Pathos knew he should've stayed in his room with his roommate, but there was just something pulling at him to go explore the reef near the beach again. He couldn't describe it. It was like a subconscious of some kind was telling him to go there, now. He had no idea that there was a human named Logan walking along the beach at the moment. 

The merman sneaked out of his room again, swimming through the window and keeping a careful eye on his surroundings to make sure he wasn't spotted. With a powerful pump of his shimmering blue and pink tail, he shot toward the reef in a flurry of bubbles.

A giggle escaped his lips as the moonlight shimmered along his scales. He always loved moonlight and it was times like these that he wished it wasn't against the rules to swim around at night. Well, it wasn't against the rules, but it was strongly discouraged to the point that he'd always been terrified to do it even when given permission, and that was for fully grown merfolk. For a young merman like him, he was expected to be in his dorm. 

Pathos twirled through the water as he headed to the beach. Upon reaching the reef, he swam around with schools of fish giggling as they dispersed when he swam through them only to reform a few seconds later. 

He continued even further inland, his fins starting to break the surface of the water as he swam. He reached up to run a hand through the water's surface as he swam on his back. The moonlight shimmered above him, making him slow down and move upward to float on his back. The cool air hit his face, making him smile a little to himself as he looked up at the moon. Pathos loved the moon, and seeing the stars twinkling above him. His folk often told him that the shimmering scales of fish were like stars, but in his opinion, they didn't come close to the real thing.

He slipped back underwater and as he swam he noticed that fish were following him slightly. Pausing, he looked down at himself, a gasp escaping his lips as he saw his blue marks glowing. His eyes widened as he looked from himself to the blinking eyes of the fish that were attracted to the light. 

"You know, Virgil said they glow when my soulmate is nearby," he told the fish with a bright smile. "I wonder if there's someone else swimming around here! I wonder if they like the beach too!"

He hurriedly swam toward the beach feeling the sand rising beneath him and then his hands landed on it. He crawled onto the beach, staying within the rolling waves, but keeping his body mostly out of the water. A smile spread across his lips as he lifted his hand and played with the sand as it fell through his fingers. He giggled, having never really played with sand that was above the water level. The world above the water seemed just as interesting as the world below, but he knew that he wouldn't last a day out of the ocean. 

Merfolk couldn't survive out of saltwater. They needed water to supply their tails with energy because their gills breathed in the water with oxygen, salt, and other nutrients in it. They couldn't get those nutrients or the salt from the oxygen above the water. 

A distant sound caused his head to turn. There was a silhouette of a being on two legs walking toward him in the dark. His markings glowed brighter, making him panic and dive back into the water. There was a splash and he quickly swam away from the shore to hide behind a boulder under the water.

On the beach, Logan looked up from his thoughts at the sound of a splash. It was practically pitch black aside from the moonlight's reflections off the water. He scowled, wondering what the noise could've been caused by, but being too tired to go forward and investigate. 

Pathos swam up to the surface, pulling himself up on the boulder to look at the beach. He watched at the human walked away, noticing his marks become fainter and fainter as he went.