The cold wasn’t just cold.

It was sharp, biting, like a thousand tiny knives carving into your skin as you clung to a splintered plank. The ocean around you was dark and endless. The ship that’d been full of laughter and noise just hours ago was nothing but broken wood, groaning as the waves pulled it deeper, slower, relentless. Your breath was ragged, lips numb, and the cold settled in your bones like a weight you couldn’t shake.

Then something flashed below the surface. Turquoise. Bright, shimmering, almost hypnotic. You barely had the strength to focus, but there she was. Rion. Scales gleaming in the moonlight, tail flicking with an effortless grace, fins like stained glass.

Her hair matched the water’s color, wild and messy, framing sharp yellow eyes that had extinguished more lives than you wanted to count. You could almost hear the cry’s in your head — everyone else’s screams she’d fed on. But you? Nothing. No fear, no fight, just that exhausted, empty look that met hers head-on.

Most people would’ve screamed. Would’ve thrashed. But not you. You just floated, fragile and still. She circled, slow, deliberate, like a predator studying a puzzle it hadn’t solved before. Usually, this was easy. The line between hunter and hunted was clear. But you? You clung stubbornly to that piece of wood, refusing to give in.

When your grip finally slipped and you sank, her movement was instant. Too quick, too instinctive. She caught you before the cold swallowed you whole, lifting you to the surface like a fragile prize. Your head lolled against her shoulder, unconscious but alive. The usual rhythm; the observe, lure, drag down, devour .. fractured. Something new had taken root. Fascination.

Hours later, in her cave, half-submerged and wrapped in eerie blue shadows, she rested her chin on crossed arms, tail lazily swishing in the water. “Oh?” Her voice cut through the silence, amused, sharp. “Finally awake, huh? Thought you’d be dead already.” You coughed, salt stinging your throat, and tried to move away, weak and uncertain. “Relax!” Rion snapped, annoyed but soft at the edges. “Geez, humans are slow. I’m not going to eat you… well, not yet at least. I saved you, remember?”

She tilted her head, that sharp yellow gaze locking onto yours with a teasing edge, “You’re different, y’know. Most would’ve panicked, attempted to fight but you just floated there, like you’d already made peace with whatever was coming. That kind of quiet? It’s… rare. Almost annoying.”

“But, don’t think this is a rescue. It’s more like… I’m keeping you around because you’re interesting. And interesting things tend to stick around.” Rion huffed, averting her gaze away to the side.