Blue

Seven.

I didn't make eye contact with either sibling the entire retelling of my story. Instead, I gazed out at the rolling beds of sea grass and nocturnal fish swimming about. I told them of my last evening (leaving out the part about my father, I don't know these...people) the old woman, the book, the spell, my dream of the goddess, the itching and subsequent burning, and finally waking up with a tail.

I blink slowly and start to turn to look at the two merpeople but before I can, I feel two hands on my shoulders. Adella is in front of me, silver sparkles drifting from the corners of her eyes.

"You are special. You were chosen by our goddess," She says.

"What does it mean to be chosen?" I find myself asking her.

Caspian has finally re-sheathed his dagger but his expression is still hard and distrusting, "You really believe this Adella?"

The mermaid withdraws and looks at her brother with a slightly exasperated look, "Look at him Caspian. Really look."

Caspian sighs and he fixes his glowing emerald green gaze at me. He studies me intensely for awhile. I have to do my best not to squirm under his severe observation of me; it's difficult to meet his eyes. He seems to finally decide something and his expression shifts into a guarded but more relaxed one.

"There is no record of the goddess choosing and turning a human into one of us," Adella explains, "I believe it to be a great sign of her favor that you are here."

"We need to return back to the palace, sister. It is not safe to remain in the open like this," Caspian says, his eyes darting around us as if looking for unseen threats.

The merwoman nods and holds out her palm to me, "Come Alexander, let us take you somewhere safe."

I don't know why, but I feel safe with these two beings. I gingerly take her outstretched hand. She squeezes before leading me away from the shoreline, out into the deeper ocean of the gulf. Caspian follows behind with his dagger back out, clearly guarding us. We swim further and further out and then down.

The light from the moon doesn't reach down here, though I find that I can still see just fine.

"Where are we going?" I find myself asking, unable to stand the silence.

"To the palace, our home. It has been the residence to the Gulf Royal Mer family for centuries," Adella explains, glancing over at me.

Royal Mer family? Palace? Alrighty. Why not?

I resolve myself to just start taking everything in stride, rather than being shocked every time something impossible is introduced to me. If I keep on the way I am, I'm going to end up more overwhelmed than I already am and I fear I will lose what little sanity I have left.

I will start accepting whatever is said as fact. Yep. I can do that.

I think.

"What are you going to do with me when we get there?" I finally say.

I hear Caspian start to say something but Adella cuts him off, "First we are going to prepare you a room so that you can gather yourself. I know you must be terribly overwhelmed. Then, I think we should visit the soothsayer so that we can determine what to do longer term," she states, matter of factly. Clearly leaving no room for Caspian to debate.

I don't really know how to respond to that so I remain silent and content myself to swimming. We are moving quite fast, I notice. It's like my tail knows just what to do.

A flash of light reflecting on something black catches my eye, I turn and see something coming toward us. Coming quickly.

But I don't have time to really think about it because Caspian yells, "Down!"