As the young merboy swam quickly to his cove of resting along the East Shale Wall, Amaranth grinned. He loved watching young merchildren revel in anticipation and awe over simple displays such as this. It was this innocence and unknowing in them that brightened his days, reminding him of a youth long past.
Amaranth set a stone time regulator, his own contraption of mirrors and cranks, in a hole in the wall to let the morn’s light shine upon his eyes when the day was still young. He nestled face down, and fins within the water, in the nest of air lining the ceiling above.
*
Amaranth awoke, as night passed, to the pure white glare of a being hovering beneath his eyes.