Galeophobia {crankiplier}

Stowaway

TW // "death", blood

{ Mark's POV }

Mark's heart skipped a beat as Ethan held onto him, but he ignored it as he processed what he just said. "Take you with-??" He started, but looked back at the seals approaching, and looked back at Ethan. "......Alright. Hold on."
Mark had Ethan grab onto the fin on his back, and he quickly swam away, making sure to keep low to the ground so they didn't see them.

{ Kathryn's POV }

"Yeah it... it should be over here-" Kathryn explained to the guard she had brought with her, but stopped short as she saw that the net was empty. She freezed in place, only moving to keep herself stable in the water.
The guard approached the net, and looked at it a bit. "It has shark teeth marks on it, aswell as blood. I'm very sorry Kathryn."
Those words made Kathryn's breathing hitch.
No. Wait no. This... This can't be happening.
Ethan isn't dead. Right?
Kathryn let herself fall to the ground, wrapping her arms around herself and sobbing.
She heard the guard come back up to her.
"We need to get back and report this to the king" The guard reached out and lightly grabbed her arm, but she jerked it away from him. "LEAVE ME ALONE! Please." Kathryn yelled between sobs. "If there is a shark out here, you need to get back inside." The guard said sternly. Kathryn's sobbing started to slow down and she looked up at the guard.
She knew she couldn't argue with him, so she solemnly got up and started swimming towards the kingdom with him.
Ethan isn't dead... he can't be.
I'll prove it.

{ Ethan's POV }

Mark had been swimming for a while, so Ethan had time to think. Ever since he was a pup, he has day-dreamt about what the shark kingdom was like, and sharks for that matter, but he guessed he knew the second one now.
"Hey Mark?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah?" Mark replied over his back.
"What are sharks like? Are they all as nice as you?" Ethan asked, causing Mark to let out a small laugh of surprise.
"Oh uh... no. No they're not." Mark replied.
A small silence came over them.
"So the stories are true, huh?" Ethan asked solemnly. "Sharks eat seals." He finished.
Mark paused as he tried to figure out what to say. "...Yeah. Yeah they do." Mark said finally.
"Will I be in danger once we get to your kingdom?" Ethan asked as concern and worry started to rise in him.
"No, cause we're gonna hide" Mark said confidently. "Wait what do you-" Ethan started to say before Mark suddenly changed direction and started swimming a lot faster.
They reached an abandoned room of some sort near the kingdom. Ethan only got a glance of the kingdom before they went in the room, but one thing he noticed is that there were no walls. No real security, he guessed it was because they were the only ones to be afraid of.
They got inside the small brick room and Ethan let go of him, Mark immediately going to work on something, maybe fixing the room more.
There was a single door that led to the rest of the kingdom, but it didn't seem like it could open judging by the amount of plants and dirt locking it in place.
The place they swam in from was a small-ish hole in the wall.
The room had little to no floor left, bricks probably being taken from it for other things so there was a large amount of sand on the floor, aswell as random items and rubble.
Ethan went over to a pile of things on the ground and picked up weird cube of some kind. Each side had a different color to it, and there were 9 parts on each side. Ethan just held it for a few seconds before he realized it could move, and started turning the different sides of the cube, albeit difficult due to the grime inside it.
"So... What is this place?" Ethan looked behind him to Mark, still messing with the cube.
"Oh well. This is my little hidey-hole! It's a place where I go to whenever I don't wanna do shark responsibilities, I guess."
Mark replied enthusiastically. Ethan studied the room, there was so much going on in it.
It must have been worked on and added to for years. "Did you do all this yourself?" Ethan asked, now looking up at the colorful plants hanging from the ceiling.
"Well, yeah I guess! Me and... Tyler."
Mark hesitated on the last word.
"Tyler? Who's Tyler?" Ethan asked.
"Tyler is a friend of mine. But I don't think you'll get to meet him. He's a little..."
Mark lingered as he tried to figure out what to say. "Sharky." He finished and went back to doing what he was doing.
Ethan put down the cube and swam over to look through the hole in the wall, seeing the light shining down in the water getting more orange.
"Hey Mark I think it's getting dark. Do I sleep in here?" Ethan said and turned back to Mark.
"Oh, yeah! Let me show you something really cool!" Mark said enthusiastically, going over to a large black cube and doing something to make it fold out into a white bed.
"Most of this stuff I got from the surface, so i'm not really sure how they work" Mark said.
"Wait wait wait- You've been to the surface??" Ethan asked in amazement. "Yeah, plenty of times! I mean, i'm not really supposed to but..." Mark trailed off in thought.
"A-Anyways! I should probably go before they send a search party for me. Good night Ethan" Mark said, swimming out of the room.
Ethan swam over to the bed and laid on it to the best of his ability, due to being underwater and all, and found it was surprisingly cozy.
He curled up on the bed and closed his eyes.
Even though he should be worrying about being in the midst of like, every shark, he couldn't seem to think about anything else other than Mark. He wanted to be with him, and if that meant dying, he'd want to do it by his side. Ethan soon fell asleep.