"Can we trust him?" Kane asked in a hushed tone as we sat down around a small dining room table. I thought it would be refreshing to sit at a table within a log cabin with a dirt floor, but this didn't seem like home.

Thalian scoffed at Kane's remark, "Can you trust me? Are you joking? You are the human here," he growled back.

"Listen here Ears-"

"Ears, how original of your kind."

"Enough!" I snapped at their bickering as I let out a shaky breath. "Considering you have both tried to put me in handcuffs, tried to kill me, seen me naked, and seen my gills, I can say we can trust each other." I hissed as I glared at the both of them.

Thalian leaned back in his chair and though he was covered in dirt and looked like hell, he still had that winning devilish smirk. "Gills?" He asked amused.

I shrugged it off as Kane seemed about ready to blow, "Kane has not seen my tail."

"Can the catch up wait until later, we have a serious matter to deal with." Kane pleaded with the two of us.

Thalian started to laugh, "Just gills? Now that is a story I cannot wait to hear." Thalian was a true Elf, through and through. Despite everything which was going on, there was always time. Being immortal had its luxuries, normally nothing was ever pressing and they often did whatever they wanted, when they wanted.

Unfortunately, Kane was right and the playful banter had to wait. "I assume it is about whatever is going on?"

Kane's eyes glanced to Thalian, "Are you sure we can trust him?"

"Speak, Kane," I was beginning to worry.

Kane rested both elbows on the table and put his face in his hands. "Leena, you ain't going to believe this, but something went wrong." He paused and finally looked at me, "You've been gone for 85 years."

I froze and slowly my brow furrowed, slowly shaking my head. "No..."

"Makes sense why you are not dead with the rest of your family. Where were you?" Thalian hummed, not realizing what Kane was talking about.

Standing up quickly, the chair hit the dirt floor without much of a sound. "That is not possible!" I was now shouting at Kane. He reached out with a gloved hand to touch me, but I jerked away. "No! I was only gone for a year and a half!" This time I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"I know, I know," Kane whispered as he just watched as the tears burned my skin. "Time works differently here; a week in my world is a year here. I don't understand it, but it's what I learned while the Healer fixed you. A lot has changed..."

My knees gave out under me and I collapsed to the ground as I sobbed. Kane slowly rose from his spot and walked over to me, pulling me into his chest. "I do not understand," Thalian was saying slowly as he stared at us.

Kane pulled me into his lap as I cried uncontrollably, my tears just sliding off his leather vest. "It's going to be okay. We'll figure this out." He whispered as he ran his fingers through my hair in attempts to calm me. 

When everything was said and done, my heart hurt. I was sitting outside on a small rock, staring at the ground. The beauty of my home was lost on me; I couldn't focus on it. I had imagined being home so much differently. The excitement of running back to the water, of laying in the sand and staring up at the stars. While we had the same stars that Kane saw, we had more since we had no light to pollute the sky. I should have been happy to see the tree which were always the colours of autumn and grass which was so green I was ready for Kane to ask if it was plastic.

None of that mattered now; it didn't feel like breathing mattered. My home was gone, my family was gone, the few friends I had were either dead or enslaved by a race which shouldn't have been here. I was in a different world, but I had the same problems. I was on the run and by this time tomorrow, I would once again be completely alone.

There was no reason for Kane to be here. It would take me years to figure out what happened, and if his world was in danger, he didn't have time to waste. He never signed up for any of this and the thought of losing him was the straw which broke the horses back.

I would have cried if I had any tears left. Instead, I just curled up tighter into a ball as the void in my chest continued to grow. Thalian had filled us in on what I had missed once we told him that I was in a different world. He was convinced that Kane was an alien, but told us what we needed to know anyway. I disappeared the same time the humans arrived. No one knew how they got here, but that they did and they said all the right things.

They came to all of the races offering peace, an alliance. For the first time in history, all of the races came together and worked on fighting the demons out of the land. Thalian said that it worked and within the first 5 years, demons were practically extinct.

That was when the other shoe dropped. Those who worked immediately alongside the humans found themselves under their rule. Dwarves were forced to work in mines and smitheries and Elves were made into slaves. The magic wielders were harder to control and that's when the hunt started. Ships went out, equipped with dwarven weapons, and they started to hunt mermaids. On land, witches and wizards were either killed or put under guard and forced into slavery as well.

Thalian said, in the beginning, there was resistance, but slowly that was snuffed out too. Everyone just accepted things now and that was what hurt most of all. I could handle my parents being murdered for a cause or to know I might be the last of my race if there was a reason, but there wasn't one. My family, my race, was murdered in fear. Humans hunted them like animals because they wouldn't be controlled. During all this, no one stopped them.

I knew my kind was hated, but I never expected that no one to say a word as the waters were stained red with mermaid blood. I couldn't imagine anyone accepting that mermaid skins were now for sale in towns, and if you paid a high enough price you could even get mermaid meat at a bar.

At one time it was that way, or so Thalian told me. Shops still had scale-items for sale, but the price went up since we were assumed to be extinct. He had heard rumours that humans might have kept some of my kind locked away like an animal in their own personal zoo, but there has been no proof.

My species was being erased from the history books and being made into products for humans to buy. It was disgusting and I hated all of them for it. I hated the elves, the dwarves, the witches and wizards alike, they were all the same. They took care of demons and needed a new enemy so they focused on the seas. 

I slid off of the mossy rock I had curled up on and into the dirt as I finally let out a scream. It was inhuman and barely within the human range of hearing. The heavens opened as I let out another shriek, curling into myself. "Leena!" I heard Kane yell as he sprinted out into the rain, the ground already turning to mud with the rain's heavy assault.

Thalian followed after him, less panicked, but he stopped Kane from rushing over to me. "Let her, Ethan, she is causing this. She needs time to grieve in her own way." He paused and I glanced at the boys, Thalian's head bowing when his golden eyes met my glowing blue ones. "Go inside and get some rest, I shall look after her tonight." I looked away and buried my face in my knees, "I promise she will be okay in the morning."

They never spoke again. I chewed on my lip as the cold rain drenched me, soothed me. Lightning lit up the sky, and I vowed that tonight would be a night of mourning for forever. I would make sure that everyone knew the wrath of the mermaids tonight.