Wishy-Witchy Waters
Part 3
Part 1 Part 2
He was gone for quite some time. And as Sabastion sat himself down at the lip of the cave, he became worried that he wasn’t going to come back out.
But he did return after more waiting, Sabastion watching as Morven’s large form came back into view and he exited out of the mouth of the cave. He panted slightly and looked a bit frazzled but he gave Sabastion a warm smile, and before Sabastion could ask, he held up a large pearl the size of a sea urchin.
Sabastion’s eyes widen as he realizes that this had to be the pearl at the very end of the cave.
“Hold out your hands.” Sabastion did so without question, too stunned to argue, and Morven placed the pearl in his hands, it was quite hefty.
“Congratulations on getting the grand prize, looks like you bested me.”
“But I didn’t- I don’t understand.”
“You think no one cares about you. But I do. And I know this might be kinda inappropriate in this moment but I’ve had feelings for you, for a long time now. You don’t have to give me a response, I’m not telling you this so you’ll give me an answer, I’m telling you because I want you to know that I care. A lot. And I’m willing to bet other folks could care too if you gave them a chance. I know you feel alone, and I don’t know why, but I want to know. I want to know you, I want to be there for you, and I want you to feel like someone is there for you. That if you’re in need of a stupid fucking pearl, that at the very least you have one person who is willing to get you that stupid fucking pearl.”
Sabastion stared at Morven as he spoke, he was shocked by this sudden confession, he was truly caught off guard by it. He then stared down at the pearl that sat weightily in his hands and this object was now more than just a pearl.
Morven just placed his heart in Sabastion’s hands and he felt the need to now hold it with just a bit more care.
“I don’t know what to say…” he confessed.
“You don’t have to say anything, I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable now. But I just needed you to know that you’re not alone and I honestly couldn’t think of a more elegant way to go about it.” He says letting out a small nervous chuckle.
“… I don’t think I’m capable of returning your feelings in the same way at this moment.”
“I know, it’s ok.”
“But…’ Sabastion ran his fingers across the top of the pearl slowly as he mulled over his choice of words, ‘I might not be completely opposed to the idea of exploring this path and seeing where it leads us… If you are willing to be patient with me, I might need a quite a bit of time, it’s been a long time since I felt like I could trust another person like this.”
“That’s honestly more than I was hoping for. But if you’re willing, then I am as well. You take the lead and I’ll happily fallow.”
Sabastion stood back up and after looking at Morven for a moment, looked back at the festivities for a moment before looking back at him, “You want to ride the Ferris Wheel?”
Morven honestly was a whole slurry of feelings as the two of them approached the ferris wheel, he honestly didn’t expect the evening to go the way he it did.
If someone had told him after inviting the sea witch this morning, that he’d end up getting playfully competitive with him playing fair games, and that competitiveness would lead to an emotional brake down from the witch and then a confession of his feelings on his part, he’d have just not believed it.
But here they were and honestly it didn’t even turn out as bad as he feared it would, he even got a tentative maybe which gave him a real sense of optimism, now he just had to make sure he didn’t mess up that chance.
That was probably why he was now suddenly feeling nervous as the two of them got into the little gondola. As the wheel ascends, he and Sabastion exchange glances and Morven was quick to turn away all bashful. He had to quickly remind himself that there wasn’t anything inherently romantic about the situation, this still wasn’t really a date, at least he didn’t think it was.
The two sat in a bit of an awkward silence as their car slowly went up and they watched the festival below.
“So, what’s the next step here? Sorry, I’m just not sure what the correct course of action would be…” Sabastion said breaking the silence, he sat there with the pearl in his lap and fiddled with it showing that he was as uncomfortable as Morven was feeling.
“Erm, well I don’t know. This is kinda uncharted waters for me as well.’ He confessed with a small chuckle, ‘we don’t gotta do nothing if yah don’t want to. Like I said before, I want you to take the lead on this so we can go at whatever pace is most comfortable for you.”
Sabastion nods, he then brought his eyes down as he thought deeply on what he wanted, “… Perhaps we can do some back and forth questioning? I ask you a question and then you do the same for me?”
“Sure, that could be fun, are we allowed to pass certain questions or is this a ‘you have to answer no matter what?’ sorta thing?”
“Passing can be an option.”
“Alright, you go first then since it was your idea.”
Sabastion nodded and then thinks for a moment, “… Do you cook?”
“Yeah, I can cook decently enough, man’s gotta eat after all.’ He chuckled, ‘ok my turn, have you always lived here?”
“No, I moved here a while back. I used to live further to the west of here. Is art your only hobby or do you have others?”
“Oh, for sure! I enjoy reading, I do some gardening from time to time and I like to sing on occasion and some folks say it sounds nice enough. Ok, what about you? What hobbies do you have?”
“Ah, well, I’m not really one for hobbies… Reading I suppose? I’m more focused on my potion making craft than anything.”
“Has potion making always been your passion?”
“I believe it is my turn to ask a question.” Sabastion points out a bit teasingly. Morven lets out a small laugh, “I can see you’re a real stickler for rules. But alright fair.”
“Alright let’s see…’ Sabastion looked down for a long moment, looking like he was trying to decide on something before looking back up at him, ‘… are you a dugong type merman?”
That was a bit of an odd question Morven thought as he let out another light laugh threw his nostrils, “Of course, what else could I be?”
“An extremely lost manatee possibly.”
Morven laughed harder at that, “I’d say! But ok fair. What about you then smarty fin? You a shark type merman?”
“No. A Dolphin type.”
That caught him a bit off guard as he blinked at the witch, dumbfounded, Morven had thought that Sabastion was a shark. He certainly looked like a shark, what with the smooth dark grey tail and the sharp teeth.
He noticed that Sabastion was starting to frown and look uncomfortable the longer Morven just quietly stared at him so he pulled himself together, clearing his throat a little before he spoke.
“Oh, really? Sorry, other folks always called you ‘shark-like’ so I guess I just assumed…”
“I know, it why I sort of lead you to asking that particular question, apologies for that.”
“No, no, that’s fine! I can’t imagine how awkward that must be for yah.”
“Incredibly, other merfolk just assume I’m a shark because I act like a predator, but they seemed to very conveniently forget that dolphins are predators as well! My wild counterparts have just as sharp of teeth as I and they even hunt in packs for deep sea’s sake! Honestly if you ever took the time to observe dolphins more closely, you’d be surprised by just how ruthless they are. They kill babies of other species, and they’ll volley shark pups in the air for fun!”
“Oh wow, that’s kind of messed up.”
“Yes, well fortunately I don’t share that sort of ruthless nature with them. Still merfolk just assume that dolphins are cute and friendly, so when they see someone like me who doesn’t fit their picturesque view, they tend to not believe you and call you a shark instead…” Sabastion said that last part bitterly, his eyes looking off at nowhere in particular.
Morven felt bad for him, he couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be treated so differently based solely on how you looked and having folk not even bothering to ask, “Well, for what it’s worth… I’m sorry if I ever hurt you by thinking that way.” He said sincerely.
Sabastion looked up at him and his face softened, “thank you… And I’m sorry I treated you unkindly before, I too assumed things about you. Assumed you’d be cruel when all you’ve have even been in kind to me.”
“Well, that’s the great part about getting to know each other I guess…” Morven says, Sabastion face softened more at that and the smile that crossed his face was small, but it was warm.
The gondola reached the top of the wheel at this point and the two of them could see the festival twinkling below them, the evening was getting darker now so merfolk were setting up glow lanterns and everything twinkled like little stars.
As Morven watched this Sabastion quietly moved over to his half of the cart and sat on the same bench as him now. He then wordlessly placed his hand on top of his, giving it a hesitant but soft squeeze, Morven turned his hand to intertwine his fingers slightly with Sabastion’s and give his own light hesitant squeeze.
His hands were soft.
