Chapter Text
He was panting by the time be made it to his lake. It wasn’t really his lake. It was on the Hale preserve, but it was so far back that it took a good portion of the day to get to it and the Hales banned camping years ago from a forest fire caused by a careless camper. It killed too many people, the older sister of the remaining three children claimed when she made the announcement in front of the hospital their uncle was at. They agreed that it might change when everything had a chance to heal but Stiles knew the Uncle was in a coma that they visited daily so he didn’t believe that it would be any time soon.
“He he, they never have to know” Stiles set his bags down by the rocks and pulled out his lunch. It was late but he also limited himself to one fish when he was swimming. It wasn’t a large enough of a lake for him to take any more. He pulled out his phone, making sure to turn it off so he didn’t run out of juice and there wasn’t even reception up this far so it didn’t matter. He kicked his legs out started to work his chucks off as he ate, too excited because he waited for several weeks. It was his own fault for getting grounded.
When he was done, he stripped completely naked and folded his clothes, shoving them into his bag so people will just think they were a change of clothes with his towel and dived in. It was everything he wanted. He stayed in his human form until he made it past the large tire and swam deeper. He didn’t bother taking a deep breath as he did, curling as his body shifted and his legs fused into a tail. It was a dark red, but when he caught the light that rippled through the water, it would reflect hues of gold.
“Yes” He twirled around before taking off toward the opposite end of the lake. It was just large enough that it was hard to see what was across it but it wasn’t big enough that people came here anymore. There were plenty of lakes closer that they would have more time to swim. Stiles had all night. He didn’t need a fire.
Only when several hours pass did he resurface. It was just enough for him to peer out and look at his bags. Glee spread through him when he saw the man himself, Derek Hale standing there with a frown on his face. He looked around in confusion, but Stiles remained still. He could tell by the way he held himself that he was furious, but he didn’t care. It was hilarious to him to watch the man drop his things and stomp into the trees, thinking that he was going to find the person that was here after dark. He held in a laugh as he slid back into the water.
“Now, my little fish.” Stiles rubbed his hands together before taking off toward the bottom of the lake. He didn’t know what the fish were called or what they were, but he also made a rule that he had five minutes to catch one once he started his hunt, or he’d leave it. One year there were so many fish that he barely had to move to eat them, and he ate nothing else the entire year he came out. The Hales claimed that a fisher man want-to-be snuck in and dumped a bunch of babies in at the beginning of the year, into several lakes. Stiles felt lucky but they weren’t pleased.
He caught one and swam to the bottom of the lake, heading to his small cave he made of stones and curled in the ground, his tail wrapped around himself. He ate it carefully, frowning at the scent of soot in the water from him settling. It happened sometimes but this time he couldn’t get comfortable. He twitched as he polished off his snack and sniffed, trying to follow the scent to its source. It was discovered that the fire was from campers, thought his father was skeptical for a while, but the lake got caught in it. The entire area is full of dead, burnt trees that hadn’t been taken down, as well as fresh growth that made a macabre of greens and blacks and greys.
Instead he found a small locket and grabbed it in his teeth, using his hands to swim nearer to the surface and clear of the dirt that he had churned up. It was beautiful, a little worn by the waters but it still made his hands shake as he turned it over in them. On it was the Hale symbol. He thought it was a bit stupid for them to have a symbol but as he held it, he got flashes of what happened the night of the fire.
There was a beautiful little girl. Maybe eight or nine that was running for her life. Stiles couldn’t see her face clearly, like there was an old faded picture where someone moved but he could only see her dark hair. He could hear her breathes as she panted, trying to out run the fire. There was someone with her, begging her to keep up. It was another child, maybe an older bother but he was a good head taller than her, telling her how close they were as he practically dragged her by her hand. He could feel tha pain in her digits from the grip. Stiles wanted to drop the necklace, not wanting to see the end but his fingers wouldn’t let go. The two children suddenly came to the end of the trees and the boy grabbed the girl, throwing her into the water. Stiles lost his vision completely as he saw her thrash around, trying to get to the surface and a flash of gold as her necklace fell off. Then he was back to reality, floating down slightly from his lack of movement.
“Damn” He clutched the necklace to his chest as he swam up to the surface. He knew better than to touch things if he didn’t know where they came from. He saw a helmet that was worn in WWI and immediately knew that someone died with it on. He held a pocket watch an watched his fathers entire eighteenth birthday once when he was seven. His mother had explained it was the gift of the fin, but that he had to be careful. It was a terrible world out there. Somethings, when picked up, would make you relive the travesties that the owners faced and unless you could pull yourself back, you’d keep living them.
This time he triple checked that Derek Hale had moved on before he swam to the shore, tucking the necklace into his bag. On a second thought. He pulled out his notebook and ripped out a page and used a highlighter to draw a crappy version of the Hale symbol and folded the paper so he had a small pocket to slip the necklace in. He tapped his fingers on the rock before pulling out another page and scribbling down the message of finding it while he had been swimming and wanted to return it. He guessed the younger girl had been Cora Hale, and that she was with her brother, but he hated not being sure since he didn’t get a clear look at their faces. He set his little package back on his bag and swam back to his cave.
This time when he curled up, he went to sleep. His dreams weren’t exactly filled with fire as he had feared. Instead they were full of the children running past him, their faces blurry like his mind didn’t want to focus on them. The more he focused on them, calling out to them to turn to him and telling what to do with the necklace, they remained faceless and silent. In some ways, he believed it was worse than if he just dreamed of fire.