Days later Nia was eating her seaweed salad absentmindedly and her family couldn’t help but notice.

“What’s on your mind?” her mother asked, a bit of worry in her voice. Nia shook her head.

“Nothing much Mom, I just slept badly tonight, I kept hearing some sound outside my window,” she lied, she obviously lied. And, of course, Nemalion knew, but she seemed to be the only one that had noticed something different in her. 

It was quite normal actually for only her big sister to notice. Her brother was too busy following mermaids around and being all flirty, such a playboy he was. Her mother was always wrapped up in some sort of communal work because she always had to be involved. Nia loved her mother, she did, but she was undeniably a bit too focused on her image and her role in the community, rather than worrying about her family or her own happiness. 

She had to be, they were one of the prominent families in town, and she already had to face the disgrace of having her precious son turn out to be a daughter, ruining her image. Her second son was… a disappointment, always following behind pretty females, never really studying too much, or even aspiring to something grand. Her third was Nia, she was pretty, yes, and she also was fairly smart, but still, she too wasn’t married, and it was ridiculous how not sociable she was, always interested in quirky things. It wasn’t her fault if other beings bored her to death and she preferred spending time collecting pretty rocks or swimming with seals. Lastly, her father was a mostly calm and quiet man; he often didn’t have an opinion, his wife had enough for two, and he wasn’t even attentive enough to notice if something wasn’t working too well inside the family dynamics. 

Nemalion often had blamed herself for that situation, but the truth was their family was a mess. Not enough of a mess to give them all trauma, but still not as functional as it could have been.

“Oh that’s a pity, darling you should check outside of Nia’s room, maybe a new family of crabs has moved in the creaks of the rock,”  her mother said. Her father nodded and kept playing some sort of game made of shells and rocks.

Nia saw Nem rolling her eyes and chuckled softly.

~

After lunch she went out, she wanted to swim around a bit, maybe she could have gone to see the large algae expanse. At that time of the year, they were exceptionally colourful and all the tiny creatures crawled inside and out of the rocks around.

She was looking around, caressing gently the long strands of kelp in front of her as she swam on top of the large plantation, the algae tickling her tail a bit. Bubbles and tiny fishes came up when she passed by and it was all so pretty. In that area, some sun rays were able to reach a good depth while keeping the sea creatures safe from men, and it always felt warm and colourful. It was easily one of her favourite spots around the reef.

“What are you doing here alone caressing weed?” a male voice. Connor, that annoying piece of…

Nia turned around nonchalantly and smiled. “Connor,” she only said with a flat tone. Connor was one of her sister’s ex-friends, they grew up together and he made sure to ditch her and be very mean about it too. Obviously, Nia didn’t like him one bit, and yet he was incredibly persistent, almost like a pilot fish, always following her around. He was convinced he could pursue her, not only was he absolutely plain and uninteresting, but he genuinely thought that what he did to her sister wasn’t a big deal for her.

“Uh? What are you carrying? Rocks?” he chuckled “It’s a pity you’re so weird, else you’d make a perfect wife,” he said, annoying her even more. But all of a sudden his insignificant figure was shadowed and his eyes grew larger as he looked around.

“It’s such a pity you are this insignificant, else you’d make a perfect shark bait” Nemalion’s voice made some of the little fishes around them hide. She was a beautiful and delicate mermaid, yes, but when she stood with her tail all relaxed and her arms crossed she was definitely menacing. Connor winced and turned around to then immediately swim backwards and chuckle nervously. Nemalion’s eyes were cold as ice.

“Ne…Nem…ah,” he blabbered.

The mermaid only shook her head mutely, telling him to move away, but seeing he didn’t move she simply placed a firm hand on his shoulder and pushed him to a side, to smile softly at her sister, grabbing her hand and swimming away.

Nia’s grip on her sister’s hand got stronger as they got further away from there, to the point finally they stopped and Nemalion looked back at her “Was he annoying you again?” she asked worriedly.

She shook her head “It’s ok, he just arrived, or at least he only made himself apparent when you saw him. Nem, are you ok?” she asked instead. Her sister nodded.

“I just dislike him so much, he keeps pestering you, he already wasn’t the best, but then we both know how he showed his true colours. Ugh, if I think that we were friends once…” her sister sighed, only thinking back at that time was painful. They used to be close, even if Connor wasn’t the sharpest, he had always been a fun friend to her sister, yet his fear of the unknown turned him into a complete idiot.

“He doesn’t even deserve your time, nor your sadness”, Nia said smiling at her sister.

“Nah, I’m not sad, I’m just annoyed he thinks he has a chance with you, my gorgeous sister”, finally she smiled back and hugged her spinning her around, making them both giggle between bubbles.

“I love you, sis,” Nia said, hugging her tighter before letting go.

“Hey… You look a bit off these days. Did something happen?” her sister asked and she could only shrug, yes something had happened, she had forced herself not to go up to the surface and she missed the boy so much. They didn’t even know each other, obviously, yet she just felt like seeing him. It was a way to make her days more interesting, she didn’t have much to do. She had finished her studies a long time before, and she still had no real purpose in the community. She often helped with different things, but she mostly spent her days wondering if there was something she was good at. She hadn’t found anything.

“You haven’t seen him, right?” Nemalion asked further. Nia shook her head and pouted.

“I know I shouldn’t, but it’s so boring here…” she said and this time she caught a weird look in her sister’s eyes “No wait, I’m not saying the human world is better…you know I’m not that kind of mermaid. I love being one. It’s just that I like seeing new things, and sometimes it’s boring in this community,” she explained. This time Nem sighed and nodded.

“I wish they would let us travel around. They always let the boys do it, but when it comes to girls… they don’t trust us”, she was very annoyed by that thought. Of course, she experienced it on her skin, the double standards. She liked the fact she was recognized and accepted as herself by most of the community, but she also disliked how some of her rights all of a sudden disappeared. Her freedom, her importance in certain situations.

“There are communities further towards the deep ocean that give females leadership positions. We should run away and go there, away from any Connor, away from the roles we have here,” Nia said chuckling. They often talked about that subject and they always ended up with dreams of travels they were probably never going to begin.

“You should go take a peek,” Nemalion said, she was looking down, avoiding her eyes.

“Uh? Where? To the deep ocean? Mom would kill me.” 

“To the shore to see if your boy is ok. You said he was missing and looked hurt…” Nemalion said but she was very annoyed by her own suggestion.

“Are you really suggesting this or is it a test to see if I’m a good sister?” Nia asked laughing,  loving how this made her sister even more frustrated, to the point she grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Don’t make me regret it. Go but come back soon, be safe and only take a quick peek!” She was very assertive but her eyes showed nothing but warmth. Nia was overjoyed and hugged her tightly, pressing her cheek on her sister’s chest.

“You’re the best, I love you so much!” she said, then she left a short peck there and swam away before her sister could have changed her mind.

I’ll be careful, I promise, just cover me one last time.

~