Silver Scales Chapter 1

A trail of bubbles; a flashing smirk on pale lips.

That was the only thing that disturbed the still waters underneath the waves kicked up by the storm that was approaching. And storms were the best fun a prince could have. However, under the sea, a chase was being undergone.

From behind a jagged rock outcropping, the trail of bubbles ceased to form, the hidden figure ceasing all movement as his body was pressed up against the rough rock. Almost glowing eyes were closed to mere slits in the darkness of the water, deep in the ocean. His guardian, or otherwise known as one of his three older brothers, was chasing after him, but he was a much quicker swimmer, equipped with a slimmer body that only his second oldest brother could match. Pants were heard and the figure kept still, the smirk still curled onto his lips.

"Kadaj! Come on, stop this foolishness and come back to the Palace, you know Seph is going to kill me!" Frustration laced the deeper voice and spiky blonde hair soon came into view of those slitted eyes which watched carefully, out of sight. He was hesitant, as he had never been this far away from their city of Atalis. Liquid sapphire eyes darted around, a bottom lip being bitten so hard that blood was almost drawn. Propelling the figure was a sleek tail of golden scales, which unlike other merfolk, tended to hold its own light. Though the elder brother was grateful that his tail illuminated a bit of the distance around him, he was not tempted to go further. He would go fetch the professional tracker, one he knew personally well. And perhaps this time finding his brother would be easier. With a last glance around, glaring in each direction in case Kadaj was near, he did an about-face in the water and flicked his tail, propelling him away at a fast speed.

"Mark my words, brother; you won't get far with Squall tracking you down!"

There was no movement until the glow of the golden mermaid was gone from view after a few minutes. Peering out from behind the rocks, eyes suddenly opened fully, revealing the blue-green glow with slitted pupils. The eyes peered out from beneath moondust colored hair, which swayed gently in the water. Glancing around quickly lest his brother lay in wait somewhere close behind another rock, or if Squall was only minutes away from his position, he flipped and used the momentum to help propel him upwards, leaving the sandy bottom and rocks behind and below him.

Slowly, he leveled out from a vertical slope to a more horizontal one, feeling the pressure in the water lessen on his body, relaxing his vitals which were quite used to the underwater pressure.
He let out a soft sigh, closing his eyes as he entered the midst of a tall kelp forest. The plants reached up to fifty feet here and were the largest bed near the city. He twirled in it, enjoying the soft yet slippery feel of the kelp fronds against his bare skin and scaled tail. Eyes opening, he soon found himself lost in a sea of green plants. Smiling, he decided to play in them, quietly and swiftly darting between them like it was a game, back flipping and almost dancing in sheer delight of being free from his father and brother's control; that was, until he noticed that he was nearing the end, seeing the surface of the sea above him. He frowned, always hating to leave the kelp behind, but with a renewed appetite for the wonders above the sea, he swam up and out, giving one last look to the green underwater forest he loved. Better things were ahead of him, especially when included being able to break the golden rule of the merfolk and surface near shore. A smug look caressed his lips; he loved to break rules, unlike his other brothers, who were perfectly content to let rules control their lives.

He broke the surface at last, feeling air whip around his wet head, signaling to him that a storm would be approaching soon. Tilting his head, letting the waves push him closer to shore as he observed his surroundings. He was near a beach of almost white sand, but curiously looked to be of a silver color, a tad lighter than his own hair. A few trees, as he recalled from the palace library's books, were scattered throughout the stretch of land, producing hard, brown objects, some that had fallen onto the gritty ground at one time or another. Sinking back into the waves, he dove down and skimmed the bottom of the bottom, following its angle upwards to the shallower parts. Immediately claustrophobia set in and an extreme uneasiness took over his mind, making his slitted pupils dilate. It was a natural merfolk reaction to shallow water, seeing as they were made for the deep ocean. He just closed his eyes and sighed, reaching out to drag his fingers through the loose sand, letting that calm his nerves before he swam further up. It was getting shallower and he could feel the waves pick up his body and he skimmed the top of the crests before getting dumped back into the ocean. He expected to hit sand, but the dunking he got from the waves pushed him further down into… water?

Kadaj let out a confused noise, looking around and finding him to be in a slightly deeper pool, one surrounded by rocks, around twelve feet deep. Did the current and waves move him off target? Frowning, he glanced back in the direction he came from and saw rocks holding up sand, providing a natural sandbar and pool. He kicked his tail and burst through the surface, inhaling a breath of salty air. Looking around he noticed that the rocks were jagged and on a closer note, found that there was a crevice between two of them that he could slip into. With the water moving past him through there, he knew that it must come out onto the beach as a runoff. Smiling, he followed it, ignoring the fear that pressed against his mind. Jerking to the left, he managed to miss snagging an arm on a sharp rock that jutted out of the outcroppings. In one blink of an eye, he left the small runoff point and was waist deep in water. There were a few rocks that jutted out of the water near the beach and he climbed onto the middle one using the two next to it as holds to help pull him up.

Feeling his scales scrape against the wet rock, he winced, both from the feel and the harsh sound they made, pausing to look down at his tail. They would need to be sanded and re-polished to make sure that they wouldn't become brittle and crack; merscales could become very delicate outside water, while in water they were extremely strong because of the moisture. He could already see the wear in a few that were dragging along the rock. He shook his head and settled onto the rock, curling his tail in front where his 'knees' would be backwards to let it slightly hang off the rock where the waves could lick it gently and soothingly. Spray of the waves that crashed against the rock sprinkled his face and bare chest with moisture, making him purr at the sensation. His eyes glowing bright as they stared up at the moon, he opened his mouth and started to sing. His voice was like a siren's, soft and melodious, yet haunting, making any listener around unaware of anything else except the singer. It wasn't too odd that he had a voice like that. His father's parents were sirens, and all royalty were of siren's descent. However, he didn't know at that point that as his song was sung to the heavenly moon, his voice had captured an unwary listener.

- - - - - - - - -

There was only one thing that he needed to remember. Cissnei was an absolute god at sidetracking people. In other words, she was the best bodyguard and friend he had ever had. He had to get her something in return for doing him a big favor, once again. Maybe that huge red shruiken that she was looking at the last time she went with him to the Grand Market. A thoughtful look entered brilliant sapphire eyes. The figure they belonged to was panting against a tree near the outside of the kingdom walls, having just managed to slip through with ease due to his clever disguise. A plain white tunic with black leggings, black gloves, and a dagger was common enough to throw off any suspicions about him being a prince, though the black cloak billowing around him was a backup, one to hide his obvious trademark – flaming red hair. The prince-in-hiding's short hair was spiked slightly so it messily flew everywhere, though he had a long tail of it running across his back, an attempt to separate himself from all other hairstyles. Twin crescent marks of a crimson hue trailed from the side of his eyes to under them. Dangling in the moonlight around the male's neck was a silver clasped necklace, with a beautiful sapphire gemstone set in safety of a dragon's claw charm. The necklace was a special possession of his, and he raised a hand to stroke the stone gently, as he usually did when lost in thought.

"Well it's settled, for this victory, Cissnei will be getting a nice present. Ol' Dad doesn't need to know about where a bit of his money is going." An amused snicker flowed past his lips and he walked off through the forest, forgoing the path that lead from the kingdom. There was no need for him to get caught in plain sight. Plus he had a faster way to get down to the beach his home overlooked from on top of the cliff. The prince was known other than Prince Reno 'Sinclair' ShinRa, though he preferred to drop his last name and have his middle as his official last name. It bugged his father, but the fire-headed prince couldn't be stopped, especially when it came to him escaping chores and other princely duties he was supposed, like at that particular moment.

Ignoring the fact that he would be facing yet another severe scolding from his father, he threw the hood of his cloak off his head to reveal his face, letting his skin soak up the moonbeam which trickled through the treetops to reach him, revealing the path that was hidden from anyone except himself. To him, it was another day, or rather, night, strolling through the woods and then touring the beach once more. The salty air and the roar of the waves always cleared his head, especially since he loved the sea. It enchanted him, always causing him to be drawn towards it, as if the sea was beckoning his name, as it was right at that moment. He could feel his heart dance as he picked up his pace, seeing the edge of the forest, and beyond that, the unusual silver sands that made the beach so unique. A smile tipping his face, he finally stepped onto the gritty ground, feeling it sink underneath him, not accustomed to his weight. A soft sigh whistled through his lips and his eyes slipped closed, tipping his head back to feel the wind gently tug and play with his hair. Though there was evidence that a storm was approaching, it didn't matter at the moment.

This is freedom.

That thought pleasantly rolled throughout his head. Opening his eyes, he took off his cloak, stuffing it between two heavy rocks that were near the forest, making sure that it wouldn't fly away. Standing back to study his handiwork with a crucial eye, while taking his gloves off and stowing them in a pocket, he finally nodded in utter satisfaction and turned around to walk along the shore, his boots successfully keeping any water from wetting his feet. Usually he would have been scanning for seashells, having developed a habit of collecting them, but he found himself just staring up at the moon, admiring how beautifully round it was, like a bird's egg, ready to hatch. It was quite hypnotizing to look at, making one forget what they were doing. That was, until he heard a sound. Immediately his hand flew to his dagger, ready to draw the deadly weapon and attack with its lethal blade, but as he looked around, he found that the beach was empty, barren of any life except himself. Cautiously the prince turned in a circle to make sure, and then tilted his head in an attempt to hear the sound again. What did it sound like? It was something rough, like fish scales against a coarse substance, like rock.

Shaking his head, he continued to the far side of the beach, where he had a guilty hobby of collecting seashells. It was at that particular spot where it was easy to find such unique and rare shells. Looking off towards the sea and his hand dropping from his dagger's handle, he took a big whiff of the salty air, always having enjoyed the smell of it. A light crunch was heard and he paused, looking down to see a shell half broken underneath his boots. He stooped down to look at it, trying to piece it back together when a sound reached his ears. It sounded so strange, yet abnormally beautiful to his ears. It was as if his brain liquefied and turned into mushy goo. His eyelids fell halfway down and his mind melted down into a dreamlike state as a result of the song. The music started to weave around his head, taking a hold of his body and making it move without his mind's consent. Standing up, his hand dropped the two pieces of the sea shell, which landed in the fine sand. The prince stumbled forward, his eyes drawn to a rock formation in the distance, which was a few feet out into the water. Dazed, his thought process all but forgotten, his body continued, incapable of even the easiest thoughts. It was only when he found himself stepping into water that he regained a bit of control, able to look upwards through half closed eyes to see something he never had seen before.

Sitting elegantly before him was a beautiful creature, one he could recognize even in the entranced state he was in. A merman. The long tail that protruded from his waist, instead of legs, was covered in gleaming mercury scales and the fins at the end were long and pointed. Due to the overly polished state they were in, he seemed to be pretty vain in appearance, though merfolk were always said to be vain. However, he looked different than other merfolk he had always heard about. Most spoke about them only having a fish's tail, but this creature had more than that. Where his ears were, the back of them grew into delicate fins with a silvery webbed membrane filling the space between the similarly colored spines. Along his skin between his elbows and shoulders there were the same fins, though these seemed to be able to fold back into each other and almost disappear or, like they were now, extended and drifting with the wind. Two pelvic fins sat on each hip, which were currently folded down. On his shoulders there were small versions of the fins, but the membrane was shorter, resulting in the spines becoming spikes at the end that could extend to become larger and thus, look more fearsome. In addition to the strange faint green sheen that looked to be infused with the merman's skin, there was a row of serrated fins that went from his spine down to halfway down his tail. And his hair, it was like quicksilver moonbeams frozen into solid matter.

The troubling thing to his still slow mind, was the fact that he couldn't see what color this beauty's eyes were. Slowly he reached out his hand to possibly run his fingers through the silky-looking hair, but when they brushed against it, and the skin of his shoulder, the song vanished from the sky and the merman whipped around, startled to have had company and not know it. Brilliant sapphires met slitted blue-green eyes, both which widened in shock. A few seconds went by, the sudden silence being broken by the crash of waves. Something seemed to click in the merman's mind when the shock finally hit home. There was a human not even a few inches away from him.

Immediately a defensive instinct took over and his lips pulled back to reveal sharp teeth that otherwise looked normal humans' teeth. A shriek passed through his lips, causing Reno to cover his ears and stumble back in the water, falling on his bottom, the sound too piercing to remain up straight, and briefly he thought that it along could shatter glass. The merman's fins rattled against each other, all of them standing straight up to appear bigger. The shriek died down and he attempted to get away, the harsh sounds of scales against rock coming again as he slid down the front of the rock to get into the water and swim away.

Luck wasn't on the silver headed beauty's side as he found himself stuck, a sharp piece of rock digging painfully into the piece of flesh underneath his hipbone as he found himself trapped between the rock he had been sitting on, and the jagged counterpart beside it. He let loose a cry of pain, feeling it pierce through the scales due to his struggling and shredding a few off into the water below. The prince saw what was happening while trying to get his hearing back, briefly hearing the ringing of bells, and shot up, climbing the rock to help the injured merman, but a snarl from the merman drove him off, a hand with clawed fingertips nearly slicing into his outstretched arm. With a tug, the merman fell free, but as soon as he hit the water, the blue ocean water turned crimson with blood.