Ever After #7: Waves of Scales

Prologue

Approximately five percent of the ocean was explored by humans, and with its very complicated condition, ninety-five percent remained unexplored as there was no technology built to adapt to its hostile nature. Through the years, various folk tales about the depths of the ocean were passed from one generation to the other, and among these stories, one talks about mermaids.

According to our ancestors, these mermaids have an upper body like those of humans and the lower half resembles the tail of fish. They are very beautiful, they have the most beautiful voice that can enchant and lure any man. They said some mermaids were bad, apex predators lurking in the depths, but some were also good and known to help those who drowned or even those trapped in the middle of the ocean. With all of these stories, still, there was no proof of their existence. They remained as stories for the kids.

But they were never a myth.

From the depths of the Philippine Seas, in trenches and caves, species of mermaids thrive in harmony. They call themselves serceans and consider themselves as the highest form of life that evolved through time. They were built to survive in the harsh and changing conditions of the deep. Their body was covered with gray scales, thick enough to protect themselves from any attacks. They have a flat tail fin or fluke that is forked like a crescent moon, granting them speed in swimming, and in between their tail, there's a barbed stinger that secretes venom.

They have webbed or partially united hands — syndactyly — that aid them to maneuver swiftly, and sharp claws to tear and seize their prey. They have spines on their back, above their spinal cord, and on their arms. On each of their wrist, they have a retractable barbed stringer that also excretes venom. Three big gill slits were located just below their rib cage, where water passes out for respiration. These are connected to their expanded lungs which aid them in controlling their buoyancy. Their eyes have better vision in the dark, and their nocturnal sensitivity was enhanced by tapetum lucidum, a layer of reflective guanine platelets behind their retina.

They were all telepathically connected, they communicated through their mind, making them the most powerful and organized pack when hunting their prey. Every time they leave the water and are exposed to the air, they instantly shed their scales and spines until they have a fully functional human body. And with this ability, they never lost contact with humans. Once every five years, serceans were sent to the land to blend with the humans. During their stay, they were tasked to gather intelligence and return to the deep when called upon.

But one day, the serceans in the deep lost their telepathic connection to their kind staying on land, a very strange thing to occur. And this opened the doors to the possible wars between their kind and the humans.