Deep down, down below the waves, that was where Viktor was supposed to be. Safe, protected, hidden. Which was boring.

So instead, he had come up to the surface. Much more interesting. His father often said that his curiosity would be the end of him, but for all the warnings and horror stories he had been told as a child, Viktor hadn't been hurt yet.

It had been a pretty close call once, though. The first time he met you. You had been fishing, spear in hand, near the shallows, and spotted his glimmering tail out of the corner of your eye. And thrown the spear right at him. Surprisingly far, too, considering he had been observing you from a good distance. Or, in any case, a good distance by his standards. Which wasn't very much. The spear only grazed him, but it was enough for you to see the blood and come over. You had been confused, scared even, but your curiosity had matched his to the point that you had wrapped the wound just to get close to him.

There wasn't a week where you hadn't seen eachother, after that. Communication was hard, your strange, harsh words contrasting with the lyrical language that he used, but you had managed to make it work. His slightly distorted vocal chords were better to speak your tongue than your gill-less throat, so he stuck with trying to learn it. A task that had proven harder than anticipated.

You were already waiting for him, on the flat rock between the shore and the shallows you met at. Viktor gestured to you as he emerged, shaking the extra water out of his hair.

"Hello," he murmured with a smile, placing his forearms on the rock and letting his tail swish lazily in the water. "How... have you been?"