Page 9 of Mermaid on Heels
Luke stared at his brother-figure warmly. “I highly doubt I’ll ever be brought down with you by my side.”
The genuine smile that touched his eyes split Cedric’s face. “And that’s why I’m your brother.”
Both men laughed and walked towards their waiting horses, unaware of the mermaid hiding on the other side of the sea arch and listening to their conversation.
Chapter 3
Up to almost touching the surface, Liriya’s inner self kept urging her to turn and swim back, trying to pull her out of her illogical desire to discover the mysterious human’s identity. He could be a pirate, even though she didn’t see any ship floating above. And since the mere thought of humans or hearing that certain word brought nothing but a pirate to the forefront of her mind, Liriya didn’t give it a thought that he could be anyonebuta pirate.
Not until she heard his conversation with his brother.
Liriya went rigid in shock, learning that the human she had followed up to the surface was a prince. The soon-to-be king of the land above her, who can breathe underwater, and more shockingly, wanted amermaidbride.
Why in all of the sea does he want to marry amermaid?
Liriya felt as though her mind would explode from pondering, as the conversation she eavesdropped added more questions than answers about the prince.
Luke.His name was Luke. That was the only thing that wrapped around her head.
Once the two men moved away and she could no longer hear them, Liriya inhaled. And it felt so good as though she hadn’t inhaled since coming up here. She touched a hand to her chest, over the shells that braced them, and felt the rapid beat of her heart. Sucking in a mouthful of warm and not-so-clean water, she shook herself off the shock and leaned against the sea arch grown from the seafloor, as though she was exhausted. Her eyes darted around her, and for the first time since coming up, she observed her surroundings and its mysteries.
The water was warm, something she had never experienced before. Having always dwelt in the depths of the ocean and never allowed to go up until a certain distance, Liriya or her sisters had never known the warmth before. And this feeling, comforting and foreign at the same time, sent pleasant shivers down her spine and ripples all over her skin.
Liriya smiled absently.
There was so much light up here. Her eyes had never looked at such brightness before and she thought it would blind her. Liriya was still under the water, just a flick away from breaking through the surface.
Sudden curiosity overtook her to rise to the surface and see what the airy world looked like.
She had only heard about it from Mama’s bedtime stories before, and witnessing it with her own eyes was a golden chance within her hold; one that she might not have again.
Liriya pushed down her fear and inhaled deeply, storing the oxygen in her lungs; Merfolk couldn’t breathe out of water.
Then, a sudden thought hit her. She was told that humans couldn’t breathe under the watertoo.Now, it was proved wrong before her eyes. What if Merfolk could breathe out of the sea, after all?
There was nothing to lose with a little experiment. She could duck back if she couldn’t breathe.
Liriya flicked her tail and soon, her head broke through the surface. An audible gasp escaped her lips the moment her head was out of the water, and her eyes bulged, untellable it was from fear or astonishment. The out-of-water feeling felt oddly amazing.
The brightness of the day was blinding to her eyes that she kept blinking several times before her vision righted and steadied. She looked all around her and above in awe. There was the sky, so high over her, higher and wider than she had ever imagined it to be. The airy world was so open and wide, and Liriya had to admit that its vastness overshadowed her own world. Looking up, she felt so tiny.
The airy world was gigantic.
Then, she saw them—theflying fishesas she had dubbed them in her mind. Birds, with wings outstretched, soaring through the air; they were such a remarkable sight. Some of them even swooped down to the sea far away from her, and Liriya wondered iftheycould breathe underwater too.
Were all the tales about the airy-world dwellers, that they couldn’t breathe underwater, just a tale?
The roused question made Liriya focus on herself, and realized much to her own shock that shewasbreathing.
She was breathing theairandnotchoking to get back underwater desperately.
Liriya was consumed by awe and astonishment now, and she drew in several breaths, finding breathing the air as an odd, funny feeling.
A wide, infectious grin spread across her face. This was the best day of her life since her tragic birthday, or perhaps, the best of them all. She had never felt anything like the giddiness she felt now and realized one thing; the tales she was told as a child, all the horrid tales about the merfolk’s forbiddance from the upper world, were all just it; a tale, a lie, a horrid story to keep Merfolk from ever going to the surface.
How many timesshewould have been to the surface and back by now if she hadn’t been told such stories. Who could ever depart from a world such as this?
Liriya realized that she couldn’t now.