He hasn't felt this bad… this terrible since that day. As his skin flushes red but clams with dull and pale tones, he didn't know which way was up or if he was lying down. He felt sick, but nothing would come up because he hasn't eaten in days. He hasn't felt the sea on his skin for weeks, but it didn't matter, he was sure he was swimming in sweat in the sheets his lover provided and kept covering him in. He didn't want them, groaning and gritting his teeth in dislike, but he was soothed by the cool hands of Arsenio on his being. The pleas to keep the sheets on because he was shaking like a leaf. He didn't understand it though, he felt like he was boiling from the inside but if Arsenio spoke of it, then it must be true. His lover has never lied to him - so he did as he could best. He didn't kick and shift, he held himself still, tail curled tight between his legs and limp at the same time.
He felt hot, cold, wet, dry and everything in-between like a roller coaster of seasonal changes in ten minutes. Panting low, swallowing hard on dry tongue only to be graced water by his lovers hands eventually, his delirium made his lashes water and tears fall down his temples. Sleep was fitful and tight, he was sure he heard Oceanus a few times, the siblings too, but nothing could place the time or day it was.
"Eirenaios!" Who was that? Hippo moved his head, he couldn't see the person, his eyelids unable to lift, but he could feel the warmth on his skin, the cool waters brushing scales and mane. Ah - was he in his true form now? He was happy to be in it, tail wagging, fanning the sheets as his dreams turned to reality. He didn't need his skin guise when in the sea, he didn't need to hide amongst man to run from the wrath of the sea god, no. Here he was free, he could swim all his li-- "Eirenaios, run! My child, Eirenaios, my sweet Eirenaios, flee and do not look back! The herd is no more, flee Eirenaios!!"
As his lungs filled with water that felt like it was boiling, his scream echoed the house. The hands upon his being made him feel like he was drowning, like he was being betrayed by his beloved ocean with blood hot in his gills and tail meters from the Gods rage. He was to be next, to be slaughtered and left to the ocean's floor, to rot and become silt and nothing but bubbles for the fish and plantation that barely saw the sun.
He couldn't, he couldn't flee that God, he couldn't swim, he couldn't speak his name, his place of home, his herd… nothing, he couldn't - he couldn't… he -- "HIPPO!" A voice that shattered the panic, the pain the agony, the inhale of air, the parting of lashes and a clarity that riddled his eyes crystal clear. A lift of a self-given curse with the pain of illness. As he felt his throat become raw and dry, he wasn't in the ocean at all, but his body was half twisted, his fingers bloody from digging in his own gills, his tail held in place by two other hands and concerned faces…
This man… that Titan. Oceanus, but not him, not him - that voice was calling him something, Hippocampus? Yes, yes he understood that is what he was but, "My name is Eirenaios." Vocal cords no longer burned, his vision no longer plagued by the horrors of his sea-aversion, but he clear after the terror. "Why do you call me my specie, Arsenio?" As if he hadn't known that he was none verbal for a very long time, as if he hadn't introduced himself in that way, in speaking nothing of his name for the self-given curse twisted in the fates.
"… My name, " He blinks, headache presence and body tense but panic no longer pooled in his stomach. Instead, it clicked, a realisation, fingers raising to his own throat even to touch, as if expecting to feel steel, choker, pain or scarring but nothing, nothing awaited his touch. "Eirenaios." He whispered, lips wobbling and lashes fluttering before they raise to stare upon his family. "I am Eirenaios! My name, Arsenio… Th-that is my true name, Eirenaios…!! I can say it, I can say it again." Oh, how his tears overflow, how his voice sings even outside the waters. How long has it been since he felt elated like this?
