Ceylan's POV

I awoke in my seaweed bed at the sun shade of 10:30. Most merpeople call me lazy but I don't really care. I still think that strange creature from yesterday was interesting to say the least. What was he again? Hem-ugh that's not it… what were they called? Hoomins? Hamans? Humans? I think it was humans. I felt so embarrassed at having to love tap that human in order to give him air to keep him from dying. He wasn't ugly for a human either… I shook my head fast. Ugh Ceylan no! He's human! You're not gonna see him again either-Who am I kidding? Of course I want to see him again! I'm curious about what most humans do with their time if they don't have a Kingdom Task- Oh crap! I'm gonna be late for my Kingdom Task! It is against the law to be late, if you're even a minute late, you'll be sent to the royal dungeons.

I rushed out of my coral house and went straight for the royal nursery. Yes you caught me. I, Ceylan Jones, am one of the kingdom of Atlantis's nursery workers. There's 2 of us in my branch at the castle including myself. Weird job for me right? I wouldn't trust myself with children either. But apparently they do.

I swam straight through the castle doors and through the twisted hallways until I reached the nursery. It looks as if 3 more merbabies had been born overnight. Yay more papyruswork.

"Good morning Ceylan." Chooki said happily. I guess I can call him one of my only friends. It's kinda sad really. I don't even care though.

"Good morning Chooki." I roll my eyes and say it sarcastically. I only do it because he insists it's polite to use 'proper greetings' or whatever the hell he said. I wasn't really paying attention when he gave me the lecture.

Chooki started to lecture me about how I need not be sarcastic. Whatever. It doesn't matter. There were 156 babies today, we get less and more depending on if more are born, or some are old enough to go to the next stage of learning. Speaking of which, thirty were old enough to move up.

"Chooki, don't we have to send these thirty to the next stage?" I asked, while looking at the papyrus. Before you ask, yes it's enchanted to ensure the fish blood doesn't go into the ocean or we could get sharks. Sharks are considered pests.

"You're right Ceylan. I was making the conch-calls to the head of all the nursery's' and she said that we could just send them out." Chooki replied, while comforting a fussy baby.

"Okay." I picked up two of the three year olds-you were allowed to move up when you turned three-and put them in a line. I picked up some more and Chooki picked up some also. Soon enough, we managed to get all thirty in a straight line.

"Should I open the doors?" I asked Chooki, not wanting anyone to be mad because I messed up.

"Go ahead." He replied. I opened the doors and we went down the twisted hallways until we got to the front. I led the merchildren to the Orca. They got inside and the Orca sped off towards the preschool. I sighed as I watched the Orca speed off.

"It always makes me feel old every time the children go off to pre-school." I said melancholy

"I know what you mean." Chooki replied

"Don't you ever feel like this cycle is too repetitive? Like every time a new child gets there you can already see them going off to pre-school. It feels empty. Like there is something missing in my life."

"Ceylan, we need to get you a mate." Chooki replied with. Oh no not this conversation again. Last time it was fruitless, everyone just wasn't my type. No one has ever gotten a love tap from me. Except for that human. I guess you could say that he had stolen my first love tap. For most mermaids, they fall even more hopelessly in love with whomever they love tapped. (The love tap is only for someone special in the first place.) I don't think a human counts… Even if he was adorable… wait a minute no! I'm trying to tell Chooki not to try to find me a mate.

"No." I replied firmly. I could tell he was shocked at my answer. I had never said no to him like that before. He then raised an eyebrow.

"Why, do you already have a secret mate?" I gaped at his question. He thought I… No. The human doesn't count. Anyway, it's not like I actually mated the human.

"No." I repeated myself.

"Okay… is it that you want to be forever alone and never love tap anyone, or you have someone else in mind?"

"I actually did have my first love tap…" I say very quietly, remembering the human's soft lips on mine, and his shocked expression as I pulled away. I could feel my cheeks grow warm out of embarrassment.

"Who was it?" Chooki seems to have heard me.

"I c-can't t-tell you that…" I stuttered and my cheeks felt hotter.

"I'll find out sooner or later." He laughed. Just then, a merson walked in. I know from the black clothes it was Gen.

"Find out what?" Gen, the 21st prince of Atlantis asked Chooki. He had that 'I hate everyone' look.

"Who Ceylan gave his first love tap to." Chooki replied cheerfully.

"G-guys, it's not that big of a deal!" I tried to stop them from guessing and or embarrassing me further. I also wasn't supposed to reveal myself to a human. I put the entire kingdom in danger. One of the laws of Atlantis was that you had to tell the prince the answer to most of the questions he asked I don't know which ones you don't have to give the answer. So I answered every question.

Gen nodded in approval "So who's the merson?" Chooki asked

I managed to mumble something out that sounded like "Mm hm mm hm hm"

"What was that?" Chooki asked, not understanding my mumbles.

"It was a life or death situation…" I said quietly "I saw a drowning human and I just had to save him. I was curious. I'm sorry Gen." I felt bad for putting the kingdom in danger.

Gen and Chooki looked at me in shock. That shock quickly turned to anger. "Ceylan! How dare you reveal your existence to a human! You have put our entire kind in danger! This could mean war!"

"I know I was in the wrong, but he could've DIED. I couldn't bring myself to leave him there when he so desperately needed help. I had to help him. I couldn't have left him there without feeling extremely guilty.

"Ceylan! That was very irresponsible of you! You shouldn't have revealed yourself!" Chooki scolded angrily

"AND LET HIM DIE?!" I roared. He flinched at my yelling and Gen kept his hand on his sword. How could they not understand? Someone could've died!

"Listen, Ceylan-"

"No you listen Chooki. It is not your responsibility to take care of me. Nor is it your responsibility to protect me. I can handle myself. That's not even the problem here. I knew it was dangerous, I knew it wasn't my job, knew I could've died, and I took the risks. It was my own decision. I, decided to help that human. I didn't want someone to die on account of me 'staying safe'. I know I put us in danger, but they don't even believe we exist! He could not even believe what he saw, he could write it off as blurriness from the ocean, he could even tell someone! That person would then think he was crazy or lying, on account of us 'not existing' and ignore it. You're not my mother Chooki. You'll never be." I said harshly as I swam out of the daycare.

Gen spoke. "I will banish him." and with that, he turned swiftly with his tail and swam towards his throne, in the room known as the 'Royal Chambers'

I swam fast. When my emotions weighed too heavily on me, I swam as fast as I could, like trying to escape them. I felt bad at what I had said to Chooki, Gen looked as If he wanted to kill me for what I did. I guess I technically committed treason unintentionally. Whoops.

I kept swimming, not looking back at where I swam. I found myself in unfamiliar waters. They were significantly warmer. That's when I recognized where I was. I was at the same beach I had met the human yesterday. That's when I saw him, sitting solemnly on that wooden thing that humans called docks. I think. He was staring at the ocean, his auburn and brown hair blowing a little with the wind.

Should I go over and talk to him? Or should I stay here? I can't decide. If I go over there and talk to him, it might compromise our existence. But if I don't, then I don't get to satisfy the curiosity. Ugh… I'm so curious, that might actually be my greatest downfall… Besides laziness. I swam over to him slowly.

I drifted next to him and he didn't acknowledge my presence. Maybe he was wrapped up in his thinking. I kinda wanted to talk to him so I said the first thing that popped into my head.

"What do humans eat?" I asked suddenly. That was when he flipped out. Emphasis on flipped. He flipped over the edge of the dock and fell straight down to the bottom. I waited a minute to see if he would come back up. He did. He was treading water barely 3 feet away from me.

"What the- A real merman? But how… what-" I gave him a very long moment to comprehend this.

"Yeah I'm real. I'm as real as you." I replied.

"But why would you come here? And to me of all people?" He asked with furrowed brows.

"I found myself at this beach and spotted you on the docks. I'm… Curious about humans…" I said quietly. He looked even more surprised at this.

"What do you even eat though?!" I was seriously wondering. Did they eat some kind of giant seaweed? Did they eat sand? WHAT DID THEY EAT?! The human laughed.

"I don't know how you do things down there, but up here we at least know each other's names before asking what they eat." I blushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry…" I said quietly. In Atlantis, if you offended someone you had to apologize immediately. If not, you owed them large amounts of money. The laws are extremely strict in Atlantis. I probably could be arrested and sent to the dungeons for this, it's called treason. Talking to humans is against the law.

"You don't have to apologize. My name is Guren Nash what's yours?" He asked with a small smile

"Ceylan Jones." I said proudly. "So what do you eat?" I asked, still trying to figure it out.

"We have lots of things. There's meats, then there are fruits and vegetables. We have fish, dessert, soup, pizza, and a lot more." I remembered learning about this 'meat' at school. They had animals for the meat and darry? Dairy? I don't know how to pronounce it. One particular thing he mentioned caught my attention. We never learned about pizza at school.

"What is pizza?" I asked, tilting my head curiously.

"It's round and it has cheese, sauce and whatever other foods you want to add to it." Guren said happily. I could tell he really enjoyed eating this 'pizza'. He looked at a little black box he had left on the dock. He climbed up onto the dock and pressed something on the box, making it glow.

"Oh crap! I have to be home!" He stood up and picked up the box. "Bye Ceylan, it was really nice meeting you!" He ran and I couldn't see him once he had left the beach because of the dock.

I looked at the moon, and judging from its position in the sky, the time was around 11 and ? moon light. I should head home. I started swimming and passed by few fish. I finally got to my house. It was the same as I had left it. In my gut I knew something felt wrong. I opened the door to a group of people in armour.

"Ceylan Jones. You have exactly 24 moon minutes to leave this kingdom. Take your possessions, we've no use for filthy traitor things. We're banishing you away. We know you have had contact with a human in the last hour." Gen said coldly. I looked at him in shock. I realized I didn't have much time to 'take my things' so I picked up nothing. I didn't really have anything of worth. Although, I did want my human device I found once. I managed to make it work in the water. I took the weird box and screen.

"Now get out." Gen and his men escorted me to the very edge of the kingdom. "Bye traitor." He smiled very coldly.

I swam away towards the beach. I knew there was a crevice I could sleep in temporarily. I was in shock at the situation. I know what I did was wrong. I didn't blame him, but banishment was a little harsh. It didn't really sink in though. I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep.

A/N: Okay wow. Sun shade is AM, Moon light is PM. Thanks for the ideas Limettenparfait, you actually helped me a lot with this chapter! I had to fix it because I know it sounded rushed so, this is the ACTUAL chapter 2. I used my inner Sasuke when doing Gen, they're so alike. If any of you find any problems or anything, please don't hesitate to point it out. I like the constructive criticism. It makes me feel like I'm improving my writing as I put in the changes. So go ahead and criticize constructively!