Then I heard it, it was like remembering something from a dream, something really far away.
"Greetings Sister"
Then it hit me. The dolphins, they where talking to me. I remembered the language it didn't seem any different. I felt my body slipping into a place where I hadn't been before. Felt the last breath leave my lungs, though it was more painful than I remembered, burning. I though when I came back here, if I ever came back here. I would hate it. I'd missed it for so long and it had just left. I'd gone into Ingo a few time yes, but … I didn't really want to think about it. I though I would be resentful, I never wanted to come back to Ingo and I though it had closed to me. Now, being here, it made it all different, I didn't want to hate it. I loved it. I didn't want to know why I had been away for so long. So I swam. I never wanted to leave again. It was like being 14 again and just taking that first step into Ingo or crossing Ingo with Conor and Elvira and…
They where calling to me. I felt another prickle of excitement and I couldn't help but start to swim faster, as fast as I could, kicking out as strongly as I could.
"Hello Sisters, brothers." I said back and then there they where. All around me, swimming in circles and looping and I couldn't help but smile. It was just like before I didn't need to hear them to understand they where glade to see me. Oh I wished Conor was here.
"Where have you been?" They asked, which made me frown. Where had I been? Where had they been? I knew I couldn't tame dolphins they where wild, but it'd been so long since I'd seen them here, near the cove. I guess because I hadn't been in Ingo for so long.
"I've… well. I've been around." I stated, the dolphins didn't ask more I guess they where just glade to see me, like I was them. I forgot about everything else and wrapped my arms around each one intern feeling there slippery smooth skin underneath me. I just wanted to ride with them. Ride on a flight of dolphins, go as fast as we possible could. Play all day. Dolphins could play because they where intelligent. That's what the whale had told me. I paused. I'd forgotten about her. I don't know how I could forget about someone so comforting like her. Like a mother. I guess in Ingo you forget about the air and in the air… well you forget about Ingo. Yes, that was right all the thoughts of Ingo where rushing back now, like I'd wiped the fog of a piece of glass and now I could see clearly through but at the same time the one that looked through to air got clouded over.
I didn't want to remember some of the things from Ingo though; I wanted to remember the things in air. Like Sadie and Dave But as I started thinking about Dave and the others; they would be waiting for me at the beech, in air. I coughed, as soon as air thoughts filled my mind I started to feel like I couldn't breathe. My lungs burning. I needed the surface, the air the earth. It was dangerous to think air thoughts in Ingo.
The dolphins swam around me frantic now, clicking, they could tell I was slipping out of Ingo, into the air. I tried to stop but I couldn't. The more I panicked about not having enough air, the more air I needed. I glanced up, I'd need to kick towards the surface, but that would take to long, I had no breath left. Even if I could I'd be far away from the shore, I couldn't swim in. I'd get caught in a current. I'd be sucked away. My panic rose with in me, I felt the dolphins talking to me but there words slipped back into meaningless clicks, the lack of oxygen was making me tired, dizzy. I wanted to close my eyes. I remembered Conor when I couldn't support him and how his lips went blue. He went limp; I wondered if that was how I looked now.
"Sapphire!" I blinked that voice sounded familiar. It was probably in my head though, yes, I would be delirious from lack of oxygen. That was it. But the call came again closer this time. Yet the only thoughts clear in my mind where those of air, those of Dave and Beth and Angela and Liam and Max. Of surfing on the waves, of the bomb fire and singing, of Mum and Roger, Conor and Sadie. Granny Carne and Gloria Fortune and all the things that had happened. Nothing that had happened here, in Ingo. The glass was clouding over again.
Then something grabbed my wrist holding it tight. "Don't think about air Sapphire, you know that." It snapped and I felt all my thought of air vanishes at the touch, felt the stream of oxygen rush from Ingo's rich water and into me. I felt the glass all clouding over again, it gave me a head ache and I felt dizzy. I didn't know what to think anymore.
'Think of here, think of now.'
I blinked seeing same teasing smile and the same curious eyes. Dark long hair and tanned skin and strong tail. I hadn't seen in so long, didn't think I'd see ever again.
"Faro?" I muttered in disbelief.
"Hello sapphire."
*******
I stared, I knew I was starring and I brought a portcullis around my mind. Faro had let go of my wrist now but just him being here and being near was enough to make it hard to think of air. I didn't know what to say, what to think or feel.
"Why- why are you here?" I asked, I saw the grey smooth skin of dolphins side into the corner of my eyes and around they where still here, they didn't seem to understand the tension. Or maybe I was the only one full of tension. The Mer and Human worlds and lives are so different; sometimes I never thought I understood them.
Faro just smiled the teasing smile he always used, except now he wasn't a curious young mer boy like he was when we played in Ingo, or went to the deep. He was older, stronger, and more mature. If he could stand up I would think that he must be a lot taller than me.
"Because this is Ingo Sapphire, this is where I belong." He stated it as if the answer was so simple but he was skirting round the question and I frowned. The anger I though I should feel was suddenly rising up, it wasn't Ingo I was angry with. I realised, it wasn't Ingo who left me. It was him.
"That's not what I meant Faro." I stated and I couldn't help the anger and ice slip into my voice. It was how I would talk to one of the stuck up girls at school I realised Or one of the sexist pigs. Trying to re-coil all my emotions from the situation. He seemed taken aback. I had never been this harsh with Faro.
"Well, what do you mean?"
"You know what I mean." I almost yelled, but I started to answer anyway. "Why are you here? Why did you never come before, you just suddenly turn up as if everything's ok and as if nothings changed?" It was a lot harder to keep my anger back than before.
"We've been busy. There's been so much to do, to repair." He sounded so sad, it makes me pause. It doesn't make my anger seep away though. Of course I knew there was lot to do in Ingo, of course it was broken and it needed to heal, but I could have helped. He could have told me and I would have come, or I would have waited, but he didn't he left without a word. I didn't feel like talking about this though.
Turning in the water, I started to swim back to shore; Dave and the other would be worrying. It was like looking at them through steamed glass still but that way it wasn't dangerous. The dolphins where near by, swimming next to me.
"Sapphire." Faro called after me he was a much stronger swimmer than I was of course. His tail easily propelling him in the water.
"I don't want to talk Faro." I don't think I'd ever been so frank with him, he'd always been so teasing and proud and I was always so scared of hurting him. Not know, I felt an empty feeling. I hadn't felt it before, or maybe I had but I didn't remember, or it'd been filled up with other things. All I knew was that I wanted to get back to land, to earth and air.
"Sapphire!" He sounded more urgent now, annoyed. I ignored him, slipping on to the back of the dolphin and hugging her close, moving my body to hers. "Please take me away." I whispered so I hoped Faro wouldn't hear me and she did. She shot of as far to the shore as she dared. Far enough away from him.
****
A/N, these seem short... so i may start merging them and making them longer and therefore it will take longer to write. ... yep, thats all i've got to say.