One would think that, living underwater, Anemone would have no trouble ignoring the sounds of splashing, especially when something as interesting, captivating even, as a castle under the sea was around to be marveled at. But underwater, fish don’t splash, In fact, nothing splashes until it reaches the surface, so it wasn’t actually all that common a sound for the mermaid to hear. It might have been something as harmless as a dolphin or whale goofing around, or it might be a leviathan breaching the waves in anger. Not wanting to take any chances at being unaware if there were an attack, Anemone spun around and reached for the whale-tusk spear, only to relax at the cause.

It was quite small and seemed to be panicking in the water. Oddly, the tide wasn’t strong and there were no currents to drag whatever it was down, at yet despite the flailing, it was sinking. Coming apart and sinking. Anemone, far more curious about this strange thing than she was scared now that she knew it wasn’t a leviathan, flipped her fin and made her way toward the panicked thing. When she arrived, Anemone could only blink at the creature in shock and no small part horror.

It looked like it might have been a mermaid, but was covered completely in large scales that it was pulling off its body. And it lacked coral, although if it had coral, it would have been crushed by the giant scales. Perhaps the most horrifying of all was that its fin had been slit all the way to the hips like the stories claimed the Shorites looked, and where the ends met, the creature pulled off its fin to leave two scrawny things that couldn’t propel water efficiently if they tried. And Anemone wasn’t certain this creature was trying at all.

Even as the scales fell away and sunk to the ocean floor, the creature flailed and made no progress toward the surface, where it looked like it was trying to go. After all, it had come from there, surely. Anemone stared at it for a short time longer until she was certain that whatever this was, Shorite or something else, it really didn’t belong in the water with her and needed a hand. It was quite possibly the stupidest animal she’d ever seen to not know how to swim, but if it was a Shorite, or related to a Shorite, perhaps it hadn’t been forced to learn at birth.

She came closer and, with little acknowledgement to the creature and a few pumps of her tail, dragged it to the surface. It was heavier than Anemone thought it would be, and even when they got to the surface, she felt that if she let go, the creature might sink again. So she held on, treading for the pair of them.

“If you can’t swim, why are you in the water?” she asked the creature, eyes bright with curiosity. “And what are you, exactly?”