Fantasy it found me deep beneath the water;

[manatee]

manatee x rosehearted​

 

[manatee]

Living by the sea always called for some tall tales. Their entire town talked about merpeople in hushed whispers like if they got too close to the shore they’d be drug into the dark, murky waves that splashed almost silently against the shore. When his grandfather was alive, he’d told him all about how the shoreline was blocked off by a giant wall, separating the land dwellers to the ones who lurked beneath the ocean. His gramps had never told him why everyone had been so paranoid, but he knew the story was true because even though the wall had been torn down, there were still places where remnants of it stood.

He’d learned rather quickly that mermaids weren’t like the ones he’d see on The Little Mermaid. His gramps had told him stories of the merpeople with stringy hair and webbed fingers, with claw-like nails and sharp teeth that couldn’t wait to sink into a bit of human flesh. It had scared him enough to refuse to go to the beach for about a week, but then his curiosity got the better of him. Since the beach was open to the public now, and always crowded – especially during the summer – Logan liked to explore when the sun was starting to set.

Apparently even though the wall had come down and the beach had been opened, people still remembered the story of the mermaids and how they hated the humans. It all had initially seemed sort of silly, but then he’d begun to get obsessed. Since he stuck to himself more often than not, he spent all of his free time researching them in the library. He’d worked there for the past year, so after closing time he’d go to the back with the computers and continue where he’d left off, reading articles about people spotting mermaids and journal entries written by sailors who were actually probably only going crazy from scurvy or something.

But even still, as much as he didn’t believe the stories, he wanted so badly to believe them. He wanted there to be something beneath the surface, something different from the stories though. Logan wanted to believe that mermaids did exist but that they didn’t seek to devour the human flesh – it sounded straight from some horror movie or something. And if they did exist, Logan liked to believe that they were beautiful creatures with skin that glowed against the surface sunlight reflecting against the water.

Logan was weird. He was shy and awkward and a bit of a town outcast. He and his mother lived in one of the few houses closest to shore and he could be found late at night, crouching among the dunes, scribbling madly in a journal. It had never bothered him before, the not fitting in, not through high school, and not now. There wasn’t anything for him in this town anyway. Nothing caught his interest, besides the history of the sea.

Okay, so maybe his mermaid obsession was weird and if people knew about it, they would realize why people thought he had a hard time making friends. Because he was a freak. But no one knew about it. Sure, Logan carted around a journal in which he documented the nights that he sat on the remnants of the wall, studying the ocean for any sort of sign of half-human life. Most people just thought it was a normal journal, or where he wrote poems or something – because he did love literature and everything that had to do with it. He had a separate journal for his own normal writings, something he’d never take out of his house. There was absolutely no way he’d let that get into the wrong hands.

Some days he didn’t do his research within the library. Some days after work, not unlike today, he’d take his journal down to the shore, kick off his shoes and leave them on the boardwalk, roll his jeans up to his ankles and take a stroll. He’d wade cautiously where the tide was coming in, his toes sinking into the sand slightly and his feet hitting against shells as they washed in from the tide.

Part of the time, he even wondered what he would do if one day, all of the stories came true, and since he was out at dusk, a mermaid would come up, lure him out to about wading distance with her song, and have him pulled under in a matter of seconds, his journal left to float helplessly to shore, all of his shitty observations washed away with the salt water. He wondered what it would be like to feel his lungs burn from the salt, to feel the last bit of breath slip from his lungs. Morbid thoughts, but something he couldn’t push from his head on nights like this. It was almost as if there was something in the water, something calling for him to step out among the waves, never to be seen again. He would let his dark thoughts scare him back to the safety of the wall, pulling himself up to sit down and watch the tide roll in. He’d scribble aimlessly in his journal, taking note of the deep blue of the ocean as the sun set against the horizon.


07 June

The water, like always, is still. The tide rolls in smooth and the only disturbance is when the wind picks up speed and pushes the waves in faster, and I enjoy the sound of the waves crashing hard against white sand. The gulls are strangely absent today, and the water is much darker, but I have a feeling this is a sign of a storm rolling in. Every once in a while I will see the fins of a dolphin, or a fish jumping for something above the water, but today it is strangely quiet. The beach is deserted and there is a cold chill – far too unusual for a June eve-

His journal entry was quickly cut off, because down shore from him there was someone lying in the sand. They had just suddenly appeared, as if being formed from the sea foam lapping against the shore, and Logan was startled, dropping his journal and pen into the sand as he hopped down from the wall and slowly made his way to the figure. As he moved in closer, he noticed the hair – it seemed like miles and miles of long, tangled hair and then he realized that the body underneath all the hair was a girl.

He paused a few feet away, staring at her in sheer shock, his mouth opened slightly and his eyes wide. She was sputtering up sea water, and coughing, and was just a huge tangle of hair and limbs. His eyes followed her slender legs down to the tips of her toes that she was wiggling slightly, and he furrowed his brow and moved in closer.

Kneeling next to the girl, he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but jerked back when her large eyes stared at him wildly and he realized that she was naked. His entire face went red, and probably the rest of his body and he looked away quickly, trying his best to get words to come out of his mouth. Anything at all would do.

“You’re on the beach,” he announced, and then he wanted to slap himself for being an idiot. Obviously she knew that she was on the beach because she was half in the waves and half on sand.

 

[thumbelinaaa]

♀
For many moon cycles, Valentina had been surrounded by a team of her fellow merpeople, preparing for the very moment to be sent to the surface. While she had only been deeply briefed on the specifics recently over the last few moons—the transformation, land dweller behaviour and of course the mission itself—it was almost as if Valentina had been getting ready over the course of her entire lifetime.

The first thing you noticed about her in contrast to any mermaid was the inky darkness of her hair with her mother and father having had white and red hair respectively. This strange trait showed her as perhaps being the last in a long line of Dark Sirens, Valentina's particularly dark hair specifying her from her successors as La Sirena Oscura Final. So shortly after she had been born she had been taken before the Grand Chamberlain who ordered that as soon as she learned to communicate both vocally and telepathically, as well as shed her first set of childhood scales, she was to be turned over to the High Priestess to live with her indefinitely.
Time passed quickly, and Valentina was handed over without much fanfare. At this point she understood that she was important, and as she grew this was drilled into her head constantly. That she was special, had a duty that not even the High Priestess was worthy of and that when the time is right she would do what had to be done, leaving any complaint or question unvoiced.

After the celebratory feast, Valentina was taken to the highest point in their kingdom, where a beautiful light shimmered down from above, with an enormous flat stone bathed in it. This was where she was to be transformed, and all went well until several merwomen appeared from the shadows and began to coat her rose coloured scales in an earthy substance. Large chunks of earth broke off and began to cloud her vision. She began to get nervous.

The low tone of the High Priestess called out, and Valentina found herself floating upwards. The light above appeared to become brighter and brighter until...

Crack.

She heard the sound ring clear through the air, before she could even process the excruciating pain. In the next few moments of time, she could feel the bones in her tail fin break and reform, the skin shift and tear and her scales falling off one by one. She would've screamed, but she found that no longer could she breath properly. Pain and panic flooded her body and she began to thrash her arms about. To her surprise and horror, Valentina saw and felt as her own hair began to wind around her and bind her. Her vision went white.

When she opened her eyes, the only thing she was aware of was the pain. Her lungs burned with each cough and each desperate breath she took. And her body... there was something very wrong with her lower body. Did she have any clue what the problem was? Well no, of course not. Just like she had no idea where she was, or who she was.
After laying there a while, with wide eyes trained on the uncomfortable expanse of darkening sky above her, she very suddenly decided to move. She planted her hands as firmly in the sand as she could and stretched her arms out, hissing as a sharp pain traveled up her right arm. Almost immediately she collapsed back to the sand, groaning softly, and once again turning her blank stare towards the sky.

From the corner of her eye, she could sense some movement. She turned her gaze sharply towards her side, to assess the threat. However, it only took a quick second to determine there was no danger at all. In fact the other being looked away—a clear sign of deference to her. She decided that she was safe.
He made a string of noises.

"The beach...?" She murmured, her voice sounding hoarse and small. "The beach..."

Immediately, she tried to get up again, this time her arms supporting her though they were shaking. She tried to get onto her legs the same way—by planting both feet on the ground and shoving herself upwards—but the pain was even more agonizing than what she felt go through her arms just a few minutes ago. She collapsed breathing hard, her eyes rolled up and her long fingers grasping at the sand in futile. All she could muster up was a weak whine. Feeling deeply desperate, she began to reach out towards the other being.​

 

[manatee]

All of the warnings of staying away from the beach, especially around sunset, made so much sense now. Not even with all of the skeptical mermaid business, but because now he was having to deal with a possible medical emergency. Logan looked around stupidly for a moment, hoping that there would be someone else who had just witnessed the previous events. It was insane. It was almost as if she had just appeared out of thin air. Logan looked out towards the ocean, trying to find anything that the girl could have washed up from. He didn’t see anything, but he supposed that didn’t mean much - besides, it wasn’t like he could just throw her back into the water.

“Oh god, I’m not panicking,” he announced to know one, anyone, the girl lying at his feet. What did he do now? She sounded like she had swallowed half the ocean, but she repeated that she was at the beach, and when she reached out for Logan he backed away. This was all so insane, right? There was no way this was happening to him. And what did you do? Was he supposed to call one of his roommates and tell them he’d found a naked woman washed up on shore? Yeah, that would go over well. He couldn’t call his mom - she’d be panicking more than he was.

“Okay Logan, think,” he muttered to himself, pushing some of the wind blown curls out of his face as he crouched down to the girl. “I’m going to touch you now,” he let her know. “I’m going to help you try to stand up.” Logan’s hands reached out to grab around her smooth, dark skin before he jerked his arms back as if she’d burnt him. There was no way he was going to do that without giving her something to wear.

Tugging his shirt over his head, Logan quickly went to work pulling the plain white t-shirt over her own head. Once he’d managed to work her arms into the sleeves then he stood behind her, putting his arms underneath her armpits and helping her onto both feet. “Easy, I got you,” he said softly, trying not to make any sort of sudden moves. It was one thing to find a naked girl on the beach, it was another to be found with a naked, screaming girl on the beach. “Do you know where you are? Do you know where you came from?”

From the way she’d managed to say beach, Logan doubted that the mysterious woman was going to be able to answer his questions. What was he supposed to do with her? Did he need to take her to the hospital? The police station? Were people going to think that he had done something to her and now she was mentally and physically harmed by his hand?

“Christ, I’m panicking,” he managed, running a hand over his face as he looked around the beach one more time, his hands never leaving the girl.

 

[thumbelinaaa]

Seeing him shy away from her at first, the young woman quickly dropped her hand. Why should she have expected this weak creature to help her in anyway? With a deep sigh, she started to try again, slower this time, her energy largely spent. But then, confusingly enough, he approached her again. When he spoke to her this time, his noises were longer, and a curious thing began to happen. As if a light shone on in her mind, she begun to understand. Mostly pieces of the sentence, but enough to know his intentions. Touch, now. Help, stand up.


Raising an eyebrow, she watched him take off what he was wearing, bringing it over to her. Instinctively she leaned away, but the next thing she knew, the material had been thrown over her head! She started to thrash a bit, then found herself perfectly okay the next moment. Tentatively, she drew her hands to herself and touched the fabric, which very loosely rested against her torso. It was soft.


This time, when he touched her to lift her up, she felt entirely calm. In her state, she couldn't entirely trust him of course, but at least he wasn't going to hurt her at the moment. Instead, she tried to concentrate and figure out what he was saying to her.


"Ummm..." She quietly hummed for a moment before her eyes became transfixed upon the waves that came in and out, forward and back. While the ocean wasn't saying any kind of words like Logan, she understood it far better. She relaxed, feeling more at peace and in control more so than at any other point that evening. Even better, she noticed that her legs felt okay. Sore, but it didn't hinder her ability to stand. Staring in wonder at those two appendages, she kicked one foot forward first and then the other, slow at first and then faster, kicking up clouds of sand. She watched it drift away and fade, before taking Logan's hands and wrenching them off of her.


Another part of her scrambled mind grew clearer. Valentina drifted through her mind. It sounded right somehow, so she figured that it may be who she is... Either that, or something important to her. Maybe she would figure it out later, but at the moment she planted her hand on her hips, tilted her chin upwards and said, "Valentina," emphatically. Her voice still sounded weak, but it was clear that she was quickly getting better.


Feeling her strength return increased her confidence. After tossing a brief glance at Logan, Valentina looked all around her, taking in every detail of the beach. Earlier the pain had distracted her from the hunger clawing at her insides. Now, she scanned the beach for anything she may like—and off to the side she spotted some seaweed and a still moving crab that had washed in too far to have the waves carry them back in. Valentina rushed over and knelt down, grabbing the crab and the seaweed, which she sniffed at before licking it and chewing on it. With the long, slimy piece of seaweed hanging out her mouth, she jogged back over to Logan and offer him the crab, which wiggled helplessly clutched in between her fingers.​

 

[manatee]

It seemed that her time in the water had sort of dazed her, not really harmed her. Now that she was up and clothed, Logan could study her a little better. He noted that there didn’t seem to be any sort of injuries to her body that he could see and she didn’t look to be in any sort of pain. That was good. Well, she didn’t need a hospital - that much was apparent. But still, what was he supposed to do with her? She needed clothes before he took her anyway - actual clothes that covered every part of her, not just his t-shirt.

“Valentina,” he repeated, watching as she looked towards the ocean, his own gaze following hers. “I’m Logan,” he answered, trying to see what she was seeing. It was as if there was something she was missing, something she knew, and Logan desperately needed to know it so that he could help her get back to wherever she belonged.

When she took off Logan just stood, like an idiot, watching as she ran over to a clump of seaweed that was lying on the sand. What was she doing? He watched her, watched her digging around in the pile of seaweed. Maybe he did need to take her to a hospital, maybe she’d gotten a concussion. Maybe she’d escaped from a mental hospital. She was running back to him almost as fast as she’d ran away. There was something on her face, something in her mouth. What was happening? And then his eyes widened with horror because he knew.

She was eating the seaweed. She was trying to feed him a crab.

“What the fuck,” he screamed, his hand coming up without any sort of thought process and smacking her own, the crab flying in what appeared like slow motion in the air away from them. “No, you don’t,” he was trying to motion to the seaweed hanging from her mouth, trying to say that she didn’t need to eat it, but he was honestly at a loss for words. This was something that would definitely only happen to him. No one was even going to believe him if he tried to tell them. Glancing over his shoulder he squinted in the wind, trying to look in the direction of the dunes, in the direction of the small house he rented with a few others. The only option was to take her there, at least find some clothes she could wear before he could figure out what to do with her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know.” God, what didn’t he know? There was a lot of things he didn’t know clearly. “I can find you some clothes, some real food. Then I can take you to find where you belong?” It was all he could offer her, and he hoped it was enough. Now that Logan had seen Valentina, there was no way he could leave her alone on the shore.

 

[thumbelinaaa]

♀
Logan let out a shout, and Valentina didn't really understand any of the words he used. The seaweed dropped from her mouth and her eyebrows went down sharply. There was anger and confusion written clear across her features, and without warning she shot off, past Logan, over the sand dunes and clear into town.


Though naturally gifted with a swiftness and agility that seemed super human, her legs tired out quickly and she was almost in danger of her knees buckling beneath her. Valentina stood still, staring down at what was beneath her feet. It was a different texture from the cold sand she had been on beforehand. It was harder, a little bit more uncomfortable. Valentina flexed her toes and then looked closer at her surroundings. The sun had set by now, shrouding the town, with it's minimal amount of lamplight, in darkness. The buildings around her looked as if they were asleep, all except one, which had the brightest light emanating from it. As though caught in a trance, Valentina shuffled forward until she came upon the glass, which she touched, rubbing her fingers upon its cool smoothness.


She could see maybe two people inside; a middle aged woman at the counter, wiping an aged rag in quick, vigorous circles and a small child with her arms folded in front of her and her face down. Valentina watched them curiously, and then recoiled as a person she hadn't seen before came out one of the doors in the establishment, tipped his hat at the older woman and sailed through the front door. He paid her no mind as he went in the direction opposite to her, and Valentina lost interest in him once she got a whiff of a savoury and tempting smell. Now her eyes were on the door, and she drew back like a cat about to pounce.


The older woman went away, disappearing into a different door than the man had come from. Valentina approached the door and tried to pull it open, but it seemed as though the man must've knew something didn't for it did not even budge a little. Growing impatient, Valentina banged on the door before pulling on it mightily again. The little girl woke up and stared wide eyed at the wild woman tugging the door toward her in futile. She got up slowly and stood in front of the door with her hands planted on her hips. She shook her head, and then her index finger, before pointing over Valentina's shoulder.


Needless to say, Valentina didn't understand. But she did shrink away from the door, and the domineering little thing that stood in front of it.
The older woman reappeared, wiping her hands with a paper towel, when she spotted the showdown. Immediately she made her way to the door and opened it as the man had, with no difficulty. Valentina wondered if everyone knew something she didn't.
"Oh my..." The woman looked her over. The little girl stood behind her, staring around her leg and craning her neck to look up at Valentina.
"Um." What was it that Logan said earlier? Valentina's face lit up as she remembered. "Food!"​

 

[manatee]

Why did this have to happen to him? Why couldn’t literally anyone but him have been out here? But of course he had to have been the one obsessed with the sea, the one who wanted to know more, wanted to understand the origin of all of the stories and all of the gossip that went around in town. Normally, it was fine. Normally Logan spent the night writing in his journal and then he walked home and crawled into bed to sleep. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it. Normally.

It only took him about thirty seconds of recovery time to realize that she ran off and that he probably needed to chase after her. He was morally obligated. She was wearing his shirt after all. If the police picked her up they could probably trace the DNA on the item back to him and he'd be locked up inside forever. Oh yeah, running. He needed to be running. And so Logan ran, which was more difficult than he’d anticipated on the cool sand. How was she so fast? Logan tried as hard as he could to at least keep her within his eyesight. If he lost her on the boardwalk, there would be no hope in getting her back. Thankfully things were shutting down, so the chances of someone seeing her were slim.

He finally caught up to her, even though he could barely breathe. When Logan looked up to finally see where Valentina had stopped he almost laid dead. Of course she’d found the one building with someone still in it. What else did he expect? “I’m so,” he started, having to bend over and put his hands on his thighs to help catch his breath. Clearly he needed to do more physical activity. “Sorry,” he finally finished. Looking up at the woman who was eyeing Valentina, he reached out to the girl, hand clutching as soft but firmly as he could.

“She’s had a little too much to drink,” he ad libbed, waving the air as nonchalantly as someone could who clearly needed their lungs checked out. “I’ll just be getting her home now,” he smiled at the woman, hoping and praying that she didn’t recognize him. It was a small town. All he needed was for word to get to his mother on the other end of the boardwalk that he’d been walking around with a half naked, intoxicated woman.

“Remember, Valentina,” he was trying to speak slowly, calmly, in hopes not to get her too worked up. She’d probably pull a seahorse out of her wild hair and start chewing on that if he didn’t keep it calm. “I told you we have food at the house.” At this point he was begging her with his town, pleading for her to just stay calm and come with him. Tugging on her arm gently he started to walk in the direction of his street. “Come on,” he urged. Either she’d come with him, or she wouldn’t.

With his luck, she wouldn’t.

 

[thumbelinaaa]

"I-I'm sorry, we aren't—" The store owner was at a loss for words. She'd never seen the girl before, so clearly she wasn't a local and wasn't aware that she had a strict closing time. And yet, turning away customers could be a perilous thing in the age of the Internet. Just as the store owner was about to let the young woman inside, a young man—one that looked quite familiar ran up to them, all out of breath. The store owner raised an eyebrow.
"Ew! It's Logan!" Her granddaughter shouted, before running further into the store and diving behind the counter.


After the store owner heard his explanation, she raised an eyebrow and got a very good look at the young woman. Her mass of waves and curls looked quite disheveled, her eyes were flung wide open constantly moving. Then, there was the matter of her lack of dress. Perhaps she was wearing some short shorts underneath, but looking at her also bare feet, the store owner surmised something else entirely was going on here. A look of disgust crossed her face.


"That's... That's fine. Just please, come back another day. Hopefully in a more appropriate state of dress." She tried not to sound too snarky.
Valentina blinked, looking away from the woman towards Logan. The smells from inside still were very tempting, but she had the distinct feeling that the older woman would rather she not be there. She bowed her head slightly, unsure of what she was doing wrong and how she could fix it. Logan mentioned food, and he seemed like he knew where to go, so she decided she would allow herself to be led.


Nodding to show that she understood somewhat, she started to follow him. Occasionally, she would throw back glances towards the direction of the diner. The fourth time she looked back, the place looked like every other shop in the area—dark, with no one inside.​

 

[manatee]

As they approached his street, Logan paused for a moment, grabbing onto Valentina once more and meeting her gaze with his. “Listen to me carefully,” he began, his eyes never leaving the girl’s face. “We are about to be at my house. My roommates might be home. We have to be quiet. I will get you some clothes.” Logan didn’t even know if Valentina was understanding anything coming out of his mouth, but at this point he had no clue what to say to help her stay quiet. Logan was learning the hard way that there wasn’t much he could do to control the woman he’d found naked on the beach. No shocker there.

They made the way down his street with little mishap, besides the time where the neighbor’s dog came running up to the fence. He had managed to get Valentina up the porch steps and he turned to her with a finger to his lips before pushing the key into the lock. It didn’t seem like anyone was home yet, but since his friends all worked on the boardwalk then they would be headed home soon. There was no way that he would produce Valentina to a group of men with nothing but a shirt on.

Managing to lead her down the hall and into his bedroom, Logan shut the door and locked it behind him. “Here, sit,” he motioned for his bed as he opened the top drawer of his dresser to pull out a pair of boxers. They would probably be a little big on her, but they would work for now. “Put these on,” he instructed, tossing them to her as he moved around to look at his computer. “Do you remember anything about where you might be from?” There were probably people out looking for her, a family wondering where their daughter had gone. He couldn’t even begin to imagine that kind of fear, and he didn’t want to keep her separated from them for long. If this got on the news and people found out he hadn’t gone to the police right away, well, he didn’t even want to think about what would happen to him.

“I’m not looking, just let me know when you get them on.” Typing into the search engine, he put a vague description of Valentina and pressed enter. Nothing. In the most recent articles, there was nothing with a picture of her. That didn’t mean much though. She could have just recently gone missing. The theory still didn’t explain why she had wound up on the beach naked. Unless she’d been at a party, gotten drunk, and passed out. It didn’t give him an answer as to why she was naked, but he could take a few guesses - none of them too good.

“Are you decent?”

And of course, at that moment, one of his roommates was knocking on the door. Logan’s eyes widened in panic, and he ran a hand through his hair as he stood, looking around the room for a shirt to pull on without looking at Valentina, just in case she hadn’t pulled on the boxers yet.

“Yeah, give me one second man,” Logan called back, all but running to the door. Turning to look at Valentina, he pointed to his open closet, hoping she’d take the hint.

 

[thumbelinaaa]

At this point, after the minor excitement of the evening had died down, Valentina felt quite tired as she walked with Logan. She heard what he was saying, and was finding herself able to understand him just a little more, though some words like clothes, were rather unfamiliar. She had no idea what it could refer to, but at this point she trusted Logan and figured it must be something good. Maybe even something as good as food.


So for the moment, Valentina maintained her obedience, spending more of her energy studying the things around her. She did this, moving in an almost trance like state, until she was being guided up something. Curious, she looked down and watched her own feet as she went up the steps.
Logan made a gesture, putting a finger over his lips, and for the first time Valentina nodded eagerly as she completed understood him. No noises.
Inside Logan's bedroom, Valentina came to a stop in front of it. Hesitantly, she put her hand out. What she touched was rather soft, much like the thing she was wearing at the moment. The sound of the lock caused her to whirl around, and stare at Logan wide eyed, but seeing that it was just a noise, she slowly turned her attention back to the bed and set herself down.


The boxers landed beside her leg. Valentina plucked it up gingerly, bringing it close to her face. First, she tried pulling it over her head, but that felt wrong. Couldn't see worth a damn. Then she tried putting her arms through, but it made her movement limited, so she figured that wasn't right either. Finally, she slid it up her legs, all the way up. "Hm!" She looked quite pleased with figuring it out for herself.


Wrestling with the underwear, Valentina barely registered Logan's question. And anyhow, she only understood have and couldn't answer even if she wanted to. So she stayed silent, turning her attention back to her smooth legs.


"Am I? Dece—" Valentina's stopped and threw a sharp glance at the sound of the door being knocked on. Immediately Logan rushed over, and he was now pointing at the small, dark looking area. Valentina looked from him, to the closet several times before scrambling for it. She wondered what was happening. Didn't look good, from the panic expression on Logan's face. Though she was surprised Logan wasn't trying to hide himself from the threat. Valentina felt herself feeling something like admiration for him.


This feeling lasted all of one second though. There wasn't a lot of space for her. And it was a bit warmer compared to the rest of the room. Valentina planted her chin on her knees. Once the sense of urgency had passed, the sleepiness from earlier was start to come back. Valentina started drifting, her vision swimming in and out of darkness.




This was the moment they had been waiting for. The High Priestess sat isolated in a bare room. Her eyes were closed and she was very still, enmeshed in deep concentration. Flashes of light came through every so often, but the connection between Valentina and herself was still quite weak. The girl wasn't quite asleep yet. Irritation was brewing, but the High Priestess breathed in deeply and clenched her fists, as if that would keep her hold tighter.​

 

[manatee]

It took what seemed like forever to get Caden to get Caden to leave him alone. He was trying to explain that he didn’t feel well, wanted to head to bed, and finally his lifelong friend was retreating away from his room to his own across the house and Logan shut the door behind him and locked it, leaning against it for a moment just soaking in the relief. Eventually he was going to have to tell someone something, but right now he and Valentina needed to get a story straight. Or even get one at all. He was having his sinking suspicions that she wasn’t going to remember anything. This whole situation wasn’t going to get any easier. This was a small town. People were going to know that they’d never seen the girl around before, and it was just off season enough that there weren’t groups of tourists making their way into town as often as they had been in the summer. He was going to have to come up with something though, until he figured out how to find out where she came from and get her back.

Suddenly remembering that he’d practically shoved the girl in the closet he moved over, peering into the dark to find her. His eyes settled on the girl, seated on the floor, curled up into herself and Logan reached out, grabbing onto her hand gently, shaking her awake. “Hey,” he whispered, offering her a smile when he managed to get her to open her eyes. “Are you hungry?”

“You can come out now, but wait in my room,” he was trying to make sure she understood, even though Logan really had no idea what she understood and what she didn’t. Part of him was still questioning why this had to happen to him and why he had to be the type of person who had to get into someone else’s business and try to help. This was all his fault, really, he should have just headed home and not paid her any attention. But then he would have felt guilty. He would have wondered if someone else had stumbled upon her, someone else who didn’t have good intentions. If something had happened to her and Logan would have found out, he knew that he never would have lived it down.

Shutting his room door behind him, Logan headed off to the kitchen to grab a few things for her to eat. He figured that it didn’t really matter what he got, she had literally been chewing on a piece of seaweed earlier. Logan grabbed a box of leftover pizza from the refrigerator and then turned towards their pantry, looking to see if he had anything he could grab for her.

 

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Just as she had gotten through, The High Priestess gasped sharply and her eyes flew open. Rage washed over her, as she realised that the girl had suddenly woken up after being on the verge of sleep. She tried to make contact with her mind again, but it was a lost cause at the moment. Valentina was now fully awake. She cursed and began to pace before storming out of the meditation room altogether.

Valentina winced, feeling a sharp pain race through her skull. She blinked to clear her swimming vision before getting to her feet and stepping gingerly away from the suffocating warmth of the closet. She decided right then and there that she wasn't going back in there if she could help it. "Hungry..." she murmured, smiling back at him, before going over and plopping back down on his bed. She wished she could find the words to understand why she had been shoved into that small space, and if it was possible not for that to happen again.

While she didn't quite understand his directive fully, but Valentina felt too weary to venture outside of his room anyway. The entire home was foreign territory, and it was clear enough to her that Logan was either trying to keep something from her, or she was the one being kept away. In any case, it seemed as though true awareness was descending upon her quickly. She looked around his room once more, this time trying to get an idea on how to communicate with him properly. A small sigh slipped from her lips as she crumbled against his pillows. Even if there was something that could help her, she wouldn't know how to find it anyway. Frustration was beginning to build.