Troubled Waters

Chapter 1

"Wait for me!" I try to swim faster to catch up with the dolphin in front of me. The animal has been my companion on this trip. I don't often leave the community on my own, so when I do I always ask for help from other creatures.

The dolphin gurgles at me which makes me stop in my place. "That's incredibly rude! Don't ever say that again!" Wow, I've officially lost it. What kind of merfolk tries to learn social etiquette to dolphins? Only the crazy ones! I continue swimming alongside my rude dolphin friend. If you think dolphins are sweet and fun to be around, think again. They are menaces to our merfolk society. I never ask them for help, but today this guy was the only one around. I obviously couldn't ask any merfolk for help. Most already think losing my mother has made me go crazy.

A white patch on the seabed in the corner of my eye takes me out of my thoughts. I nudge the dolphin and point in the direction of the patch. "Let's go over there." We change direction and swim towards what I saw. When we get closer, I see that the white patch are dead corals. The life has been sucked out of the once colorful creature turning it white. When I stop above the corals, the dolphin keeps swimming. I roll my eyes. "Thanks for nothing." I mutter under my breath. I'm all on my own now. Let's hope there isn't any infected water lingering around.

My hand brushes over a piece of coral which immediately crumbles under my touch. I sigh. Definitely victims of the sickness. I don't think the water is still infected but it's already too late for the corals here. While this was exactly what I was looking for, it still breaks my heart to see another sea creature die because of this sickness. Tears well up in my eyes, but none escape. I lost my mother to the exact same disease that caused these corals die.

Two months ago, mother and father went on a trip to the Indian Ocean community for their 30th bonding anniversary. Something I can only dream of! I was so happy for them, but that happiness turned to grief really quickly when only father returned. Mother had gotten stuck in infected water on the way back. Father hadn't even been able to say goodbye to her before she turned into a destructive siren. Father was lucky enough to escape the infected water but also lucky enough to escape mother who now sees us as pieces in her way to destroy. I blink, trying to chase the tears away.

When I asked Nixie, the North Atlantic representative, for information about the sickness she could not answer any of my questions. We don't know what caused it. We don't know how it is spreading. We don't know what we can do to prevent getting infected. That was the moment I decided to take things into my own hands. So I've been going on trips trying to gather information on the disease.

A school of fishes pass above me. I look at them trying to keep up with each other and close my eyes for a second. Shaking my head, I focus on the corals in front of me again. They're still in one piece so they can't have been dead for that long. Otherwise sirens would have broken every single piece already. I look around, checking if I can see the darkness of the infected water anywhere in the distance.

Nothing.

Frustration threatens to take over. I close my eyes again while taking a deep breath. I haven't been able to learn anything on these trips. I don't get what I'm doing wrong. I've been getting as close as possible to infected water, I've examining plants and creatures that had fallen victim to the sickness. The only thing I hadn't studied were sirens as I don't have a dead wish. I release the breath I was holding and open my eyes to watch the little air bubbles. I've been risking my relationship with my father and I'm not even learning anything useful. Father doesn't let me leave his sight since losing mother. I understand why, I really do. I get that he doesn't want to lose me too, but I can't just swim around and do nothing. Making accessories and going to moon rituals isn't enough for me anymore. I want to do something about this sickness terrorizing merfolk all around the world. So instead of telling him what I planned on doing, I have been sneaking away while he trades the accessories we made. Better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

I press the guilt to the back of my mind. Focus Scylla! A shadow passes above me again. It's probably the dolphin. My eyes widen when I look up. Not a dolphin.

A dark cloud of infected water is heading towards me from the surface. I turn around and swim away as fast as possible.