Kyle opened his eyes to a see a bright glowing world beneath the surface of the water. He gasped, then gasped once again at the fact that he was able to do such a thing underwater.

He let out a slow breath and watched a small stream of bubbles floated out of his mouth and began a small race to the surface.

Suddenly Khannah swam past him, making him jump slightly. She swam ahead and stopped near Summer, who had a look in her eyes like a girl in a brand new shopping mall. Kyle swam closer and Summer grabbed his shoulders.

She screamed, “ It’s so pretty down here! And we can breathe! Let’s swim with mermaids!”

Kyle tilted his head in surprise at the fact that he could hear Summer as clearly as if they were still on land.

Khannah swam up to the two and stated, “I’m sorry children but exploring is not our intended purpose. We gotta clear your thoughts and enhance your memories.”

She motioned for them to follow before giving a strong flick of her tail to propel herself forward towards the bright underwater world. Kyle and Summer both began to swim after her. As they drew nearer to the lights, they realized that the entire underwater world was composed of the roots of the giant tree that rose above the surface. It was large enough for enormous roots to reach out nearly to the ends of the lake, and they all snaked around each other, creating rooms and doorways and chambers all entangled in each other.

Khannah swam in between some of the roots, entering a long tunnel that seemed to lead towards the center cluster of the tree roots. She turned her head back to Kyle and Summer.

“We keep our medicine chambers closer to the tree itself, it has to always be protected. Cool right?” She said, then turned back around.

Summer took a few strong strokes to catch up to Khannah.

She asked, “Why do you talk weird?”

Khannah turned back, surprised, and asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Summer shrugged, “I dunno, you talk all formal, then like a teenager. It’s weird”

Khannah blushed and turned back around to keep swimming.

She said quietly, “We creatures don’t learn speech like you. However we try to learn forms of human speech if our worlds are ever to come in contact again. We speak quite formal here but you humans speak so differently. Sorry I mix things up.”

Kyle stopped swimming for a brief moment.

“Did you say again? Humans used to live here?” He asked.

Khannah shook her head, “Not exactly, we just coexisted in our worlds in harmony. But that is not my story to tell you. I don’t know enough anyways, I am quite young.”

Summer slowed down and waited for Kyle to catch up to her.

She asked, “I thought this world was hidden? After all everyone seems to hate humans here.”

“Yeah we’re quite lucky to be alive,” Kyle added, “But we can ask someone else about this stuff before we leave. After all, our memories are going to be enhanced, maybe our minds will barely survive a memory wipe later.”

Then, Kyle noticed a bright light glowing ahead of them, around a curve of their tunnel.

Khannah stopped swimming and turned around with a smile.

“We have arrived children,” she said happily.

She allowed them both to catch up, and they gasped when they saw the room. There was a large chamber carved out in the large root of the tree. Mermaids swam back and forth grabbing things from hollowed out shelves and placing items down on the floor. Large shells were turned over with kelp and seaweed in their curved side like beds, and some mermaids rested peacefully in a few of them. A large knotted root hung from the middle of the ceiling, wrapping itself around huge bulbous glowing seaweed orbs. It cast a blueish green light that bounced off all the walls.

Khannah swam forward again.

She said, “Please follow me, you will each have a bed here”

She gestured to two empty shells beside each other.

Kyle and Summer hesitated a moment, then swam to the vacant shells, and drifted down Ito their curves. Khannah pulled out seaweed baskets from behind the shells and placed them in between the two.

“I’m afraid this part is gonna be rather unfortunate for the two of you,” Khannah said gently.

The teens eyes widened as they watched her pull a long, sharp, blade-like stone out of one of the baskets.