AUTHOR’S POV
The waters were a silent abyss, the somber backdrop to a procession of the displaced as merfolk swam in tight groups, their faces etched with fear and sorrow as they left their homes behind.
Mothers clutched their children close to their chests, their eyes scanning the dark water with anxiety, every ripple making them flinch. Fathers swam alongside them, some carrying small bundles of belongings on their backs, others carrying only the weight of their uncertainty.
The journey was slow and agonizing. The once-thriving city they had called home was now a distant memory, shrouded in darkness, and as the exodus passed, schools of fish darted away, their bright scales the only color in an otherwise bleak seascape.
The merfolk moved in near silence, with the only sounds being
