His Aquatic Angel

3 - Tell us a story, first mate

Now when Aaron finally left the harbour he was hospitalised in. He was back home where he yearned to return for six months at sea.

Aaron had informed the sailors that he was safe and had made it out of that traumatic experience with no less than a fratured femur. The captain had begged him to enlighten them with the tale of his incredible survival story. Which he humbly accepted.

And as he made a steady recovery at his childhood home, under the watchful eye of his father, he had been still curious about what saved him on that faithful night.

He tried hard to quit the subject and move on with life but his conscious and his curiosity wouldn't let him be.

And the journalists coming to his house to interrogate him on how he had made it out alive was no help. He didn't know how to answer the questions of what had pulled him out of the water, and he was dying to find out himself.

Now he sat on the porch that faced towards sea, with a book at hand. Ever since his discharge from the hospital, he had been scowling through marine biology books to give him some sort of closure on the matter.

And not one animal met the specifications of the animal he saw. Even though he didn't see much.

He could vaguely remember the ridges on it's forehead and shoulders. It's dark blue colour, scaly texture and it had a mouth. A one that was almost human-like.

He was certain that it definitely talked to him and he distinctly remembered a tail.

Now he was intrigued.

He assured himself countless times that it couldn't be a dolphin. Surely, a twenty four year old that grew up at sea could be able to recognise a dolphin even when he was in a hazy state.

Now he hatched up a plan to make his way back to sea, back to where it all went down. He had to go, maybe this was the discovery of a new species. A one that meant no harm to the human species, it had just saved his life.

His mind was set, he'd go in search of it, even though he sustained a bit of injury. And the location he crashed at wasn't too faraway from home anyway.

But he had to go at night, he knew his father would never approve of him using the boat to visit the place he'd nearly lost his life at. And he didn't want to bother the poor man.

So everyday for the next week, he'd go down to where the ship had sunk.

It worked for him to go during night as well because the scuba men had been retriving goods from the sunken ship during the day.

He brought out his torch light every night and looked around to see any sign of any marine animal that resembled to what had saved him.

Everything was to no avail but he still refused to quit. He knew that something that wasn't similar to anything he'd seen before had saved him. And he just had to know what it was.

But he just kept going out with his father's fishing boat and a torch to the venue every night and awaited the day till he was healed enough to go diving into the ocean to search more effectively.

♡.♡

Aaron had sat at a round table as the sailors he'd worked alongside with sang merry songs and celebrated his great survival.

He was happy to see that his sick roommate had made progressive recovery with his health. He was strong enough to even sing along with the men.

But Aaron felt a sense of pure glee when Finn showed his gratitude to him for how he assisted him through illness.

The official that had heard of Aaron's act of bravery honoured him with a medal that evening. He couldn't stop commending him on how he had saved the life of his fellow sailorman and the lives of many other by successfully retrieving the box.

Then, Aaron's minded wandered back to the box that nearly caused his death or worse, the death of others if he had choose not to get it.

During the celebration, A highly respected Captain sat by his side at the table. Aaron took this as a sign that he wanted to speak to him and his draw his attention to him.

"Young man." Captain Nelson put his arm over his shoulders. "I might not have been on the sinking ship with you, but I can just smell the bravery from the air around you."

"Thank you sir." Aaron said, with boast clear from his tone.

"No, I should be the one thanking you. You see all this men in this room?" He pointed at them with a gin at hand. "None of them manage to do what you did, and most of these men are men we've groomed for years. We taught them all there is to know about being a sailor but you possess something that cannot be taught in books... selflessness."

Aaron was growing flattered by all the compliments that were thrown at him by a tipsy high rank Captain.

"You trained all these men to be good sailors but I remember hearing it once that a sailor needs to be fueled with passion for what he does."

"Yes boy, passion. We need men with raw passion working across the seven seas, oh, which reminds me. I have for you the offer that you cannot say no to. We have decided to promote you, knock you up to a higher position."

The captain brought out a badge from his pocket and placed it in his hand. "Welcome, First mate Miller."

Aaron looked at the badge and smiled a fraction. "I can't Captain Nelson."

"But this is an opportunity of a lifetime, why –"

"I'm not very passionate about being a sailor. And I broke that number one rule of being a sailor, so..." He put the badge in his hand. And looked up at him apologetically.

"I quit."

A/N

Spoiler Alert: Drama is coming ?

...well, my version of drama ???