Safety in the Seafoam (DNF + Karlnap)

Chapter 18: Surprise

Sapnap POV.

“Dream where are you going?” I followed him out of the room, seeing him carrying multiple more pieces of salmon. “Why do you have so much more salmon?”
“Because my mermaid is hungry.” Dream told me, barely glancing over as he continued moving along. “And I don’t want him to starve.”

I was cautious as I followed him. Obviously I was sympathetic for the mermaids and the fact that they were hungry, but we had no clue how often we’d be getting more food for the mermaids, and how long we would end out being on the sea. Schlatt also told us not to feed them too much at once, especially when they didn’t have the chance to burn energy.

“He hasn’t eaten much.” The blond sighed and stopped walking, thinking over everything as he stood there swaying with the waves. “But maybe having him eat six pieces of salmon is too much.” Cautiously he thought.

"He could eat salmon for dinner." I added on. "Otherwise Schlatt might get pissed if we go through it too fast, especially if he sees you cooking the food."
"And those psycho doctors will probably curse me out because I'm interfering with his diet by giving cooked food." The blond managed a giggle.

Then he let out another sigh and turned  back towards the room. "I guess I'll go and apologise to him." Dream spoke solemnly, and I was confused as to why he continued on with this 'talking to the mermaid bit'.
"He doesn't understand you." I reminded him. "He's a fish."

My hand moved to the door and I pushed it open, hearing hushed voices talking back and forth to one another. "The… …gave me salmon. It was… …and-”
“Holy shit.” I paused, glancing to the blond who stood beside me. “Dream… you were right.” My voice was loud and the two mermaids heard.

The one closer to us, my purple mermaid, let out a sound of shock. “Oh no…” He gasped out, and I broke away from my friend in a sprint, heading over to the tank.
My hands went against the glass, staring at the creature within the way that a small child would at a zoo. “You… spoke?” I asked the creature.

This mermaid merely looked confused, feigning innocence. It made me think that I glared towards him, feeling annoyed and humiliated at the fact he was faking not knowing what I said. “You spoke English, you both did!”

I could sense Dream approaching me from behind, before he had the chance to get closer I hurried down to the other mermaid. “You talked in English!” I repeated to the other mermaid, who also watched me. The blond took his time walking over, and the blue tailed mermaid ignored me as he looked over at my friend.

“Salmon?” He asked eagerly, his own hands going to rest on the glass. “Where salmon?”
At some point the blond had slipped into the chiller and dumped all of the slabs of fish. He smiled at the mer. “I don’t have it.” He explained. “We have to wait until later and then I will get you some more salmon.”

The mermaid pouted, backing himself away to the back of the cage with a frown. “I’m sorry.” Dream said, taking a half step closer. My gaze was still narrowed, and I looked back and forth between the two of them.

“How are you two talking to one another?” I asked, although I didn’t expect the mermaid to be able to answer. “You are different species!? He lives under the ocean!?”
“I haven’t asked him that.” My friend informed me, gaze on the creature which was studying us from afar. “Everything that we have talked about was food related.”

“Maybe you should.” I scoffed. “How is that not an important question?” Maybe this is just me, but if I encountered an ocean dwelling creature that could speak English, perhaps I would ask how he could speak English. Even Dream seemed to agree with me as he looked over towards the mermaid.

“So… um… how do you speak English?” He asked, and the mermaid watched us patiently, listening to the question. When it took a while for him to respond Dream tried again, simplifying his words in case the mermaid wasn’t able to understand them. “How do you… speak to us?” His voice was cautious with how he worded it.

For a few moments he hesitated, still thinking it over. It seemed as though Dream was going to try repeating it for the third. “I speak this language.” His words were slow, making sure he said them right. So they naturally spoke English? They didn’t learn it from overhearing humans talking, and that created more questions I wanted to ask.

A strange noise came from behind us, the other cage with the other mermaid. “George!” The other mermaid called out, a whining kind of sound. I realised that my mermaid was alone, and he could talk, so perhaps he would want to talk. Feeling slightly guilty I began walking over, giving a smile to the mermaid.

From behind me I heard a hushed whisper from Dream. “Your name is George?” He asked, sounding as though it was a massive secret that he wasn’t supposed to know. Truthfully though it probably was something he wasn’t supposed to know. I didn’t stop or look back as I reached the glass, seeing his purple scales glimmering in the light.

“Hello there.” I formally greeted the mermaid, and he cocked his head to the side as he studied me. Clearly he knew what I was saying, since I had heard him say some small things which sounded ‘English’. Plus if the two of them were friends then they’d likely speak the same language, at least to some degree.

He let out a sound of acknowledgement but he didn’t say anything for now. “My name is Sapnap, it’s nice to meet you.” I watched patiently as he lifted his head out of the water, fingers wrapping around the metal great to pull himself up.
“I’m Karl.” He responded.

Another thing that surprised me was how both of them had human names, ‘Karl’ and ‘George’, but I didn’t make any comments about it. “It’s nice to meet you.” I repeated, giving a smile.
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