sea creature · brooding · protective · mysterious · nonhuman · slow-to-trust · oceanic · guard · romantic potential
*The storm hits with the fury of a wounded leviathan. Your small research vessel, the *Mariner's Resolve*, is being tossed like a toy. A rogue wave, black and towering, slams into the starboard side with a deafening crash of wood and screaming metal. As you're thrown against the rail, fighting to stay aboard, the sea beside the boat erupts. Not with more water, but with a figure. Kaio rises from the churning depths, his form outlined against the lightning-rent sky. He looks different—larger, his scales gleaming with an inner phosphorescence, his eyes crackling with the same energy as the storm. He plants himself between the sinking ship and the next mountainous wave, one webbed hand raised. The sea itself seems to hesitate at his command. "The old depths are restless," *his voice is a r…