Author's Note: This story is in the same universe as Northern Waters, but focuses on Prussia and Belarus. It is actually a prequel to Northern Waters, and you do not need to read it to understand the next story, which returns to Berwald and Tino. Please read, but if you aren't interested, feel free to skip this story.

Natalia could clearly remember the day those two joined the pod. She was still young enough to be tucked under her mother's tail while they swam, for protection, and her sing was still simple childhood ditties rather than the songs of the adults.
Mother was guiding them to a new fishing ground. It was summer, and the harvest was bountiful. Natalia watched the long strands of black hair flowing behind her mother and caught them in her hands, smiling as her mother allowed her to braid them.
Nearby, Natalia's older brother and sister played with Matthew and Alfred, chattering and rushing around, playing tag. Alfred's mother, Alice, called to him. Natalia held back a giggle when he zipped over, and before she could check on him, he zipped away, back towards the others. Alice shouted after him, and Natalia saw that even momma was smiling as the grumpy mer woman chased her son. Natalia was still too young to be playing with the others, so she watched them from a distance instead.
Their pod contained the three adult females and their offspring. Natalia could also remember a time when a big male had swum with them, cuddling with her and playing. But papa had been gone before she could recall him clearly. She could remember those blue eyes and dark tail, but that was it.
She was beginning to get hungry, and took her mother's hand to inform her, but suddenly a mersong cut through the water.
The pod halted, and the older children rushed back to their mothers. Natalia swam over to Katyusha, who kept her close. At fourteen summers, she was the oldest child.
The song was one of grief and loss. Mother sat for a few moments, and then began to sing back. Her song was one of friendship, offering to share in the grief of the other pod.
Soon, two young merfolk emerged. They were the same age, one male and one female. The female looked like a normal mermaid. She had a green tail and brown hair. Her eyes were green as well.
But Natalia squeaked in surprise at the sight of the male. His skin was usually pale, and his tail and hair were both white. But what scared her most was the fact that he had bright red eyes. She darted back underneath mother, who shushed her cries quickly.
The two approached, keeping a respectful distance from the larger pod. The female's arm hung limply at her side, and Natalia realized that she could smell blood in the water. She hid under mother's tail even more.
The male finally swam forward and introduced himself, the squeaks and whistles that made his name forming a word in Natalia's mind.
Gilbert.
He told her mother that he and Elizaveta had been playing when a pod of orcas approached and had attacked. Elizaveta had lost her mother, and Gilbert had lost his father and brother.
Momma listened to their story, and then called the young female over. Alice came forward and set a hand on her arm.
The bone began to mend under Alice's gentle touch. She had sea witch blood in her veins. Soon the young mermaid was able to move her arm freely, albeit stiffly. Natalia watched as her mother made a decision.
The big merwoman gently rubbed her cheeks against theirs. It established that she was the pod matriarch, but for orphans or podless individuals, it also represented an invitation.
Accept me as your matriarch, and you can join us.
The two paused for only a second before responding, tucking their heads under her chin. She carefully groomed the top of their heads before pulling away.
Slowly, the pod gathered around them, sharing names and giving condolences. Natalia waited until the other children had given their names to zip over to them.
She darted up between the two new members, chirping her name. Elizaveta managed a weak smile, but Gilbert grinned. He reached for her and tickled her. She laughed, and darted away.
The white merman followed close behind as she zipped through the pod, but Natalia's joy was quickly ended when she was snatched up by her mother's strong arms.
She quickly realized that she had, in the game of chase, ended up at a decent distance from the pod, and at only four summers, she was still too little to be this far.
Her mother snapped at Gilbert, who quickly apologized and rushed back towards the main pod. He had only been in the pod for a minute, but he was already in trouble with the matriarch.
However, mother reserved a special snarl for Natalia, who ducked her head, and then grabbed her mother's pelvic fin as the matriarch headed back towards the pod. She clung to it for the rest of the day, but her eyes rested on the newest members of the pod, who seemed to be worried, but also trying to act like the children they were.
She smiled when Matthew got Elizaveta and Gilbert to agree to play a game of hide and seek once they reached the new fishing ground and had eaten their fill.

Within two summers, Natalia was too big to be tucked under her mother's tail, and joined the others in their games.
She quickly became a great hider and seeker in hide and seek, only less than Matthew, who had an uncanny ability to chose excellent hiding spaces, often so well chosen that eventually the others would give up, and Marianne would have to swim through the area and call out to her adopted son to get him to reveal himself.
Natalia also loved treasure seeking. Everyone would go off in groups and return later with whatever treasures they had found, and present them to an appointed adult, who would chose the prettiest object and declare that child the winner. She had a knack for finding interesting colors rocks and tiny pieces of colored glass, which while Marianne despised, Alice was rather fond of.
But her favorite game was fighting. The others never actually really tried with her, afraid that momma would forbid them from play fighting, but she enjoyed watching as well as fighting herself.
Alfred and Ivan were the best to watch. They went at it really hard, and each of the had earned a few scars from the fights. But at the end of the day, they were still friends, so no one interfered.
Katyusha and Elizaveta also went at it, but their favorite fight was when they paired up against Ivan and Gilbert. Despite Ivan being a big male, the females tended to be bigger, so often after the  fast movement had stopped, Katyusha and Elizaveta would have the two males in head locks, grinning at each other.
But as the summers passed, childhood faded away from the others, and the fights that had once been practice became real very quickly. Ivan and Alfred had went from a friendly rivalry to a full blown war. Momma quickly grew tired of the fights, and threatened to send them both away.
The threat of having to leave the security of the group and find bachelor pods was enough to force decent behavior on them most of the time.
Natalia was only fifteen summers when she heard a crying child.
She darted away from the pod, and found a small merman, barely a year old with a red tail. She began to call for his parents, but no one responded.
When she returned to the pod that night, momma instantly took the child and sang to him, soothing his cries. She listened to Natalia's story, and then sighed.
She named him Raivis, and after a few days, the small merman was clinging to her mother's fin the same way she had only a few years before.
But he also grew an affection for her and Katyusha, spending as much time clinging to them as he did to momma. Natalia smiled when the boy proudly showed off his first fish that he caught on his own to her, and she kissed him on the forehead to show her pride at his growth.
But life in the sea was fickle, and soon their world came crashing down.

It began with a sickness. Most recovered quickly, but momma was still ill. Ivan and Katyusha began to swim alongside her, trying to keep her from wearing herself out.
But the fever grew. Alice did what she could, but little helped. In the end, all they could do was hope.
One morning, momma opened her golden eyes one last time to kiss little Raivis goodbye.
In the silence that followed, Natalia took Raivis and gather all the pretty things they could find, pieces of shell and rocks, seaweed and glass. They returned to the body and braided them into her hair.
The pod gathered to mourn, and their songs filled the water around them. They sang for hours, recalling memories of their matriarch and all she had done for them. Finally, they ran out of sounds for their grief.
Katyusha took the body in her arms. It was the move that instantly established something to the other females in the pod. She was taking her mother's mantle. She would be the new pod matriarch.
She took the body as far down as she could before releasing it. It was a solemn process, but no one interrupted it.
When she returned, Natalia went over to her and tucked her head under Katyusha's chin, accepting her as the new matriarch. Ivan and Raivis quickly did the same.
The others kept their distance. It would take a few days for this new leader to gain acceptance, and to see how many stayed by her side.

After two days, Alice and Alfred disappeared. The loss of their healer struck them all hard, but Marianne the most. She instantly began to urge Matthew to leave.
Matthew had refused, but since he hadn't given his allegiance to Katyusha, she began to try and pull him away.
Natalia had never heard such a terrible sound erupt from Ivan as he zoomed over towards the female, snarling at her as he shoved her and Matthew apart. Marianne went back in surprise, but she began to rear forward, accepting the challenge for a fight.
Instantly the entire pod was watching as they lunged for each other. Ivan had the advantage of size, but Marianne had been through a lot more in life. They blurred as arms and tails flew, teeth were bared and sunk into arms, fins, tails.
Finally both pulled back. Marianne was bruised, but Ivan was bleeding. The merwoman called to her son. The fight seemed to have ended with her victorious.
Matthew paused, and then began to swim forward, but stopped.
Natalia suddenly heard a soft chirp from Ivan, and in an instant Matthew rushed to his side, pressing his face to his. Matthew turned towards Marianne and shook his head.
She seemed surprised, and Matthew went to her and gave her a kiss. She embraced him, and then swam away after Alice and Alfred.
After a few moments, Matthew turned and began to examine Ivan, crying and making sad noises as he found more injuries.
Natalia watched Katyusha go forward towards the pair, and Matthew paused for a moment before pressing his head under her chin. She whistled and clicked, and he was accepted without another thought. Then he returned to tending Ivan's wounds.
After another day of anxiety, Elizaveta and Gilbert came forward and accepted Katyusha as the matriarch. Their pod now lacked a member older than twenty five summers, but they were going to survive.

When Natalia was eighteen summers, their pod had grown. There was a trio which had joined.
Lars was as long as Ivan, though much more slender, and very quiet. A contrast to his younger sister and brother, Emma and Emile, who at fifteen summers and ten, were loud, excited, and happy to play with four year old Raivis. Natalia watched the three swim about with joy, remembering her own childhood.
Ivan and Matthew had been mates for a year now, and as the only mated pair in the pod, they rallied behind them. Katyusha and Ivan had faced a couple challenges to their leadership by newcomers to the pod, but in the end, they chased those challengers off.
Natalia was glad as the spring light came and they began to range further north. At ten members, they easily claimed excellent fishing grounds.
But then something changed, suddenly and drastically.

Natalia hadn't expected to find anything different with herself when she woke up that morning. She had wedged herself into Ivan and Matthew's sleeping circle, and was looking forward to a day of exploring when she felt something hard pressed into her face.
Yawning as she pulled away from the two males, she reached up and quickly realized that her hair had been braided around whatever items were in it.
Moments later, Katyusha was awoken by Natalia's indignant cries as she tried to unwrap the items from her hair. Raivis blinked for a few seconds before swimming down.
Natalia snapped at Raivis, assuming that the little prankster had been the one to do it, but he shook his head, and his small hands proved quite excellent at removing the objects from her hair. The others were waking up at this point, and seemed interested in the proceedings.
Emma giggled. Natalia knew why, and tried to ignore it. These little gifts were a sign of flirtation.
But she had no idea who had put them there, and until she knew that, she refused to have them tangled in her hair.
She was able to quickly cut down the number of possible suitors. Raivis and Emile were both too young, and she doubted it was Elizaveta, given how close the merwoman stuck to Katyusha.
Emma, Lars, or Gilbert. Those were her options in the end. But if anyone knew who had left the gifts, they weren't speaking up.
Each morning, the decorations and gifts grew more elaborate, and Natalia began to pawn them off on the other pod members. Elizaveta and Katyusha quickly had their hair full of tiny trinkets, and Matthew even allowed Natalia to braid one rather beautiful piece of blue glass in his hair as well.
Finally, one morning while she was beginning to fill Emma's hair with the trinkets, her suitor decided to make himself known.
Natalia had just finished with a small piece of coral when Emma turned and giggled. Natalia paused before turned around.
Gilbert was only a few feet away, holding a squid in his mouth. He seemed rather proud with the catch, and offered it to her with a smile, making flirtatious clicks as he did so.
Natalia had two options. She could accept the squid and begin to flirt back with Gilbert. It could end after a few days, or be a lifelong pair.
There was another response she could give as well.
She could snort in his face and dart over to her brother and his mate, which is exactly what she did.
Gilbert blinked in surprise, and Raivis took advantage of his stunned state to dart over and steal the squid straight out of his mouth. The big male chased the small one with a series of angry clicks, and Raivis darted to Katyusha, devouring his prize underneath her tail while she and Elizaveta tried to keep from laughing. In the end, even Gilbert was smiling.
But when Gilbert looked at her, she turned away and swam over to Emma to talk rather than flirt.

A few days later, it was mackerel. Then clams and scallops, followed by an entire cod.
Natalia refused all the gifts, and the pod laughed at Gilbert's confusion. If Natalia had absolutely no interest, she could have threatened to tear out his throat, and he never would have flirted with her again unless she started it. But as it was, it was futile for Gilbert to keep trying at this point. He had made his interest known. Now they simply had to wait for Natalia's response.
But if there were two concepts the merman failed to understand. One was patience, and the other was giving up while you were ahead.
Elizaveta didn't like the idea Gilbert purposed, and she made that clear to him. It was dangerous for just the two of them, and besides, what did she have to gain from it?
Gilbert's pointed glance at Katyusha made Elizaveta blush. They'd known each other since they were clinging to their parents tails. He knew her too well.
And in the end, she supposed it was a sense of responsibility that made her agree to go. Gil could be reckless, and she usually managed to curb some of those sudden impulses of his. And besides, if this did work, it might help her out as well.

When Natalia woke up to find that Gilbert and Elizaveta had left to hunt, she rejoiced. A day free of her persistent suitor at last? Oh, she welcomed it.
She woke up the younger pod members and they quickly began to scan the bottom of the ocean as the others still were waking up. She wanted to collect calms, oysters, and more. They were hard to open, but if they could collect enough, the effort would be worth it.
Her mouth watered at the though of clams, and she was about to crack a few open to share with the other youngsters when she suddenly heard Katyusha cry out in distress.
All gathering of food was instantly abandoned as they returned to the pod. Lars and Ivan had zoomed out and were pulling two merfolk behind them.
Natalia instantly recognized the tails, but when she saw the marks and bites on Elizaveta's face, she nearly screamed. Raivis hid behind her tail.
Katyusha swept up the other female, and turned towards Gilbert, who was still conscious. The sounds she made were close to thunder. She wanted him to explain what the hell had happened.
Gilbert told her that they had planned to hunt a tuna if they could find a school without dolphins. Lars nearly throttled him at that revelation. He had seen his mother nearly die trying to catch a tuna that wasn't accompanied by dolphins.
Gilbert continued as the others gathered around. They had thought they had found a school, and had been about to attack when the dolphins appeared. Knowing that it was too dangerous, they left the area to try and find something else to hunt.
However, the dolphins followed them, and they had been unaware until the moment they struck.
Only some nearby orcas had scattered the dolphins. Gilbert and Elizaveta had to hide, unsure if the orcas had simply intervened because they were nearby or because they wanted to hunt them. By the time they had been able to leave, Elizaveta was already sliding in and out of consciousness.
Katyusha crooned and sang to Elizaveta for what felt like an hour, and after a while, those green eyes opened.
She called out for Gilbert, and Katyusha glared at him, but she allowed him to take Elizaveta.
She seemed confused, asked him if the orcas were nearby, mentioned a nightmare. Gilbert whispered things back to her, calming her down and telling her that they were safe.
Natalia felt her heart go out to him. He had made a stupid decision, but he wasn't paying attention to his own injuries. He was trying to soothe Elizaveta, keep her breathing.
Something hurt deep inside, and she swam away.
She didn't see the small shadow for a while, but when she spotted Raivis, she turned and snarled. But he refused to go back, even when she whacked him with her tail.
She swam for about an hour, and Raivis made no noise other than the occasional whistle. She ignored the hand on her tail and sighed as she continued on.
After a while, she saw a flash of red. She froze, and motioned for Raivis to remain still, which he did.
She watched the salmon for several minutes, until one wandered just a little too close.
Darting forward, she caught the animal by the tail. She cursed her luck, but she pushed herself towards the surface.
As she emerged from the water, she threw her head back and forth, carrying the salmon with it. The slapping of the fish against the water stunned it, and injured it. After a few more tosses, she grabbed it in her hands and bit right over the gills.
She dove down and rejoined Raivis. He smiled at the fish, but she refused to let him touch it.
They returned, and Raivis rushed up to join the rest of the pod. Natalia could see in the light that Elizaveta had wrapped her arms around Ivan, lying on the back of the big male for sleep. No one begrudged her that. Of course, Natalia was sure she would have preferred to be with Katyusha, but Katyusha had Raivis to look after. Lars and his siblings had settled into their own sleep circle. When Raivis emerged from the dark, Katyusha scolded him for disappearing, and then shepherded him into the sleep circle with Ivan, Matthew, and Elizaveta.
Gilbert was alone at the edge of the pod, and Natalia watched him. He was ignoring his injuries, but he could feel the tension in the pod as clearly as Natalia could.
In other pods, you could be exiled for less.
She approached him slowly, and he didn't notice her until she was right behind him. He whirled, and she shoved the fish into his face.
Gilbert first recoiled in surprise, but then he looked at her and he began to laugh. He took the fish from her and then pressed closer to her.
She shoved him back, but she felt color rising in her cheeks. Then something was pressed into her face.
She turned. Gilbert had opened the salmon up, and was offering her a piece of the meat. She carefully nibbled at it, and then turned away once more.
At a distance, Katyusha kept an eye open, watching the pair. She had to hold back a laugh when she saw Natalia shove Gilbert around, and watched her act offended as the male continued to flirt.
Underneath her tail, Raivis made the chirps he often did in his sleep, and she smiled, feeling his hands clinging to her fins.
Eventually, she watched the two swim away, and sighed. Either they would return by morning or not.
And when she opened her eyes the next morning, the two had curled up into their own sleep circle.

Four summers later, Katyusha and her pod had stopped moving. About an hour before, Natalia had disappeared, and no one, even her mate, knew where she had gone.
Gilbert swam around the others making nervous motions, and Elizaveta groaned. Finally, she whacked him with his tail as he swam past. That surprised him, and the two began to squabble.
As they fought, Katyusha heard soft singing.
She paused and waited.
Another hour passed, and another. On and off, Katyusha heard the singing.
Finally, the song continued, and then came closer and closer.
It was an unfamiliar song, new. But in a way, Katyusha was not surprised.
A new song for a new life.
Gilbert darted out in the direction of the music, and moments later, Natalia emerged from the darkness. No one could see her from the distance, but they knew that Gilbert would see a small pair of hands on the pelvic fins of his mate.
The parents spent several minutes with their baby before bringing them up to the rest of the pod. But the pod blinked in surprise when they saw two small merfolk, one attached to each parent's fins.
There was a small boy, with a dark blue tail and blond hair, and then a tiny girl with a white tail and hair to match.
Natalia took both of them in her arms, and then spoke, in the true sense of speaking.
"Julia. Nicolai."
Gilbert smiled and clicked the names out on his own tongue, and the others crowded around, smiling at the two tiny ones.
Natalia let them see them for a while, but then she eventually pulled away, and the new parents were left alone.
That night, at the center of the group, there was a sleep circle. Natalia and Gilbert held their tails, and clinging to each of them was one of their children.
The pod had grown.
Everything was good.