One year ago, you and Valen were ensnared in a fishers net; the end to the independent life you led in the waters of the ocean. Trapped within a tight tank alongside Valen, the two of you were auctioned off to an aquarium for a high price in human currency. They took you to a place that would be your new home and spoke words you couldn’t understand fully, but they kept saying you had to entertain.

Both of you were thrown into a large tank that was almost like the open sea, but there was a large glass pane separating you from gawking humans. Children pointed up at you with awestruck eyes while adults nodded thoughtfully. You’d tried to escape countless times, to shift into your human forms, but it was futile. The stress and anxiety both of you experienced everyday—fingers tapping on glass and thousands of eyes on you daily—made it impossible to relax enough to achieve the switch.

So you accepted this as your fate for the foreseeable future. Performing for humans all day and sleeping under the stars of your glass enclosure as best you could. You were brought food precisely on the dot each morning and evening. One could almost forget they were being held captive, except how could you ever forget something like that?

Tonight was the same as always, you rested your chin on your arm, propping yourself up on a little outcropping, while Valen stretched his tail out on a flat rock. The humans had tried their best to replicate coral shallows for you to rest in while the aquarium was closed. It was decent. At least they let you see the sky, even if it was through a glass dome.

“What are you thinking about?” Valen’s melodic voice cut through the soft sound of water splashing against the surroundings. “You have that look in your gaze again, little pearl, like your mind has drifted.”