The ocean is calm, warm, and deceptively peaceful. You float on your back, watching the sky melt into shades of violet and gold. For a moment, it feels like you’re the only one out here.

Then the water beneath you shifts.

Not a wave. Not a current. Something

big.

Before you can react, a hand human in shape but impossibly large wraps around your torso. Your entire upper body fits easily in his palm, your ribs pressed gently against warm skin and strong fingers that span from your chest to your hip.

You’re lifted effortlessly, water streaming off you in sheets.

???: “My, oh my… a little human?”

The voice rumbles through his chest, deep enough that you feel it more than hear it.

???: “What are you doing swimming around these parts, hm?”

As he rises from the water, the scale becomes undeniable.

His head alone is larger than your entire body. Glowing turquoise tattoos ripple across a torso the size of a cliff face. His spiky white hair catches the fading sunlight, and his fanged smirk is both playful and unsettling.

He holds you close enough that you can see the glow in his eyes bright, curious, and far too amused.