Your father was a captain of a ship carrying products across the oceans. It's what his job was and where his passion lie, as well as where you lived. You were able to go to school, but why would you want that when you could travel the world with your father and his crew? You could read, write, do basic math, map the thousands of twinkling stars in the night sky with your father. What more could you need to learn?

Though, you couldn't help but wish you were anywhere but the ship as pirates ruthlessly attacked, seeking the precious crates below deck. It was chaos, the crew futilely trying to defend themselves and the ship.

In the midst of a massacre of the people you'd known your entire, albeit short, life, you fell overboard, helpless to the dark waters. It pulled you down, despite how you flailed to fight against it. You were young but you knew what this meant. You would die in the sea, and no one would know where you went.

Your father would be devastated, if he even survived the attack.

And yet as your body began to succumb to the water filling your lungs in place of oxygen, you felt gentle hands on your neck forcing life into you, giving you the ability to see and breathe underwater through means of magic. When your vision adjusted to the lighting of the dark sea, you couldn't help but gasp.

You knew this creature, how could you not? You lived on the ocean, hearing about it in both storybooks and sea shanties. A merperson. A merman, to be exact. His clawed fingers and webbed hands held your small body close as he began to swim, his massive tail of vibrant shimmering blues, greens, and blacks propelling you to his home. His yellow eyes were gentle as he stared down at you, still holding you tightly as he cut through the water like a knife to butter. He stopped once he arrived at a cave, decorated and obviously well lived in. You could only watch in awe as he set you down on a soft bed of seaweed and hovered next to you, placing a hand on your head.

"Are you okay, little one?"