Stolen Dream

Chapter Twelve

Sanyo swam through the sunken ship, searching for anything that might be unique enough to keep or trade with his friends. It was an age-old game for the young; to search for hidden treasure, collecting human relics for research and fun. They would trade items among themselves and the largest, most extensive collection gave bragging rights to the collector.

Sanyo had been collecting for years and had almost bested his friend, Keenan, who currently held the desired bragging rights.

He found a rusty safe and began the time-consuming task of opening it. He had an excellent sense of hearing, but with the rust and the noise around him, it still took time to crack the tumbler lock.

As the pieces slowly fell into place, Sanyo felt an exhilarating sense of purpose. It clicked and he opened the door.

Jackpot.

A handful of gems, some paper, and a chunk of gold. Nice. He had some paper already, but perhaps a friend would be interested in it. The gems and gold, on the other hand, would be a very nice addition to his collection.

Perry gave a sharp warning squeal and Sanyo quickly packed up and joined his good buddy.

Perry was a bottlenose dolphin and Sanyo's personal companion. They went everywhere together. Rather like a human and their dog, but merfolk didn't keep dolphin's kenneled or chained. There was no need for such tactics under the sea. At least, not with dolphins. Dolphins weren't nearly as aggressive as the furry carnivores humans kept and were happy to find their own entertainment when their merfolk were otherwise engaged.

"Thanks, Perry, let's get out of here," Sanyo whispered as he joined the dolphin outside of the ship and they dodged out of the way towards safety as a few mermen went by, looking gruff and official. They were clearly searching for something...or someone.

Sanyo watched them for a few minutes, curious about what they were after. Was there an actual criminal on the loose? It didn't seem likely. There were rarely any crimes in their community. Especially this close to the Sovereign. The occasional patrolling guard and the close proximity of the Man, himself, pretty much kept the area free from anyone who might want to do some lawbreaking.

To be fair, though, it did tend to be rare for merfolk to commit crimes in general. Communities were often small and close-knit. Locked doors were unheard of along with major theft and murder. It just wasn't necessary. Food was abundant, fellowship was freely offered, and no one really wanted for anything.

Occasionally collections would go missing or items here and there, but most of that was chalked up to childish pranks and ignored. Even the greatest collections ever built, the ones that were gathered by the hard-core that never really got over the child-hood treasure hunting and continued their search over decades, didn't typically lock their collections away. Hid them, yes. Locked them away, no.

Sanyo knew there wasn't much point in taking a collection or items from a collection the few times he'd come across someone else's stash. There was no point in taking things, since stolen items were never truly safe to display.

What was the point in having the best collection if you couldn't show it off?

Sanyo supposed some people simply enjoyed the rush of taking something that didn't belong to them, but he got enough of that just with collecting.

"Sanyo!"

He frowned and turned to see his mother approaching, the look on her face enough to send terror through his young heart. "What is it, what's wrong?" he asked, eyes wide, fear a real and unwelcome reaction to his mother's obvious distress.

She shook her head. "Perry, go find your pod," she told the dolphin and took her son's arm. "We need to go. Now."

Sanyo frowned and went along with his mother. "Where are we going."