Yuri is a natare. A mermaid. He knows how to follow the rules that keep his kind safe. So why does a human dancer named Victor makes him feel like breaking all of them?
"Yuri," Takeshi called. Both natare in front of him turned their heads.
"Don't call me that!" the blond fingerling snapped. "Call me Yurio or Yura. I only have this name because his family is dead."
Yuri flinched. Suddenly he was five again, sitting on a corner of his family cave, covering his ears. "Forget me not," he whispered.
Yurio scoffed. Yuri glared.
It was an old tradition. To name newborn fry the same as a natare that had passed suddenly to keep their memory alive. Yuri's case was slightly different. In his case his entire family had passed, his sister, mother, and father. The next fry to be born had been named after him so Yuri wouldn't feel alone.
So this was him. It was the first time they met.
"I want to shadow someone else," Yurio addressed Takeshi as if Yuri wasn't even there.
"You're not even supposed to be shadowing anyone." Takeshi swam closer to the blond natare. He was almost twice as big as the fingerling and he wasn't taking none of its shit. "You haven't even had your pre-branding physical. The only reason you're allowed to shadow is because you're the grandson of an elder."
Yurio's cheeks became red. He bit his lip. "I'll tell my grandfather—"
"You do that," Takeshi was tired. So tired.
Yuri silently moved near the entrance of the cavern. He felt like he shouldn't b here for this conversation, but Takeshi hadn't dismissed him yet.
"I don't want to be in this group. I'll demand to be switched to another group," Yurio said.
Takeshi grinned. "You want to know why you are in my group? You really want to know?" Yurio's eyes hardened with rage. The eyes of a fingerling that had been granted every desire he wanted and wasn't familiar with the word no. "You're here because none of the other chiefs wanted a fingerling that hasn't even been pre-branded, even if they are the grandson of an elder. They took one look at you and they know you will be branded a mater. In their eyes, there is no point in training a mater to be a monitor, because the only thing maters are good for is making more natare."
Yurio shrunk at the words, and for a second he looked like the child he was. Yuri spotted small tears at the corner of the fingerling's eyes. "But he's a monitor," Yurio pointed at Yuri without looking.
"Because I'm here. I'm a chief willing to train a mater as a monitor. That's why you got placed in my group. Now do you want to keep complaining or are you going to shadow Yuri?"
Yurio bit his lip, his face downwards, but his eyes glaring upwards at Takeshi. "I'll shadow him, but only because I have no choice." He turned towards Yuri. "You better teach me properly," he grunted before rushing out of the cavern.
Takeshi groaned. "I feel old and my children are not even fingerlings yet." He sat by the logs, running a hand through his hair. "Maybe I was too harsh on him. He has proven himself many times over on the training exercises. He's going to be an excellent monitor."
Yuri felt a little sorry for both of them. "Is he really going to be a mater?"
"Who knows," Takeshi shrugged. "Male maters are rare enough, but there's enough gossip going around. Even privileged fingerlings are susceptible to whispering voices. He thinks he's so smart keeping secrets, when he's just a child trying to run from the inevitable."
Yuri rubbed his thumbs together nervously. He was also a child trying to run from the inevitable. He also kept secrets...
"There's something we haven't talked about yet," Takeshi snapped Yuri's attention back to himself.
Yuri shook his head. "What?"
"The humans."
A chill ran down Yuri's body.
We must not save humans. We must not contact humans. If a human ever discovers us, they have to die.
"You witnessed a ship sinking Yuri. Your report was generic and very matter of fact. I actually wondered for a second if you had actually been there when it happened or just got there after the fact."
"I was there." Yuri tried to defend himself.
"Then why didn't you say anything about the humans?"
"Didn't know I was supposed to." Yuri was suddenly back there. It was dark. The light of the sinking ship eerily illuminating the water and revealing the shadows of the struggling humans. Yuri remembered thinking of other things and reciting his vow over and over. "They all drowned. They all screamed. Do I have to tell you that? I thought we didn't care about humans."
"Yes—No," Takeshi took a deep breath. "Yes, you need to tell me everything. You've been reporting back for over three years. Your reports have always been impeccable and super detailed except this one time. Something happened there you are not telling me about."
Crap...
Yuri's fingers inched towards the locket.
"And it has to do with that human trinket around your neck."
Crap crap crap...
Yuri's eyes softened. Takeshi was waiting.
"There was a human..." he started. "I was gathering the life jackets and he was in one of them, I thought he was dead at first, but when I touched him he spoke to me." Yuri saw Takeshi move from the corner of his eye. "He thought I had been on the ship, told me to take this," he patted the locket. "I unbuckled his life jacket and he sank in the water."
Then I rescued him...
Yuri bit his lip, avoiding looking at Takeshi. He heard the older natare swim close until he felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by a reassuring hug. "Never keep something like that to yourself."
Yuri felt the comfort of Takeshi's embrace and suddenly tears started spilling from his eyes. It was sorrow. Sorrow and guilt for all the voices he ignored, but also relief. Relief that Victor was still a secret, his secret. He wanted to see him. He wanted to see Victor so bad it almost hurt.
"I'm going to delay the recovery of the ship. I'm going to give you two days to rest."
What...
"We are not made of stone Yuri. We feel when we see other creatures die. So I'm going to give you two days to refresh. I want you to sleep and help out with the nursing of group B."
Yuri nodded, slowly digesting the information.
"You're dismissed." Yuri barely registered the words as he rushed through the tunnels back to the sleeping caverns. His thoughts were going a mile a minute. Two days. Two days.
He rushed to his cluster — empty now since everyone was still taking care of group B — went inside his family cave and made sure the cover was drawn to block the view of his room.
Two days. Two days.
No one would even know he was gone. They never did anymore.
"How long do I have to wait until you come back?"
Notlong after all, Yuri smiled to himself. Taking one last look at his cave, heswam out as fast as he could, outside the sleeping caverns, outside the nest,and into the ocean that would take him to Victor.
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