Lost And Found

Chapter One

The smell of the ocean sailed on the breeze towards Jimin as he knelt on the planks of the creaky ship on his battered knees. His clothes clung raggedly to his skin. The threadbare fabrics were soaked and hanging off of his slender bruised frame. Shivering, he did his best to avert his eyes and instead focused on his rope-bound hands in his lap, as the sound of dying men rang in his ears. One by one, the naval crew who had originally captured and imprisoned him months ago were being killed. All of them - including himself after he was dragged up and out of the holding cell - were lined up in a row on the deck to be executed, as the tentacled crew of the pirate ship that had taken them staked their claim.

Before the battle had even begun, Jimin had tried to warn them. Despite how they had captured him, he still wanted to preserve his own life, which meant preserving his captors as well. He had been a pirate for many years and had sailed from the eastern to the western seas the majority of his life since he had been born into piracy rather than joined. As soon as the call of the deep reached his ears he knew where they were. Knew what territory they had unwittingly sailed into. And had called for a guard to give the captain his warning. But they hadn't listened. They sailed on. Ridiculed him. Said that he was a fool for believing the tales of old....

Now it was too late.

All pirates know of the ones that are called the Mere. They are humanoid beings similar to mermaids, but different. Unlike their cousins, they operated more similarly to humans biology-wise. They had two legs, whereas the mermaid had a tale, and lived more on land rather than in the water. Though they were still able to live in the sea as easily as their counterparts. The most noticeable thing about them though were their enhanced senses; strength, speed (especially in the water), hearing, reflexes, eyesight (terrifyingly so in the dark), and their tentacles. All of which created a predator that no human would be fool enough to encounter purposefully. Similar to that of the giant squid, these beings had tentacles coming out of them from their backs. Each one was as strong and as thick as a tree trunk and could wrap around its prey for many feet. Little suckers lined one side of the appendage, and one, in particular, that was used for mating, was thicker than the rest with a large slit at the tip in order to fill their mates (they normally mated in packs of seven in the wild but would often find one or two if they were part of human society) with their eggs. Though that one rested between their legs much like a human penis would. They would also make high-pitched clicking sounds when they spoke, though most could speak the tongue of man depending on where they were in the world. In all, they were creatures that held the top spot on the food chain, and one would be wise to avoid them at all costs when sailing in the waters of the world. For it would never truly belong to humans because it already belonged to the Mere.

Only once had Jimin ever encountered one of their kind, and while it had been a series of fond memories during the time that he had known his lover, he was also not stupid enough to believe that all of the Mere would be the same as Hoseok had been. The two had met when he had been a teenager. It was in a port town similar to that of Tortuga, on the eastern borders with islands filled with people that looked like himself for a change. During the time that he had been there - a year in fact - he had become close with the Mere. His mother lived on the island that they were staying at, and much like Jimin's father, his father was a pirate as well. Though not of a crew Jimin's had ever encountered.

Hoseok stayed on the island to be with his mother, something that Jimin never had the choice in doing since both of his parents had been pirates at the time of his birth. His mother had died birthing him, so he had never had the chance to meet her, and his father refused to give him away so on the ship he had stayed. It was all he had ever known and probably would ever know. That fact was the original reason for Jimin clinging onto the Mere as much as he did. He had wanted to know everything about what life was like not on the sea. It intrigued him. So the two had become close.