Beneath the Waves

Part One

It started in the most subtle ways. So subtle, that Raven didn't even realize it for the first few weeks she was trapped on the island.

The first morning she woke up to shells - beautiful, pristine ones - were arranged into a small pile on the sand. Raven had thought that maybe the waves had washed them in from the previous night. But the small piles of shells had continued, until Raven knew that there must have been something else behind it. She tried to stay up one evening to catch what was making this happen, but other than a ripple of motion just beyond the break of the sandbar far off the island's coast, she didn't see anything.

And then last week, she hadn't been able to catch or scavenge anything to eat for days, and when she thought she might be forced to try and eat something she'd rather didn't, Raven found a fish in a tide pool. A fish that should have definitely not been there. She was grateful for whatever was taking care of her, but it felt... odd. Something was not right. So, she stayed up and watched the waves at night again, but other than the strange movement just outside of the sandbar, there was nothing to tell her that there was anything out of the ordinary.

But something was wrong. It had to be. Neat piles of shells, and huge fish trapped in tide pools didn't just happen. Something had to be messing with her... or, at least, taking care of her.

And that was how this particular afternoon, she found herself swimming out to the sandbar far from the shore, where the sea dropped off into endless, infinite blue. She knew it was dangerous, she could get sucked into the undertow, or misjudge the distance between the shore and the sandbar and lose her strength. There were so many things that could go wrong, but she needed answers. Real answers.

Her limbs were exhausted by the time she felt her toes touch soft wet sand, and Raven found herself wading in waist-deep water, looking around her for any kind of clue that might explain what was happening. But all around her there was nothing but that deep blue stretching out into the pale blue of the horizon. Raven stood there and looked at the sea around her, sighing in defeat. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she really was losing her mind.

And then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

Oh no.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Her heart stopped in her chest and she saw a dorsal fin from a large shark slice through the crystalline surface of the water. Panic filled her, and Raven suddenly tried to think of what she should do. She couldn't make it back to the shore without resting, and if she tried, the movement would draw the shark to her. She stood perfectly still and watched as the shark circled closer still.

A rough tail slid past her leg and Raven jumped back, nearly flailing in the water. She jerked around looking for the shark again, and seeing the dorsal fin move closer. Raven took a step back, felt the rough skin of the tail slide past her over leg, and she panicked. She stumbled backward, and expected to fall into the water, but-

Warm hands steadied her, keeping her up above the water's surface. Raven blinked, looking over her shoulder to see...

Curious green eyes stared at her, and Raven turned in the stranger's arms to look closer. Was he a... mirage? No. She could feel his hand - large and strong, tight on her arms. She looked around the clear surface of the sea again, trying to piece together what happened. Had someone else washed up on the shore with her? Or was the island not as deserted as she had thought before? Maybe there was another settlement somewhere on the other side of the island she hadn't gotten to yet.

Slowly, she pulled back just a little and examined his face, took in the sharp angular lines of his jaw and cheekbones. Long, wet hair slid over his shoulders and rested against his chest and arms, clinging to olive skin, marked with an array of deep green tattoos and marred with scars. She slid her hand up an arm and touched a scar, as if trying to convince herself that he was real.