Trapped in a Tide Pool (Daxxel x Hanomai)

Brax wondered how he got into this predicament. As a merman he was already decades old, but compared to a human he would be in his twenties, young enough to do stupid things, yet old enough to know better. Brax liked to live a bit on the dangerous side and loved to play within the large swells that formed on a long secluded stretch of rocky shale beach where humans rarely ventured. Now it seemed that this lifestyle had caught up with him. As he swam in the waves, Brax's fluke became tangled in a disregarded piece of old fishing net. Before Brax could cut the net away from his tail, a massive wave slammed him against the cliff, stranding Brax in a tide pool, high up on the beach, too far for him to make it back to the shore. To make matters worse, the net tangled around his tail, had been snagged on a jagged outcrop higher up on the cliff, leaving Brax half-dangling in the pool.

Brax had to hurry to get free before the pool he was in dried out or any humans happened to come by. Merfolk were good at hiding and could change their skin colour and texture, a trick they learned from the octopus. However, in this position, Brax would have to hope that any passing humans were very, very, VERY unobservant as not to see him. As he looked around, Brax could see his coral knife just out of reach and any attempt to thrash about to get the net unhooked made a lot of very noticeable noise. So there he hung, trying to figure a way out of the situation.

Carefully picking her way across the craggy rocks as the waves crashed against the beach, Alicia held on tightly as she made her way across step by step. The slick, jagged formations would easily cut up her skin if she made a single mistake, so the young woman of about 19 was being as cautious as she could be as she made her way down to the beach. However a loud sound came from a particularly treacherous section of the cliff face, which made Alicia pause for a moment as she glanced to where the noise came from. And against her better judgement, she carefully inched over to peer down at what had made the noise, only to see something that would completely turn everything she knew up until that point on it's head.

A somewhat humanoid torso, leading down to a sleek fish-like tail... To put it simply, a merman was practically dangling in a tide pool below her, his tail entangled in a snare of fishing net, pinning him to the cliff face. And he looked particularly desperate to get out - though that made sense considering it wouldn't take long for the pool to dry out. Biting her lower lip as she looked at how dangerous getting down would be... but she had to risk it in order to save this creature's life. Carefully inching over the edge, she started making her way down towards the young merman.

Brax heard something above him and looked up to see a human female. Pressing himself tight to the rocks he changed his colour to match the dark stone as his skin became rough like the cliff side. Brax remained perfectly still, even though he knew he had already been seen as he watched the human try to climb down to him. Brax wasn't sure what to do his kind didn't know much about humans, it's almost forbidden to interact with them so Brax didn't know what to expect so he braced himself for the worst watching the human inch closer.

Alicia could tell that he didn't trust her, considering he attempted to hide himself from her the moment he laid his eyes on her, but as she finally felt her feet touch the slippery shale, Alicia slowly approached him with her hands splayed to show she didn't mean any harm. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help..." Pausing as she wondered if he could even understand her, considering she didn't know if there was a language barrier between them, she just glanced for something that could possibly cut his tail loose from the netting. And a small glint of a blade just a few yards away caught her attention. Slowly inching over and picking up the knife, Alicia made her way back over to the cliff - wincing as she nearly lost her footing as another wave sent a film of ocean water over the craggy rocks.

Rising up onto her toes and grasping the net, she did her best to cut through the cords and set his tail loose, though she had no clue if he would try and thrash about so she was taking it slow...

Brax understood the human, merfolk were telepathic, being rather hard to speak underwater, but what he didn't know was could he trust her. Seeing her open hands he knew she didn't carry a weapon but as she reached for his knife he thrashed trying to retrieve it before her. As the human grabbed the knife, Brax froze and watched her carefully as she moved to cut the net away from his tail. As his fluke fell free of the net and Brax was finally dropped into the pool he surfaced and looked at the human then at the ocean. Brax desperately wanted to reach the ocean but the human intrigued him. 'Thank you,' he said to her as he returned to his natural sea-green colour. Brax then raised himself out of the water and started to crawl across the rough stone, slowly working his way to the ocean. His body was definitely not meant for this form of travel as he kept falling and the rough stone scraped his tender skin.

Nodding when he thanked her, Alicia grew concerned when she saw the merman attempt to crawl back towards the ocean across the jagged shale. Putting the knife back down on the rocks she made her way over to him and did her best to pick him up off of the stone, noting that he already had a few scrapes from his small journey before she reached him. "Here, let me help..." Straining slightly to hold him up, she carefully made her way over to the beach that was hidden by the aforementioned shale, carrying him back to the ocean - so that he wouldn't get hurt by the waves slamming against the cliff face. But just before her feet touched the sand, one of the rocks broke off under her weight, sending the both of them tumbling onto the sand and the sharp shale ended up slicing her upper arm a fair bit, making Alicia wince at the stinging pain.

Brax was confused again as the human went out of her way to help him to the water, even though he was clearly heavier than she was able to carry easily. As the pair tumbled to the ground as the woman fell, Brax could feel the water as sigh deeply. Moving to the water, Brax dragged the human with him, as he reached the water Brax held her cut arm under the surf. The water around her arm shone and her cut healed to a faint scar. After her arm was healed, Brax dove into the water, the edge dropped off quickly to the open ocean. Brax was gone for a few minutes before surfacing again. He swam close to the shore and held out a small conch shell for the human. As he offered the shell he held up one that was attached to a string around his neck. 'Speak into this and I will hear you,' he said with a grin.

Wincing initially as the salt of the ocean stung her cut, it faded swiftly as the wound was healed, which surprised and amazed Alicia. But her attention was taken away from it when she watched the merman dive into the ocean surf, and after a few moments she believed that he had simply gone on home - not that she could blame him, after such an initially harrowing experience. Taking the time to inspect the scar adorning her arm where the slice was, still quite shocked that it had healed completely and wondering what the merman had done... before he resurfaced, taking her by surprise again. Looking between him and the shell he offered, Alicia gingerly reached out and took the shell, before she turned her attention back to him.

"...Thank you... Um, what's you name?" She inquired, finally managing to smile a little bit at seeing him back in his environment. He seemed to have understood her when she'd first encountered him, so she believed that the conch was for him to hear her when they were apart.

'Brax,' he said as he watched the human, 'you are not what I expected from a human,' he thought resting on the sandy bottom in the surf. Brax was intrigued by the human, she was beautiful, even for a human. Brax looked the human up and down with his deep green eyes. Brax suddenly lunged and grabbed the human and pulled her into the water and playfully splashed at her with his fluke.

Tilting her head curiously at his pointed remark, Alicia did have to admit that compared to most stereotypes she wasn't reacting like most anyone else would... "I guess I am a bit odd, compared to other humans - oh, and I'm Alicia." Initially going in for a sort of handshake, the young woman yelped in surprise when he yanked her into the ocean, making the human splutter for air and try to brush her bangs out of her eyes - still slightly shocked at the sudden motion.

Brax laughed watching the human sputter. Surfacing next to Alicia he grinned and pulled her in for kiss while slowly pulling her underwater. As he deepened the kiss, Brax pushed his tongue into her mouth and explored. When he broke the kiss he knew the human would now be able to breath underwater, at least for a short time. Taking her by the hand, Brax showed the human the beauty of his underwater world.

Things were happening so fast, Alicia felt as though the world she knew was getting yanked out right from under her feet. And when Brax kissed her deeply, slipping his tongue into her mouth, she hadn't the faintest inkling whether she should reciprocate the action or try to resist it. By the time she had finally gathered her wits about her, the merman had already grabbed her hand and began leading her further underwater - initially making the young woman panic... if she hadn't noticed that she could suddenly breathe in the salty water.

Brax lead Alicia to the wreck of an old sunken ship. The hull was cracked open, revealing a small fortune in gold and jewels. Afterwards he took her to a large coral reef that sang an eerie tonal song and shone with a strange warming light. Brax lingered at the coral for a bit with Alicia, the song and light almost mesmerizing and hypnotic.

Alicia couldn't help but feel her jaw drop slightly at the beauty of the reef laid out before her, tightening her grip on Brax's hand in response to the amazing sight. She attempted to speak, to thank him for bringing her here, but she found her voice come out as nothing more than sounds trapped in bubbles.