What the Water Gave Me

Chapter One

BOOK ONE

When the ship crashed, he was there and he saw the whole thing. The storm was terrible and he bobbed on top of the waves, watching. He swam closer and watched the bow of the ship crack in half and someone on the top fell screaming into the ocean. He watched and considered attacking, but he had more important things to do. He had to make sure the man was alright. His man, the one with the slight shoulders and the pretty mouth. He was being a guardian angel that night, although an angel with fangs and claws.

As the storm grew worse, the ship crashed back and forth and he saw the man he was looking for stumble onto the deck and grip the railing. Wind whipped at his blonde hair.

And then he watched the ship surge and the man tumble over in a mess of flailing limbs and a splash. He watched in horror and then dove into the waves to go after him.

He was close, but the man was sinking fast, no matter how hard he kicked and fought the tumultuous waves. He swam to the man as fast as he could, pumping his tail as fast as he could go and the man saw him then appearing out of the dark water and his eyes widened. The man started trying to swim away, but he didn’t get far as a heavy piece of his own ship crashed into the water and hit him. The man  fell lax then and he watched bubbles of saved air escape from his lips.

He caught up to him and wrapped his arms around the man. He pulled him in through the water and towards his chest, then began swimming as fast as he could to the surface. When they broke out onto the top of the water, he held the man up with both hands, one made of flesh and one made of water, to the air.

Breathe! He thought and the man didn’t.

He didn’t know much about humans, but he knew they took air into their lungs like water and if they weren’t doing that, there was something gravely wrong. With the man’s face still held to the black sky, he began swimming frantically towards the shore. They reached the sand in record time and he pushed the man up past the water and onto the sand where rain water pelted.

Breathe! He thought again. The man didn’t and he watched from the safety of the ocean, panicking.

When he couldn’t stand to watch anymore, he he pushed himself out of the water. His watery left arm washed away with the sea and he was stranded with one right arm and a useless tail to drag himself with up towards the man on the sand. He’d never done this before. He’d never even been so close to shore before. And honestly, he would have been afraid, but he was too overwhelmed with fear for the man.

His hair became plastered down to his face and the back of his neck and water ran off his chest, leaving his skin goosebump ridden in the cold air. He dragged himself up close to the man and looked down. The man was going pale, turning blue, and he panicked. What do you do when a human refuses to breathe?!

He didn’t know what he was doing, but instinct guided the heel of his palm to the middle of the man’s small chest and he began to push. When that didn’t work, his eyes travelled up to the man’s lips and another idea came to mind, one that made him want to push himself back into the ocean as fast as he could, but something was urging him to try, and so he scooted closer to the man’s face and gently opened his lips and pressed his own mouth there, trying to breathe in for him.

He was sure this had never been done by anyone before, and he pulled away a few moments later, embarrassed, but that’s when he noticed the man coughing and sputtering up water and sucking in air. The man was wracked with horrible spasms and his breathing sounds were wet and awful and he didn’t know what to do now, so he grabbed him as best he could with one hand and hauled him up onto his lap and hugged him to his chest until it all stopped and the man’s breaths began to come in and out quietly and evenly. Just the same, the rain around them began to calm.