Dive In

Ella curled her toes in the soft, warm sand. The water gently lapped at the shore and the sun beat down on the glass surface of the water. She knew that under the waves was a refuge from the insufferable heat, but Ella couldn't bear to tear her eyes away from the North shore for even a minute. She hadn't set a time to meet Landon at the beach, and now she was stuck out here waiting for him to show up. The summer sun was scalding her sensitive shoulders and making her sweat profusely, and she was tempted to duck back inside the cabin and fill a cooler with ice and cold drinks. She hoped Landon would come soon, she hadn't felt quite the same once he'd left. It was like she had gone her whole life without realizing a part of her was missing, and yesterday she'd found that part, only to lose it again. She had no idea what it was about Landon that made her feel complete, but now she felt empty. She could hear Derek rustling around in the trees with Topher; twigs and branches snapping as they frolicked about. After Ella had told Derek she was meeting up with Landon at the beach he hadn't strayed far from the shore. Derek said that it was Topher's favourite place to play, but Ella knew he wanted to see Brittany again. She knew they would make good friends, after last night she could tell Brittany had the same thirst for mischief and hunger for adventure. Ella noticed a flash of blue in the trees, and soon after Landon emerged from the forest.

“Hey Ella!” he called, a goofy smile plastered on his face.

“Hello Landon,” she smiled back, her earlier unease dissipated.

“You didn't wait all day on the beach for me, did you?” he teased, striding across the sand.

“Of course not,” she said a little too quickly.

“So what do you want to do?” asked Landon, digging his feet down into the layer of sand that was cool and damp.

“Swim?” suggested Ella hopefully. She wanted nothing more then to dive into the cool depths.

“Nah, water's too cold today,” he said, scrunching his nose.

“It's always the same temperature. Are you scared of it or something? Can you not swim?” she teased. Landon burst out in laughter, like she'd said the funniest joke. Ella frowned, it didn't seem that funny to her.

“Oh, I can swim, trust me. How about we build a sandcastle? You know, purely for the sake of destroying it when we're done,” he grinned mischievously.

“Sure. I think Derek has some shovels and pails in his bag, I'll go grab them,” she said, jumping up from her beach towel and trotting over to where Derek had tossed his bag. She pulled out a couple of buckets and shovels and returned to Landon, who was evening out the sand.

“Go fill one of these with water, I'll start on the blueprints,” grinned Landon, picking up a piece of driftwood and scratching things into the sand. To Ella it just looked like chicken scratch. She went down to the water to fill up the bucket, and carefully carried it back, trying not to get any on herself. She set down the bucket and crouched next to Landon.

“There, a miniature replica of- uh, some castle I once saw in a book. I think,” said Landon, pouring the water over the sand to make it sticky.

Ella filled buckets with sand and passed it off to Landon, not even bothering to follow his horrible plan. When Landon was done building his castle, which to Ella looked like a big mound of sand, he pulled a tiny flag out of his pocket and placed it on the top. When she looked closer, she saw it was decorated with symbols like the ones they'd found in the forest.

“Can we destroy it now?” Ella asked giddily, raising one foot in preparation to smash it.

“No! Not my baby!” shrieked Landon and he grabbed her leg. She fell down on top of him, landing with an oof.

Ella could feel her face turning bright red, and she scrambled to get off of him. She tried her best to avert her eyes and turn away, but there was no hiding her cherry pink cheeks from Landon. His mouth was poised to make a joke already, but a voice calling out from the dock stopped him. Instantly his face fell and his goofy demeanour vanished.

“Hey Landon! Care to introduce me to your friend?”

Ella looked over. There was a boy hanging onto the edge of the dock. He looked like he was around her age, but his hair was a deep grey colour. As she and Landon got closer to the boy, she could see his eyes were a startling grey as well. His skin was so pale it was snowy white, even lighter then Ella's. All she could see was his shoulders and arms, but they were heavily toned and his smile was mischievous and playful. She couldn't help but notice his teeth were also eerily straight.

“This is Ella. Ella, this is my friend Carter. He camps out here a lot too,” said Landon without any enthusiasm.

“Right. I do enjoy all that outdoors stuff,” said Carter with an eye roll, “What about you Ella?”

“Oh, I'm out here visiting my aunt. This is her cabin,” said Ella, pointing up the shore.

“So you come out here a lot?” he asked.

“Every chance I get,” she nodded. Landon smacked his hand against his forehead and groaned.

“What's the matter old friend? Don't want to share your lovely lady?” smirked Carter.

“No it's not that, I just wish you'd stop being such a god damn bar-” a splash from the water cut Landon off and he took a big step away from the edge of the dock.

“Hey,” said Ella, trying to change the subject, “why don't you come hang out with us on the beach?”

“No can do sweet heart,” Carter shook his head, smiling sadly.

“Why? Do you have to be somewhere?”

“No. It's more like I can't get out of the water. You see, I'm not like Landon.”

“Carter,” Landon said in a warning tone.

“When Landon wants to go on land, his goes away,” continued Carter.

“What goes away? I'm confused,” asked Ella.

“Carter!” yelled Landon.

“My tail won't go away. I have royal blood, so my tail won't go away when I want to go out of the water,” said Carter matter-of-factly.

“You have a tail,” said Ella, doubt creeping into her voice. Beside her Landon's fists were curled in anger and he was glaring at Carter like he wanted to snap his neck.

Carter said no more, he just rolled over in the water and beckoned Ella closer with his hand. Ella took a tentative step towards the edge of the dock, just close enough to see over the edge. She saw a faint glimmer beneath the surface, and her hand wrapped around Landon's wrist for reassurance. Carter jerked his body, and a glittering silver fish tail appeared before Ella's eyes. She let out a gasp as her eyes searched for a sign that it was just a costume or an elaborate trick, but she saw no trace of human legs. Carter's tail was fused to his body, real scales merging into skin around his waist. Her eyes drifted up towards his face, waiting for him to scream “gotcha!” but instead she saw gills on his neck. Real gills that were slowly opening and closing, revealing the pink flesh underneath. She took a big step backwards towards Landon, who caught her waist and kept her from falling off the dock.

“I know you're creeped out right now, but eventually this will seem pretty cool to you. I personally think my tail is the most sparkly, but Landon's is pretty cool too. It's blue. Like his eyes,” said Carter, rolling back and forth to show off.

Ella jumped back from Landon. He was just like Carter. He was a... Merman? Ella closed her eyes and shook her head, hoping that when she opened them again Carter would be normal. But when she opened them the tail was still there. Landon wasn't even objecting to what Carter was saying. He was just standing there, watching her. Trying to gauge Ella's reaction.

“What are you?” Ella finally managed to choke out.

“Ella-” Landon started but Carter cut him off.

“Let me explain. We're Wildfolk. More specifically, we're Waterfolk. A lot like your mermaids or mermen except... we're real. We breath underwater, we have fishtails and... well, as far as magic powers go I'm afraid that's it. As for the rest, it would really just be easier to show you where we live,” said Carter, reaching out a hand. Ella took another step back.

“Please Ella, let me explain. We've be watching you-” started Landon.

“You've been watching me?,” she yelled.

“Only because-”

“I think you need to leave. Now,” she said, backing up until her feet hit the sand.

“Ella please listen!” shouted Landon frustratedly, reaching out to grab her arm. Ella jerked away, letting out a high pitched scream. She turned on her heel and ran as fast as she could to her cabin. She took the stairs two at a time and slammed the door behind her. She locked it as quickly as she could and pressed herself up against the window. Landon was still standing on the dock, yelling at Carter who floated impassively in the water. Landon took a swing at Carter's face, but the boy in the water was faster and he ducked underneath the waves. Landon lost his balance and went tumbling into the water. What Ella had just seen was unbelievable, but the most disturbing part was that neither of the boys surfaced.

She sunk down onto her knees, holding her head and squeezing her eyes closed as tight as she could. She forced herself to take deep breaths and counted to ten before opening her eyes again. When she did, she was staring into two deep brown eyes and a pair of sandy feet. Derek was looking at her like she was nuts and Topher had his head tilted to the side in concern.

“What's got you so rattled? The voices talking to you again?” joked Derek, nudging her with his foot.

“No... I'm not even going to tell you because you won't believe me,” she growled, standing up and pushing past her brother.

“I bet you Landon tried to kiss you or something and you freaked out. Stupid girl stuff,” he teased.

“No, that's not it at all. Just do me a favour and stay here. I need to check something,” she said, unbolting the front door.

A million things were running through Ella's head. The fish tails, the gills, Landon, Carter, the mysterious ruins, her mother's journal and most of all, the feeling that she'd always known there was more to her then the little girl her mother left behind. If this was all real, maybe it could explain her mother's disappearance.

Maybe it could even lead Ella to her.

Derek stood dumbfounded in the living room as Ella stormed down the beach, but Topher followed closely behind her. She stood at the waters edge, just close enough that the waves lapped at her toes. She took one last deep breath to steady herself.

“Landon!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. Then she waited.

Ripples formed in the water at the drop off, and soon Landon's blond head emerged. She didn't say anything, and to be honest she didn't think she could. She could see the gills flapping on his neck, and the closer he got to the shore the more they seemed to dissolve into his neck. For a moment she was worried he'd be naked when he got out of the water, but when he stood to face her he had on a pair of blue shorts.

“I want answers. I'm tired of running away every time something scares me. If this is real, this is huge for me. The symbols in the forest, your fish tail, my mom, their all connected. I'm connected. This is what I've been searching for all my life and I'm not about to let it go so explain what the hell is going on,” she said in a rush.

Landon stared at her blankly for a minute, then began, “Like Carter said, we're Waterfolk. We live in the lake. We aren't the only Wildfolk, there's also the Forestfolk, the Earthfolk and the Skyfolk. Forestfolk are like what humans call elves. They live in Mirror forest, around the lake. Earthfolk are similar to dwarves, and I believe they live underground somewhere nearby. The Skyfolk are just like the Forestfolk, except with wings and they can fly. Have I lost you yet?”

“No... How are the symbols connected? And why are you watching me?”

“The symbols we found in the forest are similar to the Wildfolk language, but their in a strain we've never seen before. We think they're a combination of all four Wildfolk languages, but no one speaks it and we can't find a translation or code so we don't know for sure. We're watching you because you've always shown signs of being one of us. A Wildfolk,” said Landon.

“Me? No way. I'm nothing special-”

“Ella, just look at you. Your pale, thin and fair. Your soft spoken and quick footed. Your father and aunt grew up so close to here that we assumed there was a chance you were one of us. Now that I know your mother's name, I'm sure you are. I've heard the name spoken in hushed whispers in our temples by our priests. They wouldn't be talking about her unless she was a Wildfolk. They seem to think she's still out there. I've been searching as hard as I can to find her for you, but I'm stuck because no one will tell a lowly guard in training anything. I figured if I bring you to my kingdom, and I would be able to if your Wildfolk, then the priests would be willing to tell you all they know about your mother. I'm sorry Ella, those are all the answers I have for you right now. I was going to tell you soon, I just wanted to do it in the right way then... Well, Carter happened,” sighed Landon, wrapping his hand around Ella's and squeezing.

“Why do you care about me so much?”

“It's hard to not care about someone when you've been watching over them for so long,” he blushed.

“Oh. Well, if this helps I believe you. This is way to elaborate to be a prank, and deep down I've always felt... A little magical,” Ella flushed.

“Oh we can't do magic,” Landon laughed, “The only creatures I know that can do magic are fairies. And even then the powers they have are miniscule. I'll have to introduce you to one. They're... Interesting.”

“I'll be looking forward to it. Uh, how would I go to your kingdom? It's underwater and I don't have gills. I've been swimming in this lake all my life, I've never sprouted gills and a tail before,” she said, rolling back on her heels.

“Oh... If you are in fact Wildfolk, there is a way to get you a temporary tail. You have to kiss a member of the royal family. More specifically Carter. He's the one who agreed to do it,” said Landon sheepishly.

“On the lips?” Ella had never kissed a boy before. The thought of kissing Carter, the strange, arrogant fish boy made her heart pound and her head light.

“Uh yeah. Not ideal, I know. Not to brag or anything, but Lake Shore Kingdom is pretty beautiful. I'd put seeing it in person on your bucket list. And for the information we'll get about who you are and your mother... Well I'd say kissing Carter is worth it,” said Landon.

“Mhm. You're not the one who has to kiss him,” Ella squirmed.

“You know, you're taking this all pretty well. Sure you're not in shock or anything?” asked Landon, looking her over.

“I know I'm surprised too. I think it's the symbols we found. I've been waiting for an explanation about them, and now I think we've got it. Seeing those made me open to almost anything,” she said, staring across the lake to the sandy cove she and Landon had visited the other day. It almost felt like it was calling to her, drawing her back to the stone pillars tucked away in the trees.

“Even diving a hundred feet below the surface with a fish boy and his stuck up fish friend?” smiled Landon.

“Yes, even that,” laughed Ella.

“Well then, meet me here at midnight. Your aunt is going to be home soon, and we can't have her knowing where you're going. If she catches you on your way out, flicker the lights in your room twice. Then Carter and I will leave. Sound good?” he asked.

“Wait... Why can't my aunt know? She'd be all for this kind of thing. She was my mother's best friend,” said Ella.

“I'm sorry Ella, Maria is a Mortalis Warrior. She can't know about us. It's a miracle she hasn't found us yet. I know your aunt is a good person, but they've got her tricked into thinking the Mortalis are good people. They aren't, Ella. Their main goal is to eradicate all supernaturals like us and steal our powers. They've got your aunt believing we're dangerous and we need to be killed. Until we can prove to her otherwise, we have to keep this secret. Promise?” asked Landon, begging her with his eyes.

“I... Promise. I'll try my best to come tonight.”

“Good. Oh and Ella, one more thing.”

“What?”

“My name isn't really Landon. It's Lagoon.”