It's the last day of Chen's confinement, and he's itching to travel, to just go and not feel like he's caged up. At first, staying at home was interesting, but soon he'd run out of interesting books to read, and he'd had nothing to do except meander around the palace corridors and pester the serving staff. Most of them were fairly accomodating, even talking to him and letting him help, others, however, swam away at first sight.

He's expecting a message at some point today, providing his parents haven't forgotten, to convene with the king and queen about whether he has learned his lesson. He hasn't, of course, as he fully intends to go right back out to his human the moment the ban is lifted. He wans to put as much distance between him and the palace as possible, and of course he wants to see his human. He hopes it's still there, after all, humans don't always stay in the same place. Maybe it was just visiting the beach.

-

He's in his chambers, rereading one of his books for what feels like the hundredth time, just to be prepared, when a maid makes her presence known. Like most of their serving staff, she isn't really easy to miss, with pale white skin and scales, and thick fins. She looks a lot stronger than he does, probably used to pulling heavy loads around the castle,

"The king and queen wish to speak with you," she announces, in a surprisingy high pitched voice that doesn't match her appearance at all. 

"I understand," he says, making no move to get up and humourr their request, but inside he's elated. If he's right, this should be them saying he's finally free and allowed to roam unrestrained! The servant nods, and leaves swiftly, probably not wanting to be further involved with the youngest prince for any longer than she has too. He apparently has a reputation for being rash and irresponsible.

After carefully rolling up his book, he meanders down to the throne room, forcing himself to go slowly, otherwise he might come across to eager. He doesn't want his parents to think he'll go swimming off to the surface moments after they let him go. Even though that's what he fully intends to do.

Yixing is guarding the entrance today, along with another guard he's seen around but doesn't remember the name of. Long arms, perpetual frown, unusually short hair, even for a guard. Yixing nods to him, flicking Chen's tail with his own as he drifts by.

"Watch it," he says jokingly. Chen scowls at him mockingly, then passes through the glowing kelp curtains, ignoring the bewitching charm placed on them, and into the throne room, where his parents are seated, looking as imposing as ever. His mother beckons him closer, face stern and unyeilding. Just like always. 

"Do you understand the conditions of the release of this ban?" his father asks, making him jump and his tail jerk spasmodically for a split second. He nods slowly, hoping they just mean he knows not to run of without permission- which doesn't mean he won't do that anyway.

They share a look, obvously a meaningful one, which Chen is unable to decipher. He feels a nervous prickle run down his spine and taper off somewhere in the middle of his tail and he resists the urge to flick it. Don't they believe him? They'd be right, of course, but he'd thought he was a better liar than that. He fights to keep himself from doing anything that might rouse suspicion, like looking away, so he does his best to maintain eyecontact.

His mother, with her dark, dark skin and golden hair flowing out behind her looks even more authoritative than usual, and Chen doesn't understand why. His father, pale and mottled like him -it's obvious who he takes after, unfortunately- fades into the background, statuesque in comparison. 

Eyes smouldering with the embers of magic Chen didn't inherit, Chen finds this harder and harder as the moments go by. Waiting for them, either of them, to say something must be a form of torture in itself, he's sure. The silence is so stifling that he jumps when his mother breaks it.

"If we find that you have broken one of our rules, the consequences will be severe. No communication with surface dwellers, and be home before curfew. We will be monitoring you, do not forget. Do not speak with the surface dwellers, it's dangerous, do you understand?"

Chen feels compelled to nod, even if he doesn't intend on obeying her in the future, but right now he's shaking, scales quivering under her force. She leaves a moment for her message to sink in, then dismisses him. Chen leaves as quickly as he can, threats ringingin his ears, as he always does after speaking with his parents. It just isnt fair, he thinks, other families are more...they're closer. Maybe it's just becase of their status, but they've never really had the chance to act like a real family. Chen thinks that even his older, better brothers and sisters feel a bit like this, but at least they get attention for their talents. 

Talents Chen doesn't have. He bites his lip to repress the sadness welling up inside him. His one chance to do something, to shine maybe, and they don't think he's capable of doing that. He wants to go and find his brother, tell him the news, but he knows he'll just be busy training.

He decides he won't push his luck and scarper this evening, like he'd intended. He won't even go out tomorrow, although it will cause him extreme boredom. He will wait a few days, until his parents trust him a little more, even though it won't be them checking, it will be the guards reporting back to them. Maybe he'll just go for a short trip to the corals, since that's a short journey, so he doesn't go insane.

-

Two days later, Chen rests unwillingly in his bedchambers resenting the distance his room has to all of the others. It wasn't his decision to be put here, on the opposite side of the castle to where the rest of his family sleeps. He's found himelf wondering many a night if it was deliberate, that they foresaw he would amount to nothing and kept him away so his nothingness would seep into the rest of them.

Logically, he knows that's stupid, but he can't help feeling that way. He casts an ever more intricate shape of seafoam bubbles, and watches as it dissipates not a moment later. He hasn't figured out how to make them last longer, or even if there is a way to make them stay.

Yesterday, he'd spent sometime at the creek, admiring the underwater foliage. Most of it is pale and white, not like the surface, because there is so little light down here. 

Chen took great care while he was there to avoid the jellyfish, because even merfolk aren't strong enough to survive being ensnared by one of the monster jellies that float mindlessly along the soft underwater currents. Chen could argue that they're in fact more dangerous than humans, but he's never actually seen a jellyfish for real, since they're usually herded away from areas merfolk frequent. Using magic of course.

He gazes sulkily out of the window and wonders when it will be safe to finally leave. He hopes the human is still there, but he knows it's a long shot, since it's been nearly a moon and a half since he last saw it. 

A swish sound behind him alerts him to someone's presence, and he swirls in surprise: no one visits him at this time of day! That's mostly because he's not usually here, but even in recent weeks when it's been well known by everyone where he is he's had no one come to see him except the servants.

"Chen! Brawd hŷn, there you are! I was looking all through the gardens for you, and yet you're here." Chen relaxes quickly on seeing that it's just Zhoumi. He was just thinking about going to look for him so he could tell him of his news, but now he guesses he doesn't have to. 

"lts a pleasure to see you," Chen replies, only a little sardonically.

"Oh, don't give me that, " his brother scoffs, "I just heard about you being allowed to leave the palace, this is great news!" He enthuses, gliding closer and placing one glowingly pale palm his shoulder. 

"I know, I'm looking forward to having more... freedom," Chen smiles up at his brother, and they share a look, both understanding that by freedom he really means the chance to leave the palace and go far away. Perhaps one day he'll just go and never return. The only reason they kept him here was to make a point to the public that their prince is under control.

"So am I, Chen." He looks around the room, taking in the minimal decorations, probably the complete opposite to his own room on the other side of the palace, filled with intricate and delicate coral carvings and the like.

"I want you to bring me along with you on your trip to see this human again." His brother grins jubilantly, but Chen's two hearts drop, "for one thing I would like to see a real life surface dweller with my own eyes, and also I would love to see you using that spell I taught you." Zhou Mi looks on at his brother proudly, but Chen feels stifled. Would it be so much to ask for him to have one thing he can call his own? Just one way he can be different- dare he say it, special? Obviously it would;

"I had, uh, intended on going back alone, actually," Chen starts, not exactly intending to hurt his brother's feelings, but it seems to happen anyway. The smile falls right off Zhou Mi's face, to be replaced by a confused and hurt expression that makes Chen feel a little guilty. But just a bit, he really doesn't want to have to bring his brother along. Zhou Mi has tons of things he's better than Chen at, like magic and he swims so much faster and Chen has nothing. He just is.

"Why?" Zhou Mi asks, his muscular tail drooping, "I thought you would want me to go with you, we were conspiring together." Chen winces, his reasons for wanting to be alone seem a little childish, but he can't back down now, and besides, his brother is acting like a petulant hatchling himself.

"I just want to go by myself, is that so much to ask?" Chen retorts, regretting instantly how snappy that sounded. Zhou Mi recoils in shock, 

"Why are you being so selfish?" 

"I'm not, I just want to have something to myself. I'm grateful for your help but I want to do this on my own, ok?" Chen tries to placate him but it's too late: his brother is already scowling at him,

"What? No I'm pretty sure you're actually just an ungrateful brat. No wonder you don't have any royal responsibilities, you couldn't even cast a bubble spell without help, you're useless," Zhou Mi's lip curls up, "whatever, I should've known not to help you. Li Yin was right,"  he shakes his head and propels himself out of Chen's bedchambers faster than Chen can even blink.

Zhou Mi's remarks cut deep. So these are his brother's true colours, huh? Chen wants to cry, but he won't let it happen. He's not going to be weak.

Li Yin was right. Does that mean his entire family thinks he's a failure? That hurts a lot more than Chen thought it would, even though he'd often had self pitying thoughts along the same lines, he'd never once truly believed it. 

That settles it. He'll just have to leave sooner than planned, he doesn't want to run into any of his family in the near future and he doesn't trust Zhou Mi not to tell his parents, not after that. He tries to control his breathing, forcing his lungs to inhale even amounts of water, and devises a list of things he should bring, well aware that he doesn't have very much in the way of possessions, despite being royalty. He has plenty of beautiful clothes, but they aren't the kind you would want to take on a long journey, encrusted with tiny shining stones and pearls as they are. 

-

Adjusting the small fabric pouch containing food slung across his back, and afixing his pearl tiara securely atop his head, Chen sneaks out of the palace boundaries as discreetly as possible. He thinks one of the guards may have seen him, but they didn't make any move to stop him, nor did they run off to sound the alarm so he assumes he's good to go. He starts out at a good pace, lacy tail trailing behind him far too frivolously for his taste.

The swim to the beach where the human was feels a lot longer than it did last time, Chen thinks. This could, of course, be attributed to how the last time he came here, he alllowed himself to be distracted by everything that he came across, and that made it feel both longer and shorter. Either that or his perception of time has been messed up while he was stuck within the palace walls.

He's tired well before the time the cliff face is in sight, and he blames being locked up so long for robbing him the oppurtunity to excersise. It's surprising how healthy you have to be to swim such long distances every day, especially in the short time it takes him to do so. The surface weather isn't so nice today, the clouds obscuring the usually vibrantly blue sky and making the earthen cliffs seem a little grey and drab. Even the trees surrounding the beach area look unhappy.

The closer Chen creeps towards the small dwelling by the ocean side, the more careful he makes sure all of his movements are. His scales grate against the wet rocks. While he still isn't sure his human is even there anymore, he doesn't want to accidentally make any noises as he slithers, serpentine, over rocks and through rock pools along the cliffside, apologising to the teeming wildlife he is surely disturbing as he does so.

He thinks it must still be early in the day, because there are more shadows than he remembers, and its also a lot colder. Based on what he read in the library, cold temperatures either means night time or winter, but since it is only just nearing autumn, according to lunar records, he concludes that it can only be night time.

His heart is beating irregularly out of excitement. He's breaking the rules, he's so far away from home, and he's going to see his human again. Oh, how he hopes he is still here, he'll be so disappointed if he isn't. While he waits for the sun to rise, he plays with a happy little crab, teasing her by putting his little finger between her claws then yanking it out before she has time to close them.

Every so often, he peeks over the rocks to see the shabby little hut, a ways down the beach. It hasn't changed much since he last saw it, if at all. The roof still looks like its going to fall in at a moment's notice and there's mossy patches plaguing the walls. The cloud coverage gradually clears and Chen's tail begins to ache, not being suspended in water its pretty heavy and kind of useless on land. Also the rocks are digging into him everywhere. He should have thought this through more, he thinks, scooping up water with his hands and pouring it over his skin so he feels more comfortable, and dunking his head under the surface of the shallow water every so often to breathe. 

He stops to eat something from his bag, a salty preserved meal, designed to last a long time before becoming inedible.

He's beginning to get bored, and would be well on his way to falling asleep if it weren't for the painful sharp edges pressing into his bare skin, when a light comes on from within the shack, casting faint square shaped pools of light on the sand outside. Chen perks up immediately, pulling himself as close to the edge of the rock pool as he dares to get a better view of what's going on. 

Not much happens for a while, but Chen can hear barely audible noises emanating from within, so Chen is elated. He's still here. The kerchunk sound of the human opening the door makes him jump, and makes him realise just how intently focused he was on the goings on inside. The human is dressed similarly to before, with garment Chen learned recently are called pantaloons, but he doesn't think the shoes look quite right, not compared to the drawings in his books. 

It steps outside, feet slipping on the wet sand, then starts walking. To Chen's dismay, he realises he's wakling in his direction, so he hunkers down and hopes that he won't find him. He stops a short distance away, lays down the sheet of fabric and site on it. Once Chen has recovered from his near discovery, and the panic is starting to die down, it dawns on him that this is perfect: the human doesn't look like he's going to move anytime soon, and he's close to both him and the ocean. He can try making contact with him from here.

This is his chance!

But it's different like this, compared to in his bed chambers, because for one thing his bed chambers are completely submerged, and also because of the change in distance. Creating a mass of frothy bubbles is easy when it's just a few inches away from his hands, but considerably harder when its the length of his own body twice over away. He curses, why didn't he think about this before he got here? What, did he think he was just going to flounder along the shoreline and expect to stay hidden?

He's not sure if he can do it from this far, but he is damn well going to try anyway. He didn't come all this way just to stare- he's going to make contact somehow. It's a strain, pulling on nature in this way, but somehow he manages to force his will upon the ocean and, with some difficulty, creates a word that hopefully this human can read. It's a greeting, as far as he knows, and its made up of a combination of small lines interlocking with each other. Very logical, completely unlike his own language, comprised of sweeping circular motions and rounded edges.

The human stares at his creation for a moment, then rubs at his eyes furiously, hissing some nasty sounding syllables to himself, and then shaking his head. Chen thinks that maybe this hasn't gotten through to him. He should try something else, something longer that definietly won't be mistaken for anything else. There's another phrase he knows, which he thinks is also a greeting, but more formal. An inquiry to one's wellbeing, he believes. This takes considerably more effort to pull off; it feels like the water is positively fighting against him, but after what feels like a monumental struggle, he prevails, the individual characters surfacing just along the line of the shore.

The human makes a distressed noise, and buries his face in his palms, rapidly spitting out words Chen doesn't understand. Maybe this was a mistake, humans are clearly fragile, maybe he should just leave it alone. 

He hunkers down, in an even more uncomfortable position than before, so as not to be seen so easily in case the human looks in his direction. The rocks are really beggining to hurt, cutting into even his tough skin, and he's sure he'll have scratch marks across his stomach that will last for days, but he can't move unless he's willing to risk attention.

He wants to try the bubble spell again, partly to prove to his brother, despite his absence, that he isn't useless and partly to prove the same thing to himself, but he doesnt want to blow this oppurtunity. From what he can tell, this creature is pretty easily upset and startled, if he does it again, he might cause it to do something dangerous. Chen doesn't know what, but he knows it would not be a good thing, were it to happen. So he remains still, battling the sharp cutting in his abdomen and not making any noise. It's a lot less fun now, earlier on he'd been excited but in a good way, now he's just a little scared. And bored at the same time, which makes for an interesting combination, but somehow it is possible.

The crab disappeared a long while ago, so he has no entertainment exept for listening to the tiny waves crash against the rocks and hiss as they retreat back into themselves. The ocean always seems to be more restless at the edges; at the deepest parts she seems almost lethargic in her stillness. The pain is almost numb by the time the human retreats back into his cabin, picking up the fabric and shaking it free of most of the sand before he leaves. Chen is both relieved, and sad to see him go.

But now that he's gone, Chen can get away. He's probably been here too long already, and when he gets back he'll be punished so hard he most likely won't be allowed to leave tha palace ever again, but it was worth it, Chen thinks. He'll always remember the humans face: similar in structure to anyone of his own race, but lacking in any kind of markings. His face is purely one colour and he's never seen anything like it before. His own face is pale too, but mottled with darker patches. Chen wonders if it's normal for humans to be this plain-skinned. Then there's his hair, or at least he thinks it's hair; Chen has never seen hair dry before, so it looks like more of a dying anenome to him, but that rich blackness is captivating. Would it come alive with the help of water? Or would it stay the same way it is now, rigidly stuck to it's head?

And those eyes, dark, so dark, and deep. Such a dark brown they're almost black, and so full of soul. Chen's own are ringed with a murky green colour. The height of beauty under the water is inky black hair, dark contrasting skin markings and lustrous scales in vibrant colours, and this goes for everyone. This creature before him would be so beautifully exotic- he has legs! They're not huge, but he can see strong looking muscles underneath the pale flesh. How does he swim without a tail?

He digresses, he needs to get out of here. He twists around, gasping in pain when more sharp rocks gauge into his side, attempting to get out of this rock pool and see how bad his wounds are. In fact, he needs to get himself fully submerges soon as possible, he can feel the fin on his back drying out already. While he'd been watching the human he'd neglected to douse himself in water to stave the dry air off. 

He wriggles his way slowly and cautiously back the way he came, making as little sound as possible so as not to attract any human attention. This doesn't stop the scraping noise his tail makes, but he doesn't think he can do much about that, and now that the human is definietly awake, he moves in short bursts, checking over his shoulder after every jerk just to make sure.

It's harder work than he'd thought, dragging himself to the lip of the rock without suffocating or making any noise, but he manages, eventually. Preparing a defensive speech to give to his parents, about how he didn't provoke the human, and it's harmless, and everything will is fine.

But the water isn't there.

He blinks, and looks again. No, that's definitely just sand. The shoreline has retreated back into herself. Chen will never be able to crawl all the way over there without being spotted, this is a disaster! His stomach burns with the pain of hundreds of tiny cuts, and he's finding it harder and harder to breathe. He's going to die here, his parents were right everyone was right about him and no one will miss him. They'll all be glad to see him gone, won't they?

In his panic, it doesn't occur to him to simpy wait quietly until the tide comes back in, and despite the stinging burn it causes all over his torso, he begins to thrash around in abject frustration. He freezes, face below the water, the only movement is his heavy breathing. Without really thinking, he lets out an angry cry, but cuts it short the very instant he remebers that that's a terrible idea.

The panic returns once again as he stills completely, this time not even daring to breathe. Is this it? Is this the end? The human is going to find him and then what? Chen hears the door to the shack open and close, then a timid, questioning call and he shuts his eyes tight, praying that it won't find him. Soft sounds of sands under protected feet draw nearer, though Chen can barely hear them over the sound of his blood rushing through his system. 

Theres another softly spoken sentence, a question hanging in the air. He shifts minutely, and his delicate tail flops wetly to the side. Chen lists all of the bad words he knows and repeats them inside his head over and over with vehemence. Why is he so stupid? He's not ready for this yet, he hadn't wanted to make contact for another few days yet, weeks even. Maybe he would never have revealed himself at all, but if he did he wanted it to be on his terms. Now there't no choice in the matter, and whatever happens-

"Hello?" 

FOUR MONTHS ITS BEEN FOUR MONTHS im so sorry oh god. but ive been working on this slowly and i will continue to work on this so please be patient this will get finished eventually OTL

comment, come talk to me on my askfm or tumblr anything is welcome pleeasee

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