#trenai

Mer!Talon lures you in with bioluminescence, then kills you.

Eel tail, not fish

Bioluminescence can be turned off to create a ‘stealth’ mode

Four joints on fingers instead of the two that humans have

Webbing between fingers and thumbs

bitter soulmate starters | still accepting 

 “Really?” Talon gave a flick of his tail, swimming in slow, thoughtful circles under the water’s surface. The bioluminescence from his tail and eyes lit up the water around him, highlighting the ripples that danced over the surface in a light show almost too lovely for human eyes to appreciate.

But then, Vlad wasn’t really human. Not anymore.

“Why aren’t you good at love?” Talon surfaced, water beading up and running off him so that within seconds, the dark grey leather of his skin looked perfectly dry. Only his hair retained the wet look, sleek as oil against his skin. He folded his arms over the side of Vlad’s dinghy, careful not to rest so much weight on it that the little dingy would flip over. He’d learnt how much Vlad disliked it when that happened.

bitter soulmate starters | still accepting 

 “You just haven’t been trying hard enough,” Talon said, bringing his wrist to his mouth so he could continue to try gnawing at the thread. The problem was, though Talon could clearly see the red thread, he couldn’t feel it. He hadn’t been able to feel it under the water, making him think it was a magical light, but he couldn’t feel it above the water either! When he bit down, his teeth clicked together instead of slicing the thread.

It had been like this for hours, ever since he’d woken up and seen the red line around his wrist, coiled like a bracelet. It glowed with a similar shine to his bioluminescence and for a moment, Talon had considered that perhaps another Trenai had snuck up on him and tied it in place. Very soon, he’d realized it had no weight to it and couldn’t be touched – light was a lure, he knew, a way to tempt prey to him, but he followed the line of red light up anyway.

Up through the trenches, up through the abyss, up through the dark zone, up through the Marai zone and then finally, so high up now that he’d had to slide his nictating membraces over his eyes, up into the sunlight zone.

And still the cord had pulled him on! He’d hesitated then, swimming below the surface in restless, looping circles, before shooting upwards with a flick of his powerful tail.

And that’s when he’d seen HER and realized the cord led to her.

“This is the dumbest way of fishing for Trenai that I have ever seen,” Talon informed her between his fruitless attempts to break the cord with his teeth. It was also the only way he’d ever seen anyone fish for Trenai but he supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised by anything the Trenai-napper did! First she lifted him from the depths and tossed him around in the air, only to heal him, and then she magically attached herself with him with a cord.

Hearing Nami’s voice, Talon turned around swiftly with his earfins flicking back and forth in delight. Her words made him nod seriously, dark hair billowing around his head like a very short cape.

“I am,” Talon said with all the self-importance of a five-year-old who has had a very busy at kindergarten learning their ABCs and is now ready for a nap. He swam over to her, strong tail propelling him through the water cleanly, and rubbed his stomach. “I went up – all the way up, even more up than the Marai live – and met a landwalker and then had to swim all the way back down on a full stomach!”

He looked at her, clearly expecting praise for his efforts. Trenai were creatures of the deep sea, growing with age until they were so large that only the deep sea afforded them enough room to swim about comfortably. While Talon was nowhere near that large yet, the surface world was still strange to him and a place he visited rarely. If it hadn’t been for his pod being wiped out, Talon would have never gone to the surface at all – but then, if his pod had survived, he might have never met Nami and he liked his deep sea pseudo-sibling slash guardian.