Chapter Text
Things could be worse, right? He didn’t want to jinx things, but things could definitely get much worse.
Then again, being stranded alone on a lifeboat for three days with a limited supply of water, a fishing rod, some bait and a spear wasn’t exactly a good situation to be in. Sokka had been adrift without the sight of another ship or land, and he didn’t even have an oar on board so he couldn’t use his knowledge of stars to get him anywhere safe.
And from his tired calculations, he was smack-dab in the middle of nowhere nautically speaking. He hadn’t looked at a lot of trade maps or anything, he was a fisherman who stayed very close to his fishing space, but he knew for a fact that there was a very low likelihood of anyone passing nearby.
Sokka sighed and threw his line again, very aware that his supply of bait was running low, along with his water which was probably more important. Still holding the rode which had brought him very little fish of the small and not very nutritious variety, Sokka hit his forehead on the side of the boat and listened to the dull thud ring through the wooden planks. This sucked.
It was horrible to admit, but Katara had been right. Going so far out at sea was dangerous, and even though the ship he had embarked on, the Charter, was great, he had foolishly not been able to get to safety during a storm before a massive wave pushed him into the water. One crewmate had been quick enough to release a lifeboat in the hopes that Sokka would reach it, but by the time he had climbed onto it the Charter was barely in his line of sight. The storm wouldn’t have helped anyway. When the sky finally lightened and the ocean calmed, he had been fully and undeniably alone.
His eyes stung at the thought of being stuck here for the rest of his life, watching his supplies disappear while trying to avoid a heatstroke. After wishing to see the sun again during the storm, he now wished for some clouds, even a little bit of rain, just enough to replenish the sad waterskin at his side. But no, the sky was and had been for the past few days insultingly clear, with some fluffy white clouds speckled about.
He shook his head as he felt a tear roll down his cheek.
“No no no, do not start this!” he shouted at himself as he wiped his eyes. “The water stays inside, you hear?”
He took a few calm breaths and tightened his grip on the fishing rod. Things were bad, but he had to hold on. He had a family to get back to, damn it! Dad, Katara and Gran Gran would be distraught once they got the news that he was lost at sea, as well as Aang, Suki and Toph. He couldn’t start despairing just because things seemed hopeless! He had overcome challenges before, right? Granted, those had been a bit less life threatening, like managing to get his diploma or surviving Katara and Aang’s frankly infuriating first few months of incessant lovey-dovey-ness, but he had also been on a few dangerous fishing trips, and he had come out alive, right? This dumb failed expedition to maybe get a chance to work at a research centre was not going to be the end of him, okay?
He had to hold on.
“Just hold on, you’ll be fine.”
At least there weren’t any sea serpents in the area, or giant squids or things like tha-
His thoughts stopped as something tugged the fishing line. He couldn’t help but smile. Finally! He pulled, and to his surprise, pulled some more. Whatever he had caught was bigger than his last fish. That would surely stop his stomach from growling from how empty it-
He fell backwards and nearly hit his head on the side bench behind him. Bewildered, he sat back up and stared at the line. Nothing. The hook had nothing on it.
“Oh come on!” he yelled.
A splash cut him out of his frustration, and he leaned over the boat to see what had made it. The face of a child stared back at him with a smile and a curious expression. Sokka stared back and wondered if the sun was making him see things. But then he noticed something that made him wish that he was hallucinating. The child, for all of its skin and hair swishing around its head had one very worrisome feature. Scales. Purple scales on the side of its face crawling towards ears that were replaced by fins of the same colour.
It wasn’t a child, it was a mermaid.
Mermaids were widely considered the bane of sea exploration. They lured sailors to their home to feast on their flesh and found it entertaining to mess with boats and ships when they could. They were far worse than any sea serpent or giant squid because they weren’t just animals. They were monsters. Sokka could remember the stories his mum would tell him and his sister about humans who had worshiped the ocean but not in the way you were supposed to worship La. Stories of humans sacrificing other humans for the ocean’s safety. And in it safety they found, along with new horrifying forms and gifts that would hurt others in their paths.
Those stories had never made sense to Sokka, but that was hardly a problem when faced with an actual mermaid staring at him while thinking of who knows what. Probably the best way to eat him.
He didn’t want to be eaten by mermaids like his mum.
He managed to get on his shaky legs and picked up the spear at his side, hoping that the creature wouldn’t struggle too much so that he could keep his only weapon. The mermaid’s head rose just enough to show its neck covered in gills and its shoulders speckled with those same reddish-purple scales. Its closed mouth held that same curious smile making it look like an innocent child, but Sokka knew that behind it lay rows of teeth sharp enough to tear a man apart. And personally, he didn’t want to risk it. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to understand what Sokka was doing, so when he went to stab it with his trembling spear, he managed to hit it. Sadly, it had been too far for his aim to be accurate, and instead of its chest where its heart should be, he hit its left arm.
The cry it let out was ear-piercing as it reeled back. In its panic, it hit the lifeboat with its submerged tail, making Sokka lose his balance and drop his spear. So much for keeping it. At least the mermaid did go away, leaving behind it a small pool of red blood to slowly dissipate. Soon, the boat stopped shaking, and Sokka could finally breathe.
It was disturbing to see something wear the face of a child, but everyone knew that mermaids were killers at birth. Maybe that particular one hadn’t been very bright, but Sokka would not be taking any chances. He could only hope that it had learned its lesson and wouldn’t come back. At least now he had some kind of exciting story to tell his loved ones when he came back. Meeting a mermaid and surviving was definitely something people liked to boast around, and if he survived all of this, he would definitely do the same.
He wasn’t very happy to have lost his spear, but at least the creature hadn’t broken his fishing line. After waiting a few minutes to make sure the creature wouldn’t come back, he grabbed his waterskin and took the tiniest sip possible so as to keep it going for as long as he could. It was too bad that you couldn’t drink sweat, because he had plenty of it. He took out another bait from the small box and attached it to the hook on the line before throwing it in the water again, hoping to attract something that could potentially be eaten instead of something that could potentially eat him.
After a while, a fish finally took the bait, and while it was small it was better than nothing. Eating raw fish wasn’t exactly the safest idea, but he had nothing else to eat and nothing to cook with, so potential food poisoning it was. Although it would be pretty stupid to die from food poisoning on a lifeboat.
As he kept drifting towards who knows where, he kept looking around, checking to make sure that no other sea creatures had gotten the same idea as the mermaid. It would be pretty unlucky for him to stumble on more than one on the same day, but his current situation didn’t really spell out ‘luck’ now, did it? But as the day went on and the sky showed signs that the afternoon was ending, Sokka was glad that he hadn’t spotted any other signs of life.
Well, he would still really really like a ship ready to rescue him, but hopefully it would come tomorrow.
As alert as he wanted to stay, the rays of the sunset were already making him tired. His head was starting to feel a little heavy, and yet it also felt light. Even with his best efforts, he may have gotten a heatstroke. Great. Oh well, he could deal with this later, right? The rhythm of the waves below beckoned him to take a break, to relax. The sea breeze carried a soothing sound akin to a melody, promising a bit of relief from the worries of his conundrum. As he sat on the edge of the boat and dipped his feet into the cool water, the creak of the wood told him to calm down, to drift awa-
“AGH!”
Sokka jumped at the sudden pain tearing at his ankle and pulled himself out and away from the sea. His breathing increased as he stared at the blood dripping from the bite mark on his right ankle. It wasn’t particularly deep, but still enough to look dramatically bad. He quickly untied his sash to wrap the wound up as his brain scrambled to work again. He was bleeding because he had been bitten, he had been bitten when his feet were in the water, and that meant…
Oh Spirits, please no.
Sokka stomach dropped as he turned around to see another mermaid. This one didn’t have the friendly-looking face of a child, and Sokka would have really preferred the first one. The creature was clearly an adult, and a very aggressive looking one at that. Its snarl showing jagged, pointy teeth held a bit of blood around it, and Sokka couldn’t help but tense as it licked it. As it licked Sokka’s blood. Just like the last one, its hair was dark but also extremely long. It cascaded down its face and shoulders, pooling in the dark waters below. Its eyes were yellow and predatory, with the left one being forced to squint by a burn scar that went from its forehead to its cheek and disappeared into its hair before reappearing on its ear-fins. What little Sokka could see of it looked painful, and in any other situation he would have wondered how a mermaid could get such a scar. It was red, but not as red as the scales speckled around its face and shoulders. They glimmered in the setting sun, the light making its eyes even more terrifying.
Sokka trembled as it started swimming around the lifeboat, its hungry glare never leaving him. It swam and swam before diving into the water on one side and appearing on the other. This game went on all night, with the mermaid sometimes diving in for long periods of time to make Sokka loosen his guard. But he would not be tricked that way, even if every time it re-emerged, it brought out Sokka’s screams.
By the time the sun appeared, Sokka had been alone for what felt like hours.
He didn’t have the energy to start fishing again. All-nighters weren’t something Sokka was good at, and all-nighters pulled to make sure he stayed alive were even worse. His whole body was trembling both from exhaustion and adrenaline, the fear of that creature appearing again to kill him gripping his chest. He lay down in the boat, and as cramped as it was it was still enough for him to shut his eyes and rest a little while. To just take a breather.
When the sun started hitting his face, he groaned and sat up to drink a little bit of water while trying not to despair at how light the waterskin was. He looked down at his ankle which had been throbbing through the night, and untied his sash to see how damaged it was. Thankfully, the bite had stopped bleeding a while back, and it looked like it was starting to heal itself on its own. Good thing the mermaid hadn’t bitten him correctly, that or it didn’t have a good jaw strength. Come to think of it, maybe that was why it had been circling the boat all night instead of attacking Sokka outright. As terrifying as it looked, the mermaid was probably weak, so as long as Sokka stayed firmly inside of the lifeboat, he would be fine. Probably.
Still, he needed to find some time to fish. He looked around him at the endless ocean, disappointed to not see any ships but reassured to not see any scaly monsters. But as he started preparing his line, something flashed in the corner of his eye. Something red.
“Oh no, please don’t tell me-”
He almost fell overboard as something hit the hull of the boat. When he tried to find what it was, he only caught a glimpse of a red scaly tail passing quickly in the water.
When it hit the boat again, Sokka had to grip its sides, praying that it wouldn’t capsize. He grabbed his fishing rod, the only poor excuse of a weapon he still had left, and rushed to find the damn creature to hit it and make it stop. He never got the chance. After a few more attacks, it stopped, and for a few minutes the silence stayed that way.
Then next thing he knew, he was underwater.
Even though he was completely disoriented, he managed to find the boat again and tried to climb back inside, only to realise that it had capsized. So he climbed on to of the hull and looked around to see the mermaid’s red tail circling him like a sea serpent ready to strike. Before his brain could start catching up to his dire situation, the boat was pushed over again, and Sokka was back in the water.
But this time, he couldn’t swim back up. Something caught his leg, and he looked down to see the blurry figure of what was definitely the mermaid from last night. Even using all of his strength, Sokka couldn’t fight against the force of the mermaid’s pull as he saw the dark silhouette of the boat getting smaller and saw the bubbles of air leave his mouth. Oh La, he was going to drown! He tried to kick the mermaid away, but its grip stayed strong as it dragged him to his death. But just as Sokka felt his last reserves of strength dwindle to nothing, the tight grip disappeared.
Not really understanding what was happening, Sokka looked around to see a big black and white shape swim past him and towards the fleeing mermaid. Sokka stared before remembering that he had to get back to the surface now.
Oxygen had never felt so wonderful until now. He desperately grabbed onto the boat which was back on its right side and took several laboured breaths before slowly and painfully climbing inside. He collapsed onto the small floor and panted for what felt like an eternity. His lungs were burning and it felt like blood was coating his throat and mouth. He had almost drowned a few times in the past, living in a coastal town will do that to you, but this time felt like the worst one yet.
Once his breath was somewhat back to normal, he slowly got up and realised one horrible fact. The boat was empty.
“No…”
He looked everywhere, but there weren’t a lot of places to look.
“No no no no no!”
He looked at the ocean, hoping to find something floating nearby, but the only things he spotted were the shapes of the fishing rod and the waterskin, both floating so far away. Staring at them in the distance, he felt like crying.
“Shit…”
That was it, right? How long could someone last without drinking water, three days? He hadn’t even drunk all that much the days before, and he already felt so dehydrated…
While looking on the bright side wasn’t really something Sokka did, he had to follow Aang’s advice so as to not panic. He couldn’t panic, it wouldn’t help him, no matter how fast his breathing was starting to become. Things could still be worse, right? At least the mermaid had definitely gotten eaten by the animal, which had probably been an orca based on its colours. All he had to do was hope that the orca wouldn’t come back for seconds.
Yeah… Yeah, things could definitely… be…
He heard a splash not far from him, slowly turned towards it and nearly screamed. He didn’t know what was more terrifying, the fact that the mermaid was still alive and still smiling at him while showing all of its sharp teeth, or the fact that those teeth were covered in blood as they tore through the mangled black and white flesh of an orca’s cadaver.
*****
Later on, the mermaid somehow managed to get far too close to the boat without Sokka realising it. The only reason he knew this was that he found several bones that clearly belonged to an orca lying on one of the side benches. The bones where as white as they could be, perfectly cleaned just like the carved ones forming the necklace he wore that his mum had made for him.
At the sight, Sokka broke down and cried.
*****
“Spirit of the ocean, spirit of the moon, in your names, Tui and La, I humbly ask for help…” He paused as he stared at the moon shining in the dark and realised that he should probably be more genuine because things were going very badly. “No actually, I’m begging, I am really begging for your help. I know I haven’t prayed a whole lot to you except for when I go at sea, but I’m willing to pray everyday, twice a day if you help me get out of this mess. I’m not asking for much, just a boat in the distance that could spot me, or even just a few very strong waves to push me towards some type of land. I know I don’t have any offerings, but in my defence I have nothing on me right now except for my clothes, so…” His breath hitched at the thought of how screwed he was. “I just wanna get back home, alive and maybe in one piece. But hey, if I need to lose a leg and or an arm to get that then feel free to take them right now!”
The moon illuminated the still ocean, his prayer clearly falling on deaf ears. He wanted to cry, but he didn’t have any tears left to shed.
Spirits, he was so thirsty.
“Just-” His voice broke. “I wanna go home.”
He sounded like a child, but at this point that was exactly how he felt. He was lost and alone and all he wanted to do was see his dad and sister and Gran Gran to hug them as tightly as possible.
He sniffed at the memory of their small house, of the fire burning as Katara helped Gran Gran cook a nice warm sea prune stew while him and his dad finished carving some spears or making nets for their next fishing excursion.
Spirits, if he came back home, he was never going fishing again.
“Yeah, so… if any of you could give me a sign that you heard me, tell me whether or not you want to help…?” He waited. “Anything?”
His blood ran cold as he heard a series of clicking sounds coming from behind him, and turned around to see that same blasted mermaid that had been stalking him for two days now.
“So it’s a no, then…” he muttered while getting up to fully face the creature. “Oh well, I tried.”
Mum and Gran Gran had always said that spirits were fickle.
“YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?” he screamed at the mermaid, half venting, half hoping that that would scare it off. It did not. If anything, the mermaid looked extremely unimpressed.
Sokka sat down as a coughing fit took him over. His throat was so dry that it probably hadn’t been a good idea to scream like a maniac. He looked up at the mermaid again to see that it was still looking at him like he was a disappointment, which was very rude of it. It was the reason why he was so dishevelled.
“Look-” He coughed a few times. “Could you stop being all menacing and shit right now?” It blinked. “I won’t be good to eat, you know? I’ve barely got any meat on me and I probably taste disgusting by now!” Again, it just blinked. Sokka sighed. “You don’t even understand me, why am I trying?”
The mermaid swam closer to him, which was definitely not what he had asked for, and went so far as to push itself up on the side of the boat. Sokka immediately scrambled to the other side, both to even out the weight on it and also to just stay as far away as possible from the damn creature. Even in the dark, Sokka could still see its features illuminated by the moon. It definitely had a beautiful face when it wasn’t snarling, even when you took the massive scar into account. This was a bit of a given, since mermaids were well known to try to seduce humans to kill them, especially with their songs. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t heard it sing yet, which was weird because… Wait no, he had heard it sing. It was before it had bitten his ankle. He just hadn’t noticed. He also couldn’t really remember it, but it made sense why he had suddenly dropped his guard that evening.
Since the mermaid didn’t move except to stare at him, Sokka kept doing the same thing. What else could he do at this point? He had been wrong about its strength since the thing had killed an orca and had almost drowned Sokka, so it wasn’t like he could do anything else but take in the details of the thing that would kill him. The first thing he noticed was that the creature was actually a merman, which didn’t change anything since merfolk all acted the same while hunting regardless of their gender. He also noticed the delicate looking purple-ish red fins on its arms and back and how iridescent its scales were as they flashed from red to purple. The merman had a lot of bite marks of various sizes on its arms and torso, along with a few more scars that looked like they had been made by blades, or more likely spikes or claws. It wasn’t really known how long merfolk could live, but if you took it from a human’s perspective, this one looked to be somewhere around its twenties, just like Sokka. That didn’t reassure him one bit.
It made a few more clicks and whistles before tilting its head, like it had just asked Sokka a question. Its face looked fairly neutral, but those yellow eyes and slitted pupils bore into his soul with the same intensity they always had so Sokka wasn’t planning on hoping that it would stop hunting him.
It reached out one of its webbed hands, and Sokka flinched at the sight of its sharp claws. The hand moved closer and he stayed extremely still, hoping that it wasn’t going to touch him, but when he felt the slight graze of its wet skin on his left arm, he pushed himself away while trying to keep his trembling to a minimum. The merman’s eyes stayed on him, assessing the action for a moment before growling and showing Sokka its razor-sharp teeth. At this point, Sokka thought that this was it, that the merman was going to eat him, but it jinstead leaped back into the water, splashing Sokka’s face in the process.
After a few minutes of waiting to see if it would return, Sokka practically melted on the floor of the lifeboat, barely managing to keep his heart in his chest.
*****
The merman was playing with him, there was no doubt about it. They both knew that it could climb onto the boat and grab Sokka whenever it pleased, but it still hadn’t. Don’t get him wrong, Sokka did not want to be eaten, but knowing that he was about to die and having to sit through this agonizing wait was even worse than being quickly but brutally eaten. Probably.
It kept leaving him bones, which was somehow even more passive aggressive than it swimming around and glaring at him. One time, it got too close again, and Sokka threw one of the bigger bones at it to make it go away. It didn’t, but it stopped leaving him bones so at least there was that.
Then it left fish guts on the boat, but thankfully it only did that once.
During one of their many staring matches, the only thing making him ignore the agonizing pain in his stomach and throat, he couldn’t help but ask it, “Why aren’t you attacking me?”
Naturally, the merman didn’t reply.
“Didn’t your mum ever tell you to not play with your food?” he rasped, his sarcasm being one of the only things keeping him sane.
Again, nothing.
“Why don’t you just kill me for fuck’s sake?” he tried to shout, but his throat could barely make a sound anymore. So instead he started coughing.
The merman made a few clicking sounds. They sounded mocking.
“Are you trying to drive me crazy? Does insanity taste better?”
It just stared.
He sighed. “Why am I even talking?”
Maybe he should just throw himself in the water and let it drown him. End his suffering and all that. But then he remembered his family’s grief at Mum getting killed by a mermaid, the way it had traumatised Katara as she found her body, the way they would have to mourn him and… No, he couldn’t give up. He would rather lose his mind than give in and let that monster kill him without a fight. Even if he had very little energy left to do so, he would. He would always fight.
“You’re not gonna get me,” he said as confidently as a starving man could. “I’m not gonna let you drown me, you hear? I am not dying here.”
The merman stayed unimpressed with his statement, but Sokka had said it more to himself than to it.
*****
Time was relative, and Sokka had lost track of it a while ago. He kept falling asleep at random intervals, and the only reason he knew not too many days had passed by was the fact that his body was still working.
In those moments, he slept on the lifeboat’s floor, the safest place in his cramped prison.
That so-called feeling of safety disappeared soon enough.
Sokka had been drifting off to sleep when he felt something touch his left arm. When that something grabbed him and tried to pull him away, he quickly got up and hit that something, which was as per usual that fucking merman. It let go of him with a growl, and Sokka saw that he had managed to punch its nose. Watching the blood drip from its face was very satisfying. The scowl paired with a low growl, not so much.
“Uh…”
When it started hissing, Sokka knew that he was dead.
“Waitwaitwait-”
It grabbed him by the neck and forced his head underwater. Sokka struggled against its grip, but he barely even had enough energy left to stand up. He started panicking as the air lowly left his lungs, but as much as he tried to push back, he just couldn’t. He was done for.
When the merman brought his head back to the surface, all he could do was stare as it ran its tongue across it teeth, its pupils barely visible with how thin they were. He was dea-
A loud sound rang through the air, and suddenly the hand gripping his hair was gone. Sokka scrambled to get as far away from the water and almost banged his head in the process before looking up and trying to understand what was happening. Everything felt fuzzy as he tried to catch his breath, but he could hear more of those loud, sharp sounds echoing from the right. He turned to them, and Spirits above he had never been happier to see a ship than he was today. He tried to get up to wave at it, but he immediately collapsed.
It didn’t matter though, the ship was moving towards him. A light flashed a few times, and while Sokka didn’t know much about this kind of code, he knew enough to know that they had seen him.
He turned back to where the merman had been, terrified that it would try to rip him away from his salvation, but there were no signs of those red scales or that dark hair.
A small boat got lowered from the ship and he watched as the two men on board rowed towards him. When they got close enough for him to hear them, he gave them a weak wave, not nearly enough to show how grateful he was.
“Don’t move, lad, we’ll get as close as possible!” one of the men called while taking out a rope.
“I c-” Damn it, he could barely speak anymore.
It didn’t matter, the man seemed to understand that Sokka wouldn’t be of much help. He turned to his crewmate and said something before grabbing the lifeboat once it was at arm’s reach. He tied the rope to Sokka’s boat then to theirs and then climbed into the lifeboat.
“Spirits, you’ve got nothing in here!”
“Accident,” he whispered.
The man laughed, although he sounded more bewildered than anything as he grabbed Sokka’s arm to hoist him up. “How long have you been here?”
“Don’t know… Over a week?”
“You’re lucky we got set off course,” said the other man as he helped the first get Sokka on their boat. He then untied the boats and let the other one drift away as him and his crewmate rowed them back to the ship.
As much as it had helped him survive, Sokka never wanted to see that lifeboat again.
Once they got hoisted on the ship, Sokka was immediately welcomed by a woman muttering about who knew what. Seeing as how she was checking his face, his stomach and then his ankle, she was probably the ship’s doctor.
“Calm down, Sorano,” said one of the two men who had helped and who were still holding him upwards. “He’s not gonna turn into dust if you don’t check him immediately.”
“I’d rather not have a man die as soon as he boards our ship, Genji,” she sighed while turning to a very stern looking man. “Sir, permission to bring him to the infirmary?”
“I don’t think you have to ask,” he said simply.
She nodded and told Genji and the other man, Kazuto, to bring Sokka down to the infirmary. As soon as his body so much as hit the medical bed, the two men were gone and Sorano was once again extremely close.
“Alright, let’s see what we have here…”
*****
As intense as she seemed, Sorano turned out to be one of the calmest people Sokka had ever met, which was saying something because he knew Gran Gran. She nursed him back to health with a speed that he could only describe as magic. When he told Genji, who would come around regularly to check on him, he just laughed and agreed that the woman was probably a witch. Sorano just rolled her eyes affectionately at that.
Sokka learned a few things during his recovery about this ship. They were a cargo ship that brought goods between the east and the west that normally went in a straight line, but a few pirate ships had been sighted on their route so they hadn’t wanted to risk it and went off course. He’d never thought he would say this, but he was very grateful for those pirates.
He didn’t say much to them except for his name and the aforementioned theoretical magic Sorano possessed because she had told him to do so. His vocal chords had apparently been hurt with all of the seawater and lack of fresh water he had drunk, and she didn’t want to take any risks. Once he was allowed to talk again, the first person who came to see him was the captain.
“Captain Jee, nice to meet you,” he said with no extra nod or handshake.
“Nice to meet you too,” Sokka replied quietly, since Sorano had told him to not overexert himself. “I’m Sokka.”
“I know, Sorano already told me. I know you’re probably still tired from your ordeal, but I need to ask a few questions. Standard safety and all that.”
He nodded. “Of course.”
“Tell me, how did you end up in the middle of the ocean?”
“Well… I was on an expedition. A bunch of scientists wanted to pick up some types of fish to study, and those could only be found in the middle of the ocean. I came along as a kind of intern to help around. It was to help get me get some experience so that I could maybe work at the National Institute of Marine Biology.”
“Ah yes, NIMB,” the man muttered with a slight grimace. “We keep bumping into those folks everywhere. They are annoying.”
“Oh… well…” This was awkward. “Anyway, a storm happened, and I got thrown overboard because of the waves. I know, rookie mistake, especially when I’ve been fishing my whole life.”
“Storms are different out here, especially when you’re not used to being on this kind of ship.”
“Yeah… Someone managed to throw me a lifeboat but that was about it.”
“Kazuto told me there wasn’t anything in there.”
“There used to be, although a paddle would have also been nice to have. But the boat got capsized at some point and… well… yeah.”
“There’ve been more storms?” Sorano asked from her desk.
“No… I uh, got attacked by a merman.”
It felt dumb to say. Even with the fact that his mother had been killed by one of them and that there were many sightings, some people still refused to believe that they existed. He remembered Toph snorting at the mere mention of mermaids until Katara told her the gruesome sighting they had had. But since mermaids were really hard to catch, much less study, some just waved those sightings and decomposed corpses off as hallucinations and oddly shaped manatees.
But both of the sailors didn’t look at him like he was talking crazy, although they did seem a bit bothered by something.
“Yes, Kyo saw one trying to drown you from his spyglass,” said the captain. “We had to shoot at it a few times before it swam away. Tell me, did you do anything to anger it?”
Sokka shook his head while trying to hide his confusion. “No? It bit me before I even knew it was there.”
“That’s odd,” he muttered.
“What do you mean? Merfolk are kinda known to try to eat people.”
“Coastal ones, maybe, but this isn’t the first time we’ve sailed this route. Every time we’ve met one around here, they’ve never attacked us.”
“Yeah, but you’re on a massive ship.”
Sorano shook her head. “One of our crewmates, Furora, fell off the deck once because of a dead seagull.” Wait what? “Long story. Anyway, she fell into the ocean, and while we were busy getting a ladder down, a mermaid popped up and kept her afloat until we got to her. We’ve seen a few more, and they’ve never been all that aggressive.”
“Well, that one bit me and tried to drown me multiple times.”
“Are you sure you didn’t do anything?” Captain Jee asked again.
“Yes, I was just sitting there, minding my own business.” Please don’t tell him he’d managed to get saved by a ship full of mermaid loving crazies. Tui and La, what if they were in cahoots with the creatures? Sokka had heard plenty of stories of people losing their minds after too many encounters with mermaids and deciding to do their biding by bringing them people to eat.
Well then again, they did shoot at the merman a few times, so that probably wasn’t it. Maybe they were just a bit weird.
The captain frowned as Sorano hummed. “Maybe this one had a grudge? It’s not like they’re harmless either.”
“Oh definitely,” the captain nodded. “You remember that time one of them gave us a human skull?”
“I remember them looking very happy with themselves. Nikko washed his hands for hours after that.”
“Well whatever that merman had against you, you’re safe now,” Captain Jee said. “Is there somewhere you want to be dropped off to?”
“Uh… Are you going anywhere near Wolf Cove Town?”
He hummed. “We should have enough to make that small of a detour. If things go well, we should be there in a week or so.”
“Really?” Oh thank the Spirits, he was finally going back home.
“Keep resting,” the captain said as he got up to leave. “I know better than to ask someone recovering to help with chores.”
“Uh-huh,” Sorano hummed pointedly as the door closed.
Sokka watched her write down something on one of her notebooks for a few minutes before feeling the overwhelming need to do something. It wasn’t that he didn’t like to laze around, but lying around and staying in a small space in silence had been what he’d done for the past few days.
“Uh, can I help you with anything?”
“No… Although if you want you can tell me more about your marine biology studies. I may not be in that field, but I did have some classmates who ended up doing that. One of them might have some contacts at NIMB.”
“R-really?”
She chuckled and closed her notebook. “Impress me.”
*****
Things were going well now. Sokka had new clothes, he could clean himself up everyday, he could eat and drink well again and he could sleep without fearing for his life. There were people around him, with most of them being happy to talk to him. Sorano told him that she would send some recommendations to her friends as soon as they got to a post office, and they were now only a few days away from his town.
All in all, things were going great.
One night, a bout of insomnia hit him. It wasn’t uncommon for him, and he had decided to pass the time by thinking of what he would say to his family and friends once he got back. He also needed to figure out how to break it to his dad that he didn’t really want to get on a boat again for a while, but he would probably understand.
As he kept thinking, his head started feeling a little light. Odd, he hadn’t moved it at all. Maybe it was just fatigue setting in and he would be going to sleep soon. But then he heard something, something that at that very moment felt… nice. It was the echo of a soft melody moving through the ship’s walls, a melody so sweet that he wanted to know where it came from. He made sure not to wake Sorano up as he left the room to try to find the crewmember who was singing. It felt a little dumb, but he wanted to tell them that they had a lovely voice.
But as he walked through the halls, he realised that the singing wasn’t getting any louder even though he was walking towards it. Soon enough, he was standing in front of the door leading to the deck, and he suddenly felt like he shouldn’t move past this point. But he was up here, why back away now?
As he opened the door, he felt the salty air give him goose bumps. He took a few steps on the deck and found no one there. With how busy this place usually was, it felt oddly surreal to stand there alone with the moon peaking through the dark clouds at odd intervals. He shivered as the wind picked up and walked towards the railing. As he watched the moon send its gentle glimmers on the waves below, he realised that the melody had stopped. He rubbed his eyes. The lack of sleep was really getting to him.
With a yawn, he started turning around to go back to the infirmary when something moved in the water. He turned back to it just in time to see something red disappear in the waves. In the moonlight, the colour seemed to turn to purple.
He was sure that it was just his lack of sleep messing with him, but he would be very glad to get back on land as soon as possible.