"Allison! Where are you now?" My father screams from down stairs.
I flip my tail over," In my ROOM, the same place I said I was five minutes ago," I scream.
I close my song book with a seaweed cover; their VERY expensive. I slip it under my red comforters. Red is our kingdom's crest's color it means love and sacrifice of blood. To me, it means strong emotions. Like normal merkingdoms, the Dawsbergen Kingdom, has an enemy, the Moon Kingdom, who has been for some time. You can easily tell the Dawsbergens and Moons apart by the color of their fins, Dawsbergens red, and, Moons yellow. I think the fighting should stop, but that's not what everyone else thinks.
My dad swims into my room with an angry look on his aging face. He says calmly, "Is it done?"
"Is what done?" I ask back, sitting up on my bed.
"The SPEECH for your Sixteenth BIRHTDAY PARTY that is in a week!" He screams in frustration.
"Oh… that,… well I finished it but"
"Allison" He strictly says. I raise my hands up defending myself, "It's not a speech it's a song."
My dad grumbles something under his breath that sounds like, this is exactly what her mother would have done.
"So… Dad? Can I go out swimming with Trish?"I ask swimming closer to my dad than ever.
"Allison, you are the PRINCESS of the Dawsbergen KINGDOM! You can't go out swimming when you have political references to study."My dad says.
"Pleassssssssssssssssssse Dad?" I beg using my puppy-fish eyes while clasping my hands together in begging form.
"Fine." My dad says in defeat.
"Thank You!"I shout while giving him a shark hug. I grab my shell bag and swim out the door. As I reach the castle gates I yell over my shoulder,"Oh, and I'm turning SIXTEEN in a week so no body guards please."
With that, I swim out the door.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Hey is that Princess Ally?"
"Yeah I think so…"
"I can't believe her dad let her out of the castle without twenty body guards."
"Her Dad is the KING… if she heard us talking about him like this…"
"Shh… She'll hear us."
I hear the usually whispers when I swim by the neighborhood, because honestly, no one can whisper or keep a secret except me.
"ALLY!" I hear someone scream.
I flip my body around and see Trish swimming towards me like she won the lottery.
"Trish stop yelling," I say then whisper, "People will stare." I say all ready feeling my cheeks go red because the Best and Loudest fish in the sea, Trish.
"Ally," Trish starts, "People already stare," she says acting surprised that I hadn't notice.
"Yeah, but this time they'll have a valid excuse." I point out.
"Whatever ready to go collect?" Trish asks. I nod and we start swimming away from the neighborhood.
Collect is a hobby for some mermaids and mermen who go and look for shells, sunken treasures, and abandon shipwrecks. My favorites are shipwrecks, Swimming through the larger holes in the boat and seeing how humans architect work, Fascinating. I have the largest collection of thing-a- ma- bobbers of the collect group.
Trish and I decide to separate to cover more ground. I swim until my tail hurts but that's when I know when I've reached my favorite, forbidden place, the border line, the one thing that separates the Moon and the Dawsbergen kingdoms. I few months ago, a few other collect members and I lined the border with sea shells, a great way to not pass into enemy territory.
I swim just along the side of the border, not wanting to lose my privilege of swimming; My dad hooked up surveillance motion monitors on the line of the border and f he ever found out that I swam THIS far away from the castle I'd be put in the 'cage' for good. (The 'cage' is a modern cell that is meant for me for punishment. Inescapable I'm trapped for a longer amount of time than wanted.)
I swim, interesting looking piece of sea glass. Split in half, one side red another yellow, in the delicate shape of a heart. I slip it gently into my bag.
I start swimming up to the surface of the ocean; the best way to see sea glass is when the sun shines behind it. I pop my head up above the surface, seeing the sun shine beautifully. I hold up the sea glass and smile to myself: it's perfect. I slip it back into my bag and dive below the water one more time.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
I see I hint of yellow as I reach the bottom and duck behind a nearby rock. I pear over the edge to see a merman with blond hair and brown eyes, yet with a sparkling yellow tail looking curiously at the rock I'm behind.
I gasp and duck back down. Mermaids of both genders with yellow tails belong to the Moon Kingdom.
"You can come out, I don't bite," The merman says with a smile. Father forbade me to lay eyes on them let alone TALK to THEM.
I swim up straight, "I don't think it's your bite that I'm afraid of."I reply looking him up and down, blond hair, brown eyes, an angel's smile, a handsome looking body, if you don't count the yellow tale which is too blinding to look at with the sun shining on it.
"Hey I'm Austin." He says with a devilish grin.
I raise my eyebrows, "The Austin? Every girl at my ….cas-VILLAGE, you know the ones who are brave enough to come to the border, they say you are so…"
"Charming? Handsome?" he guesses.
"Annoying." I say with a teasing smile.
He looks at me with a look of shook on his face, I roll my eyes.
"I didn't catch your name," he states.
"It's Allison. Two 'l's by the way," I say.
Austin stiffens and starts to close his eyes, his blond hair still.
"What are you do-"I start to question, but Austin suddenly clamps a giant hand over my mouth and puts his tanned, masculine arm around my waist, pulling my behind the rock I was behind a minute ago.
Dad was right, Moon merfolk, cannot be trusted.
He releases me when we get out of sight. I try to swim away but he grabs my tail and pulls me into his chest, holding me tighter than before.
"What are you-"I begin.
"Shh…" Austin says putting his pointer finger on his delicately shaped lips. I shut right up. He points his finger upward, a ship, designed for scuba divers loams near.
"Austin," I whisper, "Follow me, I know a safe place away from harm."
"Are you sure?" he questions. I give him a brief nod. He releases me from his grasps and I feel a slight colder. Who knew you can have these many feelings over a guy you just met?
"Okay…how far?"He asks looking me straight in the eye with his beautiful brown eyes half hidden by his pale hair.
"A good fifty yards," I say pointing north, "Ready?" He nods and in a flash, I lurch forward (being a Dawsbergen royal, I have the privilege of many wonderful family inherited powers including lighting speed.)
Austin reaches out to grab my hand so he can keep up. As soon as our skin touches, I feel that pulse of electricity again. Why can't any Dawsbergen mermen treat me like this?
We reach the tiny opening of the underwater cave that is so familiar, swim through the gap and break through the surface. Austin's head pops up right after mine. I swim up to the edge of the circular pool and push my fin up o the boulders of rocks. Austin looks around in this tiny overlapping with half water and half up with rocks layering over each other.
"What is this place?" he asks.
I cross my arms, "My storage/hideout/layer (mwahahahaha)"
"And what's all this… junk?" he asks gesturing to all my collections.
"This JUNK is all of my collections that are too precious to get into any ones hands. This is my hide out, my favorite place to escape the horrible place around me." I say grabbing a leather back book that I've been writing in with squid ink. Open to a new page and start sketching the some sort of instrument with strings and a hallow bottom.
"What's that?" Austin asks gesturing to the instrument I'm drawing.
"I don't know, but from the books I collected from shipwrecks and some sort of sheets of music, it seems to play music and is called a…. piano ….trumpet…or…guitar."
"Can you play?"
"I've tried…I mean…dabble in …the…art." I say twirling a lock of my brown hair nervously, praying he won't ask me to play.
"Can you play?"
"I already answered that question." I answer harshly.
"I mean right now…please, I haven't heard music in forever." Austin insists.
"Why haven't you heard music in forever?" I ask puzzled. (The Moon Kingdom is well known for its love of music.)
"After the king died, music was banned and the kingdom went into a mental depression and since music brings so much happiness, it sort of disappeared."
I can see the sadness in his eyes; he must be as passionate about music as I am. I grab the instrument and sheet music. I hand Austin the sheet music while he gives me a puzzled look.
"You know how to read right?" I ask.
"Of course!"Austin starts, "How dumb do you think I am?"
I shrug and hand him the music.
"You sing, I'll play," I say while I begin to strum a few notes while Austin begins to sing:
There's a calm surrender
To the rush of the day
When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away.
An enchanted moment
And it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you.
And can you feel the love tonight?
It is where we are.
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer
That we got this far.
Austin drops the music sheet and I stop strumming the instrument, looking at Austin in shock.
"What is it Allison?" he ask.
"Nothing," I reply hastily. Austin gives me a look of disbelief.
"You're just," I start, "so fantastic at singing."
"Thanks, but I want to hear you," Austin says
"Sing? In front of you? No."
"Come on, please," Austin begs.
I exhale deeply while folding my hands in my lap tail and stare at them; "Fine" I begin to sing:
I'll look for you,
All over the deep blue sea.
I'll think about you,
Every moment that I need to breathe.
Every trove,
Every throne,
For you.
All of me for you.
Ohhhhhhhh
I bit my lip and look up at Austin who smiles.
"What?" I ask.
"YOU'RE fantastic, Allison." He says while exaggerating the words.
I feel my cheeks burn a bright coral.
"Thanks," I say but before I know it, Austin pulls me back into the water.
I come up, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" I yell at him, furious.
"Nothing," he says with a smug smile. I roll my eyes and dive back under the water and swim to the mouth of the cave; I start to look around for divers and luckily, don't see anything. I swim back up to the surface where Austin is patiently waiting.
"Coast Clear," I say with a smile, but it quickly turns into a frown when I see he's messing with my new favorite sea glass.
"Give me that!"I say while snatching it out of his hands.
"Sorry, it's just a beautiful sea glass. Any who thanks for taking me to your…lair," he jokes.
"You're free to come any time." Why did I just say that?
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Well thanks Allison."
"You can call me Ally," and with that, I dive under the water and out of the cave.