Fish Out of Water

Chapter 10~ The UnderSide

     Light streamed through a giant rock and into the water. Bay checked on me every few minutes, but I didn't need any air. My gills were in.

The underwater cave was fully submerged, tunnels ran from the center and into the giant rock Bay swam us into. My leg muscles burned as I lightly kicked. He pulled me up and wrapped his arm around my abdomen. I looked at him and he grinned before flicking his tail and sending us in an arching spiral around the cave system. Slow enough for me to see everything but fast enough to make my head spin.  Little fish flitted out of our way and scrambled to the edge of the cave. Bay's arms held me tight, the kind of muscle that only comes from living most of your life swimming against the might of the ocean.

Bay twirled us in spirals, arched up high and it felt a lot like flying as we reach up toward the light and back down to the bottom. He sliced through the water so effortlessly it made me feel clumsy. Bubbles gurgled behind me and I turned around to see him laughing and his laugh was contagious.

After a few more spirals and twists he pointed to one of the tunnels and I nodded. He grabbed something from his bag and pressed it into my hands. A flashlight. I turned it on, and he darted into the tunnel. It was barely big enough for us to squeeze through together, but we tucked our elbows in and he pulled me as close as humanly possible. He barely had the space to move his tail, he must just be propelling us with the fin of it. Crabs and clams littered the walls of the cave, a gold ring glinted in the flashlight beam as we passed over it. Bay back-peddled to snatch it and drop it in his bag before moving on. There were a few other metal things we passed but he didn't stop for those. He must be able to see better than me. He's spent most of his time in the ocean. Explored all the nearby reefs, and swam through all the tunnels. He probably had nooks he went to get away and be alone and had seen the ocean at its calmest and tucked himself away somewhere deep and hidden from stormy waters. Or maybe he rode the storm. Was there sch thing as underwater storm chasers? Or is facing the ocean at her angriest even too dangerous for a mere?

Coasting through the caves until I felt a tightness in my chest, I tapped Bay's wrist and he took us through two branching tunnels and straight up. Our heads broke through the surface and I gulped in as much air as my lungs could take.

"Too long?" he asked, his arms unwound from my waist, but he kept a hand under my elbow.

"Guess you were right. They're not quite all the way in." I glanced down at them there were still faint lines a bit past the parts that had already opened. "This place is so cool." I looked from the dome-shaped cave to the giant crack through the center letting in a spotlight slicing across the water.

"Right?" his eyes flickered around the water and a proud smile tugged his lips upward. "You're the first person I've been able to bring here."

"In a class full of half sea-lings?" I scoffed.

"Sea-lings?" Bay quirked a brow at me. "Really?"

I shrugged. "You have other options."

"Well, you're assuming I'm good at making friends and if we're just talking about the ones that have gills and can actually spend this time fully underwater that lessens the pool of 'sea-lings'."

"What are you talking about. That one girl literally popped a tail the other day in gym class. That's a new friend right there."

"Sera would literally drown me if she had the opportunity and she doesn't have gills anyway."

"Why would Sera drown you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Did you not see her hair? She's got siren lineage."