Yeri took a deep breath of air as she prepared for the upward dive into the ocean. It had been three days of being unable to swim, three days in which she had been stuck walking around with and talking to Dongho. And while she could admit, only to herself, that he was easy to talk to and she found her gaurd falling around him, she had missed the ocean.

Rising to her tiptoes and stretching out to her full - diminutive - height, she reached for the sky and leapt, allowing the magic to grab her and drag her upward in a falling sensation. Her dive into the dome was perfect, barely making a ripple as she passed the barrier and emerged into the oceans above. Her feet were gone, replaced by a shimmering tail that boasted plumes of fins in the same brilliant shade as her hair. Color was gone, at this depth, but she knew what she looked like under the full light of the sun and she took pride in that.

She swam almost lazily away from the city, the brush of the waters against her skin feeling like the caress of an old friend. She was only eighteen but she felt as if she had lived longer, the stories and emotions of her people feeling embedded in her soul. The fish she passed marked her as nothing more than one of them, only fearing her if she turned to attack: which today, she did not. Somedays she would come out to hunt, but this was just a moment for herself. She needed it.

Her entire childhood, her mother had told her of the evilness of humans, of how they hunted merfolk ruthlessly and passionately, skinning them and selling their parts about the world. And she, the fool she was, had believed it. When she grew older she came to realize that there wasn't any hunting going on anymore: the very rare Elbali that died each year were from injuries of the ocean itself. She had come to realize that none of the People had been hunted by humans for almost a century, and yet she couldn't shake that anger that had been fed in her since birth.

Besides, the fact remained that when she grew brave enough to rise to the surface, she was well aware of what she could bring down on her city if she was seen. The sun felt like a drug, the warmth something that even the magic of Elbalin couldn't replicate, but she could not be comfortable there. And so when she saw Dongho, breaking free of the group of humans that came down several times a day four days out of seven , she hadn't been able to resist. Just the thought that a human could feel so comfortable in what was the People's only safe haven made her blood boil, and before she could question herself she had taken him. Now she didn't know if she should regret that or not.

She had risen all the way to the stalactites and watched carefully to see if there were any human swimmers: when she didn't see any, she peeked out and up to the surface. No silhouette of a boat marred that shimmering blue circle, and she she rose in more confidence, allowing her mind to wander once more.

Dongho was proving to be everything that she had thought humans were not. Funny, honest, seemingly inherently happy, he never acted threatening or mean or... well... like what she assumed a human would act like. His easy nature set her at ease and that was something that she found rare even among her own People. She wasn't the easier person to get along with, she knew that, and so for him to so easily accept her ways and without growing offended and angry... it was strange.

At the surface, she rose slowly, unwilling to be the downfall of her people. She hid behind the shoal that circled the ancient sinkhole, grasping it with her fingers as she scanned the waters about her for any sign of humans. Once again anger flashed in her, anger that she had to be so careful when humans came into her realm so confidently, and yet now that anger fled as quickly as it had come. According to Dongho, they simply didn't know.

Her head broke the surface and she took a deep breath of the honey-thick air, feeling the warmth of the sunlight strike her skin and permeate through to her soul. They would live up here soon, once the city fell: they had no where else to go. Dongho had asked