"How much luggage are they bringing with them?" I asked sitting on the side of the boat swinging my tail back and forth.

"Like you were any better when we landed here?" he reminded me chuckling and nudged me in the arm.

"I wasn't that bad!" I exclaimed and pointed to them as her brother threw suitcases onto the boat.

"So Frank when do we leave?" Lily asked.

"Whenever your brother is done figuring out what he needs to take," he replied, I huffed a small, sweet, short laugh and crossed my arms over my chest.

"He was like that as a child," Lily said.

"I was not," he said his eyes suddenly flicked to me. "Well hello, who are you?" I looked at Frank as I felt my cheeks turn red, I threw myself into the water and hid under its emerald ripples. It wasn't till I heard a commotion that I surfaced almost knocking my head on boxes and barrels, I watched as Lily slid down the rope and landed on Franks boat. I frantically followed flicking my tail through the water. I finally caught up just as the river split and like a dolphin beaching itself I threw myself onto the side of the boat.

"See brother, I always told you that mermaids existed but no you insisted they didn't," Lily said.

"We're just very good at hiding," I said wringing the river water from my hair.

"Quite," he said and tried to sit next to me but I got up and walked to the back of the boat.

"Take the hint she's just not that into you," Frank said making Lily and I laugh. I laid on the back of the boat staring up at the sky as the boat chugged along. The wind was cool, as cool as the river water that slipped over my fingers as I held my arm over the boat. The pink river dolphins joined us on either side, propelling themselves playfully out of the water. We passed several elephants splashing about in the water and flicked water at us.

"Hey!" Frank exclaimed.

"So tell me are the other tales true?" Lily asked sitting opposite me sketching me.

"Do you believe in them?" I asked turning my head to the side.

"Well it was the petals from the tree that brought me here," she replied.

"Question is human, what are you trying to prove by retrieving them?" I asked playing with strands of my green hair.

"To prove to my fellow scholars that I am more than just a woman who is out of her mind," she said as she continued to sketch glancing up at me for a few seconds before looking back down at her paper.

"That is a remarkable resemblance to her," MacGregor said looking over her shoulder at the sketch and then at me. "You really have captured her beauty." When the sun began to set we pulled over to the side, the fireflies began to emerge, glittering in the treeline and above the boat. They looked like twinkling stars.

"Want a drink?" Frank asked joining us on the back of the boat and gave us each a glass.

"Why do you only have the strong stuff?" I asked.

"Because it distracts me from my past deeds," he said taking a sip from the bottle.