(A/N: A random idea popped up into my head as I skimmed through random wikipedia articles)

Summary: While away from his home in a secluded forest-surrounded cottage, Seth finds an interesting male bathing beside the waterfall. Unknowingly capturing him, the male, who is actually a swan maiden, now belongs to him.

Warning: This contains yaoi but I will not write anything graphic. Apologies. That means, there are gay hints between men and eventual falling in love and sex, but I will skip the sex scenes as I am not good at describing the sex in a way that it would make you wet your pants. Therefore, this story will be rated T, but with sexual undertones.

Swan maiden: creature who shapeshifts from human form to swan form. Despite the name, males are found in a small number of legends. The key to the transformation is usually a swan skin, or a garment with swan feathers attached.

Title: Swan Bathing in Innocence

Chapter 1: Waterfall Encounter

It was late afternoon when I walked out from my house, stretching a little as I was finally let free from the small cottage in the middle of the mountains. It was mid-June and I had recently graduated from secondary school and awaiting my birthdays, which was only three days away. Bouncing on the balls of my feet, I was pumped and excited that I was able to finally leave the cottage after the storms last night.

Having just arrived yesterday afternoon in my old hand-me-down Honda, I had quickly pulled into the muddy driveway and had made a dash, stumbling in the rain water puddles into the shade of the cottage’s porch. My parents had sent me here, alone, and according to my wishes. I was bored of city life and they had lent me their cottage, which my mom had inherited from her late grandfather, who lived here once in his youth. She seemed sad, yet happy, as she gave me the keys and announced that I’ll be spending this birthday alone as I was a fully-fledged adult and they wanted to see if I would survive through the month-long trip. I was ready to prove their theory, of me staggering back in rags, wrong as I looked ahead, shivering a little as a cold breeze nipped at my arms. Running back into the house, leaving the door open as I rummaged through my packed bags, I took out a brown fleece jacket, not used to the cold air of the highlands. Though, I was determined to get used to it soon.

Puling it on, I walked back to the doorway and closed the door behind me, locking it firmly though I didn’t suspect the trees to break into my house even if I had left it unlocked. But better safe than sorry, I told myself, shocked as I quoted my grandmother. I was a seventeen, coming eighteen, year old young man and I shouldn’t be saying things that I have heard coming from the old lady’s dry and wrinkly lips. Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I wanted to clear my clouded thoughts as I broke into a small jog down a pathway, leading myself into the small jungle-ish forest.

It was long until I came to a clearing, gasping for breath as the cool air lapped at my face. I didn’t sweat much because of the cool atmosphere and I wanted to live here forever, I vowed playfully in my head as I heard the cool, trickling sound of water. It came from my right, which led to an unmarked path towards something which sounded like a small waterfall. Was it my curiosity or my daringness that coaxed me to waddle through the lush, green grass and overgrown plants and endanger myself by walking straight into unmarked areas of the forest, I don’t know, but I had to be stupid to do so in the middle of the night.

Good thing it was late afternoon…

Tumbling and taking huge steps through the plants and a few huge rocks, I walk down the sloping imaginary path I, myself, had pictured in my mind’s eye and continued on down, the sound of the trickling water soon morphing into that of a crashing, small waterfall. I blinked a few times and came to a thick hedge of wild bushes. I could see the waterfall’s rocky structure loom ahead of me, over the hedge but I slowed down, creping up to the wall slowly, as if a single sound might do something bad. I didn’t know what the sudden fuss was about as I had practically stomped through everything earlier and parted a small bit of the bushes, gasping in awe as I saw the waterfall. The clear water cascaded down the rocks, forming foam in the small pond below. The water around the falling water was rippling and white froth appeared all around, but a few feet away, the water was calm, rippling ever so slightly, almost stagnant.

Then, it was when I saw him…

I used to read about those people whose original form were that of animals; taking off their animal skin every once in awhile, leaving it carelessly for humans like me to steal and threaten them to be my wife or something of the sort. But I had expected them all to be women. His fair, winter white skin glowed softly as the sunlight peered through the leaves above him, cradling his small frame in a euphoric shine. Glimmering in the filtered rays of the sun, his platinum blonde hair swayed from side to side as he slowly, awkwardly stepped into the water, the level rising slowly before it was at his chin and he seemed to float, moving his slender arms gracefully. I couldn’t see the colour of his eyes, but I knew they shone as well in the light. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve called him an angel instead of…

Well, I wasn’t sure what he was, yet…

It was when he stopped swimming peacefully in the water and his small giggles came to a halt was when I noticed that I had stepped through the hedge, leaves and twigs caught in my hair and clothes. I saw that his eyes were pale blue, like the sky when the sun was shining too brightly for there to be the usual cool, serene hue of calm blue. I took another step forward, enchanted by his submerged body and his innocence that seemed to trickle down from his face, like how the clear water was doing right now. He drew back, gliding gracefully in the water, his hands drew to his chest and cupped together insecurely underneath his chin. “Don’t!” he cried out, sounding scared and frightened of me. I didn’t need him to say it to hear the inflictions of his voice; I could see it clearly through his eyes, widened and revealing himself like an open book.

He was naked, I noted as he slowly began to glide towards the higher parts of the pond and I saw him grip awkwardly for the rocks, his eyes trained on me and never leaving me as he slowly began to climb out of the pond, the cool water trailing down his body. He was cute, the way he reacted, I’d give him that. But I had expected his body to be more…muscular and fit? Instead, I saw his long, graceful and slender frame, his limbs long and agile-looking. He was now sitting at the shallow part of the small pool of clear water and the cold liquid brushed at his thighs, his hand groping about on the bank, trying to find something.

I felt my eyes travel to in between his legs, which he had parted nonchalantly as he searched around blindly for his important object, his eyes not leaving me at all through the entire scene. I smirked in amusement as I spotted the spot in between his thighs and he, noticing my reaction, slammed his legs together, but the damage was done. I noted, he has no pubic hair.

Or he shaves a lot…

Suddenly, his pale, full lips parted and I saw him point out to something at my feet. Out of instinct and paranoia that he might be pointing to a snake, I ripped my eyes from him and drew back as I saw a pile of white feathers. He let out a small cry as I picked it up curiously and the limp beak of a swan’s bobbed dully as it slipped out of the bundle of feathers.

“Don’t,” his small voice murmured, as light as the sound of a small bell tinkling in an empty room, echoing continuously until the echoes died away slowly. I blinked, staring back at him, but my hands still gripping the swan’s feathers. It was light in my hands and I felt wings on it as well. His look was pleading but he stayed at his spot, his back pressed against a rock wall behind him. “Everyone’s gone now,” he continued in his small voice and I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he meant. His eyes seemed to have a sad glow to them now as he diverted them to the water, staring at his reflection as he ignored me unintentionally, remembering something distant, as though it happened too long ago that he couldn’t remember exactly what it was like. “Everyone’s gone and I’m the last one around these parts,” he said, saying his sentence in full and with slightly more courage. “Don’t kill me,” he whispered softly, sounding truly scared. His eyes were back on me, the pale blue orbs had unshed tears in them, his face contorted in fear and despair. “I don’t want to die…” he murmured, wrapping his arms around his own body insecurely.

“I’m not here to kill you,” I found myself saying after awhile and his damp eyes lit up, filled with hope now and my gaze softened at this, noticing he was much more happy now. “I’m just here out of curiosity,” I continued, finding no other reason to give him and he eyed the feathery swan skin in my hand now, his priorities changing quickly.

“I’ve never been captured by a human before,” he said quickly, making my eyebrows rise again questioningly as I wondered what he meant. I suspected he wasn’t completely human, but I didn’t understand fully what he meant by ‘captured’. Since when was he in my possession? Don’t tell me he came with the house!

“I – I don’t think I understand,” I said softly, stumbling the first few words, shocked by the young male in the water, holding himself securely as though to support himself. His gaze changed slowly and a small, sad smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Raising his hand, he pointed towards the skin I held firmly in m hand. “As long as you own that,” he began, his eyes glittering. “You own me.”

Gaping at his words, I was clueless on what to say next, completely caught off-guard with his small, but powerful sentence. It was enough to keep me silent as I searched for the words to reply with, and better yet, waited for his explanation to fully sink in. The waterfall’s water splashed down loudly in the background but it didn’t cloud my thoughts as I stared at him through dark brown eyes, soft and questioning, hoping to coax another explanation out of him. But he kept silent, waiting patiently for my answer now, his sad smile remaining on his lips as he held himself close, but he was less jumpy and frightened than before.

It was a start, at least…

(A/N: This is one of my random drabbles so don’t expect great vocabulary and crap like that… It’s all in the storyline, mate… lol. Read and review, please and thank you)