As I pushed my tail down to move forward, Senna gripped it harder with her left red claw. "Arnold, slow down boy! I can hardly get a grip!" I flicked my green tail fin in front of my face, arching my back forward uncomfortably. Senna was sent wheeling up towards the bright surface by a head's length. "Arnold I can't keep up…" Right behind us came the panting Flipper, her blue fin swishing from side to side in an attempt to catch up, the pink and red flower in her hair swishing back and forth with the movement of the water around us. "Hurry up, were going to miss it!" just recently Senna and her nosy self caught on that Flipper and I had a secret grotto, right above in the hole of the ceiling a boat would pass by now and then. Today was the time that the ships would go by, it was one I haven't seen before with a strange black flag with a white head looking thing on it. "I told you before we are not going! Stay here, under the sea." No matter what Senna was going to say, I was going to see that boat and she knew it. Her sad white eyes couldn't just watch me go so along she came. "Flipper you swim as slow as a guppy!" At that her face turned from yellow to red and she swam faster, slightly angry. I knew she would forgive me so to the grotto we go, "Senna, hold on to my fin!" I reached my arms and hands forward and just as she gripped my fin again I pushed down and bolted to the grotto, almost colliding with Flipper. The water in the grotto was cold but I never minded, it was where I hid my treasures from everyone else. Others don't think it is okay to collect these things like my mother, the queen. Queen Tessa can't find it in her heart to let me have a single human thing, not to mention spy on the humans. In fact, one time during dinner I was trying to blow some bubbles from a snarfblat and after she took it away I was sentenced to scraping scallops off of the whales that watch over the castle for two weeks straight! "You're a merman, you're supposed to stay under the sea! Darling its better, down where it's wetter!" I ignored Senna's floppy mouth as I passed Flipper. Pushing the heavy boulder, speckled with yellow anemones we were in. Flipper had finally caught her breath as we slid in. As fast as I could, I brushed my soft hair with a dingle-hopper. I was so proud that I had the hair color of what humans called fire. The water chilled my pale skin as I slowly took in a deep breath and swam to the ceiling of the grotto, Senna having to crawl and then float slowly to the surface like every other crab. "Arnold I'm stuck!" I pushed Flipper's plump blue-striped body through the gap of the ceiling and slid out myself just as the shadow of the boat passed. Just a few seconds more and I would be able to touch the bottom of the boat! After I swam from side to side listening to the loud humans, I heard laughing and talking as I approached it even more. Debating whether or not to take a peek through a hole in the wood I hesitated because besides the cold water, something else chilled my skin. Something I've never heard before. I swam around to the other side of the mass of floating wood to get a glance. "Arnold, this is dangerous! Come back!" I could barely hear Senna from the floor of that shallow water. Perhaps only thirty adult whales stacked atop of each other was the distance between us. The waves tossed me around a little bit, I was used to this but it was stronger where the cold wind touched the water. I heard another long lasting and loud voice from aboard the ship that sent more chills down to the tips of my tail fin. The scales on my skin perked up as I wrapped my arms around me and brought my tail closer to me as a habit from when frightened. I jumped as something was tossed into the water, on the other side of the boat. It didn't move and started thrashing shortly before it began to sink. The black looking softness was hair. It didn't take me long to discover that it was a young human girl who was sinking. "Arnold…" Flipper warned as I slowly swam up to her. The waves around her pushed me away from her force. I was only a whale's length away from her and I knew for a fact that humans don't live long without air. When that thought popped in my mind I placed my hand around the warm girl's stomach and thrashed my tail to bring her to the surface. "Why did they throw her over? Is it okay if I save her, is she dead? Can she swim?!" I felt like crying from the fear I was feeling. I might be adventurous but I'm also scared by few things, including the death of humans. "Leave her and let's go before I get your mother!" I was almost to the surface when I stopped and looked down at Senna. Her sad eyes were unblinking and looking at me. I felt a twisted feeling in my stomach at the thought, "I can't let her die." I shot my sad eyes at Senna and she looked away. The blood in my body pumped to the rhythm of the waves. Every move burned, her body was heavy and I wasn't used to carrying heavier weights. I wished my brothers were here and yet at the same time I didn't, they were occasionally trouble makers but because my mom has been watching me closer since the dinner incident they don't invite me into any of their secrets anymore! "Almost there!" Flipper was now cheering me on. We were quiet a long ways from the shore so forcing her to the surface and holding her there was the best I could do until we got there. "I'll go find a whale!" Flipper announced and sped off, "Wait-" She was already gone…there wasn't much out here besides the girl who was now feeling colder, a few birds, and Flipper who just ran off. "Hello Arnold! What ya got there?!" I jumped at the shriek from Scout. She was a large and a rather loud seagull. "Scout! I need your help!" I began and she flapped her wings slowly to glide in place. "You're looking fine today my dear!" My arms were giving out as I saw her nest a ways away in the wreckage from a small boat. "I need-…Something that floats!" My head bobbed under water, the girl was breathing but it was slow. "Floats…like an anchor? That keeps a boat floating!" I shook my head, "No Scout, something that floats without and anchor!" She shrugged and flew off to her nest, leaving a few white feathers behind. I was exhausted by the time Scout had brought me a green glass bottle, part of a painting, and finally a ring that floated. It was red and white striped and would have been great for my collection if it didn't float. I held on and shared that hard circular thing with the girl after finally getting her to stay on. Now that I had a chance I could see what she looked like. She had black smooth shoes and long blue leg things that she had just pushed down to her feet. For a while I was fascinated by taking her shoes off and on, off and on, and off and on. Her feet twitched every time I did that, it was both amusing and cute. "That floating ring is called a Whatayee." Scout nodded and landed in the water, slowly paddling after us. "Whatayee? It's handy…what's it used for?" I questioned as I regained my strength. "It's used to perk up the thingy-doos human girls with long clothes wear." I was amazed at the vast knowledge of Scout. "Are thingy-doos like the shells my merpeople use?" Our conversation continued, until the waves caught us and started sending us towards the shore. Scout continued to follow us as I flopped myself on shore, dragging the girl with me. My heavy tail itched on the hot wet sand, yet I didn't mind. Most of the day had passed and my mother would soon be looking for me. Perhaps just a while with her, at least until she's back to her own humans. "Is…she alive?" I pleaded to Scout to inspect her as I removed her long black hair from over her face. Her skin was slightly darker than mine and she had incredibly bright gray eyes, I know that because Scout had lifted her eyelid. "It's hard to tell, her mouth isn't moving and she's not folding her arms." "She's beautiful." I whispered as Scout picked up her foot. I removed a piece of seaweed from her leg where the start of her fin would be if she was a mermaid. The soft cloth things around her was blue, tied with soft red cloth to stay on. As for where her shells would be, her stomach and chest was covered with a long white cloth from her shoulders, across her elbows, and ending at her stomach. "That is called a hurid, humans wear it to keep their shoulders warm." I nodded as Scout continued checking on her. I traced my twitching fingertips over her soft pink lips, bright face, and her hair. Scout began working slower and seem depressed, "I can't find any signs that she's alive…" I sighed and my nose started to tingle. I wrapped by arms under hers to heave her higher onto land, guarding her from the tides "Don't get suck again, sweetie!" Scout mentioned and slowly started making her way back to the water. I nodded and pulled my heavy self towards her side once more. In the distance I heard barking of a dog and in that instance the young girl started choking. For a few moments I struggled with getting my tail out from underneath her back. Once free I quickly raced to the water and behind a rock as she wiped her eyes and coughed up water. "Madam!" An elderly lady with a scruffy dog that had a pink bow on its head came running up. Just recently I saw another dog and had learned what they are! As for the girl I sadly watched her walk away and disappear around a cliff with the old lady. "There you are Arnold! My boy, let's go back to your own world below the waves." I turned to Senna as she climbed next to my head and on the rock, using her claw to brush my hair away from my face. My red hair was wavy and bouncy above my head, always getting in the way yet I loved it. Below I descended, slowly following Senna and Flipper had sadness filling her heart when she revealed that there were no whales nearby. "Did you…" I began. "Tell your mother? No, I did not! Don't thank me just yet however-" "Senna! Senna! Senna!" A small seahorse bounced next to our faces as we entered the territory of my kingdom. "What is it?" Senna carefully asked, the seahorse finished adjusting a small petal on her head and read a small paper aloud that was connected to its curly tail. She was cute and read a letter from my mother requesting Senna's presence. Just as always, Senna followed the small seahorse as Flipper and I decided to go back to the grotto to sort through things that were knocked over in the last storm like a painting I had loved.