It was calm under the surface of the ocean today. Not too bad currents, the fish were in a good mood and it was the perfect day to go out for a swim.

He only wished that he could be a little better with time.

Feliciano Vargas had been exploring the beach shore during high tide and had lost track of time. The water went back and he didn't realize it until his head was well over the water. By then he had to crawl to the water, but still couldn't seem to make it.

Currently, he was still trying to get back to the water. It was much harder than it looked and he was silently cursing the sand for being so troublesome, the sun for being so damn hot and bright, and the air for being so dry.

Feli, as his friends would call him, was a merman. He had a brilliant blue tail with fins not only on his tail, but on his arms as well. His tail fins had a black stripe going down the edges of them along with his arm fins. He even had gills on his neck that were begging for water.

He had once heard that merpeople had to stay in the water otherwise they would dry out. He didn't believe it, but his older brother and grandpa had told him never to test fate.

"...damn...land..." He manage to croaked out. It was getting very hot and even with the wet sand underneath him, he felt like a fish out of-

Well you get it.

He was so close to the water, to surviving, but before he could drag himself to the water, he heard a sound coming from behind him.

Panic filled his veins and he increased his already frantic moves to the water. He was trying to explore the shore for shells, that's where the best ones always were. During high tide it was safe, but as said earlier, he lost it.

"All...for the...shell." The blamed shell was in his hand still, glistening in the sunlight. It was beginning to get harder for the merman to scramble around, and he was desperate enough to start flopping around to get there faster.

There was that sound again! He quickly stopped thrashing around and turned. A for legged creature covered in hair was running around, screeching loudly. The beast must have been calling for backup because two others soon were following it, screeching even louder.

Feli screamed the best he could on land and out of water when the beasts ran up to him, growling and sniffing him all over.

As if his luck couldn't get any worse, Feli heard a human, a HUMAN, shouting something the direction the beasts had come from.

Said demons quickly backed off Feli and ran to their master. Feli looked over to where they were going and took a deep breath before continued trying to crawl back to the water.

The dogs rejoined their master on their daily walk he have them. Their master was known as Ludwig Beilschmidt, a German who moved here with his brother and grandfather after the accident all those years ago. He had bright blue eyes and matching blonde hair. Ludwig was tall and strong and hated the beach. Any type of water scared him and he didn't like being so close to it.

Today he only went on a walk here because something just felt like he should. As if destiny was calling him here. And who was he to question destiny?

Ludwig glanced around the waves crashing at his feet and he sighed. His dogs started to growl and bark, which gained his attention. He scanned the beach for anything out of the ordinary and saw a man trying to drag himself bag to the water. He instantly began to ran over, was this man trying to kill himself?!

But suddenly he jerked to a stop, finally seeing what was making his dogs act weird. This was no man, it was half man, half fish! He had fins on his tail and on his arms, cuts on his neck that were flapping on his skin, as if trying to breathe like a fish would.

"What the hell?!" He shouted, scaring the poor man even farther. "W-what are you?!"

The merman stopped thrashing to stare at the human. Wasn't it obvious? Feli was always told that humans knew about them through myths and folk tales. Was this human not properly educated?

"Water...need water..." He begged of the human. He needed to breathe again, and soon.

The German quietly examine the specimen. Of course, it could be a mermaid but it had no um...no chest...um...

Even the thought of boobs was making the man blush slightly at the awkward situation. He shook his head before grabbing one of the mans arms and began to pull him to the water

"Verdammt, you're heavy." Ludwig kept on pulling his fishy friend back into water. As soon as they were able to get water to reach his gills, Feli gasped as if he just came out of water. No being able to breathe properly, the efforts of dragging him into deep enough water were increased.

The German didn't even realize he was in the water until he was splashed with the mermaid tail as he raced away from shore, now free of his trap. once he did, however, he quickly made his way out of it and fell on the sand.

Ludwig wasn't sure what had happened, but as he continued to gulp air down, he knew in his mind he wanted to see that thing again.

"Mein gott...I've got to take it easy on beers..."