A tail for an eye - Eren x Levi

Chapter 9

"Almost Drowned"

"The kraken didn't cause these injuries, you know?" Erwin spoke after a few minutes of silence.

Levi took a small scan over him, considering they were in the same boat and facing each other, it wasn't hard. They were gashes, deep wounds and scratches. The leg had to be the worst, looking already somewhat infected. All the pirates had wounds like this, save for the leg injury.

"What did then?" Levi asked, feeling rather stupid. 

"A merman." Erwin stared at him, with the most serious face since meeting one another, "it showed up, after the kraken took our ship down. A few mermaids were with him, but he went after me. It's like he knew I was after him."

Erwin took a pause, Levi felt rather engaged into this. Perhaps it made a little more sense why they had been led to this island, maybe it was that merman's idea of warning them of what was to come. Or maybe, if that kraken really was circling around the sea, then his idea was to get their boat taken down, too. Perhaps they worked together, where the kraken protected their lair and the kraken got a bite to eat whenever pirates set out for a hunt.

"It tried its best to injure me as best it could, like an animal playing with its food before killing it. I eventually got hold of a scrap piece of wood and floated on it. It still kept trying to get me, but the island was near so I managed to save myself before it did anything else," Erwin finished his story.

Though a fascinating story, one detail stood out to Levi, "You mean it was here? Right here, where we are now?"

Erwin raised an eyebrow towards Levi with a nod. The other boat alongside them was now looking in their direction due to Levi's approaching outburst. Erwin, it seemed, hadn't quite caught his drift.

"And it could still be here!" Levi straightened his back up.

Now Erwin knew what he meant as he began searching over the water, his eyes not stopping their rapid speed once, "I don't think it will be here anymore."

Thankfully, they were close to the ship and would likely make it back alive. Their conversation acted like motivation to the pirated rowing as their speed almost doubled without a word spoken to them. It fell silent again, until a thud against the wood hit the boat next to Levi's, from under the boat. Just as one of them was about to call out, their boat tipped over within a blink of an eye as strong arms with gorgeous teal single dorsal fins lines the back of their arms. He was back.

"Leave them!" Erwin ordered, despite it not being his orders to call and mostly his crew mates who went down. Unfortunately, they didn't have a choice as blood began rushing to the surface the second the merman swam back into the water. Bubbles erupted from beneath the water and their rowing came to a stop, "I said leave the-"

Water rushed into their mouths as their boat was also tipped over, but not enough for the boat to turn upside down, just for them to fall out. The force caused the boat to swim away from above them as Levi felt a flutter of something brush past his arm. With his other arm, a strong grip grabbed onto him. Despite the saltiness, Levi opened his eyes to see Erwin helping to drag him back to surface. Two other pairs of legs were above them, already at the surface. Levi glanced down, eyes straining and beginning to struggle for breath due to the sudden impact. Eye contact with the merman again, as he was tearing his nails into one of Erwin's pirates, directly into his chest, causing a firework of blood to spread slowly out within the water. Those were looked so innocent, so sweet. Yet his hands were tearing into someone like they were made of straw. The merman's wide eyes relaxed a moment, appearing half-lidded. The blood sent streaks of red across the merman, causing his to appear blurry, though Levi could view straight through it and stared into the growing smirk and certain glow in the merman's eyes. A glow that Levi didn't expect a merman to be giving him, or anyone on land for that matter. His tail flicked, his hands abandoning the body and allowing it to float below. Levi's eyes were stinging now, he closed them through a scrunched up face.

Levi felt certain the merman was going for him next, worried from seeing nothing, but he felt a rush of air as they got to the surface. With help from the surviving pirates, they got onto the remaining boat and all helped to push it back to The Colossal Titan. 

"Go faster, you shit heads!" Erwin coughed up, gritting his teeth from the salt that had entered his wounds.

"Go, go, go!"

"Don't even look behind, eyes in front!"

A rope was waiting for their arrival once they bashed against the side of the main boat. Levi's eyes stung to an extent that opening them caused him to hiss quietly. He felt the impact from hitting the boat as the other crew members hooked the ropes around the edges. Before even properly tied, they were pulled from the water and lifted up. 

"Lift the anchor!" Levi yelled out with a hoarser voice, touching his eyes and not looking up once.

They climbed over to the other side of the boat as it wobbled from losing stability from the anchor. Levi felt breathless, huffing and puffing as he hunched over, almost stumbling over. Meanwhile, the remainder of the surviving pirates fell to the floor in shock with a thud.

"Are you alright, Captain?" Zoe yelled, abandoning her duty, "who's he? Wait ... Captain Erwin Smith?"

"What happened, Captain?"

"Was that the same merman?"

"Shut the hell up for one minute," Levi said. He didn't need to speak loudly, they were trained to listen out for any small word he muttered and follow it without questions. Their panting filled the air as The Colossal Titan began moving forward again, slightly tilted away from the island. Levi half thought the merman would come and destroy the main boat, yet he appeared on his own. Not another one in sight to help him. That was strange behaviour for mer-people, then again, they didn't know everything about them. Levi turned to Zoe, though his eyes were barely open, "get me fresh water."

"He tried to drown us!" Erwin yelled out as Zoe ran past him, "that's twice now that thing has tried to kill me."

Most of the crew appeared still due to this strange man in front of them. Erwin was now alone, all of his pirates having now drowned or being killed. Though not a sliver of remorse crossed his mind. Zoe returned swiftly, as though prepared for all occasions. She held out a small bowl of water for Levi, who began using it to rub the salt out from his eyes. Trying to be sly, he lifted the eyepatch, which released a bit of water from it, to also help care for his blind eye.

"Treat his wounds best you can and take away his weapons," Levi ordered, facing their doctor. Now his vision was clearing, but his face remained scrunched up, looking angry. 

"Don't trust me, Levi?"

"Shut it."

Zoe helped take Levi to a bench as he began telling the crew what had just occurred. With help from the other pirates who witnessed the very same thing. Levi continued looking out to sea, he felt awful for his men who had dies just then, but felt intrigued by that merman. He kept appearing in places, always him. It felt almost exciting, until Levi remembered what they were dealing with again.

"So that kraken takes cycles ..." Zoe began mumbling to herself after they'd finished informing her, all of the other crew members were of course not-so-subtly eavesdropping in, too.

"We didn't see it once approaching the island," Levi reminded her, now having regulated his breath.

"It's probably underneath, far under. Only comes out when it sees an opportunity," Zoe thought out, "I don't think it's like a circle, it's probably an overlapping pattern that makes it look random but is actually quite organised. Shame we can't prove it."

"But what do we do now, Captain?" One of the pirates questioned him.

Levi thought for a moment, "We're still catching that merman."

Levi felt both seething anger and fascination, it frustrated him having mixed feelings like this. He simply wanted to tear out his brain and get his feelings back in check. Back to normal, back to being simple to understand. What was going on inside of him? What had that merman done to him?