Chapter 6

Pale's POV

I could hear my mom snoring deeply in the room next to me.

I pulled the covers over my head and went to sleep.

The King was sitting on a throne. Overlooking two merpeople together. They looked like they were getting married.

A tall mermaid with an orange-brown tail had a brides dress on and a veil over her face. She had brown hair tied up in a bun. She was crying, and I didn't know why. She didn't look happy.

In front of her was a merman, with a dark blue tail. He was bare chested and wasn't wearing anything fancy. He was smiling. I think he was happy he was marrying someone as pretty as the girl.

The mermaid looked younger than the merman.

My eyes shifted to the left. I found my brother sitting in the rows of church benches with my brother...with a...a merman tail. My brother, in my dream had a green fishtail like the King. My brother was bare chested. I wanted to laugh but I knew I couldn't.

Tears swelled up in the mermaids eyes.

"Pisces, I love you," the merman said.

Pisces didn't say anything back.

The merman leaned in and kissed her on the lips, the crowd cheered.

A tear was still rolling down Pisces' cheek.

Then my lungs filled with water. I couldn't breathe. O yeah brain, thanks for telling me, I can't breathe underwater.

I could feel the world darkening around me as my vision failed.

Pisces looked at me.

"My sister is missing, find her for me," Pisces mouthed.

I nodded. Just as the sky began black and...

I bolted upright, panting heavily.

I grabbed my sheets and threw them of my bed revealing my human legs. I sighed with relief.

My brain did crazy things some time.

I rolled out of bed and put on a aqua thick-strapped tank top and some dark jean shorts.

I walked into the kitchen and pulled out a small bottle of orange juice from the refrigerator.

"I'm going out to search for Matthew," I said to mom.

Mom looked up from her bowl of cereal.

"Okay," she said.

I turned.

"Wait," my mother called out.

I turned back around and faced her.

Mom got up and wrapped her arms around me. My shoulder was wet. My mom was crying.

"Pale," my mom whispered into my ear.

"Yeah?" I whispered back to her.

"Say hello to your father for me," she said, squeezing me a little tighter.

"Okay," I said nodding.

I wasn't going out to sea. I wasn't swimming all over the world searching for a lost ship and a dead father. This struck me as an odd request.

My mom released me and I ran out the door.

Let me tell you now. My street was a mess. I always new something new was going to appear or something different would have been taken away. But nothing like this.

The storm had definitely left it's mark.

The stone pavement was littered with purple snails. Some where all dried up and dead. Poor creatures.

Most of them were all trying to pick up the pace and get to the beach. The slimy critters didn't look so good.

I scooped up as many as I could and stuffed them in my pocket. I would return them to the sea as soon as I got there.

There was more street catastrophe.

Seaweed clogged up the nearby gutters leaving part of the street a small Venice.

I ran down the street, splashing in the puddles that went up to my ankles.

I raced down the road, no cars dared to come this way, mainly because the streets were highly slippery and wet.

I ran down the wet wooden dock and jumped on to the sandy beach. No one was here of course, no one would dare ever go to the beach after a storm.

I looked at the sand. In front of me, a brown beer bottle lay in pieces. Better not step on that.

I walked over it.

"Matthew!" I called out. "Matthew! Matthew! Matthew!"

My shoulders slumped. It was no use. If I couldn't find him a couple days ago, what makes me think I would find him today?

"Matth-" I began to call. I frowned and sat on the beach.

I wasn't going to find him.

I could still hear his laugh as the ocean waves consumed him and then I would be scared to death, but he would always come up laughing, like that magic just happened.

The waves tickled my toes. Then they went up to my knees.

I never felt this close to water before. I loved it.

I stood up and walked straight into the water.

I laid on my back and let the waves push me back and forth, like a silent lullaby or someone rocking you in a crib.

Yes, I'm a little baby. I thought to my self. I'm a little baby of the ocean.

I giggled. I felt a lot better than I was a few hours ago.

Then suddenly, I felt something weird, a tingling in my legs.

I couldn't see anything happening, but I saw my legs change into something, it was blue and was scaly.

I had a tail. I was a mermaid.

I gasped at the sight.

I began to panic.

The shore.

I thought to myself.

In all of those TV shows, the mermaids grow their legs back.

I began to try and swim with my tail. It wasn't like swimming with human legs, I found it easier to swim with the tail.

It's aqua blue scales shown in the sunlight.

The tail moved in a swift up and down motion that went as smoothly as a jet taking off from the runway.

I ducked under the waves as they tried to consume me.

The water swirled around me but the current didn't move me one bit.

When I came to the land I couldn't stand up. Okay, I wasn't expecting to stand up.

I had to pull myself out of the water.

I laid on my stomach and began to drag myself out of the water using my elbows to pull everything.

My tail slowly dragged along the sand, making line markings in it.

I finally laid on my back in the sun.

People would be coming to the beach soon to help clean it up. The beach looked as bad as my street.

I didn't want anyone to see me. It was now or never.

"Come on legs," I whispered.

I heard a door close from one of the nearby ranch houses.

"I'm going to clean up the beach now," a deep voice yelled.

Okay now it's time to panic.

"Come on legs," I whispered.

I heard footsteps walking down the dock.

I faced the ocean.

I saw something floating on a log.

She had long blonde hair that went down to her...was that a...yellow fish tail? That girl was a mermaid too! If she was a mermaid, she might tell me how to get human legs.

I shuffled to the water. Inside, as terrified as I was, I was laughing. Hard. This was too funny. Here I am having some kind of fish tail

and...I'm sorry I just can't.

When I reached the water my tail flicked. I jumped.

I slowly moved myself into the water.

The footsteps had gotten louder. I moved quicker into the water.

My tail flicked wildly as it swam quickly in the water.

I approached the girl with caution. The mermaid didn't look like a threat. She had long blonde hair that was tossed over her face. She had a glistening yellow tail that sparkled in the sunlight.

I peered at the dock. I could faintly see the boys face. He looked no older than fourteen. My age.

I recognized the boy. He was the boy Daniel who used to bully me in sixth grade. If he saw me like this, god I don't know.

With his black, windswept hair and his dark brown eyes, he was sure to get all the ladies, and hurt a few, and some of them, who are apparently not human.

Now where would be a perfect spot to hide an unconscious mermaid and someone who doesn't know anything about being part fish?

I looked in the distance. Far away, I could barely see this outline of a large rock in the water.

This was a perfect spot.

I hauled the mermaid under the water as I swam at amazing speed. I didn't know how fast I was going, all I concentrated on was how my tail moved. I didn't feel anything just the force of my tail moving up and down. I must has been swimming at least six hundred kilometers an hour.

I broke to the surface, it was clear that no human from the beach could see me.

I wasn't anywhere near the rock.

"Come on," I said tugging the mermaid underwater.

I wrapped my arm under her stomach and pulled her though the water with me towards the large rock in the ocean.

She, was weighing me down. How heavy could a fish be? I mean sure they probably weigh as much as a human which could be like 100 pounds or something plus the tail which probably weighs about 50 pounds. Wow, I held this girl up, I am really in shape.

I broke from the surface and checked the girls pulse right below her gills that were on the sides of her neck.

I hoisted her on to the rock and laid her down on her back. The tip of her tail bobbed in the water.

I wiped water off my forehead with a sigh of relief. I made it.

Now all I have to do is to wait until she wakes up, then I can ask her how to get legs and we can both be on our way.