"Think your actions through, sometimes you jump too early." She remembered her words like she had told her this yesterday, granted it was about eating too much Halloween candy but she thought it would do well here too.

She needed to think it through, this person couldn"t think that mermaids were real, maybe the dream thing would work. Then she got an idea...

"It"s fake!" She shouted, hoping he would hear her over the material that covered his ears.

The man in the scuba suit gave her an odd look and then started to laugh.

"I know it"s fake, mermaids aren"t real, I just wanted to thank you for helping me. And to ask how you trained yourself to hold your breath that long and to swim that fast!" He shouted out in excitement.

She breathed out a breath of relief when he bought what she was selling. She pressed her back up against the rocks and tried to think of a story to tell him if he asked about her free diving skills again. When he suddenly lurched forward towards the rocks she jumped slightly. She relaxed when she saw the diver slip off the oxygen tank and set it on the rocky sh.o.r.e. He pulled himself up and tried to get somewhat comfortable.

She moved away from him and watched his movement with a careful eye. And sudden moves and she would dive away from him and never look back.

"So, you must train a lot to be able to dive as far down as we are. I never thought I would find this place without a tank. You probably hold the record." He started up a conversation and she still wasn"t sure if she should swim away or not.

"Night and day, free diving is my life." She semi-lied to him. She loved free diving when she was completely human, but with her asthma, she could never go this far down or hold her breath this long.

"That"s amazing, I love scuba diving but I could never get into free diving. I feel way too exposed. I never asked your name? Where are you from?" The strange man asked her making her breathing come out a bit harder than she wanted.

"Darya...and I"m from a town called Wave Crest, it"s not far from here." She admitted to the stranger.

"I"ve never heard of that town, I"m not from around here though, so that makes sense. Name"s Tyler. Tyler Weiss. I"m visiting my grandparents for the summer I"m actually from the big city." He said with a proud tone.

"Where did you get the cool tail? I"ve seen them around but never seen anyone using them." He told her.

The more she watched his movements as he took off some of his gear the more she felt a heat rush to her cheeks. He couldn"t be older than sixteen. Darya wasn"t used to being around guys, except for Marty and she had never felt this way about him.

"My town has this person that makes them. My mom knows her so we got a good deal." She lied through her teeth. She watched the water that surrounded her and tried to think of some sort of excuse to leave soon.

She tried to hide her top half in the water as much as she could. She remembered that her bikini top was in her new room. Her scales covered the important things but the fact that scales were covering a lot of her body made her think he would bypa.s.s the whole "fake" tail thing and discover that had a real one.

Luckily, her hair covered her neck and the sides of her face that had scales on it and hoped for the best.

"I actually need to be going soon. I only came in here to take a break and then head back home. My father will be wondering where I am." Part of that was true, her father was probably wondering where she was. But she didn"t want to care about that. He had another daughter that he could dote on and love, why did he need her.

She was deep in thought and didn"t notice Tyler staring at her with curiosity and perhaps a bit of envy.

"Of course, sorry to monopolize all your free dive time. I should be getting back too, I don"t want to miss dinner with the grandparents." He said as he pulled his hood up and eventually everything else he brought into the cave with him.

"No worries, be safe and stay away from shark territories. People shouldn"t be exploring out this far. Respect sharks, man." Her parting words came out as a warning rather than a goodbye.

If one thing bothered her it was people disrespecting the ocean and the creatures in it. They were here first after all.

"Wait!" He shouted before she dipped under the water again.

Darya stopped and turned back to him wanting to know why he stopped her.

"Do you think we could meet here again? I promise to stay out of the shark"s way this time." He nearly pleaded with her. She thought about it for a moment and she didn"t know if she could sneak out again. Taking a chance she nodded her head and dived back under that water and out of the cave before he had time to follow her.

Mustering up all the speed she could, she darted through the water until she was met with familiar coral and knew she was nearly back to the kingdom. Seeing the hole they went through the first time she maneuvered through it and started for the underwater city she was starting to hate.

Right before she got to the spot she swam up to when she snuck out before a horrible pain hit her temples.

"Darya! Where are you! Come home now!" Her father"s booming voice rattled in her head. Never having heard him shout she knew this was bad. She was in big trouble.