15 Years Later

Tal thought the ocean looked the most beautiful at sunrise. The dawn of a new day. The golden light of the sun on the horizon, turning the sky pink and lavender. The water reflecting it all. His brother teased him whenever he mentioned it, but Tal didn't care. He loved the colors, how they celebrated a beginning.

On most mornings, Tal snuck out of his family's cave to watch the world awake. His father detested it as he would go all the way up to the surface.

"Can't you see well enough under the water?" he griped.

Tal always argued the sky wasn't clear enough for him to take in the full experience. As Tal grew older, his father realized he couldn't control him forever and let it be.

One morning, Tal was watching the sky when he heard someone come up behind him. It was Anyir, his brother.

"What are you doing here?" Tal asked, annoyed of the interruption.

"Well good morning to you to," Anyir said, swimming closer. He pushed his black hair out of his eyes as he spoke. "I wanted to see this worldly phenomenon you are always raving about."

"Really?"

"No."

Tal glowered as he laughed heartily. "Then what do you want?"

"I just wanted to be the first to wish my baby brother a happy arrival day." Before Tal could move Anyir lunged out of the water with more speed then thought possible. Wrapping his arms around Tal's neck, he pushed him under the water. The two mermen tumbled and swirled in the surf. Their green and blue tails thrashing violently, churning the waves to sea foam.

"Urgh! Enough! Let go!" With more force then Tal would have preferred, he wrenched himself out of Anyir's iron-like grip. Anyir chased him, but Tal was smaller and faster. He cut through the water and sped for the lagoon.

Tal supposed it wasn't the worst interference to his day. There was the time when Anyir tried to teach him how to spar with spears. By the first hour, he had dozens of tiny cuts all over his arms that stung in the salt water. He looked like a striped bass. And as for Anyir?

"One nicked scale, Tal," he had teased, holding up a small blue disk. "Get lucky and you might draw blood."

He often wondered if his brother actually wanted to help him or watch him fail.

The sky turned the sea blue as Tal reached the entrance to the lagoon. It was easy to miss if you didn't know where to look. A thick forest of dark green seaweed rose up before him. The tendrils wove innocently in the current but everyone knew they could wrap and stick to anything, like the tentacles of an octopus. It was a great defense for his home.

Following the line of seaweed, Tal came to the entrance. He pushed aside the boulder that hid a tunnel carved right into the rock. It went under the seaweed barrier. He glanced behind him and saw Anyir a few yards away. Smiling maliciously, he slipped through the hole and pulled the boulder back into place. Now the other merman would have to slow down and pull it aside himself.

The lagoon for the mercolony was a piece of paradise. Surrounded on three sides by a tiny island made it a very secluded home away from the rest of the ocean. It was an ancient colony, home to mermen longer than his father had even been alive, and his father was quite old. Their homes were caves, carved right into the underwater rock of the island.

There was always some sort of activity in the lagoon. About thirty mermen between the ages of Anyir and up, were gathered in a large group, holding spears and nets. About ten merboys were terrorizing a crab by tossing it back and forth between them, trying to look disinterested in the older group.

Almost immediately, Tal's father swam up to him. Menlo was an imposing figure with broad shoulders and a powerful sliver tail that seemed to attack the water with every stroke. Tal opened his mouth to speak but his father cut him off. "What took so long?" he demanded. His cold bronze eyes burned brightly against his dark skin.

Menlo looked over Tal's shoulder. "Anyir!" he barked, as the merman emerged into the lagoon. "I told you to go get Talmuno, not make his return longer!"

Tal cringed at the sound of his full name. His father believed nicknames were childish and silly. Nothing about his father was childish and silly. Anyir was the one who had begrudgingly played with him when they were little. He complained loudly about it, but he still did it.

Anyir stammered an apology but their father held up a hand. "I don't care. Go get ready with the others." Anyir eagerly swam off.

Tal tried to follow but Menlo blocked him. "No. You are staying with the younger merboys today."

"Aw father!" Tal wined. "I'm too old to pick kelp and sharpen knives. I want to go hunting with you! I've been practicing."

Menlo raised a sliver eyebrow.

"Okay, that was a lie, but I can still help!" After asking for years, there wasn't anything Tal wouldn't offer to do. "I'll carry the kill. I'll clean the spears. Name it and its done."

"How about you teach the merboys how to perpare the skinning table for when we get back," his father didn't make it sound like an offer. It was an order.

Tal hung his head and limply swam over to where Anyir was chatting with his best friend, Sebasou. "I'm not going on the hunting trip," Tal said quietly.

Anyir had the decency to look sorry for him. "Though luck, little bro. I'll skewer something for you. Its your arrival day after all."

"Is that today?" Sebasou cut in rudely. He mock-gasped. "I had no idea! I mean, you only mentioned it was coming up everyday for the past week. This was the day you'd finally get to explore the open ocean, right?" Anyir chuckled at his friend.

"Knock it off," Tal muttered. Nothing the older merman said was anything he hadn't already told himself.

"I remember the day we found you, " Sebasou said, trying to sound sentimental. "Runty, pathetic, lowly..."

Tal gave him a steely glare, warning him.

"None of the other mermen wanted you, but your dear father took pity on your poor heart and took you in. Yes, it was a sacrifice, but obviously worth it. I mean, you have contributed so much to our society!" Sebasou's voice dripped with sarcasm.

Tal turned red. "You know that's not true!" Of course, Tal was too young to really know this, but Sebasou told the same story every year, changing bits and pieces. It used to make him cry but not anymore. Even so, he waited for Anyir to defend him but he left to talk to someone else. Some brother he was.

With nothing more to say to the likes of Sebasou, Tal swam away. One day, he would be able to go. But for now, those knives weren't going to sharpen themselves.