#merjune

The world slowly came into focus. Peter opened his eyes and groggily looked around. He jolted and darted around frantically in the small space. His tail hung limply below him as he thrashed. The last thing he remembered was being hunted by a fishing boat and getting knotted in a thick net. He looked around. He was in a small concrete tank, except one of the walls was shiny. He was being watched.

A shiver ran down his spine as he stared at his reflection. His scales had lost most of their vibrancy, now a dull, greyish green. Some were even dying and flaking off, by the looks of it. Then there was his tail. His beautiful, brightly patterned tail. It was wrapped from the tip to its middle joint, about halfway up his scaly half. He sank in his new prison and mournfully cooed, trying to call out to his pod. No reply, as he’d predicted. He called out again as he let his eyes wander around the tank slowly, finally noticing a ladder. With no other options, he dragged himself over to it and pulled himself out of the water.

He breached the surface to find that the ladder accessed a small dry area about three times the size of the tank area-wise, but probably about as tall. There was a glass door in one corner with a black object above it. The object moved and a small red light on it flashed. A camera? He flopped onto the dry concrete floor. This was where the helpful human architecture stopped: he had no way to get himself to the door other than clawing his way over. He cried out in shock to see that his claws had been forcefully blunted. They weren’t nubs, but they also weren’t going to be helpful in defending himself against or eating anything.

He whimpered against the cold ground and started dragging himself.

He’d made it maybe two arm lengths when he heard loud, resonant tapping coming from the door. He looked up to see a human male approaching the area he was trapped in. Fuck. He hissed as the male reached the door and frantically pushed himself back towards the tank. The male entered the room and closed the door behind him, bending down. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, big guy. My name’s Robert, I’m going to be taking care of you until you’re well enough to go back into the ocean, okay?”

Peter hissed at “Robert”, baring his teeth as he finally made it to the water. He pushed himself back in, chest heaving with the force of his gills filtering the air. He growled.

“What’s your name, bud?” Robert tried. He hissed again, pressing himself back into the opposite corner of the tank. “I know you can understand me. Do you, uh, have any questions?” Robert tried again.

“Fuck off,” he spat. Robert hadn’t moved from his crouching position by the door, but he didn’t trust for a second that the male didn’t have some sort of weapon or chemical on him.

“Hey, we’re here to help you, okay? We rescued you from marine trafficking boats. They’re the ones who harpooned your tail, but we got you in time to stitch it back together. I don’t know if anyone from your pod has been with us before, but in two weeks, you should be able to move to a bigger tank once it starts healing properly, and then you’ll be back in the ocean in about a month.”

“Ocean!” he hissed. “Take me now!”

“No can do, sorry, bud. The vet said your stitches need to stay in for two weeks to ensure your tail doesn’t rip again when you leave. Now, I have some painkillers and antiseptic I need to rub into your wounds. Would you like me to do it, or do you want to do it yourself?”

“Fuck off,” he hissed again.

“Do you know what infection is?” Robert asked. He looked tired, slumped into himself as he crouched. Peter scowled in return and looked away, seeing if there were any other exits or things he’d missed in his haste to get to the door.

Nothing, just concrete. Fuck!!

“Hey, I’m talking to you. Do you have a name?” He squirted water at Robert, hard enough he was able to hit the male’s legs. Robert expelled air and stood up, making Peter cower more than he’d like to admit. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. There’s actually someone I’d like you to meet.” He unfastened a black object from his hip and spoke into it.

He ducked back underwater, heart pounding as his gills flexed to let him catch his breath properly. Did Robert have a weapon?! Was it some sort of device that humans used to mimic more powerful merfolk song? After a few moments of silence, when his heart had started to slow to its usual speed, he heard a click from the surface. He swallowed heavily and pushed himself back over to the ladder to take a small peek.

There was a human male. Another one. Crouched down stupidly close to the edge of the tank. He breached the surface to get a better look, and, deciding he didn’t like what he saw, spat water at this one too.

“He-Hey! Hey!” the male spluttered, falling backwards. Idiot. He hissed and pushed himself back to the far corner of the cramped tank, staying above water in case the male moved to attack him. “Hey, it’s okay,” the male insisted in that same high, slow tone the other male had used before. “My-My name’s He-Herman. Nice to meet you.” He looked this “Herman” up and down. He was long and dripping wet. He snarled again for good measure and allowed himself to sink again. “He-ey! Hey, wait! I-I’m, I’m one of you!”

He threw his arms out to catch himself against the cold walls and glared over at the male. He didn’t have any ear spines, for a start, but the rest of him was too covered to really tell. He couldn’t see his teeth, either. Still, he was probably just trying anything to get him to cooperate. He huffed. “Explain.”

“Ye-Yeah, see?” Herman insisted, taking off the clothing of his hand. Water spilled from it. He pushed himself a little farther out from the wall to get a proper look. Hm. Herman did have scales on the backs of his hands, though they were translucent like a merling’s and let some of his skin tone through.

He cocked his head and fully pushed off the wall to get closer. He reached for Herman’s hand. The male hesitated for a moment before holding it out. He grabbed it and tugged it closer. Yeah, he definitely had scales, though they were weirdly under-formed for a merfolk his age. “Gills?” he questioned, looking up at the male in confusion. His legs seemed to have fully split from being a tail and he had weird scales, but no ear spines? Was this what happened if you left the water too long?

“Huh? O-Oh, yeah. Here,” Herman replied, grabbing the tab of metal under his chin and pulling down. More water spilled out as he opened his clothing enough to reveal his neck.

A horrified shriek ripped itself out of his lungs. Herman’s gills had been mutilated!! Some hadn’t lifted properly while others did to reveal marred skin underneath. Most looked scarred and malformed. He flung himself backwards into the water and quickly sank. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Is that what would happen to him?!! Would his gills be mutilated if he didn’t behave?!! He sank to the far, far corner of the tank, away from Herman and curled in on himself, shaking.

Herman had tried motioning for him to surface a couple of times since their first meeting, but to no avail. Peter had been left alone in his tank over night, scales slowly flaking further. His tail fin ached from where it had been harpooned and “stitched” back together, as did various other areas of his body. The more painful ones had white squares stuck over them. He wanted to rip them off of him, but his claws were nowhere near sharp enough. Plus, he didn’t want to disturb the wounds further than the humans already had.

After a few pitiful hours of restless sleep, he saw Herman waving at him from the surface again, holding a fish in one hand. His stomach grumbled. He hadn’t eaten in at least two days, maybe more, and he could feel his hunger in the effort it took to drag himself over to the ladder and pull himself up at the promise of food. He surfaced just enough to watch Herman, not pulling himself out of the water any further.

“Good morning!” Herman greeted him cheerfully. “I tried to feed you yesterday, but you didn’t come up! Did you, did you sleep alright?” He didn’t move from where he clung to the ladder, watching the male. After a few silent moments, Herman asked, “Do you want to try eating? You must be hungry.”

He wanted to resist the urge, but the pain deep within was too strong. He slowly pulled himself out of the water and flopped onto the concrete. He bared his teeth at Herman for good measure.

“Here. If you’re still hungry after that, I can get you some more,” Herman explained. He was now sitting and pushed a thin plastic slab towards him with three whole fish on top.

He took the top one and sniffed it. It had been dead for a while. He tore at it. It still tasted sooo good! He shredded the flesh from its wiry skeleton and moved onto the next two, quickly devouring them as well. When he’d finally finished, he looked back over at Herman, who was watching him. His throat rumbled lowly again and his gills flared for good measure.

“Hey, it’s okay. I promise nobody is going to hurt you. I’m really sorry I scared you yesterday. C-Can you tell me, uh, what happened?” Herman asked gently.

He squirmed, realising he hadn’t been able to take his mind or eyes off the human’s neck the entire encounter. “Gills. H-Herman damaged gills.”

Herman was quiet for a moment before his eyes widened and his mouth opened in understanding. “Oohhh! Oh, I should have explained: I’m not actually full merman, I’m only a quarter. No-Nothing bad happened, I was just born like that.”

He cocked his head, trying to understand. “‘Quarter’?” he questioned.

“Oh! Uh, my-my grandfather was a merman, and he and my grandmother had my dad, who was half-merman, and then, and then he and my mum had me, so I’m more human than merman.”

Ohhh, that made more sense. He’d certainly heard of human-merfolk hybrids, but he’d never actually met one before. “Gills — they’re not punishment?”

“Wh-What do you, what do you mean?”

He pointed to Herman and then to his own gills. “Herman bad, so Robert hurt Herman? Robert hurt Herman gills? Or no?”

Herman’s eyes widened again. “Oh!! Oh, no! No, no-no-nobody damaged my gills! I-I was just born like that! Aww, sorry, is that why you fr-freak— why you were scared yesterday?”

He nodded. “So Herman not hurt?”

“No, no, Herman not hurt. Herman okay,” the man explained quickly.

He relaxed against the concrete. “Good.” He sighed and looked around. The room was completely empty apart from the two of them and the tank. “Want home.”

“I know,” Herman sympathised, “I wish I could let you go, but we have to make sure your tail is okay. If we let you go early, your tail could tear again and then you might get really sick or even die. We’re just trying to help you.”

He slumped against the wall behind him and huffed.

“…what’s your name?”

He looked over at Herman. The male had shared his name, the polite thing to do would be to return the honour. He sighed and looked back at his shedding tail. “Peter.”

Herman smiled. “Nice to, nice to meet you, Peter.” He hummed absently and picked at a dead scale on his side. “Your tail hurts, right?” He looked back up and nodded. “Would you. Can I ta-take a look? I might, uh, I-I could help?”

He frowned. “How? Too bad for spit.”

“I know. I have some, uh, some creams I can rub in. They might sting a bit, bu-but they’ll make the pain go away and will keep any cuts clean.”

He frowned further and cocked his head. “Magic?”

Herman laughed. “Yeah! Yeah, kinda! It’s like our healing spit but even better.”

His mouth opened a little bit in surprise. “Be-Better?”

Herman nodded. “Yeah, better than healing spit. Would you like me to try?” He hesitated, fangs baring instinctually. “I can just try on one or-or two spots, if you like? You can, you can see how it goes?”

That seemed more acceptable. He nodded. “Ye-Yes…”

“Perfect. I just left my bag by the door.” Herman scooted himself backwards to the door, keeping himself low to the ground like Peter was. The male then awkwardly shuffled himself back over, bag in tow. He hummed to himself as he opened the bag and pulled out a few tubes and tubs of various things.

Peter didn’t recognise the language, but he caught a few words like “bed” and “hunting”. “What language is that?” he chirped in his pod’s dialect.

Herman chuckled. “You singing along? You have a lovely voice.”

He cocked his head and tried again. “What language?” he prompted. Herman just smiled to himself as he opened two of the tubes. He huffed. “What language?” he tried again in English.

“Hm?” Herman looked up at him. “So-Sorry, what did you say?”

He grunted in frustration and let one of his fangs out in warning. Was this human an idiot, or just careless?? “Language? What language?” he repeated. He mimicked what Herman had just been humming for good measure.

“Oh! Oh, sorry. I was just humming a song. I wasn’t communicating in Mer.” Oh. He’d hoped maybe they had that in common so he didn’t have to keep translating in his head. “Can I unwrap your tail, or would you like to do it?”

“Peter do it.”

“Go-Go for it.”

It took multiple tries, but he finally got a blunted claw under a corner of the wrapping and tore from there. It didn’t last for very long before the strip just completely tore off. He tried again with a different part and it ripped quicker. He tried again and again and again until the wrappings of his tail lay in tatters beneath him. “Done,” he announced once he was satisfied with his work. He tried flexing his tail and hissed at the pain. He gently bent forwards to look at the tail fin, a shriek coming out at the massive gash in it. It looked like the humans had threaded string through it in multiple spots to keep the two sides from separating. He whimpered in pain, more emotional than physical. His beautiful tail! It was all grey and splayed out limply on the concrete, the membrane around the threading raised, puffy, and bruised a horrific purple.

“Does, does it hurt?” Herman asked. He nodded. “Here, would you like to rub this on it, or shall I?” Herman then held out a tub for him to inspect. It held a soft, oily paste inside. He sniffed it and pulled back. It was strong. He brought it to his mouth and tried licking it instead. He recoiled hard enough to bash his head on the concrete wall behind him.

“Bad bad bad,” he spat, shoving the jar back to Herman. “Herman do it.”

“Sorry, I-I should have, uh, clarified. You’re not meant to eat it. Here, like this,” he explained, taking the clothing off his hand. Water sloshed out. He scooped some out with his weak, blunt little human fingers. His claws were pathetic, really. They were far too thin and flat to do anything useful. “Here. It might hurt a bit, but this will help it heal faster, so you’ll be able to go home sooner, yeah?” He nodded and screeched when Herman rubbed it into an open wound, tail jerking. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. You’re doing really well, Peter.” He whimpered as Herman tried a different, smaller cut, but tried his hardest to sit still. Herman looked up at him. “Would you like me to keep going?”

He paused and squirmed in his spot. “Herman rub it on Peter, then Peter go home soon?”

Herman nodded and then hesitated. “W-Well, you’ll get to go home sooner than if I don’t put this stuff on.”

“How long?”

“Well, if I don’t, y-you’ll probably have to stay for, uh, three moons. Maybe more if it gets infected. B-But if I put this stuff on and it works, you should get to go home in two moons, a-and that’s including the full moon next week, so it’ll be more like one and a half.” He whimpered and then snarled at Herman to show his strength. The male did not back away like he had hoped. “I-I know, it sucks. I can stop if you like, but that also means y-you’ll have to stay in the smaller tank for longer.”

He looked away and hissed. “Small tank — why? Wh-Why not big tank?”

“That’s so you don’t have space to move around too much and risk opening your wounds.”

He hung his head and nodded. Pain now would mean getting to return to his pod sooner. He called out for them quietly, the coo echoing in the small space. “Herman continue.”

“I-I can, I can keep going?” Herman clarified. He nodded. Herman at least knew something about Merfolk biology: he completely avoided Peter’s dorsal and ventral slits as he was applying the “salve” to his wounds. He wondered if Herman had human or merfolk genitals.

Herman had had to leave to do other duties, giving him a large, light ball and a couple of smaller, far bouncier ones to entertain him. He spent the time resting in his tank, calling out for his pod, and trying to get some more sleep. Herman returned a few hours later, this time with a human female. She had nice, vibrant hair: one half a healthy turquoise and the other a vibrant pink. Herman tapped on the glass door before letting himself and the female in. Peter pulled himself up the ladder and dragged himself to a sitting position next to it.

Herman smiled at him. “Hey, Peter! This is my coworker, Alice. She’s going to be your vet while you’re here, okay?”

The female — “Alice” — turned to Herman. “You know his name?”

Herman shrugged. “Y-Yeah. Why? Is that, uh, is that not usual?”

“No! Usually merfolk are, uh, a-holes,” she explained. He scowled as she looked back at him. “Hey, Peter. Nice to meet you, my name’s Alice. How are you feeling?” He spat water at her and looked away. “Hey!” She was rude for insulting his people with him right there in front of her.

“He’s just, he’s nervous. He’s not used to people,” Herman explained. “Shall we take a seat?” Alice grumbled at sat down in front of the door, next to Herman. “Peter?” Herman called. He looked up. “Can Alice a-ask you a few— some questions?”

He watched the female for a long moment before nodding.

“How you feeling? Robert said you didn’t want cream rubbed on you yesterday?” she asked. He shook his head, letting an upper fang show as a reminder that he wasn’t weak, even in this condition. “Can I unwrap and check your tail?” He hissed at her, ear spines and gills flaring. “Okay, okay, sorry. How you feeling? Are you still sore?” she tried. He hesitated and then nodded. “Okay, we can get you some painkillers.”

He cocked his head.

“They’re, uh, they’re medication you take with food, and they make the pain go away for a bit. Would you like to try some?” Herman elaborated.

“Better than spit?” he asked quietly.

Herman nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! They’re like spit, but you eat them, so they help your whole body feel better. Does that sound good?”

He nodded and trilled in response. That sounded great, actually. The constant ache of pain in his tail and his fins and his scales was really, really taking its toll on him. He hadn’t felt this lethargic in his life.

“Has Herman or Robert explained that you’re in this enclosure until your tail fin starts to properly heal?” Alice asked him. He nodded. “It’s very small so you don’t move around too much — are you getting bored?” He eyed her again as he nodded slowly. He steadied himself in case she tried to lunge for him. “Okay. Unfortunately, with the funding we get, there isn’t a ton we can do. However, Herman here had a suggestion. Herman?” she prompted, turning her head to look at him.

“How would you like to learn stuff while you’re here, Peter?” he offered. “We could get someone to help you improve your English. We can, we can also get you some, uh, exercise equipment, if you like?”

He frowned. That was certainly not the offer he’d been expecting. He chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought. He was stuck here for two fucking months — maybe more if things didn’t go well. There was soooo much to see and do and play with in the ocean, but here… He’d seen other merfolk, including members of his pod, get injured before, and none of them had ever had scales that turned grey and flaked off. Maybe that was the reason his tail was deteriorating? Boredom? Lack of movement or stimulation? He studied the two humans before him, who were both waiting for an answer. With a sigh, he relaxed his arms and nodded.

“Yeah?” Herman asked excitedly. “You wanna learn stuff? What do you wanna learn?”

He frowned and chewed his cheek some more as he thought. “Herman language.”

“You wanna learn better English?” the male clarified. He nodded again. English. What a strange word.

“A-And Peter teach Herman Mer.”

“Y-You wanna teach me Mer? Like you speak with your pod?”

He nodded and trilled in excitement when Herman agreed.

Herman checked on him multiple times a day, though normally only for the length of a conversation, giving him food, practising English, and cleaning his tank. He’d given Peter some weights and a “med ball” to keep active, but it was definitely not the same as swimming, especially as he couldn’t use his tail for anything. The weights were also light so as to not hurt him, meaning they were practically useless. He did enjoy, however, when they were able to have meals together. He got fed four times a day, whereas Herman only seemed to eat once. It was absolutely bizarre what he brought for lunch each day, too: his food always came in some sort of wrapper or box that he had to undo just to access it. One day, he’d come with his food in something shiny.

Peter gestured towards the shiny wrapper of Herman’s food. “Herman have mate?”

“Remember, when talking to someone you use the word ‘you’, yeah? Do you wanna try again?” Herman prompted.

English had so many confusing rules and exceptions. He huffed and tried again. “You-Herman have a mate?”

Herman smiled and continued unwrapping his meal. “No, I don’t have a mate. Do you?”

He frowned. “Who gave you-Herman shiny, then?”

“Oh! Oh, nobody. This is called aluminium foil. We use it to wrap our food so it doesn’t, uh, go everywhere. For humans, courting doesn’t involve shiny objects.”

He nodded once. Right. Humans had so many shiny objects that gifting them was next to meaningless. It was a shame, really. He thought many merfolk looked even prettier when adorned with sparkling items their mate had gifted them. “What give in human courting? Food? Rocks?”

Herman chuckled and bit into what Peter had come to learn was called a “sandwich”. “Uhh, it depends. For humans, you usually need to establish that both people are into it before the courting properly starts.”

“How?” he asked. He tore at one of the fish Herman had given him for lunch as he listened.

“Well, you, you uh talk to them. You might say something like ‘hey, I think you’re really attractive, would you like to go out some time?’ And if they say no, you move on and find someone else attractive.”

Hm. He ate slower. It probably did make things easier than just hoping the mer you were courting didn’t have any other admirers, was attracted to you, and was ready to start courting. “And then give food?”

Herman laughed and shrugged. “Well, it uh, it depends. Usually, gifting someone food might seem a bit weird, but some people do it. You kinda— it kinda depends on the person.”

“So Peter give Herman fish. Not courting for humans?” he clarified.

“D’you, d’you remember the words ‘I’ and ‘you’?” Herman reminded him gently.

He huffed. Right. “So I-Peter give you-Herman fish, and you-Herman don’t think I-Peter courting you?”

“Uhh, well, fo-for you, it’d be a bit different, ‘coz I know a bit about mermaid social rituals — s-so I’d know that you were, uh, courting me. But, yes, if you gave, uh, someone else a fish, they wouldn’t think y-you were courting them.”

He paused before slowly nodding in understanding. “Y-You-Herman give Robert fish, and Robert not think Herman courting?”

Herman nodded in reply and swallowed the bite he was eating. “Yeah, yeah exactly.”

“Robert give Herman— *you-*Herman shiny f-foil? And not courting?” he specified.

Herman nodded. “Yeah. If Robert gave me alfoil, that wouldn’t count as courting me.”

“But Robert say, ‘we go out, Herman’ and is courting?” he questioned. Herman nodded in confirmation, mouth full of sandwich. Okay. Okay, he could sort of see the logic in that. Instead of gifting, it was more… verbal? Humans did appear to have such an abundance of food and shiny things that gifting them seemed pointless. Plus, their language was so much more complicated than any dialect of Mer he’d heard. Maybe they danced or sang for each other instead? That was certainly something he hadn’t seen before from two humans.

“I’m just going to go grab my bag for your checkup, okay?” Peter nodded. Herman stood up and stretched, letting out a weird yelp as he did, and left to grab his bag. He scoffed down the rest of his fish as he waited.

Herman returned a while later. Peter huffed from where he waited in the water and turned away from the door. He’d been waiting for ages before he’d finally decided that the human wasn’t going to return anytime soon, and then Herman had returned with Alice.

“Peter! Sorry I took so long! Robert wanted to talk to me, and then Alice said she wants to see how you’re healing. You wanna come up so she can take a look?” Herman asked.

He turned to spit a small stream of water in Herman’s direction, not nearly powerful enough to actually hit him.

“Hey, you okay?” Herman asked, quieter. “Is something wrong?”

“I-Peter wait for ages,” he huffed.

“I know, I’m really sorry, Peter. I didn’t mean to leave you alone for so long. I should have told you I was going to be a while when Robert came and got me.”

He turned himself around in the tank and scanned Herman up and down. The male seemed genuinely rueful, offering him a small smile as he sat right by the side of the tank. Alice was standing by the door. He relaxed a little. “You-Herman look at I-Peter wounds?”

“No, actually, Alice is going to today. She wants to check how you’re healing and when you can move into a bigger tank.”

He groaned. A human touching his tail? “You-Herman check, you-Alice watch?”

Alice sighed, Herman looking to her for confirmation. She flipped through the papers she was holding. “Yeah, okay. I can watch. I’ll need some pictures though so I can refer back to them for my notes.”

“Does that work for you, Peter?” Herman double checked.

“Yes,” he replied, pushing himself over to the ladder so he could haul himself out. Herman awkwardly manoeuvred himself closer, making sure he didn’t stand so he didn’t scare off Peter. Alice walked over and he hissed at her, gripping the ladder in case he had to make an escape.

“It’s okay,” Herman insisted gently, “she’s not going to hurt you.”

He snarled, baring his teeth as she came closer, and she stopped again with a loud sigh. “I’m just watching, Peter. I’m not gonna touch you, so calm down.”

“Alice stay next to door.”

She huffed. “And how am I supposed to do my job and see if you’re healing well enough to move to a bigger tank if I can’t fucking see your stitches?”

“Peter, you want to move to a-a big tank, yeah? You wanna move around again?” Herman asked him gently. He nodded, keeping his eyes on the female in case she went for him in a fit of rage. He let a fang slip just in case. “Well, we can’t tell if you’re ready to move into a bigger tank until Alice checks your wounds to make sure they’re healing well. She’s just going to sit and watch while you and I do all the work, yeah?”

He growled softly at her, his gills flaring. “Alice no touch Peter.”

“Yeah, of course. Do the— are the, uh, painkillers helping? Do you feel less sore?” Herman asked as he opened his medical bag.

He nodded. “Y-Yes. I-Peter feel better.”

Herman smiled. “That’s great to hear! D’you remember that they were Alice’s idea?”

He looked down sharply. Yes. He did remember. And they unfortunately were helping a lot with his pain. “…yes.”

“See? Alice has really good ideas, she knows what she’s doing. Can she please come sit down and check on your sores?” He growled in frustration and nodded. Herman smiled at him. “Great, thanks. Can I-I— may I unwrap your tail?” He nodded, gently manoeuvring it around so Herman could unwrap it more efficiently. He still stiffened and grumbled when Alice sat next to Herman at the end of his tail, but allowed her this close just this once.

Herman’s caring, tender care of his wounds didn’t take as long as it had the past few times. Most of the smaller cuts and bruises had completely healed, all that was left was the stitching in his tail from the harpoon and the gash in his side. Alice obeyed his request and didn’t touch him, instead directing Herman on what to photograph and how to move his tail so she could see better. It also turned out she was a light elemental, using her powers to light up various spots near his tail so she could see better when photographing. When it was finally done, Herman gave him a crab for being so well-behaved, and he snatched it before diving back into the water and gnawing on its tough shell to open. A combination of gnawing at it and slamming it into the concrete wall eventually cracked the shell open enough that he could prise it apart with his claws.

Once he was finished, he looked up to see Herman waving at him. He eagerly climbed the ladder and surfaced. “Yes?”

“Hey, Peter. I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” He frowned and lowered himself into the water a bit further. “So, I won’t be here for the next two days because it’s the weekend. I’ll be back on Monday though. In the meantime, Robert and Alice will take care of you, yeah?”

He spat water at the wall. “I-Peter not see you-Herman?”

“Not for two days, sorry, Peter. I’ll be back on Monday, though. The good news is that I finish early today because it’s Friday, so once I’ve finished work this afternoon, I can come hang out for an hour before I go home. How does that sound?”

He frowned and spat water at the wall harder, splashing Herman slightly in the process. “…okay.”

“Great. I need to get going now, my lunch break is over, but I’ll see you later this afternoon, o-okay?”