I'm Not A Mermaid (YuZhoufest)

Yi

A/N: Hello, Good morning, afternoon, or evening, whichever time zone you are from. This story is for the Yuzhoufest 2018. Hope you enjoyed this. I had fun actually creating this. I think this is supposed to be in the modern times, but I switched it up and made it like the medieval times or times where there were no planes and phones. Times when the transportation for land is by riding a horse or a carriage drawn by horse and large ships for the sea and oceans.

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"Xu Wei Zhou!"

A seven year old boy did his best to ran with his long immature legs far from the person calling his name. Dodging trees left and right, as he ducked down and hid behind a long and huge trees. He watched the man walked to the left of the tree he was hiding, away from the tree. The man behind him had finally moved away from where he was hiding. After a minute of waiting, the little boy ran as fast as he can choosing the path to his right.

The boy saw less and less of trees the further he moved away from his hiding spot. The even ground and plenty of green turned into soft and grainy sand, shining by the sun beaming down on the earth at its highest peak of the day. His nose was assaulted by the salty and briny smell of the sea, tickling his senses to freely swim without supervision.

An expression resembling a poor man winning a lottery ticket appeared on his face as soon as he hears the call of the sea. The waves crashing down forming foams on the white sandy beach enticed him further as he got closer. But, his dream of swimming halted as he noticed a ship docked a few feet away from the shore. The boy's eyes zeroed on the people near the beach and the people in the large wooden ship.

Curiosity grew within him and the swimming was his tool to be able to reach his goal. That goal was to find what the men were doing with a large crate whom were having trouble hauling it into a small boat. Crouched down at the rocky parts of the shoreline, careful as not to cut his foot, he discovered the three men giving up. They walked away from the five feet tall wooden box, leaving it unattended.

A chance was given to him in order to investigate it, and he took it, indeed. Slowly submerging himself in the water, he swam with his best noiselessly. His eyes stung from the saltwater while he kept himself low enough from being seen. As he reached the ship, he found the chains that anchored the water transportation at bay. He slowly climbed it as he calmed his labored breathes.

With his feet on a flat surface, wet from the dripping waters of his body and clothes, the boy approached the crate on the other. Looking around for anyone, he spotted none. As he got closer the sounds of fist banging against the wooden crate became evident that something was trapped inside. He attentively listened as he placed his ear really close to the box. Inside, he could hear low melodic wails that sounded like neither an animal or human.

With quick thinking, the little boy searched an object hard enough to crack the crate open. When he found a hatchet lying next to railing, he grabbed it quickly. With his tiny arms raised above his head, and began hacking it until there was a hole the size of his head.

The loud thumps attracted several of the ship's crew members. Many of them were rooted at their spot at how a little boy managed to pass them, and a boy hacking into their most prized treasure they caught. One of the men had awaken from the trance and proceed to stop the increasingly tired boy.

The burly man rushed to the thin boy's side, and stopped him from further chipping more of the opening. It was already too late as the person inside had enough strength to crack the crate all the way open. With a loud cry, the muscled man pushed the tiny boy away, resulting to falling from the ship and into the water.