A tail for an eye - Eren x Levi

Chapter 7

"Recognised through the eyes"

As the net was brought up noisily, the gunshot sounds had ended and now everyone stared at the approaching merman. First, he appeared shocked, but then began fighting against the net, tangling his arm and end of his tail. Levi took a closer look, he appeared almost 6 foot big, his skin more tanned than expected for something that lived with little light, but certainly still somewhat pale. The teal shaded tail bashed against the net, producing quite a forceful slap but not being enough to break it. He resorted to scratching at it with his sharp yet not too long nails, Levi worried he would break through it. But thankfully, it reached the deck and was placed above it, hanging just a foot from the floor.

"We caught it," one of the pirates attending to the net said with his jaw smacked open. 

"Wow," another spoke from behind.

Levi looked into the eyes of the merman, now he was closer he could truly read into them. The merman had brown hair covering this forehead and eyes. He slowly looked up, directly at Levi. Levi almost gasped, his eyes ... was this the same merman who killed his family? The eyes were everything he'd heard about, enchanting and beautiful. Enough to lure anyone in.

"Captain, do we kill it?"

Levi stepped forward, about to speak, until the merman smirked a little with regaining confidence in his eyes, his hands moved from behind his back to his front as he fell through the net and bashed onto the deck. A shock of gasps went through the boat as the merman dragged himself to the edge of the boat. 

"No you don't!" A pirate lunged at him, grabbing his tail.

"Get back!"

Half a dozen pirates were no trying to grasp onto this merman as other grabbed the net, ready to enclose him back into it. 

"Don't let it get away!"

However, the merman put up his own little fight. Pushing and biting and slapping his tail, he wasn't backing down. The pirates were about to start being more violent and punch back when the merman flung his tail against two of the pirates at his side and produced a large whack. Both pirates flew back, holding the sides of their face. The merman took this chance to bite another pirate to a point of bleeding and dragged himself away at an unexpected speed. His muscles certainly showed in his flexing arms as he pulled himself away and fell over the side of the boat back into the water. He made a getaway, much faster than the boat now this time. 

"Should we shoot again, Captain?" A pirate asked, holding his gun back up to aim.

"No!" Levi yelled, a little too quickly. He turned to Zoe's shocked face still back at the wheel to say, "follow him, he'll lead us to where he lives."

Zoe nodded, closing her mouth. The three injured pirates hissed and grunted in pain. Clear teeth marks were showing from the guy's forearm, bleeding from some of the deeper parts. As for the other two, bruises were almost already showing, slight swelling and one bleeding lip seemed to be the damage.

"Bloody hell, they're a fight and half."

"Get your arm clean, make sure it's not infected," Levi spoke to that one pirate. The wound looked nasty, it was wet and had far more teeth than a person. He nodded and stood up to leave to their only doctor on the boat. Well, he was hardly a real doctor, yet he knew more than the basics and far more than the rest of them, "get something cold on your faces."

They nodded, but much less than the other guy from the pain. Levi took a deep breath as their boat turned slightly, following the merman's directions and still seeing occasional ripples from the water. Their injured side was now swelling so suddenly that it made their eyes appear smaller and their lips appear bigger. Levi felt awful for them, but didn't show it.

"I didn't think they'd be that strong," someone said, "what made you hesitate killing it, Captain?"

"He's a known merman to humans," Levi began, the other pirates listened closely, "that's the one that killed my grandparents."

"Really?"

"Are you sure, Captain?"

"Aye, that's the brat alright," he answered, a lingering tone of anger in his words. He turned on his heels and walked to a bench, watching out to it.

"I wonder why it's heading left," Zoe said from above him, "are the others okay? It sounded. a hard hit."

"I'm sure they'll be fine with a bit of rest, it's. that bite mark which could cause problems if infected. God knows what those things eat, or what diseases they're covered in," Levi ranted a little, feeling disgust towards that creature, no matter how pretty it looked. It wasn't too pretty to be killed and skinned alive for a certain price. 

"I hope he'll be fine. I don't think it will be infected,  he look quite clean for a sea creature," Zoe said, a strangeness in her voice. Levi recognised that tone, it meant she was planning to joke to him about something that was always ridiculously pathetic, "means you'll both get along."

Zoe began howling with laughter whilst Levi rolled his eyes.

--

A few hours passed and thankfully no sign of infection was showing, though they'd keep an eye out for it. The two had prominent purple and blue bruises across the sides of their face, but were overall perfectly fine. No sign of an S.O.S cry had been shown, yet now they were travelling more left so they may miss it. This was where the merman was taking them, Levi hoped it would be to mer-people galore where they'd be able to snatch a merman and return home.

"Land ahoy!" Jean shouted below, having now resumed to his job.

Levi lifted from his seat and looked out to where Jean was. He couldn't really see anything himself, not even the ripples of that merman anymore. In fact, it was oddly quiet within the ocean. However, through his telescope he could make out the faint outline of what appeared to be a small island. But he wasn't too sure. He questioned why the merman would be travelling towards land. Not a single map reported the existence of this island, perhaps mer-people lived close-by to it. Perhaps it was something else all together.