside home Olivia had come to visit. Korrin wasn't sure he could truly sympathize with missing her family, having never known his own, but he knew enough to know what homesickness felt like. Her love for her family was so strong it made him wonder just what it was like to have one.

"Mm-hm," he murmured softly when she asked if she could tell him something, eyebrows raising a bit in surprise at how she went on, and how hesitant her voice was. "Going somewhere new on your own can be scary. . ." He said softly, not wanting her to feel as if something was wrong. "Were you scared of how you would get here, or of what you might find?"

For a while, it had been a little terrifying going places by himself. He'd gotten so used to it as he got older that it hardly phased him anymore, but he could remember the tremors in his heart when he'd first started to adventure solo.
 
"I was scared of a lot I guess.." She continued softly, encouraged by his voice as it didn't sound like he was judging her or thinking her silly.

"I'd never been so far away from my family before, but it was more that that, I was afraid of what I'd find out about my birth mother."

"I don't know why she left me." She said softly, "I was afraid I'd find out that she didn't have a good reason you know?" "Just that she didn't love me or want me."

"I still haven't looked through too many of her things, or read the letter she left me." "I've been too much of a chicken." She laughed a little, but it sounded sad.
 
Korrin was quiet, just listening as she talked and not interrupting, doing his best to understand. As she explained he pushed them gently ashore, washing the boat up onto the sandy banks enough that it wouldn't get pulled away later on, and pulled himself out of the water enough to sit next to it for a moment.

"Maybe . . ." He started gently, trying to order his thoughts even as he rested his arms atop the edge of the boat to be closer to her. "Maybe she thought you would be happier with someone else. . . Maybe she was scared, too."

He didn't really have a mother, not the way she had, not that he had any memory of, but he was sure there had to be a reason. No mother abandoned their child without good reason, right?

"If you want . . . I could sit with you when you read it," He offered after a pause, tentative still and silently pleading with her not to be irritated with him for it. "Maybe it will be less scary if you're not by yourself."
 
She nodded a little, "that makes sense and I hope it's something like that, not that I wanted her to be scared but.." She shook her head a little, "you know what I mean."

"What i said before, about you not having to choose, I was worried about that myself." She said thoughtfully, "I was worried that wanting to find out about my birth parents meant I was betraying my family."

She turned to face him when he made his offer, she was speechless for a moment before smiling shyly. "I think that would help, thank you Korrin."

She said softly, clearly touched by his offer. "As long as it wouldn't be too awkward or uncomfortable for you?"
 
Korrin only nodded a little, not sure he fully understood but getting the sentiment well enough. Wishing bad things on other people wasn't something he would ever have suspected Olivia would do.

"Anything is better than feeling like someone left you alone," he said softly, sympathizing even if he didn't know what I was like to be left by a parent, or what it was like to have one. He had always assumed whatever parents he'd had were killed in whatever accident had left him dying, the day Minamet found him. If nothing else, he at least knew exactly what it was like to think no one wanted you. He wouldn't have wished that feeling on his worst enemies.

"Of course!" He insisted when she hesitated, tailfins giving an almost indignant slap against the surface of the water even as he pushed himself a little higher on the edge of the boat, expression enthused at the thought of finally getting to do something helpful. "You don't even have to tell me what it says if you don't want to, I can - I can just sit quiet and hold your hand. . ." He sunk down a little bit again, a faint flush rising to his cheeks and head fins pressing down flat at his own eagerness. "I just . . . want to help somehow."

He would do anything if it helped her feel less scared.
 
She blinked a little in surprise at his sudden enthusiasm, though she did appreciate it. It made it clear he really was happy to help, and not just being polite.

She appreciated him wanting to respect her privacy, but she would probably tell him anyway. She might like to keep the letter just for herself, but she trusted him enough to tell him what it said.

His flush made her smile a little, though she had a faint blush herself. She leaned a little closer and put a gentle hand on his arm, "Thank you Korrin, it means a lot to me that you want to help."
 
Korrin had been full of insistence and enthusiasm as he first answered, jumping on any chance to do something for her that was remotely helpful in the same ways she'd helped him, but lost his bluster as she continued to look at him and he realized he'd been a bit loud. He was worried he'd embarrassed himself, or made her feel uncomfortable, and she wouldn't actually want his help. Maybe he was just being silly. He was so unused to having friends.

Her hand on his arm brought his eyes back to her, though some of the sheepishness still lingered. "Always," he said softly, aching for anything else he could tell her that might help even though he had no idea how to make her feel better about the things that plagued her. He couldn't go back in time and ask her mother why she'd given her up.

After a moment he gave his head a little shake, putting a hand briefly over hers to give it a careful squeeze and then shifting away to push himself a bit back into the water and rinse the sand off his tail. "I should get my legs so we can look around. I have something neat to show you, if it's still here." He'd stashed it away a long time ago, so he hoped it was still okay.
 
Though she didn't want him to ever feel upset or unsure of himself, his soft blush and sheepish smile was sort of cute. It was very sweet how eager he was to help, it reminded her of herself in a way.

Conflicted feelings or not, she was very glad she'd come on this trip. It had given her a chance to answer some of the questions she'd always had, even if it couldn't answer them all.

More importantly, to her anyway, was making a new friend, especially one as incredible as Korrin. She smiled warmly at his comment, hoping that no matter what eiether of them decided to do, they would remain friends.

She smiled a little at his phrasing, nodding as she carefully stood up. "Sounds good to me." She stepped out of the boat and onto the sand, the basket resting in the crook of her arm.

"Oh yeah?" "What is it?" She asked curiously, holding his bundle of dry clothes in her free hand.
 
"A big piece of wood." Korrin explained, inching back a bit so he could still touch the ground but wouldn't be covered in dry sand when he changed back. "It's been carved into something - I think it was part of a ship. One minute."

He gave a little shudder as he pushed on the right part of his magic, of his consciousness, to trigger the transformation that made his scales melt away and his tail split in two. Only about a minute after it started it as over, and he pushed himself carefully up until he could stand in the low water, wobbling a bit as he got used to being on feet again. When he'd recovered enough to wave a bit of the water off his skin and back into the ocean, he took the bundle of clothes from her and started to dress so she would be able to look at him again.

"The boat should be safe here," he said as he pulled on the clothes, "but if it drifts I can always swim out and get it."
 
At first she was a little amused by his answer, not really understanding why a big piece of wood was all that interesting.

When he mentioned it was a carving, her curiosity grew. "Oh really?" "That sounds pretty cool." She said truthfully, wondering what it looked like and how old it might be.

She turned her back to him, giving him privacy while he changed. She passed him his clothes while keeping her gaze firmly in front of her.

"Alright." She agreed, turning back to face him once he was dressed. "Was the carving something you found?" "Or was it already here?"
 
"I found it." Korrin said when he'd finished pulling his clothes on, happy to talk about the interesting things he dug up some days. "It was buried in sand, pretty far away from the nearest shipwreck. I pulled it with me for a long time to get it home, but I didn't have anywhere to put it."

He'd worried if he left it just sitting out somewhere someone would spot it and take it from him, but no one really came wandering around the islands, as they weren't big enough for habitation by anything other than birds or small mammals that had swam out and gotten stuck there. If he noticed them he always tried to take them back to the mainland.

"It's, um . . ." Korrin paused, looking here and there at the foliage that had changed and trying to picture what side they were on, then finally pointed inland and started to walk. "This way somewhere. I haven't come to look at it in a while and the bushes have gotten thicker." He would find it. He just had to look a little.
 
She was very curious to see this carving, it must be pretty special for him to go to all that effort to save and stash it. She wondered what other things he had hidden away, curious about his collection.

She fell into step beside him, letting him lead the way while she looked around curiously. She did her best to avoid getting scratched by any bushes, starting to feel a bit dumb for wearing shorts.

"Uh... there aren't any snakes on this island are there?" She asked as they walked, eyeing the underbrush a bit nervously.
 
Korrin picked his way carefully through the plants on the island, pushing some away as best he could and holding them so Olivia could get through without being smacked. He was too busy thinking of how, much easier it was to walk than to drag his tail through it all, even if his scales kept him safe, and hadn't stopped to wonder how difficult it was for normal people.

"Snakes?" He repeated thoughtfully, looking around as if he could spot any. "I don't think so. . . I don't remember seeing them, anyway. There isn't much here for them to eat, and they'd have to swim a long way." Only some snakes could make the distance through the water, and only when it was calm.

It took only a minute or two of walking before they came across his find - it would've been too difficult to drag both it and himself onto shore so far, so he'd only gone enough to make it invisible from the water. It had been almost a year since he'd last come by, and when he got to it he had to brush off some spiderwebs and pull away a bush that had tried to grow over it. The carving was large, nearly three quarters of his height, and looked as if it had once been colored though it wasn't anymore. More importantly, it was a carving of a mermaid.

"I don't know how they knew." He said as he reached down to pull it until it sat upright on its tail, heedless of whatever bugs or plants might be on it, so she could see it more clearly. "It scared me a little when I found it. . . It's very old, so I'm glad it hasn't fallen apart."
 
She smiled and thanked him as he held the branches out of the way for her, appreciating the thoughtful gesture. "It's pretty overgrown out here huh?"

She was reassured about the snakes, for the most part anyway. After a scary run in with them as a kid, snakes made her pretty uneasy.

She leaned forward with interest as he revealed the carving, "oh wow, that's amazing." She said excitedly, "it's an old figurehead..."

She nodded a little when he said it was old, "I'll bet, something like this would probably be in a museum if someone else had found it."
 
"No one comes here," Korrin explained with a shrug, "so the plants just grow and grow." As long as they were getting enough rainwater to survive, there was nothing to curb their growth.

He looked the carving over curiously as she did, as if he hadn't seen it dozens of times before. "Figurehead. Is that what it's called? I just want to know what mer someone saw to be able to make it with so much detail. . ." He paused a bit thoughtfully, voice gone a little quiet at he mulled it over. "Maybe . . . they were friends, too."

Maybe there were others like Olivia, who had met merfolk and been kind. Or maybe someone knew what mermaids looked like because they'd killed one. He didn't like to think about that much.
 
She nodded a little, "yeah they could be all different designs and they had different purposes like intimidating enemies or as a symbol of good luck and protection."

She looked thoughtful, "I don't know.. I mean people have been talking about mermaids or merpeople forever but only as myths."

"There's theories about how the stories started, but I mean obviously they're wrong." She said with a little smile, "maybe they were friends, and they kept it secret too."
 
"For good luck. . ." Korrin repeated absentmindedly to himself, looking the figurehead over again and wondering what it might mean. Had humans thought mermaids would lead them home, when they were stuck out in the sea for long periods of time? Maybe some had, over the course of history. Maybe the interactions between species weren't as awful as he had been led to believe they were.

"I like to think it's for good luck." He decided with a nod, crouching down with a little smile and brushing off some of the plants and spiderwebs that had gathered on the piece of wood. "She's very well carved. Humans used to make a lot of interesting things out of wood." Not a great many were in good condition, though, given how the ocean eroded things.
 
She smiled and nodded, "I think so too." "The idea was it would protect them from danger and carry them safely back home at the end of their voyage."

"I think a merperson is the perfect choice for that." She said with an amused smile, "I'll bet I'm not the first human in history who did something dumb and needed rescuing."

"It's a shame it's not that common anymore, I mean there's still wood carvings but figureheads aren't really a thing anymore."
 
Something about it all just made him want to smile. Korrin laughed softly at Olivia's humor despite it being at her own expense, and very carefully aid the figurehead back down on top of the plants that had grown around it. "Maybe a long time ago, merfolk really did lead ships home. Maybe nobody believed them it happened."

He wasn't sure what they might have traded for or what they benefited from humans besides curiosity or kindness, but it made him happy to think that they had lived peacefully together some time in history. Maybe they would some time in the distant future, too.
 
She nodded a little, "maybe they did." "All the stories about them, the art of them, there must have been a time when they interacted with each other."

She looked a little sad as she wondered what had happened to change that, Korrins fear of her when they first met suggested an obvious but still upsetting answer.

"Maybe it still happens from time to time, and they just keep it secret." She said thoughtfully, "the worlds a pretty big place after all."
 
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