The Ocean Price

CHAPTER FOUR

Adella raced over to the scene of crime. A beautiful yet grimy mermaid sat in the stairs of the royal palace, pleading with her hands clasped tightly. "Please, Your Royal Majesty. Save me by ending my life, I'm begging you!" she cried out. Queen Marina looked down at her kneeling figure.

"Julie, I can't! You know it's illegal to kill others." Julie screamed with pain and her body rocked back and forth, shuddering and becoming still. Queen Marina looked sadly at her. Her mind flew with flashbacks and Adella was thrown into the world of the past.

"Where are you going, Daddy?" Queen Marina asked, still recognisable after years of change. Her father smiled back at her and leant down. "Marina, sweetheart, I'm going to work. Stay safe with Sophie, won't you?" Her father passed her a cuddly toy. Marina smiled and waved goodbye.

Later on, she saw her father screaming at the town square, blood streaming down his head and his eyes looked vacant, already gone. Marina had run out screaming but it was too late.

Her mind ran with flashbacks. How could she do this? Pearl's eyes glistened again and a tear crept down her cheek. She tapped Adella's arm. "You have the skill of envisioning. You have the skill to see what haunts others." Marina's face grew cold and her eyes were red-rimmed. "Alright. Julie, if you wish, you may die. When would you like the date?" Julie smiled darkly. "Today if you wouldn't mind. In front  of the crowd too."

Adella shielded her eyes as a chopping noise went through the air. Then, all the blood turned into a mosaic and smashed into the palace walls, leaving a beautiful coral-like picture printed on the façade. Marina took the remaining blood and it filled perfectly to the brim in a jar. She passed it to Julie's family and they gladly accepted it.

Pearl prodded Adella's arm to tell her it was safe and the first thing Adella saw was a green-haired girl. She chivvied them into the palace again.

"I'm Fern, the new palace advisor. I was hired a few hours ago," she explained as they swam. She had long light-green hair with caramel coloured skin. Her eyes were as dark as black coffee and her tail was the same colour as her hair. Adella frowned at her. "Shouldn't you be with the Queen?" Fern fussed with one of spaghetti straps on her pea-coloured ruffled tank top. "No. She gave me the order to keep you both safe. Besides, I'm protecting the heir! Isn't that more important? To keep the future in good hands?"

Adella privately thought Fern wasn't the definition of 'good hands' but she said nothing. Even in the human world, she had been taught to be polite. Fern fiddled with her thick dark green velvet arm band, covering the place where Adella had always taken her pulse on her wrist. 

Pearl stuck out her arm. Three bubbles entwined were outlined in black, like a tattoo. She grimaced and then her tattoo lit up, glowing blue and real bubbles floated out of her hand as she made the peace sign but her fingers were together. Then, she flipped it 180 degrees anti-clockwise, making the back of her hand show and then she twisted it the other way, 180 degrees again. Bubbles streamed out and hit the button on the right hand side and some translucent glass doors slid on either side to make way for them. Basically, the world's coolest sliding door.

Adella prodded Pearl. "What was that movement?" Pearl smiled. "It's the basic one. The one that you use for practically everything. It's called 'The Peace Twist' but we just all call it TPT as 'The Peace Twist' is quite a mouthful."

After that, the atmosphere was awkwardly silent. Fern broke the silence first. "Hey girls, get something to eat. It's lunch now." Adella frowned. "Lunch already?" Pearl sighed. "I forgot. In this world, our days are between the low tides. So, when it reaches the high tide, we have lunch. Also, one minute in the human world is a day in our world. Don't ask me how this works, I didn't create these rules."

Adella followed Pearl and Fern into the café. Pearl chose for Adella as she could see Adella was staring at the food as if it were alien. The plate had some suspicious greens and leafy vegetables lying innocently on it. There was at least a normal dessert, brownie ice cream sandwich. Well, not normal, just something you would find in the human world, not under the sea.

They sat down and Pearl attacked her salad, ravenously. Adella picked through her salad, looking at it from side to side. Finally, she gathered the courage to take a bite. The salad was delicious, the dressing tangy and refreshing, the greens crispy and crunchy, sweet then sour. The dessert was also nothing like she'd ever tasted, different flavours of ice cream came through each bite. She bit tiny little nibbles on the side all at once and she felt a burst of flavours tingle on her tongue.

Pearl laughed at her astonished expression. "I picked my favourite food. You'll need to get your strength up. Later on, you will have to have a mini exam to prove yourself worthy of the tattoo." Adella's mouthful suddenly turned sour. "What do you mean by 'mini exam'?" she asked, nervous already. "And what has this got to do with getting my sister back?"

"Well, if you complete the exam and get a tattoo, you can protect yourself when you hunt for the 'Ocean Price'. The Ocean Price is a price you pay for wishing. It became a law when someone died and nothing, not even a wish, can bring someone back from the dead. Unless you use powerful monster sorcery," Pearl explained, taking a sip of her lemonade-like fizzy blue drink. 

Adella gulped. "So, what are the 'monsters'?" she asked. Pearl took another sip before saying, "Well, monsters are the sea creatures which turn into a human at will. They're not really monsters, just a different type of species. We won a war against them a few centuries back and now they hate our race," she explicated matter-of-factly. 

Fern suddenly stood. "Girls, come along. The Queen wants you," she said, staring into those big conch shells that were part of those mermaid myths and legends. Adella tried to keep calm but inside her heart was beating like a drum, completely off the rhythm and going far too fast for her liking. Tick tock tick tock, said the clock, dangling from Fern's pile of eccentric items hanging from her dark green velvet belt. 

Pearl clutched her arm tightly. "Everything will be okay," she murmured. Adella tried her best to believe it. Everything would be okay.