"What do you mean I can't go?" Dea demanded.

"It means you can't." He shut the sliding door on the way to the kitchen area, and a winking light drew her attention to a small, digital panel on the wall.

"I don't think you understand." She took a deep breath while a tornado gained momentum inside. "First of all, I don't need your permission to do what I want. Second, no way I'm gonna miss this opportunity. I can feel it in my bones—this is going to herald a whole new era for Calliathron. A better future with friendly ties between the land and sea. Don't you see how important this is?"

He shut the dishwasher with a bang and made no response.

"Of course, you wouldn't see." Dea crossed her arms. "Maybe for you, we're just a fun research project. Or whatever it is you get out of this."

He turned to her, his expression as unfathomable as the brine lake. "Can't you just be happy that you had your adventure and go home?"

"Did what I just tell you swim over your head?" She goggled at him in disbelief. "Do you think I'm some fangirl who came here to get Dilip's autograph and go my merry way?"

Anuk leaned against the kitchen island and folded his arms. The atmosphere almost crackled with tension as they stared each other down.

"Dilip is...so nice," she murmured, her tone pensive. "He's hardworking and takes time to make homeless kids happy—and I know that our partnership will go a long way."

He scoffed.

"What's wrong with you!" Dea's temper flared up, and her fists balled against the sofa cushions. "And I like him. I definitely do."

"You met him for what—five minutes?"

"He obviously wants to get to know me, which is why he invited me to his place!"

"You need to go home. I'll drive you to your sub in the morning." He wiped his hands with a napkin and bunched it up with an air of finality. "Prime spot you've chosen to anchor it."

"Oh, you placed a tracker on the Angler too?" Her mounting anger simmered just under the surface. "Well, here's a newsflash—you can track the crap out of me, but you can't control me. I'm going to Dilip's place."

"No, you're not."

"Uhuh." She amped up her withering glare. "What are you gonna do to stop me?"

"Whatever I have to." His clenched jaw suggested that he meant what he said.

Despite her own stubborn stance, Dea's brain whirred. If he was indeed hell-bent on stopping her, he would most likely do so. All he had to do was lock her up in a room. Unless I...

"You know what, I'm really tired, and my butt is still aching—though chilling in that tub eased it somewhat. And I'm not in the mood to party. I mean, I don't even have a good outfit." Dea let out a dramatic sigh. "But...this isn't over. I'm coming back to meet him again."

"You're gonna run off at the first opportunity you get." He narrowed his eyes to slits. "But I'm telling you now—don't try it. I can sleep with one eye open, even though I'm a human."

She rolled her eyes, though uneasiness made her squirm.

A long minute dragged by, and then he asked, "Your butt's aching?"

"Yeah, a bit." She slumped back against the cushion. "I dunno how I'm gonna sleep."

"I'll arrange a makeshift pod."

Dea flung a glance his way. She wished she could burrow through the forest of black curls that sprouted on his head and drill into the jigsaw of a brain to unravel its workings.

He cocked his head to one side. "Ready for bed, princess?"

She started and finally nodded. "Okay, then. Um, thanks."

Anuk pushed off the island and made his way upstairs.

Dea slowly slid to the floor. Then she fast-crawled to the foot of the stairs—not unlike the possessed girl from The Exorcism of Anemone Pearl.

After a lungful of air to steel herself, she started climbing. Her tail thunked painfully on the steps. She wondered why humans couldn't just use conveyor belts. When she reached the upstairs landing, the steady trickle of water stole into her ears.

Dea peered through the bedroom doorway in time to see Anuk collecting pillows and a blanket off the bed. Heart hammering in her chest, she slid out of his line of sight. The room replicated the minimalist aesthetics in the rest of the house, but emanated more personality with posters of musicians and video games. In normal circumstances, she would've loved to examine them or even plonk down on the plush chair by his geometric beast of a computer and try human gaming, but this wasn't a time to get sidetracked.

When his footfalls receded into the bathroom, she followed behind in her quiet, agonizing crawl. Much to her relief, the fluffy carpet absorbed all sound.

A pinch of guilt dissolved in her vat of emotions as she watched him dunk the soft bedding in the water-filled tub. Part of her yearned to curl into it and get some proper sleep.

In that second of indecision, she leaned against the bathroom doorframe and accidentally thumped her tail flukes on the floor.

He turned, surprise written all over his face. "Dea? What—"

A rush of adrenaline powered her, and she slammed the door shut. Then she reached up and locked it.

A second later, he banged on the door with a yell.

Dea let out what sounded like a war cry and retraced her rapid crawl downstairs.

She wasted no time retrieving the Cypod and the ogi. It took precious minutes to figure out how the digital panel worked. She whooped when she pressed the correct icons to unlock the front door and the gate outside.

When Dea rolled out into the open, a cool breeze smacked her face, and the door clicked shut behind her. The garden lay veiled in darkness, but the flame within burned bright. In a burst of exhilaration, she zipped along the driveway to the gate and let herself out.

"I don't need flipping vehicles," she said aloud to no one. "I am the vehicle."

The land ogi in her possession was connected to the human internet. After a minute of painstaking translation and searching, she pinpointed Dilip's address. That was when it occurred to her that Anuk could track her movements as soon as he broke out of the bathroom.

In a frenzy of activity, Dea rummaged inside her backpack, wondering how they even managed to sneak the tracker in. Probably while I was waiting to get my head drilled. To her bewilderment, there was no trace of anything that resembled a foreign electronic device. She patted the exterior of the bag and the pockets.

Her fingers halted on a small protrusion. It was an object stuck to an inconspicuous flap on the side.

"Aha!" She held it up for closer inspection.

It was a button-like device no bigger than a coin. She chucked it into a bush.

Without further ado, Dea raced down the lane, the wind whipping her hair back. She could almost taste the sea, and its swooshing whisper boosted her spirits. Palm fronds waved and cheered her on while Anuk's land lair receded beyond view.

When she arrived on one of the main roads, she opted for the narrow lane extending parallel to it. A signpost, shining under the effulgence of a street lamp, indicated that it was allocated for personal transporters that vaguely resembled motorpods. However, they were spindly contraptions with spokes and wheels that seemed to belong in an acrobatic routine. Human designers have fun making users curse and fall and break things, no doubt.

Time flew by as she picked up speed, and the landscape changed to a sensory overload of streaking lights, vehicles and humans. She hugged the sidewalk and weaved past throngs of pedestrians.

Sooner than she expected, she arrived at the location—a tree-lined avenue flooded with ample lighting. It was the most picturesque human suburb she had encountered so far. The upscale housing brought to mind Sirye, where Oomie's home resided.

Dea didn't need to check which house it was when her wide eyes spied two luxury vehicles converging at a guarded gate. The property was an architectural masterpiece, nestled in landscaped greenery and hemmed in with rock wall. Keeping to the sidewalk, she hurried towards it.

Surrounded by well-to-do humans in their natural habitat, the realization tugged at her that she was but a lone mermaid in a little mobility device. It was as if a fairy tale was playing out, in which the spotlight focused on her.

It was almost too good to be true.

Dea rummaged in her bag for her makeup pouch. Using the mirror app in her ogi, she hurriedly touched up her eye makeup and dabbed on some lipstick. As she tucked stray hair into place, the insect pin glimmered in the moonlight and made her smile.

She reached her destination within minutes. A fusion of nervous anticipation surged and coursed through her—as if her whole system got touched by a live wire. Her eyes were hyper-alert, accompanied by an ache—a condition that presented itself when she binge-watched TV shows late into the night or played too many Empire Ocean battles back-to-back.

When she neared the guard booth, the human guard leaned out of the window and looked at her askance.

She typed out a quick message on her concealed ogi. "Hello, I'm Dea."

"Good evening," he said in a perfunctory tone. "Where's your ride, miss?"

"My ride broke down on the road."

"Can I see some identification? And the invitation?"

She exhaled in frustration. "I don't have that stuff with me right now."

"I'm afraid I can't let you in," the man said in a manner reminiscent of a bot. "You'd have to leave."

Dea folded her arms and held her head high. "I'm afraid I'm not leaving."

He appeared to be stumped by her battle stance. Then his eyes flitted to the car that waited patiently to be admitted. Another one joined the line.

"Miss, you'd have to leave or I'll call the cops."

"So call them," she retorted. "I've been invited by Dilip himself."

He didn't seem to have expected that response. He retreated into the booth and exchanged hurried words with another guard. A full minute dragged on as calls went through.

The man stuck his head out again, his expression mellowed. "I'm so sorry, miss. You can go right in. Have a good evening."

"Thank you."

The gate that blocked the pedestrian way unlocked with a clacking noise, and the guard emerged to swing it open for her. She rolled the Cypod through and continued on to the sprawling house, which glowed like a deep-sea giant against the inky black sky.

Dea heard the gurgle before she saw it. A fountain sat at the center of a roundabout. It shot jets of water high into the air in undulating formations, colored with moving spotlights.

Captivated by the spectacle, she orbited it on her way to the entrance. Tingles of excitement sent her skin prickling. After all, this was an event that would go down in history—a turning point for both humans and merpeople. Yet, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she wasn't privy to vital pieces of information which would have a bearing on her plan. Just like the brine pool jerk to plant seeds of doubt and ruin this.

A vehicle circled the fountain and deposited its passengers at the glass facade of an entrance. Golden light spilled out onto the wide, marble steps.

When Dea slid to a halt, a uniformed human hurried to greet her. "Miss, you don't have a ride?"

This time, she didn't bother hiding the ogi. The man's face shifted from surprise to fascination as he watched her type.

"I'm good," Merlingo announced. "Thank you for the welcome. Am I late?"

"The food is about to be served. Come this way, miss."

Dea eased the Cypod into an opulent foyer, echoing with clinks of glass and subdued chatter. Guests milled about in all their finery, fabric swishing in sync with clacking heels. Her gaze wandered all over the place and swept up the grand staircase at the center.

Dilip stood speaking to someone on the upper landing, decked out in beige with a pearlescent sheen. He was as magnificent as she imagined he would be—her human prince who would help her people to forge a new future.

He turned, and his eyes caught hers.

That electrifying instant transported Dea all the way back to the fateful day of the cyclone, when just before she plunged back into the waves, he watched her—not unlike the way he was watching her now. As inexplicable as it may be to him, she had a notion that he knew.

Her mind then strayed to Hima, Oomie and Gramma—as well as the Youth Council and the protesters back home. It was amazing how far she had come and the knowledge she had acquired about the world beyond the coral atoll.

"Today is the day we change the future, Gramma," she whispered to herself. "We come out of hiding."

The fiery flame of hope burned brighter as Dea forged ahead.

Quick Note: Dea's journey has gone okay so far, wouldn't you say? But the road ahead might get bumpy, so strap in! It's like one of those darker scenes in Naruto—after all, this is influenced by anime! I'd have included a Hakuna Matata song somewhere like Disney did in Lion King, but anime don't have musical interludes.

But hey, no matter how crazy it gets, I promise the ending won't be sad like the original tale!

Oh, and which ship do you prefer?

Animal: Pacific Blackdragon

https://youtu.be/ATWHi88fQRI