Bubbles

Prologue

For as long as she could remember she went swimming at the beach almost every day, it always felt so good to be in the water. Okay sure maybe a part of her mind was always focused on not standing in the wrong place or wondering what might be lurking under the waves -the ocean is a large mysterious place and there are a heck of a lot of creatures living in it- but that never stopped her for long. Sometimes she would go out boogie boarding, other times she would just swim and body surf and recently she had begun attempting to successfully ride a surf board. Today was a boogie boarding day. The weather was perfect, sun shining, a few fluffy clouds and just enough wind to stir up a decent surf. It was just past noon when she made her way down the hot sand dunes, the pale sand glittering as it scorched the soles of her feet, and after picking a spot to stash her towel and jandals it was time to go in.

The sunscreen protecting her skin reflected the bright sunlight as she made her way down the hot dunes and towards the wetter, less scalding sand, carrying her well-loved boogie board. As she reached the water line a wave rolled in and gently licked at her feet. The water was absolutely freezing as usual and she knew the more she stalled the longer it would take to get used to the temperature. Securing the strap of the board around her wrist, she stepped further in while working to control her breathing. The waves reached her knees, then her thighs. As the next set raced towards her she took a deep breath, let go of her board and dived directly under it. Seconds later her head broke the surface, ice raced down her spine before settling into a tolerable chill, now it was time to swim.

The more she moved around the less she noticed the low temperature of the salty sea around her. This was what she loved, the feel of being supported by the water, moving so freely. Resting her torso on top of the board she waited for a decent set of waves.

Sometime later she bobbed on the surface, sometimes she spent moe time waiting for waves than actually catching them. The sun beat down. While she waited she dunked her head under the water, rising face up so that loose strands of hair fell out of her face and it all lay plastered down her back. It took only a couple of swims to realize that a ponytail didn't last long through the rush of waves crashing around her head, she was forever pushing stray hair out of her eyes.

So it continued for a time more, the sun moving across its path and the waves kept coming. Without realizing it, she was being pulled further from land every time she went back out to catch the next wave. All of a sudden a perfect wave began to build behind her, she turned to try and catch it only to notice how far from shore she had drifted. Slightly freaking out, she lined her board up hoping that she would be carried a good ways back to shore. It worked.

Freak out over she began once again to dunk her head, though as she tried to surface she felt something grab her. An object covered her mouth while something else held the back of her neck, shock forced her eyes to open and the salt in the water stung instantly. All she could see was a blurry shape in front of her, she struggled.

What little oxygen she had taken in was running out, her eyes stung and she was being held under the water by what could only be described as a human sized blob. Just as she thought this was the end a voice spoke in her mind 'be calm, please.' Then she saw what must have been a cloud of bubbles pass through the water towards her, as they washed over her face her vision cleared, what she saw resembled a man.

The face that stared into hers was strange, not quite right somehow. Then she looked to the side, where there should have been a swimsuit and legs, there was a finned tail. A stream of bubbles left her mouth as her body fought to breathe once more, the creatures' eyes widened and he let her go. In a flash she had broken the surface, gulping air as she searched for her board to cling to. A wave came out of nowhere, catching her just right and washing her almost entirely onto the beach.

When she had gathered the strength to stand she looked back out at the water, stretching out before her, suddenly infinitely more mysterious. She decided it was time to go home.

That was the day Evangeline first met Tristan.