The nights at sea were just as dangerous as the mornings. Pirates lurked in the shadows that hid their misdeeds. It was after the sun set that her kind were in the most danger. However, Pia was a known explorer amongst her friends and family, which often led to her swimming in the dark hours of the night. Although she was often told not to, even forbidden to by her father, she went anyway. She felt she was wary enough to be safe, but…
It wasn’t her cautious eye that got her in trouble, it was her concern for her aquatic friends. While she played with a pod of dolphins, two of them were caught in a pirate’s net. They had started catching them in greater numbers thinking that they were connected to finding the mermaids, which wasn’t that far from the truth. They often lingered where the merfolk were. But Pia couldn’t leave them and quickly worked to untangle them from the net. It was in her fight to free them that her tail was wrapped and caught. In the chaos, she shoo’d the pod away to keep them safe and tried her best to escape - to no avail. The pirates had dragged her on board and cheered at their win.
Hours passed before she was dragged on land in a new net that restricted her movements more than before. Pia squirmed as much as she could to try and find a weak spot in the net, but they quickly caught on and rustled the net, pulling it tighter and lessening the room she had. She was already struggling to breathe on land and after exuding so much energy trying to wriggle free, she was exhausted and the constraints added another kind of pain as the rope tightened against her skin and scales.
He kept watching. Wizard was wary of the situation as pirates were difficult to deal with, whether you held magical abilities or not. He let out a heavy, rumbling sigh before looking through his telescope one last time. What he saw quickly changed his thinking -- the mermaid seemed to look to him, muttering something he could just barely make out through the movements of her lips; ‘help.’ With that, Wizard threw on his amethyst robe and nearly ran out the door, smashing it behind him with more force than he meant.
Luckily, the beach wasn’t too far from his home. He didn’t even think to use his magic to transport him to the girl’s side -- only instincts were fueling him now. Once Wizard arrived, he hid behind a collection of rocks on the shore, waiting for an opportune time to interfere. The two men pulled the ropes around her tighter, and he saw she was struggling to breathe. Wizard clenched his fist, looking to the stars for guidance before he chanted a mystical spell.
A blue aura twinkled from his hands, and only then did Wizard appear in front of the men. They immediately turned their attention to him, shouting something he didn’t care to listen to. With a flick of his wrist, Wizard sent one of the men flying across the beach, their body sliding across the sand. With the other hand, he pointed a finger toward the other pirate. The man’s body was sent skidding into the beach, coming to a stop right beside the other. Wizard walked toward the mermaid, glancing at her eyes before speaking dully. “... I’m going to borrow this.”
With another lazy hand movement, Wizard unwound the net from the girl. As it snaked in the air, he tossed it toward the two men, effectively wrapping them in their own tool. They began to clamor about, and Wizard clenched his fist in the air, cinching the net together so their movements would halt. He looked toward the mermaid again, only briefly viewing her tail that sparkled beneath the moonlight.