"My friend! Come through please!" He heard one say, and then another voice says, "why don't we just EAT him? I'm starving."
'So I'm going to die by being eaten by mermen, ha, funny way to die." Antonio though, opening one eye.
"Vee~! He's awake!" The one named Feliciano says smiling.
"Dammit. There goes the nice dead meal I wanted." Luciano says.
"..." The red one didn't say anything, but he hit Luciano in the arm.
Antonio sat up and scooted away from the creatures. "Y-You aren't g-going to eat me, no?"
"No! It's against the law for Kings to feast upon human flesh, since it's considered impure." Feliciano says, smiling.
"B-But he said..." Antonio says, pointing at Luciano.
"Oh, Luci? He's kidding. He knows the law better than anyone, but really, the only one of us who can eat human is Lovino. But he wouldn't unless forced to." Feliciano says, pointing to the glaring dark chocolate haired boy.
"W-Why can he?" Antonio asks, and Feliciano smiles even wider.
"Well, in our kingdom, if someone is a witness to the murder, and remembers the murderer, he or she can attack the murderer and no charges will be given, even if the murderer is killed in the attack. So unless you're the one who killed Nonno," he looks to Lovino, who rolls his eyes and sticks his nose up in the air before sassily turning away from the three. "Nope, you're good."
"That's not really fair. What about the murderers family? What about them? That means the person who kills the murderer is just as bad." Antonio says, sitting up a bit straighter, gaining confidence.
"Veeeee~! I like-a that idea! What do you think, Luci and Lovi?"
"The murderer is at fault, so why pity his family when their the ones who bore a murderer." Luciano says, and Lovino rapidly sighs.
"I agree with Lovi, let's leave it to the council to decide." Feliciano says.
"Why doesn't he talk?" Antonio asking, pointing to Lovino.
"Big brother can't talk, he doesn't have a voice." Luciano says, sounding a slight bit sad.
"Why doesn't he have a voice?" Antonio asks.
"He got rid of it." Feliciano says sadly, and when he hears Lovino clap, Felicianp says, "I know I know, Lovi. Anything else you want to know about Lovino, you will have to ask him yourself. That is if you know ISL."
"ISL? What's that?" Antonio asks.
"Itala Sign Language." Luciano says.
"So wait, you guys speak Itala? What's that?" Antonio asks.
"The name of our nation. You see, long ago, Itala was above water, and all its citizens spoke a mixture of French, Spanish and Latin. But after a huge earthquake hit, it broke off and sank into the sea."
"Wow... So .. That was your nation?" Antonio asked, surprised to meet three people from the Fallen Land.
He hadn't experienced the almost end of the world, but his great great grandfather did.
It happened nearly one hundred years ago, year 2065. The moon was launched out of orbit after colliding with a meteor, and it caused the water to rise higher than ever before. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes hit any and all countries, volcanoes erupted more causing new islands to form as the old ones were swallowed by water. Everyone thought the world was ending until Earths pull on the 'dislocated' moon was pulled back into orbit, and Earth was at peace again. Until seven earthquakes hit seven places all around the world at one time, causing Italy and Seborga, Vietnam, Singapore, Mexico, Madagascar and Greenland to break apart and be swallowed by the sea.
The San Andreas fault also gave because of an earthquake, and it caused the state to break off and fall to the sea as well.
Antonio moved from his dying home, Spain to America so he could get better schooling. He didn't know that this sea-side city was haunted by evil mermaids.
"Si, once the nation fell under the waves, our great great grandfather showed his son, our great grandfather that we were the true descendants of Atargatis." Feliciano says.
"Atargatis? Who is that?" Antonio asks.
"She is the oldest of merpeople. She is often known as the sea mother and she is considered the mother of all merpeople. Though I don't know why." Luciano says.
Antonio nods as his eyes scan over the triplets identical tails -minus the colours-. They had a different tail than what the first mermaid he saw have. Besides the tail colours, the females only had one fin, not eight. They had the back dorsal fin just below their rumb, but along with that, they had two sets of twin pelvic fins. One set -meaning two- was just at their hips, and the other was where their knees would bend if they were human. They also had two smaller anal fins on either side of their legs just before the tail fin. The tail fin was the biggest part of the entire tail, but it was also the most elegant part. It was like a curtain that got longer of the edges and shorter in the middle.
"Antonio?" He heard Feliciano say.
"Si...? Oh! Sorry! I can't help but to stare. Oh, and call me Toni." He say smiling.
"Si! Call me Feli! Luciano prefers Luci, and Lovino sometimes goes by our papas name, Romano. But we just call him Lovi." The cheerful boy says smiling.
"So, just call you guys Feli, Luci and Lovi?" Antonio asks.
Lovino hissed at him, and Feliciano says something to him in their native language. He looks back at Antonio as Lovino rapidly signs and Luciano laughs.
"Lovi says that no two legged idiotic bastardo is allowed to call him Lovi." Luciano says laughing.
Antonio furrows his brows and says, "that's rude."
"Oh don't take it personally. Kiku Honda, our records keeper, calls Lovino a tsundere. He's all bark and hardly ever bites. Luciano says.
"Why? Does he dislike humans?" Antonio asks.
"He doesn't trust them, no. But as King, it's his duty to treat them kindly when visiting." Feliciano says as Luciano listens to Lovino's soundless rant.
"So he's not fond of humans?"
"No, he's not." Feliciano says, his green tail fin lightly flicking up some sand.
"Hey," Antonio starts, "does it feel weird?" He asks, pointing to his tail.
"No. You can touch it if you want." Feliciano says, pointing to his fin.
He was hesitant, but Antonio nods and moves to touch Feliciano's tail fin. But just as his hand got close enough, another pale, scarred arm stretched over Feliciano's tail. Antonio's green eyes moved up and locked on Lovino's glaring hazel eyes. Antonio moved back, getting the message, saying that if he touched Feliciano, Lovino wouldn't hesitate to put a hole in his hand.
Shining the flash light on Lovino's red tail he saw a spiral scar trailing down the red merman a tail. Looking at the others, he saw similar scars on Feliciano's side and shoulder, and a small but noticeable hole in Luciano's tail. "What happened?" He asked, pointing it out.
"Feliciano was trapped in a net and we tried to help him. I got caught by the same thing that got Nonno, Lovino got caught in an unbreakable string that wrapped itself around his tail and cut it all up, and Feli had the net so tightly wrapped around his torso it caused him to cut his side open." Luciano said.
Antonio furrowed his brow, "you got caught by a fishing line and hook?" He asks, examining the old injury.
"There are humans who know more that other, many have started fishing in our kingdoms waters and have caught many of our citizens. We are trying to decide what to do." Feliciano says.
"Wait? Boats have came into your waters?"
"Yea," Luciano says, looking up, and he finishes, "we must leave. The sun will be up soon, and we can't be seen. Can we see you again, sometime?"
"Sure. I enjoy talking to... Most of you," Antonio says, glancing at the sneering Lovino.
"Hmmm. How about tomorrow night?" Luciano says.
"Si! Sounds good!" Antonio says, smiling. He stood up and waved goodbye as he headed back to his room. Then Mogens voice comes to mind, "any and all humans found helping or communicating with mermaids will be tried for treason."
Antonio stopped, then turned to see the red tail of Lovino be the last to dive under the water. Antonio swallowed, beginning to wonder if talking to mermen was worth the punishment. He sighs and continues on making his way back to his dorm.
By twelve that day, he and Anri had discussed everything but the mermaid she said her brother caught today.
"So Anri... The entire 'marry a mermaid whose been fully seen' law. Does that mean the same for mermen?" Antonio asks.
"Mermen don't exist. There is mermaids and only mermaids. It's for all mermaids, not just those here." Anri says.
"They all have that law?" Antonio asks.
"Yes, but who'd want to marry them? They're all evil, all of them." Anri says, frowning.
"I don't think so." Antonio says and she whips around, blocking Antonio's path.
"Really? What about the soul cage? Or the Brigdi? Blue Men? Leviathan? Kraken? Hmm? Who controls them?" Anri says, shoving her finger in his chest.
He raises his hands in defence as he watches her scoff, before turning and storming away.
