I Wish I Could Be

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

                Harry Styles found lots of things interesting.  He loved to collect knick-knacks and study human culture and pretend he is a part of it when he is all alone (“Because I wish I could be a part of that world.”)  So when he witnessed the kidnapping of a young boy who he still has not seen the face of, but the body, and he just had to check it out because this is something new.

He glided throughout the water, his hair falling back as he pushed through, and he swam and swam and swam as fast as he could so he could remain alongside the ship.  Curiosity had always been something he possessed and people warned him time and time again that it’s a very dangerous trait to have.  Curiosity killed the cat, right?  Or well curiosity killed the catfish because “what is a cat?”

Loud cries sounded from on top of the ship’s deck, and Harry knew quite well it was the boy he saw that had such an amazing body, but a weird looking head (there were no eyes or nose or ears or hair, can you blame him?).  After a couple of days, Harry found himself growing tired from all the swimming, so when the boat came to a rest one night, he swam down to the bottom of the ocean and picked a long thick piece of seaweed which he tied around each end to his wrist after he hooked it around a metal handle a couple meters underwater.  This allowed him to be pulled along with the boat even if he fell asleep.

This was kind of normal for the boy, in a sense of him disappearing for days on end.  Sometimes he does not even come back for months because he wandered off a little too far.  His best friend Liam always grew worried for the younger lads safely because even if some sharks will respond to him, the larger Tiger Sharks always find an excuse to torment the merman.  Life as a half fish is not entirely difficult because he can really just swim anywhere and that’s that.  Although there are rules and guidelines to still follow and it’s rather frustrating because there’s one that states for merpeople to not wander off for long periods of time because it will break them from their school.  Merpeople are always on the move, skipping from reef to reef due to human contact.  Harry though always seems to find a way home, no matter what.  So that rule does not really apply to him.

See, he really does not know what to think when this boat pulls him along because he really just hopes it will stop and he can investigate the lifestyle of the gnarly looking men.  Something about the intricate designs and patterns on their skin have an urge in Harry to trace them delicately and mesmerize is so he can paint them later.  He has his own body art too though, the one which distinguishes which school he is in.  It helps to try and prevent conflicts and disagreements between clans because if they know where he is coming from when he trespassed, than they can solve it with head chief and hope it turns out alright.

Harry was instantly jingled from his sleep when he sensed the odd water change.  A reef was close and the boat was heading straight for it.  He needed to do something, but with a boat this large, there was hardly anything he could do.  The loud crack came sooner than he suspected and he quickly chewed at the green slime tied around his wrist to let him out.  Small boats were soon falling and pattering against the water’s surface and he manages to duck under before someone could spot him.  He watched as they all paddled away and when he bobbed to the surface quiet mumbles came from behind him.  Tied to a long pole was the boy who was quickly sinking below the water and Harry knew humans could not breathe like he could.  So he swam under and popped up in front with a look of curiosity for he has never been this close to a human before.