Ocean of Silver Lights

The Rising Tide

Kyla's stomach growled hungrily and she decided it might be about time to head to the dining beach for some food. But first she needed to finish fashioning her new satchel. The seaweed her current bag was made of wasn't sturdy enough to carry the findings of Kyla's explorations.

Kyla was sitting on a sofa shaped rock in her own small cave, where she had stored her own treasures and findings. Exploring was one of Kyla's favorite things to do, and she had a collection of things that had fascinated her. Ranging from colorful stones, pearls, and shells, to human things she'd discovered in the water and in shipwrecks. The only source of light was a round gap in the roof of the rocky sea-cave, where the sunlight poured down to dance on the surface of the water.

Kyla picked up the fishing net she had gotten earlier and brought two opposite of the four ends together, tying them together with two secure knots. That left an opening on either side to place mussels, clams, shiny stones, shells, and strange human things, and when she was done Kyla could wrap the ends together to keep her treasures safely inside. She held up her creation in front of her and then placed a few stones inside to weight it down, then set the satchel aside and turned towards the water.

Kyla dove down through the underwater tunnel leading back out to sea and headed down towards the dining beach at a fast pace, the blue scales on her shoulders, arms, breasts and forehead aiding her as she flew through the water, it streamed past her in a blur and she swam down the rocky coast of the island. A school of silver fish parted to let Kyla through, and a seal or two moved away just in time before she raced past.

Kyla saw the familiar landmark marking the entrance to the dining beach. A large pointed rock that protruded from the water at a tilted angle. She pushed her tail down immediately and came to a sudden stop, before turning and swimming into the large sandy cove where her pod dug for muscles clams, and stored most of their food. As she made her way towards the shallows, a large merman with a net made of seaweed slung over his shoulder passed by her, and Kyla saw the gleam of silver fish inside the net.

He swam to the large beach and set down the net in the shallow water, other mermaids and mermen began to gather around him as he began passing around fish into the baskets and nets made of seaweed that the other pod members held open in their hands. Kyla took her new satchel off her shoulder and glanced around for anyone she knew. Cordelia, her best friend since forever, was suddenly beside her, an excited gleam in her eyes, as always.

"Hey Cordelia, what's up?" Kyla asked, smiling at her friend. "I'm really excited because your brother, Kai told me he spotted some whales a few miles off the coast, so I get to go swim with them!" Cordelia was clearly very happy and excited, whales were her favorite creatures on earth, and swimming with them was a real cause for excitement in her world. "That's great! And where did you see Kai?" Kyla asked her friend, but Cordelia didn't appear to be listening. "Let's go get some food, I'm starving." She said, swimming towards a spot clear of the others already hunting for food.

Kyla sighed and swam over to join her best friend in her hunt for breakfast, and within the hour she had filled her net to the top, adding a few silver fish to her store as well. Tightly closing her net and slinging in over her shoulder,  Kyla said goodbye to Cordelia and headed back for home. Her swim back was swift, but Kyla soon realized she hadn't eaten all day, and the sun was high in the sky. As she had sensed that morning, it was an extremely hot day and even the water seemed unusually warm.

Kyla stopped near a rock and climbed up while she ate some of the food from her net, feeling the energy return soon after swallowing a few bites. She couldn't stay long up on that rock though, the sun beat down hard and hot, and Kyla could feel her skin and scales beginning to get dry after only a few minutes. She leaped back into the water, relishing the feeling of the coolness against her body for a few moments, and continued back to the cove.

Kyla slowed her speed through the water to a comfortable pace, never taking her eyes of her surroundings, for many dangers lurked in the deep waters, rays of sunlight pierced the surface of the constantly moving water and reached downwards through the darkness.

She soon arrived at the cove and surfaced to take a breath, a quick glance around the area confirmed that Marinette and her students where not around. The air was very humid now, so not many pod members remained in the cove but a few. Kyla swam over to the nearest mermaid, Sia, a beautiful girl of twenty four years, with long hair as black as the ocean depths and moon-grey eyes, and the scales of her tail and body silver and blue.

She was sitting on a submerged rock only about a foot under the surface, her upper body out of the water, brushing her hair with a whale bone comb, and humming a familiar mermaid tune. How is she comfortable in the hot air!? Kyla wondered in disbelief. 

"Hey Sia, have you seen Marinette?" She asked, placing her hands on another submerged stone to anchor herself in place. Sia didn't stop brushing her hair, just pointed out to sea, "she took the younglings out to see the fishing boat." She spoke nonchalantly and went back to humming, closing her eyes this time as she stroked her hair relentlessly.

"Thanks." Kyla said, Sia just nodded her head.

Kyla ducked back under the water and pushed away from the rock, then placed her net of food under a large stone to anchor it down, before swimming back out to sea and towards the fishing boat which was most likely still sitting somewhere off the island. It took only a few moments to reach the boat, and Kyla noted that it was much closer than before. She didn't see any of the others until she swam closer, then she made out a small group of younglings twenty feet below the boat, waiting in the half-light. They were staring up through the water with wide eyes at something above, Kyla followed their gazes and saw what they were transfixed upon.

Marinette was at the surface with a young girl, Akia, who was about ten years old. Akia was known for getting herself and others into trouble often, so Kyla was not surprised to see her at the surface so close to the boat, instead she was worried. Kyla swam towards them and surfaced when she was only a few feet away. Both Marinette and Akia gasped when her head broke the surface. 

"What's going on?" Kyla whispered, Akia had tears on her face, and she looked frightened, the glimmer of tears in the corners of her blue-green eyes. Marinette motioned anxiously with her hands, silently telling Kyla to be quiet, she pointed in urgency to Akia's wrist. Kyla looked to where her adoptive mother was pointing and understood why Marinette had ever allowed herself or anyone else in her charge to get as close to a human boat as she was now, Akia's wrist was wrapped tight with fishing net. 

The young mermaid's hand was changing color, and Kyla knew for certain that the circulation was being cut off. Her own hand flew to her mouth in shock. "I'll be right back." She mouthed before diving silently away and swimming at top speed to her own cave. 

An extreme sense of urgency filled Kyla as she drove herself harder back to the coast. The dark water began to fill with small bubbles as she flew through the crest of a wave, the cliffs loomed ahead and Kyla soon surfaced in her own cave, whipping her head around in search of the knife she had kept for emergency purposes, she spotted it's dark brown handle underneath a pile of seashells and sea glass, the silver of the knive's blade was hidden by it's dark, leather sheath. Kyla darted over and grabbed the knife by it's handle, and then sped away back down the underwater tunnel and towards the fishing boat. 

I've got to get there now. Akia could lose her hand, and they could both be caught by anyone passing by or looking down from the deck of the boat.

Kyla pushed herself so hard that the muscles in her tail burned, she sped through the water, aware that every precious second she wasted could be a matter of life or death for Akia, who wouldn't be able to escape if she was seen by humans, and for Marinette, who Kyla knew, wouldn't abandon Akia to die or be captured.

I've got to get there now!

Sooo, this was a really long chapter that took WAY longer than I thought it would! I hope you enjoyed! If this chapter didn't really make sense then I apologize, I am trying to give you guys a sense of what it's like for Kyla living where she currently is, and that takes some boring scenes at times! Hopefully the next chapter will be released much sooner and be much better than this one is! Thanks for reading!