Turbulent Seas

"I'm going out now, please be careful, Naian. I don't want anything to happen to you." Naian's guardian, Freud, said, his light red tail fin swaying slightly as he kept himself floating in place. "Don't worry, uncle. I'll be okay." Naian smiled and waved Freud off. The nineteen year old watched as his guardian swam away, the current generated by his powerful tail fin making the seaweed that hung at the entrance to their home sway and twirl from side to side. Naian sighed as he resigned himself to another day playing around by himself. They were only here temporarily, and wouldn't settle down, as it had been for as long as Naian could remember. Ever since he knew who he was, and how to remember things, they had been on the move, never settling down at one place for more than a day or two. He lowered himself to the floor and begun tracing lines into the soft sand at the bottom of the cave. He had nothing else to do all these years, so he had learnt how to draw, as Freud had called it. He found it calming, to recreate the things that he saw, leaving them for Freud to comment on them when he return. A shift in the water current at the entrance of the cave alerted Naian. His head shot up, his pale blue eyes darting around as he tried to find the cause of the shift. Slowly, he rose, his tail fin beating backwards slowly as he tried to put in distance between him and whatever was at the entrance of the cave. He sure hoped it wasn't a shark. While he was stronger than a shark, or at least, Freud was- he had never fought a shark before, but had been told that he was stronger than them-, he didn't want to try and find out. He spotted a fin sticking up vertically through a cover of seaweed that was floating at the entrance and hurried back. It was a young shark, but still a shark! The fin jerked, and then rushed at him. Naian's eyes widened as what he thought was a shark burst out from between the seaweed. It was just a dolphin! He wasn't sure why he hadn't recognized the differences. Maybe it was because he was to paranoid, so his mind had ignored all the signs. The dolphin let out soft sounds of laughter when it saw Naian's face. Naian's face instantly crumbled into a scowl as he glared daggers at the dolphin. It swam closer to him, its tail smacking Naian's. Heat rushed to Naian's face as he yelped. "Don't do that!" He smacked the dolphin's back and tried to calm himself down. His tail was a very sensitive part of his body, as was the same for every merfold, as was told to him by Freud, but Freud had noticed that Naian's was especially sensitive. "Do you want to go play? I'm bored." Naian asked the dolphin that had taken to swimming in circles around the small cave. *Squeak Squeak!* The dolphin dashed in Naian's direction, swimming circles around him the moment he asked if it wanted to play, as though that was the reason it had sought him out in the first place. He laughed and let the dolphin guide him outside the cave. The cave was actually not deep at all, just deep enough from the surface to make sure they weren't seen by humans, but high enough that they were still able to hunt for their food, and other things. The dolphin led Naian a bit far from the cave, but Naian didn't mind too much. "As long as uncle Freud doesn't find out." He whispered to himself. The two of them began a small game of tag, with Naian intentionally letting the dolphin catch up to him. If he really put his mind into playing the game, the dolphin wouldn't stand a chance. The two of them spent hours playing around until they had no energy left. "It's so boring to be alone all the time." Naian mumbled as he drifted along with a soft current. The dolphin also swam by his side, making soft squeaking noises in response to Naian's mumbling. It suddenly perked up when it heard some squealing sounds in the distance. Naian also heard the sounds. "You've got to go, huh?" He smiled at the guilty look it gave him. "It's okay. Today was fun. We probably won't see each other again, but I hope everything goes well for you. Take care, okay?" He gave it a hug and rubbed its back before it swam away, taking an occasional glace behind it. He watched it until it joined the dolphins in the distance. The dolphins that came looking for it all turned a different direction and started swimming away, but the one he had spent the day with remained for a while longer. Naian waved, and it waved its tail in response before turning and swimming off. Naian sighed. It was back to moping around the cave and drawing in sand again. He slowly swam back to the cave, a frown fixed onto his features. He would just wait for Freud to return with something to eat. Naian got to the cave and spent the next few hours drawing and drifting aimlessly with some weak currents. That was until he felt the strong currents that blew by the entrance of the cave. Freud had returned! "Uncle!" Naian balanced himself rightly from his upside down position and hurriedly swam out of the cave to welcome Freud. The red tailed merman floated with his face schooled into the usual stone look, which automatically softened when he saw the eager young boy swimming towards him. "Sorry, it took some more time to find anything other than sardines this time." He smiled as Naian swam circles around him. "Oh, I don't mind. It was just so boring, and I had nothing to do." Naian shrugged as he settled into a simple floating position in front of Freud. "Oh, well, I guess in the next few days, we can remedy that." He grinned. "Oh?" Naian was truly curious. Freud never let him leave the cave on his own, and even the times they left together, the older merman would be very cautious. "Well, I found the trail of our kind. Perhaps they might have some young people around your age."