Rainbow : what? Mother! Why should I?
She would have thought her mother was joking because what she said didn’t make any sense at all. Ma’am Nina was her best friend right from when they were kids. And Blue was her bestie right from when they were born, which was on the same day. They literally grew up together, it was really impossible to stay away from her. And besides, she didn’t have any other friend from her. Not that they were no mermaids she could make friends with but only Blue loved and understands her for who she is.
She would have thought that her mother was joking but the way she sounded and looked, Rainbow knew she was serious
Ma’am Kyl: I don’t want you to have anything to do with that daughter of a traitor. She’s just going to be like her mother. Nina broke my trust for her and she broke our friendship, I so hate her now. I don’t want you anywhere near their house or hanging out with Blue again.
At this time, poor Rainbow could no longer control her emotions. She broke down crying.
Rainbow : (in tears) mother you want me to leave the only mermaid in the ocean who never looks down on me? You want me to leave the only mermaid who made me feel wanted? Just because of a little misunderstanding between you and ma’am Nina. Can’t you just sort things out?
Ma’am Lyn: you can’t dictate for your mother. It’s better to remain alone than be in the company of traitors. She has decided to let go of ma’am Nina for good reason.
Ma’am Kyl: precisely! And about your friends? You’ll get tons of them when we move in to the high class villa. You’ll make good friends with noble kids not someone like Blue who can’t help you
Rainbow : but mother, I thought we were all planning to move there together?
Ma’am Kyl: not anymore. Ma’am Lyn her will be my plus one
Ma’am Lyn gave an evil grin. But she quickly loosened her face when Rainbow turned to look at her
Ma’am Lyn : I’d be really honoured to be your plus one ma’am Kyl. And I’ll do anything to make sure you have a comfortable life, that’s why I want my daughter Nick to make friends with your daughter Rainbow.
Ma’am Kyl: that’s wonderful. You and Nick would make a great team
Rainbow : what? You’re so unbelievable mother.
Then she swam out angrily and in tears towards their courtyard. Ma’am Kyl kept calling her back but she ignored
Blue swam Home happily, with the book she got from the library in her hands. She really wanted to try out the songs. But when she got home, her joy died down as she saw her mother in tears. She swam to her and held her hand
Blue: mother what’s wrong?
Ma’am Nina : it’s…its.. It’s nothing my child. Just an outburst of emotions
Blue: mother you only cry when you loose something valuable. And you hardly loose valuable things. So why are you crying? Please tell me, I can’t stand your tears mother
From the way her voice twisted, it was detectable that she was at the verge of tears too.
Ma’am Nina : it’s Kyl, she’s misunderstanding me. The necklace I told you about, Lyn said she handed it over to me and I never had it with me. Kyl came over to look for it and found it here. She overreacted and called me a traitor. And now I feel so sad because my closest friend doesn’t trust me at all. How could I do such a thing Blue? How?
Blue hugged her mother
Blue: mother,…. Mother that’s enough. Don’t cry please. We’ll sort things out with them. You’re not a traitor.
She felt like crying but she knew that wouldn’t be advisable. If she should start crying now, then who would console who?
Blue: let’s go mother. The water’s starting to get cold out here. Let’s go inside or else you’ll catch a cold or fever.
She led her mother inside and helped her to lie down on the soft sea hills they used as their beds. Then she prepared some herbs for her to take.
After a few minutes, she fell asleep and then Blue went to her room.
She kept the book under a table and went to her bed to sleep too
Rainbow : please don’t leave me Blue. I want you to be my friend not Nick.
She was almost close to tears.
Blue : I want to be your friend too, I don’t want us to be separated
She placed her palm on Rainbow’s palm and held her
Rainbow : promise me we’ll be friends forever. Promise me mother won’t separate us
Blue: I promise you Rainbow. We’ll be friends forever
Then they both smiled and hugged each other passionately.
Just a few seconds into the hug, someone cleared his throat loudly and they disengaged from each other and turned towards the direction of the sound
Jace: can I join in the hug too
It was Jace that cleared his throat. The girls giggled and rushed to him for a tight hug.
Then ma’am Shell entered and all the students settled down for their lessons. It was going to be about do’s and don’ts of the city.
Ma’am Shell : to be a responsible citizen of Neptune City, you must follow the do’s and don’ts. First we’re going to talk about where you must be and must not be
1. Don’t be late to any legal gathering and don’t miss it
2. Don’t go to the shore at all
3. Don’t go to any neighbouring city without the king’s permission
4. Don’t ever ever swim your tail to the Grey ditch which is every mer-being’s death zone.
The way she demonstrated and squeezed her face frightened the students.
She told them about the myth surrounding the Grey ditch.
It was a very deep ditch that had the power to pull any creature to itself. No matter how fast the creature could swim, when the force of the ditch hit it, it will fall into it and never return.
Many merbeings have been lost and never found due to it’s pull for centuries past. Then King Neptune the 1st built Neptune’s city away from the ditch and forbid the beings from going anywhere near it. Even though the creature didn’t die in the ditch, it will be thrown off to another side of the ocean and sometimes to the shore but that was very rare.
If it was a merbeing, it would loose it’s memory forever and also it’s magical powers.
And might even be unconscious for years. So it was better to totally avoid the ditch and be free from its troubles.
The whole class was awestruck after ma’am Shell’s myth about the Grey ditch. No one wanted to go there.
Ma’am Shell : the Grey ditch is at the western route away from the city. Don’t, I repeat don’t go there.
Rainbow : (to Jace) I’m scared
Jace held her hand and squeezed her fingers softly
Jace: don’t be
When the class was over, the trio headed towards the library. Jace and Rainbow were getting along real good and Blue could perceive that Jace liked her friend too.
The two kept on chasing themselves and giggling like kids. While Blue kept reminiscing the last day’s event. How ma’am Kyl now hated her mother and wanted to separate her and Rainbow.
Soon she got to the library without the two couples. She sighed and got to work. She began to pick the snails and slugs on the book shelves and keeping them in a special place.
She kept picking them until she got to the shelf where they saw a book about places in the ocean. She took the book and decided to go through it while waiting for Rainbow and Jace.
Jace and Rainbow stopped by a food stand to get some snacks. He kept making her laugh and he couldn’t help smiling. He really liked her personality and he wished they’ll be friends forever.
He had just known her for a few days bit it felt as if they’ve been together for years. Maybe it was because of their nature that they could blend easily.
But suddenly, he began to feel nervous and uneasy. He didn’t like that new feeling at all. It only comes when something bad is about to happen and it usually happens. It had been a constant feature in his life from his childhood. Whenever he had that feeling, something really bad was going to happen.
Rainbow : why has your expression changed
Jace: uhmm, oh I’m okay… Why don’t you uhhm, finish up let’s not keep Blue waiting.
She nodded and began to eat faster then she heard something that almost made her choke.
Jace: I like you
Rainbow : huh
Jace: I like you. Like like… you.
She was speechless and awestruck physically but thousands of thoughts were going through her mind in neuroseconds.
did he just say he liked liked her
that was exactly what she felt for him
or was she just hallucinating and hearing unreal words
I can’t believe this
Jace: Rainbow
Rainbow : huh. Yeah I’m here. Uhmm I…. I like…. I like like you too
Jace smiled and beaconed on her to get up so they could get going. The both of them kept smiling till they reached the library.
Blue was still glancing through the book when they arrived. She noticed they were both smiling like idiots.
Blue: whoaah! What’s with the smiling faces. What did I miss out?
Jace : huh? I don’t know y she’s smiling but I’m smiling because she’s smiling
Rainbow : and I’m smiling because he’s smiling
Blue: and now I’m laughing because you too are smiling because the other person is smiling
They all laughed
Jace: whatcha doing?
Blue : going through this book. It’s pretty interesting
Jace: yes let’s read more about the Grey ditch.
Rainbow : what no I’m scared
Jace : come on sweetie. We’re just reading
Blue opened to the page and they kept looking at the pictures and reading it. All that was there was what ma’am Shell told them.
They were about to open to the last page about the ditch when it ripped off because Blue added a little force to it and it wasnt really attached well. The leave was really light and it began to float away quickly.
Blue: oh no, ma’am Shell is going to kill us
Rainbow : we have to get it back
Jace: come on, let’s go before we loose it to the ocean.
The trio followed the page and tried to catch it. Their chase was really unsuccessful. They didn’t even concentrate on any other thing except the page.
They didn’t know they had gotten into the western route.
Rainbow caught sight of the page a little bit ahead of them and as the fastest swimmer swam as fast as she could to grab it.
She swam farther away from them and that was when she felt a slight pulling of her tail. She thought it got hooked to something but it wasn’t.
Her two friends watched her as she struggled to be stable again. They were confused .
Rainbow felt the pull on her tail getting stronger and she was getting weaker. She began to scream because she was frightened.
It was then realisation hit her friends. THE GREY DITCH
They had unknowingly went there and Rainbow was directly over it.
Blue jerked forward
Blue : RAINBOW!
She tried to swim to her but Jace pulled her back because he could feel it’s pull over them too. He swam as fast as he could away from the vicinity while pulling the crying and screaming Blue along.
When he came to a halt. He held Blue tightly.
He couldn’t fight his tears too. He broke down with Blue hugging him and crying profusely.
It was too late.
Rainbow had already gone down the ditch……
To Be Continued