Though this wasn't her home...

...though this land was far from the place she had been born...

...she was happy, very happy to be there.

He had saved her. Pulled her from the confines of that wretched aquarium. Yanked her from the despotic grasp of her trainers. Taken her from the repetitive and degrading routine of that wild orca show. She gazed out over the horizon swirling her tail in the warm oceanic water as the setting sun played upon the changing pallet of the late evening sky.

This was her land now.

He had given it to her. The waters, the private beach, and the mid-century log cabin were all hers. No one would be there to harass her. No one would be there to make her perform or do any tricks.

She sighed contentedly.

He had promised to bring her dinner, not that she couldn't manage well enough on her own. He simply had to see her. She was unique in his eyes. A bit of magic in a dull and ordinary world.

He had been the only one to see her that way.

The first to see past the illusion that so easily deceived everyone else.

He was the first to see a mermaid.