Sea To Land

Chapter Nine

As we headed for Pearl's house I realized that school was still a thing. I stopped dead and Max slammed into me.

"Why'd you stop?"

I turned around to face Max. "What about school? We can't just skip it for how ever long it takes."

Concern crossed his face as he realized I was right. Then he brightened up.

"If I remember correctly we have a break next week. It's all week so that should be more than enough time!"

I looked at him questioningly. "Break?"

"Does mermaid school not have breaks?"

I shook my head no.

"Well a break is where you get a said amount of days off for school for whatever reason. I think next week it has something to do with teachers."

"OK so the plan's still on?" I asked.

"The plan's still on." Max confirmed.

With that we were speeding off through town. Weaving between other mers and school of fish. Before long we were at Pearl's house and knocking on the door. Only seconds after I knocked, Pearl was there.

"Um can you help us with something?"

Pearl looked behind me and saw Max.

"Sure." She said, then lead us inside.

Her house wasn't that large but it was enough for her family. The main room had three large rocks with algae covering the top of them with short seagrass covering the floor. Pearl's father was sitting on one of them. His gray tail draped over the side of the rock. His dusty blonde hair flowing gently in the water. He had his blue eye trailed on a basket he was weaving before he looked up at me. I gave him a friendly wave which he returned with a "Hi Lilith." Before turning back to the basket.

Pearl lead us down a small corridor than had pieces of driftwood leading to different rooms. She lead us to the one at the end of the hall. This was her room. The room was set up similarly to the first room expect there was a larger rock, about her size, that had ten times the amount of algae on it. There was another sitting rock that was next to a rock with no algae on top but had her schoolwork on top.

"So what do you guys need?" Pearl asked as she shut the door behind Max.

"Well we were wondering if you could tell us were the nearest pits are around the village." I then explained how we were looking for the sea witch that cursed Max and the only lead we had was that she was possibly in a nearby pit.

"Wow. I don't see you right after school and now you're hunting down a sea witch." Pearl put her hands on her hips and gave me an amused smile.

"Um guys. I have to get home soon so if we could have a lead that would be great." Max said.

"Well I know where the pits are but we were made to memorize them so I have no map."

"Dang it." Max whispered under his breath.

"Hey don't think it's over now." turning to Pearl I asked her, "Do you want to join us?"

I saw a spark of joy in her eyes as I asked this. "I would love to explore way beyond the village."

"Hold on. Way beyond? What does that mean?" Max swam closer to Pearl. "How long with it take?"

"Oh, I just mean that where the pits are, they're farther than I've ever gone."

"OK, good. You made me panic there for a second." Max placed his hand on his chest and swam back beside me.

"So when are we leaving?" Pearl asked, her eyes shining again.