Fish Tails

Chapter Five

K

We swim without talking. I don't mind really; I don't think I'd be able to handle a conversation with what I'm currently processing.

I'm a mermaid. A merman to be technical.

It's unbelievable.

I have so many questions and so little answers. What's most astonishing though is how calming it is underwater.

It's not cold and silent and scary. It's warm and peaceful and bright. The sun was still shining through the water.

As we passed coral reefs, fishes swam near us. Many of them were too brightly colored and zooming too fast to recognize. Besides, I never paid attention to what my mom was saying when she took me to the aquarium. I just liked looking at the pretty fish.

I felt a strange tingle in my body thinking about that. If she was a mermaid and was able to live on land, did she become a marine biologist because she already knew all the fishes? It makes sense. College wouldn't have been hard or at least, identifying species wouldn't be.

God, a mermaid.

All the little things make sense now. Not only did she move us to the beach because it's her home, she did it to help me get rid of this fear because she knew that one day... one day I'd swim below it. And all those things she made me do but she didn't quite understand like church and tying my shoes (she always wore sandals and flip flops) and cows. She always had a thing for cows.

It feels wrong to be down here without her. She's a mermaid too. Or at least she was. She's human now. I wonder how she became human. Did she seek out this sorcerer as well?

If she did... why did she? What was so wrong down here that made her want to live on the surface- and why wouldn't she share the location of the sorcerer to help others?

The Brute King.

The tyrant, was he involved? But he seems so high and she seems so... low. What part did she play in this world?

All these questions...

I finally know her secret and she isn't even here to explain it all to me.

Did my dad know?

The question randomly popped in my head. I don't think of my father very often. After the accident and divorce, we stopped contacting each other. The last time I heard from him was when he sent me an e-card for my thirteenth birthday with an X-Box live gift card that I gave to Troy because I owned a Wii.

Out of sight, out of mind, right?

But I doubt he knew. My parents had problems way before the divorce. I doubt my mother secretly being a mermaid was one of them.

"Kane, get down!" Mira whispered and shoved me down. I floated down into a coral garden.

"What is it?" I attempted to poke my head up above the coral. She immediately shoved my head down.

"A pod is coming in," she replied, her green eyes narrowing as she focused on something beyond the garden.

"What?" I asked, reminding her I was foreign.

"A pod, a group of mermaids travelling together. This one is from a big faction, the Trives. They are metal workers, welding weapons by the lava." She whispered. With a finger, she motioned for me to poke my head out.

I peeked my head over the purple coral and was amazed by what I saw. A large group of mermaids swam in a line in front of us. They had broad, muscled chests, tattoos lacing their arms and long braids trailing behind them with long tails. Tails longer and thinner than mine, they curled in like a seahorse's every time they swished their tail. The entourage was accompanied by music; small versions of the large mermaid giants, children probably, followed them or swam through them with large drums. It was almost like marching...