Calling it crowded was not really accurate. There was about 2 dozen of them. 6 of them were mermaids. The others were male. We added to those numbers. We got to have a good time. The staff drained the pool to clean it up after hours anyway. People had spent the whole time swimming in it. It was very easy for them to fill it back up with some salt water. We got naked in the changing room. Others were doing the same. Since it was such a close knit community of people, they all seemed to know each other. There were not many people that became merfolk after all. People eyed us as we came in. Luckily, they did not seem hostile towards us. Others looked at us in confusion as they came in after and saw us there. What could they do? We were off by ourselves and not causing any bother. We could overhear some of the small talk. "Did you hear there was a feral at the shore the other day? He is hunting runaways." one of the teenage boys said. That was very concerning. Some people wanted to wash the sweat of the day off them. Others skipped those 2 rows of showers. Us too.
Then we got to the pool. Merfolk with tails of all sorts of colors were enjoying themselves. When we went in the water we transformed right away. No one other than our tribe members had the fins running up their spines. Not even Nabo had that cool feature. Some of the friendlier people came up to us. "Are you guys in the second generation or something?" one of the mermen asked. Before I said anything, Steele chimed in with "Many generations back us. Not just 2." He did not out us as part of the Puraton Tribe. That was a small blessing. At 1 am, it was time to go home. We slipped out without having to kiss the staff members. The blessing we had allowed us to shift at will. No one noticed us. We simply dried off and left the big pool. It was time for us to get out our clothes on and leave the building. With how late it was, there was nothing else to do aside from go home. We were fine with that. I wondered what that rumor was about. When NPCs gossiped in a place, that was a prime way to get some interesting side quests. I did not know if we wanted to deal with a quest like that.
I did not know if the hunter was from my tribe or Nabo's. For all I knew, it was some overpowered merfolk bounty hunter. We all were pretty strong, but that just gave the game an excuse to throw a ridiculous enemy at us. FOG was also pretty dynamic. It could also be the case that we might randomly encounter them. It would be tragic to run into the bounty hunter without any warning our chance to prepare ourselves. "I overheard that there is a bounty hunter after those who ran from the tribes." I said as we walked towards the apartment building. They had heard it too. "It is important to be aware of our surroundings at all times. Especially when we are alone at the sushi restaurant." I told them. They agreed and said they would be careful. Our day off was spent hanging out at the park. They got to try using the swings and the slides at the playground. I had fun, but pure glee was evident on their faces. There were some adults that had come by with their children. Unfortunately, they ran into us. They looked at us like we were crazy and ushered the children along. It was honestly all their losses.
