Chapter Text
Small waves broke against Martyn as he struggled against the net tangled around him, only for each attempt to break free to bend his broken wings into even more painful angles. A pained cry caught in his throat as he tried to maneuver his hands out from behind his back. If he could just get 𝘰𝘯𝘦 hand free, he could try to break out of the net. Such a sad fate for a supposed powerful siren, wasting away, all broken on some beach, entangled in a net. He was going to die, all alone, not knowing where he was and all tangled up. A nearby voice pulled him from his depressed thoughts.
"Woah, you ok, my dude?"
The speaker stood just a few feet away from Martyn, wearing a bright red button-up shirt with sleeves so stylishly rolled up past his elbows, a pair of jeans, sunglasses perched on the end of his nose, and the fluffiest tail and ears Martyn had ever seen on any dog hybrid ever. Was it wrong that he wanted to pet his ears? To see how fluffy they actually were? Martyn shook his head, trying to focus on a way to get out of the net instead of focusing on the strange wanting to pet this random man he just met. How uncivilized of him. Having taken Martyn's head shaking as to him answering his question and not being ok, the man drew a dagger from a sheath at his waist and started to walk closer to Martyn.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna get you out of these ropes, ok?" The man reassured Martyn, seeing the look of terror that spread across Martyn's face as he walked closer to him.
The man crouched down beside Martyn and began carefully cutting away the ropes around him, making sure not to hurt him. It was slow work, but eventually, Martyn was free of the ropes.
"The name's Ren," The man says. "And you would be?"
"𝘐'𝘮 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺𝘯," He wrote in the sand in front of him. "𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘰𝘸𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶."
Ren watched him write in the sand, a perplexed look on his face. "Can you not speak?"
"𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦." He explains.
"It was no problem, my dude," Ren says happily. "Anyway, do you want help with your wings? I'm no expert in fixing broken wings, but I have medical supplies that could help fix you up."
Martyn nods.
"Alright then, follow me," Ren says, helping Martyn to his feet and leading him into the nearby forest.
Now, Martyn's no fool. He was well aware that this could all just be a trap of some sort, but Ren had saved him, and he felt oddly compelled to trust him and try to make it up to him in some way. Martyn tapped on Ren's shoulder to get his attention before trying to write something on the ground for him, but the sandy ground of the beach had long since given way to hard-packed earth that made writing on the ground nearly impossible. Well, shoot. That makes things a bit more complicated.
Seeing that Martyn had practically lost his ability to communicate at the moment, Ren decided to try something.
"Do you know sign language?" Ren asked.
Martyn looked at him, confused. Sign language? What was that?
Ren smiled softly, trying to figure out the best way to describe what sign language was. "Sign is a language that's spoken through hands. A lot of Deaf people use it to communicate. You use different signs, or hand gestures, to convey what you want to say," he explained, before holding out his hand. "Here, trace what you want to say on my palm and I'll teach you the signs."
Curiosity piqued, Martyn gently grabbed Ren's hand and began to trace his words.
"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶." He traced.
"Ren took a second to process the words before taking his hand back. "This is the sign for you," He said, demonstrating the hand gestures associated with the words. "This is the sign for help, now this is me, now looks like this, want is like this, to doesn't have a sign, but it's inferred, that usage of serve doesn't have a sign, so we'll just use help again, and you already know you so just put them together and you have a sentence!"
Martyn began copying the signs slowly, and Ren helped guide his hands when he got stuck. It took longer than he would have liked, but he managed to sign the full sentence on his own after a little bit of practice. He looked up at Ren proudly. He grabbed Ren's hand and traced thank you on his palm.
Ren smiled and demonstrated the sign, tail wagging happily. Martyn copied it.
"You're very welcome, Martyn," Ren said happily. "And as for you serving me, I'd say that's a bit extreme, but if you really want to, I won't stop you. And I'd be happy to teach you more sign, too. It's quite a wonderful language."
Martyn smiled and signed thank you again.
Ren wrapped his arm around Martyn's shoulder, trying to keep his tail from whacking into Martyn's injured wings.
"I have a feeling that you and I are going to become quite good friends."