“Well, it’s over six thousand miles to the sea above Northern Africa, so I’d say… about nine hours.”
“What!? I’ve been asleep for nine hours?”
Chuckling, he responded. “Yes, good thing, too. I think you needed it. There’s a lot ahead of us.”
“Oh, right. All that ‘stuff’ I need to wait to find out.”
He ignored my comment. Instead, Adrian informed me that in a few moments we’d exit the jet stream, and to just do what he did. Before I knew it, he disappeared. Wishing myself not to mess up, I followed suit.
Perfect.
One smooth roll after another. Too bad Adrian had already begun to swim away and didn’t witness my graceful exit.
“Hey! Wait up!” I said, hurrying after.
Without a single word, Adrian looked back to give me another of his killer smiles.
This boy was gonna be trouble.
As I swam, I took notice of the sea, impressed by what I actually saw. Meaning, my eyes worked in the dark. We were well beneath the surface, but the water was as bright as day.
The only thing was that the darkness crept in around forty to fifty yards ahead of me. So, I had about forty yards in all directions that I saw perfectly. In the next ten yards, I squinted to identify stuff. Beyond that, it was just darkness. Kind of creepy really. It made me wonder what lurked beyond my dome of light.
For the moment, I was content with what was in it. There were fish of all shapes and sizes. Looking around, a few had rows of teeth in their mouths that I’d happily avoid. One fish really caught my eye. It was the mix of a tiger and a cow. Not the actual animals, but their markings. Spots that resembled the cat covered its black dorsal fin. Its belly was painted with black and white blobs. The rest of the fish was black except for its bright yellow lips. Huge in size, too. I’ve snorkeled and saw some cool reef and fish, but this one struck me.
Adrian realized I’d taken notice of the fish. “It’s a Clown Tigerfish. Or, at least, that’s what the humans call it.”
Humans.
My brow lifted as my mind dissected this word. Before today, “humans” wasn’t a word I used. It wasn’t like, “Hey, Mom, I’m going to hang out with my human friend after school today.”
I didn’t believe in aliens or the supernatural, so mankind wasn’t ever in question. Until today, I didn’t know there was anything besides “humans.” I’d have to change my tune. There obviously was, and he swam right beside me.
I ran my hand across my face, wiping away a stray strand of hair. I had a question, well, questions I needed to ask. His answer to my next one would make everything that much more real. The words left my lips faster than I planned. “You’re a merman, right?”
“Yeah, I am.”
Andddd…
It would’ve been a good time for him to elaborate. But I wasn’t sure which question to ask next. Except, that was a lie. There was something I was afraid to know the answer to. I always thought I was a “human” but here I was breathing underwater.
So what did that make me? I needed to face the reality of this situation.
Not like it wasn’t a monumental turning point in my life or anything…
The huge gulp I took didn’t provide any confidence. Even with all my trepidation, the words poured out. “I’m not a human, am I?”
His response was so matter of fact. “No, not entirely.”
Again, Adrian needed to provide more detailed responses. A lot more.
I took a deep breath. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’ll just have to wait to find out,” he said and looked away. “Because we’re here.”
I should’ve freaked out on him and demanded he tell me more, but I was too puzzled from the fact that I didn’t know what “here” meant.
Jerking my head in all directions, I didn’t see anything. We were now at the bottom of the ocean, although I didn’t know what particular ocean we were in. All I knew was that we were over six thousand miles from the New Jersey shore. And I only saw dark sand, brown reef, and a few fish. If this was Tritonis, I wasn’t impressed.
Then Adrian reached down and brushed away the sand, revealing a door that matched.
“A trapdoor?” I asked, more to myself.
“Yeah, Tritonis used to be in the Aegean Sea, but there was a big battle between the Guardians and the Trackers, and Tritonis was destroyed. Now we need to protect the location from the Trackers.”
“Um, you’ve said Trackers a few times now. What on earth are they?”
“They’re malevolent, or I guess I could simply say ‘evil,’ and they pride themselves on causing pain and destruction. Not just for us, but for humans too.”
“So that seal was a Tracker?”
“Yeah, there’re a few different kinds of them. Like how there are different ethnicities of humans.”
“Well, I guess I should be thankful you got me away from them.”
“Just doing my job,” he said, then continued. “It was probably a blessing in disguise that the original Tritonis was lost.”
“How so?”
“The sea didn’t possess enough depth and my ancestors knew it was only a matter of time before humans explored deeper into the water.”
“Did anyone ever find Tritonis?”
“Not when my kind lived there. Humans have since found the remains of our city. Most believe that it was an ancient human city that water had since covered over, but some are still convinced we exist. Long story short, humans wouldn’t be able to find us anyway now since there really is nothing to find except this door.”
There was that word again and again: humans. It shook me every time.
I also noticed it was longest response I’ve gotten from Adrian so far. I hoped this was a sign of good things to come. I craved answers to justify my decision to trust Adrian.
“After you,” he said, pulling the door open for me.
Well, I’d gone this far. I might as well keep going.
Before I changed my mind, I dove through the door to whatever waited below.
It was another decision I hoped I wouldn’t later regret.
CHAPTER SIX
It was absolutely amazing. Besides the obvious gold archway that stood right in front of us, my eyes didn’t know where to look first—probably because the canvas of the city was huge.
Tritonis stretched for as far as my eyes could see. It was similar to the skyline of a major city, like Manhattan, but from above instead of ground level. We had a bird’s eye view.
Towers soared high, surrounded by smaller groupings of buildings. My eyes could see it all. No darkness crept into my bubble of light down here. In fact, instead of real streetlights, glowing coral illuminated all of Tritonis.
Astonished didn’t start to explain it. I immediately wanted to explore all of this beautiful town.
“This is where you live?”
“Sure is, this is where I call home.”
“It’s amazing, it really is. But, how come there isn’t anybody here? I don’t see a single person, err, I mean, merfolk.”
“Come on, I want to show you something. Well, unless of course you’d rather go talk to my grandmother first. I figured she’d be the one to explain everything. That may’ve been why I stalled before.”
“Hmm, hadn’t noticed,” I said sarcastically.
But I was torn, like my mom always said, I was an adventure seeker. All I wanted to do right now was to see more of Tritonis. It couldn’t hurt to wait a little longer to figure out what I was, why I was here, and why the Trackers pursued me.
Right? It wasn’t like uncovering these answers were important…
In the end, my adventurous side won out. Or maybe it was the fear behind the discovery of my true identity.
“Okay, where we going?”
“Follow me,” he said, grabbing my hand.
I closed my eyes in response, startled by the chill the touch of his skin sent up my body.
Together, we entered Tritonis
. And boy was it an entrance. A mammoth archway in gold commanded our attention. I only imagined its worth. The detailed lines and engravings were incredible. Inscribed at the top it said Tritonis, and figures lined each side.
“Who are they?”
“The guards? They protect the entrance to Tritonis.”
“No,” I corrected, dismissing the two merman who stood next to the archway. “I mean the people on the archway.”
“Oh. They’re our ancestors. There’s Poseidon,” he said pointing. “And Amphitrite, and Triton.”
“Triton? Like the Little Mermaid’s dad?”
He laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”
“So I’ve heard of Poseidon, but who is Amphitrite?”
“She was the sea goddess—Poseidon’s wife.”
Nodding, I scanned the archway. Poseidon and Amphitrite were positioned together on one side of the arch and Triton was on the other. Poseidon held a trident, and um, wore little clothing. Only a small leaf kept things from going R-rated. Next to him stood Amphitrite. Even carved into gold, her beauty was evident. A loosely draped garment covered her skin, which I perceived to be more appropriate than Poseidon’s garb.
I shifted my eyes to the other side, to Triton. The first thing I noticed was that he was a merman, whereas, Poseidon and Amphitrite both had legs. He had the same flowing hair as Adrian, not a bad looking torso for an older guy, and two split tail fins. From a closer look, I saw he faced sideways, off to the right, and blew into a shell.
I wanted to examine the arch more, but Adrian watched me not so subtlety… or patiently.
“Let me guess. We need to hurry?”
“Um, yeah, but does it help that we’re not in danger this time? I just don’t want you to miss it.”
“Miss what?”
“You’ll see…” he said, dodging yet another question.
A sigh led my response. “Show me the way.”
After we passed under the archway, we swam straight down to where a street made out of crushed shells waited. The white of the shells created a distinct pathway against the darker sand.
It reminded me a little of how trees lined my driveway at home. Here, the initial street was long and coral reef lined both sides. Glowing coral intertwined with the reds, yellows, blues, pinks, and browns of the other.
Beyond the coral, I spotted various buildings, a coliseum, a horse ring and stables, a magnificent looking castle, and so much more. My eyes couldn’t take it all in as I rushed to follow Adrian.
An empty town square sat at the end of the road. And, there, right in the middle was a statue in solid gold. After my quick history lesson at the archway, I immediately recognized him as Triton.
The crushed shells continued throughout the square, creating a big white area. Little shops and stands were positioned along the edges—all empty. Aligned just outside the outskirts of the square sat row homes. Or at least I assumed they were homes. Sea flowers and orchids poured from the windowsills. The colors popped boldly against the white walls. Along with windows, random doors had been cut from the stone at varying heights.
I guess because the merfolk could swim anywhere, it didn’t make sense to limit entrances to the ground floor.
“It’s right on the other side of the Quad,” Adrian instructed.
I was a little baffled as I looked toward our destination. There was a solid wall ahead of us. Still, I followed him.
As we crept closer, details slowly popped out of the huge rock. One of which was a type of passageway. The rock face was so dark that I hadn’t even noticed it before.
A sense of excitement rushed through my body as we approached the hole. I pictured myself as an explorer headed toward uncharted territory, a modern day Christopher Columbus. Of course, I wasn’t. Adrian knew exactly where we were going but a girl can dream.
Adrian shot through first, with me on his tail. When I emerged, I blinked my eyes a few times to ensure I wasn’t seeing things.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Oh my gosh,” I managed. “Are they playing football?”
“Uh, huh. I really wanted you to see this before all the craziness broke out.”
“Isn’t football an American sport?” I said, not wanting to register his comment about the craziness. “I may not be good at geography, but I know we’re nowhere near the United States.”
It was true, too. I did really well in school, but geography wasn’t a strong suit of mine. I don’t know what it is about it. It wasn’t a hard concept. Country A is here, country B is there. Put a map in front of me though, and tell me to point out Germany, and I was at a loss. Now Italy, I knew but only because it’s shaped like a boot.
“It may be an American sport,” Adrian started. “But we aren’t hermits. Plus, some of us can go on land. You could say we’ve picked it up over the years.”
“Can you go on land?”
“Well, sorta. I can technically go on land, but I can’t stay above water very long. I obviously have these guys,” he said as he looked down at his fins. “So I can’t walk. Sometimes we’ll go to a deserted beach for an hour or so to catch some rays.”
My eyebrows raised. “Oh, yeah?”
He looked unsure of himself. “I thought that was human jargon for being out in the sun?”
“No, no, no… it is. I’m just dazed by this all.” Waving my arm, I got back to my point. “If you’re a merman and you can’t stay on land then who can?”
“All right, my attempts to delay have gone on long enough. Lets go over by those rocks so we’ve got a better view of the game. I’ll try to explain at least the simple stuff.”
I willingly agreed to this idea. For one, I needed to better understand what Adrian was, and really, what I was. And second, I wouldn’t mind watching more of their football.
It had a premise very similar to American football. I mean, there was a football of sorts, except down here it was a large shell, and there were two teams. To throw or swim the shell into the end zone was still the objective, but the field offered possibilities in all directions, much unlike running on ground. Down here, the players swam up, down, left, right, diagonal—wherever they wanted. It made the game really dynamic, very multi-dimensional.
They also only wore helmets, no other pads. When the chances of crashing into the ground were limited, the amount of injuries dramatically decreased. One thing was for sure; the lack of padding didn’t reduce the roughness. These guys were out for blood. I even cringed a few times after some extra hard hits.
Their juke moves were spectacular, too. Imagine flipping, twisting, and twirling within the water in a fluid motion. Plus, there wasn’t a need to land on their feet. It made the game fast-paced, and also rather graceful. I remembered hearing about some football players that took ballet or yoga. I saw it as extra beneficial down here.
A huge stadium surrounded the field. It reminded me of an old Greek amphitheater with seats carved into the stone. I couldn’t pinpoint a seat that was empty. This explained why I hadn’t seen anyone in Tritonis. Everyone was at the game, their cheers reaching us from where we sat above their seats. It wasn’t just merfolk too, dolphins and seals were amongst the crowd.
Who knew, they could’ve been the same ones I saw earlier when the Trackers attacked. This thought pulled me back into the moment. I gulped at the thought of learning more about all this merfolk and human stuff.
Adrian smiled at my unsure expression. “So you ready for Water Spirits 101?”
“For what?” I said unable to control a smirk.
“You, Annabelle Walsh, are half-human, half-sprite.”
A sprite?
I wasn’t sure what this meant, but I guessed I expected something more. It was just a silly one-syllable word. And to point out the obvious, it sounded like a soft drink.
“A sprite is just another name for a water spirit,” he continued.
“What does this even mean? Am I some immortal being?”
He chuckled. “Nah, sorry. We live and die j
ust like humans⎯maybe a little longer⎯because we don’t have the same sicknesses. Like I said earlier though, there’re a few different kinds of sprites. At one time, there used to be tons of races, but many were lost after the battle between the Guardians and the Trackers. And then others went into hiding, hoping the Trackers believed their race was gone.”
“So, what types of sprites are still around?”
“Well there are three main types: the merfolk, the water fairies, and the nixies.”
As he answered, he gave me a sheepish-look like there was more to this answer. But I was eager to learn more, so I didn’t interrupt. I just let him go on and on.
He started by explaining each race: basically what they looked like, where they lived, and so forth.
Merfolk or merpeople were just non-gender ways to refer to mermaids and mermen. That part I already knew from years of movies and folklore. What I didn’t know was that there were two main types of merfolk: the Tritons and the Mami Wata.
The Tritons, he explained, was the name given to his people living in Tritonis. Based on the name, it was easy to guess they were descendants of Triton—the messenger of the sea.
Although, not all Tritons had a direct lineage from his bloodline. Overtime, Triton’s name and image became the basis of his kind. Typically, they had dark hair and light skin, but there were variations from time to time. Sometimes from different kinds of merfolk mating over the generations. Other times, it was somewhat of an anomaly.
The Mami Wata was one of these other types of merfolk. The Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa housed their main colony. And yes, I had very little clue of this gulf’s location. Adrian said that after the battle between the Trackers and the Guardians, some sprites chose to live on their own because they thought it was safer. This led to smaller colonies scattering around as well. For the rest of the sprites, especially the Guardians, it wasn’t ideal. The Guardians couldn’t fully protect the Mami Wata or the Tritons who ventured out on their own. The Guardians hoped to change this in the future.
He continued by painting a picture of the Mami Wata in my head. Their name meant a gorgeous woman or man, and the Mami Wata were said to possess African beauty, partially because they devoted ample time to their appearances and also because they liked to dress up. They’d deck themselves out in baubles, such as combs, watches, and shells. Sometimes the Mami Wata arranged their accessories in their sleek black hair or other times they wrapped their necks in necklaces. Regardless, the Mami Wata exuded beauty through a combination of their caramel skin, flowing hair, and excessive jewelry.
Sprite (Annabelle's Story Part One) Page 3
