Saturday 15th July 1930
This is going to sound crazy.
This is going to sound ridiculous and insane and you probably won't believe me when I tell you.
Like I said, you won't believe me, so you'll want to try and cart me off to the Loony Bin, like they tried with poor Sad Sal from up the village.
But it is the truth.
I have found a…kingdom.
Under the sea. Ingo.
A place where the folks have tails and everything glows silver, blue-green and gold.
Ingo, where you forget to breathe, but that is inconsequential, because if you do breathe, that is when the trouble starts.
Because you cannot take Air into Ingo.
And I met someone there.
A boy. A Mer boy.
His name is Aeron, and he is my friend.
He's my age. Sixteen.
He has the tail of a seal, like all of the folk in Ingo. His hair is dark and tangled, and of course it is constantly wet. He lives under the sea. Impossible to dry it down there!
When I saw him…I thought I was imagining things.
A boy with a tail?
Come on.
Such nonsense.
He had seen me too, and he was looking at me as if to say,
"A girl with legs?
Come on.
Such nonsense."
And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and it was as if we were silently daring each other to speak first.
I heard my voice speak, high and whiny and irritating.
"Excuse me – but, do you have a tail?"
Gosh, how stupid that must have sounded to him!
However, if he thought it amusing or stupid, he did not elaborate any further, he simply raised a dark eyebrow, and said simply and coolly, "yes".
And then he dived back down into the sea.
"Wait!" I cried quickly. "Come back!"
I glanced around me, and when I saw that there was nobody else present, I hitched up my skirt and I ran over the slimy, slippy rocks until I reached the place where he had dived.
I could just see his dark shape under the water, like the shape of some gigantic fish.
Well, I wanted nothing more to speak to the boy with the tail, so guess what?
I jumped in too.
Once I was in the water, I opened my eyes, and I could see him, lazily floating there, with his eyes half closed, yet watching me, like he was trying to sum me up, this girl with legs, floating beside him.
He took my breath away.
"Who are you?" I tried to ask, and suddenly salt water rushed into my mouth, trickling down my throat, and into my eyes and up my nose, so I tried to breathe but I couldn't, and my lungs felt constricted and my throat was tight, and I most certainly could not swim.
I began to sink like a stone.
But the worst bit was the pain.
The pain stabbing through me like a blunt knife.
Where was my sea boy?
I stretched my arms out as wide as they would go, blindly groping for his arms, his waist, anything that I could grab onto, when I felt strong, clammy hands around my waist, and I found myself on the surface of the water, and then with one almighty heave, I found myself lying on a warm rock, coughing and shivering, with cold, sticky tears running down my cheek.
The boy with the tail then heaved himself onto the rock, and I could see the muscles contracting and flexing under the smooth, grey skin of the tail.
He looked at me. "My name is Aeron," he said. "And you are?"
I struggled to quickly sit up – too quickly. A wave of dizziness nearly knocked me over again.
"Ferelith," I managed to stammer out. "And, erm, thank you."
Aeron looked at me. "What for?" he asked me.
I blushed crimson.
"You saved my life," I mumbled, praying to God that he couldn't see my face.
He seemed equally embarrassed. "It was nothing," he sighs. "I would have done the same for anyone. I thought everyone knew you couldn't take air into Ingo."
He shot me a sideways glance.
"Well, everyone in Ingo knows that."
"If you don't mind my asking, but, what is Ingo?" I asked him.
He looked at me, scandalised. "Ferelith!" He crowed triumphantly. "You don't expect to know what Ingo is do you? You're not going to know what it is! You're only a mortal!"
He said it like it's an insult.
Well, I certainly wasn't going to let some idiotic, pompous boy with a tail insult me!
"So, if don't know what Ingo is, Aeron," is grinned, "Then show me."
Aeron smiled, extending his hand.
I clasped his fingers, a thrill travelling through my - oh! Jem is calling me! I shall have to continue this entry in my new diary tomorrow, my tale of what happened to me in Ingo.
Farewell for now.