Mud
Hm? I simplified him to be some untamed beast... is he not a freak of nature?
Soon I find myself re-examining the architecture of the cave itself. There are small holes at the top. The rock is dark black there, but fades in certain areas to white and light mint.
Very very very old.
There's an almost round shape of pool water from the outside sea naturally here against a cave wall. I walk up to it and stare at its deep, but still see through water.
What a time to not have my microscope...
Shuffling grabs my attention.
"Hello?" I try.
I'm jittery... he expressed forms of morality, but how long that shit gone last?
I hear pours of water and choose to follow it out of this area into another tall, but narrow hall. I come to a stop when see him; sea shells on strings separate my eyes from his naked body.
He grabs on a handle, made of coral, connected to thick string. When he pulls it, water flows then streams down from tilted bamboos.
His hair is long. It passes his shoulders. Wavy... curling more at the ends... but nowhere near as coiled as mine.
An Indian. A dark Indian.
Thousands of abalone shells cover the inside of his hand made water shower. His attention to detail puts a smile on my face.
He's intelligent?
He rubs his eyes and washes himself with a sponge from the ocean; gills appear on his human form.
For a second I forgot... you're a-
He takes what mimics breaths under the water. I watch his gills push and flush out fluid.
They ombré from the color of his skin into shiny blushes of sea green and blue, highlighted with pearl.
His form stuns me so much that when his eyes connect with mine, I keep looking.
I can't look away. It's enchanting.
He jumps and covers himself while clicks and purs leave his throat; his fishman form from early manifests.
I snap out of it.
"Sorry... I-I was... I would like to study your-um... why do you shower?" I ask.
Fish... shower?
He ignores me, then pulls the same lever he started his shower with. The bamboos lift back up and the flows stops. He mumbles to himself in the language he spoke earlier while stepping into a loin cloth.
He shifts back to human. Before I can open my mouth he slides by me, bumping my shoulder in the process.
"You're mermaid? I mean... merman?" I follow behind him, but not closely.