UNDER THE SEA

"What exactly were you thinking?"

"You are so daring. Wish you displayed such traits when we were younger,"

"Haha, saving someone? Haha, you're killing me here,"

Lia felt the silent sarcastic jabs seep into her bones. She sat silently on a rock. Her hands touched the hard dry surface of the rock, and her head was down. She nibbled on her lips, letting Talia's words sink in.

It had to be some sort of punishment, and she considered it that way. This way, she felt that she could stop the dark thoughts from eating her body and could finally let herself get out of this place.

Lia's gentle fingers poked one of the fishes that were leaning against her. Near her was the colorful reef with all its glory, and above her, the escaped rays of sunlight tackled her figure.

Her waist felt ticklish as another fish nudged itself closer. Slowly, as she sat longer, the numbers of fishes around got larger.

Then she heard a sigh, "I just don't get it honestly," Talia said. In her hands were a few plastic bags and trash that she was collecting. "Why do you love humans this much? If anything, they just love to throw their trash at us, build up rumors about us and try to obtain us." Talia's voice revealed nothing. Her face was pulled into a disgusted frown, but looking closer, Lia could see her hands holding tightly onto the trash. Almost tearing them.

Lia opened her mouth once, then twice and thrice. Every time she would open it, she wouldn't find the right words to say. No, she didn't have anything to utter as her friend was absolutely correct.

With a groan, she abandoned the place she was sitting at, disturbing the growing number of fishes. Her hands started collecting the floating junk and placing it in the dropping area where other mermaids would retrieve later.

On one side, piles started accumulating as garbage was disposed of there, causing such a terrible contrast with the organic materials around her. The red corals clashed with the translucent soft bags and the colonies suffered in silence.

She saw tiny creatures and newborns slowly immigrating from their homes toward a safer place - a place where maybe the humans couldn't touch them.

Lia grimaced.

"You are right," she admitted. "They are terrible."

Talia laughed sarcastically, "yet, you are still going." It wasn't a question but a statement. Talia only threw a cold glance toward her friend and swam away, doing her job aggressively.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The only way Lia could describe her days recently was that they were busy, tiring, and extremely lonely without her mother roaming around her all the time.

She had tried talking with her mother multiple times but every instance, Vanora would either look away or ignore her totally. It got to the point where sometimes Vanora would sleep at someone else's house and leave her daughter be.

She had never felt this lonely before, and guilt gnawed at her insides. Yet, guilt hadn't been the only thing trying to tear her apart. There was also the amount of work out and preparation she had to go through.

Of course, Lia couldn't see the king anymore since he handed all the responsibilities of this mission to one of the ministers — who almost started shedding tears — and disappeared inside the castle.

At first, she thought that she had passed the hard part which was nominating herself. But, she quickly realized how wrong she was.

Apparently, for the first time in her life, Lia was criticized for her mental abilities. The minister and his helpers told her something about how she never really developed them to their full potentials and that she took them for granted.

And even though she was a little shocked, Lia had to admit that that was true. She was born naturally gifted with such talents, so she had never taken them seriously or pushed herself forward to reach new heights.

It was also hateful how they kept reminding her of how her father was a great man. Their mouths talked of how her father was the greatest scholar to ever live. He was someone who was able to confront enemies with words and letters instead of actual weapons, and he was fearless. His mental abilities alone were unimaginable.

It was as if their eyes were speaking in a silent tone, asking her why her father disappeared, and why wasn't she as impressive as he was. Most importantly, they asked why she had volunteered for this mission and abandon her beloved mother behind?

Lia had to remind herself; they weren't actually thinking this. These were only her thoughts.

That was how her days went by, and after a few weeks, she realized something important.

They weren't teaching her anything relating to human nature.

Yes, they taught her their language, and she only needed three weeks to master almost all of them - if not all. Yet, they told her nothing about the way they act, or how they interact with one another.

They gave her history classes, rising their kingdom to the sky while bringing the human land and their despicable actions through the muds. How far these history books went, she wouldn't know.

There wasn't anything useful in them for her, because they were all something that spoke of the past, yet nothing of the present.

"Uhm, excuse me?" Lia tried to carry her tried body toward the teacher before he packed his stuff. She felt her body was heavy, unable to move freely from the weights they placed on her arms. They had told her something about increasing her strength and being ready for 'unpredictable' fights.

She had raised many questions back then, which all were unanswered.

The teacher glanced at her quickly, raising his brow ridge - as he had no hair in there. Her teacher was a mer and a lionfish mix. His head was full of venomous spiky fins rays, but otherwise, his whole body showed that he was a merman.

"How may I help you?" Even though he was being totally polite, Lia heard how cold his tone was with her and saw the contempt in his eyes.

That made her frown.

Why was he like that?

In fact, she had noticed lately that everyone around her was acting in a similar way.

They all looked at her behind her back, and their thoughts sometimes reached her — though she didn't know if that was intentional or not — as they spoke ill about her. Yet, whenever she turned around, she saw everyone acting normally as if they had done nothing wrong.

It was a first for Lia. She was someone who was nice to everyone and even if they did something terrible to her, she would just ignore them.

For that, she was very well-liked under the sea and popular.

"I actually wanted to ask you about the study material," she played with her hands nervously, showing a small smile. "While I was flipping through, I didn't see anything talking about modern humans. I wonder if that would be included later?"

Though her question was said in a very friendly way, the teacher looked at her oddly. As if she had cursed his family, both of his eyes widened and his fins flared, pulling himself away from her.

He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, and Lia could only blink at him confusingly.

"The material won't be included!" His voice was deafeningly loud that her ears tingled.

"Why?" Lia tried to get close, ignoring his fins as they got close to touching her.

Every time she would try to get close, he would move backward. "Why would it be?!"

"But how am I going to act outside?"

Being flustered to this point, the teacher seemed as if he was out of breath. The unusual shades his face was flickering from and to, told Lia that he might faint at any moment.

Lia was completely clueless as to why he was flustered to this point but still stood her ground.

She had tried asking around before, and all she got was meaningless words and excuses. No one dared to respond and that was why she was cornering this poor creature.

"Why, hmm?"

Seeing she was this persistent, the teacher closed his eyes and suddenly shouted. "You will see for yourself!"

It was then he fainted and Lia got no answer.