Léan continued backing out into deeper waters, seeming somewhat surprised that the human was following him out. He moved fluidly through the water, even while moving backwards. In truth, the merman had not expected her to want to follow him. The sea, after all, was his territory, and she did not have the advantage.

When the boat was really no longer in sight, he relaxed and stopped moving. There was a small rock alcove behind him, so he eased himself up onto it. Out of the water, his hair laid a little flatter and looked more sleek than curly.

He did not say anything. She was the one who wanted to talk. He would let her spark conversation.

Karissa was really glad when he finally surfaced, wondering if her legs would give out due to the cold. As she slowly made her way to the surface, not so graciously as Léan, of course, she felt herself shivering, her teeth clattering on the mask. As she took the mask off, the first thing she had to say was "That's cold..." Fortunately for her, the water was warmer at the surface level, but her body still hadn't gotten used to it, and the breeze certainly didn't help.

Finally she could remove her goggles! She was still keeping her distance from him, not daring to go near the rocks he was on, but looked at him in wonder. His hair was silky smooth on the surface, not like her wet and lifeless silvery blonde hair. A pair of cobalt blue eyes scanned him, her lips twitching into a smile in wonder. "You really are so beautiful..." she whispered, not even noticing she said that aloud. Tilting her head slightly, she smiled at him and said, "Where have you been hiding all this time...?"

Léan's eyelids dropped rather boredly at her comment about his looks. His nonchalant reaction suggested he had been complimented on his looks more than once in his lifetime. Her question, spoken in a friendly voice, took some analyzing to understand. His English was far from perfect...but he did understand basic words.

Instead of responding, seeing as he wasn't sure how to, he pointed down a few times. He had gone down as far as he could have possibly gone, where little light was able to breach. Merpeople had excellent vision in the dark, seeing as most lived very far below the surface.

"Down below...? How far deep?" she asked, her gaze curious. Biting her lip, she thought a bit. "Well, I guess you wouldn't know much about what meters are..." After a slight pause, as if just realizing it, she said with relief, "Wow, you understand English! Can you speak like I do? Or can you only make completely different sounds?"

Karissa was bombarding him with questions, so much flowing into her mind. It was as if she had just discovered a new race of human, a race all thought never existed. It was like finding Santa Claus was real and that dragons are hiding behind mountains. She was fascinated with him, and couldn't help wanting more.

"...Speak little," Léan replied, quietly. He was limited to basic English. He did not know about contractions, sentence structure, or how to properly conjugate verbs. He didn't properly know the difference between tenses, even. He usually just spoke in present tense, because that was what he knew best. It was different with his native tongue, Rebenian, but he was limited in English.

His tail flicked back and forth absently. His voice...it was musical, fluid. It was like everything he said was part of some kind of song...

Karissa’s eyes widened as he spoke; it was as if his voice never stopped singing. She’d never heard a normal human sounding so musical. All the legends about mer-people seemed to be coming true before her eyes. “Sorry, sorry, I was probably too fast…” she said, trying to pronounce her words better and slower. “How did you learn? English?”

Over in the water, Karissa had to keep kicking to stay afloat, if only to be able to face Léandre directly. She hadn’t expected it to be this tiring, but considering the long day and the swim just now, it probably wasn’t too surprising. Hopefully, she’d be able to go back soon enough, and maybe even gain his trust enough to sit by his side.

Léan's tail flicked back and forth uncertainly. His trust was something that was not easily gained. In fact, the only creature in the world that he trusted...was his younger twin brother. They were identical twins, but close up there were distinct differences between them.

"Sch...school," the merman answered, having a little trouble pronouncing that word. He had attended school for quite a while, getting an education to better himself.

“So you go to school too? What other things do you learn there?” Karissa asked, still kicking to stay afloat. She was used to swimming for long times, but today had been a long day, and it’d been a while since she got a good rest, and in the middle of night it probably wasn’t the best time to stay awake. “I go to school too, I learned of science and history in Toledo. Do you know where Toledo is? Spain?”

She observed him as he moved, wondering what his tail flicking meant, wondering if it was anything like the similar movement her cat made when he was faced with strangers, deciding if he should scratch them or nuzzle against them. She figured it would be a while before she earned his trust, but the mere experience of meeting him, bringing to life so many a fairy tale from her childhood, was worth it.

"...No school...now," Léan responded, very slowly. He did not attend school anymore. He did in the past, for quite a while. He was much older in human years than he really looked. But in the years of his own kind he was still very young. "...Animals. Sci...science. M-mathemat-matics. Lang...uage. His...tory."

The merman squinted, trying to recall what else he took in school. He figured that the basics, what he'd listed, were enough for now. If she pressed more, he would try to answer as best he could. Toledo was foreign to him, but... "Spa...Spain, Euro-rope." He did know what she meant by Spain.

He was having a lot of trouble speaking English. It was not his strong suit. The last language he had learned was old world Latin, and that was the one he could speak the most fluently save for his native tongue.

“Wow, so you have to learn about everything we do… I’m still in school, you know.” she whispered, more to herself than anything. “I’m from Spain, and Toledo is a part of Spain. I talk Spanish! But your English is really good! Much better than when I started talking it! I’m no good with languages.”

She wasn’t trying to push him, but she couldn’t help herself from wanting to know more. He was certainly knew more about her world than she did about his, so she was hoping she could maybe even the odds a little.

She was really getting tired, but the excitement hadn’t let her notice it too well. She kept kicking, bu each time she was being slower, barely able to stay afloat. “You look 17 by my people’s aging… how old are you?”

(Sorry for the lag, no internet at home and going through an interview process, plus my first round of tests... not pretty...)

((Perfectly fine. Take your time! :3))

Léan watched her curiously, his tail flicking back and forth. She was speaking pretty quickly...so he had to take a bit more time, now, to process what she was saying. When he finally managed to understand, at least in a basic manner, what she had said to him, he cleared his throat.

"...Ni...ne...teen," he sounded out, slowly.

In human years, he was actually a lot older. A whole lot older. But he didn't know human years...only the years of his own kind.