So apparently, when I see Voltron fanart, I have to write about it now.

Expect more works of similar basis.

This art was done by Vianyri.

xXx

The cool water surrounded him, dragging him down, pulling at his consciousness. He fought to get to the air, the freedom of the world above, but he couldn't get loose. There wasn't the time, the strength, the energy.

The man seemed suddenly troubled as he examined his prizes. "Where's the captain?"

"He's gone." He didn't want to say it, but it was the truth.

"Gone? What's that supposed to mean?"

"We haven't seen him in a week, since the big storm."

The man got uncomfortably close, right in his face. "Then you'll have to do."

He could see the light above him, shining tantalizingly beyond reach and steadily growing farther. If only he could pull away from the dead weight dragging him down, he could get to air and freedom.

"You men know the drill. Tie him to the mast, and let's get out of here."

"You won't get away with this." The words felt useless before they even left his mouth.

"What're you going to do? Hm? You can't even save yourself now. What are you going to do for a whole crew?"

He couldn't say anything. He couldn't give the man the satisfaction.

The water pressure was uncomfortable, then unbearable as the ship neared fifty feet and settled on the bottom of the sea, luckily shallow in these parts. He felt as though his ears would burst if he didn't free himself soon.

"Let's get a move on, shall we? Say farewell to your first mate, everyone."

The crew was speechless. They could only stare as the pirates jeered at him and mocked him, preparing for the big sendoff.

Dark spots danced in his vision. No, he couldn't lose consciousness, not now. He had to get free, he had to save them, he... had to...

"Goodbye forever!"

There was a short period of earsplitting cannonfire, exploding timbers, and excited hooting. Then it was sinking. He watched as the boards beneath his feet tilted, then became covered with water. Soon, he struggled to keep his head above water as the pirates slowly gained speed and sailed away, all the while laughing and taunting him.

xXx

A brief, tiny flash of brilliant blue cut through the darkened waters. A small movement betrayed the hidden creature behind a large rock formation. Nothing was around that could see it, but it could see enough to pique its interest. There was a fresh ship-- right here, where no one else could contest its ownership!

After another moment of ensuring there was no source of danger, the creature flicked its tail and launched forward to explore the new landscape in its dominion.

The stern of the ship seemed particularly uninteresting as the strange creature approached it, but there was no way out it was going to give up its prize. It had found this ship, and it was going to find its precious contents.

The mast seemed to have an irregular amount of the strange, thick human cord wrapped around it. The creature tilted is its head and propelled itself forward, twisting around the thick wood to see what was fastened to it that required so much of the intertwined fibers.

A gasp escaped its lips as it saw the pale skin of a human-- dark-haired, no less, with its strange human clothing-- bobbing gently with the currents. It regarded the person with only curiosity until it realized-- this human wasn't dead yet. As it watched, a trail of bubbles slowly leaked out of the human's mouth, darting towards the surface of the sea.

It considered this human for a moment. It knew humans weren't suited for breathing underwater. It had no idea how long one could survive, but it had a hunch that those bubbles had been of some significance to the human's welfare. It looked up after the bubbles. It appeared that there was a large object, maybe one of the humans' small boats, floating almost directly over them. Maybe it could free the human and take it there? It was an uncommon courtesy, and it wasn't sure that it wouldn't regret it, but the strange face, with its gentle features and almost infantile helplessness intrigued him.

It sighed and grabbed a knife from its sash and sliced the cords binding the human to the mast. Once the human came free from the bindings, it took merely a flick of a tail to send them both shooting toward the surface.

A pelican had taken a liking to the strange wooden object. It was rather comfortable, and it had the same comfortable rocking motion of floating directly in the water without any of the dampness. The bird had just decided to find some friends to show them its discovery when the water nearby seemed to explode into motion. Alarmed, the pelican took off, squawking with annoyance.

And not a moment too soon. In a sprawl of unconsciously flailing limbs, the human landed just where it had been perched. Upon the impact, its unconscious form suddenly came to life, coughing and retching seawater.

As the sailor regained his senses, he wondered: Where did air come from? Not that he was complaining, but he had just been at the bottom of the sea, looking longingly to the surface and its accompanying oxygen. Now he was in a lifeboat, coughing up his lungs and what felt like the entire contents of the ocean.

Once he got a hold of himself and seemed to have emptied out his lungs (and possibly his stomach) over the side, he looked around for how he could have ended up there. If someone had saved him, they would have gotten into the boat, too, since they would need to catch their breath, and there wasn't really anywhere where they could have gone in the short time where he'd been coughing. There was no way he'd gotten back into the boat himself. So what had saved him?

Just to satisfy his curiosity and make sure he wasn't missing something, he peered over the edge of the boat, looking for something that might be there, and almost fell out the other side.

A deeply tanned face was peering at him from not a foot away from the boat. When the sailor recovered enough to get a second, longer look, he could see that it was framed by short brown hair, dripping with the water he was in, and huge, dark blue eyes glimmered from above a mischievous grin.

It took several moments for him to realize that he was staring at the stranger openmouthed. He shut it and cleared his throat. In an unsurprisingly hoarse voice, he asked, "Who're you?"

The mysterious person, who seemed to be a male around his own age, just tilted his head and laughed quietly, as if amused by a small bird chirping at him.

Naturally, the sailor grew frustrated. "Do you understand me?" Maybe this person was one of the few in the area that didn't speak English. The only response was another giggle. "I need water," he rasped.

Finally, the stranger spoke. "There's plenty all around you," he said in a chipper, and somewhat smug, tone.

He glared at the annoying person in front of him. "No, fresh water. To drink." He coughed as his voice caught in his throat.

"What makes fresh water so important when there's so much water right here?" The person didn't seem to be mocking him or annoyed, just curious.

He frowned. "I can't drink salt water," he said confusedly.

The other frowned. "Humans puzzle me," he said simply. As if... he wasn't one.

"What... are you, then?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm Lance," he answered cheerfully.

He shook his head. "No, not who, though I suppose your name is useful enough. What are you?"

Lance grinned. "Oh, I always mix those two up." He still didn't answer the question.

Tired of trying to get Lance to answer a question straight, he sat up and looked past the swimmer's head. His torso seemed normal enough, and the arms that passed slowly back and forth in front of him as he tread water weren't out of the ordinary.

Then his eyes traveled farther into the water.

His jaw dropped again. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was-- There was an actual--

"I'm a mermaid," Lance finally answered.

He had no idea what to do. He was speechless. And in the awkward stupor that had gripped him, only one thing occurred to him to do. He thrust his hand down by the water abruptly and said, "I'm Keith."