Leith couldn’t quite understand why his soft sandy bed had been hardened, like stone. Currents didn’t affect merpeople as it did other creatures of the sea, in which they stayed right where they were when they came to rest on the ocean floor. It was so bothersome to remain in the city, where one couldn’t even wander the marble and obsidian streets without others staring at him. When he was younger... younger, being thousands of years ago... he would have put their excessive glances to the fact that his scales were bright and iridescent, glowing even when light seemed to have faded. Of course, his parents hadn’t told him he’d soon enough be the king of their city, of the entire race of merpeople, rivaled only by Poseidon, who so long ago had vanished from the modern works of society.

It took a moment to realize he wasn’t, in fact, even in the ocean. The water was far too clean, and... still. The water of the sea wasn’t still, it never ceased in its movement, even when the surface was so smooth one could see themselves in it. Leith widened his eyes, nearly blinded, however, by the glare of some horrible bright light that didn’t resemble the sun at all. It was large and square. Moving his hand, finally creating ripples under the water, he felt something tug at his tail, just above his flat, especially large tail fin. Where a gold ringlet used to be, something his parents insisted on him wearing in company with various other gold and dark blue accessories, a heavy iron chain had been clasped, and as he moved, it scraped painfully against his scales.

He struggled out of his lying position and backed away, but his retreat was halted by, when he turned to look, nothing. Nothing, until he put his hand on it. Some unseen barrier kept him where he was in accompaniment with the chain, and it took him a moment to realize it was glass, or some sort of reinforced clear material. He could see people outside the tank, speaking excitedly to one another and staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. Leith glared around, moving upward, and managed to break the surface of the water. Immediately, he shuddered. The place was freezing! Cold air seemed to circulate like an underwater current. Though the iron chain was heavy, he managed to get to the edge of the huge round pool.

Though he wanted to speak, he didn’t dare. He’d been taken from his home. These people, these humans, surface dwellers, had taken him from the very bottom of the ocean. He put a furious glare in his eyes, though the emotion itself was rare to come by for him. Perhaps someone would speak to him as though he were competent instead of gawking at him.

People were talking. Talking in a dull roar. It was horrible. Some had gruff voices, others screeched as though they hadn’t any intelligence to express their emotions with actual words. Perhaps it was the flow of the water that softened the voices of the merpeople, because Leith definitely wasn’t used to the way these people sounded. The tank was tall enough to where it left about twelve feet between the tall ceiling and its horrible lights, so he could lift himself up only to his stomach, because the chain pulled taut and painful otherwise. When a new voice exploded with immense authority over the dawdling crowd, Leith startled, and when it let out a high whistle, he dove back under the water to avoid it. How terribly annoying!

He didn’t understand the words the viewers mouthed, but they filed away rather reluctantly. They kept their eyes glued to Leith as they went, though, and it made him feel very uncomfortable. This was worse than the stares of expectation given to him when he wandered the streets of his home. When his thoughts crossed the palace he and his family lived in, the palace in which he kept more to himself, dreading his rise to power, a cold shard of ice pierced his chest and he sighed.

When the owner of the voice and the high-pitched whistle came near, Leith seized the opportunity and darted back to the surface, sending water waving in his wake. Pushing his long, rather teal-green hair from his face, he stared up at the girl. Perhaps she could answer his questions. “Excuse me, miss!” He waved his hand, shaking water from his fingers, but it couldn’t be helped. He’d lived around the British islands for a good few centuries, and he spoke in an obvious accent. “Mind telling me what I’m doing here? And why I’m being stared at like a piece of priceless art?”

Perhaps he worded it a bit too curtly, but he wanted answers. He’d been due back home when he’d stopped for a nap on the sandy bed of a dead underwater volcano, and his parents would be worrying, no doubt. They did tend to worry about their eldest, yet ‘thin and rather malnourished’, son. And no doubt this woman seemed to be in charge.

Leith tilted his head to the side. Had she been startled? Then again, her question said all it needed; she didn’t expect him to be able to speak. What else did she expect? Hadn’t she been present when he had been brought in from... wherever they’d taken him from? Geography wasn’t his strong suit when he was underwater so long, so his specific location hadn’t been noted before he’d fallen asleep.

“Yes, that was me.” He answered carefully. “Did... you not expect it? Or have you heard stories of our kind being particularly difficult of speech?” He leaned on the tank, folding his arms on the flat top. “I’ve never heard anyone screech incoherently at me, anyway. Unless they were crazy...” He muttered the last bit to himself. Insanity wasn’t foreign even beneath the waves. Merpeople tended to suffer delusions as well.

He shook his head. He wasn’t stupid. Maybe that was what she thought. “Well then...” He hesitated. “How about an introduction first?” He put a hand to his chest. “My name is Leith. I’m the eldest son of the king and queen of the city Yosifa. I was on my way back to the city when I was... well, I suppose you could say, taken up and brought here.” He gestured around. “And I must say, it’s freezing here! Must it be so cold? If I’m to stay here, I ought to know a bit about where I am.” He squinted his eyes to study the human girl. “And you as well, perhaps?”

He twisted his tail a bit, hoping the iron link would slip, but it only scraped harder against his scales and made him flinch outwardly. He’d never felt something so uncomfortable. Perhaps it would rub his scales off?

Leith was thankful to feel the very slight adjustment in temperature as the tank warmed. It was much more like the ocean now, only it was far too clean. Far too perfect. Still, the girl seemed very scatter-brained. That worried him a bit. Had he really startled her as much as he thought he had? “Thank you very much.” He said, allowing himself to hang onto the edge of the tank now, so his tail didn’t work too hard and the iron link didn’t move as quickly. “But I can’t stay here.” He added immediately afterward. “I have a city to get back to, hadn’t you heard me?”

He looked around. The place was full of air, with surrounding tanks that held other fish of large and small, brightly colored. It was like a prison that humans could gawk at. He shook his head. At least they were taken care of... It didn’t ease his discomfort, but it helped a bit. “Why am I here?” He asked finally. “Why have you taken me from my home? I’m needed in the city that’s soon to be mine...” Though he didn’t want it to be his. That would mean his parents were to be dead, and that was something he’d never wanted to face. However, his duties as the eldest son weighed on his heart, and made him strong.

He didn’t speak again, though; he leaned out of the tank to stare at the girl. “Who are you?” He finally decided to ask.

Leith nodded, hearing her name. Camilia. He’d have to remember that. “I know, how humans think of us.” He said. “They’ve never found specifically definitive evidence to point to the existence of the merpeople race. Until now, as you said. We’ve managed to keep away, for the most part.” The words left a bad taste in his mouth. He’d been caught. Now it was obvious that they existed.

He almost didn’t hear her words, his mind had gone off elsewhere. A new acquisition, eh? Like a new pet to be put up for others to see and be jealous of. He didn’t appreciate that. Still, Leith glanced up when she mentioned the chain. “I wish you could take it off.” he said. “My scales move freely and are living things, rather than a covering for my tail. They need air, or... well, to be free rather than constricted.” He gestured a bit with his hand, and glanced at it. Something else had been bothering him since he woke, and he couldn’t quite figure it out until now.

“Where’s my...?” He gasped. “My... things...!” He patted his neck, his ears and arms, and his forehead, as though he could find an answer by doing so. “My gold plating... all my power...” He looked up. “They took it, did they? When they put me in here? M-my necklace, my belt and armbands and earrings? They’re the source of my power, they’re what keep me... more than just a human with a tail!” He went backward, but kept to the surface. “Everything... They took it. Don’t tell me they got rid of it...” He looked to Camilia with wide eyes. He needed an answer.

They took his things into a different room? Leith really had to bite back the growl that rose in his throat. They had no idea what they were dealing with! Those gems were attached to him in a spiritual link that required them to be near him. Otherwise their need for power, specifically, his, would weaken him substantially.

He looked around to let Camilia know, but she had taken to cleaning up the place. He doubted she would be bothered to get his things. He felt oddly alone without them, but it couldn’t be helped. Still, he couldn’t get the light resentment he felt to go away. Hopefully temporary would mean within the next day, lest his scales begin falling off and leaving a painful area above his tail fin.

As the girl moved around to clean the tanks, Leith allowed himself to sink down into the water and submerge himself completely. He scaled the tank a bit, then went to the very bottom and stuck close to the glass, circling it several times before lying down on the hard tank floor, twisting his tail around him and keeping his hand on the iron link. But he’d been asleep long enough. His eyes followed Camilia carefully.

While generally Leith wouldn’t have heard anything if the water had been deeper, it was still and shallow enough for him to realize Camilia was speaking. He broke the water as she spoke and hung over the edge. It had only just occurred to him that he hadn’t eaten all day, rather than earlier in the morning. “I love Angelfish and Butterflyfish.” He said. “They’re... easy to find, right? I mean, we find them easily in coral reefs around the city...”

He twitched a bit. At least the chain would come off tomorrow... But in that time he’d be alone. Alone in a foreign world. It was almost like a nightmare. After all, nightmares brought one’s worst fears to life. It was like he’d been taken and placed in a prison.

((It’s fine, dialogue posts are usually short!))

Not legal? Leith had to mull that over for a while. It was nature to eat and be eaten. How was it that it could be illegal to eat or feed a certain type of fish? There were millions! Too many to catch! But he knew how humans tended to overfish certain areas and certain types of fish. Then again, it was just common sense to leave some to repopulate. Apparently, however, it wasn’t.

He was about to speak, but again, Camilia had gone off and left the room. He made his way to the other side of the tank and watched the door. No sooner had it closed than it opened again, and the jingling of small metal caught his ears. He moved around as she did, climbing back to the control panel. When he caught sight of the metal item as a key, he backed away. “No, you don’t have to right now. Not if you'll get in trouble with your superiors. Not if you don’t have any other... clothes.” He recalled what humans called them. Clothes. They came in all kinds of colors and patterns, just like the tails of the merpeople below the waves.

Leith backed away from the edge of the tank and submerged himself. It seemed Camilia wouldn’t change her mind, and it wasn’t his place to argue. As she worked, he kept out of her way, drifting just to the side of where the chain was hooked to the floor of the tank. When she finally got the key to turn, it unlatched the loop from around the end of his tail and the pain went away almost immediately.

While Camilia surfaced for the final time, Leith inspected the scales that had been bound. Running a hand over them, he gasped when a few decided to fall off into his palm. The ones still attached changed color every time he moved, but the dead ones lacked color and depth. He shook them off his hand and surfaced near Camilia, preferring not to tell her. “Thank you.” He said quietly. “That at least solves one problem...”

As he spoke, Leith put a hand to his neck. The gold-plated necklace that he always wore held the most of the energies that allowed him his power, and that loss was hitting him the hardest. “Perhaps...” He looked for the right words. “If you could convince whoever took my things to give them back... It’d be very much appreciated. And if they decline, just tell them the severed link between myself and my things will result in a dead presentation by tomorrow afternoon.”

It wasn’t a lie. Already he could feel the strength between the dark blue gems and himself fading. They were close, he knew that, otherwise it would have been pulling away faster.

Leith couldn’t ask for quick solutions for large problems. He’d thought that would be the case. But at least she was tolerant of him. That was a bit of luck if he could ever wish for it. And she definitely handled her emotions well. He waved when she spoke an obvious farewell though it was more of a reassurance, and watched her leave, freely moving about the tank without pain. When silence reigned, save for the humming of generators somewhere in the distance and bubbles flowing in various other well-made tanks that housed fish, including a few silver-gold Butterfly fish he eyed when he passed, Leith restlessly circled the tank at the very bottom.

He felt cold, and not the kind of cold from the air conditioner, when he surfaced every now and then. It was the kind of cold one felt when they knew they were alone in a strange or new place, left in absolute silence. He wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, especially not on the hard tank floor. Hopefully morning would come as quickly as it did when he spent his time in the palace libraries.

Leith hadn’t managed to sleep until the moments the doors opened and someone came in. He didn’t care to know who it was, perhaps Camilia, but he was too worn down from an evening of whirlpool-inducing swimming around the very edges of the tank to care. He curled his tail around him and closed his eyes, managing to doze in the eerie stillness of the water. He could almost feel the sand beneath him, and the little fish, specifically clownfish, as the humans named them. The merfolk had taken a good amount of names from the humans to use in naming the fish they found around the city and beyond. Then he could almost see the old faces of his parents, the king and queen, searching for him through the seabeds. They’d be worried, for sure. They often did so even if he had gone for a few hours.

He startled suddenly when the first smacks rattled through the water, and opened his eyes to find the offender. A man. A human man to be more specific, surrounded by others, hitting on the glass. Leith couldn’t see what he was saying, but thought it might be directed to him. What was he supposed to do, though? Leith couldn’t answer that question. Put on a show? Why? They were holding him against his will! He’d do nothing to entertain them. He looked up, shuddering sometimes when someone tapped hard to get his attention, searching for any divine entity to help him in his weakened state. In fact, it was worse today. He could feel his items so close to him, just not within his grasp, close enough to keep him alive and well enough to meander uselessly about the tank.

Leith had to keep himself from moving fast enough to cause the entire tank to stir. But it was difficult when everyone kept pounding with their annoying little fingers on the glass. It wasn’t thick enough to stop the entire sound from coming through. On his next countless track around, he come to realize the tapping, pounding, hitting, and smacking had stopped suddenly. When he glanced up, he saw Camilia’s distorted figure calling to the crowd, and thanked her silently for the relief from the most bothersome sound.

He was allowing himself to relax before an especially small human, a child, smacked on the glass as hard as she could. It made his heart jump, and without realizing, he darted toward the source of the offense until recalling where, specifically, he was. Whatever she and the older one had done obviously offended Camilia, and they were taken out by a large man with ‘Security’ written in white on his shirt.

He let out a breath when the place was closed for an hour. He lifted himself up and looked for Camilia, finding her quickly. “This place should be condemned!” He called. “Those people are crazy! What do they want me to do?” He paused. “Should I talk to them? do they even know I can talk?” He thought about it. What if he spoke without warning? Would it scare them? He grinned at the thought, a true smile showing forth for the first time since he arrived. It was wiped off when something hit him. “By the way, did you get my things back? Can I have them now?”