Words

Her eyes slowly opened as the drowsiness coming from her nice and long sleep session slowly wore off. She yawned, her arms stretching above her head so she could get rid of the lingering tension within, while her tail also stretched out as far as it could.

After a few satisfying pops, she relaxed, allowing her body to once more fall to the floor. It wasn't very comfortable, but she had never known otherwise, and thus, had no idea what comfort even really was beyond a vague feeling.

She rubbed her eyes, careful not to poke herself with her claws. She'd already learned a rather painful lesson about just how sharp they were, after all.

After the food-bringer had gone away, she'd decided to play around a bit, just to get rid of the boredom and excess energy... Well, at least that's what she would have thought had she not been a newborn child. She'd just wanted to play, and so, she'd played.

And, as children tended to do, she'd gone overboard quite a few times. She'd slammed her had on the glass wall more times than she cared to remember, and while chasing her tail, she'd accidentally caught the tip of her caudal fin.

It hadn't been as bad as it could have been considering her body's surprising toughness, but it had still hurt enough for her to be much more careful afterward.

Suddenly, her ears perked up, and her head swiveled to where she heard the sound from. Had she been a dog mutant and not a fish one, her tail would've likely started wagging right now as the food-bringer stepped into the room.

Her previous fear of the man had been replaced by a joy that only food could create. She watched eagerly as the doors to the room opened, and the food-man stepped inside.

"Good afternoon." He said, not that she could understand it. To her, they were just nonsensical sounds. Still, that didn't abate her excitement one bit as she peeked over at his sides, seeing the slight bulge indicating food.

The man laughed upon seeing her expression, a joyous sound that made her tilt her head in confusion as her eyes traveled upwards from his pockets to his face, staring at his smirking face with blinking eyes.

The food-bringer eventually calmed down, bringing out his namesake. Her eyes zoomed into her meal before she eagerly placed her hand on the wall, trying her best to look at both the food-bringers' hands and the food itself.

The man's smirk only deepened as he walked around her cage, casually placing his hands on the wall as he did so. She quickly followed after him, swimming alongside him while trying her best to keep up.

He would occasionally speed up or slow down, forcing her to adjust. He even raised his hand or lowered it sometimes, something which she had much more difficulty with considering her inexperience in swimming.

Eventually, the food-bringer seemed satisfied and, after clicking the button off to the wall, opened up her cage. She was still a bit startled by the sudden sound, but quickly recognized it from last time and thus associated it with food.

The food-bringer threw in a fish, something which she quickly caught and immediately began to gnaw on, enjoying the crunching of bones between her teeth as she did so. There was a bit of gore that spread out from the ordeal, but it somehow disappeared after a while, so she didn't care too much about making a mess.

They repeated the exercise a few more times, the food-bringer making it harder and harder for her to earn her meal, something that didn't actually annoy the small mermaid as much as Marcus likely thought it would.

After all, she didn't really have anything better to do, nor was she even aware there were other options. She enjoyed the challenge, she enjoyed the food, and that was enough for her.

Eventually, the food-bringer stopped their little dance-off, backing away and walking over to the door. For a moment, she was a bit disheartened since she thought he'd leave, and thus leave her alone to get bored and still quite a bit hungry.

However, much to her joy, the food-bringer didn't leave. She heard both the food-bringer and another food-bringer-that-brought-no-food talking to each other before the food-bringer returned, pushing a large TV on wheels.

Of course, she didn't know it was a TV, nor did she know what that was. Still, she looked at it curiously as she pressed against the glass wall, impatiently waiting for more sweet, sweet fish to chew on.

The food-bringer set down the TV in front of the glass wall, with enough space between the two objects for him to stand in. After checking everything was at it should, he turned to face the eager-looking mermaid.

He hesitated a bit, trying to decide if it was really a good idea to start so early. Studies from the two previous mutants had shown them both capable of learning the entire English language by their first month of life, and by the first year, they were virtually impossible to differentiate from normal humans in regards to knowledge alone.

Eventually, he just shrugged it off, deciding that if she couldn't handle it so early, he'd just stick to physical exercises and training for a while longer, as had originally been the plan. It had actually been his colleague, the manager of the first mutant, who had insisted he try this early, and while Marcus wouldn't have agreed originally, after yesterday's and today's performances, he found her smart enough to at least try.

"Marcus." He said, watching the mermaid for her reaction. She kept staring impatiently at her, eventually putting her hand on the wall, head tilted. He shook his head, once more repeating his name. "Marcus."

The tiny mermaid blinked, a small crease appearing between her eyebrows as she put her other hand on the wall, now watching him with a confused expression. After he failed to reciprocate the action, she looked a bit lost on what to do.

Marcus repeated his name once more, but after watching her continue to not do as he wished, he turned on the TV, the flickering lights on the screen spooking the mermaid as she backed off, now watching the screen instead of Marcus.

A mirror image of the young mermaid herself appeared. "Marcus." The screen resounded, something that once more scared the young mermaid, although much less than before as she kept on watching the screen.

The on-screen mermaid waited a few seconds before she too called out the name Marcus. Her voice was high and feminine, something the eggheads had guessed should have been fairly similar to the mermaid's voice based on her screams after her hatching.

The mermaid's reaction was quite interesting to Marcus. Her eyes had practically gone as wide as saucers as she stared at herself speaking, something that looked very cute in Marcus' opinion. It reminded him of a puppy, in a way.

He cleared his throat, snapping the mermaid's attention back to himself. He had the TV replay the scene once more before shutting it off and picking up the bag of fishes, dangling it in front of the mermaid.

"Marcus." He spoke. The mermaid hesitated for a bit before opening her mouth, but no voice came out. She closed and opened it a few times, evidently growing frustrated even as Marcus waited patiently, not about to rush the young mermaid, as he wasn't even sure if she could speak at all.

Speaking of the young mermaid, she'd understood what the food-bringer wanted her to do... but it was difficult. Very difficult.

She didn't know how to articulate her mouth so that the sounds she wanted to come out did indeed come, nor did she know how to produce noise besides instinctive screaming.

It was frustrating, especially since she really wanted the food the food-bringer was teasing her with. Tears threatened to escape from her eyes, but she angrily swiped at them with her hands, the motion somewhat pointless since she was underwater.

Her brain whirred to life, her young mental faculties trying to figure out a solution as her eyes kept going from the food to the food-bringer's face. Eventually, an idea popped into her head.

She opened her mouth, and without any real idea of what she was doing, she pushed out a breath. Considering she was underwater and no air was in whatever organ she had that was equivalent to lungs, no sound should have come out, and yet, it did.

"Aaaa" Her voice was incredibly melodic and charming, despite being high-pitched and clearly inexperienced. In fact, it was melodic enough that the food-bringer remained frozen for a second, his eyes narrowing immediately after the strange spell wore off.

Naturally, the mermaid hadn't noticed this. She was too busy marveling at the sound, quickly reproducing it, this time moving her tongue slightly.

"Aaaeee" She repeated, excitement growing within her. "Aeeeaaaeeeuuiiaouaioa"

"Marcus." A voice suddenly came from outside the tank, distracted her and bringing her attention back to the food-bringer, who looked to be torn between worry and excitement, although the mermaid couldn't exactly understand that since she had no knowledge of human expressions despite her own mimicry of them.

She blinked for a bit before understanding. "Aau. Aaaauus. Iaaus." She tried and tried, her voice causing the bearer of the name she spoke to feel a headache.

She kept on persisting until, at last, she succeeded. "Aarcus. Aaaarcus. Maaarcus. Marcus. Marcus. Marcus!" She said excitedly, repeating the name like a broken voicebox.

At this point, the strange quality of her voice had caused Marcus to feel a splitting headache. Still, hiding his grimace, he praised her. "Good, very good. Excellent, actually." He mused, throwing all the remaining fish into the tank before quickly retreating out of the room.

She was quick to latch onto one of the fishes, immediately gnawing on it the moment it got in her claws. When she finished with the first one, she launched herself after the second, then the third.

Soon enough, all the fishes had gone, and she was left satisfied. She was a bit unhappy that the food-bringer had left, since it meant she'd be bored until he returned, but there was little she could do... although...

"Marcus. Marcus! Marcus!" She yelled out the word, trying to see if the food-bringer returned. Unfortunately, he did not, which left her quite disheartened.

Still, as she started to chase after her tail, giggling as she swam in pointless yet fun circles, she quickly forgot that sadness.

For as intelligent as she might have been, she was still a child, after all.