The Down Under

Chapter Five

In case you guys were wondering, I didn't die, I just found out that I'm not entirely human.
I was falling to the bottom, thinking I was dead when I felt a ripping sensation on the sides of my neck. Pain pierced my body, cold and sharp. I felt this, but my body didn't twitch or move at the slightest feeling of the pain. I thought that was the end of all of the pain, I was wrong. My body is still in paralysis, I feel pain in everything below my waist. It felt like my legs were being ripped apart to put something new there like I was a doll in a repair shop. I woke up in the middle of my scales appearing on the top of my new-found tail.
I tried moving what once was my legs, the only thing that moved was my tail. Covered in spots, orange and what looked like really dark blue spots. That wasn't the only thing that had them though, I looked to where my tank top was and all I saw was the same randomly spotted pattern that's on my tail. I was covered in thin, flaky, and brittle scales. There are scales all over me, and where did my clothes go? I'm completely naked! I was in the middle of a little mental breakdown when I realized that I was being held this entire time. I spun around, how I don't know, to find the white-haired guy from the end of the dock. I stared at him while using his arms for support. He was still holding me like I was going to fall.
"Are you alright?" He says as he lightly loosens his grip.
"I'm fin-" I tried saying, but there was a sharp pain in the sides of my neck. Letting go of his arms, that were supporting me, I pressed my hands on the sides of my neck. I felt dizzy and weak. I wanted to lay down but there wasn't anything lay on. White-haired guy wrapped his arms around me. I guess I could lay on him... With my hands still on what felt like three scratches on the sides of my neck, I tried to keep myself awake.
"Hey," the White guy says, waking me up enough to look at him, halfway. "You need to stay awake, and get your hands off your gills, you can kill yourself that way."
"My...my what?" I said, trying to breathe. My hands are still over my...gills? That's what he said right?
"Your gills," he lets go of me and peels my hands off of my neck. "You can kill yourself if cover your gills long enough." He was holding my hands to keep me from going back to covering 'my gills'.
"Now," he states with my hands in his," take a deep breath, it will help with your circulation, I promise." I took a few deep breaths, only it didn't come from my nose, it came from the scratches on my neck.
"See," he probably saw the surprised look on my face. "I told you."
"Yeah, it hurts though," I said trying to soothe the pain in my neck, without covering them.
"Well makes sense," a female voice shouts. I whipped my head around to see who it was, but hair underwater didn't listen very much. I didn't get to see who she was before she moved. "You like to fall from the surface, right? How long have you lived there?" She answered her question.
"I lived up there," I pointed to the doc from where I fell, still not being able to see her," all my life, sixteen years."
"OK, and I'm assuming that you've never been swimming longer than an hour? Oh who am I kidding, of course you did. Your gills were practically slug-glued shut!" I finally got my hair out of my face to see who was talking. It was Brit, the blue and red girl I saw at the dock, or I think that's her name. The white-haired guy was no longer holding my hands anymore, and I was no longer trying to make sense of this situation anymore.
"Ok, I just need to know how to get out of here, and possibly how to swim with this thing," I pointed to my tail," and I will be on my way. Out of your lives, and out of this mess."
"Oh, that's all it takes! Well then I-" Brit starts.
"Brittney, look." He points at the spotted pattern on my tail. Oh, that's her name...Brittney. She looks at my tail, first annoyed, then in shock and amazement.
"What? What's so wrong? What's wrong with my tail?" I sound like my mother. I thought, annoyed.
"Do you think she could be her?" They were both ignoring me.
"Whin, ima be honest, I don't know, but with what I'm seeing. I would guess yes."
"Ok, let me get this straight," I say, hoping it will get their attention, it did. Both Whin and Brittney looked at me with shocked expressions. "I accidentally came down here and you guys didn't even introduce yourselves? Wow, the community down here must be nice." I said raising an eyebrow and folding my arms.
"That's right, and we don't need to introduce ourselves if you're going back to the surface." Ok, I'll admit, Brittney is not the nicest person, or even nice at all.
"Ok, you got me," I state. "But, I can't just leave right now, I need to wait until the lake unfreezes, and I still don't know how to swim with a tail." Brittney raises an eyebrow at me.
"Ok fine, we'll teach you how to swim, with a tail, and then we'll leave and you stay here until this lake unfreezes, deal?" She stares at me.
"Sounds like a plan to me," I responded. I had no idea who these people were and I'm not taking my chances. Especially with a girl like Brittny.
"Wait, you're just going to stay here? With nothing to do for who knows when?" Whin worries.
"After we teach her how to swim, yes" Brittny answers for me.
"No." Whin states," You can just stay here for kelp know how long! No, we'll teach you how to swim on the way to my clam shell." He starts swimming towards me. "Please just don't freak out."
"Freak out about wha-" I felt his hands around my waist. Flinching, I whipped to look at him, throwing his hands off me as well. "You got to at least warn me when you do that!"
"I told you not to freak out!" He said, shooting back. "Ok, Koi, listen, I'm going to show you how to swim, but that requires me to touch you and guide you. I can't do that if you flinch and push me away, ok?" He steadied his voice. He had sliver-ish white hair and black eyes with white pupils. Very disturbing. He also had overly pale skin, like he didn't even know what the sun was.
"OK, but what's wrong with your eyes? They're all black." I asked curiously. He looked at me in shock.
"There's something wrong with my eyes?" He asked.
"You know what, never mind," I replied. "Just teach me how to swim." I prepared myself for his touch, but it never came. Instead, he just stared at me like I'd slapped him.
"What?"
"You can't just say something like that and brush it off! You could seriously hurt yourself if you asked anyone else."
"But not you?" I pried.
"I don't like fighting people, but I will if I need to." He places his hand on my shoulder. Of course, he would want to help me after I let my guard down, never fails.
"Are you ready?" Answering his question, he places his other hand back on my waist. While doing that, he made his way behind me. "Ok follow the movements of my tail." I loosened the muscles in my newfound tail, while he placed both hands on my hips. His touch was soft and light. He sort of rolls his tail forward, forcing mine forward as well. I followed his movements.
"Good, now move my tail backward. The same way I did." His voice was still and steady. I rolled my tail back, pushing his back too.
"Good, good job!" He chanted. "Now try doing it faster." He rolls his tail forward again, faster this time. I follow his movements going backwards. We stayed in one place, but the bust and sand underneath us mixed up. Seconds pass and we get faster, mixing the dirt even more.
"Ok, now do what we just did and push forward." He lets me go, leaving room to move. I made the rolling motion to remind myself of what I was doing, then I flicked my tail. My tail was surprisingly really strong because I shot forward quite a ways. Both Whin and Brittny looked at me in amazement.
"How long have you been able to do that?!" Brittny screams. It looked like she loved to be the center of attention, for she looked the part. Her skin was unnaturally orange like she had a fake tan. She also had fins on her chest instead of scales. She swam closer to me and I got a good look at her face. She had a high definition of everything, especially her cheekbones. From what I could gather, she made sure that her appearance was number one.
"Ummm... well I wouldn't know, Brittny, because I have lived on the surface my whole life," I replied. She shot me a glare, a nasty one for that matter. "Ok, so, where is your clamshell, whatever that is," I asked trying to change the subject.
"My clam shell?" He asked," Oh yeah, that's right, we are taking you there, sorry I forgot." He swam off to the other side of the lake, where there was a bridge above the water. Brittny swam over there too, I tried, but with just being taught just ten minutes ago, I either shot forward too much or didn't go anywhere at all. It's kind of embarrassing. Whin looked over to find me struggling and he swam over.
"Are you coming over to laugh at me?" I asked, heavily embarrassed.
"Nope, the exact opposite. I came to help, again." He notes. He just stayed there for a while before he started to help me. "Show me how you swim." I flicked my tail, only to send me flying again. I'm starting to hate this whole swimming thing.
"I see what you're doing wrong," he starts," you flick your tail instead of rolling it." Oh, now you tell me. He swam over to my side when he did so, I watched him. I watched how fast, but yet controlled his movements were, like they were second nature.
"I taught you how to roll your tail and how to do it faster, correct?" He looks at me with his big black eyes, wanting me to answer.
"Yes?" I agreed after a few moments of silence.
"Perfect, so now..." he started but then he looked off into the distance.
"What," I turned around," what's going on?"
"We need to leave," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "now." And with no warning he took off to the bridge. Also without warning, I was right next to him. I was swimming, at top speed, with him. No random bursts of speed, and no slowing down at random times either. I looked down at my tail to see that Whins, Brittny, and my movements, were all the same. The fast yet controlled strokes of our tails. Whin had to move his tail faster because his tail fin was shorter than Brits and I. We got to about halfway to the bridge when Whin stopped.
"What was that for?" Brittny asked, annoyed. Whin completely ignored Brits' comment and looked at me with a kind smile.
"What, did I do something wrong?" I questioned.
"No," he began," but you now know how to swim. Just don't think about it and it will come naturally. It should be like second nature to you." Second nature... that sounded familiar. "Is there something wrong?"
"Ah, nothing, there's nothing wrong. Sorry." I said. "Wait why did we stop, you said that we needed to go, like there was a huge threat or something."
"I did, but that was to show you how to swim, there's nothing here except for a seaweed farm." He gestured out to the middle of the lake. "I have to go there real quick if you would like to join me." I nodded my head in agreement. There was no way I was going to be left here alone, especially when I had no idea what was in these waters. Whin smiled in excitement and started to swim towards the middle of the lake, only to find out that this lake was deeper than what the camp officers thought. They said that it was around fifteen feet deep, but this lake was easily twenty-five feet deep. The closer we got to the center, the more I could see huge amounts of seaweed. The seaweed was tall, taller than any seaweed I've ever seen. Each leaf could be around five to ten feet tall, at least that's my guess. Like any other farm, there were people out in the field making sure that it was healthy. Whin swam right up to a farmer who was trimming off some of the crops. The farmer was smaller than I was and didn't look over the age of thirteen.
"Hey! You and your team here are off for today. You guys can head home!" Whin chants, scaring the small farmer in front of us.
"W-Whin! What are you doing here?" He sputtered." You're supposed to be at the town center getting ready for the ceremony!" He recovered quickly from Whin's accidental jump scare, but he still had this look of shock when he saw Whin like he was higher than him.
"I had to run a few errands for my mother, this was one of them. And now, again, you and your team, out here on the fields, can go home and get ready for the ceremony tonight. This is in the courtesy of the queen." The WHAT?!
"Hold up Whin, courtesy of who?" I asked.
"The courtesy of my mother, the queen of the Ghosts."
"Ok, so that makes you a..." I continued.
"Prince." He answered.
"I know," Brit bites her lip," isn't it so hot." I slowly turned my head towards her. Oh great, I jumped right smack dab in the middle of a relationship. Hurray for me.
"Ok, listen, whatever you guys got going on" I gestured to both Brittny and Whin," I want nothing to do with it. So keep your comments to yourself, please, and thank you."
"Hold up what? I also want nothing to do with that." He points to Brittny. "I-We don't have a relationship, and I would never let that happen between me and Brittny."
"Then...Brittny is just delusional?" I asked. I got a gasp from Brittny and some snickers of laughter from some of the farmers. I think I got a laugh out of Whin too.
"I am NOT delusional!" She spat. "I just have some high, unrealistic, and impossible expectations of myself."
"Is Whin under the unrealistic or impossible tab?" I asked, with a crooked smile. That got the whole field laughing. You could even hear the ones that were quite a ways away laughing, even Whin.
"You are so rude!" She screams.
"Likewise," I started," neither of you ever introduce yourselves to me." With that Brittny darted towards me when Whin got in between and she smashed right into him.
"That's enough Brittny." He said sternly. "I apologize on behalf of Brittny, she is ahh...a lot pushy."
"I mean, if being pushy gets to be close to you, I'm not complaining." She says as she sat there. Whin pushed her face away, her body followed. "Ugh, your sooo annoying Koi! Why do you have to get in the way of everything!"
"What!" I yelled. "What did I do that got your fins in a twist?!"
"Why does it matter to you? You got what you wanted, what next, everything I own?"
"What the heck is going on!" I looked around in utter confusion.
"Brittny, what the fin are you saying? Nobody understands you." Whin entered. His face was slightly more pink than I remember, but I can't tell if it's from frustration or embarrassment.
"I think you know what I'm talking about Whin." Brit counters. Whin let's out a long sigh, but the color in his face stayed.
"Let's go, we got one more place to stop at before we get home." Whin swam towards the bridge again, me and Brittny followed. I swam up next to Whin.
"Wow, you're really fast," I started," but, ummm, where are we going?"
"The Oasis" he only looked ahead, never at me.
"Ok, well that sounds like it's outside this lake, so, I can't go." Whin suddenly stopped, I accidentally bumped into him. Shoot, maybe I should pay more attention. He turned to finally look at me, face to face. He had scars all over himself, there's one on his face, one on his shoulder, one big one on his side, and three on his tail. Whatever happen to him, it must of been bad because all the scars looked like they were deep.
"Are the Currents down?" The what?
"Can you say that again, the what?"
"The Currents, are they down?" Whin repeats.
"She wouldn't know what those are, you guppy." Brittny swam by. "And no, they aren't down, they would of told us if they were."
"Why wouldn't she know what Currents are-" he stoped himself, "never mind, dumb question."
"Wow, did it really take that long to-"
"I get it Brittny, I'm slow, now can we please just leave?" Whin rushed. He swam off as fast as he said leave. I followed him, but I tried to lag behind some. I wanted to take some of this in. I'm in a lake, but it looks nothing like I've seen looking under the water. It was clear, or at least clear enough so that I could see. It was deeper than anyone realize, and there was an entire farm down here! I looked back to see the farm again, watching the farmers getting excited to get off of work early. The small scrawny one was slowly but surely cleaning up his tools and seaweed. He must of saw watching him because he waves to me, shocked, I waved back. I swam a little faster to catch up with Brittny and Whin. I turned the corner only to find a cave like structure in the middle of the way. In the center of the cave was a glowing light blue window, like the ones people imagine when you say portals. I arrived lost in thought, when Whin scared me back to reality.
"Here we are, the Current that will lead us to the Oasis!"