The Merman's Lament - IvanTill

~01~

A long time ago, within the deep teal sea, stood a magnificent underwater kingdom where all sea creatures lived in harmony. It was ruled by a royal merfolk family, the king being Unsha, a powerful yet strict merman who was widely respected all across the kingdom. He had two children, the crown princess and the prince, both loved by everyone: Sua, the oldest, known for her quiet and reserved nature, and Ivan, the youngest, described as someone with a never-ending curiosity and energy.

Both siblings were admired for their otherworldly beauty and their mesmerizing musical talents.

While it was not rare at all for merfolk to have extraordinary voices and abilities to play instruments, everyone agreed that, when it came to the two royal siblings, it was on another level.

Sua's talent for playing the lyre was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and Ivan's singing voice was also described as the best voice in the seven seas. They managed to captivate everyone whenever they would perform or sing, even the sea wizard, who would leave his lair just to listen to Ivan's singing.

Unsha was very proud of his children, but there was something that always concerned him: Ivan's fascination with the human world and anything related to it.

Ever since he was very young, he had always shown a great interest in the world from above. He would always ask him questions about it, trying to find out everything he could about it.

Once he was old enough to swim around on his own wherever he wanted, he would often swim towards shipwrecks, trying to find objects from the human world that he would later add to his garden, which was filled with them. He was completely obsessed with that world and those creatures that Unsha found barbaric, considering how they treated merfolk and all sea creatures. Everything in Ivan's world revolved around humans and their world.

"Ivan, the human world is dangerous," he would tell him over and over. "Humans are cruel, barbaric creatures. They kill fish to eat them and hunt merfolk to keep them as trophies. Forget about that horrible world and stay away from anything related to them, you hear?"

However, Ivan could never really bring himself to do that, no matter how many times his father would order him to get rid of all his treasures and forget about that world. He couldn't understand how they could be as bad as his father was saying they were, or how such a wonderful world could be such a horrible place.

As the years went by, his fascination would only grow even more, and the more he was forbidden from trying to know more and collect more objects, the more he wanted to do it.

He wished he could see it with his very own eyes one day, even if it was forbidden. He would spend hours daydreaming in his garden, surrounded by his collection. However, his father would always scold him for it and tell him to go back to his studies.

Even so, he wanted to learn more about the human world, to know everything about the humans, the landscapes... There was nothing the sea could offer that he found interesting. He already knew everything he needed to know about it, and it was boring.

It was then that he befriended Hyuna and Hyunwoo, a pair of twins around his age and yet another reason for his father to be disappointed in him.

They were known for being mischievous, never really following the orders of their father, either. They would help Ivan sneak out during the night to search for new shipwrecks to explore and would give him more objects to add to his collection, much to Unsha's dismay.

Unsha told him over and over again to stop being friends with them as he considered them a bad influence, but Ivan refused and kept finding ways to sneak out and hang out with them.

"The first time I went to the surface was one night Hyunwoo was asleep," explained Hyuna, having both Hyunwoo's and Ivan's eyes on her. "I swam till I managed to find a ship sailing. The humans in it were drinking and eating, while some others played music. It looked no different than when we celebrate parties down here."

"What was the sky like? We can never see it very well from here," said Ivan, his eyes lit up, brimming with interest.

"It was all dark, but it had some bright lights shining on it, tons of them! And there was also a huge round bright thing too!"

"Do you know what they are called?"

Hyuna thought about it carefully, and Hyunwoo helped her out by pulling out a book that was full of things about the human world that he always carried around when the three of them met.

"I remember seeing something about it in the book. Let's see if I can find it."

Flipping the pages, he stopped almost at the end of the book and began reading what was written on it before answering the other boy's question.

"Here it is! The bright spots are stars, and the round one is the moon!"

Ivan was left in awe and quickly approached him to take a look at the book. He saw there was an illustration of both things, so now he knew what they were like as well.

"And what does the sky look like when it's not dark?"

Hyunwoo once again flipped through the pages until he found again what they were looking for. He pointed to the illustration of the clear blue sky to both Hyuna and Ivan once he found it.

"The sky is usually like this. This other round thing that looks like the moon is the sun!"

Once again, Ivan was in awe. He found it beautiful, and he couldn't help but look forward to seeing it with his own eyes, though either of them was fine for him, whether it was at night or during the day.

"If you want the book, we can give it to you, but make sure the old hag doesn't find out! He will surely break it if he finds it!" said Hyuna, who had placed a hand on the black haired merman's shoulder.

Ivan nodded enthusiastically, and Hyunwoo gave him the book. Ivan's black eyes immediately lit up as if they held an entire galaxy in them, and he hugged the book as if it were his most prized possession before proceeding to also hug the brown haired twins.

"Thank you, guys!"

That same day, Ivan hid it under the seaweed sheets of his shell bed, where he thought his father wouldn't be able to find it. While Sua knew about it, just like everything else he did, he never told their father a thing, wanting to see his younger brother happy.

Sua had his back, and the twins were providing him with everything he wanted, so his obsession would grow even quicker than before. Nothing seemed like it would be able to stop it now.