Lachlan's Love

A Heroic Encounter

There have been many tales about merfolk in their splendid undersea realms, with shiny tails that could out-sparkle the stars and beautiful singing voices that would put songbirds to shame, but this is the story of a unique merman. With his auburn hair and cinnamon-brown eyes, as well as an indigo tail with gold accents, Lachlan was quite remarkable for his species. Being the 5th-youngest son of the ocean's reigning couple gave him more freedom than responsibilities, and he enjoyed the lessons he learned in Merfolk School so much that he spent most of his free time studying.

The rest of his spare time was spent exploring the ocean outside his family's kingdom, finding assorted knickknacks and items from old shipwrecks to keep, as well as resting on the grassy area near the shore. Thanks to having a produce crate that had washed ashore, the surface was where he usually kept his collection of found items, and he also spent time up there to see the stars and moon in the evening.

While resting in his usual place one afternoon, Lachlan had just made a necklace with a key that he found as the pendant when he heard someone's voice, to which he looked up before noticing a boat coming into view. The boat contained a single passenger by the name of Kaitlyn, who was a young woman who enjoyed music and fantasy, and the boat was her own handiwork. Even though she enjoyed daydreaming about doing something amazing compared to her boring life, her friends abandoned her while her family considered her as weird, making her feel like a shut-in. Having moved into a small beach cottage not too far from Lachlan's spot, Kaitlyn spent some of her money to buy and build her own boat, which was a chance for her to escape and daydream. She was singing while rowing around for fun, and she didn't notice that her soft singing voice had caught Lachlan's attention, because it was as soft as a cloud while she glided along the water.

The only thing that could stop her singing was a whirlpool, which happened to catch her boat before starting to pull her under, but she dived overboard out of fear. Upon seeing the incident occur, Lachlan swam out to the boat before grabbing Kaitlyn and carrying her to shore. As soon as he had placed her on the grass, he rescued her boat and laid it beside her before sitting next to her, where he checked her pulse with his gentle hands on her wrist. After resting her hand on the ground beside her body, Lachlan looked at her before finding himself in awe at what was in front of him. He had seen photos of human women in Merfolk school, but something about the one that he rescued left him speechless, and he couldn't believe that he had saved such a beautiful creature.

While wondering if he needed to give Kaitlyn CPR as he learned in his Human Rescue class, Lachlan was leaning forward when some of his long auburn hair dangled down and brushed her cheek, causing Kaitlyn to start twitching. Even though Lachlan couldn't contain his mixed excitement and relief at her twitching, he pulled his hair out of the way and watched Kaitlyn as she opened and blinked her eyes a couple of times. Unsure of whether she was dreaming or not, Kaitlyn reached up and felt Lachlan's cheek with her hand, and neither of them couldn't believe how soft the touch felt.