1500 Miles from the Indian Oceans
Daylight, Cloudy

{Damian}

"So let me get this straight," Iruka interrupted the silence while staring at the gems resting in front of us. "You're absolutely serious in giving your human a rock as something special?"
She scoffs in sarcastic humor. "You humans are easy... next thing I know, you'll give our dump as a gift."
"Funny," I said sarcastically.
"I know." She said with a valley girl attitude.
Well, what do you know... I was right, sea creatures have attitudes just like humans.
Great... (Eye roll)
"Anyways, which do you plan to give?" She asks.
"I don't know... neither one of them are in perfect shape."
It's amazing to discover that the Mariana Trench is able to harvest gems like caves and mountains. Won't the scientist go crazy for this new information.
Due to the dark surroundings, I couldn't see what kind of gem I was pulling out of the ground.
I seem to have pulled out 3 different kind of gemstones which are Topaz, Ruby, and Amethyst.
It's a good thing I've read through a magazine regarding gemstones or I would not have known the names of these stones.
And it's also quite relieving that the biggest stone out of the three was the ruby. Its size was close to my fist. There's no doubt that it's worth billions.
The ruby was the main reason I went down there for and I'm glad it wasn't a waste of trip.

The ruby looks exactly like a stone with dirt, dull surface, and dark red-black colored. This is because it's not handled by a lapidary yet. They are the ones who make these stones into gems for the public to wear or decorate.
Luckily, I don't need to find one because I know exactly how to do it myself. I just need the right tool which are at the Manors G.I.T.C lab.
"This," I said, picking up the ruby.
"Huh... red stone." She said. "Not bad."
"Soooo?" She drags her word. "What are you gonna do with the other two?
Good question.
I gaze towards the Topaz and Amethyst, at the same time, studying their appearance. The topaz is in a shade of a very cloudy blue sky while the amethyst is just a white with a shade of purple in direct sunlight.
"I'll just take it with me and see what use I can make out of them ones I'm human again," I said to her. "Maybe I'll give it to my family or something."
"Alright." She said. "By the way, look ahead."
I raise my head and was immediately stunned that the colors of the water are different than we were are now. We're almost reaching the other side of the sea which is brighter than where we are now. I sat frozen because I've never seen two colors of the ocean so close and not mixed.
"What is up ahead? I ask without taking my eyes off the divided sea.
"We're about to cross into the Indian Ocean!" She said happily. "You know what that means."
"We're closer to Atlantis?" I ask, feeling excited.
"Kinda..." She said.
"What?!" I look at her.
"Well, we are in the Indian Ocean where Atlantis is but we're still a little farther from it." She said. "What I was excited about is, now we get to stay closer towards the surface because this is a no human territory."
"Here we gooooo!!" She said as she rests in front of me.
I look ahead as the other sea was about to crash into us. The whales' head had already stuck into the other side and next is our turn.
One's we were very near towards the boundaries, I shut my eyes and hang onto the dorsal of the whale.
Though I didn't see the crossover, I knew that we're already in the other side of the ocean. It's because I felt the water temperature a little warmer than before and my scales were glistening even brighter than before which made my body tingle.
I open my eyes to see Iruka floating in front of me, looking at me.
"C'mon, don't tell me you got scared of that?" She teases.
"Give me a break, it's not like I've lived in the sea before to know all this." I relaxed.
"Good point." She chuckles. "Anyways, welcome to the Indian Ocean."
I took my eyes off her and gaze around. I can finally see more lives than I had before.

There were billions of species swimming everywhere. Not to mention a huge school of sardine fishes swimming in circles. It was beautiful. A sight I only thought I would see in documentaries but not in real life.
"I think it'll take another whale to reach Atlantis." She interrupted my scenery montage. "Till then, we'll just rest on her as usual."
"Say, are you hungry?" Iruka asked.
The moment she mentioned the word hungry, I was stunned by the fact that I've not felt hungry since I've become a Siren.
I place my hand on my stomach and still, I felt no grumble whatsoever.
"Now that you mentioned it, I'm not." I stare at my stomach. "How is that possible?"
"I'm not sure about that." She said. "Every Sirens I know would get hungry pretty fast because they're predators... but you? I guess you're much different. Maybe it has something to do with your half-human self."
"Your blood is different than a pure Siren so that could it be." She said.
"Maybe," I said. "Why? Are you hungry Iruka?"
"Yea, I'm ravenous." She said, looking at her surroundings. "But don't worry, I don't eat humans or sirens no matter how hungry I am. I only stick to sardine and shrimps, and other small size creatures."
"In that case, there's a school of sardine fishes over there that you could have," I said, pointing towards the fishes.

"Yes, I was aiming for them ever since we crossed." She said. "And I sensed that the whale is hungry too so... I think you'll have to excuse us for a while."
"Excuse you?" I ask, feeling confused.
"Yes, I mean, you wouldn't want to be mistaken as food for other predators now would you?" She said. "The whale and I will be heading towards the tuna. Why don't you wait here for us?"
"Oh... sure," I said, picking the gems up and getting off the whale.
"Stay safe, we will be back as soon as possible." She said, just before swimming next to the whale. "Cmon, let's get us some sardine!"
Both of them started swimming towards the tuna, together with the other predators such as sharks, seal, and tuna, and even seagulls.

That just leaves me.
I head towards the sea bed to where hundreds of corals and anemone rest. I landed next to a large anemone and gently place the gems in it to keep it safe. One's that was done, I let my tail rest on the seabed and watched the sardines being consumed by each predator.

Unfortunately, I couldn't spot where Iruka is because there were other dolphins as well. But, it wasn't hard to spot the whale since it was the biggest fish amongst the rest.

My eyes gaze away from the chaos and stared at the sunray piercing into the sea. Which made me realized that I haven't stuck my head out of the waters and feel the heat of the sun in a while.
I decided to go for it. I took one last clear look of the anemone to which I kept the gems to make sure I remember how it looked like so that I won't forget to take the gems when its time to go.
When I had the picture of the anemone in my mind, I got up and began swimming towards the surface.

I can proudly say that I'm really getting the hang of swimming with fins compared to the last few days. Every fin flaps I make, the stronger my tail gets which makes me swim even faster.
I've stopped just a few inches away from the surface in no time, far from the chaos.

I went for it. I swam straight up and stuck my head above the waters. I pushed my wet hair towards the back to get a better view of my surroundings. My scales feel hot but in a relaxing way.

Obviously, the mainland isn't anywhere near us yet so there isn't an island for miles away. All there was is the blue sea and sky. The color of Jon's beautiful eyes.

I close my eyes, lift my chin up high and inhaled in a lung-full of the fresh salty air.
All this while, I've been inhaling waters into my lungs, which felt like air but not. Now that I get to inhale actual air ones again, I have to say that it feels really good.