The spray of salt on his tongue and the sea breeze in his hair reminded Tim why he loved sailing out on his father’s merchant ship across the seas. His father was bringing him across the sea on a trip to a foreign market and he couldn’t be more excited. They were docking in the port later the next evening but the anticipation had Tim restless. Right now, he was supposed to be asleep, but he had too much energy. He was pacing the deck - everyone else was fast asleep- when he glanced out at the water and shining in the moonlight he saw a broad tail, slick with ocean spray and shining in the moonlight.  He could have sworn- no he was just tired- but it looked like- no, silly, mermaids aren’t real, you didn’t see a human torso attached to that tail. Still, he wasn’t convinced. And what better way to burn off some energy than explore? He climbed down the ladder into the small lifeboat, peering over it to get a better view, when, in the darkness, he tripped, falling with a splash into the water. His heavier clothing got logged with water, pulling him down. His lungs burned for air. And as his vision began to vignette to black, he caught sight of an unfamiliar face in the water. When he awoke, he was no longer underwater. Instead, he was laid down on soft sand, stripped down to his long underwear, heavy clothes gone, in some sort of grotto. It was humid and damp, with walls of stone covered in craggy rock and algae. Someone seemed to have fashioned the lower crags into shelves holding human trinkets: moldy bits of fabric that must have once been beautiful robes and dresses, jewelry of all sorts, soggy maps and journals that didn’t quite survive the grotto’s climate. Tim turned around when her heard something come up out of the water. There, on the sand, was a mer. Half-human-half-aquatic creature, you were dazzling. “H-hi,” Time stuttered, eyes wide as he stared at you.