Bubbles leave his opened maw, as his awareness slowly swims back into place. His thoughts are a jumbled mess of incoherency.
"I'm so tired." Rain yawns out, struggling to get his senses together.
"What happened? That was such a weird dream." He says rubbing the crust and moss out of his eyes.
Yellow eyes crack open comfortably to the ocean around him. They began to scan the vicinity and rouse to alertness. The salt water is like air to his yellow eyes as they stay wide open without any irritation clearly surveying his surroundings.
"My head is still ringing like crazy, that bastard!" Rain's hand wipes down the side of his head to get rid of any remnant blood. Noticing the unusual abrasive texture to his skin.
A mixture of curiosity and dread, fully brings him into the waking world. His hands begin inspecting his body in absolute horror, frantically checking everything over. Most of his human features were completely replaced. Azure scales littered his body, guarding it like chainmail.
"No….NO NO NO THIS CAN'T BE!" He cries out mortified at the changes.
"It was just a dream right!?" He yells out in terror, pinching his scaly cheeks for pain confirmation.
"RIGHT!?" Rain screams out, noticing the bubbles emerging in the waters sending more and more confirmation to his terror.
"How is this real, WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!" Rain roars out in complete unbridled shock. The nails and webbing of his hands and feet continue to prove this isn't a dream.
"My body, what happened to my body. How am I even able to breathe underwater!" Rain stutters, mortified over the changes in his body. Struggling to keep a breathing rhythm with his new found gills.
"I…I have gills! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" He screams out, checking the new appendage over delicately. The gills automatically draw water in and out creating an odd sensation in the sides of his neck.
His mind screams in complete dissociation seeing the new fish-like form to his body. On instinct he begins to frantically search for a mirror of some kind.
Webbed fingers press against his bedroom mirror. His yellow eyes reflect back at him, one of the few remaining features. Brown hair had been completely replaced with numerous azure fins. Scales spread out from his eyes down his neck. A scared face looks back at him, inspecting his mouth the horror only continues seeing the numerous rows of razor sharp teeth.
"WHAT AM I! I'm not even human anymore!" Rain cries out, near sobbing. A hole of what he's lost forms in the centre of his heart oozing with agony.
"What was the point of continuing, if you were going to take everything away from me!" He roars out, slamming his scaled fist into the mirror. Shattering it without a scratch to his fist.
All he can do is sob, in the place that was once his home, now claimed by the seas themselves.
"Bark bark!" His loyal companion wakes to the sound of his masters sobbing.
"Fin!? FIN!?" Rain cries out in confusion and disbelief.
"Your alive boy!? How is this even possible!?" He continues to sob but with joy this time seeing his companion. Only different of all of his puppies had been replaced with seal-like skin and black scales. His tail had elongated further with finned tips and black scales. Claws had grown out and his teeth were sharper. Fins extend off the tips of his ears. As his snout inspects his master, the black nose is one of the few things remaining the same with his puppy.
"Oh my god! Looks like I'm not the only one!" Rain says, horrified but slightly comforted he's not the only one.
"Bark bark!" Fin lets out an excited series of barks despite the confusing environment. His only focus is the happiness he has for being with his master. Swimming over full of excitement he gives his master a kiss.
"It's good to see you too, boy!" Rain lets out the first piece of warm laughter in his new life.
"I thought we were dead, seems like something had other plans for us?" Rain's mind scatters trying to wrap his head around everything that's happened.
"Everything is submerged, a flood was downplaying it." He scowls looking at all the memories ruined or rotting away under the ocean.
'Brother!' Lucas' voice bubbles up in his mind.
'We love you Rain.' The memory replays once more, his subconscious urging to stand strong.
"MOM! DAD! LUCAS! IF I'M ALIVE! WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM!" He cries out terrified of the possible outcomes floods of bubbles leave his mouth. Sending his gills to subconsciously suck in more water.
"Don't tell me, did they really drown!?" Rain struggles, his mind torturing him with the worst case scenarios.
"They may have abandoned me but this! This is too much!" Rain continues to sob once more, thinking of the terrors his family might have had to go through.
His webbed fingers grips at his coarse scales, trying to ground himself in whatever way possible.
"Why! Why did you let me live? Just to suffer for your amusement!" He cries out cursing at the seas for continuing his existence of suffering.
"Anyone else could have done the job!" He continues, replaying the fragment of the entity's words.
"Why me!" Rain explodes out, before coming back to an apathetic calm. His mind chose to accept the events instead of cracking.
"If i must suffer then ill at least do something with it!" He clenches his scaled fingers into a fist affirming his resolve to survive in this new world.
"I'll continue in their stead no matter how painful it might be! I'll get my bearings then, it seems time to say goodbye to this place. I'll take what I can and send this place off." He affirms to himself, making solemn vows not to break going forward.
"I'll carve out a path to survival and I'll live the fullest life I can! For them! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO ME!" He roars out, carving a promise to himself deep in his heart.
Rain's glowing yellow eyes begin scouring his submerged bedroom for any resources he might need. Finding one of his old sling backpacks his dad brought back to him from the navy. Rain's webbed fingers begin to gather any useful resource he can find available to him.
Shoving in his old waterproof camera, he continues his search downstairs. Stepping out of his room the door is nearly rotted off the hinges. Swimming through the build of moss in his hallway, his webbed feet flutter through the green waters, guided by what sunlight trickled through his rotted roofing.
Making his way to the kitchen, Rain swims through the whole house, stuffing whatever canned goods survived into his sling, along with a decent portion of dog food. His moms old swiss army knife sticks out of a cutting board a little rusted.
"Where dads stuff? Most of that should be waterproof." Rain says swimming his way through his submerged house until he reaches his fathers garage. His scales harden reflexly in an eerie fear.
"What is that?" His eyes go wide as he asks this.
"Yip, whine" Fin responds in fear feeling the odd vibrations through the water.
A gigantic eye peers through the moss ridden window. Sending its gaze deep inside Rain's house searching for any crumb of food. Its fanged maw spews the ocean back out with tremendous force.
"Whatever you do, keep quiet boy, not a sound." Rain whispers through the waters, scouring through his dads garage deftly. Trying his best not to make any out of place noise.
Shoving equipment in his sling one after the other, he begins to gather what he can before he alerts the gigantic creature. A hunting knife, waterproof navy radio, rope, first aid, waterproof batteries, high powered underwater flashlight and his dads old compass.
"As much as you were a bastard then, you didn't deserve this. I'll keep this on me till I find out what happened to you guys." Rain says cutting a strand of rope into a makeshift compass necklace. Making a memento of his father close by at all times.
"The nails are as useful as they are creepy." Rain sighs letting out a couple of bubbles.
"Packed as full as I can without it bursting at the seams. This should help me for now." Rain says satisfied with the gathered resources. Tightening the strap on his sling.
"Time to leave this place. Come on boy." Rain says ready to say goodbye to his old home.
'We love you Rain' The memory replays as he makes his way to the exit of the garage.
"I know. I know dont worry." He says to himself, spreading a warm smile across his scaled face. His moment of reflection is shattered by the hungry groan of the creature stalking his house.