Fire engulfed the surface as the sun sank beneath the waves, flashes of red and orange lapping at the waters above me. The light shattered across the surface disappeared and shadows reached out from the rocky outcroppings on either side of me, sliding over my skin and blanketing me in a thick darkness.

    I raised my head from where it had rested in the crook of my arm, blinking to adjust my eyes to the sparse lighting. I could see well enough at night, but even if I'd been rendered blind navigation wouldn't be a problem. Now, though, I was anticipating something, and I strained my eyes to make sense of the vague outlines the night had reduced my surroundings to.
    Frustrated, I kicked away from my vantage point, nestled among the willowy stalks of a kelp forest. Rising above the swaying green arms, I propelled myself forward, slicing through the water with ease. I swam past the twin rock spires, twisting round to slip between their jutting, fractured points without slicing my skin to ribbons. The black water offered no resistance as I made my way to the sunken ship I'd discovered that morning.

    It was a modern vessel, nothing as grand as the mythical, treasure-laden ships of old. The source of its sinking was obvious: a gaping hole ripped through the hull, the edges charred and blackened. My guess was the engine blew for some reason or another. I didn't know enough of the mechanics to understand why such a catastrophic failure had occurred, and I didn't really care in the first place. Humans were beyond the scope of my interests.

    Drawing closer, I edged through the hole, gripping a bit of sodden hull to keep from being swept along by the current that passed through the ship's innards. My lips split in a sharp smile the moment I noticed the silvery flash of scales amidst the black; fish darted in and out of what once constituted as below deck, some huddled in systematic groups, others braving the unknown all by their lonesome. Earlier I'd been pleased to see that nature had already claimed this abandoned eyesore as a home and breeding ground for these fish. Most ships faced the same fate once their usefulness vanished in the eyes of humans; I was aware that cars and the like were put to the same purpose when they outlived their lifespans, but somehow, I was more satisfied by the sight of these seafaring vessels captured and enslaved by the very beast they sought to tame.

    I drifted away for a moment, grabbing another section of the hull and pulling myself up to the top deck by the metal railing that encircled the whole of the ship. More fish of varying kinds swam freely over the deck; a turtle glided through the vacant window of the wheelhouse, emerging from the other side. The peaceful scene tugged another smile from my lips as I allowed the water to buoy me upwards and over the railing. I hardly smiled these days but this - this made me genuinely happy. Serene moments such as this, with the soft moonlight of evening trickling down in whimsical shafts and the water aglow with silver, were rarer than I would have liked. Too often were they disrupted by those damnable humans.

    I moved forward, barely kicking my feet; the rippling forms of fish initially ducked away from me, but after a while, they grew used to my presence enough to swim freely around me. The turtle took to me much quicker, even permitting me to ghost my fingers down the length of its shell. It surged upwards to meet my hand, curious and gentle, but soon it was gone, disappearing into the black, perhaps in search of something. Food, maybe. It was getting to be that time of night for some creatures.

    Speaking of...

    The gills lining my neck swelled as I drew in a deep breath. I'd spent too long in this form, and the change was welcome as I first felt the skin above my skin elongating, the muscles beneath it spreading outwards to meet it, taking the shape of a large, curved dorsal fin. My skin warmed uncomfortably for a few heartbeats, and I grit my teeth together, biting back a wordless growl. The same sensation that gifted me with the fin spread to the base of my spine, where it quickly became a caudal fin, the twin lobes nearly equal in length. I flexed my fingers and toes, marveling - as I always did, no matter how many times I've gone through this - at the smooth patches of silvery-gray skin that lined my knuckles and the spaces between my fingers.

    The transformation ceased there.

    I scowled on impulse, swishing my tail in aggravation.

    Once upon a time, my powers of transfiguration had been perfected, allowing me to slip with ease into my desired form. I was the king of my domain, ruler of the Second Sea, feared and respected by all - but that was... decades ago, and therefore not worth mentioning any longer. I hadn't lost my title as Keeper, but my duties and capabilities had lessened and degraded over the years, going to so far as to trap me in this pseudo-human form and bar me from journeying outside my sphere of influence.

    The cause of my fall from grace? Humans. Disgusting, vile creatures that they were.

    They'd taken over the oceans, harvested them, gutted them - all in the name of feeding their voracious, ever-growing appetites. They polluted these temperate waters with all manner of poisons, blackening the hearts of the marine life I've spent all my centuries protecting. And they felt so little remorse for their actions that they cared more for monetary gains than for the havoc they've wrought.

    You won't get anywhere driving yourself mad with these thoughts...

    I knew that, and yet... these bouts of loathing were becoming much more frequent.

    Gliding my hands through the water, following the gentle current that tugged at my fins, I kicked again, distancing myself from the shipwreck. I wouldn't interfere anymore than I had for the night. The fish here may have grown used to my being here, but that was dangerous; I wasn't one of them, and if they mistook my half-human form for a friend, then they would lower their defenses when actual human beings arrived, as they undoubtedly would. And I wouldn't be responsible for another school of fish being abducted from their home, for more creatures being caught by their throats in sheets of netting. The duties left to me were few and far between, but among them was still the job of keeping peace in my sea - and that included softening the blow of human hunters as much as I possibly could.

    With night fast approaching, I could expect fewer and fewer intruders. There were always those naive humans who thought themselves invulnerable as they slipped into the moonlit waters, screeching and hollering, splashing one another and generally disturbing the serene quiet I so loved in this area. But I suspected I wouldn't have such nuisances tonight: a storm was brewing on the horizon, and within a few hours these waters would be turned into churning, frothing waves, the type that reached into the stale air above like the claws of a giant beast and dragged down anything they could hook themselves onto.

    I twisted around in the water, sweeping my tail from side to side in lieu of kicking my legs to propel me forward. I found my tail caused less of a fuss and gifted me with a much more silent approach, and anyway, I much preferred to make use of my more natural appendages.

    The sunlight gradually faded from the world around me, plunging me into a nest of darkness and faint shadows seen from the corners of my eyes. Unbothered, I kept to a straight path, diving under overhanging rock formations and dodging around kelp forests as they came before me. As I was now, my night vision was more than enough to compensate for the low lighting. As I neared the shore, though, I kicked off from the sandy bottom and snaked upwards until my head breached the surface of the water and cool air slapped at my cheeks and teased through my sodden hair.

    I'd been right about the storm; even now, pinpricks of rain battered my exposed skin, and I squeezed my eyes shut, unprepared for the assault. Once I'd acclimated to the weather a bit, I blinked open my eyes and peered through the falling rain at the mainland the current was attempting to pull me towards. It glowed with unnatural fire at this time of night, too bright and too monopolizing; one's attention couldn't possibly be fixed anywhere else while this city, this world was aglow with all manner of wasteful energy.

    A low growl rumbled in the back of my throat, and I gnashed my teeth in irritation. Even in the tranquil hours of the night, these humans demanded attention, commanded dominance and announced themselves as superior in all manner possible. They were despicable, these humans. They flaunted their power and expected the rest of world to bow to them.

    And the worst part was - we did. All of us. Every animal, every plant, from the wonders of the sky to the secrets of the ocean's depths - they accepted humans as kings and queens of the food chain. Without exception.

    It sickened me like nothing else.

    Once, we, the Keepers, were the most powerful and revered of Earth's creatures. Then these lowly humans usurped our throne and asserted themselves as nature's favorites.

    How and why weren't questions I could answer, and my ignorance was as much a part of my hatred as everything else. But as I was in this day and age, weakened and drained of my previous powers...

    My head snapped up as a sudden thought presented itself to me, uprooting the track I'd been content to follow up until this point.

    In this form...

    In this form... I look so much like them.

    In this form... who's to say they wouldn't trust me?

    A wicked smile curled my lips as I drifted forward in the water, buoyed by a bucking wave. Quicker than before, I could feel the heat bubbling out from my chest, injecting itself into my bloodstream and rushing outwards to the tips of my fingers, my toes; then I suddenly seized, my muscles tightening as both my fins receded back into my spine. This time, however, the warmth didn't dissipate the moment the transformation had ceased; it was a steady companion now as I dragged a hand through my knotted hair. The other hand I raised before my eyes, turning it this way and that to inspect it. My naturally blue-gray pallor had tempered somewhat, and from what I knew of humans, I could pass as some poor, sickly soul so long as no one questioned my appearance too harshly.

    They wouldn't think of me as something foreign and strange, not while I was like this, like them.

    And that inherent trust of their own kind... oh, I would make sure it would be their most fatal flaw.

So this is only a snippet from a story idea I've had for a while now. You guys might remember I posted a cover for this back in Design Central on my main account; well, if I ever get around to writing this out, I'll probably whip up another one, as I don't want it to have an anime style anymore. In any case, in this story, there are seven ancient creatures who govern the seven seas (hence the title).

While it would make sense for our MC to govern the Southern Ocean (or the Antarctic Ocean), he actually rules over the North Atlantic, or the Second Sea in this world; his title as the Seventh Keeper comes from his being the latest Keeper to reincarnate themselves. These Keepers used to possess immense magical power, as they fed off the natural energy of the Earth (a lot of which resides in the ocean, obviously), but as they lost influence due to the takeover of humans, their powers dwindled, leaving them in their weakened forms (modeled after humans, which is ironic and all).