Meet Me At The Coral Isles

Scott of the Coral Isles

CWs/TWs: transphobia, gender dysphoria. This chapter dwells a bit on feeling insecure about gender/assigned sex at birth, as well as the rest of the story. Please don't read this story if you're easily triggered by this. I'd rather you be safe than read my book.

Otherwise, enjoy <3

.•● 𓇼 ●•.

"Enough of this 'transgender' nonsense," Scott's father shouted, making the siren wince. "You are my daughter and the princess of the Coral Isles, not some boy. Return to your room immediately and stay there." The King scowled down at Scott, who suddenly felt very small.

"Yes, Father," Scott mumbled, then slowly swam out of the throne room. He sobbed once the doors closed, too afraid of letting his father see him cry. All he wanted to do was cut his hair.

Instead of swimming back to his room, he left the castle and swam toward the reef. Being there always helped him relax, especially when he got to say hello to the pufferfish.

Except this time a human was there.

He was cautious as he approached the small boat; the human looked distracted, so he was taking his chances in exploring the rare specimen. Scott was rarely allowed out of the palace, and he'd never seen a real human in a real boat before. He just had to get a closer look. When Scott poked his head out of the water, he noticed the human was looking the other way. Perhaps he could play some pranks on the human? Or maybe just soak him. Both options sounded fun.

He slipped back under the water to breathe and swim to the other side of the boat. He knew he shouldn't let the human see him since he was probably a hunter, but he could resist. Maybe this human was friendly. However, as he started to swim to the other side of the boat, he felt a tug on his fin, and he turned around to find his tail stuck in the human's net.

"Oh, for Poseidon's sake..." He groaned and swam as fast as he could to tug his tail free, but instead nearly flipped over the boat. "Oh no." He continued to pull and struggle against the net, all to no avail. Frankly, it seemed he was only making the problem worse. He began to panic as he realised this was probably the human's plan; to lure in a curious siren by pretending to be distracted when really he was plotting to kill him.

"Huh." Scott froze when he heard the human speak and looked up to see him peeking over the edge of the boat. "And Cleo always said mermaids were ugly."

Scott wanted to scream. A mermaid? Really? It was so obvious he was a siren! Sighing, he tried his best to make the human feel guilty by giving him a sad, desperate look and saying, "Help me." He wasn't sure if he could hear, but he definitely got the memo. The human moved to cut the net, which loosened the part around Scott's tail.

The siren was able to pull away from the net, smiling now that he was free. Maybe the human was just harmlessly fishing for food. Scott looked up to look at the human, pausing when he saw the knife in his hand. If he made friends with the human, maybe he would cut his hair for him.

"Ceelan!"

Scott grimaced at the sound of his deadname, looking over his shoulder to see one of the royal guards searching the maze of coral for him.

He could meet the human another time.

.•● 𓇼 ●•.

"Look, he's back!" Jimmy shouted gleefully as he spotted Martyn's boat in the distance.

Grian looked up from his game of chess with Joel. "He's back already?" he asked, then shrugged. "I didn't think he'd be that quick."