Theo's POV-
It wasn't even morning when I woke to the sound of crying in the storm. I looked along the coast and saw a hooded figure holding a bundle in their arms nearing the edge of a rocky cliff overlooking the turbulent ocean.
"Hey! Stop your getting to clo-"
Dammit, they jumped. I quickly stood up and before I knew it I was jumping over the edge after them. The ocean was dark and the waves were pulling every which way. I kept turning around trying to spot them when I heard the crying again and saw the bundle floating. I went up and hugged it before a big wave came crashing down pulling us under and knocking me unconscious.
I awoke to the sun blinding my eyes and the sound of shushing. I thought I had dreamed the whole cloak person and jumping in the ocean until I looked around me to see that I was not in the sheltered area I had found last night to rest. I realized I was laying in the sand on an island with no shirt on. After getting up I followed the shushing sound and saw a woman wearing my shirt which was large on her and nothing else, rocking the bundle in her arms.
"You may be sad, but jumping off a cliff into the ocean with your baby is not how you should handle it."
She glanced up at me before looking back down at the baby.
"Save the lectures for someone else. The lady didn't make it. I laid her to rest on the other side of the island. You can go lecture her grave instead of bugging me."
At first I didn't believe her until I looked over to the other side of the small island and saw a hand made wooden plaque with a large mound of dirt in front of it.
"Who are you and how did we end up here?"
"I saw you go under and not come back up so I pulled you and the baby to the closest land to get out of the storm and a thank you would be nice. You're heavy."
She's really started to piss me off and she didn't even fully answer my questions. At least I don't smell any pheromones so she must be a beta. I would rather drown than be stuck with an omega right now.
"Do you know how far the island is from the mainland?"
"Too far to swim and too far for me to swim with the baby and your heavy weight and too far to swim one and come back for the other. So in total, too far."
"Do we have a problem? I just woke up so how could I have offended you? And who asked you to try and swim anyways?"
"You are a human and so therefore I just don't like you."
"I know there's probably not a mirror here, but you should have realized by now you are also a human."
"Never said I liked myself."
I was too stunned to even refute her. I decided to start scavenging the island for now to build a shelter and fire for warmth before night falls later. Then to worry about food and water. I have my storage button on me and that contains water that will last us a while, but I only ever carry a few nutritional packets for food at a time so we won't have food unless we start hunting for it later or get off of this island in less than 4 days. I let her take care of the baby while I worked on everything. Around noon when the sun was high in the sky and I had finished building a shelter, I opened the storage button to retrieve us food, only to find that they had gone bad as I never liked to store them because I never ate them so I never checked or replaced the ones in here. Now we have to worry.
I went to the shallow waters and started trying to catch fish, but they were too fast. All of a sudden I heard a laugh behind me.
"I wouldn't laugh at the person trying to feed us."
"With that technique, I'd rely on the baby to catch a fish before you do."
"Just watch the baby."
All of a sudden I heard her get up and walk towards me. She shoved the baby in my arms and started walking into the water.
"You watch the baby and I'll get us food."
"Hey, stop messing around. The ocean is dangerous, just get out of the water, come get the baby, and leave this to me."
I was going to get ready to shift and hunt in dragon form after she came and got the baby, but while I was waiting, I heard a big splash of water and looked at her only to see waves coming in and no one in the water. I started getting ready to put the baby down and dive in, when the water broke and she emerged deeper in the water with my shirt but instead of legs she had a golden scaled mermaid tale. I was slightly stunned as I knew there once was a mermaid clan, but they had all been killed off in a massacre, but more than that, I had to control my dragon tendencies to hoard anything golden. Now that my instincts had me focused on her tail, I finally actually assessed her. She was very beautiful with very pale skin, full lips, a mole above her lip, long brown hair, and very striking greenish gold eyes. Before I could continue observing her, she dived underwater again and surfaced holding a fish. I was surprised for a second until I had to dodge because she threw the fish at me.
"Don't stare at me and hold the baby properly."
I looked down and the baby had wiggled into an awkward position while looking up at me with a big smile. I readjusted the baby and moved to shore, picking up the fish she had thrown and got an area ready to set the baby down so I could start cleaning the fish. After that she would pop up randomly throwing fish on shore while I cleaned them and started roasting them on the fire. After she caught her sixth fish, she came on shore and changed her legs back before giving me the fish and starting to eat while also prepping some fish into a mush for the baby to eat. I ignored her and finished cleaning the last fish and cooking it before starting to eat myself. The day went by quietly after as she and I had a tacit understanding to not bug the other. Night fell and I prepared to sleep in my spot far from her and the baby when the baby started crying. After a while of her trying to calm the baby and it not working, I went over and once the baby saw me, he stopped crying.
"I guess he wants to sleep with you."
She looked kind of sad, but handed me the baby and started to walk over to her sleeping spot when the baby started crying again. I couldn't calm the baby until she walked over and it was like magic. Once the baby saw her nearby, he stopped crying. We both looked at each other and realized the only way to get through the night was to stay close to each other as the baby would only accept both and not just one. We both laid down with the baby between us. I finally couldn't take the awkwardness.
"My name is Theodore Shen. Most call me Marshal Theo."
It was quiet after that and I was about to close my eyes assuming she wasn't going to say anything.
"Nyx."
It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. I closed my eyes after and started resting.