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    Another series of taps on the glass wall, got his focus back to the man behind it. From his neck to the toes, he was dressed in figure hugging black and even his short hair was of the same color, a sharp contrast to the whiteness of his skin. Some parts of his outfit were covered with scales, but at least not a mermaid’s. His smooth trousers were made of something Llawan had learned to fear and avoid. It was shark skin. And then, the man smiled, revealing a set of large, pointy teeth in a grin that was even uglier than a shark's. His mouth was unnaturally wide for a human and the way he kept his eyes focused on his prey made Llawan cringe. The jaws seemed strong enough to crush his forearms with one bite, and his mind filled with disgusting sounds of munching. Fighting the visceral tremor in his body, he dashed forward and touched the wall that separated him from the customer, his tail stirring the fine sand below him.
    The man moved his fingers along the glass, all the way to Llawan’s mouth and his lips moved, but nothing could be heard in the tank. Those obsidian, lifeless eyes never moved away from Llawan’s face. It was disconcerting and soon, Llawan wasn’t entirely certain whether the knot that formed in his stomach was one of relief or growing terror. Breathless, he swallowed a large gulp of water and let it slowly pass through his gills, the rush of oxygen making him a bit calmer. He let his fingers slide down the glass until he was resting in the sand, with his tail curled into a half-moon. If he was to die, he wanted it to be graceful.
    He unwound his long braid and let the ginger swallow him. Even through the mass of flowing hair, he could still see his captor, with all four of his palms flattened against the translucent wall. Unnaturally pale, larger than most land people Llawan had seen so far, he was oddly fascinating. Captivated by the emptiness in the man’s eyes, he missed the moment the staff threw the cage in.
    Alarmed by the sudden splash, Llawan swam a few feet away from the glass and looked up, crouching in the sand. He had seen this happen many times before and the mermaids all hid in the corners of the aquarium, hoping it wasn’t their time yet. Even though his heart was racing like a petrified sardine, Llawan faced the machinery that was to take him out of the tank. It was a spine chilling construction of huge ribs, held with a rope made of what looked like tendons. The procedure was always the same. The merman or mermaid would get trapped between those closing jaws and pulled up onto a platform by the top of the tank. If the captive resisted, the staff would use sharp tridents to make their prey submit. It took two grown men to operate the machine, one sitting on the other’s shoulders. They never separated and always walked around this way, which made Llawan think that they might be one of Ossenthar's infamous creations, stuck together permanently.
    He knew resistance was futile and those who tried to avoid capture ended up with broken bones even prior to their death, so he forced himself to move up. It was hard to bring his tense body into motion, but he obediently entered the cage and curled against one of its sides. His stomach pressed against his spine as the huge ribs closed around him and moved up towards the surface. Llawan took his last chance to take in some water before he was pulled out of the tank.
    The first seconds were always a shock. Colors changed, he had to adjust to how dry the air was, how many loud and harsh sounds surrounded him. His long hair now felt heavy, nothing like when it floated in the water. Llawan couldn’t properly see what was happening yet, but had witnessed the ordeal from his hideout in the castle enough times to attribute the shaking and loud thuds to being taken down the stairs.
    Hugging one of the ribs in a tight embrace, he closed his eyes, praying that it wouldn’t last long. Back in the tank, it seemed like welcoming death was a good