This is an erotic fantasy story with merpeople. All the characters are 18+. Even Jimmy!
Don't hate me, please. I just wanted to do this./
Ati
My head emerged from the water. I wanted to observe the ship and those who worked on it.
I'm dangerously close, I thought.
As I watched them, I told myself: they are not so different from us. Maybe I'm wrong and it's too soon to judge. I wanted to believe that humans were better.
I could almost touch the wood from the ship. Am I crazy? It's too close. All ships were so small from the distance.
I heard voices. A commanding voice, giving orders. Another replied, subservient. That was not so different from us either.
"Humans think merpeople to be something rare and valuable, but most curiously, savages. More often than not, they don't survive an encounter with us. But those who are captured... the only certainty we have is that they die after their suffering, whatever it may be. We can't survive more than a few days without the sea." Father's presence was as strong as ever in my head.
The memory hit me hard. Hopefully, human eyes were not as keen as ours, so they would not see me here, so close, by the night's gentle light.
But something was wrong. Silence. It came all of a sudden in that alarming way that ringed danger.
I heard water splashing all around me. I dived. But the places of safety I wanted to reach never came. I kept trying to go deeper into the ocean, desperately wishing that the ropes around my body weren't true.
A cold terror ran through me. It made me pause. It made me stop struggling. As if I had accomplished something. Dangerous, yes, but necessary. Interesting. I wondered at my behavior, knowing that sometimes I acted through instincts. Those instincts were not always right.
The question still remained. Had I wanted to be captured?
I thrashed and splashed, but now I was forcing myself to act in a way that the humans expected.
Voices cheered up in the ship. Hands held me and brought me up faster, rough touches through my body, some of them only wanted to press on my tail, to know what it felt like; others were outright aggressive. A torch came right at me, so they would see me better. They dumped my body on the hard floor.
"Well, look at that" said a hoarse, deep voice. "I didn't expect a male."
"I didn't know there were males, Captain Shadow." This one was younger.
"Shut up, Jimmy." A third voice.
I looked at all those faces, not yet aware of who spoke. I understood their expressions, though. There were eyes shining with awe and greed, and others with glints of disgust and fear.
"Lock him" said the first voice. I saw his face. Captain Shadow. I couldn't see what he felt, like I did with the others. He was better at hiding it. His eagle eyes studied coldly his prize, and that was it. I feared him.
Two men, more sturdy than their captain, surged to obey. They rapidly took me out of the ropes, only to tie my hands. My tail was no good here, only a nuisance. They knew were to take me. It was down inside the ship, in the dark. They opened the door and threw me in.
I saw little use to any objections. The cold fear lingered like a strong hand pressing tightly on my chest. But there was also control, which I have learned from my father.
For an hour, I laid there on the cold hard wood, and could only see shiny speckles where the light of the moon was able to pass through.
The door, through which I was thrown, opened again behind me, and I felt footsteps on the floor. I moved my head in that direction, my nervous eyes daring to see my first visitor. He brought light in his hand, very carefully. He didn't want his ship to burn.
The squared-jawed captain closed the door, and turned to me. He had green eyes, and they really saw, not just looked. He had black hair which covered his ears, and a beard, also black as tar.
"How much time out of the water until you can walk?" he asked.
I gasped, but in a reserved manner. Now I knew that this man was more of a hunter. Not that hunters were uncommon. They dared come to our territory to hunt us? Then I remembered that I shouldn't care about 'them' right now.
"How do you know?" I said.
"I have a vague idea" he said. "You're supposed to... elucidate those ideas."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because I'm saying, please." He didn't seem to be joking.
I shuddered.
"I will not help my captor."
"Captor?" He seemed amused. "You gave yourself to me. And I will figure out why."
He walked toward me and knelt, one hand still holding the light. The other hand touched my chin and forced me to face him directly. This close, the green of his eyes revealed a golden circle in the middle, around the pupil.