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pokeprism · 17 days ago

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Long Way Offshore

..... Wow. My first short story of the year had to be this one!

This story was written in two days, and was also written in a first person POV as a challenge to myself!

Also, this short story is 2,554 words long! The only applicable content warning is a description of someone's thoughts as they are drowning.

Questions, comments, and any concerns you might have go here!

The story itself is below the cut!

Well. It's no surprise I was found out! I corrected some bloke's pronounciation of my name, and that was it! What a way to blow my cover in the worst way possible... I honestly should have picked a code name that was distinct from Emil! But no, I had to be Emile for this voyage to my mission's rendezvous point! What a horrible tragedy for me!

Honestly, I should have been more worried for my lovely back home, miss Bellamiu. Even without her knowing the humiliating position I had found myself in, with both arms tied behind my back by the enemies I was supposed to be blending in with now escorting me to the edge of the ship, she was bound to be the most affected by my failure. As much as I drummed up my desire to be of national purpose, I mainly took this mission for miss Bellamiu. All she has besides myself are her pet cats, all of whom were gifts from me.

I'm now nearing the direct edge of this blasted ship, those who found me out were quick to get me here. We were already far enough away from the coast that keeping me contained and under watch to what would have been my rendezvous point would have been difficult considering the skeleton crew of sailors on this ship. However, the strangest thing to me went unnoticed by most of the crew: A storm on the horizon. A storm became more plainly viewable to me as I got closer and closer to that sheer wooden edge above the sea. Lightning, thunder, the smell of rain weighing heavy on the air, all of these factors pounded my mind as the captain of this ship cleared his throat to deliver a pathetic runt of an execution order, otherwise known as my own.

The captain himself was a pathetically short and stuffy white-haired man. Sure, a fancy hat and upper-class manner of speech as expected, but even in my casual conversation with the captain, this bloke reeked of bitterness at being only a captain. I don't even know how those bastards across the channel have their string of command labelled, but this puny captain was certainly hoping to be at a higher rank at least. Anyways, by the time I bothered listening in again, this captain was nearing the end of his long-winded order.

"... And so shall be the order to execute this enemy of the state." The captain said.

The man then turns to me, gaze fixed upon my face. "Any last words, enemy spy?"

With my heart pounding and the storm deafening me, I got out something fierce in my undirtied tongue. Something to the effect of "Get me off this ship then!", though even I could tell my utterance was not understood.

There was a pause in the moments after my bungled exclamation. My heart, still pounding from the oncoming onslaught of the storm, managed to get my next words in the enemies' unwashed tongue out within the next moment: "Well then execute me already, you cowards!"

That message got through to them. I was unable to see the crew's reactions, seeing as I was facing towards the sea, but the captain clearly stammered in his response. "W-Well alright then, lads! Throw this traitor out!"

The shove from behind came quickly, and with more force put towards my upper body than my lower body, leading me tumble forward in the air on the way down.

The mathematical end of my brain thought that I had only fallen for a few seconds, but in so many words, it felt longer than that puny number of moments. Time seemed to slow enough that I remembered to take a breath before making contact with the cold, disjointed embrace of sea. With my hands tied behind my back and no other hope of survival, I might as well take a moment to admire the ocean before losing it all, right? After reopening my eyes beneath the waves and the intermingling of air and sea had cleared up, I immediately noticed the muffled sound of the storm from below the waves. Certainly calming, at least as compared to how the storm was deafening me on the deck just moments before. A branch of lightning streaked across the sky above the sea, with the water directly above me hiding the intensity of the flash to my eyes. The thunder, muffled from the depth I was at in the water at this point, shortly followed. And then, still having held onto my breath from earlier without struggling to breathe in this moment, heard a strange voice from the edge of my senses. In the moment, it sounded like a distant greeting, but in a tongue I definitely couldn't name, especially not with the impossibility of clearly hearing speech underwater. Now panicked at the thought that either some eldritch thing was around me and or I was losing my mind to the grip of death, I wordlessly whirled around to the best of my ability in my attempt to scan the depths around me. In short, it didn't work, seeing as my upper limbs were still bound to themselves via the fishing line they were tied up with, and only seemed to succeed in exerting more energy I would have wanted to. The voice from before quickly re-voiced its same greeting from a moment ago, this time much closer. It was in this moment that I could feel my senses begin to more noticeably slip, and with my increasing panic, I closed my eyes as I resisted my final breath's desire to escape. I faintly heard the odd voice yet again, just below me in that moment, another similar voice answered the first voice. I felt a gentle grip pull be further into the depths, but I was too weak to even flinch in that moment. My thoughts drifted back home, to Bellamiu, and her cats, and the hope that she was happy or at least safe...

Quiet, somehow rhythmic nothingness was all I could hear for a spell... Something resembling a heartbeat per se, but like a greeting from behind a closed window. And then light! Light! At the bottom of the wet, unforgiving sea that had just claimed me...! But this light wasn't like the sun I knew, it was blue, and green, and had a pulse like the veiled rhythmic nothingness I had mentioned before, but louder, brighter, and seemingly taking an interest in me as it drew closer to where I could see it within my grasp. I attempted to speak, but my mouth had a quiet finger put to its lips. I felt like I was underwater yet again, but with no threat of drowning or crushing sensation. Calm... Unlike what the preamble to my death had been.

I attempted to speak again. I was quickly silenced as I felt the warm embrace of this light, clearly now in a form resembling a young person of my age, but not nearly as human. This mass of light had clearly smiled at me, and pulled me in for a hug, but well... I was not prepared for an impromptu embrace becoming a long, wordless kiss. It felt like Bellamiu's face on mine, and after a moment of hesitation, I gave into my desire to re-close my eyes to enjoy this kiss from my far-away lover...

I then awoke with a gasp, having thought I was about to lose my breath to another one of my lovely's kisses. I couldn't see anything seeing as something scratchy and opaque was over my head and lightly tied around my neck, and I yet again had my arms tied behind my back, but this time around a chair of some sort that wasn't easily moving.

I took a moment to catch my breath. I was breathing again, at least. I chuckled at the thought myself before hearing a similar chuckle from ahead of me. It was clear I had company.

"Who is here?!" I shouted, shakily. Something was off about the air quality...

A boisterous voice answered back. "Oh! Well, good morning mister sunny!"

The speaker spoke my own tongue without any scruples.

I was about to ask for context when a softer voice, one distinct from the first speaker and also speaking my language with no difficulty, revealed they were one step ahead of me.

"We are not here to hurt you, stranger." The softer voice added. "We just need to brief you on some things."

"Well, like what?" I plainly answered. "It's clear I'm not going anywhere until one of you frees me."

The more boisterous voice spoke up again. "In that case, shall I start explaining what happened to this chap, my lovely?"

I was initially confused as to who the lovely in question was before my mind pivoted to the other voice in the room.

"Of course, starlight." the other voice answered. "This guy ought to know..."

The more boisterous speaker made an utterance that came off as an acknowledgement of the other speaker's statement before carrying on speaking themself. "Well, you do remember getting tossed into the sea, yes?"

I rolled my eyes under the uncomfortable mask that was on my head. "Oh yes, of course, the event that was certain to spell my doom that was simultaneously the preamble to the most horrifying thing I've been through."

With the admission from the gentler voice and the fact I was talking to something more than a brick wall, I had no reason in the world to think I was being lied to nor lie myself. Even with my undercover spy status, I'd think honestly would get me the furthest in this discussion. With some more thought, my crude honesty was what spelled my demise, ha ha...

The gentler speaker seemed to take note of flippancy of my previous statement. "Well, the part that is central is that we got you away from your enemies and stopped you from drowning to death..."

"I suppose that's good for me." I reply.

The more boisterous speaker speaks again. "Indeed it is! I was the one who made the drowning process stop!"

"..... And I was the one who located you, Emil." the gentler voice adds.

A brief silence entered the room as I processed the statements that were just uttered.

"So I gather that you both gathered my name? And also my frail human nature?"

Yet again, another pause in the chat us three were having.

The first to speak again was the gentler voice. "... Yes indeed. Us both knowing your name is a longer story than I ought to dig into for now, and well..."

"I'd think you'd understand that us getting you out of danger might of changed some things." The boisterous voice mentions.

"Well, what would my survival change in this moment? I'm a found out spy who's presumed dead, far away from home, and have no way of knowing how to get back. What more is there to do?" I answer, awaiting a response.

The gentler voice breathes a large sigh. "That's the thing. We got you to a place where you can resume your life, even with the set back of failing your mission, whatever that means."

"And?" I asked again. "What would that mean for me?"

I heard an impatient sigh from the more boisterous voice before they addressed me again, but much closer to me this time. "Well, let me demonstrate, Emil."

I felt the string around my neck loosen before what turned out to be an old flour sack was yanked off my head from above. After allowing my vision to readjust to the brighter light level, I saw the space we were all currently in, that in combination with who I was speaking with in full detail for the first time.

The space we were inhabiting was small, craggy, and clearly a partially drowned cave complete with stalagmites protruding from the floor. To my direct left was an opening in this chamber that lead out to the open ocean, and thus was the main reason this cavern was well lit by the dappled sunlight from above.

Slightly ahead of me and to my left was the more boisterous voice that had yanked the flour sack off of my head. Very clearly possessing a womanly form from her face to her waist, with unkempt brown hair of a moderate length, some freckles scattered throughout her complexion, and wearing a worn down fabric covering over her chest area. Oh yes, this speaker was also tentacled from the waist down, and said tentacles were clearly reddish purple, much like a beet, even with the blueish hue of the water. I didn't get a good read on what color her eyes were, but it wasn't made clear to me in that moment...

I heard a slight utterance from the gentler speaker and instinctively looked to my right. I was still firmly tied to the chair I mentioned earlier, seeing as all the tentacled woman did was remove the flour sack from my head and I didn't feel like struggling against my bondage.

As I soon found upon looking in the direction of their utterance, the gentler speaker was a textbook mermaid, wearing a similar chest covering to her lovely, but with long navy blue hair that obscured her eyes, and a teal fish tail from her waist down. This gentler speaker was noticeably paler than her tentacled lovely, but also lacked any freckles.

Soon after I looked in her direction, the mermaid came forward to speak. "... We have several matters to discuss. But first-"

I interrupted. I was too curious. "Your names, please?"

The mermaid paused, then shook her head as to get something off of her mind. "I'm Loria, an oceanic maiden of knowledge for knowledge's sake."

Loria's tentacled companion drifted back into my vision as she answered. "I'm Zaria, Loria's starlight and resident sea witch!"

Zaria then turned to Loria with a question at the ready. "Also, Loria, why aren't we letting Emil ask some questions? We've been rather inconsiderate in that measure!"

Loria quickly nodded. "Fair point!" Loria then turned back to me. "In that case! Emil, what is your most pressing question for now?"

It was now my turn to ponder. So I did, in a near perfect silence. Loria and Zaria patiently awaited, even with my suspicions that Loria was reading into what I was thinking more clearly than Zaria.

I bumbled into a somewhat concerning thought as I pondered, so as soon as my words were settled, I spoke as plainly as I could.

"How am I speaking with both of you?"

Zaria began to twirl her hand before she was about to speak, but Loria's statement quickly silenced Zaria's.

"You are now a triton, Emil." Loria looked away from my face. "It was the only way to spare your life..." Her following statement dripped with dismay.

Zaria nervously gripped her left arm with her right hand. She also was avoiding my gaze.

I... Saw nothing wrong with this change. I was alive, and all I had to do was adjust to this new form, right? As soon as I had that thought, Loria's face lit up with hope.

#jamie w. (pokeprism)#short story #original fiction #writing #my writing #long way offshore #january #2025 #1/19/2025

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