"Stop! I didn't do anything!" A young girl's voice erupted from the group, holding her hands over her head, as small pebbles collided with her body. "Why are you so mean?!" She dropped to her knees, tears filling her red-rimmed eyes.

All around her, children younger and older stood, each holding a small handful of rocks, throwing them, giggling and not even caring that she was crying, and that several contusions and bruises had already developed. After all, there is no such cruelty, as that of a child. There was no real reason that they were doing what they were, except for the girl was special; she was different from the rest of them. Not profoundly different, but out of the norm for them. She wasn't entirely human, and even though this shouldn't be any big deal, the children had been raised their entire life to fear other species. This girl was half mermaid, her mother being of the sea, and her father being from the coastal village where she resided in still.

"It's 'cause yer a freak!" One of the older kids yelled, two years older than the girl, practically with his man's height.

"Enough! Darcy, you're grounded!" A man came up, and smacked the kid who'd called the young girl a freak. He was the Darcy's father, and when he was reprimanded, the kid went running towards his home. He turned his attention to the girl who was crying in a heap on the ground. "Damia... sweety, are you okay?"

Damia looked up, bleary-eyed, and nodded slightly. "I-I-I'm okay. Just a few bruises." She responded, getting up.

"That's good. Your father is asking for you, and with that virus he's got, we didn't allow him out of the hut." Damia nodded, and followed him to the hut she shared with her father, which was right next to Darcy's fathers.

"Da...are you all right?" She asked, dropping to the side of his bed, and looking into his pained eyes. The virus that plagued him was practically incurable, at least in the meager hands of the humans. Along with her father being on his deathbed, her mother had died when she was a mere child.

He swallowed twice before answering, his face pale as death. "Yes, Damia... my dear, sweet child. I will live past this." He said, in a strangled voice, giving lie to the words he spoke of her.

The Village Council had never seen anyone survive through the illness, and Damia's father was in the advance stages of it, ensuring he'd be dead before the next full moon.

"Okay da. Is there anything I can do for you? I wanna help." She smiled, but the smile was removed in a moment, her father shook his head faintly.

"I just wanted to see you one more time before I..." he paused a moment, swallowing hard, "go to sleep." His arms were thin, as he reached up to hug his daughter.

Damia recoiled, tears coming to her eyes again. She knew from the look in her father's eyes...he didn't expect to wake up again, and he couldn't bring himself to tell his daughter that. Sighing softly –clenching her eyes tightly—she leaned forward and hugged her father gingerly, and kissed him in the cheek. She nodded, and stood up to leave the room.

"Damia, everything will be-."

"I don't care what you have to say!" She suddenly shouted, cutting off Darcy's father, slapping his hand viciously from her shoulder. "I understand everything. I'm not a child." She wiped tears from her eyes, and stood her ground. "I'm leaving, and I don't think...I don't think I'll ever come back." Without even waiting for him to speak again, she started sprinting away from the hut, and straight towards the forest, which backed the village along with the sea.

Even though Damia knew it was the only decision she could've made, she was not happy with it. Running blindly through the forest, her eyes clenched tight to ward off tears, though failing terribly was not how she envisioned her leaving the village. It would certainly make the other kids happy, seeing her so miserable. "I won't stop, 'cause I'm not afraid of them!" She shouted, running faster, finally opening her eyes, to face the future....