Niana's Journey

Chapter Five

     "Well... anyway," I approached the guard a but more. "May I enter?"

     The guard looked me up, down, and over a couple times and smiled. "You appear to be no threat... but you are a danger."

     "What?" I asked. Me? Danger? No, no, no! I was anything but dangerous.

     "Yes. You are a danger... to me." The guard smiled and gave me the sly brow. "You seem to possess such powerful abilities that allow you to steal my heart, then hypnotize me into enjoying the ride."

     What? What did he say? I understood none of that! Enjoying the ride? What ride? I tried to say that he had it all wrong and I possessed no powerful abilities but I was only able to stutter the word, "Huh?"

     The guard grabbed my hand and pulled me close to him. What? He looked into my eyes. My eyes that were filled with confusion. His face started to get closer to mine. He began to lean into me. What was going on?! This is all happening too fast!

My mind started racing. A thousand questions and a billion words rushed at me. I was confused and flattered at the same time. I liked that he thought I was so beautiful , but I didn't understand why he was getting so close to me. We just met. What is he doing?

      The heat from his breath brought me back from my thoughts. His lips were about to touch mine. I panicked and flicked my tail. It had been wrapped around his tail to keep me from falling when he tilted me back, and when I flicked my tail it slapped him on the back.

     The force of my tail sent bubbles everywhere and I couldn't see anything for a minute. "Owww!" I heard the guard yell and when the bubbles cleared, I saw a large red fin shaped mark was displayed across his back. His face was filled with anger as he looked straight at me.

     "Why'd you do that?!" He bellowed.

     "Oops... Sorry," was my only reply as I flicked my tail again for more bubbles and disappeared through the gates before he could see me.

      Once I was in the reef, it was beautiful. Every color of every shade. Merpeople with tails in colors and shapes like I've never seen before. Merchildren played with their pets: goldfish, catfish, and even dogfish. Meradults swam in and out of a bar; some struggling to function their own tail correctly and some only slightly buzzed. Merfamilies browsed through stores and walked the streets. In every direction you looked, every coral was full of merpeople with happy smiles. Every coral was alive with laughter.

     "One could get used to this," I thought out loud.

     "I know right!" A familiar voice said. "Welcome!" I turned around and there she was.

      "Molla!" I squealed. "Finally. Someone I know."

     "Oh, It's you... Sirena, right?" Molla asked.

     "Yeah! I'm so happy I found you. I really need someone to show me around and I gotta find a place to stay overnight." I gushed.

     "Oh, yeah. Look, earlier when I ditched you. It was only becau-," She started but I stopped her.

     "Don't even start," I giggled. "I understand. You were worried that I was gonna get us busted. It's no biggie. Now, do you know any mermaids or mermen that've been on the land before?"

     "Ummm..." Molla thought for a moment. "Yes. Yes, I do actually. My sister: Tiana, my neighbor: Selice, and my Mother."

     "Oh... only three?" I asked disappointed. "Well, I kinda need more than just a few people. I'm sort of doing a survey."

     "Huh?" Molla said. "Oh well. None of my business really. But I'm sure we can find more merfolk that's been up there. Come on."

     Molla lead me to her coral, where she got some paper and waterproof markers. "Here." She said handing them to me. "Write what you need and we'll put them up around the reef to see who's been on land."

     I sat down and began to write. "On land?" Was the headline and the details read, "Have you been on land? If you have, I need your input about a guy named Ben. He claims to be a merfriendly person and helps out us merfolk by taking us up on the beach to see the land. Is he a nice man? Or an evil criminal? I need your input." Then I handed it to Molla

     On the bottom half of the page that was left she wrote her contact information and went to another coral.

     Half an hour later she came back with a stack of at least a hundred paper. She sat them down and left to retrieve another similar sized stack.

     With both stacks in front of me, Molla put a hand on top of each one and said, "Well, let's get these things pinned up!"