Mesmerized | ✓

2

Yuli covered his body with clothes Carl had given to him. He felt weird never having worn them before. His skin itched and he had to resist the urge to scratch himself. As he followed Carl through the town he couldn't stop trying to touch every single thing his gaze fell upon as he had never seen anything even remotely like that before.

Everything was bright new to him, alien. He had known the buildings, the pavements and the humans only from the stories or from the few glimpses he could catch from afar, hiding somewhere among the waves with his head and his eyes above the surface.

Now everything was real, everything was tangible and he couldn't wait to know every single thing that there was to know about the human world. Suddenly, his attention was caught a small furry creature walking down the sidewalk alongside a woman. Yuli stopped, ignoring something that Carl was saying. He leaned down to touch the creature but in turn it started barking and jumping at him showing off its impressive teeth.

Yuli tilted his head to the side looking at the furry ball curiously. He reached out his hand but before he could touch it the woman pushed him away. "Hey, leave my dog alone." She said raising her voice. Yuli blinked a few times feeling rage build up inside him. He didn't even attempt to make her compelled to adore him. Instead he wanted to make use of the hot liquid racing through her body and pulsing angrily in the vein on her forehead.

But before he could do that he felt Carl pull him back. "Leave her alone." His new friend told him gently. "I'm so sorry." He said to the woman with an apologetic smile. "He just really loves dogs."

The woman muttered something unintelligible with a shake of her head before she walked away together with the dog. "I just wanted to touch it." Yuli complained wishing he could have felt the soft fur under his fingers and wishing even more that he could have sunken his teeth in the woman's neck.

Carl gave him a puzzled look but the more he stared at Yuli, the more enchanted he became by his mere presence. He didn't have to be told that either. Carl's pupils widened, his mouth hang open and Yuli felt as if he were some rare creature worthy of all kinds of admiration. Well, he was, at least to Carl.

The young man led him to his quaint little flat as he put it. Yuli looked around warily, noticing that it really was small. His knowledge of humans was fairly limited but he could recall stories of huge mansions with all kinds of luxurious utensils. Yet, Carl's apartment consisted of just one room which consisted of what would be in a huge house five different ones. Here, the kitchen, living room, dining room and the bedroom were all cramped into one. Only the bathroom was separate. And thank God for that.

The folk of the sea didn't have the need for such spaces but now he would have to get used to feeling more human in ways that he probably wouldn't particularly appreciate. "Are you hungry?" Carl questioned walking over to a small white object and opening it.

Yuli looked curiously over his shoulder seeing all kinds of things inside. Some of them he recognized as food consumed by humans while others were completely foreign to him. He didn't know the feeling that could be described as hunger, at least not for the things that Carl would consider as food. But he needed to know what those things tasted like if he wanted to pass as one of them.

"Yes." He said simply.

"Okay. What do you want then? I could whip up mac n' cheese, I guess." Carl murmured looking over the food.

"I want the eggs." Yuli said wanting to eat something that was familiar at least in concept. He had seen them many times, lost by the seagulls or stolen from them by seals. "And that." He pointed at something that resembled a miniature tree.