Prologue
Growing up, I didn't see a city in the typical sense. I didn't have parents or even legs. I grew up in a pod of mermaids. Of course, I didn't even know what half of those words meant until I met him.
I was a mermaid: a creature with fish tail the size of a dolphin's and a human's upper body and mind. I thought that the sea was all that mattered to me, until I met him.
It was the season where the water was warmer. During this season, we were warned not to get too close to the surface. When the weather was warm, the humans would pollute the waters. We couldn't get caught. We could never be caught. It was taught to us when we were just tadpoles. Never go too close to the surface, but I was never one to listen. For my twentieth season alive, I decided to go to the surface. I'd never seen the the surface before and I wanted to do something special for my hatch day. After I was sure every else was sleeping for the night, I surfaced, peeking just my eyes above the water. It was dark with twinkling stars littering the sky. I saw rock formations directly in front of me. The surface was nothing like I expected. With the water creating a straight line heading to the shore, more stars littered the surface. There weren't many humans on the sand anymore. It seemed as if most were leaving.
I heard a scream and quickly looked in the direction of the large rock. There were silhouettes of a few humans standing on top before I saw a splash. The humans at the top of the rock looked over the edge of the rock before quickly retreating. Something didn't feel right. I submerged into the water before rushing over to where I saw the splash. The waters weren't very friendly at the moment. I saw more rocks in the water before a sinking figure caught my attention. It was a human boy and he was unconscious. I held him around the waist before blowing air into his mouth with my own. It was temporary, but it would keep him from dying until I could get him to the surface. I held on to him as I swam up to the sand and dragged him out of the water. It was hard with my tail, but I managed to get him out of the waves.
I glanced at his face curiously. It didn't look like he was breathing and red liquid was leaking from his head. I knew humans needed air to survive. I was actually surprised that I wasn't suffering in the human environment. I breathed the air in before blowing it into his mouth. Maybe if I forced him to breath, he would wake up. I assessed the wound on his head. It was possible he hit a rock on his way into the water. I looked around cautiously before hovering my hand over his wound. We mermaids had unique abilities. The ability varied based on the mermaid. I happened to be very skilled in healing. My hand glowed as I focused my energy on his wound. Slowly, the cut began to close, leaving the red liquid behind. Healing this human took more energy than I thought it would. My breathing felt fast as my eyelids grew heavy. I laid down without even realizing as my eyes closed. I felt so tired.
