Ocean Eyes

Melanie (Ocean Eyes) Neptune: Hailee Steinfeld

Ben Jacobs: Dylan Patton

Chapter One:

I swam to the surface, the waves splashing over my head as I peeked at the strange people on the sand. There were only a few, but I was fascinated none the less. I didn't have any idea what they were, only that I was to stay away from them.

I wondered if they spoke our language.

I swam closer, to a tall rock protruding from the ocean. I held onto the uneven edges. I noticed that the beings on the beach, more or less, seemed to be male. They had the same characteristics of our males, anyways; short hair, beards, and more muscular than the females. Most of them had beards, and looked to be older than thirty.

There seemed to be a few children, the smaller ones with longer hair were wearing a kind of long cloth, like the males wore, but it reached their feet. Odd.

I pulled myself higher on the rocks, folding my arms on the top and resting my head on it. I watched one younger male. I thought him to be younger because he had no beard, and his hair was slightly longer than the others, and very shaggy and messy. It looked beautiful, a soft blond-brown.

I touched my own hair, dark as a raven's wing with streaks of purple and blue when the sun hit it just right. It went to my waist and floated softly in the water. I looked back at the man. He was picking up one of the small, young females and twirling her around. She smiled, showing small white teeth, just like the young of my kind. They seemed to be closer to us than others thought.

Except for those two long…things that came after their waist instead of a long elegant tail, as ours had. They looked like longer, thicker arms, but where arms had hands, these had something else, the palms longer, and the fingers shorter. What were they?

Just then, the young man turned and looked out at the ocean. I ducked down, hiding behind the rock. I peeked out from the side and saw the man staring at the rock, confused. He turned and said something to an older man, pointing in my direction.

Something pulled me under the water, fast, making a loud splashing sound. I looked down, and saw my father waiting, looking upset, at the ground.

"Melanie, what are you doing?" he asked, the golden crown that sat on his head wavering slightly in the current.

"I was looking at those strange people on the sand!" I said excitedly, motioning back up. "They seem to be almost like us, but with two extra arms! What are they, Father?" I looked back at the surface, the sun glittering off of the water like magic.

"Those things above the surface? They are abominations! The things you think are extra arms they call legs and they use them to walk on, instead of having a tail and swimming as they should." He scoffed. "They are called humans and you are never to associate with one of them."

"Yes, Father," I nodded. My father was King Varun Neptune, ruler of the seas and all that lives in them.

I heard something in the water at the surface. I saw the young human from the land. His two legs were moving back and forth, and he was staying afloat.

"Ocean Eyes," Father said, calling me by my nickname. "We must go. You have alerted the humans to your presence!"

We turned and swam away from the lone human man that was there, telling me that I could not go back to that rock, because he would keep looking.

We entered the bubble that only we could see, surrounding our great city. To anything else in the sea, the bubble appeared as ground. They could no more enter it than see it. The only way anything except a mermaid or merman entered was if one was holding and touching it when it went through the bubble.

Ben Jacobs:

He pushed his hair out of his face and laughed at his little sister. He picked Margaret up, her pink dress fluttering in the wind, and twirled her around.

"How are you today, Margaret?" he asked, kissing her nose. She giggled and wiped the kiss off.

"Bennie! Look over there!" she cried, her little hand pointing out at sea. He rolled his eyes. She probably thought she saw a dolphin again. But he looked anyways.

Then he noticed the girl, her arms folded under her head, who was sitting and watching them, confusion on her face. As soon as she noticed he was watching her, her eyes widened and fear took place on her face.

"Father!" he yelled, turning away. He set Margaret down and pointed out at the rock the girl had been sitting on. "Do you see someone over there, on that rock?"

His father turned and looked at the ocean before looking at his sun. "Is the heat getting to you, Ben?"

"What?" he asked, turning back to look at the rock. The girl was gone. But then he noticed her looking around the rock curiously. Then, with a huge splash, she was pulled under.

Panicked, thinking that she had been attacked by something, a shark, maybe, he dove into the water.

But when he reached the rock, the water was clear, not a trace of blood anywhere in sight.

If he had even looked down, he would have seen the girl talking with a man at the ground of the ocean.

Melanie Neptune:

The next day, when I surfaced, I kept only my eyes above the water, scanning it for any humans. Again, I saw that they were all at shore. I spied the rock I had been on yesterday, and found one a little farther over and father back.

Before I went under to swim there, I saw the man from the day before looking at the rock where I had been before. The baggy white cloth he wore billowed around him in the wind, and his hair flew into his eyes.

I ducked under the water and swam to the new rock. Today I would be more cautious and not allow myself to be seen as easily as yesterday. I hooked my hands in the holes and peered around the rock at the man. I wished I could speak to him and ask him about his species. It would be fascinating to learn about them.

I watched the man closely, and saw him say something to the rest of them before wading into the water slowly.

I froze. Maybe if I stayed still, he wouldn't see me. This rock was farther back than the other. If he was going there, he wouldn't see me.

I watched him grab the other rock, peering all the way around it and looking out to sea, discouraged. His eyes moved to the rock I was at, and I became paralyzed when I heard him swimming this way, something that I hadn't thought possible. He didn't have a tail, just two legs.

I flattened myself against the wall and jumped as I felt something on my shoulder. I whirled around, making sure my tail stayed out of his line of sight.

"Excuse me," he said softly. My eyes widened. He did speak my language. Or maybe I spoke his language. I didn't know. "What are you doing out here?"

I couldn't speak; I just stared at him with disbelieving eyes. His head tilted sideways.

"Here, let me help you get back to shore. We can help you find your family," he tried again.

I looked down at the water and back up at his face. I reached out as if to take his hand and when he reached towards mine, I splashed his face and turned and dove back into the water while he coughed and sputtered.

I knew I shouldn't have dove back into the water, because my tail had become visible. I could only hope that he had been blinded and hadn't seen it. But it didn't matter now; I was away from him now.

Ben Jacobs:

He'd thought that she was going to let him help her. Her big blue eyes had been scared as he had spoken to her. Her black hair was wet and matted to her face, and her skin had been too pale.

But when she'd reached for his hand, she had splashed him. He heard and felt another one, and when he was done coughing and he could see again, the girl was gone. He'd looked around for her, but she'd been no where in sight. There was no sign of where she could have gone.