The next day, Boscha, Amity, and Luz were on the couch, watching the news. There was a report about a couple going missing and their destroyed boat washing up on the beach.
"As you can see here, it appears that the boat was physically ripped in have." The reporter said, "This isn't the first time something like this happened, but it is the first time this has happened in 14 years."
Upon hearing that, Luz immediately began to feel upset.
'Whatever that thing is, it's back.' Luz thought.
"What's wrong?" Boscha asked, noticing Luz's mood.
"Something similar happened 14 years ago... to my aunt." Luz said.
"You... your aunt?" Amity asked.
"Yeah, she was Ichthyologist." Luz said, "She taught me everything I know, she even let me come with her when I was younger. She's the reason I love the ocean and studying fish."
Boscha and Amity shared a look, remembering something that happened over a decade ago, about 14 years ago, when they were six, when a big Non-Scale and smaller Non-Scale were on a boat.
From a distance, a young Boscha and Amity swam above the water enough to see the two.
"Now pay attention Luz, the creatures of the sea are unique, and require special needs." Luz's aunt, Alexandra, said.
Luz looked over the side of the boat, her big eyes full of wonder.
"Okay, Auntie!" Luz said as her aunt stood next to her, chuckling at her excitement.
"Watch this." Alexandra said, holding a few shrimps and throwing them into water.
Luz watched as several fish come to the surface and Alexandra grabbed one carefully with her hands.
"See this, Luz? This is a Kokanee Salmon, these are found in several places, such as here in New England and New York, and the West Coast of the US, as well as the Yukon and British Columbia in Canada and even on the other side of the world in Russia and Japan."
"Wow." Luz said, "What do we do with it?"
"It's simple. We catch and Release." Alexandra said, "It would be cruel to keep him from living his life in the sea."
"But what about the fish in my mommy and daddy's aquarium?"
"Many of those species are extinct in the wild, due to habitat lose or overfishing. People like your dad are giving those creatures a chance to be reintroduced to the wild in the future."
Alexandra dropped the fish back into the water as Luz watched it swim away, free and reuniting with its school.
"Bye bye, fishy." Luz said with a wave but spotting something in the water.
"Auntie, what's that?"
Luz pointed a few meters away from the boat, to a small dorsal fin in the water. Boscha's dorsal fin
"That looks like... a tiger shark? They don't come this far North, they're a warm water fish." She said, "Looks fairly small based off the fin, very interesting color too. While they can have a yellowish color to their stripes, they aren't typically that bright."
"Do you think it's a rare species?" Luz asked, curious.
"Maybe but we might need to get closer to see it." Alexandra said to her.
There was suddenly a large splash, like a stone was thrown into the water. It distracted them enough for Boscha to swim deep enough to get away.
"WHOA!" Luz screamed as the boat began to rock.
"Luz!" Alexandra said as she quickly held Luz close to protect her while hanging onto the edge, "I think it's time we get back to the shore. While sharks don't usually attack people, I don't want you to fall in while there's one here."
"O-o-okay." Luz said, "Auntie? How do I become an... I... Icyologist?"
Alexandra chuckled.
"It's Ichthyologist." She said, "And I'll speak to your parents about it."
As Alexandra rowed the boat, the two young mermaids swam back up to watch them leave. They for some reason felt... safe, near the two female Non-scales, but they knew they couldn't reveal themselves.
Boscha and Amity looked at each other before looking at Luz.
"So... do you have any pictures of her?" Amity asked.
"Yeah, I do." Luz said, getting up and walking across the room.
She grabbed a picture off a shelf filled with other pictures. She walked back to the couch and sat down between them. She showed them the picture and Boscha and Amity immediately knew that it was the same person that day. Which means that was also Luz on the boat. They suddenly understood why they felt so safe near Luz, because she was so into learning about fish, that they felt like they could trust her. They also knew what happened to that woman, they remember what happened that day. They felt horrible, because... that woman died because of them.
Thank you to my good friend, Jss2141, who always is willing to help me when I ask. I'm also trying a new thing where I put the horizontal line to separate different parts of a chapter, let me know what you think about it. Follow, Favorite, and Review for more.