Hart of the Sea

Chapter 8

I swam up to the dock, spotting Talia there right away. Before I reached her, I took a deep breath. Every time I saw her, it was as if I was seeing her for the first time.

"Hart, hey!" She called when she noticed me, smiling widely as she waved me over. This caught me off-guard; I hadn't expected her to be as excited to see me as I was to see her.

"Hello," I greeted her awkwardly.

"I was wondering when you'd show your face again!" She exclaimed, playfully pushing my shoulder as she sat down. "It's been weeks since I last saw you! I was starting to think I scared you off or something," she giggled. Well, she seems to be in a better mood than when we last talked.

"What?" I asked in disbelief. "No, you didn't scare me!" To my surprise, she burst out in a fit of laughter.

"Oh my...gosh," she breathed once her laughs calmed down. "You take everything so seriously!" She giggled again. "So? Where have you been? Anything interesting happen? Any big news?"

"Um...," How would I answer that? "You know, here and there. And no, not really," I said, hoping that'd suffice. "What, uh, what about you?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, I don't have any big news, but my dad on the other hand...let's just say he'd definitely have an answer to that question." She glanced around us, making sure no one could hear what she was about to say, then lowered her voice to a whisper. "Okay, you know how I told you about Tracy?" I nodded. "Yeah, so much for her and my dad being 'just friends,'" she made air quotes with her fingers. "They're dating now. Yeah. Don't get me wrong, Tracy's nice I guess, but...I just think it's too soon, you know?"

I smiled empathetically, instinctively reaching out my hand and gently resting it on hers to try and comfort her. Her eyes widened at first, but then one side of her mouth lifted in a small smile and she didn't pull her hand away.

"Oh, and another thing that sort of counts as big news. My dad's been throwing himself into work lately, all because of some report from a couple weeks ago about this huge blue fish in the area. He says if he's the one to catch and research it, he could make a lot of money. I say leave the poor thing alone, if it even exists, you know?" She scoffed.

I felt my blood run cold. A big blue fish...so I was spotted the last time I was here! I swam around in this part of the shallows every time I came here and knew for a fact that I was the closest thing to a "big blue fish" for miles around. The only actual large blue fish in the ocean couldn't survive in shallow waters, anyway. Well, what do I do now? Surely this means I can't come here anymore...but that would also mean never seeing Talia again...

"Hart? Are you...okay?" She whispered, leaning closer. I blinked a few times, slowly coming out of my frightened stupor.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I said, my voice shaky. I didn't believe those words, though. The way I saw it, I had two options: leave the shallows and never come back – which meant no more Talia – or...I couldn't believe I was about to even think this...I could show her my tail, and tell her the truth about who I am. I knew I'd be gambling; she'd either immediately run and tell her father - which didn't seem all that likely, but could still happen - or she'd...well, hopefully, she wouldn't run away in terror. But if the truth didn't scare her away, she could help protect me and my identity while I was in the area. She could throw her father off my trail. That way, I wouldn't have to stop seeing her.

I took a deep breath. "Talia...there's something...I need to show you." Her eyebrows came together with confusion, creasing her forehead. If I did this, I'd be leagues past breaking mer law. I'd be shattering the mer identity; everything we'd been raised to believe since we were merlings. But I had to, because what we were raised to believe was wrong. Not every human was evil, and Talia was living proof of that.