Ocean's Descent ||| Woosan (Ateez)

17

Panic set in immediately.

Wooyoung felt the barbs grabbing onto him and ripping at his scales and skin with each attempt he made to free himself.

He whipped his tail back and forth in desperation, hoping to dislodge any of the barbs, but it just made them sink in deeper.

"Help!" Wooyoung shouted.

He thought he could still hear the faint screams of his people dying below him. There was no one available to help him, but that still didn't stop him from calling out.

"Help! Someone, please!"

The merman reach around and grabbed at the net. The barbs sliced the palms of his hands open, but that didn't stop him from trying to pull himself free.

He flicked his head around, looking for something, anything, that could help him. But he was stuck in a net in the middle of the open ocean.

One thing he did notice, however, was that there were a few other sea creatures stuck in the net too. The biggest shock was a large hammerhead shark. It wasn't moving, so it must have been trapped long enough to have died, leaving it to just hang from where it was snared in the net.

Wooyoung flicked his tail again and cried out when the barbs dug in deeper.

His thoughts flicked to Mingi and Yunho. They weren't going to know about any of this... He had promised them he would come home..

Wooyoung screamed and tried to rip himself out of the net. He couldn't let get caught. He needed to get home.

But soon he found that the net was wrapped several times around his tail. He bent in half one more time to try and pull himself free.

Then a strong current shook the net violently and Wooyoung's left arm became tangled within it.

Now things were truly hopeless.

He couldn't even access his magic and he wasn't sure if it was from the fear or the blood loss...

Wooyoung covered his mouth with his one free hand and cried out when he tried to pull his other arm free, but just like with his tail, all it managed to do was make the barbs dig in deeper.

He was trapped. There was no way out now...

The merman glanced up toward the surface. He was still a good distance away, so there was no chance of any boats passing by seeing him, but he was in trouble when the owner of this net came to collect it.

For now, the only thing he could think of to do was try to calm down and tap into his magic. He closed his eyes and slowed down his breathing while also making sure not to move. He knew he needed to stay alert enough just in case any sharks came.

Wooyoung had no idea how much time passed, but he was jolted out of his attempts to access his magic when the net jerked. He opened his eyes and looked around for the cause.

His heart stopped when he saw the dark shadow of a boat in the distance. Right in the direction the net was now being pulled.

He renewed his struggles to get free, especially when the net stopped moving. It happened whenever a trapped animal was pulled out of the water.

Wooyoung glanced at the shark next to him and clawed at the net around his tail.

The surface was steadily getting closer and closer and Wooyoung started to hear the humans on the ship yelling at each other.

"Shark! We gotta shark in the net! Gimme the hook!"

"Hook comin!"

Wooyoung watched as the hammerhead was speared and pulled out of the water. He continued his squirming and pulled at the net, causing the boat to jerk.