Chapter 6

Misty, Dawn, and Serena were swimming to the surface. Even though they hadn't arrived up there yet, they were close enough that they could see the sky through the water. The moon was slightly less full than it was the night before, and there was a vast array of stars.

"It's so beautiful," Serena said with a smile as she swam.

"Yeah, it is," Dawn agreed. "Too bad humans are always asleep at this hour."

"Unless they decide to stay up late, anyway," Misty smirked. "In which case, they might as well be mermaids." The three of them giggled at that.

"If only May were coming with us," Dawn sighed. "I'm sure she would love it up here."

"No kidding," Serena agreed. "If only she would suck it up and get over her fears, we could all enjoy the surface together."

"Yeah," Dawn nodded. "Poor girl's gonna have to grow up one day and realize that the ocean's nothing but blue and bluer for miles and miles."

"You said it," Serena said. "It's always so boring down here. Why would anyone want to stay down here when they can go to the surface?"

"I don't know," Misty shrugged. "Just give May some time. I'm sure one of these nights she'll come around and realize that she's missing out on the time of her life."

May was having the time of her life swimming in the ocean with Popplio. Although they were trying to find the Pokemon's home, they could only make notes on the map when they saw a school of fish swim by. That didn't happen too much, so they spent most of their time swimming around, playing in the ocean. Whenever a school of fish did swim by, however, they immediately stopped whatever they were doing and took note of where they swam from and where they were swimming to.

"Hm," May mused after a few hours, looking down at her map. It was drawn on a large, flat stone. "We've seen Seel, Remoraid, and Finneon today. No sign of anything beyond that." She and Popplio swam down to the rocks at the bottom of the ocean, where she dug into her sack and pulled out some coral fruit to munch on, along with food for Popplio. As she took a bite of the fruit, she smiled as she savored its flavor. "This is fantastic," she mumbled, her mouth still full. She swallowed and looked at Popplio, petting her as she ate her Pokemon food.

"May?"

"Hm?" she looked up and saw a familiar face swimming over her. "Oh, hey Ash!" she grinned.

"Hey," he said, swimming down and sitting next to her. "Whatcha doing out here? I thought you'd be spending time with your sisters."

"They're at the surface right now," May muttered as she took another bite of her fruit. "Not my idea of quality time with the family, you know?"

"I guess not," he shrugged, chuckling at the way she spoke with her mouth half-full. She giggled and made sure to swallow before speaking again. "Still and all...did you think about what I said last night?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Dawn actually suggested the same thing earlier tonight." She looked down at her fruit and sighed. "Part of me's a little scared to take your advice, though."

"I guess I don't blame you," he agreed. "If you haven't been since your rite of passage, I guess it would seem scarier than it actually is."

"Yeah," May nodded. "But still, you and Dawn have a point. I should at least try to go to the surface and see what happens. If I start suffocating again, then I'll know that what happened before wasn't just me overreacting." She glanced over at him as she took another bite of her fruit, noticing that he had his eye on it. She grinned as she chewed her food and pulled out another coral fruit from her sack. "You want one?" she asked after swallowing, holding it to him.

"Eh, I'm good," he said. "I had lunch before I swam out here."

"You sure?" she said. "I've got plenty in here, so I don't mind sharing a little."

"Well…" he said, trailing off as she held the fruit in front of him. She smirked, seeing his reaction and left it floating in front of his eyes.

"Oh, come on," she teased, "you know you want it."

"All right, all right," Ash said, defeated. He grabbed the fruit from in front of him and bit into it. His eyes widened as he chewed. "Whoa!" he said, his mouth half-full. "This is really good!"

"Taken from the ripest coral gardens the palace had to offer," May winked.

Ash swallowed and smiled back at her. "It certainly isn't the common fruit we have back at the village!"

"No, it isn't," May agreed. "Honestly, we should share what we have. We have so much, so it really shouldn't hurt."

"Have you suggested that to your mother?" he asked.

"I've suggested it to my sisters," she grumbled, blowing up her bangs. They slowly floated down. "They think it's a dumb idea."

"Why?"

"Because they think that we'd be better off bringing food from the human world down."

Ash frowned at this, slightly annoyed. "Do they just think that all the answers to our problems can be found up there?"

"They might as well," May muttered. "After all, it's not like humans and mermaids have vastly different digestive systems that require very different foods in order to process, and were either of us to eat the other's food, it would cause serious, potentially fatal, problems!"

"Did you bring that up to them?"

"I tried," she sighed, "but anything I say ends up somehow floating over their heads."

"Ugh," he muttered, looking at his half-eaten coral fruit. "Talk about back luck."

"You said it," May agreed. The two of them sat there in silence a moment, focusing on eating their food. Popplio finished her food and sat in May's lap, curling up on her scales. May smiled and stroked her tenderly, prompting a smile from Ash.

"How long have you had her?" he asked.

"Four months," she replied. "I found her stuck at the top of the palace, crying for help, and we've been looking for her pod since then."

Ash nodded and smiled, scooting closer to her so he could stroke Popplio's head. "She's lucky she found you," he said. "I don't know anyone else who would go out of their way to help a lost Pokemon."

"Yeah," May agreed. They looked out at the open ocean a moment, getting lost in its vastness. "So, what're you doing out here right now?" she asked.

"Spending time with a friend," he winked.

"Well, that much is obvious," she giggled, "but what were you doing before that?"

"Looking for some seaweed," he said. "There's a special seaweed that Mom loves to eat, so I wanted to get it for supper tonight. I was just swimming over to the usual spot where I get it from when I saw you and decided to hang out for a bit."

"I see," May smiled. "She's pretty lucky to have a son like you: a son who would drop everything and do whatever it took to make her happy."

"Thanks," he smiled back. They sat there a moment more, then Ash pushed himself up and started floating. "Speaking of which, I should probably go," he said. "Mom's probably getting hungry, so I gotta get that seaweed."

"Yeah, we should probably go, too," May agreed, floating up with him. "Different kinds of fish are gonna swim out during the third watch of the night than what we saw earlier, so we might find what we're looking for."

"Well, good luck with that," Ash smiled.

"You too," May replied. With that, they swam off in different directions, in pursuit of different goals, while having a certain merperson on their minds.

"So that's what a sunrise looks like," Serena smiled as she and her sisters swam into their chamber. "The pictures I found of it were beautiful, but they're nothing compared to seeing it with my own eyes!"

"It's a natural wonder," Dawn agreed.

"And I think it's safe to say that everyone, humans and mermaids alike, consider it a thing of beauty," Misty said.

"Everyone except May, probably," Serena mumbled, although Dawn heard it.

"Serena, come on now," Dawn said. "Just because she didn't come to the surface with us, it doesn't mean she hates everything about it. I'm sure we can convince her to come up sooner or later."

"Preferably sooner," Misty said. "If we're all gonna live on land one day, she needs to learn to embrace the air above and understand the beauties of the human world."

"Yeah," Serena agreed, "especially considering the alternative is living down here, in the ocean, alone, sad, and unable to find any joy. Ooh, just thinking about that makes me sad for her!" She sighed sadly. "That poor mermaid."

"Hey girls!"

The three of them turned and saw May swim in, bright, chipper, and happy, with Popplio in tow.

"Hey May!" Dawn said. "Back from scatting?"

"Scouting, Dawn," May corrected her as she pulled her knapsack off her shoulder.

"Too bad you didn't come with us," Serena mumbled as she finished fixing up her hair. "The sunrise was gorgeous this morning."

"Not as gorgeous as you," May winked at her, prompting Serena to blush.

"I hope you'll join us tomorrow night, May," Misty said, floating over to her. "We really do want to do this as a family."

"I'll think about it," May nodded as she swam to her chamber. As she put her sacks to the side and placed her map in a safe place, she floated over to her shellbed and curled up inside it. She smiled as it closed over her, drawing her into sleep as she dreamt about the beauties of the ocean.