Attina and Alana giggled mostly to themselves, as they swam as fast as they could away from the market place. Upon losing Sebastian, the girl's had high tailed it out of there, and were now headed for the secret location Attina had found days earlier, when she'd snuck away from a school trip.
"That was awesome!" Alana finally said through her giggles, smiling fully, with her blue eyes dancing with happiness. "I never knew the market could be so great!"
"Oh that was nothing." Attina said mischievously. "Wait until you see what I found a few days ago." The girl bragged, her green eyes happy that she was able to lose Sebastian in the thick of the market by creating that distraction.
"Is it really neat?" Alana asked, tilting her head to the side rather adorably, as Attina, nodded, her eyes dancing happily.
"See for yourself." The older girl answered, pointing towards a looming, dark, shadowy shape. Squinting, Alana leaned in closer towards the thing…before suddenly jumping back, into her sister with wide eyes.
"Th-That's a…that's a…human floater thingy." The girl said in fear and in awe, about thirty feet from the large, sunken ship. Her parents had always warned her never to go near one, even one that was sunken.
"I know." Attina said, her mischief starting to leave her as it was replaced by fear. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all…as the oldest, Attina had to look out for her little sisters…and she didn't want Alana to get hurt…or for herself to get hurt. Settling the matter in her mind to leave immediately, Attina looked up. "Alana let's just…Alana! Don't!" The eight year olds panicked voice said, as she saw her seven year old sister had already swum off and was disappearing inside of the floater thingy.
Swimming as fast as she could, the girl slipped in through a large hole on the side of the floater thingy that had probably been the reason why it sank. Letting her eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment, Attina blinked a few times, before finally finding a shadowy body in a half opened closet thingy.
It was just like Alana to go to the darkest place in the big floater thingy, Attina thought to herself, optimistic that she would find her sister and then swim faraway from here. This place was starting to give her the creeps; she'd never wanted to go into it, only to show it to her sister and then swim away.
Coming to the closet like thing, Attina reached her hand into it, to grab her sister. But, what she grabbed…didn't feel like her sister. It felt…cold…and bony…and something tattered, like a blanket, was covering some parts of her sister. Furrowing her brows, the eight year old curiously tugged on what had to be her sister…and then screamed bloody murder when a skeleton fell on top of her.
Alana, who had somehow gotten lost and was trying to find her way out of this floater thingy, heard her sister's scream and jerked so hard that she her back hit a door. This movement made the rotting wood that was the door break down…and then something fell onto the girl.
Shaking, but not screaming yet, Alana gulped and slowly turned her head to the left, where she felt something cold resting on her shoulder. Slowly, her blue eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, and she was able to make out…a skeleton hand. On her shoulder.
With a scream that could rival her sister's own just a moment before, Alana tore herself away from the hand and bolted through the floater thingy, the darkness hard for the girl to see where she was going. WHAM!
The seven year old hit face first into the side of the ship. Almost immediately, excruciating pain shot through her mouth. Tears welled up in the girl's eyes, and before she knew it, sobs were pouring out of her throat. Pressing a hand on her mouth, the girl was surprised to feel something coming off of it. Looking down at her shaking fingers, the girl squinted in the dim light…before Alana realized that her mouth was bleeding.
Giving a shriek of pain, the young seven year old swam through the opening that lead her directly below deck, and more importantly, to her sister, who was shaking like a fish about to be eaten by a shark. Upon noticing Alana clinging to her arm though, Attina gathered up what was left of her courage, and made herself stand up tall.
"Let's go!" The eldest merprincess's urgent voice said, not waiting for a reply from her sister as she grabbed Alana's hand and swam as fast from the floater thingy. Fortunately, Alana, though still frightened and in pain, agreed with her sister, and started to swim as faster than lightening.
Both girls kept swimming, as fast as they could, and as far away as they could from the floater thingy. They hardly noticed that they had entered, and were now deep inside of the kelp forest after about ten minutes of pure sprint-swimming. Finally stopping for a breather, both girls collapsed onto the ground, hoping that they never had to see anything so scary again.
"A-Alana? Wh-What's wrong with your mouth?" Attina asked shakily, panting softly still as she curled her tail closer to her small body. Alana looked up in surprise, still shaken from the whole experience of seeing a skeleton face to face. Putting her fingers gently to her mouth, she winced at the slight pain that radiated off of it. But when she opened her mouth, Attina sucked in a breath of surprise, her green eyes growing wide.
"What?" Alana asked, slightly frantic as she started to shake even harder in fear.
"Where's your front teeth?" Attina asked in slight curiosity, as Alana, alarmed, let her tongue slip over the spot where her teeth would be…and found that she had none. At this, the seven year old broke down into tears, sobbing so hard that it rocked her entire body.
Had Attina and Alana been older, they wouldn't have been so fearful about the sudden loss of Alana's two front teeth, since they were only baby teeth. But still only eight and seven, the girl's did not understand quite yet about losing baby teeth. Oh sure, they understood that when one of their teeth was loose, it would fall out. But that was only if their tooth was loose…not completely intact.
"Aw, it's okay Alana. Don't cry. It's just teeth; they'll grow back...I think." Attina said comfortingly to her younger sister, rubbing the girl's back as she had seen her mother do a thousand times over. Alana sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her arm as she looked up at her sister with a trembling lip.
"I wanna go home Attina. I wanna go home, now!" The seven year old stated, on the verge of even more tears. Attina nodded fervently, agreeing with her sister that all she wanted to do was go home. But as the girl looked around, she gave a gulp, suddenly not knowing how to get home.
"Stay right here. I'll be back in one minute." Attina ordered of the younger girl, making sure she saw her sister nod before she got up. Looking upwards, the girl summarized that if she could swim up high, she could see where the castle was, and then she could get home. It was starting to get late after all…
Drawing herself up to her full height, Attina started to swim as far up as she possibly could. But the massive kelp towered over the young girl, and without a bigger, more powerful tail to help her swim up higher, Attina was unable to get past the all the kelp. Now, she was really scared. Swimming back down, the eight year old tried her best to make it seem as though everything was fine, as to not scare her sister any more.
"C'mon. I know which way to go." Attina said optimistically, praying that by going forward she could somehow get out of this forest and back to her home. Alana sniffled, and rubbed her tongue in the place where her two front teeth could be in hopes of taking away the weird feeling of not having them there. Following her older sister, both girls started to try and find their way out of here.