New man's POV
Finally, after over two hundred and nine years, several generations of hunters, we had one. A real, living mermaid. Granted, we had acquired corpses, but she, she was living.
She was two meters long, head to tail. Very very short hair, boyish face. Reminded me of some guy I saw in college, except very cute and alluring. Soft round face, slightly lifted nose, curly hair, a beauty. We were assured it was a female as when we tested her over we found reproductive organs... though some of us had to have a debate as she may have both. Obviously she was a female however! There was no debate! I would not let there be one.
I am Martin Washington, no relation to the famous George, and I, like my family before me, hunt mermaids.
The orange-tailed beauty we happened to catch out of luck had to be treated for sun blisters, a fractured bone or five, and whiplash. We could not let her fry in the sun obviously while we were in the helicopter, but closed the net with her in it and dragged it just under the water... hence several bites, whiplash, and the odd angles of her arms. Now, she was slumbering in a peaceful position on some blankets in her own tank. My grandmother's own design, for both the tank and blankets.
I watched with a tapping foot, staring at my prize through the glass. Oh, what a beauty. Maybe an easily swooned one. I watched the tape again of our saving of her. It starts off with the shark disturbance, then I move the camera and notice a trident burst from the water. We start moving over and more tridents fly, then there he is. The big blue-tailed merman practically throwing himself on the net with orange beauty frightened against his chest. Then he freaks out, recognizes his mistake, reaches to the girl and is dragged down by gravity and a shark before he can. We grab our prize away from the red water and hoot and holler. We captured her, the Orange Beauty, right from the hold of her mate.
Orange Beauty. I think that will be her name. Perhaps just Ora.
A movement catches my eye as my eyes flick back to the tank. She's stirring, eyes opening a bit. Sadly, not the amazing optics I've come to expect with mers. Too bad for her, mermaids usually had radical colored eyes to help them see farther in water, and be more recognized in their society. This one must have been a result of... human mingling.
She sits up and looks around slowly, looking over the water-proof patches over her arms and wincing. Then she notices me, and opens her mouth.
"Where am I?" Her lips read.
That cannot be right, she is a mermaid. She does not know English, they have a complex echo language. This is not it.
She looked around more and repeated. "Where am I?!" Though I could not hear her voice.
A tone of fear and worry, no doubt, her face turning pale as a stressed fish.
"Top cover, open it!" I demand of my lackeys as I head up to the top, the automatic half-circle plates sliding open, just in time as she starts panicking. She rose to the top of the tank like a anxious goldfish, popping her head out of the water.
"Where am I?! Who are you?! Where is XY?!" Orange Beauty began to babble in English, clutching her face. One of the temperate gauges marked she pissed herself, and one of the men started writing this down. Like he damn well should.
"Calm down there miss, my name is Martin Washington, you're in a place called Hawaii." I assured her. "I rescued you from quite a predicament. I'm not sure where your mate is."
"Hawaii?! That's too far away!" She gasped, apparently knowing geography or relative places. The amount of things to be learned from her was insurmountable! She ducked down for water and popped back up. "My name is Charles, thank you for rescuing me, but I have to get back to XY!"
Charles? Was this a mermaid miscommunication type of name? "Well, Charles, tell me, are you a man or woman?"
"Of all the things to ask me...." Charles was very suddenly put back by the question. "I'm a man. Now let me go." He moved over by the platform and put his hands on the grey.
"Male? But you can reproduce." I objected.
"Man, woman, I don't even know any more! So can you quit taking me back to high school insecurities and let me go find XY?!" He started to cry.
"Hmm, interesting." I took a swab of his tears and he slapped my hand- hard. My men walked forwards with low-volt cattle prods threateningly, and he jumped back to the other side of the tank. "So, mermen and women have high school?"
"What?! I don't know, I'm not one. Well. Haven't been one! Until now! So let me out of here!" He was looking for an escape and crying and ducking under for more water time to time, like a scared dolphin, nosing for a way out. "I- I just want to make sure XY is okay!" He sobbed.
"So you haven't been a merman long? Shame. What were you before?" I pressured him. "Dolphin?"
"I was human! Let me out, I was human! I'm Charles Smith of California!" He said, watching the prods with fear. "I- I just want to go back to XY...." The expression of a breaking, fearful heart was on his face, like every second was being plucked away from him. All that seemed to matter was his XY.
"This XY, is he your brother, or do you fornicate?" I asked. Well, he was useless to me now if he was just a man with a mer tail. Disney World or maybe Atlantis Resort would kill for him, even after I dissected that tail and performed in-depth studies as to how he resulted in... this. Maybe remove his voice box so the Geneva Convention couldn't call for civil rights. Yet....
Charles's face lit up orange and he took a dive before poking his head up and responding. "He's not my brother. He's my protector."
Ah. I've got it.
Now that I have him, and if the blue one is still alive... all I will have to do is wait. Two gay birds for the price of just one, likely breedable. I moved back.
"Close the hatch, we're done here."
"Wait! Please!"
YOU ARE READING
The Mer Prince
Romance(ManxMan Content) When a curious sea-drawn marine biologist takes his leisurely sea trip by himself in his ship, he happens upon his strange origins... and a new love.
