[Merperson Thread begun by @ask-dex (aaaaaaa!!! so excited!)]
“Don’t you sulk at me!”
The snarl came along with a rake of claws from her mother, Queen Skagalis of the Arctic Seas. The claws did no damage but the scrape of them was a stinging reminder of her mother’s power in all ways.
The Leopard Seal Mer was powerful, beautiful: sleek with a layer of muscle and fat that went well with her gray and white skin, fur, and spots. The Land-Walker half of her genetics had given her vibrant white hair streaked with black going back from the temples. Skagalis had been a simple worker when the then-Crown Prince had seen her and craved her to be his. Skagalis had made it so she would be Queen or Nothing and that ambition was just as strong to this day.
“We need the minerals and in-flux of fresh blood to mingle with our own that can be found in The Deep!” Skagalis continued. She flicked her tail in a coil that swirled her around her daughter; used her flippers at the end of the tail to halt her precisely to loom over the younger Mer. “The Arctic has been thinned too far! We need the people and we need the minerals!”
“Then sell some one else to this merger!” Cairis shot back. “Sell yourself for all I care! Why does it have to be me?”
Skagalis snarled again, baring her large and sharp teeth.
“Because this is the only way I can get you out of here!” she spat. “Look at you! A fat, pink Leopard Seal who can’t hunt worth a damn! None of our own will have you! You should be grateful that the Kingdom of the Deep agreed to have you!”
Skagalis laughed meanly.
“It’s the greatest joke - it really is!” she crowed. “They’re going to exchange people for breeding and minerals that will rekindle our seas - and all they get is you in return! Something for nothing!”
Cairis stared at her mother and hated the other Mer like nothing else.
She could only hope her new mate would at least tolerate her: a plump Leopard Seal Mer; faintly gray fur overlaying pale pink flesh. Her darker pink hair, streaked with black and gray, only served to highlight the genetic mutation that meant something had gone wrong somewhere.
She could only hope....