A Misadventure's Fortune [REED900]

4: Following the Heart

Song Of The Chapter:
My Blood - Twenty One Pilots

Gavin closed his eyes after a while. It was pretty boring here alone on the island. Another storm began to pick up as well, making the avian flinch and look up in fear, before a scowl painted itself across his face. Did he really need to have a storm make his night worse? He shuffled back away from the water and pushed himself under heavy giant leaves, trying to keep himself dry as the storm blew through, rain pouring relentlessly. He tried to close his eyes and go to sleep but knew that was a tough chance.

~~~

Nines finally began to pass areas familiar to him, which encouraged him to speed up even more, feeling the nicest drift against his skin. He was almost home, his shoal would probably soon smell his scent being carried by the underwater currents.

The siren continued through the kelp forest. Just past this was a dip in the seafloor and a tunnel that connected to a large jutting rock formation serving as a wall. Past that was a large clearing, where most of the shoal lived in the narrow crooks and caves the eroded rock had to offer, and in the practically deteriorated cargo ship called JERICHO.
He knew his shoal would probably be resting from a hunt since it was evening.
He decided to let out an experimental call, something to alert whoever was there of his arrival.

The sound of Nines' calls finally reached the other merfolk and slowly they called back and began to swim in the direction of Nines' voice.
"Nines?" Connor called out, being the first one to appear with his glowing brown eyes, flecked with amber. At night, Connor's brown eyes seemed to glow a little bit golden in the water. His face lit up to see his brother, swimming over to him swiftly while slowly more of the shoal appeared in the distance.
"You're alive! Where the hell have you been!?" Connor asked, resting in front of Nines, hands gripping the tiger shark's shoulders. They hugged, letting out coos of happiness, before Nines pulled back, his face breaking into a relieved smile.
"Aww," he teased, "you were worried about me." But more seriously he added, "I've been um... exploring." That was a lousy excuse, but he couldn't think of any other valid excuse off the top of his head without giving away what he was actually doing. "And I uh," he probably should go a little more in-depth, "Found a hurt... turtle? I've been helping it heal." He probably could've done better, but that was what came to his mind.

Connor frowned as he listened to Nines, all the merfolk getting closer but staying back to let Connor talk to Nines.
"A turtle?" Connor tilted his head with a frown, not buying the shitty lie. "If it was a turtle wouldn't you bring it back here? Why keep that a secret?" he said and swished his tail. He peeked up around Nines as if looking for something.
"Can we see the turtle?" He asked, looking back at Nines.
"It's not here," Nines shook his head.
Shit, this was hard.
"And it's probably gone now since it was feeling better. That's why I came back."
Crap. How could he explain to them when he leaves again where on earth he was going?
Nines hesitated. "Can I talk to you Connor, for a moment? Just us?" He glanced at the rest of the shoal.
Connor frowned, a bit disappointed. He was curious, he wanted to see the turtle. But then he heard Nines and slowly nodded.
"Sure," he said and looked back at all the other curious mers watching them. He made a movement with his hand and made the pod swim away for a bit.

"Okay.. what is it?"

Nines pulled a deep inhale of water through his gills to calm himself.
"I... didn't want to tell the whole shoal the truth about where I was, and I know you're probably the only one who'll actually understand. Markus and the others... they're too protective. But truthfully, I've been helping an avian. He got grazed by a bolt of lightning in a storm and fell into the water far from shore. I saved him from drowning and have been helping him recover." He folded his arms, looking away. "I'm sorry I've been gone for a while."
Connors listened intently and slowly his eyes widened excessively, especially when he heard Nines say avian. An avian?
"An avian?...for real?" He asked, sounding both curious and amazed. He's never seen one up close, he wanted to see it now. "Where is it? Why would it be out here?" he questioned. "Did it hurt you? Is it fearful? Is it mean?" Nines was beginning to feel bombarded by all the questions being asked.
"Can I see it?" Connor asked softly, curiously.
Nines laughed, trying to process all of Connor's questions.
"Yes, an avian. He's currently camping out in a small cove I found. Uh..." Nines paused. "He was... shocked on our first encounter, and attacked me out of self-defense. But he didn't really hurt me, no." Nines spared Connor the part where Gavin almost strangled him. "He's prickly, but not... mean, if you don't take what he says seriously. He's kinda like North when she's being sarcastic, except that's his constant mood."
Nines hesitated on the last part though.
"And... I don't know if you should see him or not. I think I should ask him first, you know?" Nines wasn't entirely positive on that part.

Connor listened to all the details, his excited expression faltering a bit as he heard that the avian was basically grumpy.
"You sure..?" he asked, still kinda wanting to see the avian. He's never seen one before and he heard their wings are beautiful. Connor almost pouted at Nines, trying to give him the big brown puppy eyes.
Nines frowned.
"Just... let me ask Gavin first, okay? I'll need you to cover for me anyways while I'm gone, and maybe if you do that you can come to see him yourself. I need to go see Lucy anyways before I leave to get this bite wrapped."
Connor whimpered in disappointment but sighed and slowly nodded his head.
"Alright..." he muttered out and slowly swam away. He made a noise and called the shoal back over, in which they all came swimming back and crowding around Nines, making a bunch of clicking and cooing noises, all communicating at once and swimming around, welcoming him back.
Nines responded accordingly, letting out his own series of calls. It felt nice being back, to talk to others in his mother-tongue, but he knew he had to go back soon, especially considering it was beginning to get really choppy further above.
"I've missed you guys too," Nines smiled, but then said, "I need to go to Lucy for my arm."
He felt bad for leaving so soon, but everyone seemed to understand.
Saying goodbye, he departed from the shoal, swimming down to where Lucy's cave was.

"Lucy?" He called softly, looking around the dark cave.
"Nines," the female called back, appearing from the shadows with her pitch-black eyes locked onto Nines.
"It's good to see you've returned safely." She said, swimming and stopping in front of him. Seeing the wound on his arm, she immediately grabbed a sea slug and swiped some slime off of it, applying the very sticky goo over the wound which would seal it shut and prevent infections from getting in. "You fought with another shark, I see. Who started it this time? You, or the poor fish?"
"He wouldn't leave me alone," Nines muttered bitterly, curling his lip ever so slightly. "I wasn't the one who started the fight, the damn fish did." He glanced at the wound, sighing. "It's not infected is it?"
"It is not." the female said and pulled back, wrapping sticky kelp around it to help it stay shut and to keep bacteria or any hungry fish away. As she secured the wrap on his arm, her dark, perceptive eyes studied Nines' face.
"You seem...compassionate. I sense your solicitude for something. Perhaps that creature you are caring for?" The mermaid spoke, seeming to already know what was up, slowly swimming back into the deeper part of her cave.
"Oh, you heard?" Nines asked, slightly confused whether she was spying on Connor and him or heard about his turtle fib.
"Uh, yeah, I guess it's that. I'm going back tonight." He didn't want to say anything else about it in case he was assuming the wrong thing.
A soft, smile pulled at her lips.
"I didn't know, only assumed. I know you have hidden compassion for others, you would most definitely abandon your pod temporarily to help someone in need." She spoke the truth and looked at Nines with a small nod.
"Go back to him. He needs you."
Nines didn't know what to say with that.
"He."
She knew, fuck, of course she knew. This was Lucy.
Stunned, he hesitated one last moment, before dipping his head in respect.
"Thank you," he said, before turning and swimming off, saying a few goodbyes and "I'll be back soon"s along the way. He had to be quick if he wanted to get there before sundown. He didn't want to dwell on the fact that he wasn't sure about when he'd come back. He didn't think his heart could handle it. He wasn't good at parting with those he let into his life.
So he left the shoal, not once looking back.

He just hoped Gavin was doing alright.

A/N: Lucy knows all.