Picture Credit: http://being-me.deviantart.com/
Island
When her ship crashed into the sand, his world changed forever. It was a loud sound that rippled through the water. The ocean moved around him chaotically, and he knew something was wrong. He swam, faster and faster until his head reached the surface. He could feel the warmth from the fire on his face. The glow from it encompassed the whole island and he swam closer to investigate. Bits of wood floated past him as he swam. All that was left of the ship was the mast, the sail slowing starting to burn. There was something on the island, a piece of wood from the ship. Laying on top of it was a girl. Her face pale and her arm cut open wide. He swam as close as he could, trying to see if she was still breathing. Her stomach moved slowly up and down and Leiland sighed with relief. A dark thought came to mind as he sat there watching her. He couldn't help her, and without his help he knew her face would only grow paler. He knew that her breathing would cease and she would be dead. But he couldn't leave the water. He wasn't a human with two legs who could stride onto the sand and save the day. He would die without the water, and she would die without his help. Frustrated, he began to spalsh the water around him. There was nothing he could do, nothing. The feeling sank into his stomach like a stone and he became sick. At last he tried to splash water onto her face, 'maybe' he thought 'maybe it will wake her.' But she lay there, her breathing becoming more shallow. Tears fell from his eyes and he yelled. "You need to wake up! PLEASE, PLEASE WAKE UP!" Finally he gave up, turning away from her. "I can't watch her die, I can't," he said weeping. That's when he knew what he had to do. He had to be brave, he had to save her. He would die trying to save her if that's what it meant. Turning back around he swam until water barely floated above his fin. He grabbed the sand, pushing himself up onto the shore. Crawling and grabbing at the sand as he was getting closer to being out of the water, and to her. His mouth suddenly became dry, and the air in his lungs was disappearing with every breath. He choked, trying to breath in all the air he could get. But he crawled on, until he finally reached her. Up close he could see that she was beautiful. More beatiful than any creature he had ever seen before. Her long dark hair fell in strands that tangled all around her. But as he felt his last breath going away, he knew he could't save her. So he would die here, with this beautiful girl that he'd never met before. He kissed her lips, they tasted salty like the sea and sweet like a fruit he had never tasted before. The world went black as the air finally left his lungs.
Leiland awakes to the sound of wood crackling beneath a flame. He opens his eyes to a world without water, and there staring at him iss the beautiful girl he could not save. "I must be in heaven," He said. The girl smiles and shakes her head in a gesture that says, "no." She streches out her hand and touches his arm, softly at first, then pinching him hard. He flinches away and grabs his arm. "Ow, what did you do that for?!" He asks. She laughs silently and writes in the sand: Not in heaven. He looked up at her, her eyes a dark blue with lashes that seem too long to be real. "Wait, so..I'm alive? You're alive?!" He asks, a smile forming on his lips. She smiles back and nods yes. Looking down he sees he has legs. Real human legs and he's wearing the half burnt sail as covering. At first he doesn't believe they're really his legs, but then he moves them. "How?" He asks her. She shrugs her shoulders and then kisses him. He's stunned at first, his eyes going wide. But he moves into the kiss. It feels like he's tasting fire, her breath is hot in his mouth. He kisses her back, wanting to taste more of the fire. They stay like that awhile, kissing and merging into eachother. Enjoying the fact that they are alive. When they finally pull away she tells him her name by writing it in the sand. Annette, her name iss Annette. She explains about how her ship crashed and how she lost her voice when she was thirteen. She did all of this with charades, and writing in the sand. He tells her all about his life below the ocean and how he found her.
They spent the next three days together, making a raft so that she could sail back home. Slowly they fell in love, and he told her he was going to sail away with her. They ate fish that he caught in the ocean and used pieces of the mast as wood for a fire. By the fourth day he noticed scales slowly spreading across his feet. He tried to hide it from her, but she knew their days together were numbered. By the fifth day the scales were nearly up past his knees. They hurried to finish the raft, and by the sixth day they had finished. His scales went up to his torso and they knew that day was the last day they would spend together. He held her in arms, stroking her long dark hair. Whispering in her ear that he would follow her, where ever she would go, he would swim to the lengths of the oceans for her. When the sun began to set, and the clouds turned pink as a rose he told her it was time. She put all the supplies she needed on the raft and he helped her push it into the ocean. When he finally transformed he swam by her side, pushing the raft. "I love you." He said. She leaned down and kissed him. They didn't know it would be their last kiss. A wave suddenly came, pushing him from her, the raft almost tipping over. The current was too strong and he couldn't push his way back. Before he knew it she was half a mile away. "ANNETTE!" He screamed her name. "ANNETTE!" He tried to swim to her, but the waves pushed against him, sending him back near the island. He could barely see her, the raft floating away to the setting sun. He dived into ocean, trying to go under the waves, but it was no use. The waves were too strong for him. He emerged from the water and weeped. He had lost his only love.
Seven years later he still goes to Her Island. Every year he will visit Her island, hoping that he'll see that head full of long black hair. Hoping that he will see her standing there, the glow of the fire dancing across her face. But every year he sees only the palm trees and the sand. "All these years I've missed your warmth." He says, closing his eyes and thinking of her dark blue eyes. "Have you missed my warmth on your island?"
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