Lady of the lake

He/him

It was weird. He could have sworn that he left his bag by the shore last night. Luckily nothing valuable was in it, yet he knew that the pond didn't rise so the likelihood of it just being the water was very unlikely. He has searched for some kind of sign that some other source had helped the bag in its journey. But the only thing found was some more of those colourful scales. Something however caught his eye. It was a giant conch shell, it looked as if a sunset had arisen itself on the shell. The pinks and oranges were beautiful. Y/N picked it up and carefully viewed it to make sure there weren't any critters inside and looked around for more but only saw more of those colourful scales. He headed back to his house with the shell in hand. When he got home and washed it off and placed it on his table eventually deciding that it needed something else. He grabbed a jar and went back out to the pond spending lots of time picking up little pink and purple scales. Each time he dumped a handful into the jar he smiled enjoying how pretty it was getting to look. Before he knew it nightfall had come. He grabbed one last little handful and made his way back to the house. The jar was barely a quarter of the way full but he was still very happy about how much progress he had made.
Although while laying in bed he thought about how strange the situation had been, his bag gone and a perfect shell in its place? Deciding that he needed to figure out if this was a coincidence or not a plan was made. He would put out some more little goodies before next nightfall and check it in the morning. Although he wasn't sure what he would put out sleep had taken over before it could even cross his mind.
When Y/N awoke he was quite excited to be up again. He grabbed his bag, a new one of course, and put some goodies in it that he would set out for later, than grabbed his jar of scales and headed off.
Once the day had gone he placed down some items, a pouch of seeds, a shiny spoon, his least s favourite mug and a small poppy. Leaving them slightly scattered he skipped off, not wanting to be out past dark. The next morning he jumped out of bed and ran out to the pond. When he got there the items he had put the night before were gone. And there was an item in place of each one.
He picked them all up and examined what they all were. A piece of kelp, some sea glass, a smaller purple shell and a small gold piece.
Y/N squealed in excitement as he knew that it wasn't just a coincidence. He wasn't sure what the next steps were but now he knows that this isn't just a fluke! While giggling in excitement he hadn't realized the curious pair of eyes watching him.
Before to long Y/N had come up with an idea of how to get a glimpse of this mysterious creature.
Luckily he had a spare invisibility and night vision potion from his last adventure. Grabbing some more shiny things and the potion he snuck out to the pond and placed the items by the water. He slipped behind a bush, drank the invisibility and night vision potion and waited.
After a while there was no signs of movement from anywhere and his invisibility potion was about to wear off so he decided to give up on seeing the creature and went to go grab for his items. When he did his eyes were met with another's. The ones that met his looked dark and mysterious but were completely full of life. Both Y/N and the other were frozen staring at eachother.
"Uuuh... hi?" Y/N spoke. This seemed to spook the mystery woman, she had gasped and went back under the water, disappearing into the darkness. Y/N still sat there in shock. After a few moments he got up with his items and walked back to the house to sleep. After some thinking with tossing and terming she fell asleep.
The next morning Y/N was determined to find this mystery person. He wasn't quite sure what this person could be but he was still determined to find her!
Y/N headed out to the house with bread in hand, he sat by the water and started talking. He wasn't quite sure what to say so he started talking about his past, many things that he hadn't even told the people who had been closest to him. After a while he talked about things that seemed to be meaningless like what he had for breakfast or a cool flower he saw, anything to keep herself talking. Soon it became sunset and he was about to give up for the day but there was movement in the water. The beautiful lady from yesterday appeared, looking quite cautious but also very intrigued.
Y/N smiled "hi, I'm Y/N" the creature didn't respond instead looked him right in the eyes. Y/N couldn't help but stare back. The Lady's eyes had so much to them, they were slitted like a cats and you could see almost no sclera. They had blue undertones but were mostly grey, he guessed it was so the creatures eyes didn't get damaged by the light.
"I mean no harm. I know you've probably not seen many people as this place seems to be in the middle of no where. Could I ask for your name?" He waited a few moments and got no response, only the creature moving forward. This is when Y/N noticed the long pink tail that the creature had. His face lit up, it was a mermaid. These creatures were very rare and there were almost non of them left. Y/N mentally kicked himself for not putting the pieces together sooner.
Y/N was pulled out of his mental ramble when the mermaid took hold of his hand, inspecting it. Her hands had scales scattered along them and there was webbings between each finger. The lady carefully manoeuvred her hand to shake Y/N's "I'm Nikki, it's nice to meet you"
He was shocked to say the least. Remaining speechless while Nikki continued to toy with his hand and up his arm. Playing with the hairs that were now standing on end from the others cold hands. "I-it's nice to meet you as well. Sorry for my shock, I wasn't aware that mermaids spoke English"
Nikki giggled looking back into Y/N's eyes "well most people don't try and talk to us, although I find it quite funny that you spoke to me expecting no response" she gave a little laugh leaving Y/N embarrassed and fumbling over his words.
Y/N and Nikki talked for a long time, Nikki asking questions about different items or places above water and Y/N happily responding. Sometimes Y/N would ask questions but he knew that Nikki has never had the chance to talk to anyone from land.
Over the course of a few weeks Nikki and Y/N had gotten super close, Y/N would often bring Nikki things from land for her to investigate. Fire being the most interesting of all, they had taken a whole day talking about how that one works.
This was a different kind of friendship than either of them had ever had. There was no pressure to meet the others expectations and they were free to ask questions about anything. Nikki had declared Y/N as part of her pack, making sure Y/N knew that it meant they will always have each other to rely on. It is a friendship that neither of them expected but one that both of them would give the world to have forever.