AN: Hello! so I've started a new story :D probably not a good idea with my exams coming up, but meh *shrugs* I had the inspiration, so I might as well upload it, but I don't know when the next update will be, so I'm sorry in advance if I take forever.

I don't know much about ships or sailing, so I'm sorry if I use any words incorrectly, I did so some research into the roles of pirates and into the structure of ships and stuff, but I might have gotten something wrong, so please tell me so I can correct it :)

I've also used 'mermaid' instead of 'merman' so I'm sorry if that bugs you ^_^;

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this :)


It is known by many that mermaids are curious creatures, it is also well known that they are intelligent and so most of them will stay far away from humans, knowing that they may be caught and sold to a life of misery, living in a small tank for the rest of their lives and having no privacy as humans would keep them as pretty pets to impress others. Merlin however had no such worries. This may have been because he wasn't quite as bright as most mermaids, but what he lacked in intelligence he made up for in curiosity.

Merlin was a bit of a lone mermaid. He was very friendly, of course, his mother had raised him well, but due to his unnatural colouring, what with his eyes that shimmered gold in certain light, his pale complexion, his raven coloured locks and his golden tail, he never really seemed to fit in with the other mermaids. The other mermaids all had deep blue eyes, that never shimmered gold, they all has tanned skin that glowed in a healthy light, golden hair of many different hues, but never black, and no mermaid had ever had a golden tail, none except his father, Balinor, the Krakenlord. That was of course another reason he was a bit of an outcast, any Krakenlord was always excluded, feared by other mermaids due to their great strength, or rather the strength of the kraken they commanded.

However Merlin had grown up with a loving mother and his best friend Will to look after him, so he'd been content. Until he turned 20, when suddenly he had an urge to explore the world, to see for himself what else was out there. Both Will and Hunith had been against him to begin with, but they soon realised there was no dissuading the young man. He was his Father's son after all, and needed the freedom of the open ocean. So they had seen him off from the boundary of Ealdor into the open ocean, each hugging Merlin tightly and giving him a gift. His Mother gave him a pendant that held a Kraken carved out of pink coral with two Rubies for eyes, while Will had given him an earring that had a pattern similar to a discus fish, iridescent with golden orange lines flowing across the surface. Merlin had worn them both with pride, thanking both of them and allowing his mother to press one more kiss to his forehead before he turned and swam into new territory, turning back to give a final wave as he slid into a current and let himself go.

Several weeks had passed and Merlin was thoroughly enjoying himself, he felt truly at one with the ocean when there were no other mermaids around, he felt like he belonged. Of course he missed Hunith and Will but he was so grateful they had let him go, and whenever he missed them too much he would just look at the gift they had given him and remember them. The ocean was his oyster and he simply allowed the currents to take him were they would, floating through the ocean, just enjoying the freedom, seeing new sights, making memories.

For now Merlin rested in a fairly shallow part of the sea, he had drifted close to an island and so far had decided not to get back to deeper waters; it was so warm here after all. The sunlight penetrated the water and spread warm rays across the golden mermaid as he lay languidly on the sandy sea floor, staring up to see the patterns of light reflect on the water's surface. Merlin stretched out as the sunlight caressed him, his tail elongating and his back arching as he stretched his underworked muscles. He'd been relying on the current a little too often recently. On a sudden impulse he swam up to the surface, he had been to the surface before, of course, but not when he'd been beside an island, he wondered if he'd see a new sight. New birds or plants or creatures.

He broke the surface of the water, tipping his head back and watching as water droplets fell from his hair. He took a deep breath in, tasting the salty air as a light breeze caressed him. The surface was truly beautiful. Merlin loved the sky, slightly lighter in colour than the ocean, with wispy white clouds hanging by invisible strings. Merlin drew in another breath; mermaids had evolved to have glands that secreted a liquid substance into the gills on their necks, meaning Merlin could breathe in and out of water. The glands needed to take in substances from the sea to continue secreting the liquid though, so he could only go a certain amount of time without sea water.

Merlin turned towards the island, taking in the sights and the sounds, the rushing of the waves, the birdsong, and the wind in his hair, the golden sand and the green vegetation. It was beautiful. Merlin let out a sigh of contentment before turning to look out to sea. Merlin then noticed a dark spot on the horizon. He couldn't see any detail from here, but it seemed to be a fairly large object if he could see it from this far away. He waited and observed for a few minutes longer, noticing that the spot seemed to be slowly getting bigger, meaning it must be coming towards him. Now at this point, most mermaids would swim back to the depths of the ocean, where they were safe, not that any normal mermaid would be this close to the surface anyway. Merlin however, being as inquisitive as he is, hardly even considered swimming away from this object on the surface. He needed to know what it was. So he started swimming towards it.


Arthur stood at the stern of his ship, looking forwards to the deserted island they were heading towards. Leon stood with him controlling the helm. They were a small and select crew and they shared a lot of trust, so Arthur was comfortable with them sharing roles as he saw himself an equal to all his crew. A flash of light reflecting in the ocean suddenly caught his attention but when he turned to look closer there didn't appear to be anything there.

"Captain?"

Arthur quickly diverted his attention back to Gwaine, his boatswain.

"Yes, Gwaine?"

"We're ready to drop the anchor when you are, Captain."

"I trust your judgement, Gwaine. Give the word when you think we're close enough."

"Aye, sir."

Gwaine strolled away, giving a few orders to the rest of the crew.

Arthur then turned to speak to his quartermaster, Leon. "I don't want to be here longer than necessary, just long enough to collect the supplies and repair the mast, then we'll be off again."

Leon nodded in acknowledgement of his captain before continuing to focus on steering the ship towards the island.

A few minutes later and Gwaine was shouting orders as the anchor was dropped and the ship pulled to a stop. A plank was extended from the ship into the shallows and the men poured out onto the white sand, stretching their muscles and joking with each other as they felt the sand underneath their feet.

Arthur was the last to follow his crew out onto the beach, but when he spoke all eyes turned to their captain, and the crew listened with respect.

"Elyan, I'd like you to stay with the ship. If you see anything then just call, I'm sure this island is small enough that at least one of us will hear you wherever we are. Gwaine and Percival, you're in charge of collecting the wood we need to repair the foremast. Leon, you and I will go searching for food and fresh water. Everything clear?"

A chorus of "Aye, sir." Came back to him and they spilt their separate ways.

Arthur and Leon had managed to collect enough fresh fruit to last through a couple of weeks and had found a small spring to fill up their canteens and a barrel they had brought for fresh water. They had several barrels containing breads and dried beans back on the ship, they even had some salted meat left, but that would soon go rotten and they needed more food to keep them going after that. Gwaine and Percival were also successful, they'd found enough wood to repair the foremast and they had headed back to the ship earlier on so as they could start the repair job.

Arthur and Leon had just started the slow walk back to the ship, hauling the barrel of water, stacked with fruit, between them when they heard a shout from the ship, followed by a cry from Elyan, "Captain! Leon! Come quick!" The two men quickly lowered the barrel and raced towards the beach.


Merlin had swum closer to the dark spot and soon made it out as a ship. He waited a little longer as it came towards him before he spotted the men onboard. There didn't appear to be many, they were all rushing about the deck, busy with many tasks. Merlin knew about ships, of course, they'd been mentioned in his stories as a child and then when he was older they were spoken of by others, warning him of how dangerous the men upon them were. But Merlin was curious and he felt that surely not all humans would be as bad as the stories made them out to be. Surely some must be as inquisitive as him. They looked the same from the waist up, so some of them may have the same ideals as morals as mermaids, at least that was what Merlin chose to believe.

He looked to the back of the ship and saw two men standing there, both had blonde hair, like the mermaids he was so used to. He watched as one of the men looked out to sea, scanning the horizon and he quickly ducked below the water, raising his tail above the water slightly so as to push down and propel himself towards the ship. He didn't want to be seen quite yet, he knew to at least exercise some caution, considering he really didn't know much about these men.

He came close to the wooden exterior and swam beside the ship underwater, still hidden from view. He tentatively reached out a hand to brush along the ship, pulling back in hesitation before carefully resting his hand on the wood. He'd seen a shipwreck or two before, but this was different, this ship was still alive with the bustle of activity above and the purpose of her crew members.

Merlin was soon travelling into shallow waters with the ship and stayed a little ways behind, finally moving back up to the surface to see what was happening. He could hear the men running around on deck, with someone shouting orders at them. He suddenly heard a splash and whipped round, to see a weight had been dropped from the ship, dragging on the sand of the sea floor before bringing the ship to rest.

Suddenly the men were running down onto the beach, laughing and rough housing each other. Why it was funny to punch and fight one another, Merlin couldn't understand, but he found it amusing to watch anyway. Merlin stared in fascination as their legs allowed them so much movement, they could run and jump and kneel and roll and so much more. Merlin soon found himself slightly jealous of the capabilities of these men.

Merlin observed as the men all stopped and turned to towards the final man to leave the ship, it was the blonde man who had looked out to sea earlier. Merlin quickly picked up the names of the men as the captain spoke. Although he was still unsure as to which way round Gwaine and Percival were and he didn't know the name of the captain. The conversation suddenly came to an end and Merlin had to leap back into the shadows of the boat as he hadn't realised how far forward he'd come in order to overhear the conversation.

Fortunately Elyan didn't spot Merlin, and just continued to walk along the beach, looking out to sea and watching over the ship. Soon the other two, Gwaine and Percival, had returned, both laden down with wood. They placed their loads down on the sand and headed up into the ship. Merlin edged forward again, leaning out of the shade, to see where the two men had gone, but in his interest to see where they had gone, he had forgotten that Elyan was still walking along the beach. He was soon reminded of this fact when Elyan let out a shout and ran towards him. His tail was still hidden from view by the ship but as Elyan got closer and Merlin failed to push himself back fast enough in the shallow water, his tail was revealed and Elyan let out a gasp before jumping onto the mermaid and tightening his arms around Merlin, before calling out to the two on the ship and then to the other two men who were still in another area of the island.

Percival peered over the top of the ship and he too let out a gasp before yelling something at Gwaine and then jumping over the rail into the water so he could help Elyan. When Merlin realised the larger man was coming to help Elyan hold him he struggled harder, his tail thrashing and splashing the two men as it hit the shallow water's surface. Elyan's hold slipped as he struggled harder and Merlin was about to push off from Elyan and back into the water, when Percival grabbed him and the chance was lost.

"Oi, Gwaine! You ready?" Percival called up.

"Yeah, just give me a signal." Gwaine replied from on deck.

Merlin was frantic at this point, not used to humans or being manhandled and he was fighting against Percival and Elyan as hard as he could, ignoring what the pirates were saying to one another in favour of trying to escape their hold on him.

Suddenly Merlin was only being held by Percival, his head facing towards the ocean as he was carried a little further out.

"Alright, now!" Percival called out and everything was a blur as too much happened too quickly. Percival let Merlin go and the mermaid shot forward in an attempt to escape, but as he did he failed to notice the net that was thrown down on him from above. One minute he was leaping to freedom; the next he was knocked down and caught in a net, the rope entangling him and preventing his escape.

The next thing he knew, he was bundled up in Percival's arms again and carried onto the beach. Fear ran through him as he thought through his options. He couldn't call the Kraken, they were in too shallow water for the beast to reach them at the moment, and he obviously couldn't do much while sitting in a net. He'd just have to go along with what the pirates wanted for now, but knowing his course of action didn't calm his nerves as he saw the captain and Leon running towards him.


Arthur ran closer to the ship, seeing Percival holding a net with a figure in it. Did they have a stowaway on their ship? But as he got closer he could see that the figure appeared to have a golden tail. A mermaid. He slowed and came to a stop in front of Percival as Elyan and Gwaine also joined the group.

"Percival." He said, slightly out of breath, "You caught a mermaid?"

Percival and the two others all nodded and waited for their Captain's orders.

"That's excellent! Good job, men. Take it to my cabin."

"Sir? Aren't you just going to kill it here? I thought you wanted to kill all the mermaids." At this suggestion from Leon, the mermaid started struggling again.

Arthur paused before replying. "Exactly Leon. And this mermaid is going to help me find the others."