Visions (On Hold)

Rivers: Sierra

"Sierra wake up." Someone shook my shoulder and I lazily rolled over in the shallow water. The water was warm and the sun felt so good on my skin. There was no way I was getting up.

"Sierra, I said wake up." The hands shook my shoulder again. Groaning, I gave in and sat up a little. It was my sister Ness.

"What do you want?" I said grumpily. I didn't like to be bothered when I came out of the water. Coming out meant I had an entire hour to myself.

"You've been out here for over an hour." She stressed.

What? I thought. I should have been dead by now if I had. My gills only allow for me to be out of the water for an hour at the most.

"No I couldn't have. I'm not having any trouble breathing. Maybe you just didn't notice the time when I left?"

"Sierra listen to me." Ness said flipping her wet black hair over her shoulder. "You've been out here for more than an hour, I know you have." She looked concerned and I was wondering if maybe she was right.

I slowly stood up and stretched. The water swirled my long teal skirt around my ankles. I didn't feel any different. My hand and feet were still webbed, although my skin wasn't as rubbery as usual. I adjusted my tight top and gave Ness a questioning look.

"Do I look any different? I don't feel different." She took a step closer and circled me, sloshing the water.

"Not that I can tell." She lifted up my blond hair which was halfway dry and put it over my right shoulder.

"Umm." She said suddenly.

"What?" I said, probably too quickly.

"Your gills." She whispered.

"What about them?" I asked and reached up to touch them, but, they weren't there. The familiar slits along the sides of my throat were no longer there.

"We have to find mom." I heard the panick in her voice and it started to bubble up in me too.

"What does it mean Ness? Am, am I dying?" My voice was getting higher with every word I spoke.

"No." My older sister assured me. "You're only fifteen, you are not dying. Now I'm going to get mom, stay where you are." She pulled up the skirt of her dress and started wading into the water.

"Wait! I want to come with you." I started running after her, splashing water up around me. She grabbed me by the elbows.

"Think about it." She said, eyes wild. "You have no gills, you won't be able to breath."

I stepped back as I realized that she was right. I was being dumb. I just needed to wait for her to bring mom and then everything would be okay. Mom would fix this. I could definitely wait a few more hours, alone, with no gills... I swallowed. What was I going to do?

"Just hurry." I told her. She nodded and disappeared under the surface of the river.

. . . . .

Sitting on the river bank alone, I was getting nervous. Although I was at the narrowest bend in the river where no boats went, I felt as if I was going to be spotted. If I was spotted I would be in so much trouble.

I guess you could say that we are different than normal people. We are sort of human, yes, but there are slight differences in our bodies.

We have webbed fingers and toes that we could blame birth defects on. We have gills that the girls can hide with their hair. But the give away is our teeth. They are sharp, pointy, and have tips the size of needles. Needless to say, they would cause some suspicion.