A Mermaid Tale - Book 1 (IN EDITING)

Chapter 8

Originally Published in 2012

Picture: Little goodbye sticker (because that's all that popped inside my head) / Song: Jason Mraz I won't give up (Pretty much explains the whole chapter.)

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Chapter 8

            "Do you know what I've noticed?" I asked Danicio as he gave me a tour of the kingdom.

            It was incredibly big, and really pretty. Of course as we swam a lot of merpeople stared at me, but I did my best to ignore them. Besides, I was already used to being stared at because I'm Goth it happened everyday—oh sorry I mean; because I was Goth.

            "No, what?" The mermen responded to me.

            "You don't speak like everyone else down here." I pointed out. "You're less..." I left the rest of the sentence hanging because I couldn't find a word.

            "Developed?" Danicio timidly suggested.

            "Annoying" I corrected. "You also have this sorta Italian accent, and you're bigger then most of the merfolk."

            "You really noticed a lot." He responded to me smiling. "But you are correct. I was transformed into a mermen a few decades ago, well actually I was the last to be transformed before you."

            "Huh" I responded looking around. "So, that's why you're the one baby sitting me?"

            "Partially, yes" Danicio responded.

            We swam silently after that. I didn't get much sleep last night. The talk with Taiven had literally traumatized my head. I came to the conclusion that he had probably been sleep walking— I mean swimming, and he didn't know what was going on. Yup. That had to be it. But I knew what was going on, and I played along (okay fine it wasn't really playing along, it was more trying to figure things out). So yeah, I'm still down here, and the yummy Danicio has no clue why. I'm guessing that like everyone else we thought I would have ran away. Only I didn't; guess I'm full of surprises.

            "Danicio" I said bringing the merman to a stop. "Someone told me that merpeople could go up to the surface and turn human."

            "If you are not of the royal family you can only go up ten times a year. If you passed that limit, you must automatically live there forever and never come back down." He responded.

            "Do you think we could go up for the day?" I needed to tell Ridge I was leaving, I wouldn't blow the whole mermaid secret, but at least let him know I won't be around anymore so he wouldn't freak out. He knows what kind of trouble he could get into if he did start looking for me.

            "I don't think so Miss Johansson." Danicio objected. "You must learn more about being down here before you decide to go up again." To me that translated to: You'll have to go up alone later and make sure you don't get caught. That was fine with me.

            "Can you call me Tara?" I asked him.

            "Of course" The merman replied.  

As we continued swimming I noticed something else. Everyone in the kingdom seemed to be doing something; maybe because down here they didn't have jobless drunks that abused their daughter. What kind of jobs were there down here anyway? Did they eat fish? Well, I don't like fish anyway, so if they do, they'll have to shove it down my throat.