Dangers of the Sea || Byler Story ||

19 - Pirates

{Five Days Later}

Third Person POV:

Will and Mike were able to continue speaking now, with Jane and Jonathan helping Will sneak out of the castle and Max and Lucas making excuses for Mike.

Thankfully, Mike's pod postponed the move to the Arctic, which made Mike ecstatic.

Today, Will and Mike were meeting at their usual spot, eating chicken sandwiches with their feet dipped in the pond water. Mike was transformed into a human at that moment.

"Did your friend make these?" Mike asks, staring at the large sandwich in his hand in wonder.

Will nods, swallowing a bite. "Yeah, he's the head cook in the palace," Will says, smiling as he thought of his friend. "I told him to make some sandwiches for me and Jane, but they're for you now."

"Wow.." Mike mumbles through a bite. "Human food is so good."

"Yup," Will says, nodding. "I kinda want to try mermaid food, but I'm not sure."

Mike shrugs. "It's basically anything we can find edible down there," He says, taking another bite of the sandwich. "Oysters, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, oh, and seaweed. We eat seaweed all the time." He counts on his fingers and nods a few times along with his words.

"Hm, I don't think humans can eat any of those things raw," Will says thoughtfully.

"Raw?" Mike questions, swallowing before looking at Will in confusion. "What does that mean?"

"Like, not cooked," Will says as he finishes his sandwich. "Humans have to cook a lot of things before eating, otherwise it might poison us. It's weird. But we have to careful around bacteria and other things or we might get deathly sick."

Mike hums. "Huh, we don't have to do that," He says, before opening his mouth to bite into the sandwich, but Will stops him, grabbing his chin and turning his face to look at him.

"Wait, you have fangs?" Will says, looking at the sharp canines in Mike's mouth.

Mike runs his tongue along them, making Will blush slightly for no reason. "Yeah, it's something all alternative mermaids have as one of our special features," He says, slightly muffled by his tongue. "I guess to make sure we're able to eat anything we can find. And we find a lot of things."

"Woah," Will says, running his tongue along his small canines. "Humans are boring."

The ravenette shakes his head. "No they're not, they're just different," He says as he finishes his sandwich. "To you, a mermaid is really amazing because we have tails. But to me, a human is really amazing because you guys have legs."

"Yeah but you can also get legs," Will says. He kicks his feet in the air. "I'm stuck with these."

Mike shrugs again. "I mean, I could ask my professor if he can make a potion to turn you into a mermaid for a bit," He says thoughtfully. "That might be a thing. Then I could show you my home."

Will smiles at him for a moment. "I should go soon," he says, glancing at the sky.

"Yeah," Mike says. "Jane and Jonathan can only delay so long," He rolls his eyes teasingly. Will laughs softly, making Mike blush. The ravenette smiles nervously, fidgeting with his fingers.

The two stand up and hug, multiple beats longer than any normal hug.

"Alright, I really should go," Will says. "See you tomorrow!"

Mike nods, and watches Will disappear into the foliage. He takes a moment before jumping back into the pond, transforming into a mermaid and swimming out through the river.

At the entrance between the river and the ocean, he meets up with Lucas and Max.

What took you so long? Max questions with a grin. Did you two make out or something?

Mike scoffs, rolling his eyes. You wish, but no, we just talked longer than normal. He says, and starts swimming down.

But not even a second of swimming, something sharp stabs into Mike's tail, and starts pulling him towards the surface. A net is suddenly wrapped around his body. Lucas! He screams, making his two friends turn around, their eyes immediately widened and they dart back to him, grabbing onto the net and trying to pull at it uselessly.

Do you have a knife? Max asks. Lucas shakes his head.

The thing stabbed into Mike's tail stings and he winces, his eyes wide in fear as he looks up and spots a pirate ship right above them. Through the surface he could make out a few people looking over the side, staring down at him.

Max and Lucas desperately tried to rip open the net, but it was no use. Mike suddenly feels his back touch the surface, and then something hits the back of his head, hard.

Use a potion! Or something! Lucas says desperately as Mike goes unconscious.

Max dodges a spear thrown in the water and grabs Lucas's arm, pulling him away from the net. We need to get someone else! She says, obviously panicking as well. We'll be caught if we stay!

Lucas only follows her when Mike is pulled above the surface, out of reach.

Mike's hand was dangling through the net, and his shining black tail was entangled in the tight space. As the pirates finish pulling him up, they cheer in victory when they see his tail. They hoist the unconscious boy onto the deck, dumping him on the ground.

They back up as the captain enters, walking over and standing above the unconscious mermaid.

"Well done, boys," He says, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth. "Now we'll get all the money we've ever wanted."

The pirates cheer as the captain bends down, examining Mike's tail. He pulls out a large tweezer and tugs on one of Mike's scales, before ripping it off. Mike yelps, but stays unconscious, his mouth tugged down in a frown.

"Alright, now, to the underground!" The captain shouts, turning to his crew. They cheer again.

Three pirates grab the net Mike was in and bring him into the Captain's Quarters, tying the net to a rope and hanging the rope on the ceiling, making Mike look like a shiny piece of decoration.

The ship turned around and began sailing quickly through the waves.

<^> To Be Continued

(1k words)

oh no..

pity.

I totally haven't been planning this for seven chapters. :D