Cursed with Fins TWO The Land Calls

Chapter Five

Night time had fallen, I laid in my little cubby hole. My tail was rested against the wall.

"Skylar?" I heard a voice. I looked over to the entrance, seeing Meredith once again.

"Yeah?" I sat up.

She entered, and sat next to me.
She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself.  "I-I, just wanted to tell you... Good night." She petted my head.

"Oookkaaayy.. Is that it?" I asked, I could tell she had something else on her mind. She wanted to say something else but she wouldn't allow herself.

She hesitated to respond, then she nodded. "Yes." She pulled me closer, which sorta got me off guard. She put her arms around me and her chin rested on my head.

"U-umm?" I barely mumbled.

She released me. "Sorry if I was invading your personal space. I just felt so bad for you."

"Why?" I asked, sounding a little too innocent.

"Because you were forced to move here, leave your old life.  I would like to apologize for my husband. He just... takes his job very seriously. He doesn't want to hurt you or upset you, he's just doing what he thinks is right. He's trying to protect our species. We have been living in secrete for over millions of years."

"Why in secret? You can surely get away from people can't you? I mean, you can survive under water and swim faster. Heck! You guys even have special powers!"  I pointed out.

She smiled and shook her head. "No," She sighed. "Once a human sees us, there's no way to stop their curiosity. They won't hesitate to take it to the extreme."

I looked down,  playing with sea weed in my fingers.

"But at one time we didn't live in secret.." She started, I looked back up to her, letting her go on and hoping she does.
"We actually lived in harmony with humans, years and years ago. Our ansesters. We were at peace with them, but weren't often near them. But there was one child, a boy. He was about.. your age. He had befriended a human, that was a little older than him, also a boy. That human was fascinated with the study of science and was interested in learning all of the ocean world below and other creatures as well. The little merboy told him all the secrets he could, even where we lived in the ocean. Because he trusted him, he would travel miles, everyday to go see the human. He thought he had finally made a friend. Until one day, when the boy surfaced from the water. He thought he was waiting for his friend, come to find out he was also waiting for a whole crowd of humans. They killed the boy right then and there to study him, other humans tried to go out to find where the rest of us were, but luckily his little sister saw the whole thing, her brother being slaughtered, and she swam off to tell the others. It was a war against land and sea, if any of them would dare to look over our direction, wanting to hurt us, we would drown them. Eventually we left, and never showed our faces again. Now were just legend."

"Oh my gosh.." I looked her in the eyes. "That's horrible! And you all fought back?"

"ye- No! Not us us. Our ansesters. It's just an old tale. But they are also lessons, all we can do now is to insure that won't happen again. That's why Aqualius is so careful, he doesn't want to start war. He wants to live in peace, not have us all picked off one by one for show, study, dissection, or to be killed. So please don't associate with any humans, no matter who they are. Understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am." I nodded.

She smiled at me, rubbing my head. "You don't have to call me ma'am." She got up and began for the entrance.

"Okay, sir." I smiled widely, laying down in the sea weed.

She giggled to herself, looking back at me. "Much better!" She rolled her eyes, leaving.