MerMay: Day Ten
Pania of the Reef
Gen!AFAB reader x Male!Shifter
When you were a child, you lived next door to a Māori woman who told you the story of Pania and Karitoki. The beautiful sea maiden and her human husband. How her love for a mortal man nearly cost her her divine form, and how his betrayal had locked her to the waters forever, never able to return to land or to him. Mrs. More, who always told you to just call her that, though you'd never met her husband, told you the story as you grew up.
That story was what inspired you to go to New Zealand in the first place. Well, that and Mrs. More's death. She had been like a grandmother to you, and you wanted to feel closer to her. As you travelled around Napier, you loved seeing the references to Pania and her story. Every time you did, you felt a little closer to Mrs. More.
"Are you here for the boat tour?" a handsome man with a deep complexion asked when he saw you reading over the plaque next to Pania's statue.
"I'm thinking about it," you said, looking up at him. "Does it talk about Pania?"
"It does," he nodded, a slight smile on his face. "And her husband a bit, but we also talk about her son, Moremore. We draw connections between the old tales and the wildlife of the area. You can't understand the present without understanding the past."
So, you went on the boat tour, listening to the incredibly handsome man talk. Admittedly, you had a bit of a hard time focusing on much of what he was talking about because he was just so handsome. Your eyes travelled his exposed skin, drinking in the wide variety of tattoos on his body. He caught you looking at him, making you flush, but you couldn't help yourself from doing it again, trying to do so when he wasn't looking.
Once the tour ended, he walked over to you, his smirk deepened as he did. "Did you enjoy the tour?"
"Yes. it was great. Thank you," you muttered, a pink tinge coloring your face.
"I know that it seems like a tragic story, but it does have a sort of happy ending. She at least got to keep her son and be with her people, you know? Karitoki betrayed her and could have killed her by trying to feed her the morsel of cooked food. What kind of husband risks his wife's life like that?" he shook his head, sighing as he leaned back against the boat's interior.
"Most mothers would rather spend the rest of eternity with their child than with a man that risked killing them, no matter how much they loved him," you agreed.
He mused, looking out over the water, a thoughtful look on his face. "I think that you're right. At least out there she was surrounded by people who love her."
"And didn't risk killing her," you added.
He nodded again, turning to look at you with a smile again. The two of you kept chatting even as the sun began to dip under the horizon. The next morning, after having spent all night in your hotel room thinking about him, you take another tour. His smile brightened when he saw you. Once again, you waited for him to approach you.
The two of you went for a swim. He was excellent, which you reason is because he grew up next to the sea. After a little while, he smiled as he swam over to you, where you were sitting on the edge of the dock to a break. There was a mischievous glint in his dark eyes.
"Want to see something that no one will believe if you tell them?" he asked, his voice dropping low.
A soft giggle passed your lips. "Sure."
In a blinding light, where he had been floating in the water, was suddenly a shark. On instinct, you yelped, pulling your feet out of the water. The shark swam right up to you as you frantically looked around for the tour guide. The shark stared at you, seemingly almost grinning. It made your skin crawl. A fish shouldn't be able to look like that. In another blinding light, the shark was gone, back to being replaced with the man.
"Sorry, sorry. Your reaction was just so funny. I knew whatever you did would be hilarious," he laughed, looking up at you. You looked down at him as he treaded water, stunned and unsure of what to say.
"Are you... Moremore?" you asked, confused, your voice tentative.
Another laugh burst from his lips as he grabbed onto the edge of the dock, hoisting himself up beside you. "What? No way. I'm just a sea shifter, but I did move here in part because of him. I came here to feel closer to someone like me."
"I came here to feel closer to someone I lost," you said, your smile faltering slightly before you looked down at your hands, folded in your lap.
"I don't know nay other sea shifters. I was adopted into a human family," he said, looking out over the water. "That's part of why I love Pania and Moremore. No matter what, she has her son, and he has her. He doesn't loose her."
"yours may have been doing what was best for you," you said, reaching over to interlace your fingers with his.
Another smile slowly crept back across his face as he looked over you with interested eyes. "Maybe."
The two of you spent the rest of the night talking, and before the end of it, his lips were on yours. He tasted like saltwater and seaweed, and his hands were cool like the ocean in the early morning as he teased the swell of your breasts as his hands slid underneath your damp shirt. His tongue was rough, but not unpleasantly so as he slid it into your mouth. You parted your lips for him, and with the sounds of the ocean behind you, you had this feeling that you were right where you were supposed to be.
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