The fins of Alaric's tail peeked out again, the sun shining on it perfectly to make light bounce back to Quill. He was kind of a spacey person, so it was pretty easy for him not to notice what his tail was doing.
Quill smiled to himself, reassuring himself that he had been right after all. And that had to be one very large fish, if the tail was that big. And the colors…well, it had to be one he'd never seen.
Alaric peaked his head out of the other side ever so slightly, to get a better look of the human. The human seemed to be happy and he wanted to know why, but, of course, he couldn't.
((He's gonna be a dumbass for a bit))
Quill glanced over as he saw another thing pop out from the waves - a human head. Surprised, he leaned forward a little, failing the connect the dots.
"Are you okay there?" He asked, directing the question towards the man in the water.
((Lol okay :))
Hearing the human speak to him, Alaric hid his head behind the rock. His heartbeat quickened a bit, hoping the human wouldn't come and investigate.
And the head had…dissapeared. Strange, but intriguing. Very intriguing for someone like Quill. So what did he do?
Of course he investigated it, running closer to the bow of the ship and peering over the edge for any trace of what he had seen.
Alaric heard soft, quick steps from the ship. He curled up a bit, actually terrified. He had always believed the stories about humans. This was the closest encounter with a human he had ever had.
"Um…" Quill still hadn't connected the dots that this might be a mermaid, so he called out to whatever he had seen. "You…you still there? Because I feel like you're gonna run out of air soon, and that's not good…"
Upon hearing the human's voice again, Alaric jumped a little making a splash. He stayed extremely still after that, he was sure this was going to be the end of him. The water wasn't deep enough for him to easily slip away without the human noticing him, but that was the only plan he could think of. But he decided to wait, maybe the human would leave?
Quill's eyes widened jsut a little, and he smiled a tad bit, excitement at discovering something welling up inside of him. He crossed his arms and leaned on the railing, deciding he would wait. "I won't hurt you. I'm just confused."
That's what they all say… Alaric noticed the sun starting to set ever so slightly. He sighed, he was supposed to be home before dusk, too late for that…
Quill pursed his lips, tapping his fingers against the side of the boat. "Seriously, you're gonna run out of air. If you're a criminal or something, I don't care, I just don't want you to die."
By then, Alaric was tempted to actually leave, with a hope that the human wouldn't notice him. After taking a few breaths, he got in position to swim away. Submerging himself in the water, he smiled it felt good to be back in the water. Thinking through it again, he realized how dangerous it would be to do that.
Quill sighed, realizing that whoever it was probably wasn't going to come back, at least not today. So off he went, closing up the rest of the ship and heading home long after sunset.
((skip??))
((Yeahh))
(~Time Skip~)
The night before, it was a good thing that Alaric waited. But that morning, he couldn't help but go back to the dock to watch the humans again. Hiding behind the same rock as earlier, Alaric waited for the humans.
As usual, Quill came in first, quickly unloading everything on the boat before sitting and waiting for the others, starting almost wistfully as to where he had seen the tail and the head yesterday. His dumbass hadn't connected the two dots even after he had slept on it, and like the ingenious he was, he was curious.
Alaric saw the human that had almost caught him last night. This he was careful not to be seen, but , of course, his spacey mind didn't notice how light it was getting and how much of his tail was showing. His mind was stuck thinking about "what ifs" for the encounter before.
Quill noticed a bright flash of color in the water, and quickly leaned over the side again. It wasn't the human he'd seen last night, but the fish he had seen. The one with the giant, colorful tail.
Alaric watched as another crew member walked onto the ship, not seeing the human looking at his tail. His tail moved a little, still without him knowing.
Quill bit his lip, letting the other crewmates do their thing while he started intently at the tail. He would look up every once in a while to say hi or give a friendly wave, but other than that it was nothing.
Leaning his head on his arms, Alaric smiled a little as the ship started filling up. A strand of his longish hair fell over his face. Brushing it away, his mind stopped wandering and he quickly pulled his tail behind the rock.
Quill pursed his lips a little as the tail disappeared, lingering at the edge for a couple of moments before standing and finally walking over to the rest of the crew, helping to load and get ready.
Alaric was just waiting for the ship to set sail so he could stretch his tail following it. He did that kind of thing since he was pretty much an outcast at his home. This was a great passed time for him that didn't involve other merfolk.
Eventually, Quill ran out of things to do, and went to the bow of the ship that was looking back at the city slowly getting smaller. He liked to watch this, and then watch it in reverse as they came back.
Smiling, Alaric slipped back into the water, slowly following the ship as it left the shore. This was, by far, his favorite ship to follow. For one, it was the fastest one he had seen in quite a while. And two, the crew actually did stuff rather than sitting around waiting for something to happen.
Ripples in the water were normal as could be with a ship like this, so whenever Quill would see ripples of Alaric's tail, he simply assumed they were ripples of the ship.
Alaric was looking at the wood on the ship when he noticed a little crack in it. He frowned inspecting it a bit more. Not much water was going through is since it was such a small crack, but he knew it would probably grow. Unsure what to do about it, he just kept looking at it.
None of the crew members were aware of said crack, all of them except Quill were either playing games on the second level or busy doing work. Quill was staring back at the city, whereas the rest couldn't be bothered.
Eventually, Alaric decided to try to fix it. He had no idea how, but he was going to fix it anyway. He scanned the ocean around him for anything to fix it with, but he, of course, didn't see anything.
There were, of course, supplies to fix this kind of thing inside the ship, but unless Alaric made contact with someone on it or snuck in somehow, there was no way anyone was going to notice that hole or fix it.
