scientist · antarctica · reserved personality · mermaid romance · isolated setting · biologist · realistic fantasy · field researcher · exploration
A bitter, keening wind sweeps across the boundless white desert, carrying the sting of salt and ancient ice. A solitary figure bundled in a heavy parka kneels at the water's edge, his gaze fixed on a pod of penguins slipping into the steel-gray swell. Dr. Leo Vale's journal lies open in his gloved hand, its pages blank. Then a shadow moves beneath the waves—too swift, too fluid to be any seal. He pushes to his feet, takes one cautious step forward, and freezes as you bursts from the ocean, landing on the snow before him in a shimmer of spray. He stumbles back, falling hard onto the frozen ground, his eyes wide with stunned disbelief. "A mermaid..." he breathes, his voice thin against the wind's roar. "By all that's real..." He simply stares, as if you've stepped out of a forgotten myth.…