Sea speaker scar and Grian meet. (part 1)
Tw: mention of noms none happen (more of just a close call) Grian had been in this ship for at least a few days, maybe more, and it never really got any better. He was kept alive but not in very favorable conditions. The crew always poked or prodded at him and laughed at him sometimes. Always talking about how rich the small bird hybrid would make them. They fed him, mostly teasingly though, but at least he was full. Worst part though had to be the rope. The crew kept Grian strapped to the wall so he couldn't move. It was too far for him to bite at, and they also clipped his wings and talons. So any fight he gave was worthless, the avian learned that quickly. Currently the men were playing a game, Grian wasn't sure what but he could see a lot of shiny things. The small avian had learned to cut out their voices and it helped, but they made sure to bother him about it. Recently Grian had screamed out profanities at them and it ended up with his mouth roped over. When it came time to feed him at dinner it was cut off and he had learned his lesson. He hated it here, so, so much. The “watchers” as the sailing group was called is famous for catching rare species like Grian. He wasn’t the first and probably won't be the last sold by them. No one would consider their business illegal, but it was heavily frowned upon. Grian’s head flipped back over as one of them yelled excitedly. When it calmed down, the fishing bird looked down at his talons trying to ignore the itchy feeling on his back as his feathers wanted to be preened. “Look.” One of the watchers sneered looking at the avian. Grian didn’t have to lift his head to know it was about him. “Little bird isn’t interested in the coins now huh?” “What if we brought one over?” another voice added, letting a laugh out at the end of it. “Whoever gets him to actually grab it starts with double next round.” The last guy proposed. The others let out a challenging yeah. Grian heard the loud footsteps and started to grit his teeth and forced his eyes closed as hard as he could. Turning his head in the opposite direction as they stood over the small bird. He could see the shadows fall over him as it got slightly darker even without him opening his eyes. “Awww come on little bird.” The first member teased, bringing a few fingers under the bird’s chin, who tried to push his head away, but the human’s fingers were far too strong for that. “Open those beautiful eyes for me.” Grian didn't flinch. “Come on little man.” Grian once again gave no response, verbal or otherwise and it pissed off the man a little. “Come ON BIRDY!” The watcher said loudly, gritting his teeth and pushing his nails into the avian’s chin a little, causing Grian to open his eyes and swallow back a yelp. “Good birdy.” The first member sneered, letting out a small laugh as Grian bared his little bird fangs at him. “Aww he thinks he's so scary.” a taller lanker crew member said from beside the first’s head peering over the instigator’s shoulder. The third pulled out a coin but Grian ignored it instead his talons reached for the hand holding his chin up uncomfortably. “Hey, hand me the coin,” the first guy said, snatching it from the third. They let out a long annoyed heyyy. The avian’s feet dropped in an instant instead choosing to glare at the man who sighed, upset. The first then tossed it to the second whose arms shot up to catch it. “Come on little guy.” The second guy said, flipping the coin up and down quickly with his fingers. “You know you want it.” Grian didn’t even turn to face the tall watcher's direction, causing the man to let out a tsk. The second flicked the coin back towards the third smaller but stockier man's direction. The last watcher went all in shoving the coin in the bird's face who tried to pull his head away again. The coin was shoved out of the man's fingers as Grian’s wings shot out violently. “Guess I win then huh?” The last watcher said smirking, Grian let out a sharp airy gasp as the fingers under his chin tightened a little bit. The other two headed back to the game board and the first just gave him a sharp stern look, the avian shot the same look right back at him. “Damn bird,” he growled before releasing the tight fingers off the bird’s chin. Grian wouldn't be surprised if he had bruises by the end of it. Turning his head towards his shoulder as much as he could, the avian attempted to rub his jaw. The normal background noise of loss and winning continued while Grian just sat there, tugging gently at the ropes until he heard a large thud. His head whipped up as the people at the table looked at the far wall near the back, nothing was over there and it confused them. It happened again, and Grian could feel his wings fluff. Whatever it was, it was large and coming from below. It happened a third time, a fourth, and after the fifth, the captain came down calling for the men to help scare whatever it was off. It happened a lot until suddenly the ship started to tilt. Whatever was attacking the ship had done it and out of the corner of his eye the avian could see claws digging a hole through the wood in the back of the ship. They were large too, Grian couldn’t help but struggle. He flapped his wings and clawed at his ropes with his talons. The scratching stopped and so did Grian, looking down he could see a hole and a head sticking through it. It wasn’t one of the sailors though, so Grian had no idea who or even what it was. It tucked its head back out and a few seconds later a much larger one stuck its head in. The water flooding the boat had nearly risen to Grian’s feet. The larger human-ish thing then pushed itself in farther, getting itself stuck a little so it pushed out at the planks behind it making a larger hole. It was not human, its top half seemed to resemble one except for the back portion. A long shark tail grew from its lower back and down. Not to mention how fat it seemed. Its belly was puffed out and the avian swore it even shook a little. A tongue ran over the fish hybrid’s lips, and Grian wanted to puke. If he wasn’t thrashing violently before, he sure as hell was now. It seemed to laugh, whatever it was it sounded deep and booming. The little bird's heart started beating what felt like hundreds of miles an hour. The merman jumped grabbing onto the ropes holding the avian’s arms with his hands and cut them with his claws. The mouth opened underneath the bird as Grian fell backwards but he grabbed onto the ropes he once hated so much. Soon the jaws bit through the ropes and the bird tumbled. Quickly thinking though Grian pushed the shark mer’s jaws open with his hands, then using his feet he pushed one against the floor and using the other swiped at the pred making them back up and drop the Kingfisher avian to the floor. Grian took no time running up the slowly sinking ship and using what he had of his claws and wings pushed himself up a ledge onto a broken window ledge. Once up he took time to catch his breath, tuning to see both mers in the room. The first one he saw was smaller and was seeming to check up on his friend. Grian could see some fins where human ears would normally be. They also had gills down their necks but at the moment were breathing the air in the ship. The larger shark turned to the smaller dogfish? Shark? The avian couldn’t tell which one the smaller was. It followed the shark’s line of sight to the bird as well. The king fisher took this as a sign to leave, and so he went through the glass seeing a nearby island. He just had to hope that the fish folk were too full, or dumb to realize. So Grian took the leap, his light body staying above the water easily, and he swam trying not to be obvious or distracting and keeping his eyes on the shore that's getting closer. — Scrambling onto the shore, Grian finally looks behind him. They weren't there so he sighed a breath of relief. He quickly hid himself behind a palm tree. Curling himself into a ball, he sat there for a while thinking about what he needed to do. He needed to hunt, that’s for sure, but how was the question. He couldn’t fly, and right now he didn’t need to. He was still fed from his meal from an hour or so ago. That doesn't help forever though. He knew fish like shade so maybe if he could grab a leaf or something to cover the water with, he could catch something. Then for shelter, he didn’t need much and probably could climb up the trees. The only problem was there was little to no covering. Not like the mermaids could reach him up there though, or well it would be hard but maybe they could. Still, for that he'd also use leaves, and those things would most likely be showing more than the brown and blue bird himself. Grian sat there for a while thinking about what he should do; housing, water, and food mostly, but he felt he had a good idea. He checked back around the tree to see the ship had fully sunk. Of course, he didn't look at the sun when he got off the boat but it's surely been close to an hour of sitting and scribbling. No mers seemed to be around the area so he took a chance to step out and stretch. Better now than ever to try and catch something. So, grabbing some palm leaves and some tall grass, he started tying leaves together. It was much harder than it looked, and it took Grian a couple hours and attempts to make. It was together though, and it held together nicely so as long as he hid himself behind it fish should swim up under it. Taking a quick glance around nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so he cautiously approached the seabed. Taking a quick glance he could see the smaller fish that hung around the shore. Not as large as he was hoping, but at least he could eat. Placing the plant over the water he sat there eyes out on the ocean. One nice thing about it was he could see for a while. One bad thing was no other land masses of notice seemed to be in visual range. This stressed out the bird a little but he didn’t see the island running out of food any time soon. His attention was drawn as he saw a fish tail slap the top of the water a little bit before hiding under his leaf. Grian looked between the leaves, seeing the large fish he slowly fanned his wings and brought a foot closer. When his foot was just above the leaf he swiftly shot it forwards grabbing the fish and then threw it on land watching it flop a little while he put the leaves back and under a rock so it wouldn't drift. Grabbing the fish in his hands, he held it tight and brushed as much sand off as he could. It was tempting to dip it back in the water, but the salt of the ocean was much worse than a bit of sand in his teeth. The fish was about the size of Grian’s arm, which shocked the fisher a little bit. If he could keep it fresh, it would feed him for a while. Soon the man's talons were cutting through the scales. Besides, he could fit most of the extra into his pouch for later. Using his claws, he cut off the fish's head, spooking him a little as he saw the mouth open and close a couple times. Next he took off the fins and tail, then carefully pulled the scales off. The avian could eat a lot more of the fish than a normal human, mostly because the small organs, as long as they're cleaned, were still very much edible. Grian’s known other kingfishers who have eaten fish like this whole, and he hated to admit it, but he was small compared to them. He could eat a couple inch sized fish with no problem, but something of this scale is a large nope. Heh, scale. But still, food was food and he was happy to eat as much as he could. If he grew a few pounds, it might help him if he ended up not hunting for a few days. Biting into the fish was relieving but the salt was bitter and strong. Grian hated it. He dealt with it though; food was food. Hopefully he would be more used to the taste over time as well. Grian’s belly was quickly full, so he started sending what he could to his crop. His crop was smaller than his stomach, but it could still fit a decent amount of food in it. So it came as a surprise to the man when he had finished everything. All he hoped was that he wouldn't feel sick from all the salt in the morning. Not like he hasn’t had salt in high amounts before; he was used to the occasional salty fish and drinking of salty ocean water. Maybe he could find some fresh running water on the island, it would be much better than the salt of the oceanic variation surrounding him. It would also be nice to be possibly more hidden then now. Burying the fish remnants in the sand he headed for the slightly more forested part of the island. He knew he shouldn’t trail far from the shore, as it was his only source of food currently, but again fresh water would be amazing. Using sticks and rocks he built a small trail that the avian could use to find his way back. After a few- well no, a long while of walking he can hear running water. Rushing over there's a small stream, he eagerly drinks it. Sure it’s not fresh fresh water, but it still was very good and it helped wash down the fish a whole lot. Petting his stuffed belly Grian decided to hide up in one of the trees for the night. Climbing up, he could actually see the other end of the island behind him. It was definitely small, but as long as he could hide there from the mermen he should be fine. Reaching for some leaves, Grian picked out a long branch and tried to curl up. Key word, tried, he wasn't cold or hot, but man was he stressed. All of today came crashing in at once. Now he was thousands of miles away from any large landmass, with two large hungry fish folk after him and his wings had been trimmed. He would honestly rather have been sold than this. The voices of his friends calling out his name rang loud in his ears. He missed them. He just hoped none of them would find themselves in his situation. It seemed unlikely though, seeing as the hunters ship had sunk. Wait, where were the watchers? He hadn’t seen them on shore at all, surely they would have spotted one another by now. In fact, thinking about it, Grian hadn’t seen any footprints at all. where could they have gone? Oh, OH NO, OH- OH NO NO NO NO NO NO, his thought screamed at him loudly. That’s why the mers looked so full, they had eaten the crewmates, just like they had planned to do with him. The bird started breathing a little quickly again, trying not to lose his dinner, but he sucked it down and tried to stop the slight shiver he had. Clutching his body tight to himself he curled onto his bad attempt of a palm-leaf nest. It was going to be a long night, but he would get through it.