Ikuto's POV
It all started when I was walking down the beach just like every other morning. Nothing was different about this morning. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the tide was normal. I was about halfway down the beach, about the reach the tide pools, when I heard it. A soft voice, humming. I walked towards the sound and saw, perched on a large rock, a girl with pink hair the reached her mid back. She ran her finger through it as I walked around slowly. She continued to hum as I continued to walk around, undetected. That is when I saw something that I thought existed simply in fairytales.
Instead of two legs, she had a single tail. "A mermaid?" She whipped around quickly and moved as if to jump back into the water. "Whoa…" I put my hands out in front of me and slowed my walk even more. "I'm not going to hurt you." Her eyes darted quickly to the ocean and then back to me as if calculating her possibilities of escaping before I reached her. "I promise." I reached the rock and sat as far away from her as it would allow. I glanced down at her tail. Its scales were a blue-green color and matching ones covered her chest. She had beads and shells woven into her hair and her eyes were a deep golden, brown color. She was beautiful. I reached towards her hand and she yanked it back. "I told you. I'm not going to hurt you." She slowly set it back down on the rock and I scooted slightly closer to her. I waited for her to move but she didn't.
Encouraged, I reached out for her hand once more and she pulled it back slightly. I looked up at her and smiled a small smile. She stared at me and then glanced at her hand again. I looked back down and moved my hand to cover hers. "See?" I scooted even closer to her until we were side by side on the rock. She lifted my hand and began to inspect as if surprised that it was the same as hers. "What's your name?" She looked from my hand to me and then back to my hand before answering.
"You should introduce yourself first."
"How rude of me. I'm…"
"Prince Ikuto!" She dropped my hand and I rose to greet the man rushing towards me. "Do you have any idea what time it is? You are expected in the banquet hall right away. What are you doing down here anyway?"
"I was just…" I turned around to see that in place of the beautiful maiden was a lone seashell. I picked it up and recognized it as one that was in her hair before. "…collecting sea shells."
"You can do that another time. Your father is getting angry."
"I'll be right up. You go on ahead." He did as he was told and I walked back to stand on top of the rock. "I didn't even get her name." I then did something that I would have felt insane doing if I didn't have the feeling that she was hiding somewhere. "If you're listening, please meet me here tomorrow morning." And with that, I turned and began to walk back along the beach.