Normally while swimming across the ocean, your pod remained close together, stopping along shallow waters for food and rest.

The pups enjoyed swimming in the nooks of rocks and between the thick forests of sea weed, and the other adults in the pod took the time to mingle and hunt.

You ended up swimming past the flourishing area your pod was settling in, and looked off into the deep water.

Past the sand, you saw a drop off, a slope leading into a deep blue abyss. It wasn't abnormal to wonder what lived down there, since you had once encountered the dead body of a pitch black, toothy fish about the size of your palm. It was a scary looking thing, and you were glad it was small.

But while you zoned off, something slowly crept up the slope, swimming out of the darkness you looked out on.

Your gaze drifted up, towards the orange light of the setting sun through the surface of the water.

Then it was blocked out from below.

A face was before you, a sharp toothed, smiling face. His eyes were black as night with vibrant blue color in the center, almost glowing in their vibrancy. "Hello." He leaned even closer to you, filling your vision.

With a brief glance of him, you could see his extremely long hair fanning out around him, blue scales snaked down his arms into black skinned clawed hands, with webbing between his fingers like most merfolk. His most unsettling features were certainly the long black spikey fins which emerged from his forearms and the sides of his hips, going down his tail.

He looked like a merfolk, yet a more... intimidating kind. Not a tropical merfolk like you were used to.

He tilted his head, inspecting you too. "Do you not talk? My name is Phobus."