Strange Waters ~ Chptr One

    Isn't it just the best when you wake up to find you still have the absolute most boring job in the world, AND that you specifically get to stay even on the weekends because you're just that fabulous at it. "Oh Milly, cheer up! I mean, isn't the ocean Great?" Yeah, sure. Salt crowding you're mouth beging for the puke show is wonderful. I also just can't stop fawning over going blind with a nice splah every now and then.
    I can't really tell if being employee of the month is truly bad or not, I mean, being on a boat for hours of a day manning the fish nets isn't SO bad. Grace was right when she complimented the ocean. Especially on nice days, when the suns licking the water and it sparkles like newly cleaned windows. And when the spray isn't so bad, like when it's similar to the misters in amusment parks and such, the coolness of it mixed with the breeze is refreshing and relaxing. You feel gone and the world dissapears around you.
    "Mills! The net!" I was jolted from my trance by not just her words, but a jostling net. Boy we caught a load. I pulled up the net and she came over to help me sort the fishes. "Geez woman, will you ever get the net on your own?" I sighed, "Grace, you've got to understand the degrading thrill of this job. Not to burst your bubble, but it kinda sucks." She punched me playfully, cocked her brow and smirked. "Oh really, I saw how you were looking at the ocean, I swear if you weren't human, you'd be a fish."
"Oh that's so very funny, what kind of fish? How about an angelfish, because I'm absolutly the best, and the most beautiful person ever." She laughed loudly,"Yeah sure, but I'm thinking more along the lines of a clownfish." I lazily tossed a fish into a crate, missed, and it flopped back into the ocean. "Well great, Mill, see, a clownfish." I gave her a glare, "Thanks Grace, aren't you just a smart little ray of sunshine." she crossed her arms and put on a smug smile,"Yes, I indeed, but not just a ray, I'm the whole sun, and you just got sun-burned." I simply rolled my eyes. It's nice having a friend around you when everything else ticks you off.     Suddenly, the boat jolted. I staggered and fell, landing on my butt. "Ow..." Grace was on her butt as well. We both looked up to see dark storm clouds quickly rolling overhead. The Waves had gone from the calmest i'd ever seen them to choppy and terrifying in seconds. Suddenly the net moved again, and boy did it move. It was joslting all over the place. Did we catch a shark? I scrambled over to it on my hands and knees, slipping a few times. "Milly are you insane?!?! What are you doing?" I snorted "My Dumb job!" I pulled on to rope and held on tight to stay standing.
    This one may be a Salmon, definitely bigger than the usual, but not a shark. I pulled with all my might, even when my muscles ached and my hands burned from when the rope slipped. I hastily grabbed my hook and panicked when I felt the rope dissapear from my hands. With hook in hand I spun my head around and snatched for the rope. Instead I got a fistful of hair. "OUCH! Woman geez!" I let go immediatly and gasped, "Sorry Grace!" She was gripping onto the rope so hard it looked like the rope was a part of her hands. "Stop staring and just help me Mills!" I grabbed the rope with both hands and yanked, the hook under arm. I could feel the incredible weight as the net was lifting out of the crazy water. It was raining cats and dogs now, making it next to impossible to stand. My feet slid everywhere as I fumbled to get the hook from under my arm while holding on to the rope with one hand and maintaining my balance. I strained the hook over the edge and latched onto the net. I let go of the rope and slapped the now free hand onto the hook, and pulled. I felt the release of the water as the net shot upwards, sliping and thudded onto the boats wet floor. I also head a loud "Oh!" from Grace. We both fell, but Grace didn't lose her grip on the netting. I crawled quickly over to her, leaving the hook behind.
    Just as I reached her, the storm calmed instantaniously. The ocean went flat and the clouds were swiftly drifting away, returning the sky to the stunning blue it was before. The fishing boat's captin had been getting us to the docks while the storm had whistled and  screamed overhead. I figured we were but a few miles away.
    I felt rapid tapping on my shoulder that slowly grew into hard slaps. "Milly, I know the docks are just the sexiest thing in the world, but really look!" I snapped my head to look at her. Her eyes were wide with shock and she was looking up at the net. I slowly lifted my head to see what she was looking at. My mouth fell open... I couldn't beleive what I was seeing. There in the now oblierated net, was no fish, but a merman sitting in the fish, staring at us like we were aliens, which to him, we probably were.
    I struggled to stand, and about halfway to my journey back upright, I slipped again. My hand hurried for the rope and gripped on, yanking it a bit. The nice bed of fish the merman sat in tumbled out of the gaping holes I assume he created by thrashing around, landing lovingly, on Grace and I. Now I was slimy, confused, and exsausted. "What. The. Hell." I looked at the merman and we sorta had a staring contest before I sighed, took the rope from Grace, still dumbfounded and on the floor, then tieing it so we wouldn't have to hold it. I found my hook and held it, once again looking to the merman.
    "I don't care if this is real or not, or if I have some weird disease from swallowing so much seawater all my life, but I may as well roll with it since screaming and the such get no one anywhere. I mean the ocean is a whole other world and mermaids had to come from somewhere, whether the imagination or a sighting like the oh so real lockness monster. Now if you wouldn't mind, and if you can actually understand and speak the human language, which I'm not sure of because you looked at us like we're, I don't even know, like we looked at you. What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?" He stared at me again and blinked a couple of times.
    He was quite handsome. He had long deep almond brown hair, almost black, very similar to mine, parted in the middle. It was incredibly soft looking and seemed to have another shine to it other than that of being wet. He had eyes the color of his hair that appeared to be full of exciment, confusion, and disbelief. His skin was pale and incredibly smooth and clear. His hands, weren't hands. Instead, they were claws with fins a brilliant dull green. His... tail.. was vibrant, and sparkled like the ocean I admired at the start of the trip. It had the same green tint, except it was brighter than the fins on his hand. He had four tail fins at the end of his tail that imitated the style of fairy wings. And his ears were long and pointed, the sides folding inward slightly.
    I breathed in deeply. If this was a dream, I hoped I'd remember it, not that I wouldn't be willing to accept it as reality. My whole life i'd yearned for something mystical to happen in my life, for I'd always beleived magic or things of the sort, exsisted. Geez, why does the word, "magic" have to sound so cheesy. I mean, maybe it's not just like in stories, but, I always felt like it was there, and as silly as others thought I was, I refused to stop believing it was.
    "This is no dream.... Milly, is it?" I snapped from my thoughts and looked at him. "So you can understand?" I asked. "Yes, well now I can, it takes a moment, but we learn how to understand after we search the thoughts for the process that you went through to learn them, and we learn along with you." I was intrigued, "You mean your kin?" His eyes brightened and he smiled slightly, seeming to approve of my use of vocabulary. "You are a very kind person, I can feel it." I smiled. "Oh, and my name, forgive me for being rude, but we do not freely give our names, for it could be the death of us. May I ask first, can I trust your friend here?" He looked at me seriously. It was and intimadating gaze, but it didn't falter me.
    I had utmost confidence in Grace, I had known her my whole life. Every word, in our minds or otherwise, every experience we had, was shared between us. The word secret was absent from our vocaulary. I had no hesitance in my response. I gave him the same stare he gave me. "Absolutly."
    He seemed slightly taken aback, and suddenly, his eyes filled with an admirative wonder, as if he was hypnotized. "Wow, I had only heard of humans in stories, but it seems I have ran into a couple with the strongest bond I've ever seen. You hold each other very dearly. My name is Hadesuryū, which means leaf sea dragon in a laguage your kin refer to as, Japanese. But feel free to call me Ryuu" What a lovely name I thought.
    I heard shuffling behide me and looked back. Grace was "dusting" herself off, except the dust was water. She only needed to walk a few steps, then, with a bright smile on her face held out her hand. "Based on what I just heard, I assume you may already know, but I feel as though I should take the liberty to introduce myself anyway. I am Grace, Milly's best friend." Through a hole in the net Ryuu took her hand and shook it. "I highly appreciate your thought, and no, I didn't bother to figure out who you are in that manner, one, because I find it rude to do so unless truley neccesary and two, because you were collecting yourself on the floor." She giggled, "Yes indeed I was."
    She stepped back and a few moments of awkward silence passed between us. we were almost back at the docks, and thank goodness it was Sunday when everyone else was off, I'm not sure they'd handle this situation as well as Grace and myself.
"Well," I started

"Why don't we get you down from there Ryuu."