Happy Mermay to all who celebrate! Here's the beginning of a little series with Mothman. [Next]
Summary: You and your crew are called in to rescue a large beached mammal. The creature is more human than you expected.
Word Count: 1301
Content Warnings: Injury and blood, needles/injections, Morty's kind of a prick but he's HURTING ok??
Image Credit: @squishyowl (the tentacles fit really well here)
It was beginning to get ungodly hot out this time of year, even at this time in the morning. You'd woke up, donned a tank top and some shorts and went out with a team of wildlife rescuers from the aquarium nearest you, ready for anything. From the conversation between the other six rescuers, you gathered that it was a rather large, mammalian creature. A manatee, most likely. You shuffled your feet, excited for your first manatee rescue. Other animals were quite nice too, you'd just never rescued an entire beached manatee before.
The vehicle pulled up at the beach, not bothering to find a parking spot. You exited the vehicle with your coworkers, grabbing supplies for marine mammal rescue. Looking at the ground, you bumped into the tallest one, a large, bulky man you'd known as Typhus.
"Sorry!" you exclaimed, and he chuckled in front of you.
"You're okay," he said as you and your team found your way to the boardwalks. Typhus and some of the more physically strong members were carrying the stretcher, you were carrying one of the signs for civilians to keep away. You never knew who would be at the beach at 4 am.
The two at the front stopped dead in their tracks when they saw what was beached. You ran into Typhus's back again as he stopped suddenly, and he didn't respond. You peeked out from behind him, and your eyes widened.
"No way..." the other at the front said, a short, portly girl with a brown ponytail. She shone her phone light on the merman in front of everyone.
You were the first to come up to him, running towards him from behind Typhus. He and the rest followed you, but he didn't break out into a sprint like you did, your sneakers digging into the rough sand. As you came closer, you heard faint cries in a low, raspy voice.
You knelt next to him after casting the sign aside. He was pale, paler than most people you'd seen. His hair was stark white, but his face wasn't too lined. His eyes were seaweed green, and his tail shone in the phone light. It was yellow and green, spotted with a forked tail. He was large, very large. Your head and torso combined were less than his torso. And he was covered in scars, fresh and still bleeding. There was blood pooling in the sand.
"You're..." you said as Typhus and then the others came up to you, standing behind you.
The merman groaned, moving onto his side to face your entourage. "Who are you," he rasped, retreating back into himself.
"We... we're here from the local aquarium," you said as you and a few others began to dress his wounds. He winced as you touched them, towels lapping up fresh blood. "We're going to fix you up for a bit and then release you, okay?"
You felt one of the others' stares hot on your back. You looked behind you towards a shorter man, skinny with hair going just beyond his shoulders. He looked down, and you turned back and cleared your throat. He regarded all of you with a glare.
"Release me now," he huffed.
"I..." you started before Typhus cleared his throat. He knelt down next to you.
"We can't release you," said Typhus. He was closer to his face, and you looked at him. He had a little bit of scruff on his face, and his olive skin glowed in the light of the phone flashlight.
"That's bullshit," cried a voice from behind you. You turned to see another shorter man with cropped hair. "If the government finds out about this guy, they're going to take him and..." he stopped, folding his hands.
You gulped. "He's right," you said. "We get a lot of our funding from the state. If they find out he's a merman, they might do things to him that I personally don't want," I said.
"Well, are you just going to release him then?" asked a girl just a little taller than you. She crossed her arms as you ran your towel along another wound.
"I can go back--" he started before you interjected.
"There's a saltwater pool at the place I rent," you said. "I'm sorry, but we can't let you out like this. We're going to give you some stitches in the van, and then you're going to stay in my pool until you recover. After that, I promise we can release you."
He sighed. "Fine," he huffed. "My father will be wondering where I am, though..."
"He'll know in due time," you said as the stronger members of your team began to hoist him onto the stretcher. His tail and his head peeked off of it, and you dashed towards his head to steady it. He looked at you with a gruff expression as he was carried off of the beach and onto the boardwalk.
"Look. I barely know you, but my job is to keep you safe and healthy, alright?" you said quietly towards him. "Can you tell me your name, at least?"
"Mortarion."
"That's lovely, Mortarion. I'm..." you said your name just like you've said it a thousand times before.
He grumbled in response as you hauled him off of the boardwalk and into the vehicle. The back was filled with medical supplies, old things repurposed into animal rehabilitation equipment. But what was before you teetered on the precipice between animal and man like you had never seen before.
"Quickly!" shouted the last one to get in the van. They put on a long white lab coat, tying back their long blonde hair as the rest of the team rushed around them. "Get me the anesthetic."
You turned around. There was a general anesthetic behind you. Perfect. You grabbed it and strode over towards the doctor, putting it in their hand.
"It might take me a while to find his veins," they whispered in your ear. "Can you... can you calm him down while I figure him out?"
"Yes, Stella," you nodded, looking at him. He was groaning in pain again, his eyes half open. You sheepishly walked your way down to him and knelt to his eye level. His hair was in his face, so you brushed it out of him. He recoiled at first, but after breathing a little bit, he relaxed.
"We're here to help you," you said quietly while the rest of the group scurried around you.
"You've said that," he sighed. "I want to go back."
"Whatever hurt you hurt you good," you replied. "Are you sure you don't want to stay? I promise you it will be a few weeks at the most."
"I suppose I don't have a choice in the matter," he said. Stella grabbed his arm, looking for a place to insert the needle.
"How well do you do with needles?" you asked, assuming they had needles underwater.
"I am nothing if not resilient," he grumbled. "A needle is nothing."
"Alright, I found a vein, I'm about to inject him," said Stella.
"Okay, Mortarion," you started. "You're going to be knocked out for this, but we're going to stitch up your wounds. You're going to recover in my pool for a short period, then we're going to release you. Then you can tell your father everything that happened. I promise you, you're going to be safe here." You grabbed for his free hand, and he let you take it, your fingers barely able to mesh with his.
"Very well," he sighed.
"Alright, it's going in in 3... 2... 1..."
"Count for me," you said.
"Just count?" he asked, puzzled.
"That's what the doctor told me to do when I went under last time."
"Doctor?" he asked. "Alright. One, two..."
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