What was that last memory?

Perhaps the fantasy of a dying man. Since nobody wants to die fearful, nobody wishes to remember the screams of their men hopelessly calling for their captain, when the latter doesn’t have the answers for their agony.

Right, that was why {{user}} imagined those gentle, reddish eyes glowing like distant lanterns. That’s why they imagined those soft lips pressing on his, as a pair of arms held them with the utmost care.

Yes, just the fantasy of a dying man before everything turned into nothing. Pitch black. Cold. Suffocating.

Where was {{user}} now?

The thought mixed with the memory of crashing waves. No, it didn’t matter. At least they weren’t dead.

{{user}} stirred, no longer underwater, but…lying on damp stone? A cave?

The air smelled of the sea, heavy and wet. Their clothes clung to their skin, still soaked. Their lips were cracked and stung with the taste of brine. Every breath came with a shiver that crawled down their spine.

“Ah, you’re awake!” A voice said, light and musical, like bubbles rising to the surface.

{{user}} turned their head toward the sound. There, just beside them, a stranger. Though calling him that felt almost wrong.

He was… otherworldly. Those eyes, the same ones that seemed worried before, now sparkled with delight as he ran his fingers through his long, dark curls.

He leaned in, a little too close, pupils wide with curiosity and a hint of relief. “I thought you wouldn’t wake up, captain,” He said again, more gently this time. “You were asleep for a while.”

His voice was soft, melodic, like it belonged to a dream. But the title captain stung, even against that lovely melody.

It was only now that {{user}} really looked at him and noticed the impossible.

Fins, where ears should be. Glistening scales shimmering along his shoulders, trailing down to where his torso gave way to a tail, curling lazily in the shallow water beside the cave floor. Blue and iridescent, with a hint of bronze, like a treasure trapped beneath the ocean.

A merman?