"Sorry," I mutter for what's probably the hundredth time, as I bump into Lukianos once again. Swimming in a straight line with a brand new mermaid tail is impossible. Or at least, it is for me. I keep swimming into Lukianos every hundred yards or so, as if we were walking together and I was a stumbling drunk.

"I've already told you, it's perfectly fine. You're just getting your- what's the human phrase? Sea legs?" It was strange at first, but about an hour later I've gotten used to the way noise travels underwater.

Lukianos told me that part of my transformation included the changing of my inner ear, so I could register sound underwater. His voice sounded the same as it did out of water, but it was slightly muted, yet somehow surround-sound. Like his voice was coming at me from all directions, like I was hearing him in my head.

Another part of the transformation are my newfound gills and the formation of a thin membrane that stopped water from entering my mouth when my lips were parted, but allowed sound to come out. I couldn't feel the membrane when I tried touching it with my finger, an awkward action that sent Lukianos into literally bubbling laughter. He had said it was more of a magical force than a physical thing I could touch and who was I to question him, after the whole mermaid thing turned out to be true?

"Very funny," I snort. A trail of air bubbles tickle across my cheek from the action and I scrunch up my nose at the unpleasant consequence of one of my daily actions. There are a lot of new things to get used to.

"Anyway, it's your turn," he reminds me, swimming closer to me to nudge one of his broad shoulders against my more delicate one. I know he means it as a teasing gesture, but it throws my balance off and I struggle for a few moments to correct my direction, matching it with his.

I shoot him a playful glare that he answers with a smile and a shrug. I stop myself from sighing- I learned the hard way that those bubbles are much larger and more disturbing-feeling than the small bubbles from snorting. "I still don't know why you find this game so fascinating. Typically only human children play it."

"You're the one who suggested it in the first place," he points out. "Plus, it's new to me. And much more interesting than swimming for weeks without talking."

"Fine," I sigh and then flinch as the bubbles trail down my chin and neck, then separate to slide across either side of my chest and up my sides, searching for the surface above me. "I spy with my little eye something that is… green."

"Oh, good one," he praises, a wide smile on his face as he searches the ocean around us. He's more into this game than I thought he would be when I first suggested it to break the silence. He isn't very good at it either, forfeiting almost every round after 10, sometimes 15 minutes of guessing incorrectly.

I try to follow his gaze. I haven't fully gotten used to the beauty of the deeper ocean, but I'm not floored by it like I was at first. We had to stop for a while for me to explore the ocean floor where corals, small fish, sea anemones and the like, were flourishing. Lukianos was amused by how enthralled I was with it all. Even now, with seaweed, coral reefs and schools of brightly colored fish all around us, I'm still very aware of how lucky I am to be witnessing nature's beauty in the sea, where most humans never get to venture.

"Is it that seaweed bunch over there?" He asks eagerly, pointing to our left.

"Nope," I say with a smug smile.

"How about that school of wrasses over there?"

"School of what?" I ask.

"Wrasses. There," he points ahead of us and a bit to our right, but there are clusters of colored fish everywhere and I can't tell which one he's pointing at. He glances over and must see the confusion on my face. He grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him so that we're no longer swimming horizontally, but floating vertically. The mermaid equivalent of standing, I suppose. Lukianos uses his trident to point towards some fish and I watch in awe as a shimmering gold line streams out of the trident and towards a particular school of fish. It forms a bubble around a school of green fish- the wrasses.

I'm amazed. The magic bubble doesn't enclose the fish; it moves with them, not inhibiting them in any way. They seem unaware of it, or at least unencumbered by it.

"Oh my god," I breathe. I trace the shimmering gold back to the trident which seems to radiate light. It dims and I look back to see the bubble is gone.

I look up at Lukianos, amazed.

He's looking back and forth between my eyes, like he's trying to read my expression and make some kind of decision. Like back on the beach, when I asked him how he knew about humans.

"Luke, that was incredible," I rave.

He stays quiet, but he's still holding my hand.

Suddenly, he's tugging me forward by my hand, swimming again.

"So, was it the school of wrasses?" He asks, as he casually lets go of my hand.

Was he bothered by the new nickname? I shake my head to regain focus. "Oh, right. No, no not them."

We continue with the game, but I'm only half focused on it. What was he thinking about, when he was searching my eyes? What was he looking for? And did he find it, whatever it was?

After a while, he once again gives in, "Okay, I surrender. What did you spy with your little eye that was green?"

I smile at his defeat. "Your tail."

He groans in disappointment and I laugh, victorious. He looks over at me and smiles slowly.

"My turn. I spy with my little eye something that is beautiful," he says confidently.

"Luke," I complain. "That's not how this works. Beauty is subjective, you have to use colors. It's the rules."

"Fine," he allows. "I spy with my little eye something that is green…" his eyes linger on my green ones for a few seconds as he holds out the last word. Then he looks down at my tail, "and red…and blonde," he finishes, looking up at my hair.

Play it cool, Carter. A literal Greek god just called you beautiful, but it's no big deal. He's totally out of your league in every sense of the term, but it's whatever. Just maintain your chill. Don't be that girl in TV shows and books that blows things out of proportion and has this big long monologue with herself in her thoughts where she talks herself up into asking the guy out and misses the opportunity, because she's too wrapped up in- Oh my god, you're doing it. You're having the monologue-thoughts right now. Stop thinking to yourself and respond to him, already!

Before I can say anything, Lukianos grabs my arm and brings us to a stand still. I glance over at him, about to ask what's wrong, but he signals for me to stay quiet. With a small swish of his tail, he slowly turns us around in a 360. He's still got a hold of my arm, but he's dragging me slightly behind him with his trident poised in front of him.

There's something out there. And he's positioning himself to be between me and the threat.

A few seconds go by. I suddenly realize that the sea creatures around us have disappeared. We're alone, in the water.

With a tug on my arm, he's suddenly propelling us towards the ocean floor and to the east of the direction we'd been heading earlier. I try my hardest to keep up, but he's much faster than me and ends up mostly dragging me in the current he leaves behind him. I'm starting to realize now just how much he had been holding himself back when we were swimming earlier. He's like a torpedo, darting through the water at alarming speeds.

I see a shipwreck up ahead. That must be where we're headed.

We shoot through a glassless porthole and down a narrow passageway to what was probably the captain's quarters at one point. Lukianos stops suddenly and releases his hold on my wrist. He begins muttering in a language I don't recognize, with his eyes closed. I watch as the trident begins to shine once more.

He opens his eyes to stare at the trident and his irises are golden, the same gold as the magic that had encircled the wrasses earlier. That gold magic beams up from the trident and seems to stop at the ceiling above us, but I see through the glassless windows in the room as it falls back down in a dome around the outside of the ship.

He's put some sort of force field around the shipwreck. I'm talking Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Battle of Naboo-style force field. I just hope I don't pull a JarJar and screw everything up. I roll my eyes at my own nerdy thoughts.

"Stay here," Lukianos commands. I look over at him as he breaks me out of my thoughts. He's swimming towards the passageway we just came in through.

"Wait, where are you going?" I call out in surprise.

He turns to look at me and his green eyes are now ringed in his golden magic. He blinks once and they're back to normal, before turning back towards the doorway, "I'm going to kill a sea witch."

"And I'm supposed to just wait here, like some helpless damsel in distress?" I demand, putting my hands on my hips. Or what used to be my hips. Do you still have hips if you no longer have legs? Aren't hips the place where your leg bones connect to your pelvis? So if you have a tail, can it still be called a hip?

"Um, yes," Lukianos answers, turning back towards me. He sounds and looks irritated. "You don't have any powers or weapons and you're still learning how to fight, so you're helpless against a powerful and magical sea witch. You are a young woman and I don't see one of those ridiculous gold bands you humans wear to signify your love on your hand, so you're a damsel. And as for distress, well, if you knew the real danger you were in, you'd be very distressed. Since you're new to the sea and its inhabitants, good and evil, you'll just have to trust me when I say that you meeting this particular sea witch- or any sea witch, for that matter- would cause you much distress. And probably a lot of pain. Maybe even death. So, yes, you will stay here and wait for me to come back. I've placed a protective spell over the ship to keep not only the sea witch, but any other creature besides myself from entering. Or leaving."

"Wait, you're keeping me prisoner in here?" I'm outraged and swim closer to him with a glare.

He scoffs, shaking his head, "Out of all of what I said, that's what you're focused on?"

"Hell yeah, that's what I'm focused on! You're locking me in here," I say, enunciating each word. I can hear my voice rising, "You claim this sea witch is so big and scary, what if she kills you and I'm trapped in here forever?"

"I'm not going to die," he claims with an eye roll. "And even if I did, the spell would power down as soon as I was no longer alive to maintain its magic."

"You can't know you're not going to die," I whisper, looking down at my flippers instead of at him.

"Is that what you're worried about?" He asks in a softer voice. From my peripheral vision, I can see him flick his tail softly to propel himself forward and close those last few feet of space. He takes one of my hands in his and squeezes it softly. When I don't look up, he drops it and uses his hand to tilt my chin up until we make eye contact. He smiles gently, "I'm a demigod, remember? I'll be okay. And I'll be back in a few minutes."

With that, he swims back through the passageway we entered through. Off to fight a sea witch.

While I'm stuck here waiting.

I sigh. Floating vertically, the air bubbles stream directly up, instead of crawling along my skin to find the surface. I watch them as they travel upwards and hit the ceiling. The ship is slightly slanted to one side and the bubbles follow the upwards slant, until they reach a crack in the wood and escape.

Lucky bastards.

Even with my newly upgraded ears, I can only hear Lukianos swimming away for a few seconds. I strain my ears, but I can't hear any signs of a fight. I keep my eyes on the golden shield from where I can see it out the window frames. It's my only way of knowing whether Lukianos is still alive.

I pop my knuckles in agitation, a habit I haven't revisited since an ex-boyfriend brought it up as a major turn-off while he was breaking up with me. Irritated with myself, I shake my hands out, as if that would reverse my actions.

Another sigh escapes me. It's only been five minutes maximum and I'm going stir crazy with worry and inactivity. That reminds me of my water resistant watch. I look down at it, but I have no way of knowing if the hands are pointing in the right direction. From this depth, I can't check the sun's position to get a relative time to compare to.

I decide to practice my swimming while I wait, so our travel will be faster and smoother. There isn't much space to swim about, but I could focus on getting used to angling myself with my tail. I practice twisting it in certain ways to see the effects. Small flicks of just my flippers propel me forwards and backwards laterally, without any vertical movement.

I switch to a horizontal position; the way my body is positioned when I'm swimming. It's harder to stay still this way. I have to keep moving forward if I don't want to sink down towards the floor of the room I'm in.

It's interesting to learn these new things. I can't stay still if I'm horizontal. I can only float in one place if I'm vertical.

I'm getting a little dizzy going in circles around this fairly small room. That gives me an idea.

I angle my flippers and twist my shoulders, but keep my tail relatively straight as I propel myself forward. It takes a few minor adjustments, but I successfully manage a spiral.

I come to a vertical standstill, smiling proudly at my accomplishment. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm learning a lot about being a mermaid in a fairly quick amount of time. It's easier to learn all these new things when I'm not maintaining a monotonously straight course with a constant speed.

It's not Luke's fault that we have to keep traveling. Although, I do wonder why he was in the Pacific Ocean if his palace is in the Atlantic. Thinking of him has my eyes wandering to the shield outside. Swimming practice can only keep me occupied for so long.

I swim over to a chair that's laying on the floor besides a a clutter of ruined papers, pick it up and carry it over to place it by the window. With quite a bit of difficulty and error, I manage to get myself into a sitting position, starring out at the golden dome like my life depended on it.

My mind wanders. Is this still considered sitting? What would be the definition of sitting, anyway? I can't imagine that it directly depicts it as the bending of one's legs until one's butt is holding one's weight. Well, maybe it can. I suppose I'll never be able to look it up in Webster's Dictionary without ruining the typed words before I can find the right page.

Well, in Carter's Dictionary, sitting is defined as resting one's weight upon their butt which is perched on another object- whether it be a chair, or a bed, or the floor, etc. Either way, legs are not a deal breaker. In which case, I am sitting.

Something catches my eye and breaks me out of my thoughts. I turn my head to see a sea slug inching along the window sill. It must have been on the outside of the ship when Luke cast his spell and it's now stuck in here with me, inching its way to the other side of the ship that's separated by the window. I fold my arms along the sill and rest my chin on them to watch the small creature make its slow journey.

When it has traveled the length of my elbow to my wrist, it stops and turns its protruding eyes towards me. We stare at each other for a minute, maybe two. Then it turns back and keeps moving forward.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving. I turn just in time to see the last of the golden dome come glittering down to the sea's floor.

The shield is down. The magic is gone.

And that means so is Luke.