The Sea Remembers Us — Episode 2

The merfolk were soft-featured, almost doll-like. This one was all edges, looked like a fallen angel. His teeth were pointed, his claws significantly longer than any shallow-water hair, green eyes, a black-gold tail roughly eight feet long.

This was clearly a powerful deep-sea mur who had left his pod and come to Emerald Atoll seeking a mate. I usually observed the merfolk through underwater cameras stationed around the island, while boating near the atoll, I spotted him.

I sent my drone after him and watched him cut through the waves, chasing down a doing nearly seventy miles an hour. He caught it effortlessly, slicing the fish open with his claws. The blood drew sharks and orcas from the surrounding waters, but none of them dared

Deep-sea mer were clearly the unchallenged apex predators of the ocean. When he drifted past my boat, I couldn't help staring. You're amazing! Of course, he couldn't understand me.

After humans discovered this planet, there had been a brief surge of interest in merfolk But the excitement died down fast. Murphish intelligence was only slightly above orcas. They were omnivores, living mostly on kelp and seaweed,

occasionally supplemented with crabs, oysters, and small fish. And there was zero chance of crossbreeding with humans. Most researchers moved on to studying beast folk. As for me, I'd originally studied beast folk too.