The human swam closer to Sakura, its legs pumping and its plastic flappers at the ends of its feet emitting a dull shine. Sakura felt her skin scraping up against the rough stone in her hiding spot, her heart thumping in her chest. She hid herself completely behind the rock, praying that the human couldn't see her.

As Sakura sat pressing herself up against the rock, an image of her best friend, Amelia, flashed through her mind. "You know I've heard rumors from other tribes that some merfolk like us went out to search for food in this area, only to disappear and never be seen again," Amelia had said, a mischievous smile on the edges of her lips.

After examining the area for a few seconds, Sakura responded. "I'm sure that's just the other tribes telling us that so that they can claim this as their own territory."

Amelia had laughed and smirked back at Sakura. "That's just what they want you to believe."

She risked a brief glance to see if the human was still there, but it had vanished. In its place was a shrimp, the biggest and juiciest that Sakura had ever seen. Her mouth watered at the sight. She wanted to bite into it, the juices flooding her mouth and spreading throughout her mouth, but she stopped herself, remembering that she was there to collect food for the tribe, not for herself. Eating it at the moment would be a disgraceful action against her tribe, instead, she put it in her bag woven of seaweed along with many other shrimp and underwater bugs she had caught.

Yet another shrimp caught Sakura's eye. It was of equal size, and appeared to be just as delicious. There was yet another, and another. Her tribe would rejoice at such amounts of food! They wouldn't have to go hunting for days!

After finding about ten of the huge shrimp, Sakura looked up only to see the human floating a few feet away from her. In surprise, Sakura froze, not knowing what to do around here.

"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you."

It was the human. Merfolk like Sakura could understand all of the human languages without even being taught them, some phenomenon she could not explain. However, communicating back was different, as merfolk spoke with a series of clicks and squeaks, something humans did not appear to understand.

Sakura stared into the human's eyes. It seemed… trustworthy. Something about this creature made Sakura feel as though she could trust it completely, without a doubt.

With a shake of her head, Sakura tried to get the feeling out of her, knowing that under no circumstances should she give her trust to anything or anyone outside of her tribe. When the human tossed out another shrimp, however, Sakura eagerly grabbed it, letting the feeling overcome her. She trusted this human now, beyond a doubt.

The human offered out its hand, extending its arm, and Sakura took it in her own, knowing that it resembled friendship and trust among them. Glancing back, the human suddenly gave a worried and scared glance at Sakura.

"They're coming," it said. "The maiders, other humans, they'll take you out of the ocean and sell you like an animal, away from all of your friends and family."

Sakura gasped. She couldn't let that happen. The human swam along side her, still holding her hand, until they came to what appeared to be a giant box, the sides transparent. It must have been made of one of the strange and unnatural substances that the humans used, but the wave of trust washed over Sakura again. "You'll be safe from them in there."

Sakura listened, quickly diving into the box and the door of it locked shut behind her. She waited there for a few minutes, before a dark shadow passed over her and the sun disappeared above her. It must have been the maiders the human had been talking about.

From the shadow, a rope extended down towards the box, latching onto it. The feeling of trust was gone now, replaced by an utter dread. This couldn't be happening, the human had lied, and she was going to be taken away for real now.

As the box lifted out of the water and towards the surface, a current that had been running through it before disappeared, so no matter how much Sakura's gills pumped, she couldn't get enough oxygen. The world became fuzzy as dots appeared in Sakura's vision. She struggled to keep her grip on consciousness, but as she slipped out, the last thing she saw were the humans eyes, no longer trustworthy, but boring into her. The world went dark.

Alice Kirkland's dress sparkled brilliantly in the stage lights that shined on her. Being a professional merfolk hunter, or maider sure had some benefits, such as getting to keep some of the lustrous merfolk's scales, and she had done so, attaching many scales to her her dress at the current time. The dress would be worth millions of pounds if Alice had bought each individual component on the market, it would have cost her a million pounds, but she had gotten them free, the only money she had to spend being hiring the dress maker.

"So, Alice, what's it like being a professional maider, especially someone so famous as you are?" the interviewer asked her. Alice flashed a smile and the audience before her responded with hoots and cheers for her. She loved her publicity, knowing all of those people sitting in there living rooms watching her, and feeling inspired. That was what she wanted, to be an inspiration.

"It's fun, if I do say so myself. I've always had a passion in catching merfolk and studying the species, and I'm glad that I got to follow my dreams," Alice answered.

"Is there any specific technique you use to capture the merfolk?" the interviewer continued.

"Well, merfolk are smart, they won't fall for any traps you put on them. However, they have one fatal weakness and flaw. All of them move differently, and if I imitate the way that they move, especially with my eyes, I will seem completely trustworthy to them. Then, I lead them into a cage where my maider boat pulls them out of the water, and that is how I catch them, it's quite a complicated process that takes many years to study and perfect, but once mastered, it gave me the fame I have today."

"And can we see the most recent catch?"

Alice glanced and motioned to someone off of the stage. "Yes, actually. Bring her in."

A worker pushed in a cart containing a giant fish tank containing a mermaid inside of it. Her koi tail shimmering as bright as Alice's dress, as nothing could rival the luster of mermaid scales. The mermaid was collapsed against the bottom of the tank, her tail twitching weakly and her black hair splayed across the bottom of the tank. Her face was a sickly white, and her eyes staring dully at the crowd, which was letting out more whoops, claps, and cheers.

Alice smiled proudly at her catch, and was glad to show her off. She thought about how much money she would gain simply from this one mermaid, considering how much scales would sell for, and the trophy of the head would always be a great seller. Not to mention a component found in the bones used to make medicine.

Something caught the corner of Alice's eye in the crowd. It was one of the anti-maiders holding up a sign. No matter what, there was always at least one of them in Alice's audience, protesting her job and what she did. "Merfolk have emotions, just like us," the sign read. Alice rolled her eyes. Merfolk were animals with human parts on their top. They couldn't have such complex emotions as humans did, of course, right?

A/N - So I probably won't update this for a while, considering I have 2 other fics to continue which is the DenNor one and the HongIce one. I will update those likely both once a week if you are wondering. I hope you enjoy this, regardless. Also, Alice is fem!England, Amelia is fem!America, and Sakura is fem!Japan