Underwater, Zed can now see the rest of Brine’s body. He was muscular but slender. His body matched the light blue color of his head. A pair of gills adorned his neck, accompanied by two dark blue crescent patterns. Two more of these crescents decorated each of his finned fore arms. His hands and his feet were webbed. His body was dressed in a one shoulder strap toga made from kelp, and the strap was held to the rest of the toga by a sand dollar.

The gang swam after Brine who appeared to effortlessly glide down into the depths of the Great Oasis until they reached the coral forested bottom. Corals of all bright colors blanketed the area accompanied by local wildlife including the flappy jellyfish they had observed earlier. Trace looked curiously at the wildlife until spotting a group of wild aeras slugs. Trace turned green at the mere sight of them and swims away. Nearby Psy let’s a small group of small rainbow, fluorescent jellyfish swarm around his head and hands. Zed notices a large, tree sized anemone and swims up to it to get a better look. The anemone reacts to Zed’s presence by moving its tentacle crown toward him, revealing its toothed mouth that snaps at Zed. Zed turns to Brine and tries to speak to him, but a stream of garbled bubbles leaves his mouth.

“Hmm? Oh! Hold on there human”, Brine said as he reached into a pocket of his toga. He pulls out three cowrie shells with strings tied to each of them. He swims up to Zed and ties one of the shells around his neck. “Ok. Give that another shot.” Zed curiously touches his new neck accessory.

“I said this weird tree almost took a bite out of me!” said Zed. “Whoa! How am I talking underwater?”

“That around your neck is a doniseis cowrie. I grabbed them for you guys so you can talk to everybody underwater”, replied Brine. “It comes from a type of snail down here that uses vibrations as a self-defense mechanism against predators. The shell takes the vibrations from your throat and lets them travel through the water so we can hear them.” Brine then points back to the giant sea anemone. “And that there is a carnivorous anemone. Normally their natural prey are the many different kinds of jellyfish you see swimming by like the swarm of avra agapi around your pale friend there, but I still wouldn’t get too close.” Trace ties the doniseis cowrie around her neck and joins the conversation.

“You just said that giant anemone eats jellyfish, but why doesn’t it eat fish?” asked Trace.

“Well there are no fish in the Great Oasis”, replied Brine. “The Great Oasis is actually the last remaining puddle of an ocean that once covered the entire wastelands! But that ocean dried up thousands of years ago, leaving this one salty lake in its deepest region. The water became too salty for most fish to live, so jellyfish filled the niches they left behind. We merpeople are descendants of those that stayed behind as well.”

“You keep saying we”, said Zed. “So where are the rest of you?”

“Glad you asked”, said Brine with a smile. He guides the three over the tops of some nearby coral and gestures to them to look ahead. The gang swim over the coral and look ahead to find a large kingdom looking back at them. “Welcome to the kingdom of the Great Oasis, Oahantis.”

The three adventures stared in awe at the new, wondrous environment in front of them. Stone buildings with clam shell roofs lined the streets. Merpeople of all ages could be seen bustling in the streets. Coral trees rose from the kingdom, towering over their buildings and shops. The streets were lined by lamp posts, but instead of light bulbs fluorescent shells took their place, and all streets led straight to a beautiful, ivory castle in the middle of the kingdom. “Come with me and I’ll show you around” said Brine. He then swims off into the direction of the kingdom. Zed, Psy and Trace all look at each other and then quickly follow Brine into the kingdom.

Led by Brine, the group travels down the streets of Oahantis. The citizen merpeople came in many different varieties of patterns and fin placements. Some had fins on their heads, others on their legs. All had the same light blue skin color that Brine possessed, however the dark blue crescent pattern that Brine had was not shared with his fellow race. Some merpeople sported stripes, or slashes on different parts of their bodies of different colors. While the men appeared to be bald, the women did have hair on their heads with colors in hues of blue and green. Their clothing was also made of kelp and appeared toga like, much like Brine’s. The merpeople watch as the group swims by with curiosity, the children being the most curious. Psy takes notice of the curious citizens.

“Why is everyone staring at us?” questioned Psy.

“We don’t exactly look like we belong here, Psy”, retorted Trace.

“Well there was a time we would get the occasional human visitor”, said Brine. “But it’s been years since the last visit. For many children this is the first time they’ve seen a race other than their own.”

“You don’t say”, said Zed. Zed turns to a group of three small merchildren staring at him. He swims closer to them and the children react nervously as they try to hide behind one another. Zed grins a toothy smile and flashes them a two fingered peace sign with his robotic hand. The children’s eyes glitter with curiosity. One works up the courage to swim up to Zed and touches his robotic hand. The boy copies Zed’s two fingered peace by placing his two webbed finger’s on his own and smiles.

“Come on Zed!” yelled Trace getting further away with the group.

“Comin’”, yelled Zed. Zed waves goodbye to the children, and the children waved back, flashing the newly learned peace sign at him. Zed caught up with the rest of the group to find they were heading straight to the ivory castle in the middle of the kingdom. “Are we going to the big castle?”