Colors of the Sea (A DNF Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Lesson

TW: Mentions of War and Child Neglect

English is not my first language, so feel free to point out any mistakes I made and I will gladly fix them 😅

*****************************

"Today, we will learn about the great war of the merfolk and the sirens."

George could hear his little sister groan. "Are you serious? There's literally nothing about that stupid war we wouldn't already know!"

He chuckled silently at her outburst. Even though he would never say it out loud, he had to agree with her in silence. Their parents had made sure they knew everything about that war before they could even swim properly to avoid them coming to close to sirens.

The royal butler, an old man with grey hair, stiff clothes and without any sense for humor named Henry, who'se task it was to teach George, his little sister Mary and his older brother Zak aka Skeppy everything a royal had to know, seemed not very amused. "If you already know so much about about the war, your highness, why don't you tell us a little bit about it?"

Mary, a young girl around the age of eight with long brown hair and brown eyes, rolled these in boredom. Unlike her brothers, she liked to cause trouble wherever she went, causing her to be banned from most parts of the castle, including the kitchen and the ballroom.

"We used to live in peace for a long time until the sirens started using their beautiful voices to seduce humans, kill them and eat them. That's when the war started, because the merfolk wanted to protect the humans.

It went on like that for years until our grandfather was able to get them to agree to a truce.

Now we can finally live in peace again, happy end, bla bla. Happy?"

"Very good. If you all understood that, we can move onto our next theme. Can one of you tell me why the sirens have such good voices?"

George rose his hand. The lesson was boring, but he had to say something every once in a while or else he'd get extra homework. It wasn't very easy to be overlooked when there were only three students.

"Because they use it to impress their crush, like a bird."

"Correct. Now..." He didn't get to finish. The door opened and Georges father, the king of the Merfolk rushed in. "Excuse me, Henry, but I have to steal my son for a bit." George's back straightened. It had been a long time since his father called him 'my son'. They didn't really saw him much, so this was a bit of a surprise. But his father ignored him, swam over to Skeppy, who was playing with a little fishbone on one of his necklaces and not paying attention, grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the door.

Georges shoulders sank. Of course his father wasn't addressing him. Frustrated, he swam out of the door and through the big corridor behind it, aiming for nothing in particular. The maids would clean up his desk and put away his things anyway.

He was suprised how much it affected him. The king had never been a great father, so why was his cold ignorance hurting him so much? Thinking of it, he had never acted any differently towards George. He always spent time with Skeppy though, and he used to play a lot with Mary when she was younger, maybe still.

And I think I know why, George thought, tears starting to form in his eyes. Its because Skeppy is the heir. And Mary is a girl. But what am I? Probably nothing in his eyes, because I'm not anything special.