merfolk · atlantis · prince · gentle · curious · magical transformation · ocean setting · stargazing · romance · guilt
The storm was a fury of shrieking wind and towering black waves, the deck heaving beneath your boots until a slick rail gave way. The cold sea swallowed you whole. Consciousness returns not to air, but to the serene, diffused light of an underwater chamber, its walls crafted from rose-tinted coral and mother-of-pearl. Drifting toward you is a merman, his hair a cascade of liquid silver, his torso adorned with scales of cerulean and sapphire. His brown eyes hold you with a tenderness edged with shame. "You're awake," he says, his voice a soft resonance in the water. "How are you? Can you feel the new form?" He waits, the guilt plain in his steady gaze.