Under the Sea ⇔ Cashton ✓

Swim, Swim, Swim From Green To Red

Calum stands in front of the ocean, two stormy minds combining to form one. The wind coming off the water is strong, nearly knocking him off his feet, but he wants to feel the water, needs to feel it. He can't live the rest of his life without touching the sea one last time.

He stumbles forward on the sand, his body aching a bit. He stops before he gets to the water, dropping onto the ground and untying his shoes. He glances back at the house to make sure no lights have turned on, and then he pulls off his shoes and leaves them on the dryer part of the sand. He turns back to the water, pushing himself back up on his feet and continuing towards the waves.

He walks just far enough that the waves wash over his feet, and the relief is indescribable. He breathes out a laugh, missing the way the water felt on his skin. He hurries in deeper, crashing into the waves until the ocean ground falls away from his feet. He laughs aloud, happy at last to finally be in the ocean again.

It's not until a few minutes later that he notices it. The slight tingling of his legs that grows more persistent the longer he's in the water. Calum furrows his eyebrows, hoping this isn't yet another side effect to his disease. He touches his leg through the fabric of his pants, freezing when he feels his skin hardening right under his fingertips, turning almost-- scaly.

Calum lifts his legs up out of the water, floating on his back to look at them under the illuminated light of the moon. He hopes that he can still swim and get to the shore if this weird side effect turns out to make him immobile.

However, Calum's heart stops when he sees scales, shimmering under the light of the moon, replacing what once was his legs. He nearly screams at the sight of a tail, an actual tail that glistens against the light. He drops back into the water, his heart pumping fast in his chest, head swimming with confusion.

How the hell is this possible?

Calum stays in the same position for a while, eyes squeezed shut, breathing in slowly. After a couple moments, he opens one eye and looks through the water, hoping to find legs this time.

It's still there.

Calum swears under his breath. He doesn't believe in fantasy books that talk about mermaids and mermen. He just doesn't. They're stories, and that's all. But here he is.

It takes another five minutes of hyperventilating to realize another thing. He feels strong again. Which may not seem like such a big deal, but Calum has felt emotionally and physically weak since he started having symptoms, since he was diagnosed terminally ill. Everything that once ailed him is gone, free from his system. He feels free, like he could do a thousand backflips and still be filled with energy. Calum slowly looks down, moving his tail around under the water. It's powerful, able to withstand the tide a whole lot easier than his legs could. Calum clenches his jaw and lets out a sigh, giving in. He breathes in a lungful of air and then drops into the water.

Immediately, Calum instinctively opens his eyes, shocked first by the fact that the salt water isn't stinging his eyes. He then notices that the ocean underneath is bright and alive with motion, despite the dark sky. He cautiously begins swimming forward, recoiling when he sees schools of fish swimming in front of him. He marvels in the beauties of the ocean, finding bright green seaweed swaying in the tide, staring at the pink coral that scatters the sandy floor. Even with goggles, Calum has never found this much detail in the ocean before.

He continues swimming deeper into the ocean. The temperature drops a bit, but it doesn't bother him too much. He gets nervous when he gets into the deeper, more wild part of the ocean, far away from where the shore is. He pushes it out of mind when he remembers he can find his way back by just turning around.

Calum swims farther in, looking around marvelously. Everything about the ocean is absolutely beautiful.

It takes a minute before he realizes he's swam at least a few miles, and he hasn't needed a breath. His lungs feel fine, but he swims up to the surface anyways, breathing in oxygen once he does. He opens his eyes, water sticking to his eyelashes as he looks around from above the water. His jaw drops when he notices how far away he's swam. He can't even see the shore anymore. He dives back under the water, looking around before turning around and beginning back towards the direction of the shore.

As he swims back, he begins to notice a shadow following him. His heart drops into his chest at the idea of some predator animal tracking him under the water. He swims faster, noticing the figure swimming faster as well. He catches a flash of tail, looking similar to one of his own. He narrows his eyes in confusion.

A flash of blonde hair is next, short and soft looking. Calum keeps swimming warily, but stops when he sees a face. Bright blue eyes, looking suspiciously at Calum from behind a cluster of coral. Calum stops abruptly.

After a few moments, Calum sees a figure peek out from behind the coral once again, and Calum can see that it's a boy, looking curiously and a bit suspiciously at him, his blonde eyebrows furrowed. Before Calum can move, the boy darts out from behind the coral and swims up to a few feet in front of him. Calum notices his blue tail shimmering in the light.

"Who are you?" the boy asks, crossing his arms. Calum is taken aback, surprised. "And why are you wearing a shirt?"

"Who are you?" Calum throws back, confused and slightly nervous at the weird looks the boy is giving him.

"I'm Luke. I've been spying on you. You look lost," he says. Calum glances back down at the boy's tail, not knowing what to say.

"You're a mermaid," Calum says, breathless. "Or-- merman."

Luke giggles, wiggling his tail. "Well, duh. So are you." For some reason, the confirmation of it by someone else hits him hard, and he floats backwards for a second, feeling woozy. Luke immediately swims forward, catching him before he can be swayed off with the tide.

"Hey, you okay?" Luke asks, concerned.

"I-- I need get home," Calum says suddenly, gently pushing Luke's hands off him. Luke raises an eyebrow.

"What clan are you in?" Luke asks. Calum looks at him with confusion, sending Luke into further confusion. Luke hasn't ever met a merman who doesn't know what their clan is.

Calum turns around, pushing past Luke and swimming directly back in the direction that he came from. His mind is drowning in confused thoughts, muddling his head. This is too much, way too much. This isn't real. He's just dreaming. This is all a dream.

Calum reaches the shore in a blur, fish swimming out of his way as Calum reaches the sand. As Calum reaches shallow water, cool air hitting his tail, he can feel it tingling, scales drying out and sinking away, leaving his legs behind, skin smooth and harmed. His clothes are soaked, heavy with the weight of the water. Calum ignores it all, just sprints back up the sand, leaving his shoes forgotten at the shore. He stumbles back up towards the house, his bones strong and free, as though he never was diagnosed terminally ill in the first place.

Calum wants to go to bed, go to sleep. He wants to wake up in the morning and think about how weird of a dream that was and continue living his short lived life, without the extra weight of knowing he had a tail in the ocean.

He's utterly confused, to say the least. None of that is possible. So, it must just be a dream.

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A/N: calum's in denial lol

so it's like 85 degrees here and it's super humid and annoying tbh. is it cold where you are for some of you? because if so i'm coming to live with you i hate the heat

thanks for reading! please vote & comment your thoughts. i love you so much and i hope you enjoyed this.

bye,,x

WAIT also thanks for 900 reads :-)