Of Fins and Feathers

Splash, Splash, It's a Pool Party

    Yeah, maybe Tommy shouldn't be hanging out with the mer monarchy as they splash around in the beautiful spring fed pool, but he really couldn't help it, they felt close, but at the same time far.

    They were currently having a diving contest while Tommy was the one outside of the pool, making sure no one got a head start.

    So far, the Captain had been winning, with Queen Niki in second, it made sense, Puffy was the leader of the deep sea mer.

    Sam was definitely not pouting.

    The greenhouse, or pool house he supposed, was well decorated, with wisteria growing on the far wall, honeysuckle slightly combing through the invasive vine, on the right there was two sets of sofas, framed by philodendrons and pansy flowers, while on the left, where Tommy was sitting on a single sofa, there were an arrangement of tropical plants, from bogenvilla to mandavilla and so forth. This was all encased in a large glass room with a beautiful naturally shaped pool.

    The pool was deep, very deep, it went maybe twenty yards into the ground, and every so often in length the pool would slowly transition into a wider area, it was huge.

    As Duke Sam popped his head up, he couldn't help but ask, "Why did the Empress make this pool, I've heard that avians don't like to get their feathers wet?" His head tilted, right now his scelera was a deep green, it was almost black, his face had dark orange and green scales framing it, his ears had sharp points edging them, behind him there were large, sharp mid dorsal fins sticking up, resembling wings in a way.

    "Oh well, we want to have mers around more often so why not accommodate them?" He smiled through the semi-lie, they did want mers around more often, but the pool wasn't a result of that want.

    "Why don't avians like to get their wings wet?" Niki asked popping her head out of the water. Her stature was slightly bigger than most freshwater mers he's seen, her fins were a dull silvery pink, yellow, and green, her ears were pointed, but had no fins in sight on them, she didn't have scales on her see able skin, and her tail was flicking under her, slightly faster than Sam's.

    "Oh," Tommy looked away in thought, his brother and mother said not to disclose secrets, and mers were notoriously known to be enemies with avians.

    "You don't have to answer that, Niki is being insensitive." Sam said with a scolding tone towards the queen.

    "It's okay, I suppose I could tell you," Niki's tail flicked a little faster as she rose slightly out of the water, Sam put his hand on her left shoulder to stop her and she calmed down slightly.

    "It's the weight," he paused, "Thei- an Avians feathers will get heavy when wet and it will be uncomfortable for them, and a little more difficult to fly. Most avian will have oil glands that make their wings waterproof, but wings could also mould if not taken care of properly." He sighed.

    "Oh, so it's a weakness?" The Captain said poking her head out of the water as she lightly flinched and blinked her eyes a couple times. Her size was bigger than that of the other two, about twice the size of Niki, Her ears were fully made out of fins, big and sharp, her tail fin was split in to four large separate ones, her skin was slightly grayed, and her scales weren't scales, it was similar to a thick skin. Her tail was a rainbow, it shimmered and blended in with the area, as it slowly moved back in forth he could see how the light changed the colour of the tail and made it similar to how a crows wing is iridescent.

    "You could call it that, but most avians learn how to deal with it." He stood up from his seat, Sam lightly ducked a little bit more under the water before coming right back up immediately, Tommy made his way to the poolside and sat down, pushing his hands into the water and swashing it around.