Mermen in Melbourne

The Awakening

"I swear, there is no way killing can be right. Homo sapiens might be a little underdeveloped, but that should not mean we can slaughter and eat them, like some kind of... savage," a voice called, and Austin felt himself awaking slowly. His back was against a hard surface, and the room was well lit. Holy shit, he thought. Holy shit! I've been like, kidnapped? As an adult? Holy shit. Fortunately enough, he'd seen enough horror movies to know that when a person is in any way abducted, they should always keep their eyes closed and eavesdrop. Nothing could go wrong. Well, except that one time when the main character gave herself away by snoring too loud, which ended up killing her whole family-

"Trent, we have been over this. We need food to survive," a second voice said back. The second person sounded almost... weary.

"Uh, no. You need food to survive. Unless you happened to forget, I get energy from starlight. I am no savage," the voice, Trent, said. Austin laced the pieces together. These... these creatures eat people. Humans. They eat them.

"Whoa, ho! Looks like Trentie boy has decided his new insult of the week- to call us savages. What's it gonna be next week, huh? Maybe it will be neanderthals again- I liked that one. Or perhaps it will be monster, or beast. Hell, maybe he will start calling us straight up murderers!" a higher pitched voice exclaimed. "That would be great. Real great."

"Isaac, you know the rules. No fights at the dinner table," the weary voice responded.

"I was not talking to you, Isaac," Trent repeated.

"That does not matter. You were insulting my friends, including my partner, for something they cannot change. I am so not down with that. Grow up, Trent, and stop being such a bitch," Isaac said.

"Enough!" the weary voice boomed, and the voices grew silent.

"Russell, it is okay," a fourth voice said.

"I know, Mason, but it must be stopped, or they will go at it all night," the weary voice, Russell, said. At that moment, as Austin lay, pretending to be asleep, everything went wrong.

"Um, Russell? Why does the other one have a tail?" another unidentified voice called. There was audible shifting, and footsteps closed in, closer and closer. Austin felt concern growing. Were they talking about him?

"Damn, Tanner, he does!" yet another voice added, this one Irish. There were so many voices in the room; Austin had stopped keeping count.

"Wyatt, cursing has been prohibited. Keep this in mind," Russell said, and there was obvious stuttering from the Irish boy.

"Right. No swearing. Yeah. Got ya," he said.

"Wake him up. Considering the shift, he is probably a Taurus. Our Teach could really use one of them," Russell said, and Austin felt a finger prod into his ribs, and pretended to wake up.

"Hmm?" Austin asked casually, as if he had an idea of what was going on. Of course, he didn't at all, but they didn't need to know that.

"What is your Zodiac sign?" one of the creatures asked. Had it not been for the fact that he was just kidnapped by cannibals, he probably would have laughed.

"Well that's a little forward," Austin said, eyeing the nearest being up and down. What he saw nearly made him choke on his own breath. These people had tails. Long, multicolored fish-looking flesh hung from their hips down, and not a single one of them wore a shirt. The tails fanned out at the bottom, where feet should be.

"We understand. However, it is of supreme import that you tell us immediately," one said. Austin could tell from the voice that he was Russell.

"Right. Scorpio, thanks for asking." Austin said. His eyes were fixated on the tails of these people-fish, seemingly levitating in midair. When he glanced back up at their semi-human looking faces, he noticed the distress. He'd gone and done something wrong.