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Chapter 3
“It’s brighter up here,” Tetlo muttered after several hours of swimming. “You think it’s because of that fire ball?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go up first; if I melt you’ll know not to come,” Ridec advised.
“Cool, sounds like a plan,” Tetlo said ungraciously and Ridec punched him. They laughed.
“Okay, wait here,” Ridec whispered not able to suppress the slight tremor in his voice. He had made his mind up and if he didn’t act immediately he just might be tempted to change it. He swam forward quickly and burst through the surface of the water.
It was bright. There was a large ball burning in the sky but it didn’t seem to hurt. In fact although it was bright Ridec remembered that he had seen lights below in Merland that were much closer than it was and brighter too.
“It’s okay.” Three minutes later Tetlo bobbed up beside Ridec.
“Oh gosh.” Tetlo’s mouth dropped open. “This is beautiful!”
“Look at those plants! We have nothing like those in Merland; they must be nearly thirty feet tall!” Ridec was smiling brightly; everything was so beautiful and big. They could see in the distance large trees and on the ground at the water’s edge was littered with specks of golden sand.
“Wow. A piece of any of those will mesmerize all of Merland indeed,” Tetlo muttered.
“I’m going in, I’m sure to find one of those flower things out there,” Ridec said.
“Ridec.” Tetlo gripped his arm. “Are you sure?” He looked nervous.
“I’m going to win Jessell’s hand in marriage; even the queen will see I am the best choice for her,” Ridec said determination written all across his face.
“I don’t know if she’s worth it, I mean, it’s not like you won’t get any girl if the Princess doesn’t chose you, any mermaid would be honored to marry either of us, after all, we were the top choices of the princess and we can afford to select the second richest girl in Merland. In fact whichever one she doesn’t select is eligible to marry the princess’ sister. We can’t lose on this deal Ridec,” Tetlo explained shaking his head warily as he stared across at the land. “Neither of us needs to take foolish chances.”
“I don’t care about marrying into royalty, I only care about Jessell. She’s worth this risk and much more to me.”
“The words of an innocent,” Tetlo grunted.
Ridec didn’t respond he jumped high into the air, splashed back into the water and started his swim towards the land.
***
It was more difficult to swim at the surface, there was more turbulence and the sea seemed to want to control where you were going. Ridec swam on determined not to allow doubts to enter his mind or challenges to make him turn back. His plan was simple; go to the big plants and seek out a flower more beautiful than any in Merland, pick it and head back to the safety of the sea. In and out; it would be as easy as one, two and three.
It was strange how distances seemed so different on the surface, when Ridec glanced behind him Tetlo seemed so very far away. Ridec raised his hand and waved at him and he waved back, seeing Tetlo seemed to give him a sense of comfort.
It was time to transform. Ridec concentrated on his lower body and felt his tail, scales, and fins start to recede. It took a lot more will power than normal to make the transformation, he had always believed that emotions seemed to play some part in the ability of mer-people to transform, especially the emotion of fear. It seemed that transforming from tail to legs was so much harder when you were afraid; it had something to do with the adrenaline that coursed through your body. Ridec inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly; the key to remaining in this form was to stay calm.
Ridec struck out with his legs for the last few feet to the shore; it was much more tiring than swimming with a tail. He strolled onto the beach completely naked and feeling remarkably nervous. In Merland everyone remained covered in their scales and tails, only your partner got to see you truly naked.
Ridec hurried forward; glad that Tetlo was some distance out and wouldn’t be able to see him properly. His feet felt tender as he moved further away from the shore edge the ground appeared to get rougher and rockier. There were large bushes all about and around the edges of the bushes were a variety of plants, some red, some pink, some yellow and some colors he didn’t believe he had ever seen before. Mermaids were notoriously smitten by beautiful colors, he wasn’t sure if he should take one for Jessell or a bunch. Imagine turning up at the big announcement with a bunch of ground flowers, Ridec smiled brightly at how impressed everyone would be but more importantly how impressed Jessell would be.
“We should be safe here for the night,” a loud tired sounding woman’s voice drifted towards him. Ridec’s heart beat quickened, his legs seemed to stiffen and his eyes widened; what on earth could that be? A mermaid?
“Sleeping out in the open is never safe Kate, you should know that.” The gruff male voice that answered made Ridec’s heart sink. Ridec hurried forward towards the water but realized immediately he was too far away from the shore edge. Their thoughts bombarded him, they were too near, and there was no way he would be able to make it even close to the water without being caught.
He rushed behind a nearby bush and bent down.
“We have to sleep; we’ve been going without rest for almost three days now, it won’t help if we get attacked and are too tired to think fast,” Kate said.
“She’s right Mark. I say we settle down here by the shore and call it a night. This is our best bet.”
Two men and a woman burst through the brush on those words and Ridec felt his heart do a double take. The life he had lived had been safe, peaceful and predictable, right now, this world felt completely opposite to his watery world.
“I think I saw something,” Kate said.
“You’re just high strung,” Mark muttered.
“Naw, I think I saw something dash across there too,” the other man put in.
“Go check it out Joe,” Mark instructed.
“Hell no,” Joe grunted.
“I’ll go,” Kate muttered and glared at the two men angrily.
Ridec shuffled further back behind the bush trying to make himself as small as he could.
“See anything?” Joe yelled.
“No,” Kate shouted back.
“Shoot a few shots into the bush in case,” Joe suggested.
Ridec bit down on his lip until he felt blood in his mouth. This kind of fear was a brand new experience for him.
‘Pow!’ A shot ricocheted off a rock that was right next to his foot and he cringed.
‘Pow!’ That one zipped past his head and landed with a thud in the tree behind him.
“Stop wasting our bullets, nothing’s there. Besides, we don’t want to attract attention,” Mark yelled.
“Just go in and look, that’s valuable ammunition,” Joe shouted.
“Why don’t you go in and look?” Kate yelled back.
“Enough of this!” Mark’s voice thundered over the squabble and Ridec recoiled. Ridec had only known Mermen, this man seemed very different to any merman he had known. He seemed rougher, tougher and somehow in charge of this small group. Mermen were usually cleaner and much more gentle; whoever this lot were, they were not mer-people. “I’ll look.”
“Be careful Mark,” Kate muttered stepping back to let him through.
“Is anybody there?” Mark yelled as he took a tentative step towards the bush Ridec was hiding behind. Ridec held his breath, why didn’t they just go away?
A stick penetrated the bush Ridec was hiding in and it knocked from side to side parting branches as Mark explored deeper.
Ridec could hear Mark’s thoughts. In spite of Mark’s roughness he seemed nervous as he plowed deeper in. He was going to shoot, Ridec sensed as soon as Mark made the decision. The problem was he was so close there was no way this bullet would miss.
“Please don’t hurt me!” Ridec shouted.
“It talks; it’s not one of them,” Mark grunted.
“Come out here!” Kate said but Ridec scrunched himself further into his hiding place.
“I’m…” Ridec ran a trembling hand along the side of his face. “I’m naked,” he muttered.
“You got three seconds to stand up,” Kate insisted.
Ridec gripped the plant beside him feeling as if he needed the additional support and hoisted himself unto wobbly feet.
“I…” he started to say.
“Get out here kid,” Joe shouted and Ridec stumbled forward with three guns pointed directly at his face.
“I mean no harm,” he said. He wasn’t too sure who he should address his words to but the Mark man appeared to be the leader.
“Put your hands in the air,” Mark ordered.
“Not like he has somewhere to stash a weapon,” Joe said with a grin and Ridec blushed bright red.
“Nice.” Kate was nodding her head appreciatively as she made her way towards him. Mark glanced at her angrily. Ridec’s own fear was clouding his ability to read their thoughts properly, but he was sensing that there was some kind of relationship between the Mark man and the woman.
“You should be careful,” Mark warned.
“He’s gorgeous.” She reached out and gripped Ridec’s arm and tugged him forward. “Man oh man…breathtaking.” She had a huge smile on her face as her eyes traveled from head to toe and back up again. “Nice. I could definitely do this one.”
“We get that!” Mark sounded a little gruff.
“Turn around.” Kate didn’t wait for Ridec to follow the instruction she was already shucking him around her eyes inspecting him diligently.
“He looks clean,” she turned her head and shouted to the two men.
“You’re serious?” Mark demanded racing forward and pushing Kate out of the way. “Whoo..hoooo!!!”
“Our ticket to freedom!” Joe put in cheerfully.
“Please, just let me go.” Their minds were a mixture of confused thoughts that didn’t seem to make sense to Ridec. The only thing that was clear was that none of them had any intention of letting him go.
“Come here kid.” Mark gripped his arm and dragged him towards him.
On this land of dirt the people were so unlike what Ridec had grown accustomed too. They were tough and they looked and smelt strong. Everything in Merland had been beautiful, clean and sweet; nothing there could have prepared him for this.
In Merland mermen never learnt to fight, that had never been their role. The Squawk force – all female, took care of Merland’s defense needs. Mermen were responsible for scientific inventions – never anything rough, Mermen were admired for their minds and the related colors the mind could produce, it was always about looks and mind and never about the physical. In Merland Ridec had made something of a name for himself in the inventions industry, but right now all the brains in the world wouldn’t help him to escape from his captors.
Ridec glanced out towards the water wistfully, Tetlo’s head was no longer bobbing in the distance; he was gone. Ridec was glad Tetlo hadn’t come to shore with him, he would never have been able to forgive himself if Tetlo, like him, had been captured.