The night hadn't brought me much rest. My dreams were dominated by the unsettling feeling of running, but getting nowhere.

"Have you been mining?" Opal asked as soon as she noticed I was awake.

"Huh?" I didn't realize what she meant by that, but after putting in extra effort to tangle myself out of the covers, it dawned on me. "No," I replied. "I just had bad dreams."

"Then you definitely were not in a mine. That would be a good dream."

Only dwarves would think that being underground, in a confined space, away from sunlight, was a good thing. Ardea laughed. She was still in her bed, reading a book.

I wasn't in the mood for discussion, so I said nothing. The conversation with Mathias still echoed in my thoughts.

"Something's bothering you," Ardea stated. It was not a question; she could always tell when something was on my mind. This time it was a promise I gave Mathias.

I promise. As soon as those words left my mouth, I was aware they were a lie. He hadn't said the actual words. He never confirmed that Ms. Cyan really was the same race as I was, but the thought of another Aquantien here, under the same roof, made it impossible for me to forget about the whole thing. However, a promise was made, and if I was to dig deeper, I needed a different approach.

I already scanned through the library. Nothing in there could help me. There wasn't a single book on the subject of Aquantiens.

"I know so little about my race," I said honestly. "When my parents, my real parents, were alive, I was too young to learn, and after they died, nobody cared about my education. But now I want to learn more. My knowledge of my race cannot be based on one story I heard years ago." That was the truth.

Ardea and Opal exchanged sympathetic looks.

"There must be a way for me to learn more," I continued. "It's just discouraging that our library doesn't contain a single book about my race."

"Try the computer then," Opal suggested.

"She won't find anything there," Ardea gave Opal a patronizing stare and I honestly hoped it wouldn't cause another bickering between my best friends.

"You don't know that!" Opal said overlooking Ardea's eyes on her.

"Computers were invented by humans and, although we are using them, hidden races would never risk revealing their existence by sharing delicate information about them," Ardea explained and Opal nodded. She knew this, we learnt it in class.

"Even if hidden races did use computers for that purpose, my race lives under water. There's no electricity, therefore there are no computers. We never used any electrical devices," I explained further.

"Good thinking," Opal said with thumbs up signal directed towards me. "If you did, you'd all be fried! Fried like fish! The only thing missing would be chips."

"Opal," Ardea said in a calm voice, "since your mother isn't here, it's up to me to point it out: that was rude!"

"I know. Sorry, Azora," she agreed and bowed her head.

I looked at my two friends, laughing at their statements. Soon they joined in and the laughter filled our room.

"Thanks," I said. "I needed that."

Opal was the one who could lift up my spirit without even intending to do so. Her inappropriate statements were the reason why her parents had to scold her from time to time. This time they weren't here, so our responsible Ardea took the task upon herself.

I doubted that Ardea's parents ever had to upbraid her. She was always so composed.

And then it dawned on me. Her father was a surgeon! He was in charge of my transition. He had to have information about Aquantiens! Maybe he could confirm my assumptions regarding Ms. Cyan's true identity. Of course, I wasn't gonna ask him directly. After all, it was nothing more than a thought that came unexpected. But as a surgeon, he must have had some books about my race, even if they were medical books.

A plan was starting to take shape in my mind.

"Ardea," I said cautiously, "I just had an idea. Since nothing and no one in this school can help me find the answers I'm looking for, I thought maybe your father can. He must have some knowledge of my race. Perhaps he has a book about Aquantiens. Perhaps he could lend it to me. Will you ask him? Please?" I hoped I added enough plea in my question to soften her.

She sat up in her bed and looked at me. I could see she was thinking about it. A minute later she said, "All right. I'll ask him."

°  °  °  °  °  °  °

A package with Ardea's name on it came on a Tuesday morning, two weeks later. The longest weeks of my life, or so it seemed.

During those two weeks I struggled to keep my mouth shut. I couldn't share my doubts with anyone. I didn't dare to because Mathias' watchful eye was always somewhere near. I'd usually feel it during lunch or dinner when he would observe me discretely from his usual spot at the back of the dining room.

I didn't try to speak to Professor Cyan again. In fact, I did my best to keep a low profile. I didn't even peep in her class, and when I'd pass her by outside of the classroom, I greeted her politely and said nothing more.

Never had I awaited anything like I awaited that package wrapped in brown paper that was in Ardea's hands at last. She opened it and took out a thick book. The covers were simple; a combination of blue and white colour with a dominant title. Aquatic Races – Transition to Land, it said.

Ever since Ardea handed it to me, I could not wait to start looking for the answers hidden in the pages, yet I didn't want to come out too eager.

"Thanks," I said and placed the book on my nightstand. It would have to wait until the end of today's classes. I knew it was gonna be a long day.

I had trouble concentrating. I had no idea what the subject of any of the classes was. Knowing that there's a book waiting for me, all I could do was to wait for the sound of a school bell. Good thing we didn't have PE today. Coming to Professor Fortius' class distracted was a mistake I never wanted to repeat.

Eventually, the waiting came to an end and I rushed to my room, leaving Opal, Nia and Ardea to enjoy a beautiful day. They volunteered to help Lissa with planting spring flowerbeds. If I didn't have a book to read, I would have joined them.

There was something therapeutic in touching the soil, burying tiny, at first sight lifeless seeds and watch them sprout. I could understand why Lissa found joy in watching the plants grow. I myself enjoyed observing how a seed no larger than a grain of sand, could turn into a majestic plant, with leaves that provided oxygen and flowers that offered food to butterflies and bees.

But today I traded cloudless sky, freshly bloomed trees in the school orchard and thousands of yellow dandelions for the privacy of my room. I threw myself onto my bed, placed the book on my pillow and opened it.

The first chapter wasn't very extensive, so I decided to read it regardless to the fact that it spoke of sirens, rather than Aquantiens.

Sirenae (sirens, mermaids) are an aquatic race known to inhabit deeper waters. Despite the popular belief, they do not possess the ability to lose their tail and gain legs once their bodies leave the water and get dry.

Successful transition from water to land has never been recorded for this race. Due to the build of their skeleton, it is not possible to replace the tail with humanlike legs.

Although it has never been proven, it is believed that such an attempt would result in death of the subject.

The text was accompanied by images and detail drawings of the siren skeleton. The spine did not end at the pelvis, the vertebrates continued further down, all the way to the fin.

I moved on to the next chapter. The title on top of the page sent my heartbeat in overdrive.

Aquantiens, the title said.    

To all my readers - thank you!

With this chapter I would especially like to thank my Wonder Writers Book Club partner for the month of August 2018, dragon11736  who kept reading my story, leaving comments that were helping me improve not just this story, but also my writing in general. Thank you again!

And all of you who made it this far in my story, don't hesitate to share your thoughts with me, and if you liked this chapter, don't forget to vote!
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