Oceana: The Hidden Kingdom

I Don't Do Drowning

Hey guys, sorry this is such a long chapter, my mind for once was flooded with ideas, and I just had to write some of them into this chapter. Hope you liked it, and happy reading!! (Word count 3,500 XD)
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Here come the nightmares... I thought. Wait. No nightmares? How? Someone shook me awake. "Uh..." I groaned. "Hey, are you okay?" Eldowen asked worriedly. "Yeah, I think. How are you?" She looked at me incredulously. "You're asking me if I'm okay?" "Yeah, and?" I asked, dumbfounded. She just shrugged, smirking. "I'm fine, although you should be asking yourself if you're okay," she said, chuckling. I shook my head, laughing "Hey, where's Lucien...?" I started. Eldowen snorted. "He went to the office and called for his parents. We thought it would be better to go over all of this somewhere where no one would be thinking we were crazy. Talking about mermaids and demigods, I have to admit, it sounded crazy to me, too. But I had a dream and it kind of cleared up the story." I slapped a hand to my forehead, groaning. "I forgot all about the surf meet tomorrow. Oh..." "What?" She asked me. "My birthday's tomorrow." "Tomorrow's also a full moon..." Eldowen trailed off. "You think this is all connected?" I asked her, my brow creasing in concentration. She shrugged. "Possibly," she said simply. When I didn't say anything, she spoke up. "I'm really sorry about what happened back there. I was the target for Irina's master plan, not you. And Irina..." I shook my head. "Irina shouldn't have messed with either of us. I saw today the type of person she is. The friend I had in her is lost to the past." I sighed, forcing a smile. "Should we get going?" "School ended." The smile melted off my face. "We were here for 2-3 hours...?" She nodded. "I need to call my parents and tell them I'm going to your house." "Already done, and it's not my house we're going to. Oh, sorry I took your phone." She gave me back my phone, smiling sheepishly. "It's fine, thanks." "Who's house are we going to then--" "Good seeing you're both feeling better. My parents are both at work, so the house's free. Are you all set?" Lucien asked. "Yeah, thanks." I said quickly, ignoring Eldowen's giggles behind me. Since all the students had left already, it made it so much easier than to sneak around with scales growing on my skin. I sighed. "Today was such a long day, wasn't it?" I laughed, and soon enough, they joined in. We made it to Lucien's house, and I couldn't help gasping. "This is your house..." Eldowen said breathlessly. After all, she was into architecture. It was a contemporary house and it was just so...magnificent, I guess you could say. "Do you have any siblings?" I asked. "Yeah, an older brother in college, an older sister in another high school, and a little sister going to elementary. Oh, and my cousins are staying over until a little while after New Year's. Why?" I shook my head, grinning. "Your house is huge, that's all." "Yeah, not to mention extraordinary!" Eldowen called from where she had wandered off to. I laughed. "How's your hike going, El? Find anything interesting?" I called already in the house, wandering myself. "Yep! A demigod and a mermaid flirting, that's what!" I blushed. "Are you coming or not? You're going to miss this "extraordinary" house!" He said, and I laughed. "Come, I'll show you to--" He was cut short. "Uh, what is that?" Eldowen had come over to my right. "No idea... It looks like..." "A portal..." We all said in unison. On the ground outside, lay the missing wooden door in splinters. "Should we see where it leads--" began Eldowen, but was interrupted by something coming out from the glowing purple portal. Lucky me, the monster was reaching for me. My heart racing, I jumped over a tentacle, and wondered if the kraken was real. Well, before my strange mishaps, I didn't really believe in mermaids, so I guess anything is possible now. "Aquata! Duck!" Lucien called from the house. "Wha--". An arrow whizzed over my head, digging itself into a tentacle. "Great, only 7 more to go." Eldowen said, swinging a tree branch. It seemed like the beast was retreating back into the portal, and I turned to check on my friends. Something grabbed me and dragged me back to the portal. I heard someone screaming. Sadly, that person was me. "Aquata!" My friends called after me. I tried fighting back, but the monster had wrapped however many tentacles it had left around my hands and feet, flipping me upside down. "Ugh! Let. Me. Go!" My mistress needs you, the realm needs you. Now be a dear and stop struggling so you, of all mermaids, could save the kingdom. I glared at the creature. "Are you supposed to be the Kraken?" Gee, what took you this long. His attitude was really annoying me. "Help would be nice right about now." I muttered. I was brought closer to the portal, me thrashing wildly against the monster's hold and my friends trying desperately to make the Kraken let me go. Eldowen seemed to like giving him threats. I screamed and the Kraken monster dragged me through the portal, to the other side. "Are we under water?!" I heard a rumbling laugh. Thankfully, I took a gasp of air before it dragged me under. You can breath underwater, you know? It told me. The portal disappeared, and my eyes widened. A flash had me looking away, and it looked like my friends found a way into the portal before it had closed. "Let go of our friend!" Eldowen yelled, without realizing we were underwater. She gasped. "How is this possible...?" She gave and accusing look at Lucien. He shrugged. "Don't know, maybe you're secretly a mermaid, too." She scoffed. "So what now Mr. Monster?" She yelled. Another rumbling laugh. "Why is he laughing at me?!" Lucien stifled a laugh with a cough, but I couldn't help laughing. "Let's go, it'll all going to make sense once we get there." "There? Where?" "Wow, Aqua, between you and our Kraken buddy over here, I think I might just start becoming friends with jellyfish!" I laughed again, Lucien trying but failing to stifle his laugh. Soon, we were all laughing and things eased a bit. Except for the fact that I had no idea where this thing was taking us. For all I knew, we might as well be in the Oceans of Fiji. I stopped struggling, and eventually, the Kraken let me fall in step with my friends, El a little bit more behind us, grumbling stuff that I should better not mention about the Kraken. "So, do you have a name, or should we just call you Mr. Kraken?" Eldowen asked. "Just call me Carter." "Uh, okay, Carter the Kraken, I like it." "So uh, are you in college or..." the monster grumbled. "I'm the same age as you, just that I was cursed as the next Kraken, so I'm kind of immortal until another Protector of the Seas shows up, which should be you," he finally said, his gaze turning to me. I froze. "And you can turn back into a human?" El asked, saving me from his gaze.  "Yeah, unless I'm guarding the Oceans against whatever evil is out these days. But these days I just go about the Ocean, taking care of pollution and stuff." He sounded sad. "And does anyone help you or do you have any family..." I started. "They're humans...Some sea witch cursed me one day, I don't really remember why, but I guess I pissed her off...I have no idea what happened to them..." Eldowen looked up from the sandy floor, raising an eyebrow at Carter. I caught her blushing. I couldn't help smirking. "What?!" She waved her hands at me. "Nothing," and I looked ahead toward an interesting patch of...kelp, still smiling, though. We were silent the rest of the way to the kelp forest. "This is the Kelp Forest, stay close together if you don't want to get lost," Carter said. "Shocking..." Eldowen muttered next to me. The Forest stretched on and on until I thought we were lost. At the end, where the kelp grew thin, was a shining light. We swam anxiously toward it, and stopped dead in our tracks, er, sand? In front of us stood a city made completely out of coral. It looked like the Little Mermaid come to life. I just gaped as the Kraken laughed behind us. "Come on, we're needed at the Palace," Lucien said, trading looks with Carter. "Lucien, do not bloody tell me you can talk to sea life!" "I can, and that's my father's palace," he said, smirking. El rolled her eyes. "Welcome to the hidden city of Oceana!" The Kraken boomed behind us. Eldowen scrambled next to me. "A little warning next time..." She huffed. "Huh..." I said, shaking my head, blinking as if I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Let's go." Lucien said, motioning for us to follow him. "Oh, great, I'm going to meet your father," I mumbled as Eldowen grinned evilly behind me. In the distance, by the glorious coral castle, some dark shapes moved. Eldowen squinted her eyes, and I asked what the shapes where. His eyes widened in what lookes like fear. "That means we should get out of here, now!" He whirled around, but the Kraken just stood in the way. "Move, Kraken," Lucien said. "You don't command him, I do," a voice said. Lucien inhaled sharply. "Nice to see you again, brother," the voiced chuckled, coming out from the kelp forest. "Akilon, what's your business in Father's kindom?" He demanded. His brother shrugged. His shape blurred, and he withdrew his sword, pointing it at Lucien. "You know why I'm here. I would have told you to say hi to father for me, but you won't live long enough to do, a tradgedy it is." And at that moment he decided to strike, but Lucien had already unsheathed his own sword and the two brothers were now parrying madly against each other. Eldowen screamed as the Kraken put an arm around her mouth. Aquata lunged towards the creature, but that moment something caused her to turn around instead. Akilon thrust his sword through Lucien's gut, and Aquata screamed. She sat bolt right up, panting as she was drenched in cold sweat. How could that have been a dream? It was too realistic. She breathed in a shaky breath and looked around. She seemed to be in the clinic, what had happened? And that was when the memories of the previous events in the cafeteria flooded her mind. Wait, wasn't I in the bathroom before the dreams started? Or maybe that was part of the dream, too. But that's not possible, then that would make the events in the cafeteria...she shook her head and looked at her reflection in a mirror across the room. No scales, so it was just a dream. Aquata sighed a breath of relief. At that moment she simply forgot about the encounter with the water nymph. She had to get ready for her surf meet tomorrow. Feeling lighter than she had in weeks, she stood up, stumbling a bit on her way, and went to the front desk. Eldowen was arguing with the office aide, motioning wildly with her arms. "Eldowen--" "And she fainted, so what? She's not crazy, you hear me?" Aquata cleared her throat. They still had gone on arguing. "Eldowen!!" She finally shut up and turned in my direction. She hurried over and hugged me. "Oh, I'm so happy you're okay! I'll take her home," she told the older girl at the desk firmly, who flinched as El waved goodbye. "What happened to you back there?" Eldowen asked, grabbing my arm. "What happened back where?" I asked, dumbfounded. "Back in Ms. Hall's class, you just fainted, like you saw a ghost, or something," Wow, I really did not have a good memory. "Gah, I don't know, I can't remember, I had this weird dream and--" she cut me off before I could finish. "Was this before or after you passed out?" She asked. "After, why?" "Nothing, carry on," I eyed her suspiciously. She was acting weird. I shook my head. Boy was that dream messing with my head. "It showed us going into the cafeteria, and Irina decided to play a prank on you by putting a cup or bucket or whatever on the edge of the top of the door, so when you opened it you would get wet and the whole cafeteria would be making fun of you. I went into the cafeteria first, which wasn't supposed to happen, and after I took an unexpected swim, I started growing...scales on my neck and shoulders. Then I fainted in the bathroom, I woke up a couple of hours after school ended, and we went to Lucien's super fancy house in the woods. We found a portal or something and the Kraken took us into it. There was this gorgeous castle made out of coral, and Lucien kept wanting to take me to his dad, Neptune?" I shook my head. Why does the super cute guy have a planet for a parent? "Nevermind. After that his evil twin or something steps out of the kelp forest and attacks Lucien, killing him," I sighed, out of breath. Eldowen was looking at me as if she thought I had gone crazy. I put my hands on my hips. "What?" I demanded. Eldowen burst out laughing, hysteria in her voice. She wiped a tear away, calming down but still shaking her head, like this was all just funny business. "This all sounds like a crazy dream and all, but why did you just randomly pass out in the middle of history? Was the subject that boring to you?" She asked. "Honestly, I don't know and I don't remember, I'll just take your word for it and tell my parents I had a really bad head ache or something. Sound good?" She nodded. "Great, I'll leave my stuff at home, and then we could get to the beach, kind of last minute for surf practice, don't you think?" I chuckled. She shrugged. "Nah, imagine it as a pre-competition check up, you know, to make sure we're all ready and such," I laughed, shaking my head and thinking how it was possible to feel this normal after a very not normal dream. That dream was not real, so I should have fun today, right? I nodded. "Let's go, oh, and tag!" I ran towards the surfboard shed, looking for my reddish/orange ombre board with some black uh what is it called? Mandala! Yeah, that's what it's called, I think. "Tag, now you're it, but seriously, let's get the boards and go, I want to show you my trick." I laughed, she's just too funny. "I already found mine, where's yours?" She gestured at a blue surfboard with white stripes. "Nice!!" "We'll take a first run and after that we'll switch boards if you want," she said. I grinned. "That's not such a bad idea, beat you there," and I ran. "Don't you mean meet you there?" Eldowen asked, turning around. She groaned. "Aquata!!!" She grabbed her surfboard and ran for the beach. Huffing and puffing, she glared at her friend, which made her laugh. El smirked. "Come on, stop laughing at me!" She chuckled. "Can't hurt to stop for a while, actually no, it might," and she went on her board, paddling towards the bigger waves. "What am I going to do with this crazy?" She shook her head and paddled towards Aquata, but went ahead since she had stronger arms, apparently. They turned around, stood up, and surfed the wave. Again, Eldowen was ahead of her, but she didn't care. She was surfing the tube, and everything turned peaceful and calm. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, a voice shouting her name lost to the sound of the waves. "Aquata!!" A voice cried, shaking her out of her peaceful state. She stumbled, and the board toppled over. Under water and trying to reach the surface, wave after wave crashed upon her, keeping her from the surface. Her vision blurred, and the beautiful image of under the
sea faded around her. Something dragged her out of the water, and started CPR. "Come on Aquata, wake up!" A voice murmured. I coughed, spitting out a lungfull of salt water. "Don't," the voice said as I tried to sit up. "Aquata, are you okay?" A familiar voice asked worriedly. "I-I think so. What happened?" I asked, entranced by the stars lighting up the sky. "You went under," the other voice said. Geez, he sounded like a strict parent. I looked to the side and stiffled a gasp. There was the new kid, Lucien, wearing red and a lifeguard's whistle. "You're a lifeguard?" I asked. He just nodded. "What he meant to say was that I noticed something going on in the tube, and I've been calling your name until something flashed and your board splashed out and washed up on the beach. Then I called for help, and well, he swam and swam looking for you. That and it was getting dark, and you've been underwater for a long time. We thought your heart had stopped," El said quietly. I sighed. "Do my parents know?" "Not yet, the lifeguard station called them but it went to voicemail, so no, not yet," Eldowen said. I sighed again and stood up, giving Lucien a look. "I'm fine, don't worry about it," I told him, kind of staring into his grey eyes that seemed to hold moonlight inside of them. He nodded, helping me stand up. He was being unnaturally quiet. I narrowed my eyes at him but didn't say anything, for he had turned his head away, not meeting my gaze. "Well--" I was interrupted. "What happened to you?" He asked, his brow creasing. "I don't know, I closed my eyes for a second, and when I heard someone calling my name, I just...lost control, I guess." I blinked hard. Why did I feel like crying? Because I made a fool of myself in front of the new kid? Or because I had no idea what happened? I shook my head. "Um Aquata, what're those?" Eldowen asked. "What are what?" I said smartly. She pointed at my neck, and when I looked down, I saw green shiny plates spiking from my skin. I rubbed the spot; it had started to itch back in the tube, i just hadn't payed that much attention to it. The things fell away, and I gazes at them, the almost full moon shining on the surface. Lucien took one from my hand, and his eyes seemed to widen but his expression remained stone like. "They're scales," he said simply, looking at where they had been moments before. "Aqua, what the heck are you doing with scales sticking out of your skin? Are you filming a mermaid movie?" El asked curiously. This could not be happening, I probably just got some stuck in my skin from my time underwater. "I've been underwater for a long, probably some fish scales floating around got stuck to my skin when you took me out of the water," I nodded to Lucien, who had his eyes narrowed, calculating. "Maybe. I have to go, my cousins are coming over for dinner and well, you know how it is," he smiled sheepishly. Eldowen waved goodbye and thanked him one more time for saving my life, and I did the same. His eyes sparkled and he ran back towards a black car that was waiting for him. Before he got in, tho, he waved to us one last time and gazed at the stars and the moon, his eyes reflecting an infinite galaxy inside of them. I turned to look at the sky and smiled. "You're lovesick, let me take you home," she said. I looked at her in awe. "You have a car?" "Pfft, no, but my sister does, let's go!" She said, laughing. "One last question," she said. "Shoot," I replied, bracing myself for what was coming. "Are you really shooting a mermaid movie?" She asked, and I snorted, laughing into the beautiful night as Eldowen continued with her pestering questions, all the way back to the car. I was thankful when she just dropped the subject of me almost drowning, and that she didn't prevent me or anything from continuing for the surf meet tomorrow. I sighed. Now all I have to deal with is my parents...what a long night it was turning out to be...