CHAPTER TWO

“Where did you find her, girls?”

I can hear faint noises, unaware of the fact about where I am. As if I'm dreaming consistently.

“We did find her on the west coral green reef. She was floating mercilessly.”

Many voices. There are many voices! I try to come out from where I was, fighting my brain. All I can see is faint blue darkness in front of my eyes. Am I dead? Am I in hell or heaven?

I try to open my eyes. I feel they are closed. Try harder Daviana.

“She is not from our clan? Maybe from another ocean?”

Another one. What's happening? I want to shout, my voice is blocked. I feel more sinked. Someone presses on my chest and I gasp with the loudest gasp coming back to life as I puke out the water.

All I can see now is a bubble. Bubble of water! And I'm inside it. What am I doing here? Is this place even real? I adjust my focal lenses to see better and all I can see still is some faint bubble that I'm in.

I can hear the voices again slightly, but my eyesight has to be regained.

“Can you see us?”

Are they asking me? “No. I can't. I can see it all blurry.” I cry for help.

One of them touches my forehead for five seconds and everything before my eyes gets cleared. I glance here and there and now I feel I have acquired a 4k vision. Like some sort of a superpower!

“Where am I?”

“It's the ocean bed. You are in the deep.” The lady, sorry a lady as same as me with a long fishtail, floating in the water, responds. She looks experienced, gorgeous and high class. Like she is the boss.

“But who are you?” I ask.

“We should ask you that, human! What are you doing in our ocean? And how did you find us?”

“I didn't. I was unconscious. You saw me. You brought me to life!” I replied.

“And as you can see, I'm not human anymore.” I said.

“Growing a tail like us doesn't make you one of us.” They all laugh upon her remark.

I'm perplexed.

“Is this place even real? Are y'all playing me?”

“No more questions, girl!” She shuts me up.

“You need rest.” The other one says. They have tridents in their hands. Like the movies and I'm shocked to see them. I Feel like I'm in one of them.

“Sia, take the girl with you and drop her in a bigger bubble. We can't let her out unless we know what she is exactly.” The main boss orders.

“Yes, Godmother!” They comply.

Godmother? Am I in a real life fairytale?

They grab me by hand and float me up like them, with them. I struggle for oxygen out of the bubble. Why can't I breathe? Maybe due to my phobia? But then I shouldn't be breathing in the bubble too. But they did something with me.

“Please, if you know I don't belong here. Let me along the land. I beg. I am no harm to you.” I scream at the Godmother as she watches them take me.

***

The entire ocean seems like a big land covered with water only. An entire community watches over me as I'm passing against them with the two maids of the Godmother. All are like mermaids. I am between the mermaids!! I need to understand. They can exist. They do. There is a lot of evidence. But this is like a whole world underneath, full of mermaids. Like I have been transferred to some fantasy land of ethereal and delicate underwater world. It is magnificent, yet scary. Everything is beautiful here. Even the water feels so light. As if I belong here!

They gossip over me. I can hear them whisper about me. I was an alien to them, invading their property. But they brought me here! Did I sink that deep that I reached an otherworld? They threw me in a larger floating and hovering bubble. This one had a bigger bed. Bigger than where I was sleeping earlier. It had everything I needed. I took a quick glance. Not in one day all this happened. Don't know how many days I'm unconscious and what day it is today.

“What is the day today?” I ask the maids.

“You were unconscious for two days from what we can see. But we found you today.”

“Stop it, Sia. No more revelations. Godmother will punish us and banish us from eating small fishes for a week if you tell her everything! Shut up!” The other one shushes Sia.

“Yeah..yea..Godmother will come to meet you at night. We don't know anything more. Just stay for now.” Sia hesitated to speak further. 

I lifted an eyebrow at her in confusion. 

They leave the bubble with some spell and also leave the bubble with a blur cast, so that I can't see anything that's going outside. Hope they can't see what is going on inside either. 

After they leave, I try to walk on the bubble like I'm playing with it. It is untouchable. It feels like nothing but is solid even after being liquid. The bed is huge and has a water sparkling duvet on it. The tower of the bed has a big shell of emeralds on it. There is a mirror. Everything is shaking and floating, making my vision wavy. But it is not that fragile in reality. A lamp is beside the bed. It feels like the bubble has an air conditioning facility because it feels cold in here, but that's just the mechanism of the bubble maybe. The mermaids stay in this bubble. It's like their home. There is a toilet where I touched a vacant part of the bubble and a shower stream opened there in the form of another small bubble with a water half filled inside it. This bubble doesn't feel that buoyant. This is cool and something never seen!

How much time are they going to keep me here? And why are they even keeping me here? I'm on the verge of crying. My life has turned into a mess all these years. Your phobia can lead you towards it more how much you fear it, is coming real now I think.

I sit on the bed aimlessly feeling helpless, trying to get out of here. Like I'm in some sort of a lavish jail. My tail has vanished now and I'm on my feet. Does it come out only when I'm in a water out of the bubbles? I try throwing some water on my legs from the jar beside the bed near the lamp. The tail regenerated! So the water works for this.

I feel something shaking from outside the bubble suddenly. I stood up from the bed and held my fist. I'm gonna fight it. Hell no! But still.

Godmother is it. She entered the bubble with her trident. Hers is golden with rubies on it. Is she the queen too here? I stood still.

“What is your name, girl?” She asks me with a low tone. She's cold!

“Daviana.” I replied.

She quickly grabbed her trident in another hand and cast a spell over me. With that, something shined near my chest. A watery blue colour, that turned into a flame eventually. It was slightly painful.

I gasped a little.

But why does Godmothers’ expression look a little frightened after this. I see her contorted expression.

𓇼𓇼𓇼