A shadow fell over me. It was a relief from the sun in my eyes. A large dark shape loomed above my head, more than three times my size from the crown of my head to the tip of my tail. It quickly became apparent the shadow was the source of the vibrations and the chopping sound. A dirty, vicious stream of bubbles blocked my view so I couldn't see the thing clearly.
Suddenly through the chaotic sounds, I heard what sounded like a man's rough voice above water yelling, "Cut the engine!"
The horrible chopping sound and the storm of bubbles ceased. I blinked, wrinkling my nose. There was a foul smell in the water. With the bubbles out of the way, I saw the shadow clearly. It was a boat. I didn't know of any wild shifters who owned a boat, so these had to be humans.
I scoffed to myself. Typical. Didn't they know they weren't allowed here?
I decided to tease them little. Not to hurt them, just to make them realize they weren't wanted. With a strong jerk of my hip, I smacked my tail into the bottom of the boat with a small thump. It wasn't nearly enough to knock them out of the boat, just to rock it. I hoped it was enough to scare them off.
I glanced around the water. Aside from a few straggling fish, there were no aquatic shifters around here besides me. In that case, wasn't it my responsibility to rid the lake of these annoying humans?
I puffed out my chest, readying my tail to do it again, when the humans started speaking in muffled voices.
"Did you feel that?"
"Obviously I felt it, dickhead."
I grinned, feeling smug.
"Did you see that thing in the water? That wasn't a fuckin' fish."
"What the hell else would it be?"
A pasty face appeared over the side of the boat, looking directly at me. Still satisfied with myself, I decided to toy with them a little longer. I smiled back and waved.
The man swore and jerked back, muttering something under his breath to the other human. I couldn't hear what they were saying. Probably that they were scared out of their minds.
Emboldened, I swam closer to the boat. It was a hard, ugly thing made of metal. Not only did it smell terrible, but it was loud and noisy when the engine was on. If I wasn't so disgusted by it then I might've pitied the humans—their natural swimming abilities were terrible, so they had to resort to this contraption to move on water.
Maybe being a mer wasn't so bad after all. Were the fates trying to teach me a lesson about loving myself with this stupid boat?
"... Hear that?"
"Yeah. It's…"
The rest of the conversation was too muted for me to hear. Not that it mattered. I didn't care what humans had to say about anything.
What would it take to chase these men off? Would anotherthwackagainst the precious boat do the trick? Then again, I didn't want to injure my beautiful tail for their sake.
A large pale hand shot towards me. It startled me, but I didn't bother moving away. The water wasmyelement. There was no way a human could get the jump on me here.
At least, that was what I thought before I felt a sudden burst of rushing water behind me.
I gasped as a sharp pain pulled on the back of my head. I realized with disgust and anger that the other man was pulling on my hair.
This wasn't fun anymore. No longer caring what the humans did, I kicked off powerfully with my tail. It should have been enough to propel me a good distance away from the boat, but the man's grip on my hair was tighter than I expected.
Now came the first inkling of panic. I thrashed, desperate to escape the man's vicious grip, but it wasn't working. Both men were yelling frantically above the water but I was too afraid to focus on their words. All I cared about was freeing myself and getting the hell out of here.
To my horror, a second hand grabbed the back of my skull, then another pair. Both men were tightly grasping my hair.
And then they began to pull.
No, no, no!
Ignoring the pain in the back of my head, I twisted and contorted my body, adrenaline coursing through my veins as full-on panic set in. I had to get away. I had to. I was alone, and nobody knew where I was, and if these humans had me in their clutches, I had no idea what was going to happen to me.
But it wasn't working. The two of them combined were stronger than me. They hauled me up until my head broke the water’s surface. I gasped.
