"Hurry up, Gene!"
Gene groaned as he flicked his tail fin, picking up speed as he swam after his younger brother. He remembered being like that once, full of energy and curiosity of the world above the Mer Kingdom. But he was older now, on the brink of adulthood. He knew about the humans and the land, and how dangerous it was up there for their kind. Dante never was good at listening to those that were older than him, though.
"Dante, slow down!" Gene growled, grabbing Dante's wrist.
"Oh come on, Gene!" Dante whined, coming to a halt. "Let me see!"
"No, it's too dangerous to go to the surface. Now go home, tell mom I'll be out late." He ordered, letting go of Dante's wrist.
"I don't care if you're my older brother and about to be an adult Merman! You can't tell me what to do!" The blue haired Merman cried, glaring at his older brother.
Gene growled lowly, his ear fins and hip fins flaring out in an angered state. Dante made a low grumbling sound, backing down. He let out a sigh as he swam past Gene, heading back to their home in the Mer Kingdom.
Once Dante was gone, Gene sighed heavily. He really did not like snapping and bossing Dante around, but he had to do that whenever he would not listen. Their mother was going to the defense force camp on the other side of the ocean very soon, so he needed to be able to have Dante listen to him.
Gene was a lot smarter, stronger, and faster than Dante was. Since he was also a soon-to-be adult Merman, he was allowed to go to the surface. He just couldn't be too close to the shorelines, or out of the open sea surface for too long, especially at this time of year.
Just for a short while, Gene told himself, swimming up to the surface.
Cold air hit his face as he broke out of the water, shaking his head rapidly. He flared out his ear fins, using them as protective covers for his ear holes. It was around midday for the surface world, which meant the ships would be coming out very soon. He could hear something, a voice. Adjusting his hearing, he listened in on the voice. It sounded like a guy, and they were.... singing, while playing some sort of instrument.
Flicking his tail fin, Gene swam closer to a short, rocky spire that was just piercing out of the ocean waves. The sound was coming from there, he knew it. Sitting there, resting on a rocky ledge, playing a ukulele and singing a small lullaby along to it, was an Angel.
No, seriously. There was an Angel sitting on the ledge.
He was definitely a male, with pale white skin and night black hair. He wore pale colored seashells in his hair as decorations, with a strand of small pearls as a necklace, with a sand dollar as the centerpiece. He was wearing a black cloth wrapped around his body, loosely pinned at his shoulders by buttons made of coral. His wings were as blue as the water, but they had a lack of feathers and looked broken. Around one of his thighs was an anklet of small golden blossoms, with a bundle of bright reddish pink tropical flowers and small palm leaves in his hair along with the seashells.
"Hello there..." The Angel greeted him, opening his one visible eye to reveal a sky blue color. "What are you doing up here at the surface?"
Gene went into a defensive mode, ready to attack the Angel. He may not have looked like he wanted to do any harm, but he knew perfectly well how deceiving looks could be. He lowered himself back into the water a bit, keeping the upper half of his head in the Angel's view.
"I won't hurt you, I'd only be hurting myself." The Angel sighed, sitting down their ukulele. "I'm Zane, the Angel of the Beach."
Gene slowly left his defensive stance as the Angel, now identified as Zane, continued to speak with him. He had heard many stories of this Angel, the Angel of the Beach. He was practically a guardian of the Mer Kingdom, although he wasn't doing a very good job at it. The humans kept polluting the waters, throwing their trash and natural waste into their homes.
"I know a lot about you..." Gene started, rising out of the water a but more, his entire upper half above the waves. "All Mer grow up learning about our guardian figures and myths in school."
"I feel honored." Zane said, not letting Gene finish.
"Specifically about how you, Angel of the Beach, are horrible at your job." He frowned, crossing his arms. "You're supposed to be using that ukulele to pirify and clean our waters, not sit on rocky ledges humming lullabies."
"Well, I can't say you're wrong on that part..." He sighed, looking down at his ukulele. "I've been trying, Gene... I really have been..."
"Why are your wings so uncovered, where did all your feathers go?" He asked, addressing the watery blue wings.
Before Zane could answer, he let out a loud gag and covered his mouth. He turned his body around, so Gene couldn't see, but he could hear as the Angel coughed up contents that his stomach didn't agree with. Wait... Angels didn't eat, so they didn't have stomachs...
"How are you throwing up...?" Gene asked slowly, cringing in disgust at the sound.
"I'm dying, Gene..." Zane croaked out, coughing harshly as he shook violently.
"I would be too if I threw up that much." He agreed, not fully understanding.
"I'm serious, Gene... I'm actually dying...." He sighed, turning around so Gene could see. "That's why I haven't been able to purify the waters.... there's too much pollution in the sea, and the beaches aren't any different..."
"But you can't die!" He cried, his eyes widening. "Is that why your halo is missing?"
"Yes.... only a small bit of it remains..." He nodded, showing him the golden nugget on his ukulele. "I put it in my ukulele, so part of my power could remain.. but, as you can tell, it hardly makes a difference...."
"No, no, there has to be a way to heal you in time..." He insisted, hugging Zane close. "Do not die on me, Zane!"
"There are so many things I still wanted to do before this happened..." He sighed, embracing Gene in his arms. "I wanted to be able to... apologize to my family, to the Mer Kingdom..."
"You have nothing to apologize for! It's the humans who have to apologize! They're the ones killing you! Killing us!" He reminded and corrected, making the Angel look at him.
"You'll be able to take care of Dante, Gene, I just know it..." Zane smiled, touching his cheek. "Never let go of that love for him, you hear me? Family means more than anything to you, I can feel it in your heart..."
Zane reached around his neck, undoing the clip for his necklace. He put it around Gene's neck, grabbing the piece of his halo from his ukulele and embedding it into the sand dollar centerpiece. He trailed his hands along Gene's collarbone, a few tears escaping his eye as he handed the Merman his ukulele.
"Zane, what are you--" Gene started, but was cut off by Zane kissing him.
It was unexpected and painful, but Zane wouldn't last much longer. The Angel pulled away at the last second, giving Gene one last smile. He closed his eye, falling backwards against the rocks. Gene reached out to touch him, to take his body to the Mer Kingdom or back to the beach, but as soon as his fingertips brushed against his skin, he withered away into grains of sand.
The sand was carried up by a gust of wind, blown somewhere far up into the surface's sky. Gene couldn't help but want to cry. He had just gotten to know the Angel of the Beach, sworn guardian of the Mer Kingdom, and the real story of why he wasn't purifying the waters. And now he was gone, killed slowly by the human pollution, and Gene couldn't do anything about it.
He touched the sand dollar centerpiece of the necklace, running his thumb across the piece of Zane's halo. He let tears fall from his eyes as he collapsed onto the rocky ledge, clutching the ukulele for dear life.
A few hours passed, and all his tears were used up. Diving back into the water of the ocean, he started his journey back home.
