I took it easy the next morning. After all, that was what the summer was all about—taking life in the slow lane, not having to rush off to school in the morning. I got to see the sun rise over a cup of coffee and made myself some scrambled eggs, taking my time to scavenge the fridge for veggies to throw in and other things. 

Mom and Dad both saw me before they left. They were quick to stumble through the kitchen, taking to-go mugs before heading off to work. At least I was able to wave a hello and a goodbye before returning to my lazy morning. 

I left before Lena could get up though. I guess whatever she and Tess had been up to the night before had gone on way longer than Mom and Dad’s date. It wasn’t my business anyway—and that was the price of her help, was that I’d not snitch about things like that. 

Once I’d finished eating breakfast and re-read another chapter in one of my old favorite books, I changed for the beach and made my daily dive into the Undersea. 

No one was waiting for me when I came to the usual spot in the Undersea. So I started swimming towards the sea-witch village in hopes of running into Lumi or Jewel. But I wasn’t disappointed when I saw Talu leaving with a basket from one of the other witches’ cottages—not Madame Nerissa’s.

“Oh, hey Mika.” He waved, then returned to securing the lid on the wicker basket. 

“Hi, Talu.” I swam up to him. “What are you up to for today?”

“I’m just going to help out one of the kelp-ranchers, just beyond the sea-witch village.” Talu looked to me. “Do you want to come with?”

“Sure.” It was still nerve-wracking and new—but I was realizing that I wanted to know more. I wanted to see more of the Undersea, to understand this new world that I was supposed to be a part of.

“Alright then, we’re just taking some fertilizer to Nem.” He handed me the basket, and I sank down a few inches as I adjusted to the weight of it. “Don’t worry, we’re not carrying that the whole way.” He then whistled using his fingers. 

For just a moment, everything was the usual ambience of the Undersea. And then—

A rumbling off in the distance. 

The sound of bubbles forming and popping quickly with millions of little hisses.

Then my jaw dropped. “No way!”

A tornado of bubbles came to a stop, and a large, serpent-like dragon a thousand times bigger than Pearly appeared in front of us.

“I thought you said real dragons didn’t exist anymore,” I whispered. I now hated to think what a real dragon looked like.

“Oh, this is a bigger species of leviathan,” Talu laughed. He then cradled the leviathan’s snout, a pale turquoise blue in contrast with the deeper shades of cerulean and teal all down the rest of him. “Hello, Nereus.”

Nereus, as was apparently the leviathan’s name, nuzzled him. 

“Don’t worry, he’s friendly,” Talu called back to me. 

“I can see that.” Still, with a creature that large, I decided it would be best to keep to myself. 

“We’ll ride him down to the Tailspin farm.” Talu patted the leviathan’s snout. “Just hoist the basket up there and we’ll be on our way.”

“Alright then.” I paused, tilting my head. “Should we meet with Jewel?”

“Why would we do that?” Talu frowned. 

“Well, we went to all the trouble of getting Undersea clothes and things from Marina. Jewel said she’d keep all of that at her place. If we don’t want others to know that I’m not a real mermaid, then shouldn’t we—“

“Don’t worry about it,” Talu interrupted. “It should be fine, Nem won’t notice, I promise. You see stranger things in the kelp forests. Besides, Jewel’s working on a dive right now. She won’t be home to get her things from.”

I sighed. There went all my excuses, then. I swam up to the leviathan’s back and sank onto its scales and fringe. I was surprised at how soft Nereus was. 

“Hang on tight here.” He gestured towards the fluff and took the basket back from me, tucking it under his arm. “Nereus goes plenty fast.”

I nodded. “Alright then. Let’s go.” 

What happened next was just like a roller coaster ride at Carowinds. We were soaring underwater, the current stinging my face a little as we went this way and that. It was almost as if Nereus was showing off—or maybe Talu was. 

We went in loops, this way and that, and it seemed like forever in the moment. But within a handful of minutes, we were suddenly in front of this massive kelp forest. 

Strings of it stretched as high and low as the eye could see, an endless string of kelp leaves with fish swimming between them. The sun came through in shafts of pale gold between the stalks. I thought I even saw a seal swim in. Waiting by the forest was a short, more muscular mermaid with bubblegum pink hair and thick gloves. I guessed that she was the Nem mentioned by Talu earlier. 

“Hey Talu!” Nem waved. “Brought the fertilizer from Madame Vanora?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it right here.” He slid down Nereus’s flank, leaving me to do the same. “Fresh batch, too, all the apprentices were out collecting ingredients last night.”

“Is that so?” Nem’s eyes glimmered as she took the basket from Talu’s hands. “And who’s your friend over there with the funny clothes?”

Talu glanced back at me. “Oh, this is Mika, she’s new around here. They don’t have kelp ranches in her corner of the Undersea, so she wanted to see it.” 

Nem looked me up and down and I waved nervously. “Is that so?”
I nodded and tried to smile in a way that looked even a little natural.

Nem’s eyes glimmered, and she smiled in a way that looked like she’d gotten some joke that I’d been left out of. An uncomfortably familiar feeling. Still, she adjusted her hold on her basket and her smile turned kind. “Well, I’m happy to show you around. This is my family’s ranch, we maintain the kelp forest and the creatures who live here. In exchange, we harvest kelp, the other plants that grow within, and some of the fish.”

Right, mermaids ate fish. Part of me wanted to ask if that was uncomfortable for them—but I thought better of it. For one thing, I remembered Max telling me a little too eagerly when we were little about how fish ate other fish. And for another, it made it really obvious 

“Ours is one of the oldest in this sea,” Nem said proudly as she shifted the weight of the basket onto her hip. “Our family’s tended it before we had a High Queen, or so the legend goes. It’s a source of a lot of food.” She paused. “What do you guys do in your sea?”

“Oh, uh—“

Luckily, I was rescued by the appearance of Lumi and Dominique. Both of whom looked worried at the very least—if not downright distressed in Lumi’s case.

“Oh, there you guys are!” The worry did not dissipate from Lumi’s eyes. “I’ve been looking for you all day!”

Talu frowned. “Everything okay?”

“Madame Miranda sent for us,” Dominique explained, her deep azure eyes locked onto mine. “It seems you finally have your audience with the High Queen.”

Talu blanched. 

He turned to me. “You should get going then. You don’t want to leave Her Grace to wait.”

“Okay.” I glanced down at my top. “Are you sure that I don’t look—“

He shook his head. “There’s no time to send you to Jewel’s.”

“Besides, the High Queen is expecting a human girl.” Dominique lifted her chin. “We might as well send one to her.”

“I need to get going.” Talu briefly touched my arm. “You’ll do well.”

I certainly hoped so. Before I could answer him though, he’d swam off. 

“He’s in a hurry, isn't he?” Nem muttered.

Lumi turned back to me. “We should be too, my aunt isn’t exactly patient.” 

I sighed. “Alright then, lead the way.”