Golden

Chapter One: Negotiations

I sighed and blew bubbles out of my mouth as I gazed at myself in the mirror. In a few hours, my coming of age ceremony was going to happen. I'd already done all of my paperwork and things that I was told to do. At this moment I was about to go do a small errand with my brother. He decided that since he was going to be head, and I was finally about to become the proper age for everything, he wanted to include me in things. This meant that he was considering making a change in my case and creating a seat in the clan office for me. I swam and sat on my clam shell, flopping my tail out, staring at the golden oddity of my scales. I was the only one in all the clans in a thousand years to be born with a gold tail. It shined and shimmered in the underwater light of my room. I frowned. I heard a conch shell suddenly sound and I blinked in surprise, jerking my head to watch through the doors of my room.

My brother swam in and floated at the entrance in, not wanting to overstep his boundaries by coming in.

"Ready, Isla?"He asked. I gazed at him and nodded, swimming over. "We won't be swimming, we'll be in the carriage, since it's above ground. I told you that, right?" I frowned. So I'll be naked... He noticed and rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, we'll stop at the above-ground mansion. You can grab clothes there." I narrowed my eyes.

"Why are we meeting other mermaids above ground?"I asked. Kai frowned. His eyes trailed to my tail and I immediately understood. "My tail will intimidate them." Kai shook his head quickly, and scratched the back of his neck, holding his other hand up in a gesture.

"It's not that it'll intimidate them....they just....look, you know the Viola family would immediately attempt a merger with us once they knew that the princess of our family was actually the Thousand Years mermaid,"Kai sighed at me. I frowned. There it was. My stupid title. Since my tail was rare, I was called the Thousand Years Mermaid. Everyone of the great families know that the Thousand Years Mermaid has already been born recently, they knew it was in my clan, but they didn't know it was the princess of the clan. I nodded once. I had been subjected to a life of hiding; now that my ceremony was tonight, that wouldn't be the case anymore. One more day of hiding wouldn't hurt, in fact, since I was to receive my match, I'd probably be protected by whomever it was. Though, that's easier said than known for sure.

"Alright,"I replied. I swam and followed him to the docks. When we reached the dock, I rose my torso above the water and breathed the above world's air. I loved it up here. The ocean was....fun, but once you've been sheltered your entire life in your family's house, and then only let out occasionally for fear of unmasking your identity, then the above world is freedom. I get moved back and forth constantly from the land mansion to the sea-mansion. It's something I've grown used to. Kai grabbed the wood of the dock and held on as he shifted to his legs. He reached out at the dock and dragged the wooden box over where we kept emergency clothes to change into. He glanced at me. I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine, I won't look. Just hurry the hell up." I closed my eyes and heard him lift out of the water. In a bit, he was done.

"Alright, you're good. Here's your underwear and shorts,"Kai spoke. I opened my eyes and saw him holding out my shorts. I held my hand out and he passed them to me, turning his back. I hopped out of the water and pulled my shorts and underwear on. I was still in my shell bra, but that was actually normal for mermaids. If we changed into humans, it was common to see the women in only shorts and a shell bra. It made it easier for us to switch back and forth. You just dropped your shorts and undies to the floor and hopped in the water. "Come on, let's go. We've got two hours to make it back before your ceremony. Besides, Sheila will be mad if I'm late for the appointment she went through the trouble to organize." I hummed. That's right. Sheila, his bride to be. They were paired together by Fate. In the beginning they didn't like each other much. But....I know now my brother's fallen for her. He may complain, but I know he complains only when he cares. I followed him and we climbed into the carriage at the end of the dock. When we got in, we were silent for a bit before he spoke again. "Nervous to meet Fate?" I glanced at him and shrugged.