Charley was scavenging on the sea floor, looking for more of the strange little things that sometimes splashed into the water when the human boots went buzzing by, making sounds like popping thunder on the surface. The baby fish liked to hide inside of them, away from their bigger brethren that would snap them up for lunch without a second thought. Charley understood the necessity of it, he ate fish too, but he liked watching the tiny ones as they grouped together and flitted in and out of the hiding spaces he built along the reef on the ocean floor. He hummed and chirped to himself as his fingers shift delicately over the sand, his tail glinting in the sunlight that filtered down through the ocean. It was a pretty day on the surface, the skies the color of the water and the winds warmed. A glimmering rock catches his eye and he picks it up, turning over on his back to rest on the soft sand as he examines it with bright interest.
There’s the low roar of a boot nearby, Charley ignores it. They come and go often, sometimes many at a time. Sometimes he hears their voices, muffled and strange calling out above him. He knows better to near these human things, they’re dangerous, willing to defend themselves with things that cut and tore.
It’s the hard splash that catches his attention.
Charley turns, curious to see what they have thrown in the water this time. The humans like to toss their dead into the sea. He doesn’t mind this, sometimes taking the limp things out to deeper water for the sharks to consume. The humans must love the ocean as often as they insist on feeding the creatures that live within. Now he swims closer, wondering what it was today, stopping in sudden surprise.
This human was alive.
In his shock he stares, flicking long tail and fin to keep himself afloat. The human does seem to be doing well, struggling instead of swimming. Is it trying to breathe in the salted ocean water? Surely not, humans did not have gills like the mer and the fish he had learned. They were like the whales, going to the surface to take in the air. Maybe this one was confused. He swims closer, moving quick through the water, gathering the human up in his arms. It’s more difficult to swim this way but his tail is strong, he pulls the human up to the surface, simply dragging it along until he reaches the sandbar where he deposits the poor thing. Charley waits a moment, for the adjustment from water to air, before he can speak as the humans do.
“You cannot breathe under the water, you know. You’re not a mer, you’re a human.”
