Misty.

She was the ocean.

Hidden beneath the pale sea foam, she swam gracefully and free. Her tinted blue hair floated behind her and her long tail glistened, flashes of gold and blue reflecting in the clear water. She twisted, turning on her back and flipping her tail which then propelled her forward. She smiled, doing a flip and looking to the surface.

Never once, in her eighteen years of life, did she ever think of going to the surface. The sea was her home and she wanted it to be that way forever. She had heard legends of other merpeople going to the surface and never returning; they had grown a pair of human legs and soon enough, forgot all about their underwater paradise.

But this time, as she stared up through the water, curiosity got the best of her. She swam upward slowly, poking her head just barely out of the cool water. She looked around, first to the sun which rained down on her causing her pale skin to grow hot quickly. Next, she looked to the shore where humans ran and played, screaming out words she had never heard before.

She dipped back beneath the water, only to surface again and cling to a large rock. She continued watching, eyes darting between the humans. She had heard they were all ugly, monstrous things that wanted nothing more than to examine and poke at her kind. But from what she could tell, humans were some of the most beautiful things she had ever seen; they enjoyed their life without a care in the world.

Her eyes raked over the humans once more, landing on a group of five boys. They all sat in a circle, rocking back and forth as if they were singing. One of the boys in particular caught her eye. She could just barely see his face but his dark hair held small blonde streaks in the front. He was leaning backward, palms against the sand as his shoulders moved softly side to side. She smiled, eyes still focused on this one boy. There was something about him, something that she wanted to learn more about.