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"𝘒𝘺! 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨!"

The young merman continued to swim through his kingdom's waters, determined to get to his destination. This was the chance he had been waiting for over the past 2 months. To be alone outside the confinement of his house. To feel free to swim around without a parent or sibling reminding him of his restriction.

"𝘚𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘥𝘶𝘥𝘦!"

If the blueberry had heard his friend yelling behind him, he ignored it. He continued swimming through the clear, idle waters of his homeland. The sun was set high in the sky, casting rays down into the water, creating lines of sunlight that brought about a wave of euphoria to Kyrans being. The light beamed down and heated the water, making it the perfect temperature to swim in. At least to Kyran it was. He hated the way cold water felt. It always found a way to get under his scales and make him feel uncomfortable and anxious. He much rather preferred the feel of the warm sun.

     "Finally! I caught up to you." Kyran whipped his head around to see his raven-haired friend who had followed him all the way out here. He must've seen the uncanny sway of the long translucent fins on the sides of Kyran's tail as he swam through the square. Evan was always one of the only merfolk who could easily spot Kyran in a crowd. He could also tell Kyran apart from any of his siblings any day. Every other mermaid or merman would hesitate to answer, afraid of speaking the wrong name. Evan never had any trouble though. He was the first real friend Kyran had ever made.

     "Yeah, I guess you did. Was I that noticeable?" Kyran asked. 

     "Nope, I'm just super great! They don't call me the 'Great Evan' for nothin'!" Evan said, circling Kyran, his longer tail following him as he curled around.

     "Literally no one calls you that. I wouldn't even call you that, even if I was being ironic." Kyran joked towards his friend. He saw the scales on Evan's cheeks, shoulders, and the two stripes on either side of his tale cascade into a shade of light pink. Kyran knew what that color meant. He used to have to spend forever to try and remember what the colors of Evan's scales meant. By now, he knew most of them by heart. "I see that was a good joke," Kyran motioned towards the pink scales.

     "Oh, whatever. Stop reading them without my permission!" Evan scolded him. Evan always hated that his scales showed what he was feeling all the time. It meant he could never keep any secrets about what he felt. A part of him loathed the super rare genetic, but the other part of his was proud of it, cause it made him feel unique and different. "Anyway, I assume you came out here to look for treasure again?"

"You bet. You wanna help me this time?" Kyran asked. Evan shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head. "First one to find a blue shell wins!" Kyran yelled out before splashing a cloud of bubbles in Evan's face and swimming away.

"Augh! Get back here!" Kyran could hear the giggling coming from his friend behind him. He swam past rocks and coral trying to look for a shell. His eyes were glued to the sand beneath him, trying to scope out any sign of color in the dull yellow and brown particles. He had already lost Evan a while back. He saw him delve into a stone archway to try and find something pretty.

Kyran stopped in his tracks when a sharp blue glint on the ground caught his eye. His stop was so abrupt, the translucent fins on his side whipped back up into his face, flicking into his mouth. He flailed his arms around to get them off his head, which probably made him look stupid to anyone that would have been out there. He swam up to the almost glowing object, eager to see what it was he had found. He stared at it for a few seconds before he sifted the sand away with his hands. He brought the object close to his face to get a better look at it.

The object was oval-shaped, with a ring of silver lining the rim. A long, linked wire was hooked onto a jewelry chain that hung off of the lining. The inside was a deep royal blue gem, which looked as if millions of tiny sparkles were dancing around inside of it. Its reflective surface and colors resembled that of a moonstone. Kyran excitingly put the gem in the small pouch he had hung over his body. He had never found something like this when he went out exploring, probably cause he was never allowed this far out. He kept swimming, trying to find more treasures, then he caught sight of something. He saw another glint in the water past the barrier.

     He knew that the barrier was transparent to those inside its protective blockade, but not the other way around. The barrier made it so that enemies and dangerous threats wouldn't be able to enter the kingdom. It was designed by a powerful sorcerer so that way if you go through, the kingdom you once resided in would disappear under a veil of magic. The spell made it so that the only way to get back in is to know you are going back in. If a citizen were to get curious and swim outside, they could still enter back, as long as they knew the kingdom was behind them. Most merfolk do tend to get curious about the ocean outside their kingdom, so they take a few strokes outside the walls. Once they witness firsthand how different the outside world is compared to their kingdom, they come back under the protective veil.

     Others that swim past the reef on the other side, never return. They get lost in the outside waters, never able to find their home again. The kingdom had suffered the loss of many valiant soldiers and innocent children this way. There was a lot of debate by the higher-ups on whether the barrier should even stay up, but the notion had still lain undecided.

     To Kyran, the rules on the barrier were simple. No one goes out, no one comes in. That was how it had been for a while now. Ever since the incident Kyran had got himself into all those years ago, his parents had tried their hardest to keep him away from the barrier. He reached his left hand over and touched the long scar on his right arm where the spear had cut. It had fully healed but wasn't ever going to go back to smooth skin. He knew the right and wrong answer in this situation, but despite his conscious screaming to run, he couldn't help but swim towards the shiny object.

"𝘬𝘺𝘳𝘢𝘯! 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨?"

     Kyran turned around to see Evan flaunting his arms at him, a blue shell was held tightly in his right one. Kyran took one last look at the shine then swam towards Evan.

"Oh, it was nothing. I just, uh, saw something," Kyran explained. He was glad he didn't have Evan's color-changing scales, cause then anyone would've been able to see through his lie.

"Weeell.." Evan started, "I found a shell! I win!" He held the blue shell up above his head like it was a golden trophy. He brought it down and showed it to Kyran. He was less than impressed. The shell was dull and chipped on the sides. The blue coming from the bottom faded into an ugly gray instead of a pretty white.

"Good job. Not very pretty, but good job," Kyran teased.

"HEY! I worked very hard to find this shell! And by the looks of it, you didn't have any luck." Evan motioned towards Kyran's empty hands. Kyran opened his mouth, about to tell Evan about the much better trinket he found but decided against it. A part of him didn't want Evan to know about it. He didn't know why, but he felt it would be important to him in the future.

"Yeah, I guess you win today." Kyran tried to fake his sadness, when really he was excited beyond belief. When he got home he would immediately start studying the gem he found.

"Come on, let's go. I can't wait to show this to Mariee!" Kyran followed Evan towards the square, ready to look at the gem he found. A part of Kyran didn't want to go back, though. It was telling him that he wanted to stay. It was screaming at him to go back to the shiny object. He wanted to go back to the border. He wanted to learn more.

He wanted to pass the barrier.

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𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 - 𝘧𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 4, 2020
𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 - 𝘫𝘶𝘯𝘦 16, 2021
1499 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴
~𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙖