Night time had fallen, I laid in my little cubby hole. My tail was rested against the wall.

"Skylar?" I heard a voice. I looked over to the entrance, seeing Meredith once again.

"Yeah?" I sat up.

She entered, and sat next to me.
She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself.  "I-I, just wanted to tell you... Good night." She petted my head.

"Oookkaaayy.. Is that it?" I asked, I could tell she had something else on her mind. She wanted to say something else but she wouldn't allow herself.

She hesitated to respond, then she nodded. "Yes." She pulled me closer, which sorta got me off guard. She put her arms around me and her chin rested on my head.

"U-umm?" I barely mumbled.

She released me. "Sorry if I was invading your personal space. I just felt so bad for you."

"Why?" I asked, sounding a little too innocent.

"Because you were forced to move here, leave your old life.  I would like to apologize for my husband. He just... takes his job very seriously. He doesn't want to hurt you or upset you, he's just doing what he thinks is right. He's trying to protect our species. We have been living in secrete for over millions of years."

"Why in secret? You can surely get away from people can't you? I mean, you can survive under water and swim faster. Heck! You guys even have special powers!"  I pointed out.

She smiled and shook her head. "No," She sighed. "Once a human sees us, there's no way to stop their curiosity. They won't hesitate to take it to the extreme."

I looked down,  playing with sea weed in my fingers.

"But at one time we didn't live in secret.." She started, I looked back up to her, letting her go on and hoping she does.
"We actually lived in harmony with humans, years and years ago. Our ansesters. We were at peace with them, but weren't often near them. But there was one child, a boy. He was about.. your age. He had befriended a human, that was a little older than him, also a boy. That human was fascinated with the study of science and was interested in learning all of the ocean world below and other creatures as well. The little merboy told him all the secrets he could, even where we lived in the ocean. Because he trusted him, he would travel miles, everyday to go see the human. He thought he had finally made a friend. Until one day, when the boy surfaced from the water. He thought he was waiting for his friend, come to find out he was also waiting for a whole crowd of humans. They killed the boy right then and there to study him, other humans tried to go out to find where the rest of us were, but luckily his little sister saw the whole thing, her brother being slaughtered, and she swam off to tell the others. It was a war against land and sea, if any of them would dare to look over our direction, wanting to hurt us, we would drown them. Eventually we left, and never showed our faces again. Now were just legend."

"Oh my gosh.." I looked her in the eyes. "That's horrible! And you all fought back?"

"ye- No! Not us us. Our ansesters. It's just an old tale. But they are also lessons, all we can do now is to insure that won't happen again. That's why Aqualius is so careful, he doesn't want to start war. He wants to live in peace, not have us all picked off one by one for show, study, dissection, or to be killed. So please don't associate with any humans, no matter who they are. Understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am." I nodded.

She smiled at me, rubbing my head. "You don't have to call me ma'am." She got up and began for the entrance.

"Okay, sir." I smiled widely, laying down in the sea weed.

She giggled to herself, looking back at me. "Much better!" She rolled her eyes, leaving.

I rolled over to my side, my eyes landed on the little fabric of my shirt that was hanging out. I looked down then back at it, a smile came upon my face. I pushed my self up and put my hands on the hole that lead out. Looking out, I watched everyone going back to their little holes. Using one hand, I had to push my flowing hair out of my face to better see. The ocean was getting dark, but I still had time. When no one was in sight, I pushed myself out of my cubby hole and made a mad dash out of sight, hoping someone hadn't seen me leave. Hopefully I wouldn't raise suspicion.

I headed in the direction of the docks, praying they have not forgotten. I don't even know what time it is, I have to learn to tell the time by the sun or moon. It took about twenty minuets to get there. By the time I have  made it to the docks leg, I heard a familiar voice.

"Kids, I don't have time to be here. It's eleven at night! Why would you take me up here and said Skylar would be here? She's not! I don't need to be reminded that she's gone." I heard pain in this woman's voice. Mom?

I heard the stomping on the docks wooden floors of her leaving. "I'm going home."

"No, wait! Mrs. Smith!" I heard voices call after her.

Oh.. This is going to probably hurt.. I launched myself onto the dock. "Wait-!" I tried to call, but my lungs was filled with water and just came out more like a gurgle. "Mom!-" I started coughing it all up. Water poured out my mouth and some through my nose, it felt almost like I was throwing up. Cold air nipped at me, making me freeze. When almost all of the water was out my system, I started gasping. My lungs burned while they tried to adjust to the air. I finally had stopped coughing and just laid my head down, ugh I felt awful..

"S-Skylar?" A voice asked. I looked up, seeing Mom, Noah and Ava right behind her smiling.

"Hi, Mom." I tried to force a smile no matter how bad I felt.

"Oh my God! My baby!" She squealed, hugging me tightly. I tried my best to hug her back, she obviously didn't care that I was wet since her shirt now had a huge wet spot on it.
"Where have you been?! What happened to you?!" She started crying.

"Mom, I'm fine." I assured her.

"S-So, what Ava and Noah have been telling me was true?" She wiped at her eyes.

"If it was that I was turned into a fish and that Skylar is awesome then yes." I smiled.

"Don't flatter yourself!" Ava shot at me.

Mom laughed, crying tears of joy. "B-But why can't you come home?"

I flipped my tail up that hung over the side and into the water. "I can't walk."

"We-we can work it out! Noah can help me carry you and we can fill the bathtub up and-" She wiped tears away but only being replaced with fresh ones.

"Mom, I can't. Even if I can, with time I would suffocate in the tub. I can't be out of water too long and the tub water would need to be filtered, finally! It would be too cramped. But I am fine! I have the others watching me."

"Others?" She questioned, confusion coming onto her face.

"The other mermaids." Noah said in the background.

"There's more?"

I nodded. "They are taking great care of me, I have a friend down there. They feed me and be sure I get sleep, which is what I am suppose to be doing now." I laughed a little.

"So you will never be able to come home?" Sorrow visible on her face.

My expression dropped. "As of now, yes. So far there is no way to turn me back. But I might be able to come see you up here as much as I can at night. I don't know about every night cause it might raise suspicion."

She looked me over. "Taking care of you well?! You're skinnier since the last time I saw you! Your rib cage is trying to show!" She put a hand on my stomach.

I pushed it ff. "Maybe a little but I had a little chubbiness on me when I lived on land anyways."I smiled.

"Speaking of which." Ava finally came up, pulling out a bag of cheetos from behind her back and a can of mountain dew.

"YAAASSS!" I cheered.

"Shhh!" Ava put a finger to her lips, trying to contain her own laughter. I snatched the bag from her and started eating, I took a sip of the drink. "Tastes kinda weird now." I mumbled.

"You probably adjusted to living down there for so long and not having that stuff for a while." Noah said.

I put another in my mouth. "Eh, I guess I'm still eating." I giggled.