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"Well, that was fun." Mira giggled.
"Yeah I guess, but you need to be more carful, what if he had a weapon? Or if he had friends around?" I sat on the ground, my hands sinking beneath the sand, the small rocks wedging themselves between my nails.
She rolled her eyes in response. "We're not too far from home, I think we could enjoy being on land for a little longer?" She said as a question more than a statement as she looked at me, almost as if she was asking me for permission.
I sighed. "Fine, but only for another hour." I pointed my finger at her, furrowing my eyebrows.
She smiled in excitement, the expression soon being followed by her eyebrows raising and her mouth open like she was surprised or just remembered something.
"I brought the shells and seaweed." She held up two baskets of shells, the same ones we were using while underwater.
"Does this look good?" I asked, Mira looked over my shoulder to focus on my necklace.
"It looks really good! How about mine?" She held hers up.
"Great!" I smiled.
As we started packing up we heard noises not too far from where we were. We put our necklaces in our seaweed bags and the remaining unused supplies back in the baskets, ignoring the noises. Soon it got louder, and there seemed to be light growing from around the corner. Curious, we set our baskets down and walked cautiously towards the sounds, sand picking up, hitting the back of our legs in the process. We got close enough to see what was happening, hiding behind a large rock not wanting to be spotted.
"Woah," Mira breathed, the light in front of us reflecting in her eyes as an orange dot.
People were talking, yelling, singing, and dancing, all with big smiles on their faces and some with jugs of liquid spilling over the rim as they danced or laughed. The giant light in front of them crackling and hissing every so often. An orange hue painting the peoples faces.
Me and Mira looked at each other at the same time, our mouths agape as we looked at each other in awe.
Out of all my years of living I've never seen something so exhilarating.
Soon, a young man walked over to the crew announcing something I couldn't hear. Soon the others started groaning and shouting.
"Come on capt'n, ye ever learn how to relax and have some fun?" I heard one of the men say.
I'm guessing what ever this 'captain' announced was postponed because they continued to dance around the hissing light.
Later they started packing up, men going back and fourth carrying things until there was nothing left to take, then a couple men worked together to get rid of the light, it's noises that happened every so often soon turned to loud aggravated crackling and hissing, the noises making me and Mira shuffle behind the rock incase it came alive. Once the light went away I realized just how dark it had gotten, nothing but stars and the dark figures of the men visible. We sneakily went back to the secluded area where we left our baskets, heading home happy, that was until we reached our neighborhood. Once I spotted my mother in the archway of our cave Mira said bye and swam to her house.
"So, where have you been this whole time?" My mother asked as I swam in, anger lacing her words.
"Uhm, I-we, we were-"
"And don't lie to me Zara." My mother cut me off.
I sighed. "I went on land." I mumbled.
"Speak up, you know how much I hate your mumbling."
"I went on land." I said hesitantly.
Her eyes widened, she darted toward me, examining my body for any injuries. When she found none she backed away, one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead.
"I'm not gonna lecture you. Just don't go to the surface anymore." She sighed.
I nodded turning away, heading to my room.
"And your grounded."
Once I got in my room I took my bag off, the contents inside spilling out onto my dresser as I laid on my bed drifting away to sleep.