Archive of Our Own ^beta

Before humanity dominated the planet, mythical creatures roamed the Earth. Centaurs grazed in the fields, nymphs wandered across the forests, and harpies soared through the skies. Despite the world’s peaceful ecosystem, the reigning Greek primordial gods remained unhappy.

From their omnipotent thrones, Gaia (goddess of the Earth), Uranus (god of the sky), and Eros (god of love) agreed that humans, not mythical creatures, should inherit the Earth. Thus, they set forth a series of changes which would doom the mythical creatures forever.

By the human year 1640 BCE (over 3660 years ago), natural disasters had extinguished the centaurs, nymphs, and harpies from the lands and skies. Only the oceans still teemed with mythical creatures, for Pontus (god of the sea) disagreed with the other gods. He refused to sacrifice the merpeople who swam in his waters. The other Greek primordial gods resented Pontus’ stubbornness, and created a shrewd alliance which would wipe out the merpeople for good.

The Greek gods’ plan would be almost entirely successful. Every mythical creature would disappear forever… except for the Aegean Sea’s last merman.

Unaware of the catastrophic demise looming ominously in their future, the last civilization of merpeople prospered. Below the waves of the Aegean Sea, thousands of merpeople dwelled in an underwater city around the island of Thera (Santorini in the modern day).

Merpeople possessed the upper bodies of humans, only with webbed fingers and gill slits on their necks. They possessed streamlined lower halves and finned tails of fish. Their gills and limited lung capacities restricted them to purely underwater life, but warm Mediterranean waters and gentle tides allowed them to raise their offspring in relative peace away from the terrestrial world.

Appreciation of beauty formed a crucial aspect of the merpeople’s culture. Shells and shiny objects functioned as money. Merpeople wore jewelry and created intricate artwork. Their voices were smooth and sultry, dripping with charm. Merpeople treasured their homogeneity and their similarity. Merpeople detested ugliness; if one was not as beautiful as everyone else, they were an outcast.

To the enchanting culture around him, Dream was one of those poor, ostracized souls. He seemed to possess neither beauty nor grace; other merpeople considered him hideous. Of course, Dream did not intend to be born an abomination. He had heard the story of his origin many times, and the story began with his parents: a merman and a Hydra.

Living on the outskirts of the last merpeople’s civilization near the island of Thera, the merman suffered from extreme social anxiety. He preferred to travel alone and avoided interaction with others. However, despite his introversion, he yearned to find love. He wished for the courage to speak with a mermaid without fearing rejection and judgment. His beauty equaled the rest of the merpeople, yet he worried his anxious demeanor would prevent him from ever raising a family.

Instead of resigning himself to remain alone for the rest of his life, the merman made an unorthodox decision, one that would change the course of history. Venturing beyond the underwater city, the merman swam away from the island of Thera.

In a deep cave on the side of another island in the Aegean Sea, the merman met a solitary Hydra: the last of the many-headed snakes. Behind her terrifying serpentine appearance, the Hydra felt lonely, too. She and the merman developed a friendship which gradually morphed into love.

Residents of the merpeople’s civilization spread rumors about the merman’s frequent travels from the city. Whenever he returned with moony eyes and delicate smiles, he received questions about his mysterious whereabouts. Despite his perpetual anxiety, the merman refused to feel shame for loving a creature whose body was different from his own.

Merpeople do not reproduce like humans; producing offspring requires no physical contact. Instead, when the merman and Hydra agreed to start a family together, the merman conjured his finest spells. He presented his magic to the Hydra, who accepted the offer and became pregnant.

One day, while the merman and the Hydra were apart, the serpentine creature laid a single egg, colored dark green with lighter speckles. Swimming to the water’s surface, she placed the egg close to the beach, where the warm waves would encourage its development. Ensuring the precious object lay safe beneath a jutting boulder, the Hydra returned to her underwater cave.

While the Hydra lived apart from her offspring, one of the Greek primordial gods discovered the many-headed snake. In the middle of the night, Erebus (god of darkness) provided cover while Ourea (deity of mountains) caused a massive landslide. By the time the Hydra awoke from her slumber, it was too late. Rocks rained from the roof of her cave and crushed her. With this tragedy, the last of the many-headed snakes were dead, and the Greek primordial gods celebrated yet another triumph over the mythical creatures.

When the merman returned to the distant island to visit his love, horror engulfed him. Although he attempted to pick apart the wall of fallen rocks which blocked the cave’s entrance, he knew the Hydra inside would be dead when he found her. In his wild grief, the merman nearly decided to desert the area before he saw an object in the distance.

Approaching a strange sphere located near the shore, he discovered the Hydra’s egg where it lay safe from the landslide which killed its mother. When the merman touched the egg’s speckled surface, his hand tingled with magic. Astonished, the merman realized this was his child.

Instantly devoted to caring for his offspring, the merman sent a prayer of gratitude to Pontus (god of the sea) for protecting his and the Hydra’s baby from doom.

Every day, the merman travelled from the underwater city to the island where the egg continued to develop. Upon arrival, he checked the egg’s pristine surface and ensured it was still warm, then he returned home. Rumors about his whereabouts continued to fly about the merpeople’s society, yet the merman no longer cared; all that mattered to him was the safety of his child. Despite his worries about raising offspring alone, he was determined to do his best.

Dream heard the details of this story many times. His father, the merman, always explained his love for the Hydra with fondness. He detailed his love for Dream with utmost sincerity… yet Dream always grimaced when the story reached the moment of his birth.

Beneath a sunny blue sky, cracks spread across the egg’s speckled green surface. When the merman arrived at the beach, excitement filled him: he would witness his child’s hatching! Inhaling saltwater, he forcibly closed his gill slits and clambered onto land. The jutting boulder above his head shielded his body from the sun’s harmful rays as the merman stroked the egg’s surface protectively. After five or six minutes out of the ocean, he would weaken from lack of respiration, so he submerged himself every minute or so to remain conscious and attentive.

Not missing a single movement, the merman watched with captivation as cracks became fissures. Vague unease weighed down his belly; he had no idea what to expect. Sternly he reminded himself that whatever emerged from the egg, it would be his offspring. Therefore, he was obligated to care for it.

A tiny hand emerged from the egg. Webbed fingers burst from the side, sending bits of egg shell flying. Mesmerized as he peeked into the shell’s resulting hole, the merman observed a human-like torso. Although his baby’s skin was scaly, not soft, hope surged through him. As long as the infant resembled a merperson, no one back at the city would care if it possessed a few more scales than usual.

Carefully the merman peeled away parts of the egg’s surface to help his offspring hatch. Merpeople did not lay eggs, so he was frightened of unintentionally harming his baby. When the infant writhed and began to cry, the merman whispered soothingly, “Oh, don’t worry. Your father is here. Everything is alright -”

A section of shell near the egg’s bottom fell away as more of the baby burst from within, stunning the merman into silence. A tail tore free, but it was not the tail of a merperson. Instead of a smooth, fish-like tail with fins at the end, this one was long, skinny, and pointed. It was the dappled green tail of a snake.

Uncertainty slashed the merman’s hopes; he doubted his child would become a good swimmer with such an odd tail. Nevertheless, he continued to slowly peel away bits of egg shell and resumed comforting the wailing infant.

“Hello, my love.” His voice wavered this time. “It’s wonderful to meet you. You might be a little different, but I promise to love you just the same as I would if you were -”

A loud crunching sound startled the merman yet again before he could finish. Finally the baby gained enough strength to lift its head free. Egg shell tumbled off the top as the merman’s offspring revealed its head.

Horror, not joy, gripped the merman as he witnessed his child’s face for the first time.

“Oh no,” he mumbled to himself.

Originally the merman only saw the infant’s head and ears, but now he saw everything. The bottom half of the baby’s face frightened its father.

Instead of a human nose and mouth, the baby’s mouth was wide; its lips appeared pebbly and rough-textured. The “nose” was a mere bony lump with two large reptilian nostrils on either side. The baby also possessed a massive, hinged jaw. When the baby’s mouth opened, a forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air. Further inside the mouth were two huge, hooked fangs, full of deadly snake venom.

The merman winced with revulsion at the sight of his child’s face, then immediately felt a wave of guilt. He was not supposed to think his own child was ugly! Regaining his wits, the merman discarded the loose egg shells, dunked himself underwater to replenish his gills, then rested on land to cradle his tiny offspring against his chest.

Blinking with curiosity, the baby stopped crying and gazed upon its father. Most infants opened their eyes for the first time to reveal gray irises and round pupils. However, when the hatchling opened its eyes, the irises were a piercing teal, occupying the entire visible part of the eyeball. Vertical, slitted pupils - the pupils of a snake - fixed upon the merman with unnerving intensity.

Swallowing his apprehension, the merman greeted his child, “Hello there. Welcome to the world, little one.”

To the merman’s relief, his child’s reptilian appearance did not indicate maliciousness. Instead the baby seemed quite happy, and it did not bite its father with those venomous fangs.

Within only hours of emerging from the egg, the baby merman/serpent hybrid learned to swim. As the merman feared, his son could not swim well with his snake tail, but he tried valiantly, and that was what counted.

During the pair’s journey back to the island of Thera, the merman named his offspring. Most merpeople possessed lengthy, complex names, but since the merman’s son would not be like most merpeople, he gave his child an equally unorthodox name: Dream.

When the merman returned with his infant son to the merpeople’s civilization, he faced harsh criticism. Neighbors gawked and glared at the strange-looking offspring who resembled both a merperson and a Hydra. They encouraged the baby’s father to abandon the supposed abomination.

Disappointed at the lack of welcome he received, the merman continued to live on the outskirts of the merpeople’s society. He raised his son Dream with constant reminders that his odd physical appearance did not indicate he was a monster.

Dream’s friendly, affectionate personality contrasted sharply against his fearsome appearance. After several incidents where he unintentionally terrified local merchildren, the hybrid secluded himself in the small cove where his father lived beneath the seafloor, away from the rest of society. Dream only left the cove in the early mornings before dawn, when other merpeople were sleeping, so no one could witness and harass the monster who lived among them.

To the merman’s dismay, his son grew up to become like him: a restless, frustrated outcast living on the edges of their society.

Dream would forever be grateful for his father’s encouragement and devotion, for he received little respect elsewhere. Although Dream was literate, able to read and write with ease, he experienced difficulties with speaking. His reptilian lips, forked tongue, and hooked fangs did not allow for speech, so Dream communicated through sign language instead.

Sometimes it seemed like Dream’s own body kept him from adhering to the culture around him. Merpeople were vegetarians, consuming ocean vegetation like kelp and seaweed, but Dream’s serpentine heritage meant he required meat, too.

Before Dream reached the age when he could feed himself, his merman father struggled to balance between respecting the merpeople’s pacifistic culture and feeding his son. Fish were considered sacred, so hunting and consuming them was forbidden, but Dream could not live on an entirely vegetarian diet. Whenever Dream felt weak - a sign that he needed protein - the merman brought the pair to their local shrine. He sent a prayer to Pontus (god of the sea) for forgiveness, then fed his growing child a small fish, snail, mussel, or shrimp. Once Dream reached adulthood, he hunted for himself, but he continued his father’s practice of praying for forgiveness every time he consumed a fellow sea creature.

Convinced that he could never conform to a “normal” merperson’s way of life, Dream became a traveller like his father. His figure grew robust and flexible, while his snake tail thickened with muscle. His lungs were far more powerful than any other merperson’s, meaning he never struggled to breathe on land. Consequently, Dream frequently visited the beaches and scrublands on the island of Thera. Carefully he avoided the humans who lived there - the Minoan civilization - and explored beaches no other merperson had ever visited.

Unbeknownst to Dream, the merman/serpent hybrid would soon discover his full potential. After years of living in shame because of his Hydra ancestry, he would soon learn that embracing his heritage would save his life.

Times were changing; Pontus’ (god of the sea) protection over the oceans waned. Gaia (goddess of the Earth) and Uranus (god of the sky) devised a plan to eradicate the last of the mythical creatures who dwelled underwater. Preparations began one late evening around 1620 BCE.

During a nighttime visit to Thera’s tidal pools, Dream’s snout tingled: his snake senses perceived something. Flicking out his forked tongue, he tasted the air. First he smelled cooking meat and burning wood from the Minoan village near the island’s center. Next he smelled salty sea foam and herbal scents from the hilly scrublands. Last, he smelled something… odd. Flicking his tongue again, he tasted the bitter tang of sulphur in the air.

Confused, Dream scanned the landscape around him. The ocean waves appeared calm beneath a starry night sky. In the distance he saw gleaming orange candlelight from the Minoan village. He heard the faint bleating of goats and nighttime birdsong. Everything around Dream seemed to be normal, yet he felt uneasy.

Accessing another of his snake senses, Dream closed his eyes and allowed the heat sensors in his snout to paint a temperature-based image of the landscape around him. He sensed his own body heat, the ocean’s coolness, the warmth of rodents in burrows and birds in bushes, the human-made fires on the hills… and something else below him: something far more subtle.

Opening his eyes, Dream frowned, then stared at the sandy beach beneath his hands and body. Clutching cold sand in his webbed fingers, he realized the heat he sensed came from deep within the Earth, many kilometers beneath the surface.

Unnerved, Dream concluded his nighttime excursion early and returned to the ocean. When he travelled back to his father’s house on the outskirts of the merpeople’s city, he shared his unsettling discovery.

“What do you mean, ‘the Earth felt warm deep down’?” The older merman questioned as he sorted through his collections of shells and pearls. His tone was not derogatory, but rather curious and puzzled.

“I’ve never sensed heat coming from so far below ground before,” Dream explained through sign language. His snake tail twitched nervously as he watched his father work. Upon returning to the ocean, Dream’s alarm had grown when he discovered that the ocean itself felt warmer, too. A significant change had occurred, yet he had no idea what it was.

The next day, Dream broke his usual routine. He emerged from his father’s cove in the seafloor at midday: the city’s peak rush hour. Whipping his long snake tail to slither through the water, Dream shared his news with crowds and passerbys. He told complete strangers about the water warming around them. He tried to ignore the merpeople’s gasps at his formidable reptilian appearance.

Predictably, no one listened to Dream’s warnings. When the hybrid explained that he sensed these minuscule changes with his heat sensors, serpentine abilities that no other merperson naturally possessed, the city interpreted his claims as yet more evidence that Dream did not belong with them.

Irritated and exhausted, the outcast hybrid swam back home. Even before he reached the cove where he grew up, he decided he could no longer stay in the merpeople’s civilization. Conveying the news to his father was surprisingly easy.

“Everyone dismissed me,” Dream signed bitterly before drumming his webbed fingers upon the cove’s stone slab counter. “As soon as other merpeople saw me, they decided they didn’t want to listen. I think…” Not wanting to make a decision on impulse, he trailed off.

“Yes?” Noticing his son’s hesitation, the older merman halted with a concerned expression. “Do you feel worse?” Although he did not completely understand how Dream’s snake senses worked, he believed his son. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Actually, yes.” Observing the cove’s rocky walls, gloomy atmosphere, and sandy floors, Dream realized tonight might be his last living with the rest of the merpeople. Signing slowly, he confessed, “I think I’m ready to leave.”

“What do you mean?” Kicking his finned tail, the merman swam closer. Although he sounded hurt, perhaps even rejected, he also sounded unsurprised. He witnessed the years of intolerance his son faced while growing up; if he were Dream, he might have left a long time ago as well.

“I have a bad feeling about how things are changing,” Dream admitted. “I sensed heat deep underground and the water is getting warmer. Even the currents feel weird, but I can’t figure out why. I don’t feel like it’s safe to stay here.”

The older merman paused in consideration for a long time. Eventually he sighed through his gill slits and confessed, “Dream, your childhood here was not easy for you. You’ve heard mockery and criticism from everyone. If you wish to leave, I have no reason to stop you. You deserve better than the treatment you received here.”

“Thank you, Father.” Unwilling to leave his devoted guardian behind, Dream offered, “Would you like to come with me? We can find somewhere better. Maybe we can join another city.”

“I don’t know if other societies exist anymore,” the merman murmured, voice heavy with resignation. “Humans have covered the Earth. Our city has its flaws, but I don’t think we would find anywhere better than this. You do not have to stay, of course, but for myself, I cannot imagine leaving. If you go, I fear you will travel alone.”

Accepting his father’s terms, Dream spent the rest of the night gathering personal belongings. His father assisted his efforts to shove enough seaweed, kelp, shiny stones, shells, and tools into a fish-skin bag. The last item he bestowed upon his child was his most treasured belonging: a compass.

Despite the older merman’s uncertainty, he never discouraged his son from voyaging beyond the life he knew in search of something better. Neither merperson knew what lay beyond the cluster of islands around Thera, for they had never needed to know before now.

After a short rest overnight, Dream and the merman awoke by dawn the next morning. Glancing over his shoulder into the cove he once called home, Dream slithered into the open ocean. His father followed reluctantly; both mermen glanced around.

The underwater city continued to sleep around them. Buildings of mud and stone lay motionless along the seafloor. In the distance, a small group of merpeople travelled outside their homes toward the kelp and seaweed fields; besides them, no one would witness Dream’s departure.

“Will you ever return?” The older merman attempted to maintain a neutral tone, but he desperately hoped his son would answer yes.

“Of course I’ll come back,” Dream promised. Warmly he embraced his father, holding his guardian close as his throat thickened with emotion. “I’ll visit whenever I can.”

As the pair split apart, Dream’s father waved. “Fare well, my son. I will miss you with all my heart.” Watching the hybrid rise to the ocean’s surface, his eyes glimmered with hope.

Waving back, Dream returned the goodbye. “Stay safe, Father. I’ll miss you, too!”

With a flick of his powerful snake tail, Dream began his journey away from the merpeople’s city. Crossing the waters above buildings and coves, he watched the distant buildings shrink beneath him until the city dwindled to a mere navy smudge against the mottled seafloor. The realization that Dream no longer had a home did not frighten him as much as he would have expected.

Skirting the island of Thera, the merman/serpent hybrid decided to head north across the Aegean Sea. He prayed to Pontus (god of the sea) that he would be successful in finding whatever it was he would search for.

Initially Dream suffered from a short bout of homesickness, for he missed his father dearly. However, as days passed, his confidence and excitement grew. Beyond the island of Thera, the hybrid witnessed sights and undersea landmarks he had never seen before.

Weeks passed, then months. Experiencing freedom from judgment, Dream relished his independence. He did not know that he would be unable to keep his promise to visit home. Dream would never see the island or his father ever again, for the hybrid’s serpentine senses had perceived a danger that other merpeople could not sense.

Far beneath the Earth’s crust, Tartarus (god of the underworld) allied with Gaia (goddess of the Earth) to wipe out the mythical creatures who lived in the ocean’s depths. Unbeknownst to Pontus (god of the sea), the other Greek primordial gods made an unprecedented decision: in one single day, they would destroy the merpeople’s civilization.

From his throne in the underworld, Tartarus sent a wave of magma from the Earth’s core. Slowly the magma rose upward through fissures in the solid rock and stone, creeping toward a sleeping volcano below the island of Thera.

Before it erupts from a volcano, magma can reach beyond temperatures of 1300 degrees Celsius (2372 degrees Fahreinheit). This was the heat that Dream sensed lingering deep underground: it raised the soil and ocean temperatures so subtly that only the ultrasensitive heat sensors of a snake could detect it.

Long after Dream’s voyage away from the island of Thera, a massive earthquake rippled through the ocean. Tidal waves pulled and pushed on the merpeople living in their cities. Disoriented, merpeople clung to their houses and to one another until the earthquake’s end. They watched with terror as a trench formed across their civilization, splitting the city in two. Mud and stone buildings plummeted into the abyss.

Screams echoed through the ocean and the land, for the earthquake disrupted not only the merpeople’s civilization, but also the human village of Minoans on the island. A tsunami rushed onshore, flattening entire fields of crops and livestock.

The earthquake was only the beginning, for the Greek primordial gods were not finished yet. To the horror of Pontus (god of the sea), Tartarus (god of the underworld) commanded magma to surge upwards. Once the molten rock reached a solid ceiling, the pressure began to grow.

Around the island of Thera, the ocean warmed. Heat permeated the air. Despair filled the hearts of both Minoans and merpeople as the ground and water surrounding them climbed in temperature, scorching the merpeople’s sensitive scales and the humans’ feet.

Within minutes, the climax occurred. The entire island of Thera, an area of 65 square kilometers (40.4 square miles) exploded. The beaches, scrublands, and mountains collapsed upon themselves. Soil and seawater mixed together into a boiling pot of sediment and steam.

The volcanic eruption of Thera, also known as the Minoan Eruption in the modern era, was four times larger than the 1883 Krakatoa Eruption. As one of the most devastating volcanic events in the history of humanity, it eradicated both the Minoans - a necessary sacrifice according to the Greek primordial gods - and the merpeople.

The volcanic eruption’s magnitude destroyed everything in a 62-kilometer (38.5-mile) radius; its plume of volcanic ash was visible from as far as Egypt.

With the disappearance of the last mythical creatures, Pontus (god of the sea) admitted defeat, and conceded that he would allow humans to dominate the water as well as the land and skies. His answer satisfied the other Greek primordial gods, who agreed to conclude the volcanic eruption once it accomplished its goal.

Unknown to Pontus and the other Greek primordial gods, their plan had one small flaw. Despite the horrendous destruction across the Aegean Sea, the volcano had not slain every single mythical creature. A sole survivor remained unharmed.

Even from an incredible distance, Dream felt the earthquake before it hit. He scrambled to seek shelter in the Toronean Gulf of Ancient Greece. The water would protect him from the earthquake, and his lungs would allow him to travel onto the peninsula and hide if necessary.

From many kilometers away, Dream watched the volcanic eruption with fearful curiosity as clouds of steam and explosions of lava rumbled on the horizon. He did not realize the eruption had decimated the island he left only a few months ago.

In the ultimate irony, the same traits which caused Dream to become an outcast among the merpeople were the same features which saved his life. The venomous snake jaws which inhibited Dream’s speech would allow him to find food. The thrashing reptilian tail which hampered his swimming abilities would allow him to travel in both water and on land. The heat sensors in his snout would allow him to sense danger before it arrived. The same traits which cursed the merman/serpent hybrid with endless bullying and torment ensured he had been the final survivor of his species.

Even Dream’s father did not escape the volcanic eruption, yet he died with remarkably little regret. Instead the merman died with a heart full of gratitude, for he knew his son could take care of himself. The merman would perish, but Dream would survive, and that was all the devoted father could have prayed for.

Once the immediate danger of the volcanic eruption passed, Dream fulfilled his father’s prayers by simply existing. Unknowing that he was the last of his kind, he continued his journey without a destination in mind.

While Ancient Greeks on land cowered in their houses, trembling with panic at the sight of the volcanic eruption in the distance, Dream took the opportunity to crawl upon the beach near the modern-day city of Pefkochori. After years of swimming, his back, shoulder, and arm muscles were well-developed, so he hauled himself across the land with relative ease. Although he did not intend to leave the ocean behind forever, Dream felt a strong desire to explore a new territory.

Crawling through the dense undergrowth of a fir tree forest, Dream found a cave system. Deciding that underground tunnels would permit him to travel without fear of discovery, he entered a stone burrow and descended beneath the Earth’s surface. Confident that his snake senses would inform him of potential danger, Dream slithered through kilometers of caves. His slitted pupils widened in the low light as he allowed his serpentine senses to guide him.

Oddly enough, Dream’s reliance on his senses ended up being his weakness. Although he was safe from earthquakes and volcanic activity, the Minoan Eruption had corrupted the stability of the cave systems through which he travelled. Through tiny fissures in the tunnels’ rock walls, carbon dioxide seeped through, permeating the air. Carbon dioxide weighs slightly more than oxygen and nitrogen, so as Dream’s altitude declined, the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air he breathed slowly increased.

As his body alternated between sleep and movement, Dream’s lungs struggled to handle the inflating levels of carbon dioxide in the air. The hybrid breathed heavily; his pace of travel slowed as he reached the cave system’s deepest part.

Slowing to a halt, Dream suddenly felt tired of exploring. Now he dwelled in complete darkness. Cold, stuffy air surrounded him. During his first few days in the cave system, he fed upon small fish, snails, fungi, and insects, but as of now, he had not witnessed another living creature in a while.

For the first time since he left the merpeople’s civilization, Dream felt afraid. Blinking in the darkness, he shifted upon his hands. Palms ached from traversing over kilometers of wet, slippery stone. When he held still and strained his ears to listen, he heard nothing except for his own breathing. Carbon dioxide has no scent or heat signature, so Dream was unaware it was the cause of his abrupt weakness.

Exhaustion consumed the hybrid. Heaving a deep sigh, he swayed upon his arms, then reminded himself that he could not simply stop in the middle of a tunnel. Dragging his body for another short distance, Dream ran fingers along the ground until he encountered a wet area of mud. Water squelched beneath his splayed fingers. Despite the chilly air around him and the hairs standing along his neck and forearms, he slowly lowered himself into the frigid earth.

Curling up, Dream coiled his snake tail into a cocoon around his head, arms, and torso. He shivered as cold sweat coated his skin. Despite Dream’s confusion about what was happening to him, he did not possess the energy to travel further and escape the caves. Enough carbon dioxide had infiltrated the hybrid’s system so that lethargy overwhelmed him.

Gradually Dream lost consciousness. His breathing rate slowed and muscles relaxed. Dwelling many meters beneath the earth’s surface, alone as the last mythical creature left in the world, Dream succumbed to sleep.

While he slept, his ancestry revealed its true powers. In the absence of cognition, the Hydra within Dream took over. His half-reptilian organs slowed their metabolic processes to preserve his body despite the lack of food, oxygen, and warmth. Rising from the core of Dream’s soul, hints of merperson magic welled up. Invisible to the naked eye, supernatural power consumed his being and surrounded his cells, protecting them from the woes of age and the claws of death.

Dream should have died while sleeping at the bottom of a cave system. Instead, as mud dripped from the tunnel ceiling and buried him in cold, wet soil, the hybrid transitioned into a long hibernation.

As power dynamics shifted among the Greek primordial gods, Dream’s deep slumber continued. As Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena, and others ruled the lands and skies above, he remained undetected between the earth and the underworld. Even once the Greek gods vanished from existence, the hybrid remained unaware of the world around him.

Throughout the Macedonian Wars, the Age of the Roman Empire, the Black Plague, the Thirty Years’ War, and until the modern era, a single mythical creature slept.

As the last of his kind, Dream would sleep for over 3000 years until he could awaken and roam the Earth once again.

Shouts of communication between paleontologists echoed off the towering walls of rock that surrounded them. Dust particles in the air forced everyone on the excavation team to wear protective goggles and face masks as they hauled pieces of equipment across the dig site.

At the bottom of an abandoned quarry in Greece, the lead paleontologist Gia noticed an unusual reading on her detector. Usually the detector’s screen displayed patterns that indicated the mineral composition of rocks below its sensor, but what did this pattern mean?

“Maybe we’re on top of a cave system?” Gia muttered to herself. Her guess was correct; the area below the excavation team’s feet was an extensive series of tunnels and caves that had collapsed over one thousand years ago.

The lead paleontologist instructed her team to excavate the area where the detector sensed the anomaly. After three hours of carefully chipping away hardened sediment, the team discovered the remains of a small aquifer hidden deep within the solid rock. Beside that aquifer, something lay alive.

3000 years after his hibernation began, Dream’s slumber ended abruptly. When sunlight touched his scaly, serpentine tail, the sudden warmth and influx of oxygen from outside roused his cells.

Stunned, the half-Hydra, half-merperson hybrid Dream awoke. He uncurled himself, dazed after his long slumber. Although he only appeared confused, not hostile, his presence startled the excavation team.

Screams and shouts disoriented the hybrid further. Without any understanding of where he was or which direction would lead to safety, he reacted defensively by curling up into a protective ball again. Snake coils wrapped around the bare flesh of his torso, shielding his neck, head, and vital organs from danger.

While the strange creature contorted itself, Gia called a special military unit from inland to transport the unexpected discovery to a place for containment. From the quarry, the military unit shipped the merperson-serpent hybrid to a wildlife research center. Once sure that the hybrid was not radioactive or otherwise dangerous, the staff at the research center began seeking a zoological association who would be willing to house the hybrid until further analysis could be performed.

Most zoological associations declined the offer because they had no idea how the hybrid’s presence might impact their other animals. Soon the researchers realized that they would need to find a zoological association which did not already contain any animals. Stumped by this irony, one of the wildlife researchers sent a message to zoological associations worldwide, hoping that one would possess a large amount of area where the hybrid could live.

Only one zoological association ended up expressing interest: a small wildlife park in Florida called Reptile World. This wildlife park opened several years ago, featuring a small collection of exhibits with animals from the local area. One side of the park was dedicated to the administration buildings and a petting zoo, while the other half offered spacious habitats for native reptiles including alligators and snakes. Unfortunately, since Reptile World could hardly compete with other, more diverse zoos in the area, the wildlife park had suffered from low profits for its entire existence.

After a long losing battle against rising costs, the owners of Reptile World - husbands Sapnap and George - considered closing the wildlife park forever. This impending decision haunted their daily lives. Since the married couple lived on their wildlife park’s property to save money, losing their business would mean losing their home, too. To rescue Reptile World and improve its reputation among the other, already well-established zoos in Florida, they would need a miracle.

Waiting for a miracle seemed hopeless, but unbeknownst to the husbands, their rescuer would arrive soon. Miracles may be rare, but they are not always as mythical as they seem.

In the late evening on a random week night, the landline phone rings in Sapnap and George’s shared living area located beside the wildlife park’s administration building. Flinching, Sapnap looks up from his computer while George looks up from the crossword puzzle in his newspaper. Both men gape at the phone, sharing a petrifying fear that this call would come from the Florida State Finance Department.

Knowing that George would do anything to avoid answering the phone, Sapnap stood from his desk. Since their “house” was only two rooms - a living area and a restroom - reaching the landline phone required only a few steps. Drawing a deep breath of preparation, Sapnap planned a response before answering. We just need a few more weeks to pay back our loans.

However, when Sapnap answered the call, the voice on the other end of the line did not belong to the Florida State Finance Department.

“Hello, is this Mr. Navy or Mr. Howlett from Reptile World in the United States?”

“Yes, this is Mr. Howlett.” Wracking his brain, Sapnap tried to remember if he had ever heard this voice before.

“I’m Dr. Leslie from the National Wildlife Research Center in Athens, Greece. I heard from a colleague that you own a wildlife park that has some free space. Is that true?”

“Uh, yeah.” Reciting the pitch that he once used when advertising the couple’s wildlife park to investors, Sapnap described, “We specialize in reptiles and amphibians native to the southern United States.” Subtly pressing the speakerphone button, Sapnap motioned for George to stand and join his side.

Intrigued, the other man folded his newspaper, picked up his pen, and brought both items to his husband. He mouthed the words, “Who is it?”

Sapnap shook his head to indicate that he was unsure.

“Well, I can’t give you all of the details because some of this information is still confidential, but we have a reptilian creature here who will require lots of space and a carnivorous diet. More research is still required, but we believe the creature should be housed in a more natural environment. Would you be able to provide an enclosure for it?”

While the researcher spoke, George wrote a note on a blank area of his newspaper. Looking over the other man’s shoulder, Sapnap read the bold words, “Say yes!!!!”

“Absolutely! We have an empty exhibit right now that’s 5000 square meters: almost half the size of the wildlife park. It has fences already and everything, strong enough to hold an alligator, so we would be happy to accommodate whatever animal you have!” After the researcher on the other end sighed with relief, Sapnap added, “I just have a few questions.”

Unable to afford any skepticism, Sapnap and George listened to the researcher’s story. The caller described a new, recently discovered species of reptilian creature, once which seemed to be extremely intelligent. They detailed its physiology and behaviors observed by other researchers. Even after hearing a physical description, George and Sapnap doubted that this was not some sort of elaborate prank, but they decided to take the risk.

At the end of the call, almost as an afterthought, the wildlife researcher finished, “Thank you so much for your help. The steel crate containing the creature is currently on a cargo ship on the Atlantic Ocean, heading to the United States. Once the ship arrives, I’ll send instructions so the employees can send the steel crate to Port Manatee in Florida. The creature should be ready for pickup in 36 hours, at 6am EST.”

Within ten minutes of the call’s end, Sapnap and George were donning their rain boots and hats. They thrust open the door of their living area, forgetting to turn off the lights and barely remembering their keys as they stumbled out the door.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have agreed right away,” George huffed as the husbands ran across their wildlife park toward the empty enclosure on the opposite side.

“You’re the one who told me to say yes!” Sapnap reminded him. Already he was nearly breathless as he led the way. “But whatever. That’s done now. We’ve got to figure out how to ship that steel crate from Port Manatee to here.”

“Don’t you have, like, a trucker friend?” George struggled to maintain his sprinting pace. “Maybe he could ship the crate over so we don't have to leave the park.”

“There’s no way he’ll have time for that, but maybe he’ll let us borrow one of his trucks,” Sapnap conceded. “His yard has loads of eighteen-wheelers. Those should be big enough for a steel crate.”

“Do you think the new exhibit will even work?” George asked.

“It had better work.” Footsteps crunched on a gravel pathway as Sapnap reached the new exhibit with George close behind him.

When the husbands arrived at the viewing platform along the empty habitat’s perimeter, they slowed down and peered into a pit in the Earth. The new exhibit had a wooden fence, a wire fence, and a gate for staff, but the interior was untouched.

Overgrown weeds and bushes crowded the shores of a large pond. Fireflies hovered above a floating bed of lily pads and algae on the surface. The habitat would be ideal for an alligator or other semi-aquatic animal, but since this mysterious reptilian creature had not been fully cataloged, there were no legal guidelines that stated what its enclosure should be like. Therefore, George and Sapnap decided to leave the current habitat the way it was and make adjustments if needed after the creature’s arrival.

“35 hours until the ship arrives at the port,” George muttered severely. He rested both hands on his hips.

Surveying the exhibit, Sapnap struggled to catch his breath after their dash through humid night air. Fanning his neck with his shirt collar, he remarks, “Maybe we’ll need to close the park for a while. Once we release the animal into the enclosure, it’ll need at least a couple of days to settle down before we open the park.”

“Are we financially stable enough to close the park?” George asked warily.

No one answered the question because both men knew that the answer was no… but unfortunately they did not have a choice.

Aware of the risks that they were taking, Sapnap and George decided to close the wildlife park for three days. Until reopening, the husbands would take drastic steps to avoid spending money. They would turn off facilities in the park, keep the lights off in their living area, and reduce their daily food consumption to two meals only: breakfast and dinner. Perhaps all of their efforts would be in vain and they would plunge into bankruptcy, but for now, all they could do was hope for the best.

Trapped within a large steel container, Dream struggled to relax as the floor swayed and buckled beneath him. He had been stuck in the container for over 24 hours as a secure military vessel transported him across the Mediterranean Sea to a port in Morocco. From there, employees transferred the creature onto a cargo ship that would cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Dream smelled salty sea air as it filtered through the circular holes along the top corners of his steel crate. Sunlight streamed through the holes, interrupting the darkness that shrouded the crate's occupant. The lack of light did not bother the merperson-serpent hybrid, for he had spent so long in the cave that darkness felt natural to him now.

Any other living being would have perished after sleeping for so long without food or warmth, practically mummified beneath compact layers of dirt, but Dream’s lingering magic from his father saved him from deteriorating during his slumber.

His heart beat only once every few weeks. He required so little oxygen that he did not exhaust the minimal supply of air which traveled through the rock. Dream’s scaly skin absorbed groundwater from the aquifer beside him when necessary, preserving his inner fluids.

Curled up in a ball on the floor of the steel container, Dream remembered the adrenaline that filled him when he awoke from his slumber. He was still too weak from hibernation to defend himself from the team of paleontologists who unearthed him.

After the crew leader Gia darted the hybrid with an emergency tranquilizer, Dream succumbed to the dart’s potent sedative until a militarized research team transported him to a top-secret research center in Greece. The merperson-serpent hybrid remained there while the team collected samples of his flesh and monitored his behavior until he could move to a more permanent home.

Finally, at 5am EST while the hybrid lay awake and bored on the floor of his steel crate, the cargo ship reached Port Manatee in Florida. Although Dream could only see the faint light of dawn through the circles at the top of the crate, he could smell seaweed and fish. Cries of seagulls echoed from high above the port.

Hopelessness constricted Dream’s chest when he realized how far he must have traveled. There’s no way that I’m near Thera anymore. Although Dream never prayed after he left his old home, he still felt a sense of loss when his magic could no longer sense the presence of the Greek primordial gods around him. How much time had passed?

At 6am EST, a crane lifted the steel crate off the cargo ship and onto the empty flat bed of an eighteen-wheeler truck. Without any idea that his old home did not exist anymore, Dream felt an overwhelming wave of homesickness. He promised his father that he would return!

Frustrated and frightened of the future, Dream dragged himself back and forth across his steel crate as the floor rumbled beneath him. Acrid exhaust filtered through the air holes, causing him to feel light-headed. He pushed his magic to sense the world further, but he could not feel any other magic in the world around him. He could not sense any more merpeople, not even his father. Am I really alone?

Although Thera had never truly felt like home to Dream, it was the only one that he had known. Now he did not belong anywhere. Disappointed and lonely, he sank into depression. As far as Dream knew, he should not have survived; he should never even have existed!

When soft light fell through overcast skies to caress the hybrid’s scaly flesh, he stopped pacing. No longer caring about where he was going, Dream resigned himself to wait and hope for the best.

Unaware of the sentient creature’s sadness in the steel crate behind them, George and Sapnap drove their borrowed eighteen-wheeler truck until it reached its destination: Reptile World.

With a bit of maneuvering and communication, Sapnap hopped off the truck and directed his husband as George reversed through the empty wildlife park.

“A little bit to your left!” Sapnap called. Monitoring the truck’s position relative to the open gate of Dream's future enclosure, he added, “Keep turning, keep turning - there! Stop!” Sapnap waved, leaning to the side so his husband could see him in the truck’s side mirror.

Both of the husbands were full of adrenaline as the truck halted. When the Florida State Fish and Wildlife Services permitted Reptile World to reopen, featuring the merperson-serpent hybrid as its new attraction, George and Sapnap were thrilled.

Sticking his head out the truck’s driver-side window to look back, George pointed at the steel crate, whose back half slotted between the open gates of the enclosure’s fence. “Ready for the ramp?”

“I’ll set it up!” Sapnap flashed a thumbs-up before dragging the fully-assembled ramp from where it waited near the shore. He heard the opening and closing of a door as George hopped down from the truck. The smaller man squeezed between the vehicle and the wooden posts of the gate to join him.

Working together, the husbands dragged the ramp to lead down from the steel crate into the habitat. After testing the ramp’s foundation, Sapnap and George slipped out of the enclosure’s gates again. Sapnap grabbed a ladder and placed it beside the truck. He held the ladder steady as George scaled the steps to walk on the steel crate’s roof.

As only a dark silhouette against the overcast sky, George announced, “I’ll twist the latch!”

“Got it!” Apprehensively Sapnap watched as his husband leaned down. A metal clatter alerted him that the steel crate’s door was unlocked.

Both men waited on the ground and on the truck. When a wildly agitated reptilian hybrid did not immediately burst out, George cranked the steel crate’s door.

Eager to view Reptile World’s newest occupant, Sapnap called up to his husband. “Is he coming out?”

Before George could answer, a series of scratching and thumping noises reverberated from within the steel crate as a creature dragged itself toward the opening.

Humid air and sunlight streamed into the steel crate, revealing an escape for Dream. The merperson-snake hybrid jarred alert at the sudden influx of sights and smells; he hauled himself up onto his webbed hands and dragged himself toward the steel crate’s opening.

Carefully the hybrid transitioned from sliding on a smooth steel floor to a rough wooden ramp as he peeked out. Slitted pupils narrowed as he observed the huge exhibit laying before him. A pebbly shore, a pond, and a small island of reeds in the middle: an incredibly different environment from the Aegean Sea.

Dream looked back at the two humans, who viewed the magnificent being with awestruck expressions. Those were not the same types of humans that he saw on the island of Thera; these looked more like the humans who he saw when he awoke from his 3000-year slumber in the cave system.

A forked tongue darted from the hybrid’s snake-like mouth, tasting the air to gather information about his surroundings.

Heavy scents of swamp vegetation. An acrid tang of exhaust from the vehicle that transported him. Buzzing insects in the air. No distant heat in the Earth beneath him. Although Dream had no idea where he was, his reptilian senses did not detect any danger.

After assessing the size of his enclosure, Dream continued to climb down the wooden ramp, trailing his long snake tail behind him. He glanced back when a metal clatter signaled that one of the humans closed the door to his crate, but he did not mind. Good riddance. He despised the cramped conditions that he suffered along his journey here. He might be enclosed in a fence now, but at least he could breathe fresh air freely instead of waiting for it to filter through the holes of a crate.

From beyond the habitat’s fences, George and Sapnap stared at Dream with slack jaws. Slowly they turned to look at each other, scarcely willing to remove their eyes from the hybrid. Neither man needed to speak; they both knew that Dream would be the one to save their wildlife park.

On the day of Reptile World’s grand reopening to the public, only half of the business partners’ dreams came true. Indeed, the merperson-serpent hybrid’s presence was a smashing success, generating huge crowds and booming profits for the wildlife park that matched the husbands’ soaring hopes.

Tourists ventured to Reptile World from around the city, around the country, and even from around the world to witness Dream, the last remnant of a bygone magical world.

From the day when the hybrid’s existence was first publicized until today, Reptile World became an overnight success. International acclaim lifted Sapnap and George from their financial debts as donors contributed money for further research of the extraordinary creature, funding the wildlife park’s infrastructure and future expansions of the hybrid’s enclosure.

However, on the grand reopening day, the other half of Sapnap and George’s dreams were too good to be true. As visitors flocked to the viewing platform that overlooked Dream’s exhibit, the excited chatter of adults and enthusiastic squeals of children intimidated the shy hybrid.

Since his introduction into the habitat four days ago, Dream appeared perfectly content with its size. He never attempted to escape through the wire fence or the wooden fence, even though he could have conjured magic to destroy it. Despite his acclimation to his new home, however, Dream did not like the crowds of people who had gathered to look at him.

Once Reptile World opened in the morning, Dream fled from the shore of his habitat, slithered across the water, and hid on the island of bushes and reeds in the pond’s center. Barely visible to the public, he allowed the lush vegetation to camouflage the pale skin of his torso and the bluish-green scales of his serpentine tail.

When Sapnap and George joined their guests on the terrace that overlooked the exhibit, they noticed this issue immediately. Around them, visitors began to complain that they could not see the hybrid while he hid on the island.

Hoping to please their customers and avoid upsetting Dream at the same time, the husbands were stumped. Soon after the merperson-serpent hybrid’s arrival, they learned his intelligence was greater than any animal that they had ever witnessed. Dream used sign language to communicate, a language completely distinct from all other sign languages in the world. The husbands also learned that Dream was empathetic; the hybrid expressed worry when he noticed George wearing a homemade cast on his recently sprained wrist.

Remembering the incident from only days before, George had an idea. Pulling his husband aside, he whispered furtively, “What if we try to feed him in front of the guests? Maybe he’ll come out if he knows he's safe here.”

Agreeing with his husband’s logic, Sapnap left George to monitor the hidden creature on its island while he hurried across the wildlife park to the storage building. Opening the refrigerator, he grabbed a bucket of raw meat and hauled it back to the enclosure. Visitors watched with expectancy as they realized the owner’s plan, and they shushed each other to avoid spooking the hybrid while Sapnap heaved the bucket's contents over the guard rail. Chunks of meat hit the marshy ground with a series of solid thumps.

Just like the husbands hoped, Dream sat up and lifted his head above the top of the island’s reeds to investigate the noise’s source. When he spotted the chunks of raw meat on the ground, he felt a roiling sensation in his belly: hunger. He was reluctant to eat even after his hibernation weakened him, but he doubted that he could last for much longer without food.

“Come on,” Sapnap encouraged softly. Relief flooded him when the hybrid relented and crawled out from the island’s dense undergrowth.

Still reluctant to consume meat after a lifetime of mockery for his carnivorous diet, Dream hesitated to enter and cross the pond. He had never viewed humans so close before, so he was cautious about whether to approach the pile of meat chunks. What if this was a test?

Then one of the humans in the crowd - a young child - lifted their hand and waved. Dream’s keen snake eyes spotted the movement. His forked tongue tasted the air, trying to detect any hints of aggression. When he sensed no hostility, he copied the human’s gesture experimentally. Shifting the weight of his torso onto one clawed hand, Dream lifted his other arm and waved with webbed fingers. Shocked gasps and celebratory cheers fluttered from the crowd, momentarily stunning the hybrid into lowering his hand.

Good enough for me. Too hungry to worry anymore about the humans’ eyes upon him, Dream emerged fully from the undergrowth and plunged into the pond’s swampy water.

The wildlife park’s visitors cheered and hollered with celebration as the merperson-serpent hybrid swam toward them and emerged onto pebbly soil below the viewing platform.

Approaching the pile of raw meat, Dream glanced up at the humans while they watched him. In the merpeople’s city where he grew up, no one except for his father tolerated his carnivorous diet. Carefully he reached for one chunk of raw meat and raised it to his reptilian lips. When the crowd murmured with excitement rather than condemnation, the hybrid placed the chunk in his mouth and swallowed it whole.

Instead of shouting with rage, the crowd of visitors at the wildlife park cheered with adoration as the extraordinary creature ate in front of them. They took pictures and selfies, then they promised to Reptile World’s owners that they would surely return to see the hybrid again in the future.

Without knowing that the publicity from his presence would save George and Sapnap's business, Dream devoured the rest of the meat chunks hungrily. Once satiated again for the first time in 3000 years, he relaxed and rested comfortably on the pebbly shore in full view of the humans. Although he could not understand any of the humans’ languages, he did not need to recognize particular words to sense their positive connotations. They like me!

Was eating meat acceptable now? Was his hybridized body something to love? Would the humans express acceptance of a lonely creature who hungered for it? Dream’s heart soared when he realized that the answer to all of those questions would be yes.

After living for so long and traveling for so far, Dream discovered that he could be happy here. Spotting Reptile World’s owners high above his head as they stood on the viewing platform, the hybrid repeated the human gesture that he saw before. Waving to the husbands, he hoped that they would comprehend his gratitude for giving him a peaceful place to live free from shame and guilt.

George and Sapnap smiled and waved back at the hybrid as they processed their newfound success. The husbands hoped that Dream comprehended their gratitude for him, too.

Overjoyed, the merperson-serpent hybrid anticipated his new life at the wildlife park with a sense of hope. Finally, with the care and protection of Reptile World’s dedicated owners, Dream found a home where he belonged.