In Which Apple Takes a Chance and Makes a Friend

After Apple packed her purse with everything she could possibly need in a coral reef at night, and filled her knapsack with as many apples as it could possibly carry, she quietly slipped out the back door of the Merlins' house.

"Gal-a-had..." She called softly. "Gal-a-had..." As usual, the sunset-colored hippocampus responded to her call immediately. As Apple stroked his neck in greeting, she looked him right in the eye.

"Galahad, where are the other hippocampi?" She asked urgently. Even though Galahad couldn't talk and Apple couldn't understand animals like Ashlynn did, she and her aquatic equine friend had always been able to communicate extraordinarily well. It was usually easy for Apple to tell Galahad was thinking and feeling.

But not this time. Galahad pulled away and snorted. Apple wasn't sure if he was angry or spooked by the idea of other hippocampi. In fact, if Apple didn't know better, she'd say that Galahad seemed almost bitter. Which was a strange look on him.

"Where are they?" She pressed. He snorted again. "Do you know?" She asked. He gave her a hard look that she couldn't read.

"Just nod if you do, and shake your head if you don't." She told him. Galahad slowly shook his large head. Apple felt her heart sink. Finding the hippocampi herd wasn't going to be as easy as she hoped.

But easy or not, she had to try.

"Come on," She told Galahad "We're going to find them."

Apple had never been in the coral reef this late at night before. Thankfully it was another clear night above the ocean surface and the moonlight clearly illuminated the sea floor. But while Apple was glad that she didn't have to waste her flashlight batteries, she felt dangerously exposed. If she could still see everything around her, then everything around her could still see her. Including Celia's mutants.

Relax. Apple told herself. They won't come out here. Why would they? But that reasoning didn't keep her from tensing up at every unfamiliar noise and every darting shadow.

Galahad was on edge too, but Apple suspected that it wasn't due to fear of their surroundings. It had taken a fair amount of coaxing (and underwater apples) to convince the merhorse to search for the herd with her. For whatever reason, Galahad REALLY didn't like the idea of finding the other hippocampi.

But Mr. Shelldon said they were social animals. Apple thought to herself. Like whales and dolphins. All this time, Apple had assumed that Galahad still kept in contact with his herd while she was away at school. Several weeks ago, she and Mr. Shelldon had even discussed the idea of seeing if Galahad could lead them to the rest of the hippocampi (but then Celia took over and those plans fell through). But apparently Galahad was a loner and wanted to stay that way.

Unless...A terrible possibility occurred to Apple. What if the others are extinct?! What if Celia killed them?! She thought. That might explain Galahad's bitterness. Perhaps he knew looking for them was a lost cause!

But it can't be a lost cause! Apple thought desperately. We have to find them!

Hours later, Apple was staring to think that finding the herd really WAS a lost cause. It was now four in the morning, and she hadn't found any trace of them.

"We'd better go home," She told Galahad. "Roland will be up soon. We'll try again tomorrow." But Apple worried that tomorrow night wouldn't be any more successful than this past night.

SNAP!

"GRAAH!"

Two sharp sounds cracked through the early-morning silence of the coral reef like a whip. The noise spooked Galahad and made him rear up. Apple only barely managed to grip on to his mane fin and hold on before potentially getting tossed off.

"Whoa-WHOA! EASY!" Apple stroked her steed's neck to sooth him. She followed Galahad's gaze and saw the source of the noise. What looked like a mermaid with thick, dark-red hair was struggling to free her leg from something.

A mermaid with a leg?! Apple thought. That can't be right! But then she remembered the story Eric Mara had told her months ago about a sea fairy he had encountered as a child. Could it be? She wondered. Whoever this was obviously couldn't be the same fairy, since Mara said the one he saw was blonde. But could this be another one?

And then the mysterious person turned toward her.

She was a fairy, alright. Apple didn't know how she knew this, but now she knew that Roland was right; all of the pixies that she had seen in the Enchanted Forest, and all of the witches and sorceresses she'd met that claimed to be fairies just couldn't compare with otherworldly beauty and presence of the girl in front of her.

Or woman. It was hard to tell. While the fairy looked about Apple's age, there was something about her large blue-green eyes that seemed very old at the same time.

Her eyes also looked very panicked as soon as she saw Apple. She tried to swim away, but something yanked her back down to the ocean floor. It was then Apple saw that the fairy's foot was caught in an old, rusted, fish trap of some kind.

"Here, let me help!" Apple said as she swam towards her. The fairy's eyes widened even more and she made a shoving motion with her arms. Apple could feel a strong current come from no where and push her back into Galahad's side. Puzzled, Apple tried again, but the same thing happened two more times. Apparently, this fairy had control over the water around her. And the third time Apple tried to get close, the fairy actually bared her teeth and snarled like an angry cat.

Apple wondered for a moment if she should just let the fairy be. After all, she did have magical powers and she had made it very clear that she didn't want Apple near her. But then, Apple figured that if she'd been able to free herself with magic, she'd have done so.

"I want to HELP you." Apple said slowly. "Get you out." The fairy blinked, as if she didn't understand. Apple swam very slowly and deliberately towards her. Whenever the fairy looked like she was ready to cause another current, Apple would make stop and quiet, reassuring noises until she calmed down again.

At last Apple was close enough to get a look at the trap. It was very strong, but the mechanism looked simple enough to undo, even for a princess that knew little about machines. But in order to undo it, she'd have to convince the fairy not to push her away again.

Only one idea came to mind. It was silly, but it was all Apple had to go on. She pulled out one of the apples she had in her knapsack and offered it to the fairy. The fairy looked at her like she was crazy.

"It's food." Apple explained. She held it up to her mouth and mimed eating it. "See? Food." And she held it out to the fairy again.

The fairy slowly extended her arm to take the land fruit and sniffed it cautiously before taking a small bite. Her beautiful face lit up like a child's and she eagerly started devouring the rest of it. She ate so fast, Apple barely had enough time to undo the trap before she finished.

The fairy immediately tried to swim away as soon as she was free, but her foot was injured from the trap. Apple pulled out her first aid kit and rapidly cleaned and bandaged the wound, praying that no sharks were around to smell the strange, green blood that trickled from the fairy's wound.

When Apple was done, the fairy stared at her bandaged foot in wonder and surprise. "Thank you." She said.

Now it was Apple's turn to be surprised. "Erm...you're welcome." She replied. After the fairy had initially acted like a spooked animal, Apple hadn't been sure if she could talk at all. But she could, with a voice that was youthful, ancient, and unearthly all at the same time.

The fairy gestured at the apple core in her hand. "What is it?" She asked.

"An apple. Do you want another?" The fairy nodded and Apple gave her another. The fairy regarded Apple while she was eating.

"You are human." She remarked after she swallowed her second bite.

"That's right!" Apple exclaimed in surprise. "How did you know?!"

"You are different." She replied.

"How?" Apple asked.

"Not of sea." The fairy explained.

"But how can you tell that I'm not from the sea?" Apple pressed.

"I just know." The fairy said simply. That was all she had to say on the subject.

"What's your name?" Apple asked.

"Nim." The fairy replied.

"Pleased to meet you, Nim. I'm Apple." She held out her hand for Nim to shake, but Nim just blinked at her some more. Apparently, fairies didn't shake hands.

"Like this?" Nim held up the apple she was eating.

"That's right, I was named after it." Apple explained.

"It is good." Nim said as she took another bite.

"I'm glad you like it. How did you get stuck in that trap, anyway?" Apple wanted to know.

"An accident." Nim said. Apple waited for her to explain, but she just kept on eating. For whatever reason, the fairy didn't feel like elucidating about that either.

Then Galahad started nudging Apple's shoulder in a way that plainly said: I want an apple too!

"Alright," Apple said as she pulled a third apple from the knapsack. "But we've got to save some for the other hippocampi." IF we ever find them. She thought gloomily.

"I remember him." Nim suddenly said.

"Who?" Apple asked.

Nim pointed at Galahad. "Him."

"You've seen him before?" Apple asked in amazement.

"In the pod."

"The pod?"

"Of hippocampi."

Apple gave a little squeal of joy and relief. The hippocampi WERE still around!

"Where are they?!" Apple asked excitedly. "We need to find them!"

"They are close." Nim said.

"Can you take us to them?!" Apple asked. "Please?"

Nim nodded.

"...so we need to find the rest of the herd, I mean, the pod, right away!" Apple finished. She had just spent half an hour explaining to Nim who she was, how she came to Atlantis, what had recently happened there, and why she desperately needed to find the hippocampi. Nim had been riding on Galahad in front of Apple the whole time and gave directions by simply pointing. She hadn't said a single word the whole time; she just listened to Apple. Apple secretly thought it was a little unnerving; she had never met anyone as reticent as Nim. She wondered if ALL fairies were like this.

But now Nim finally spoke up: "They will fight." She said in a warning tone.

"Who will fight?" Apple asked in confusion.

"The hippocampi." Nim explained.

Apple's heart sank. "You mean they'll attack Galahad?!" Apple asked in dismay. "ALL of them?!"

"His rival will."

"Rival? What rival?" Apple pressed.

Nim touched Galahad's shoulder. "HIS rival."

"Galahad has a rival?!" Apple repeated in surprise.

"He chased him."

"Who did?"

"The rival."

"The rival chased away Galahad?"

"Yes."

"But why?" Apple wanted to know.

"He wanted control." Nim said.

"Control?"

"Of the pod."

Suddenly, Galahad's loner status made perfect sense to Apple. She had heard the grooms at her father's stable discuss similar situations; every so often, two male horses would fight to be leader of their herd and the loser would usually wind up as an outcast. That must have been what happened to her loyal hippocampus friend before they met! And it also explained his attitude when Apple first mentioned the pod. He was bitter!

"Poor Galahad..." Apple said as she stroked her equine friend's neck. "It's just not fair!"

"It was not." Nim agreed.

"So this other hippocampus, the new leader- he'll fight Galahad again if he sees him?" Apple asked.

"Yes." Nim said. "Another battle."

"Well...maybe Galahad should hide while I approach the new leader myself." Apple thought aloud. "And then once I make friends with him and the rest of the pod, they'll let Galahad...". Apple stopped in mid-sentence. Nim hadn't uttered a word, but her expression clearly said: You idiot.

"That won't work?" Apple asked weakly.

"No."

Apple sighed in frustration. Not at Nim, but at herself. She was thinking like a stupid fairytale princess again. Land horses didn't just "forgive and forget" and accept banished leaders back into their groups. She should have known it wouldn't be any different under the sea. The only way for any former equine leader to regain his place was to fight for it. It wasn't nice, but it was natural. And inevitable.

And if Galahad didn't beat his old rival this time around, Apple could very well lose her chance to win over the hippocampi. If the other merhorses wouldn't associate with him, then they weren't likely to associate with her, either. All of sudden, EVERYTHING was riding on Galahad.

Nim interrupted Apple's thoughts by saying: "We are here."

Apple looked all around them, but all she could see were a bunch of tall, underwater rock formations. "Where are they?" She asked.

"Behind."

"Behind what?"

"Behind the rocks." Nim clarified.

"Oh."

Nim got off Galahad, put a finger to her lips, and gestured for them to follow her. The three of them quietly swam to the top of the boulder and peeked over.

Apple gave a small gasp. In a large expanse of seaweed, at least a hundred hippocampi were grazing and milling about. Powerful stallions with rippling muscles, sleek, slender mares, and gangling, adorable foals that played near their mothers. Most of them were various shades of blue or green, but a few of them were bright, warm colors, like Galahad.

"Oh how beautiful..." Apple breathed. Nim nudged her side and pointed.

"That is him." She said.

"Who?" Apple asked.

"The leader." Nim said.

Apple followed Nim's finger and gulped when she saw what Galahad had to fight; a large, muscular, dark green stallion who seemed to throughly enjoy bossing the other hippocampi around.

Oh dear... Apple thought as she watched Galahad's rival push several other full-grown males away from choice seaweed patches with ease. Can Galahad really beat him?! This stallion looked much more powerful than all the sharks they had faced.

Apple turned to look at her hippocampus friend. He looked angry to see his rival, but frightened too. Apple didn't blame him one bit.

"Galahad?" She whispered. "I know this is hard..." Apple winced as she watched the rival stallion bite a male that wouldn't give up his seaweed patch right away. "But you've got to try," she continued as they watched the smaller blue male float away dejectedly while the dark green one greedily ate more than his share. "Everybody's depending on you, Galahad. And not just Atlantis. Can't you see that your herd needs you too?" Apple pointed at the pod leader and frowned. "He's just a big bully!"

Then, as if in response to Apple's words, the dark green hippocampus suddenly kicked a small, mint-green foal that had gotten in his way. The young merhorse sailed through the open water and landed right in front of their rock in a bruised heap.

"OH!" Apple shouted in indignation.

"SHHHH!" Admonished Nim.

But it was too late. The bad-tempered pod leader had seen them.