Barely holding on to you. Who Raina & Open What Hanging around and conversation When Wednesday, sunset Where Grass outside Alden Rating PG13 Status In Progress Edit: My bad! Posted in the wrong spot!
Raina pulled her fingers through her hair as she flapped her tail along the rock that she'd sat down upon after taking a short swim. For a pretty self involved mermaid, there wasn't much else better in the world than skin covered in salt water. She'd had a fight earlier in the day with her sister who for some reason seemed to hate her. At least that is how she saw it. The girl couldn't pass by without scoffing at her and muttering something hateful under her breath. Well this was the right place to forget about all of that. Here she could let her mind unravel. She thought of nothing in particular as she looked across the ocean and followed the reflection of the setting sun towards the watery horizon. She felt the rays soaking into her skin and a small smile crossed her lips as she hummed. There couldn't be a single thing better than this.
It was intuition alone that told her she'd become the object of attention. Her heart raced slightly in wonderment. Her father had been clear that she needed to keep a low profile as much as possible. Most people weren't that accepting of her kind. It wasn't as if someone woke up every morning and decided they really wanted to meet a half fish. Most people who found her when she was with her tail thought her to be hideous. It was definitely not something a young girl who tended to be quietly self conscious wanted to hear. She acted like it didn't bother her, but it actually did. She loved humans, but they seemed to be the most prejudice race she had ever met. She finally turned her head and caught the eye of a boy standing on the shore.
Her smile was quick and sincere. He didn't look like he was running away, or about to take a few scales and throw them under the microscope. He looked, dare she say, like he was enthralled with her. She'd been flirted with a few times in her life, mostly when she was under the water, but there was something about the way this boy was looking at her. It made her blush as she could practically read the thoughts that crossed his mind by the flicker of his eyes. Looking away, Raina giggled under her breath and turned her attention back to the sunset as her tail jumped excitedly against the water's surface. Astoria had told her before it was best to play hard to get when it came to boys, but Raina was still a young girl and the prospect of meeting this boy was very alluring.
He could ask her out on a date where they would walk together on the beach under the watchful eyes of the stars. They'd talk for hours about everything and anything came into their minds. During one of their playful debates, he'd lean in and kiss her. She'd only be slightly surprised before her cheeks would turn as pink as her hair. So she looked up and focused on the spot he had been standing, but he was no longer there. Her heart sunk a little as she searched up and down the shoreline. Finding no one, she was about to turn away when she saw a hand wave frantically through the water and towards the sky.
Before she even realized that he couldn't swim, her body reacted and she dove into the ocean. She swam as quickly as her tail could manage and once she was beside him, she hooked an arm around his waist. They broke through the surface of the water and she dragged his body towards shore. The sand was rough and grainy against her as she did her best to push them away from the water. He wasn't breathing by the time she got him on his back. Her heart was racing out of control. She put her hands against his chest and pushed three times before breathing into his mouth, and going back to pushing onto his chest. She could hear the voices and pounding of feet as they ran towards them. Fear struck her when she heard the gasps and a woman's voice screaming, "Oh dear God, what is she doing to him!"
A deeper voice yelled, "I'll get her. Call the police!"
Raina didn't want to run. How was she to know that she had called that boy to her when she looked at him? Her parents hadn't told her what she could do and how dangerous it could be to humans. And there was no way she'd have known he couldn't swim. When he coughed up water, her brain registered that he was alive and she took off as quickly as she could back into the water. Once under the surface, she took off until she was hiding behind the rock she'd just been sitting on. There was a crowd now gathering on the beach and people were pointing towards the water. Had she really almost killed that boy? He would have died if she hadn't looked over when she had. It was those feelings that had her dipping under the water and swimming to a place she'd only been to once before. Her parents hadn't wanted her or her sisters to live in the water and her grandmother didn't believe in their kind living on land.
The temperature just barely dipped below seventy degrees but Raina couldn't feel a single bit of it. The varying degrees didn't affect her the way they did other creatures. Most times she was okay with that. In fact, she usually preferred it. It made the trip from sea to land and back that much easier. But on nights like this, moments when she thought about the path she's traveled and the people she met along the way, sometimes, she wished she could feel the cold. It wasn't something she thought often, but the idea of it was very appealing. Cold seemed to be the sensation most people felt inside when they thought about their low points. And today, Raina couldn't get them off her mind. She assumed it was only because that particular event happened on this night three years ago. She had actually skipped class that morning so she could do what she usually did that day and went to visit the home of the boy who had almost died because her song was alluring to humans.
He was doing well and seemed to have sworn off that whole event as a dream. Or a nightmare. She watched him for a few moments until she was satisfied that he was alright. Normally she would have left then, but this year her eyes caught something that piqued her interest. He bent over a crib and lifted a tiny, squirming child into his arms. He was a father. It both healed and ached her heart.
She was a child of two worlds. It seemed to her that all merfolk had to make a choice between land and sea if they wanted to start a family. That was an idea that she had thought about often. For mermaids, you tended to do that early. Her parents had met and started their family by the time her mother was fifteen. Since Raina had wanted to find her soul mate instead of just a mate, she was the odd ball mermaid who wasn't married or carrying any guppies, so to speak. But she was okay with that for the time being. It was easy enough to hide that piece of her heart that was drawing her towards it. But seeing the boy she had saved with a child had been incredible.
The image had stuck in her head by the time she returned back to Alden. Instead of going back to her room, Raina decided to take her drawing pad and sit out in the grass. With her back against a tree, she started to drag a pencil along the page and, not realizing it, starting singing to herself. Her voice was barely above a whisper but that was still something she tended to veer away from after the last instance.