Thread by @theswandrowned

#soapghost - mermay stuff hehe

Ghost was a solitary creature, living on the outskirts of his colony happily undisturbed.

He preferred to be alone on the edge of the reef where he had made his grotto, spending most of his days staring out into the depths of the sea,

https://twitter.com/theswandrowned/status/1660000691723857920

waiting for something interesting to happen.

He would stay here because he liked to be alone, and to protect the colony from anything that dare harm them.

The young merman had been the victor of a few fights with a tiger shark recently, earning him quite the representation with

the youngsters. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

Thankfully most threats kept their distance, especially the humans.

They would come out here to dive every so often, but they didn’t disturb the local wildlife so Ghost left them alone.

Nikolai said it was important that they not draw attention to themselves, so he kept himself hidden whenever the humans were around.

This particular day was the same as every other day. Ghost was lazing around on a piece of dead coral, playing with a small fish when

a loud sounded out from above him.

Ghost hurried into his grotto, making sure to hide himself properly behind the rocks as he watched the scene in front of him unfold.

A large, heavy object attached to a thick line of string sunk through the water in front of him.

From what he could see there was a boat sitting above them. At first he wondered if they might be fishing, but this string was far to thick to catch fish with.

Ghost blinked, his tail swaying slightly behind him as he watched three bodies climb into the water.

Two of them were wearing the same outfit he was used to seeing the humans wear, some full body seal suit - he figured it was to keep them warm - and some yellow tanks on their backs.

Nikolai said it helped them breath, but the third one did not have any of that. He had no tanks

and no body coverage apart from some shorts.

It was safe to say the merman was rather confused.

He peered out from behind his rock as he watched the man begin to swim down towards the ocean floor, using the thick string as a guide.

Ghost was interested at first, but

a sick feeling began to churn in his chest as he watched the man get deeper and deeper.

There was no way a human could swim this deep on just a single breath. His friends had those breathing tanks, surely they should share! Right?

Ghost let out a small, panicked

clicking noise as he willed himself to stay in his grotto. He knew he couldn’t reveal himself but he felt as if he was watching this young man swim to his death.

The man was getting deeper and deeper and Ghost got more and more worried. There was no way he would be able to

get back to the surface in time.

Ghost stuck his head out of his hole as the man reached the bottom, turning his gaze back up towards the surface.

“Hurry.” Ghost willed him quietly. “You won’t last long!”

But the man just stood there at the bottom, making random poses

that indicated to Ghost he must be in extreme pain and distress.

The final straw for ghost was seeing the small stream of bubbles leave the man’s mouth.

“He’s going to drown.” Ghost said quickly, swimming as fast as he could out of the safety of his grotto, straight towards

the man.

He wouldn’t let him die! Not on his watch!

He could lend him some air, just to get him back to the surface.

The merman swam straight at the human, appearing in front of his eyes like some sort of apparition.

The man immediately started to choke and struggle

as Ghost reached him. In Ghost’s mind he had reached him just in time to save him, but the reality was he was just panicking because a MERMAN had just shown up in front of him.

“Don’t worry! I’ll help you!” Ghost declared loudly, but despite the clear statement the panicking

human did not understand him at all.

But Ghost did not wait around to explain this to him, instead he just clasped the humans head in his hands and pressed their lips together, sharing his oxygen with him.

The human stopped struggling in his grip and seemed to calm down,

telling the merman his help had actually worked.

Ghost then pulled away, pushing the human up towards the surface ever so slightly.

The human stared at him for a long moment, his face bright red, before he finally started to move.

Ghost watched him until he reached

the surface before he turned to move back to his grotto, only to see a very annoyed Nikolai waiting for him.

“What did I tell you?” The older merman scolded as Ghost reached him.

“He needed my help! He couldn’t breathe!”

“He was fine!”

“He was not!”

Meanwhile, at the surface, free-diver Soap had finally surfaced, coughing and spluttering as he grabbed the boat.

“What was that?” Gaz huffed, pulling his breathing tube out of his mouth and handing it to his friend to try and calm him down. “We couldn’t see anything going

on down there. You were down there for ages.”

“Yeah, we we’re about to pull the pin.” Price said, his brow furrowing worriedly.

“I…” Soap panted, pushing his wet hair out of his face. “I think I might be going crazy.”

“What?” Price asked. “Why’s that?”

“I have to be going crazy.” Soap stammered, looking between his two friends. “Because if I’m not, I was just kissed by a mermaid.”

-

Fin <3