EEK! Chapter Ten is here!

~~~ 

Hon?” Tracy’s soft accent brought Raven out of her daze. 

       “What?” Raven shook her head, “Sorry, I don’t know what happened.”

       “It’s fine sweetie, I just got worried about you when your hand started to twitch.”

       “My hand was twitching?” Raven began to walk again. 

       “Mm-hmm.” Tracy said through a yawn.

       Raven pondered silently what she had just heard. Her hand was twitching when the Creature came to her cell, and Tracy said that her hand twitched and she stopped in place when she had that vision. Maybe she needed to  ask what happened to the girl of smoke. Raven felt Tracy settling in on her shoulder.  She herself yawned and felt her eyes grow weary.

       “Tracy,” she said, gently patting the little mouse, “Where should we go?”

       “Check the scroll.” Tracy sleepily replied. Raven got it out.

       “I can’t see anything.” she frowned and looked up. A dim yellow light shone up ahead, and another aquamarine color beside it. Raven trudged through the dusky, large hallway, stopping only to make sure Tracy didn’t fall off her shoulder.

The lights were effused by two doors, both with a strange symbol in the middle, a red triangle with three wavy lines, one on top of the other. Raven, satisfied with the light, unrolled the scroll and woke a snoring Tracy to help her.

“Do you recognize anything?” Raven said, pointing to various features on the map.

“Well, I know where we are, hon,” Tracy said, scratching her head thoughtfully, “But where on the map...” she shrugged. 

Raven carefully scoured the map. She saw many rectangular shapes with many different colors spread around the map, some even with little red dots on them.

“Here’s a yellow rectangle,” she said, pointing to the shape. “And there’s a teal one right across from it.”

“And they both have a red spot on them.” Tracy said, rubbing her eyes.

“Yes! So that means we are here.” Raven made a marking with her finger. She scooped up the mouse and stood up. Tracy got excited.

“We’re nearly there!” She whispered eagerly, clapping her hands together. 

Phew! Here the next chapter! I liked writing this one :) 

Chapter 11 

~~~ 

Raven watched the doors as Tracy pointed out some doors that were of interest.

       “That green one is full of talking animals, all sorts, great and small. Ooh, and that one over there, the navy blue one, it has an ocean world behind it. You can go in there and breath underwater! There’s a village there with people too.”

       “Interesting.” Raven paused for a moment. “Can I go in?”

       “Absolutely! All you got to do is open the door.”

       Raven eagerly reached out towards the doorknob.

       “Oh, wait, there was one thing that was dangerous about these things...” Tracy clicked her tongue. “Oh, I forget.” She mumbled something else to herself, then ushered Raven on. “Go on, it won’t hurt you.”

       Raven turned the knob quietly and pushed open the door.

       What greeted Raven was deep dark blue-ness.

“Perhaps you must swim to the village?” Tracy said doubtfully. Raven shrugged and jumped in the deep blue, holding her breath.

       The water was cold, causing Raven to shiver. She noticed it wasn’t a wet-cold. Her shirt was clinging to her body but wasn’t wet. The water pushed against her, almost as if a large hand was holding her back from progressing forward. She looked down, which made her draw in a sharp breath.

A deep chasm yawned beneath her, and Raven could swear she saw some very dim lights flicker, but then go out. The village, she thought. Raven began to make a move to head down towards the chasm, when a small fish swam rapidly over her shoulder, and she heard a shrill scream. Raven turned her head. 

Tracy was gone.

Hey! I know I haven't ever posted on here, but I do remember reading the very first part, after TA DA a story! And so, I've finally caught up, and I must say, it's super good! I adore Tracy <33 and it's such a mysterious spooky story! I can't wait for more, because now I'll be reading along :D

Raven looked down, trying to find out what, or who, had grabbed her ankle, but the acid made that difficult to do. The ‘thing’ was pinching her skin, causing Raven to shiver. After what felt like eternity, the ‘thing’ let go, and Raven thought she saw a fish-like thing swim by her and fade into the darkness beyond her. 

Her mind felt tired, and she tried to see what her surroundings were. Once her eyes adjusted, her breath quickened. 

This wasn’t the village, but a single house.

Raven thought she saw a curtain in one of the windows shift, so she decided to go and investigate. When she reached the door, she could see intricate carvings on the door frame, those of mermaids and underwater palaces. Raven pushed on the door, studying the carvings on her way in. Suddenly, a wail echoed across the canyon behind Raven, causing her to whip around.

The darkness wasn’t so dark now, so Raven could see a fair amount around the small house. A fish-like shape was wriggling around underneath a shadow. Raven felt the curiosity overwhelm her, so she kicked her bare feet to the shadow.

When she got close enough to see, but not close enough to scare, Raven surveyed the situation. It seemed like the shape was tied up and was muttering something. 

It was talking.

It sounded like it was talking in a foreign language. The creature looked around and Raven gasped. The creature had a pale face, with long golden-brown hair, and deep green eyes. It was a girl. A mermaid. And it saw Raven.

The mermaid’s eyes widened, and it worked at its binds faster. Raven quickly moved closer.

“Hello,” she began. The mermaid looked at her in disgust and murmured a few words in the language Raven couldn’t place.

“Do you want help?” Raven pointed at the green rope and moved a step closer. The mermaid hissed and tried to move away. Raven noticed the tip of the mermaids tail was split and looked very painful. She moved even closer, and the mermaid yelled at her. The mermaid gasped and looked up. The shipwreck was  tottering, and a few rocks fell.

“Oh, I see.” Raven sat down crisscross and looked carefully at the mermaid. She had a long, shiny green tail and Raven stared longingly at it. The mermaid caught her gaze and wrinkled her nose. She mumbled some more words in that foreign tongue and wriggled some more.

“I can help you.” Raven said quietly. The mermaid looked up. She seemed to understand and quickly glanced around.

“I am not supposed to talk to English people, but you are only exception.” she looked at her binds once again. “Please, do help.”

Raven gladly jumped up and began untying the soggy rope.

“What is your name?” She asked. The mermaid sighed.

“Selene.”  The mermaid said. “I was born under full moon. What is yours?”

“Raven,” The girl replied, “I have black hair.” Raven paused and grew somber. “I don’t know what my real name is though.”

“Oh.” Selene became silent.

“What were you speaking in? That language.”

“I...” Selene paused. “Greek. I speak Greek. It is language of my people.”

“Cool.”

The two became still as Raven continued to work on the bonds.

“There,” Raven said after a few moments. “You are free.”

Selene looked back at the black-haired girl. She reached down and pulled a scale from her tail. 

“You need help, squeeze scale, and I be there.” Selene pressed the scale into Raven’s hand. “You help me, I will help you.”

Raven felt the passion in this small gift. She felt the need to repay Selene with something. 

So she hugged her. Selene was clearly surprised, but she also embraced Raven.

“From now on you will be Ophelia,” Selene said, “For you have been my helper.”

Raven, who was now Ophelia, looked at Selene.

“Thank you.” Ophelia said. She glanced down at Selene’s tail. “How did your tail get hurt?”

“It was in a fight I had with an... enemy. It is hard to swim.”

“Why don’t you come with me? I could  help you swim.”

“I cannot follow you to where you go. But I will be with you.” Selene backed away and held up a hand with three fingers raised.

“Tha se do argótera: I will see you later.” Selene smiled than swam up toward a cave in the tall rock wall.

Chapter 14, part one

~~~

Selene swam gently with her scarred tail. The marks wouldn’t go away completely. they would always be a reminder. A reminder of the traitor her supposed friend was. Her friend was Tico. A good friend.

       Until last night.

       Tico had invited her to come on a long walk with him. They talked to each other, slow and hard. About the confusing things, like why they were constrained under the king’s rule, why certain people are hard to understand, and what it was like out beyond the kingdom. They shared dreams and laid out in the kelp forest, staring at the tops swaying in the current. 

Then something changed in Tico. His pupils grew large, large enough to take up his whole iris. His hands became webbed, his nails grew sharp. His tail became two scaley legs, and his body turned green and stiff. Tico had hissed and ripped Selene’s tail. He had dragged her to the shadow beneath the shipwreck, the one they both had thoroughly explored, and tied her up with several pieces of seaweed, the pieces surrounding the area where they spilled their thoughts and hopes earlier that evening. 

He became a monster. 

Before he left, he told her to be quiet⏤ not in Greek, their common language, but in English, something he never used since his father died⏤ and warned her about the shipwreck above their heads.

Tico’s father was a human. A man who spoke English as well as Greek. A professor. A man who helped the Mer people and fell in love with the weaver’s daughter.

Tico had, after he told Selene to be quiet, howled. It was a wailing, prolonged howl, unlike anything Selene had ever heard. And then he left her. Tied up. Alone in the night. Silenced. Forgotten. In danger of being crushed by the ship teetering above.

Selene swam to a cave in the rock to rest her aching tail. She flopped down on the hard ground, breathing hard. Her nose started to burn. Selene looked up in surprise. She could breathe fine before, so what was different? She tried breathing again, this time through her mouth. That hurt too. Selene shook her head in confusion, then glanced down at her tail. She gasped.

Her tail was turning into two long legs with two bare feet and ten toes. It was like looking through foggy glass. Selene couldn’t move or feel the limbs, but she could see them. The scars that were at the end of her tail were sprouting veins inside, connecting to the limbs and breathing a life within them.

The mermaid was becoming a human.