A/N: Hope you enjoy! And please review if you liked it or thought it could be better!

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Zayle stared out into the sea with a stony look upon his face. Never had he been so befuddled in all of his life, which wasn’t a very long time. He was only three hundred years old, and in his world that wasn’t even considered a middle aged man yet. Yet, his world had long since been forgotten about and he remained the only one left in the sea which he now ruled. For years now, everything had been peaceful; peaceful, but incredibly boring. Now, however, something was happening and Zayle had no idea what it was. Things were changing and time seemed to have taken control once again.

“Hey! I told you already to stay away from there!” he yelled to some frisky dolphins. One of the beautiful creatures threw him an annoyed glance, but moved away from the caves they had been at all the same. The caves was where most of the changes were taking place and Zayle had no desire for the inhabitants of his sea to be harmed. Lately thunderous crashes and unnatural wind was whipping around in the caves and Zayle thought it best to keep guard in case something worse than wind flew out of there.

He gripped his triton with his claw of a hand tighter and pointed it at some nearby coral.

“Fireycoral,” he muttered and immediately the coral burst into flames. There. That should keep the animals out. Zayle looked admiringly at his claw. A hundred years ago, his hand had been ripped off by an insane shark. The M.U.W. (medics under water) did everything they could, but his hand simply was gone forever. Zayle himself had speared the unlucky lobster that he needed to make a new hand. Now, it was one of the most powerful weapons he possessed.

Zayle floated down onto a nearby rock with an elegant grace he had worked hard to achieve. Floating had become extremely difficult ever since his lungs had been replaced by a metal tube that clinked and clunked annoyingly.

A white crab crawled across Zayle’s hand and he flinched as it pierced his skin. Bubbles flew up from the crab and Zayle accepted his apology with a curt nod. Stupid child…not knowing how to control it’s claws yet. Another one of Zayle’s gifts was speaking with many of the animals that lived in his sea. They didn’t always speak back, but the mere fact that he could understand them was something to be proud of.

“Good evening, sir Zayle,” a warbled voice whispered in Zayle’s ear. He jumped up from his rock and pointed his trident at the microscopic thing that had spoken. It was a sea horse by the name of Phillip.

“Evening,” Zayle said, pretending that he hadn’t just lost his composure. Philip rolled his eyes.

“Sir Zayle has been seeming…odd lately. Philip wonders why?” Phillip said swimming closer to his king.

Zayle took his seat again as his hand flew up to his beard. Stroking it he replied, “I don’t know, Phil. Sudden changes are taking place and I don’t know why. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to handle it on my own.”

“If,” Phillip said slowly, “the Fates did not think you could handle it, they would not have let you survive.”

“You put a great emphasis on the Fates. You think it was them that destroyed the kingdom?”

“Do I think? Think!? Philip does not think! He knows!” Phillip sputtered angrily. Zayle concealed a laugh with much difficulty.

“Of course he does. Of course. Does this mean you know what is happening in the other worlds as well?” he asked, trying to keep a smile off his lips.

“Phillip does not concern himself with the problems of the other worlds,” was the cold reply.

“I am sorry I assumed,” Zayle said good naturedly.

“You should be. Anyways, I will see you soon, sir Zayle,” Phillip said before briskly swimming away. Zayle stared after his friend with a definite grin on his face. Sea horses were hard to please and they were very good at getting angry. After Phillip disappeared from view, Zayle directed his palm at the sandy ground. Kelp and sea weed twisted together to from a crude bed for the night. Most nights it was the same: find a nice area, do some quick hand movements, and voila! A place to sleep!

As Zayle was about to settle down for the night, a loud crash came from the caves. Eager to find out what was going on at last, he swam over there as fast as he could.

Wind whipped at his shoulder length hair and lightning struck the ground again and again. After several minutes of the same thing happening, the wind and lightning meshed together to form a large golden ball.

“What the -” Zayle whispered to himself. He reached out to it with his trident and the moment the two touched, the sand beneath him began to quiver and thrash about. Eyes widening in fright, Zayle pulled away. Swimming at top speed, he didn’t stop until he was at least five miles away.
Now he was really concerned. What was that thing? And why was it invading his peaceful kingdom? These questions and more ran through Zayle’s mind as he laid down on his newly made bed. It took him a long while to finally drift off into sleep and when he did, his dreams were full of the bright light and shadowed creatures lurking in the darkness.

Something large and white was hindering Zayle’s view when he awoke the next morning. Opening his eyes wider, he found it was a dolphin wanting to play.

“I’d like to…but I can’t,” Zayle said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his normal hand, and grabbing his trident with his clawed one. The dolphin nosed him sadly and clicked it’s tongue like an impatient mother.

“Oh stop it,” Zayle said, pushing the dolphin away. The dolphin continued to make clicking noises but Zayle could only make out a few of the words. The meaning, however, was clear: Stop worrying and come play with me!

“Later. I’ll play with you later,” Zayle said firmly. Right now, he needed to go back to the city he had once lived in. The city in which he had not stepped foot into for over a century. After his friends and family and mysteriously disappeared, he had not been able to force himself to go back. But now was different. With new changes came new needs and the need now was to go back. How annoying…yet it must be done.

“I’ll be able to play with you if you come along with me,” Zayle called to the retreating dolphin. The dolphin zoomed back to Zayle’s side and floated up and down with exuberance zooming behind his glassy eyes.

“Can you speak anything other than dolphin?” Zayle asked it.

“Bit of fish! Much not,” it replied and it spoke in a female voice. Zayle nodded in acceptance before sitting upon his trident.

“Shall we be off then?” he asked the she dolphin who nodded happily, clearly excited that she had been invited to come along.

“Right.” Zayle gripped the trident with his hand and in an instant he was zooming over the barren sea land and towards the place he had once called: Home.