By Cara A., a.k.a. Clara C.
Isca woke up silently and cried in despair, her light aquamarine hair kept shaking. In her dreams, she saw Garin Brilimon again, her friend, and her only friend on the ground. She could not have vivid dreams to know the future anymore, but there were vivid dreams about the past and Garin. Every dream she had was about Garin. Her sky blue eyes looked sorrowful all the time, and she could not laugh and sing anymore.
The young Swanim sighed and looked out from the window of her quarter. Garin once had promised to visit her when he left after the war against pirates, but he never came. She wished to see him, but there were no clues about where was the Brilimon now.
"Isca! Isca!" A voice called with a strained face appeared quickly. Isca quickly removed the tears from her eyes and pretended to be normal.
"Caylis? What happened?" Isca gasped. Another mermaid swam into the room with something hiding in her hands. Caylis Swanim, her sister, chose not to live in the New Maraqua and stayed in the ruins of Old Maraqua. Unlike Isca, Caylis had almost escaped from the nightmares, and her light lavender hair looked better than the times before the war. Her violet blue eyes no longer held tears all the time, and miraculously, she smiled more often.
"I have some bad news, Isca," Caylis said and frowned. "Oh, what a bed. I've never slept in a bed since I was banished."
Isca asked quickly and had already begun worrying, "What news? Tell me please Caylis!"
Caylis fell into the bed and asked unsurely, "You remember Garin, that pirate who helped us?" She looked at Isca's hair and sighed at her own hair. "Oh crap, I always say that aquamarine looks better than lavender."
Isca replied as if Caylis was joking. "How come I forget him? What're you going to tell me, come on, tell me!"
Caylis took out a seaweed necklace. "I found this in my home. You know, Oldy Maraqua ruins," She said carefully.
Tears began to drop from the younger Swanim's face as she saw the green sparkling seaweed. "It's Garin! It's the very necklace I gave him!" She sobbed and grabbed the necklace tightly. "I must go to find him! He must have some problems!"
Caylis quickly dashed forwards. "Isca, you shouldn't go upwards to the ground! And you can't do this! Don't you know that we are so worry about you? And don't you know that he NEVER cares about you? Although that King Kelpbeard won't stop you from going anywhere anymore, but you can't walk with a fish tail like this!"
Isca sobbed and cried, "I must find him!" She then suddenly swam away from the window before Caylis could stop her, leaving the necklace in the room.
Caylis quickly chased behind Isca and shouted, "Isca, don't behave like a child! STOP THIS!"
Isca turned to Caylis and said tearfully, "I never care about this, Caylis. I want to know why!" She swam away quickly and out of Caylis' sight. The elder sister sighed and followed the way her sister gone.
Isca quickly arrived the cave of the legendary water faerie.
"Please, Nereid, I want to go to the ground and find a person!" she begged.
"But why did you want to go to the upper surface?" Nereid the water faerie, also the teacher on water magic, asked.
Isca looked at the faerie poorly. "I have to find out some truth and some reasons," She whimpered.
Nereid thought for a while and said, "It'll only last for a month, then you have to come back or you'll disappear forever, okay?" Isca nodded. "Now, stand..."
- - - - -
Just half an hour later, Caylis went to Nereid after getting lost in the maze in front of Nereid's cave.
"Nereid, have my little sister found you?" The mermaid with violet blue eyes asked. Nereid nodded. "Oh, Isca! Can you let me go to find her on the ground? She disobeyed me and ran to the ground on her own."
Nereid thought and said carefully, "All right. So Isca is going to find a person and you're going to find her. How interesting."
"Nereid?" Caylis saw that the water faerie remained silent and seemed to be thinking something else.
Nereid quickly woke up again. "Oh sorry, Caylis. Now, let us begin!"
- - - - -
Garin and Jacques walked along the coast with lots of goods in their hands. Garin Brilimon, who got extremely famous after the war of Maraqua, had miraculously refused any girls to get near him. He had removed the red bandanna from his head since the war, and let his golden hair flowed in anyway it liked. He still kept the 2 silver loops on his right ear though, but his cyan eyes didn't look at others in a proudly way anymore. Jacques Crushen, who was the best friend of Garin ever since childhood, still kept his usual style. His red hair grew a bit long after the war, but his orange eyes, the golden loop on his left ear, everything else was the same.
"Hey Garin, there're rumors that you're getting married! Is it true?" Jacques asked as his friend threw a skull key ring into the sky and caught it back. As the answer of the question, Garin screamed and fell into the ground for hearing this.
"WHAT??? WHO SAID SO? I'M NOT GETTING MARRIED!" He screamed.
After a while to calm down and stood up again, Garin grumbled, "Hey kid, that's too much! First, I lost that precious thing that can earn a lot, and now, rumors about I am getting married? Are you joking, Jacques? It's not April Fool!"
Jacques stopped laughing and said, "I'm not joking though. You know Sharonilla Shanilim?"
Garin nearly fell down again. "THAT Sharonilla Shanilim? OH MY GOODNESS! I think she's probably a loyal fangirl of that horrible GFF!!!!" He looked at the sky with the expression of hopeless.
Jacques asked innocently, "What's GFF? I heard about it many times, but I have no clues about it. Is it strange to have or...oh, I can't explain. It sounds interesting."
Garin said in a sad tone, "It's not interesting. You won't want to have a JFF, Jacques. GFF is Garin Fangirl Force, the most extreme fangirl organization I've ever seen. It was known to be equal powerful as the JFA, Jeran Fangirl Association. It's one of the reasons why I give up piracy."
"Yeh, OUR piracy," Jacques corrected quickly.
Meanwhile...
"Cay...lis?"
"Yeh it's me. Now, Nereid told me that we have to change our names on ground. Any ideas?"
"er...what about you calls Aurima Al and I call Sanmaria Sa?"
"Oh, wording tricks! I don't think anyone will notice that. Have you found the one you want to see?"
"Nope. Oh yes, Cay...oh, Aurima, your clothes are pretty! The skirt! Alas! Taken from Nereid too?"
"Yeh. Nereid seems having lots of clothes like this. Perhaps she is a designer? Now, should we visit around first? After all, this is the first time we go on land."
"Okay. Oh my goodness, walking is pretty hard. We should try how to walk better before we fall down on streets."
- To Be Continued -