New sample – Tritons

She was the only one who was able to avoid the cast nets when they were expertly thrown over the group by the tritons as they past, and weaved around the group in ever tightening circles… After a great deal of earnest gesturing, one of their midst, who appeared to be their leader, swam up to Jake at first, and when realising the human, as well as all but one of the others were barely conscious, he gestured for the nets to be disentangled from their captives. After this was done, he swam up to Sylanthra and regarded her… not with hostility, but with undisguised interest instead… He even tilted his head to the side and encircled her, as though to study every inch her…

She was equally intrigued… At first, they had all appeared to be identical, but now she began to identify subtle differences… Their smooth, sleek skin varied in colour from grey and teak, to a greenish tinge. Their handsome, yet fierce humanoid faces varied slightly in shape, appearance and eye colour. They had long flowing hair, although they were beardless. But it was their eyes which were their most striking feature, as they were larger and rounder than those of an average humanoid, with a range of colours and shades to indicate that they were still a diverse race. They had the same lean, muscled torsos she would expect to see in any elven warrior, and their powerful, smooth skinned tails and wide dolphin-flukes stretched out beyond five-feet. For the first time she noticed that half hidden in flowing fans of pelvic or pectoral fins, was a cleft running down the centre of these tails, which indicated to her that they could possibly metamorphosise legs if they ever wished to use them to venture onto dry land, or possibly even to assist with procreation …

Still distracted by her analysis of them, the leader was able to take her by surprise when he roughly pulled her mantle over her head – but only for a moment, as she reacted in a blur of movement by unsheathing her hand-scythes and holding the wickedly-sharp, hooked blades to his throat. The other tritons responded in outrage by thrusting their tridents and spears to within mere inches of her face and body – but the leader lifted his hand for calm and gently, yet insistently, drew the blades from his throat and gestured for her to hand them over to him… She didn’t hesitate too long before complying, as she knew well enough that their best chance for survival rested in the hands of these strange merfolk…