— Too curious for your own good. That’s what everyone said. Instead of having bubbles in your brain, you wanted to learn more about the human world, humans, their accustoms.

Your father had already warned you one too many times about swimming up to the surface, out of fear you being spotted by humans and taken like your mother had. You never listen, something draws your heart to the surface.

A trip to above the water took you outside of this large ship, sailors singing songs, bright colors filling the night sky, it was beautiful, until it wasn’t. Something had happened, something you couldn’t wrap your head around. You remember large gusts of red and orange, screaming, tiny boats being lowered into the water. A man had fallen over board, unconscious you assumed by the we he wasn’t swimming, just floating. Then he started sinking. Your head told you no, your heart screamed yes.

You swam to the man just as he reached the sand bed. He was handsome, from what you could see, hair the color of the sand beneath his head. You saved him, blew your air into his mouth as you swam him to the shore, stayed with him until consciousness. Eyes as blue as the sea itself, that’s what you remembered before you fled.

Art had been destined to find the face hovered above his when he awoke, he thought he was dreaming it, but it didn’t make sense how he drifted from the middle of the vast ocean all the way back to his kingdoms shores. He was determined to find her. Everyday from then, he walked the shoreline, eyes on the horizon. Everyday you were there too, hidden behind a rock, admiring him.

Humans despise merfolk, that’s what you were taught. It would be a dishonor to reveal yourself to him, and dangerous too. It didn’t stop you, watching from a safe distant couldn’t get you in trouble.

Every night before sunset, you return, hidden behind the rock, chin propped on your arms, watching him search. This night, he was a little late. You found yourself humming, quietly. Just a small tune, eyes shut, lost in the melody and then—

“Who’s out there?”