Have you ever gotten lost somewhere as a child? Do you remember that feeling that lay in the pit of your stomach? Do you remember looking left and right for your parents, or at least someone you know? Do you remember that feeling that would start to appear in the pit of your stomach? But…do you also remember that immense feeling of relief you had gotten when you found the person who had taken you on this trip in the first place? The person who made you feel safe sound, though minutes before you were on the verge of tears? Attina would have traded anything for that feeling.

The girl was hungry, scared, tired, hopelessly lost, and to top it all off, she could hardly see her hand right in front of her face. The only reason she hadn't lost Alana by now was that the girl's hands were connected together; otherwise both of them would have been split up, and even more terrified than they were. Every tiny sound made Attina jerk in fear, hoping that it wasn't a shark, or a giant octopus, or water snake, or eel, or—

"Attina? I'm tired." Alana said quietly, her voice a mere whisper in the giant kelp forest. It was long past the girl's usual bedtime, and no matter how scared and cold and hungry she was, Alana couldn't fight off the sleepiness from her body any longer.

"Me too." Attina said with a yawn, before looking all around her. Kelp, darkness, kelp, darkness, kelp, darkness, kelp…there really wasn't much of a difference since an hour ago. This entire idea of ditching Sebastian to go see a human floater thingy had really back lashed on the poor girls. With nothing else to do, Attina gave a helpless sigh, before tugging her sister's hand and sitting with the girl on the cold, sandy ground.

"Let's go to sleep." Attina suggested, and she didn't have to be able to see in the darkness to know that Alana had thickly nodded and was now resting her head on her older sister's tail. The eldest merprincess took the quiet moment to look around once more at the darkness, before swallowing back her tears, and falling asleep herself.

But, her sleep was to be short lived, because about an hour later, the eight year old was woken by…something. It sounded like…like…kelp being pushed away, and away, and if the girl squinted, she could see a faint light in the darkness. However, in her young mind, the only conclusion the girl could come to about such a thing was that a dangerous animal was going to eat her and her sister.

"Alana, wake up!" The eldest merprincess shook the younger princess awake, certainly scared by now. "Do you hear that?" Perhaps, Attina's mind thought, she was just imagining it. Yes, that's it, it was all in her head!

"Ah huh." Alana answered, her exhaustion suddenly gone as she looked frantically at her sister. "What's that? Attina?" The seven year old questioned with a racing heart to the eight year old who swallowed in fear.

"I dunno." Attina answered, seeing the faint light and the noises start to come closer and become dramatically louder. Alana burst into tears, hugging her older sister for comfort as she sobbed in fear, and Attina shook horribly, about ready to cry herself.

"I wanna go home, I wanna go home!" Alana wailed pitifully loud, her sobs and cries enough to melt even the coldest heart. "I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die, I wanna go home!" Alana wailed even louder, fearing for her young life now as she let the sobs come pouring out.

"Shh! It'll hear you!" Attina hissed, clasping her hand over her younger sister's mouth to stop the girl's cries. But all she did was make Alana sob and wail louder than before, despite all the comforting her older sister tried.

The light was closer now, too close for comfort. The sounds were even louder than they had been before, and Attina squeezed her eyes shut as she willed herself not to cry. She was a big, eight year old girl! Big girls like her didn't cry! Big girls don't cry, big girls don't cry, the girl repeated mentally, as she felt her younger sister start to squeeze her so tightly that it became painful because the light was a moment away from reaching them. Big girl's don't cry, big girls don't cry, big girls don't—

"Attina! Alana! There you are!" A voice cried out…a warm, nice voice, that both girls could recognize anywhere. Before the girl had the chance to open her eyes, she was swept up in strong arms, and pressed tightly against the person in a hug. "Thank Neptune; I thought something had happened to you girls!" Attina felt herself giving the person a hug in return, as she nestled her head in his thick beard, almost crying from relief as she heard Alana shout out,

"Daddy!"