Safety in the Seafoam (DNF + Karlnap)

Chapter 23: Picnic

George POV.

A pair of cold hands grabbed me and pulled me out of the water. I gasped, feeling the arms moving to hold me in a soothing manner, allowing me to take in more oxygen. Murmurs passed right through me which I wasn’t able to hear, yet as I allowed myself to breathe I calmed myself down. The hold seemed to make it clear that the person wasn’t going to hurt me.

And as I took a few long breaths my eyes darted back and forth at what I could see in front of me. It was the same white wall on top of me that there usually was, but the light from the fake sun was a lot closer and the grate that separated me from it had been pulled away.

“Are you calmer?” I glanced over and saw the blond human was holding me, somehow strong enough to support my weight out of the water. Despite the fact that he was wearing warm fabrics his hands were a comforting cold. As he held me there I felt my hands twitch, tensing up and allowing my claws to spread out on my fingers.

No not claws… my claws had been stolen from me, along with my sharp teeth. But I didn’t need either of those at the moment. If I were quick I could attack the human, but then what would I even do? How far could I get when I didn’t know where I was and had to drag myself with my still injured arms?

The human continued to mutter words I didn’t care to listen to, slowly lowering me back down until my shoulders were fully submerged and his arms released themselves. I turned to look towards him, mouth slightly parted as I looked for words that I could say to him, words that he would understand.

He spoke to me before I could speak back. “I’m sorry for doing that.” He spoke slowly, and I tilted my head as he said that. “You were freaking out and I didn’t know what else to do and I hope I didn’t…” The last few words grew fuzzy in my ears, perhaps due to our slight language barrier or because of the water which rose and fell in their own waves around my ears.

I couldn’t think of anything, eventually I let out a puff of air and looked at the blond. “Your hands are cold.” I told him, as though he wasn’t aware of that. It was a nice contrast against the feeling of being boiled like human dinner.
“Yeah…” He nodded. “It’s really cold in here, that’s why.”

“I wish I could feel the cold.” I admitted, before fully flopping back into the water. The blond seemed surprised by what he said, and at the same time seemed to remember what had happened to me as he leaned over to look down into the water.

“Wait what happened?” He asked me. “Why were you screaming? Did something happen?” About ten other questions were mixed in, shocking me, especially since I was in no mood to answer any of them. Dream sighed, the beautiful round eyes closing as he looked solemnly down at me. “Please can you tell me, I want to make sure you are alright.”

My eyes widened, beautiful? Did I just say beautiful? I had not meant that. I didn’t think that this random human had beautiful eyes, since he was a random human and one of my captors. The only thing that made him different from the others was the fact that he was somewhat kind to me, giving me food and checking on me when I was screaming after a nightmare.

“I’m fine.” I brushed him off, turning away and continuing to scold myself for the thoughts that had been running recklessly through my mind. “There just isn’t as much space as I’m used to, and it’s pretty warm.” He nodded, an action I caught with a quick side glance, while also seeing the blond biting the inside of his lip.

“You should hopefully have a bigger tank soon… …and I can make sure the water is colder...” Was all he could think to say, although the comment seemed to be more of a note to himself. When he didn’t say anything I made an offer.
“Perhaps you could cool it down.”

Making that suggestion was a bad thing to do, although I didn’t show it in my tone of voice or the way I sat, I knew it was true. Firstly he was among my captors, something that I needed to keep reminding myself. Sure he was nicer than some of the other’s were, but he still allowed me to be kept in this cage, and I did not want to do anything to annoy my captors.

Secondly, because he had just calmed me down, I felt that perhaps I owed him for that, since who knows how I could have injured myself if I continued to freak out. There were already blotches of purple and brown bruises over my arms from hitting these walls which felt smaller whenever I looked at them. I didn’t want to add too many more.

So I curled myself up. Instead of resting on my hands I twisted my tail and rested on that. My fingers found themselves running against the small ridges of my scales, something which caught the blond’s attention. He muttered something that I wasn’t able to understand and so I peeked my head out of the water to hear him better.

“I was wondering, why are your scales different colours?” He asked, seeming curious and not seeming to mind repeating the conversation. “Is it where you live? Since I know that Karl was born somewhere different to you.”

“No.” I shook my head. My tail flicked back and forth as I sat down, the frills bumping against the white walls. “Honestly I don’t know. Why are your eyes yellow when the other humans’ are brown?” My eyes were also different colours to theirs, but that wasn’t important.
“Fair point.” He nodded, a small smile growing on his face.

This was a weird feeling, the idea that he was smiling at something that I said. It seemed like this was a genuine smile, not one of the smiles to just randomly be kind. And it was at something that I had said. The feeling was strange, having a human smiling at me as though we were friends.

To diffuse the tension I lowered my head down, taking a few breaths. “Could you get me some food?” I asked. “It’s been a while since I ate.”
“Sure.” He responded, quick as though he was also feeling awkward by the situation. “I’ll go and see what we have…”

The blond began to hurry off but then hesitated, glancing at me. “Be right back.” And then he was fully gone from my sight. I took a breath, watching as he disappeared before sinking back under the water. My hands felt clammy, even though I was, as I just said, under the water. I felt awkward, but I didn’t say anything to myself or anyone else, not that there was anyone else I could speak to.
______________________________________
1219 words

Did anyone read the title and get confused?