A Thousand Salt Kisses Later (Book 2 of Salt Kiss series)

Sense of Occasion

We traveled through miles of underwater sand dunes, which I imagined were sculpted by the tides. William galloped over them effortlessly and even managed to leap between the taller dunes without the slightest bump.

I was surprised by the speed in which we moved. I had always associated being underwater with slow, suppressed movements, but we were really hurtling along.

Even earlier when I was not on top of William, I had found myself slicing through the water as though it were air. Maybe this was what being a mer was all about.

A pink oasis appeared ahead of us and on further approach, I began to recognize it as the famous pink garden – the one I had been yanked through backwards by the Croctopus.

Nephys pulled at William's hair as we approached and he obediently slowed his pace into a trot. When we reached the garden, Nephys swam upwards off his back and summoned me to follow her into the pink trees.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we weaved our way through the branches. I was still a very clumsy mer and I had to grab at them to stop myself floating away.

"Up here," replied Nephys, swooping towards one of the bigger trees. "We have to change your top."

I looked up at the branches above, they were ruby red and decorated with the most wonderful rose-pink leaves. Sunlight twinkled through the surface highlighting the leaves' magenta veins so that they almost appeared as a web. I wasn't quite sure what all this had to do with getting me a new top.

I heard a scratching, and I turned my attention back to Nephys who appeared to be frantically clawing at the tree bark.

"What are you doing?" I cried.

"Getting some sap," mumbled Nephys as she continued to ferret about with the trunk.

"Sap?" I shrieked. "What are we doing with sap?"

Nephys turned around with a hand full of red goo. "Take off your top," she said, in what appeared to be an answer to my question.

"Oh no," I said, looking at the sap dubiously. It looked like a Halloween accessory. "Please don't tell me you're putting that on me?"

"Top off, darling," said Nephys.

I let out a long sorrowful sigh and undid the few top buttons and loosened the knot. My mind flashed back to last night in my house when I chose the blouse, thinking I was going to see Llyr the following morning. If only I'd known what would actually become of me and the shirt. I wouldn't even have bothered getting out of bed.

I checked around me for Spirit.

"He's by the unicorn," said Nephys quickly. She seemed impatient, and I remembered the ceremony.

I removed my shirt nervously.

"All of it," said Nephys, nodding at my bra.

"Seriously?" I shouted. I didn't quite know if I trusted Nephys when it came to the top department, I seemed to recall she wore a pair of slimy starfish over her boobs the last summer I saw her, and thought they were absolutely fabulous.

The sap was now beginning to escape through her fingers which were caged around the goop. She was looking at me with exasperation, and I realized I had no choice but to take off my bra.

In the process of removing it, I floated away and had to grab a branch. "Okay, just no starfish," I begged as I held on topless. Nephys came towards me, slapping the sap all over my chest and I looked up at the surface with embarrassment as she rubbed it in.

"Okay good," said Nephys, inspecting her work, without a hint of discomfort. "One sec."

She shot off below the branches, and I looked down at my chest. Great, it looks like I had a really bad accident. I really bloody hope she's not going to take me to the Kingdom like this.

Nephys reappeared, this time with a hand full of pink leaves and flowers, which she hurriedly began to arrange on top of the sap. After a couple of minutes, she swam backward, eyes fixated on my chest.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Not bad all," she concluded, "considering."

I looked down and saw that a sort of flower arrangement had replaced my bra. I tried not to cry; I had really never felt so out of place in my life.

"I feel like a fish out of the water," I muttered. "Or the exact opposite in this case...Oh, whatever, don't listen to me."

"Don't worry, it's just to get you past the crowds," said Nephys, turning and swimming back towards the garden entrance. "Nobody is going to know it's you."

I trailed behind her silently and back towards Spirit and William.

Spirit looked me up and down and nodded. "Nice work," he said. I smiled tightly, quite sure that this was a compliment directed at Nephys and not myself.

"Right," began Nephys, swinging back onto William, "Crystal, remember to keep your face covered for the entire journey."

I nodded mutely and floated upwards onto the unicorn. For some reason, I had a gut feeling this day was going to get a whole lot worse.

***

We had been galloping across a smoother seabed for quite some time when I began to notice a crowd of other mer swimming beside us.

"Oooo-eeee!" sang Nephys as we galloped past.

I could not see too clearly as we moved with such pace, but I caught a glimpse of green rhinestones upon their flesh, just like Nephys's.

"They're from Evergreen," she shouted behind to me.

I guess this made sense. Evergreen Kingdom was where Nephys was from originally, and from what I understand, neighboured The Jeweled Kingdom.

Nephys and Llyr were old childhood friends and had been forced to marry by their fathers - who were both kings - a couple of hundred years ago despite their brother-sister-like relationship. They had had to put on a united front for about a century until Nephys had had an affair with a fisherman and became pregnant with George. This caused the scandal of all scandals and resulted in Nephys nearly being banished from both kingdoms.

Nephys had explained that they had not been able to get divorced as they needed to find the same shaman who married them to perform such a ritual or failing this, the nearest blood relative.

As we galloped along, we passed more groups of mer. They were growing steadily in concentration until it became a stream of sea people all heading in the same direction. It certainly was beginning to feel like we were reaching something... something big.

"We're nearly here," shouted Spirit from behind.

I swallowed and looked up.

A towering violet-coloured rock was emerging on the horizon, and I knew all too well what the purple spectacle was. I had seen it before in a photograph. It was the Amethyst palace.

Note to Readers: I know you're all dying to know what's happening with Llyr, and believe me, it's coming up in the next chapter. I am SO loving your guesses as to what on earth is going on. There is also a big clue somewhere obvious as to why Crystal has turned, and it is most definitely to do with Llyr. Maybe that's a little cryptic but that's all I can say...