You're a siren. Sirens and mermaids have always hated each other and mermaids think themselves much better than sirens and create all kinds of rumors and horror tales about them but in reality don't know much about them. Sirens are forced to live in the deeper, darker, colder parts of the ocean, hidden away.

Sirens have trouble having children. They tend to keep to themselves. And eggs have trouble surviving where they live. Sirens often resort to stealing mermaid's eggs...

That's exactly what you're trying to do. You find an unguarded nest in a mermaid's cave filled with eggs. They look sort of like fish eggs except bigger and a shimmering golden color. You are just about to take them when a merman comes back into his cave...