DANIELLA

CHAPTER TWO

"You requested for my presence father ," I said bowing down in respect

"How many times have I told you to stop with the formalities honey. Come give daddy a hug !" Father said and I could see Amelia sneer at the corner of my eyes.

"Daddy you just refused to hug me and now you're telling her to hug you?" She asked her rage boiling

"Amelia, you're not a baby anymore and you are the next Queen so start behaving like one !" Father replied harshly

Sometimes I always thought that there was more to their arguments than they let us into.

Hugging him, I hugged mother too .
"So to what pleasure do I owe your summoning father ?"

The three of them looked at each other.... father wore a solemn face, mother looked sad her eyes almost crying but she held the tears back because we mermaids cried crystal pearls and it drained our energy .

But my sister... My dearest sister held a satisfied face, a malicious smile on her face which always meant bad news.

"Father ?" I asked again

"Honey , there has been a problem which we thought we could handle but it has gotten out of hand and you are the only one who can help us with it. "

"Please make me understand father ," I said masking the fact that I knew something about the problem he was talking about.

"We've never told you the reason why you're banned from going to the humans right ?"

I only nodded as he continued

"One of our own left for the human world but before she reached land, someone saw her. He followed her and saw that she swallowed a portion before her tail turned into human legs. Afterwards he followed her around and killed her, brought her body and threw it into the sea and he was never seen again. "He concluded

"And how is that related to what is going on right now?" I asked

"You see it turns out that the man did not forget about our existence so he built a factory next to the sea , sent fishing troops on the other side of the sea to overfish while he started polluting our waters this side to kill our food. This is an attempt to lure us out and maybe it will work if you refuse to help us ." Father said

"How do I help you father ? How do I help the kingdom ?" I asked eagerly

"You must leave for the lands ,"

"Wh.... Whaaat?" I asked unbelieving

"You must go to the human world, find that man and get rid of him otherwise we'll die in here or rather come out and get killed ," father said and for the first time I realized that he had lost hope and I was the only solution left .

"But dad, what if he's guarding the entrances to the sea and he sees me approaching ? What if he finds me? What if he kills me before I kill him? Father , what if.... "

"Ella look at me... I chose you to do this because I trust you. I know the extent to which you can go for your people . I know the dedication you have for them and I can't say anyone else is perfect for this mission except you. Your entrance to land will be covered just trust yourself ,"

I didn't want to look in his eyes. I didn't want to see the begging in them. How was I supposed to leave my people , my life , Anita and start living another life which was a complete lie.?

"Honey, please say something... Anything.."

Amelia was giggling, not bothering to hide her joy in the hard choices I had to choose from

"I will go father. And I will make you proud !" I said firmly making a promise to him

"You really will ? Please tell me it's not a joke honey ." He said to me

"I will go. And it's not a joke ," I answered back having made up my mind already .

"Thank you so much Ella.. thank you ..thank you... Thank you!!" He repeated kissing my face and giving me a tight hug.
I could feel him shaking and I knew he was overwhelmed with emotions .

"It's okay father. You know I would do anything for our clan."

Breaking the hug, I felt there was something else that he wanted to say.

"Anything else?"

"Actually there is. I mean there are some rules that you need to follow while on land failure to which it will be hard to accomplish your main aim."

"I'm all ears father ,"

"Rule number one : Don't associate too much with the humans,some of them will catch on to your real identity "

"Rule number two :. Don't make a mistake of falling in love with a human, there emotions are always fake and of course they can't come to live with us "

"Rule number three :. Don't tell anyone about your real identity, some are just spies to the man out to finish us."

"And rule number four :. Don't come into the water before your mission is accomplished, many traps have been set to capture us and you don't know which one will capture you. "

My mother said the rules like she had rehearsed the lines many times and I was left to contemplate about my next words.

"You want to tell me that I won't be seeing you guys until I finish my work?" I asked almost breaking down

"Yes and no. I will give you a magic mirror which you'll be able to communicate with us through it and you can see us through it. But you won't be able to see us physically ." Mother explained

"Okay that will do for me"

"Go get prepared, you leave when darkness covers the sea .".

I nodded swimming back to my Chambers.
I found Anita sprawled on my bed, sleeping soundly .

I woke her up and explained everything to her. She was against my decision but I made her understand my reasons.

"Okay fine . It's not like I can convince you to change your mind but just know that I'll be passing each information to you. You know that rock we used to go and play hide and seek? I'll be waiting for you at the end of each moon and don't fail to show up !"Anita said and a pearl escaped her eyes.

We spent the next hours storying .

God knows how long it would take for us to be in such a position again

@hellenimari