Unknown Depths.

Chapter 29

Staring out onto the ocean, Delia sat down on the beach, leaning back on her arms and letting her mind wander... As she felt the sand between her toes and fingers her thoughts were anywhere but.

I mean, what did all of this mean? What could all of this mean? Was it just her, something she'd never known about herself? A long-kept family secret, something they would one day tell her? Perhaps she should go and ask her mother, 'hey is there any chance that you're secretly a mermaid and never told me?' A soft chuckle left her mouth as she pictured that conversation in her head. Her mother just staring at her with a very serious face and telling her that she was in fact, a mermaid too.

Sighing Delia closed her eyes, leaning he head back, feeling the warmth of the sun on her face and breathing in the salty sea air. No, she thought, my mother isn't a mermaid, she had seen her swim way too many times for that to be true. Plus she had a feeling that if that were the case, her mother would have told her at some point. But the question still remained, how did this happen to her?

A part of her wondered if it had something to do with the orb, the glowing rock they had found. Had it done something to her before the man had taken it? Had the man ever even taken it?

Opening her eyes she stared up at the sky for a moment, still trying to piece everything together. It was, however, as a small cloud started to move in front of the sun that she remembered something. Or more that it hit her like a ton of bricks... deadlines. Quickly she shot up from the beach, her mind now racing with all the different essay's, papers, presentations etc that she had to finish. She groaned as she grabbed her stuff and set off back in the direction of her car.

It wasn't too long after that that Delia was back at her apartment once more. As she entered she all but threw her bag on the couch and got out her laptop, really to start working on all the assignments she'd been putting off.

The next couple of days could, in Delia's mind only be described as a complete and utter whirlwind. It felt as if she went from the one obligation, that of her studies, to the other, her work. For a couple of days, it seemed to be an endless cycle of studying, deadlines, exams and work. 

In fact, it wasn't until one faithful Saturday morning that it would end. The Friday before, at exactly midnight, she had handed in her last deadline, for the foreseeable future that is. Once the deadline had been handed in, she finally got a proper night of sleep. 

The following morning however, her alarm woke her bright and early. You see she had promised Damian to help him out with some new measurements he had to make. Groaning she hoisted herself out of bed, begrudgingly getting ready for her day. 

It was a little over an hour later when she arrived at the docks, making her way over to Damian's boat. As she got closer however, she noticed not one person standing on it, but two. 'Did he bring someone else too?' Delia thought as she continued walking. 

The second man on the boat was standing with his back towards her talking to Damian. As Delia approached Damian noticed her and started waving, which caused the second man to turn around. 

'Gabriel?' Delia thought, surprise written all over her face. 

"Goodmorning!" Damian greeted in a chipper voice, "ready for a day at sea?"

"Goodmorning." Delia said, trying not too sound too surprised as she boarded the boat. Quickly Gabriel stood next to her lending her a hand. 

"Careful," He said, "We don't want you to fall in the water." 

"Thank you." Delia said offering him a smile, before turning to Damian, "And here I thought I was the only assistant." 

Damian chuckled, "Though you're a lovely assistant, I kind of need two extra sets of hands and I ran into your friend some time back who agreed to help."

"Besides, I can't think of a something better then spending a day at sea." Gabriel said, placing a hand on Delia's shoulder, "Wouldn't you agree?" He added with what Delia could have sworn was a wink. 

Letting go of her shoulder he walked passed her and over to Damian, helping him getting the last things ready before they left. 

"Fair enough," Delia replied placing her backpack on the deck, "So what exactly are we doing today?"

"Well," Damian replied grabbing his laptop, "Recently I've been seeing an increase in a larger species, however, the computer has a hard time identifying it. At first we thought it was a type of shark, however, the tail orientation would indicate that it is a mammel, so we would be looking at a dolphin. But it's nothing like we've ever seen before, so we're going out further to see if we can figure out what exactly it is." 

At that Delia's heart sank for a moment, 'Oh no... He couldn't have been talking about her right?' I mean her tail was oriented in the same way a mammel's would be... Trying to not worry about it too much she tried to rid herself of those thoughts and simply asked him what her task would be for the day.