The moment the door closed behind the captain Mrs. Dursley turned to Tullulah and gave her a soft smile, "Let's try and get that hair of yours clean, shall we?"

Mrs. Dursley worked the soap into her hair and rinsed it the best she could, "This is going to take a lot of brushing to get those tangles out. Maybe a little oil will help to loosen it up."

Tullulah stretched out her legs in the tub trying to soak as much of herself as she could.

"You don't talk much do you?" Mrs. Dursley asked as she began to gently wash her back. "What's your name, love?"

"Tullulah," she told the woman. Tullulah wondered if all human females were nice. Since she had been captured the old woman was the first to show her a hint of kindness.

"I would tell you mine, but I'm not allowed to," the woman whispered.

Tullulah smiled, "He's right though. It's probably safer that you don't."

"I thought mermaids didn't have control over women?"

"Not as much," Tullulah admitted, "but we do have some influence."

"I suppose I don't don't understand how you have any influence over any of us, to be honest," she shrugged.

"It's a type of hypnotism. It works best on mature males it's the same with our songs. But we have a strong influence on someone if we know your name. A direct call out to you is hard to resist."

"Hmm, well, in that case, I will just keep my name to myself," Mrs. Dursley gave a little chuckle, as she rinsed the mermaid's hair.

"Such beautiful locks." Taking note of the long white strands that start at the top of her head, that slowly faded into a deep teal color at the end. "It changes, correct? with the seasons?"

Tullulah nodded, "Yes, by the end of the next moon's cycle it will we all white."

"And after that?" Mrs. Dursely gets up to cross the room. Picking up a comb she brings it back over. The Mermaid's eyes widened at the sight of the comb decorated in black and orange scales. "Does it go back to teal?"

Are Mrs. Dursely goes to brush out the mermaid's hair, Tullulah jerked away. A look of confusion crossed the old woman's face until her eyes fell to the comb, "Oh my child!" She gasps, putting the comb covered in the scales of a fallen mermaid down, "I am so sorry. I didn't think."

Tullulah frowned, as her eyes stayed locked on the comb, "Woman?" Her voice sounding distant as she thinks about the last mermaid that was slaughtered in front of her. "Your kind consider mine monsters, yes? The Captian said as much."

Mrs. Dursely nods, "Yes, usually when we think of mermaids we are thinking ill of them, I'm afraid."

"It is because my kind kills your kind, yes?" Her blue eyes swirled with a storm of emotion as she turns them up to the old woman.

The old woman shifted in her seat uncomfortably. She didn't like to think of the dangers out on the waters, and she certainly didn't want to think of the danger of sharing a living space with Fletcher. "Yes."

"Yet, your captain kills my kind and sells their parts for profit, yes?" Her eyes fall back to the comb.

Mrs. Dursely went to argue how it was different. how what he was doing was justifiable. That the creatures were just that, creatures. Soulless beings that were no better than the fish she eats, until she realized she was talking to such creature. It didn't seem soulless either. She could see the turmoil in its eyes. If it wasn't for her hair and the strange way her eyes swirled like the ocean's current, she would have thought she was a normal human girl.

"Let me see if the captain has a comb we can use." She gently patted the girl's arm.

Finding what she needed, the old woman took her time combing out the beauties hair, until it was smooth as the surface of a lake on a gentle spring day. Once she had her cleaned, Mrs. Dursely fetched her a towel.

Rising from the tub, Tullulah stepped out, and let the excess water drip around her on the marble floor. Even though the water wasn't as comfortable as she hoped she wasn't looking forward to being dry again.

When Mrs. Dursley turned around she smiled, "Your skin is already looking better. Oh, and look there," she said pointing to the mermaid's legs.

Tullulah looked down to see faint golden lines in the shape of her scales starting to appear.

"I suppose you really are a mermaid."

"I'm not sure what I'm going to dress you in. Anything I have in my room will hang off you," Mrs. Dursley said more to herself than to Tullulah, as she toweled her off much to the mermaid's ire.

She suddenly snapped her fingers, "There are probably some of the Captain's mother's dresses in the attack. They will be dated and still a little large on you but better than what I can offer. He won't be happy about me leaving you here alone so I'm afraid that you'll have to traipse about the house in just that towel."

Tullulah didn't bother telling the old woman that mermaids didn't care or bother with clothing so walking around in just a towel wasn't that much of an inconvenience for her.

Tullulah followed the woman down several halls and marveled at the beautiful paintings that hung on the walls. In the attic, Mrs. Dursley rummaged through several trunks before she let a victorious, Ah!'

She pulled out a beautiful sky blue dress and held it up to Tullulah, "I think this will do nicely."

"Now," she said opening the dress up for Tullulah to step into, "let's get this on you then you can join me in the kitchen while I get supper on. I'm sure you and the Captain are famished. You look like you haven't eaten in days. Did they starve you on that boat?"

Tullulah shook her head. They had fed her regularly but it wasn't enough to sustain her mermaid metabolism. Mrs. Dursely moved around the back of the dress, and cinched in the dress, not to give the mermaid a trimmer figure like most women did on land, but to keep the dress on the girl's tiny frame.

"There," she smiled with satisfaction, moving the mermaid to a full-length mirror for her to see. "What do you think, dear?"

Tallulah ran her hand over the smooth silk fabric, "Soft."

The old woman chortled at the reply, "I suppose it's not what you're used to. There isn't much need for dresses under the sea is there? Come along, dear." Mrs. Dursley places a hand on the small of the mermaid's back and guides her out of the room.

The dress felt heavy on Tullulah, and uncomfortable weight that irritated her already dried and itchy skin.

As the moved through the house, Tullulah made sure to keep track of her surroundings, in hopes love possibly escaping in the darkness of night. She had to return to the water. She could feel her body slowly dying around her.

When they reached the kitchen, her eyes shifted around the was a small romantic room at the back of the house. It had a cobblestone floor, exposed wooden rafters and an array of herbs hang from strings left out to dry.

Mrs. Dursley kept the kitchen immaculately clean. The little woman scurried around the room gathering the ingredients she would need for the dinner she was about to prepare.

Tullulah watched in wonder. Humans put so much work into their food whereas mermaids just ate everything raw. Mermaids rarely even bother killing their prey before they started eating it.

"I'm fixing the captain's favorite meal, I always do when he comes home from his voyages," Mrs. Dursley informed her.

"His voyages where he kills mermaids?" Tullulah asked bitterly.

Mrs. Dursley's head jerked up to look at her, "Oh, I am so sorry. My blasted mouth just runs on."

"I suppose he has killed several of my kind over the years?" Tullulah watched the woman peel the skins off potatoes, making the mermaid wonder how humans stumbled across such an odd-looking vegetable and thought it would be good to eat. The dirty round spud looked more like a rock to her than a source of nutrition.

Mrs. Dursley dryly swallowed and gave her a nod. Never having met a mermaid before it wasn't a second thought about Fletcher going off and killing them for a profit before. The new encounter with Tullulah had Mrs. Dursely doubting though. The creature seemed so... human. It had feelings. She could see that. The mermaid's eyes were an ocean of emotions, swirling, and churning with the turmoil it felt inside.

"He seems to hate my kind." Setting the peeled potato in a pot of water, Mrs. Dursely looked up at the slender mermaid. Her face seemed distant as her eyes faded into a soft crystal blue. The color was enchanting, so much so that the woman gasped at the sight.

Tullulah's eyes snapped to the woman her eyes shifted back to their normal ocean blue.

"Your eyes, they change colors too?" Leaning in closer, Mrs. Dursely watched them closely.

"Yes," Tullulah noded. "According to our mood."

"Fascinating. And what was your mood, dear? Just now?"

Tallulah's brows furrowed, pushing the thoughts of her sister down, uncomfortable with the fact that the human woman seemed to enraptured by her pain. "Sadness."

Mrs. Dursely's brows rise in surprise, "Such beauty for such a terrible emotion. Why are you sad, child?"

"I lost someone. Someone dear to me." Shook off the sorrow Tullulah shifts her attention back to the conversation they were having before Mrs. Dursely because misguided by her eyes. "They captain. Why does he hunt us?"

"Oh," Mrs. Dursely picks up another potato and continued her task. "He had a rough childhood and I'm afraid it is because of mermaids. His parents were on a voyage with a small fleet of ships. The captain of their ship strayed from the group to cut time. The other ships a few days later saw a storm rise in the distance. They assumed the storm pushed his parents' ship into mermaid territory. They were never seen again after that."

Tullulah nodded, "That's how a lot of ships end up in our cove."

"What is she doing here?" A stern voice asked from the door.

Tullulah turned to see the angry captain glaring at Mrs. Dursley.

"I wasn't sure what to do with her so I brought here while I made dinner."

"Lock her in a room. She isn't a guest here."

Mrs. Dursley crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a stern look, "But that doesn't mean we should be completely uncivil toward her."

Fletcher grabbed the mermaid's bicep, "We'll discuss this later," he said to Mrs. Dursley.

Pulling Tullulah from the room, Fletcher dragged her up to a room that was almost completely bare except for an old dresser covered in dust.

"I'll have someone bring you dinner later," he informed her, shoving her into her prison, before shutting the door behind himself.

The locked clicked, telling her there was no way out through the thick door, but it didn't stop her from rattling it. The door didn't budge. With a sigh, Tullulah turned as her gaze shifted around the room. It was clear that it was hardly ever used. The dust was thick in the room, causing her to choke on the dry air. Moving about the room to explore, Tullulah moves to the and opens the draws in hopes of finding a key or anything to help her escape. Unfortunately, the dresser was empty and the large locked windows had ironwork on the making it impossible to break them and try to get free. Even if she could break them she wasn't sure she would survive the three-story fall in her weakened state.