Rough Waters

Chapter 1

Kai's POV

     I swim up through the dark blue waters and breach the surface. I make sure to look around for ships. Good. There are none. I look down at my tail and admire the coloring. It has many colorings and is iridescent in the light.

     I snap out of my daze when I smell a surplus of fish. There must be an upwelling nearby. My stomach rumbles and I grimace, remembering the last time I ate, which was about a week ago. I dive back in and go towards the scent. It was maybe, 3 miles away? It wouldn't take long at all to get there.

     I swim for 10 minutes before the smell gets strong. I see all the fish and my mouth starts to water. I go for one, but my path is intersected by something. I swim back and see the ropes.

     "Shiek." I curse in my mother tongue. I quickly swim away, and when I thought I could escape scot-free, a searing pain assaults my tail. I look back to see a rope had been twisted around it. I grab the rough rope and try to pull myself free, but the rope just cuts deeper into my tail. I try to scream, but for some reason, my abilities won't work. Usually, if I scream out, then the sound waves work as a knife and cut whatever I wish. I guess it's because I haven't eaten...

     I start to panic when the rope gets pulled up. A few more feet and I'll be in the air. I can't dry out. I'll surely die. I elongate my nails to try and cut through, but I'm having the same problem with that as I am with my scream. I haven't been able to eat.

     I let my back fins grow up, which causes me to bleed out, but it'll make me look more intimidating and 'scary'. I get pulled out of the water and gasp at the pain in my tail. I'll be a cripple after this. It'll be hard to heal correctly for it to even be functional. The netting bumps against the side of the vast wooden boat, making me hiss in anger. I look up to see hands pulling the ropes up and I smirk, imagining them being shark food when I'm done with them.

     My murderous thoughts get interrupted when I'm thrown on deck. I look up to see a lot of different men. Some don't look bad, but others are very ugly. One just flat out looks like a blobfish.

     "What are you do'in here boy?" A mediocre looking man asks me. I don't know the language of humans as good as my own, and the accent makes it harder to understand. Before I can respond, another man stomps over to my right. My eyes widen at his features. He is very attractive. Midnight black hair that is pulled into a low ponytail. I admire his sun-kissed skin and gawk of the way his white shirt flows around his body in the wind.

     "What the bloody hell?!" Mr. Gorgeous questions, looking at me, his gold eyes widening at the sight of me.

     "Sir, we found this boy in the water," The man from before says.
     "You dumbass, that is a merman. I haven't seen one of these is 21 years! I wonder how much he can sell for?" He smirked evilly at me, "Take him to my quarters and put him in a tub. If he dies, you all will too. I wouldn't have any trouble replacing the lot of you." I hear most say 'yes sir' or 'yes captain'. So that gorgeous man is the captain? Why are all the pretty men assholes?!

     My vision starts to blur from my tail drying out. I'm sure I'm bleeding out a lot too. One of the men come over and try to pick me up. He tries a couple of times, but huffs, giving up and drops me onto the wooden floors. I wince and give him a death glare. When I get some food in me, he's the first one to die.

     One of the other, more buff, men come and pick me up with ease. I have to bite my lip to not laugh whenever the men holding me smiles mockingly at the other. He carries me into a room, that reveals a very nice, fully furnished room and sets me on the ground with a surprising amount of gentleness. He comes back with a tub and goes back to get pails of water.

     When I feel like I'm going to pass out, the man finally gets down and set me in the water. I gasp from the chilling temperature. Are they trying to make me into an ice cube?! I close my eyes and slow down my heart rate and my breathing, and that helps a little bit.

     When my eyes open again I see Mr. Gorgeous in the other man's place. I hiss and scooch away. Mr. Gorgeous smiles, making me do a double take, thus making him smile wider.

     "Welcome to my ship! I'm Captain Maximus." He finishes with a hand on his chest, "And you are?" This dudes confidence it gonna make me want to drown myself. Yes, merpeople can drown. We do survive off oxygen.

     "Kai."

End of Chapter