The morning started like most in the Fen household, baby crying, the younger siblings waking, making noise and mother speaking sharply to keep them in line. The quarreling grew louder with each new voice adding to the numbers.

Xuan’s eye opened, he brushed some white hair out of the way and glanced about the small sleeping cove just above the communal space. He and his two older brothers slept after their long not real productive hunt during the waking hours. He opened his tail fin fully and stretched his arms above his head, he ached a little here and there from the long swim. It seemed that all the large school of fish had migrated elsewhere and a large squid which hindered their activities. Squids were not to be trifled with, they could kill a merperson quickly and easily. They did manage to gather some mussels and red prawns from the Midnight Layer above them. Xuan took a deep inhale and let it out, with so little food they would be going out again, until they obtained bigger game they would continually be hunting. A couple more sleeps before the community will gather together and do one large hunt. Recently that was the only way to fill the lower caverns with meat.

He knew he should go down and help his mother, the other part of him wanted to sleep just a little longer. He drifted closer to the warm rock heated naturally by molten rock under the surface and closed his eyes giving into the stronger urge to sleep this once. The peace didn’t last long, a child screamed, which in turn gave a few more reason to cry. He groaned softly, blinking at the glowing creatures clinging to the rocks around him. He pushed himself to the floor and picked up his belt carefully brushing off the rock dwelling worms that gave them light.

“I will be glad when I have my own cave,” the orange colored Hunter grumbled using his hands to move his body through the gap to the main room. His large tail bumped into the other two as he passed.

“Agreed,” Winter mumbled rolling his body to face the wall, his long braided blue hair wrapping around his torso. “It will be so peaceful without Hunter around.”

Xuan chuckled. “I don’t think that is what he meant, brother.” Winter only hummed drifting back to sleep. Another sharp scream echoed over the cavern followed by the gruff voice of father which stilled a lot of crying but excited cheers and greetings.

Xuan envied his brother’s ability to sleep through most commotion. He pushed himself away and down through the gap, folding his fin to make it through before spreading it open again.

His gray colored father was comforting a sobbing toddler half-awake, three others were clamoring for his attention. His brown colored Mother handed out mussels and red prawns to the rest of her brood. Each child was a different shade of color ranging from bright red to black, they were one of the most colorful group in the community. Mimi, a purple color younger sister wiggled from the room she shared with four of her sisters. She bolted to him and greeted him with a tight hug. “Hey there,” he said, opening her hand. “You still have that starfish?”

“I was going to get him some food,” she said.

“You know you are going to have to let it go, it doesn’t live this deep.”

She pouted and he held her for a moment, their tails moving in time to keep them near the ceiling and in place. “It’s my pet.”

“Your brother is right, Mimi. It belongs in Midnight.”

“I know,” she whined. “But I love it.”

“You want the starfish to find a mate and have a little family don’t you?

Mimi nodded peering at the creature in her hand. She let out a sigh then handed it to Xuan. “Can you when you are hunting? I don’t have the heart.”

“Sure,” he said taking the small creature from her.

“Speaking of which,” Father said giving the quieted toddler to Mimi. “Wake your brother, Xuan. We need to get more food before your mother throws us all out on our heads.”

“Oh,” Mother said with a snort.

Father chuckled and gave her a kiss on the cheek and started saying goodbye to his brood. As always Mother hugged each of them and insisted they be careful, and they responded they would look after one another.

Xuan moved back into his sleeping chamber and shook Winter awake, the two moved to the main room and waited for Father to finish with his children before they left. Xuan touched the sharp hunting knife on his belt and grabbed a spear crafted out of bone and rock. The cold of the undercurrents were sharp after being inside, Hunter joined them and they moved upwards to the Midnight Layer. Xuan’s eyes adjusted to the lighter part of the water and they spread out to find something large enough to feed the brood.

Cora groaned as the sun shined her face, effectively waking her from her slumber. She curled under her covers trying to get back to sleep again, but she had no such luck as she heard her parents call for her, "Cora! It's time to wake up! Breakfast is ready!" She groaned and got up out of bed, looking out of the window to see the island before heading to the dining room.

Cora Remington was born to a rich family of a successful business, with no siblings. Some may consider this to be a blessing, but for Cora, this was more of a curse, because the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. Her parents were overprotective in a way that made them seem almost paranoid (at least to Cora). They also controlled almost every aspect of Cora's life, which included choosing her friends for her, and arranging a marriage for her. Cora loved her parents, but she hated the fact that they were so controlling. Living like that was like trying to live without breathing air. She wanted to make her own choices and follow her dreams, but that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Every time she made her own decision, her parents would send her on an immediate one way guilt trip.

After she ate her breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit with her parents, she went into the bathroom to change out of her PJs and into her bathing suit and light blue sundress, with sandals and a wide brimmed hat to block the sun. As she did she heard her parents call "Hang out with your friends today! We don't want to hear that you've been by yourself again,"
Cora sighed as she exited the room with a large bag filled with stuff for her time at the beach, including a fresh bottle of water, "Yes, Mom and Dad, I'll do that,"
She honestly didn't want to hang out with her so-called 'friends'. They were awful in personality and they were only nice to Cora because she was part of the Remington family. They were more interested in going to parties and getting drunk while Cora was much more interested in reading a good book for fun.

She left the house and walked across the beach. They were at the Remington's private island because Cora and her 'friends' were on spring break from college. Cora honestly preferred to have stayed at college and get some work done ahead of time, but her parents, once again, 'insisted' that she and her friends come to the island for their break. Cora enjoyed the peace and silence she had as she walked across the beach, with her sandals off and in her hand. However, that peace didn't last, as her 'friends' arrived. The leader, Tina called to Cora "Yo Cora! 'Sup?"
Cora mumbled distantly in reply "Nothing much…"
After her reply, the 'friends' followed her talking about things that Cora was never interested in, and whenever they said something offensive, Cora mentally said otherwise in her mind. She didn't speak up against them, because she didn't want to be involved in that kind of discussion with anyone in general.

However, the group soon came upon a limp body of a woman wearing rags, just lying in the sand away from the tide. The woman had strange crimson hair, and the rags looked eerily like seaweed. Cora widened her eyes in concern and her mouth open in a slight gape when she heard the woman groan, as she looked up to the group "He…Help…Help me….Need…wat-water…"
Cora was about to rush to help the woman, but Tina sauntered forward and kicked the woman, making Cora gasp, and the woman cough in pain. Tina sneered "Hey! You do know that this is a private beach, right? You want water? Go and drink from the ocean!" Tina kicked the woman again, and the rest of the group, except Cora, laughed.

Cora stepped forward, and pushed Tina away from the woman angrily. For Cora, this was going too far. After that, she said to Tina and her 'friends' angrily "What is wrong with you?! All of you! She needs help!"
Tina was surprised and she snapped back at Cora "What's in it for us? Why should we help some nobody?" She continued, sneering at Cora instead of the woman, "You know, we had our suspicions about you. You really are a little freak aren't you? After all, what sane person would prefer studying over a party?" She sighed and said "Fine. We'll let you do your thing. Come on guys. Let's leave the little freak with that nobody," Tina and her friends left Cora behind with the woman, laughing at loud jokes that made fun of Cora.

Cora ignored them and helped the woman up asking "Are you alright, ma'am? I'm terribly sorry about what just happened. Here," She handed the woman the bottle of fresh water to her.
The woman smiled at Cora as she stood up, and said, "I'm fine, dearie. Thank you," The woman accepted the water and drank a small sip of it.
Cora asked in concern for the stranger's well-being, "What happened? Do you need help? I could call for someone to come and take you back to your home if you like,"
The woman shook her head and said "It's alright dearie. You helped me enough. However, I would like to bestow you a gift,"
Cora raised an eyebrow at the mention of a gift and she said "No, you don't have to-"
The woman insisted "But I wish to do so! In return for your kindness!" The strange woman continued, her hand now clenched around Cora's arm, "You wish for freedom, correct? To live your own life and have real friends of your own, hm?" Cora didn't answer, out of a growing fear of the woman, and the woman finished "I'll give you that freedom, right now!"

Cora winced when the woman's grip on Cora's arm tightened tenfold and she said to the woman, "Please, let go! My arm hurts!" Cora then noticed that the woman seemed to be mumbling incoherent and incomprehensible words that Cora couldn't recognize. All of a sudden, the two of them were glowing with different auras. Cora had an earthly toned green aura while the woman had a very light blue aura. She noticed that the both of their colored auras were slowly changing to the other color out of the two. Soon Cora's aura was light blue while the woman's was green. The auras faded and the woman let go of Cora's arm and backed away from Cora by one step.

Cora started to ask "What did you-" before she suddenly felt pain. She gasped as she fell over. She felt as though her chest was burning from the inside.
The woman sighed and said to herself "Finally…! I'm human…!" She then looked to Cora who was gasping and on the ground in pain, and she said "Oh that's right. You've been on land for all of your life as a human. So you're going to die if you're not in the ocean. Don't worry, I won't let you die so early…you kind-hearted fool," Cora couldn't ask the woman anything because she soon fainted from the pain. After Cora fainted, the woman waved her hand over Cora's body and it disappeared.

*~*~*

Cora's body reappeared in the ocean in the Midnight layer. She was lucky she was unconscious as her body had changed into that of a mermaid's. A light blue tail replaced her legs and her auburn hair grew longer. Had she been awake during this part, she would have gone through more pain. She was breathing steadily as she fell slowly through the ocean water.

Xuan’s task of setting the starfish to a rock with a few others was done, he moved toward his waiting family when he stopped. He saw a few large tuna’s just beyond and slightly below his position. “Father,” he said pointing.

“Good eye, boy,” he said and they moved toward the target. “Get around it,” Father said pointing to Xuan.

Xuan moved down and disappeared into the inky blackness and hurried past the pod of tuna fish gripping his spear as he eased back up into the lighter area of the ocean. He had successfully flanked the large fish, on a signal from Father the four of them charged the fish and jabbed spears into the target. It thrashed and the others around it darted away, Xuan was hit hard in the chest with the tail fin which yanked his hold on the shaft of the spear. He swam closer and grabbed his weapon. Father was able to make the killing blow and they all paused peering around to ensure the struggle and blood hadn’t alerted any sharks in the area.

Winter and Hunter lashed the kelp rope around the fish and started pulling it down toward the caves. Father was close behind, Xuan was about to follow when he notice something sparkling. He studied the area, his brow knitted in confusion and he moved toward it. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” he answered it took a few more strong strokes of his tail before he could make out a form. His heart raced as fast as he did to the floating woman. “Hey,” he called grabbing her arm, she was limp and her eyes closed. He check a pulse it was strong against his fingers. He scanned the area for the cause of her condition, he saw no predators or other members of her community. He carefully pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her waist.

His father shot toward them when Xuan and the female emerged in the darker layer of the ocean. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I saw her floating.”

"You don't know what a girl is?" Winter asked then looked at Hunter and they snickered. "You need to get out more."

“Enough. Let’s get her home,” Father said taking his son’s spear. “Mother will heal her. I'll ask around the community after the sleep to see if anyone knows her or her community.” He glanced around. "I bet her parents are beside themselves with worry."

Xuan kept her close to keep her warm as they made it to the cave. Mother was delighted at the large tuna and instantly worried about the girl they had found. She had examined her finding no injuries to heal and eased her near the wall were it was plenty warm and she could keep an eye on the girl for any signs of distress. Xuan went outside toward the stronger of the currents around their place where Father and brothers were already cutting into the fish. The current took the cloud of bloody water away from the house, he was assigned the horrific task of skinning.

Once all that was done, they stuffed the sections of fish into the upper storage compartment and sealed it shut with a rock. The family enjoyed a meal of tuna before they settled to a normal routine. Mimi showed her brother what she had found during the day of exploring the trench with her friends. She had found several large golden disks with some sort of writing stamped on them. Xuan examined a few of them while one of younger brothers tackled his tail and laughed. “These are not sharp to use as a tool.”

“I am thinking hair weights or jewelry. I think the color would go good against your tail.” She swam to it and put it against the narrow end of it before it yawned into his fin. “I think so.”

“What am I going to do with a tail ring?” Xuan asked with a chuckle dislodging the little one from his delicate and sharp ends of his tail. He tickled the little boy. “Don’t get him worked up or you will be putting him to sleep tonight.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said stroking the little yellow head. The child put Xuan’s hand on his belly to encourage another tickling. “Mama says no.” The little boy grew bored and swam toward the others to see what they were doing.

The first thing Cora noticed as she started to regain consciousness was the warm temperature of her surroundings. At first she thought that she was in her bed and was waking up from a dream. She opened her eyes to see only darkness, and she noticed that the atmosphere around her was heavier for some reason. She winced as her chest twinged slightly from the same burning pain from before, and she had her hand over her chest briefly in reaction, only taking her hand off when the pain passed. Cora tried to look around around, trying to see where she was, but her eyes were taking their sweet time to adjust.

Cora heard an older woman's voice speak "Hm? Oh! You're awake," Cora opened her mouth trying to speak as she normally would, only for no voice to come out, and only to hear burbling instead. She blinked in confusion, and tried again only to get the same result. She grabbed at her throat in worry as the woman's voice laughed at her in amusement (and almost condescendingly), "Don't you know how to talk properly? You don't use your mouth in the water. Everybody knows that!"

Cora looked up to the source once she noticed that her eyes had adjusted (she could tell because she could see the cave walls now), and the person she saw gave her quite a shock. She saw a beautiful mermaid, floating right in front of her, in the flesh! Cora's mouth was open in a gape and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates. The older mermaid, an elder sister of Xuan's named Luna, called "Mother, our guest is awake!" Luna turned to look at Cora again and she raised an eyebrow asking "What?" Cora had closed her mouth and and was trying to mentally process what she was seeing.

Cora shook her head and started to trying standing up, but fell over after her first attempt (which was surprisingly difficult), and Luna laughed at her "What are you doing? That's a weird way of getting up off of the floor," Luna continued laughing, as Cora looked at her legs to see why she couldn't stand, only to see that she had a tail instead. She stared in surprise and horror, her face hidden as she looked down, as she realized just what that stranger had done to her.
She thought to herself trying to tell herself that maybe this was just some weird dream and that she was going to wake up soon! She always thought that merpeople were just myth and that they didn't exist.

Xuan glanced up when Luna spoke, his gaze shifted to the girl he had brought into their home. Mimi’s continual chattering settled as she braided some treated kelp for her jewelry making. “Luna,” Mother said softly. “Be nice.” The brown woman said one arm cradled an infant. Her hair was braided and had a lot of delicate kelp rope wound around the plait. Her dark eyes rested upon the new face and smiled warmly. “How are you feeling, little one?” She touched the girl’s forehead then the back of her neck to insure she was not suffering from a fever. “I bet you are hungry. A little food will do wonders. Xuan, go and get me a chunk of tuna.”

“Sure,” he said putting the rocks and three pronged silver metallic things back in Mimi’s basket. He pushed himself away from the wall, he moved to the fish scale curtain and pushed it aside before leaving the house. He moved up to the storage unit and untied the curtain covering the opening. He slipped inside and selected a nice chunk. The place was bare for the most part, after the communal hunt it will not be. It will give him more time to himself once there was food for his family. He left the storage and retied the curtain, he met his father outside the cave. “Any luck?”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “No one knows of any other families in the area. And no one recognizes the description.”

“Maybe the girl is lost,” he said then indicated the meat. “She is awake now.”

“Oh, good,” he said and the two entered the house. Father’s eyes went to his mate, she gave him a soft smile. He took the infant and patted the tiny back gently. “I am Roe,” he said, brushing some dark gray hair behind him. His tail had faint stripes down the outsides with the belly a bit lighter in color. He was an imposing figure, broad shoulder and chest, his arms were beefy as well from the hard work he did regularly. There was an acute likeness in facial features between Roe and Xuan, there was no doubt the two were blood related. The tattoos on their chests were identical as well, Xuan’s stopped at the bottom of his breast bone. Where Roe’s column continued down a little past his belly button with the names of his mate and children, some were doubled where his elder children had already taken mates, he had added them to his collage as easily as he welcomed them into his family. “This is my home, my mate, Shine, our children.” He glanced around. “Well most of them. We,” he glanced at his son. “Xuan found you in Midnight. Can you remember what you were doing there?”

“She is having a hard time speaking,” Shine said. “I am worried she hit her head or was stung by a jellyfish.” She looked at Xuan. “You didn’t notice a glob of jellyfish about?”

“No, Mother,” he answered handing her the food. “She was passed out when I located her. I noticed some shimmering around her but it faded quickly.”

“Those things are such trouble,” she shook her head, splitting the meat in smaller pieces as she did with her little ones and handed it to their guest. “I don’t want to cast a spell for healing if she hadn’t been stung, it would only make her sick.”

Roe put a hand on her shoulder. “Calm, my love. Getting worked up will not bring any answers.”

“I can’t imagine what her parents are going through, they must be beside themselves with worry. Their baby lost out in the depths.”

“Of course they are, word will reach the community soon. I have let everyone know to keep an ear out. They will come directly when her family comes.”

Mimi bit her lower lip suppressing some excitement. “It will be neat to meet others outside the community. It’s been many sleeps since someone new has come. I wonder if our new friend has any brothers my age.” Mimi wiggled a little closer still holding the palm size gold disk. “I bet they are very pretty like her.”

Xuan elbowed his sister. “Give her a chance to breath before pouncing her family. You are not old enough to be thinking of boys yet.”

Mimi folded her arms in front of her and stuck her nose toward the ceiling. “I am not a child, I am nearly ready for my circle.”

“Until then, I think I shall lock you in your sleeping room,” Roe said grabbing his daughter with his free arm, pulling her to his side and kissing her cheek. “You must stay young for a while yet, Mimi. Just a little longer for your father’s sake.”

Mimi embraced him. “For you,” she whispered.

Luna backed away from Cora while sighing "Yes, mother,"
Cora looked to the woman when she asked her, and she was about to try and answer again, but the woman kept speaking and eventually told someone named Xuan to go and get some tuna. She looked to see a merman nearby leave the cave. After he was gone, Cora this time managed to get herself off of the cave floor, and get herself floating (albeit she had to use her tail a couple of times to keep her from sinking again).
Luna looked to Cora and she asked "So, what's your name? Oh wait…you can't tell us can you?"
Cora thought about it, before her facial expression changed to show she had an idea. She gestured, using her hands to look like she was writing, hoping to convey that she could write and communicate with them that way, since she had no idea how to use telepathy like the merpeople in front of her.

Soon the merman from earlier, Xuan returned with another, and Cora listened as the clearly older merman introduced himself and his family. After he did so, Cora decided to try and introduce herself. She gestured the letters of her name, C-O-R-A, and then pointed at herself, in hopes that they would understand her self-introduction. When Roe mentioned that she was found in the midnight, she raised a confused eyebrow. What did he mean by in the midnight? She answered his question with a shake of her head. She could remember that strange woman and what she did to her on the beach. But unless midnight referred to the beach, then she wouldn't be able to answer his question.

When Shine handed her the small bits of tuna, Cora nodded, trying to gesture a thank you to Shine. She listened as Shine and Roe talked to each other about Cora's parents, which in turn made Cora pale in anxiety. Cora knew that after this incident, if she were to go back, her parents would probably never let her out of a house alone ever again. She silently told herself that there was probably no turning back now if she valued her freedom.

As Mimi spoke, Cora wondered if they would know anything about the strange woman she just met, and if they know how she can go back to being human again. Wait…do they even know about humans, or are humans myth to them just as merpeople are myth to humans? Wait! This was probably another dream anyways! Why was she worrying about this?! She could just wake up in her bed anytime soon! A million thoughts was flying around in Cora's mind, as tried to think of what to do.

“What is she doing?” Mimi whispered when the stranger was making gestures in the water.

“I have no idea,” Roe stated softly. Their written words were logograms, a drawn character would represent an idea or proper name. The whole race had a similar base structure on the writing language and the passage of time the characters evolved with the family becoming their own dialect.

“Perhaps she is mute?” Shine said, touching her head. “Can’t speak with her mind.” The idea was absurd, if the girl could think, she could communicate. It was clear the guest was understanding them.

Xuan lips tugged downward as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea. Her gesture before tickled his mind for a while until he figured what it meant. “Wait,” he said and moved toward the new arrival, the mermaid seemed to be lost in her own frantic thoughts. A gentle hand rested on her arm until he had her attention. He pointed to the character on his chest that represented his name. “This is my name written. This is the only way we write.” He backed away to give her more space, his sisters hated when men came to close to their space when they were upset. “So, I don’t know how your family talks. We do it a little differently here.” He tapped his temple, he didn’t move his mouth at all when he communicated the rest of the idea to show her what he was trying to convey. “What you do is, think of what you want to say clearly in your mind. Then,” he put his finger tips against his brow and moved it away opening his fingers toward her. “Project it. Think it at the person you want to talk to,” he chuckled, his dark eyes twinkling and a grin spread over his lips. “Only louder.”

Around them most of the cave worms lights were fading while others in the sleeping rooms illuminated. “Is it that late already,” Shine cried turning to the five youngest. “Time to sleep,” the little ones protested. With her insistence, play things were put away and they all moved to the larger sleeping chamber. Roe excused himself to help with the brood. “Don’t stay up to late, Xuan. You too, Luna, your mother will be needing help when she visits Pieth.” The old woman was half crazy with her delusions, talking about humans all the time. She had been to the surface several times and tried to get everyone to believe humans exist.

“I won’t, Father.”

Mimi returned to her braiding near her basket and still listening to the stranger and her brother. She couldn’t think of a better way to explain how they spoke, it was a learned thing when growing up. Natural as breathing.

Cora was somewhat embarrassed when Mimi asked what she was doing when she was gesturing. She snapped out of her daze when Xuan touched her arm and she looked at him as he spoke and pointed to, what was apparently his name, tattooed on his chest, and saw how different it was from the writing style she was familiar with. She paid attention as he told her how they spoke, and she blushed with embarrassment when he chuckled. She sighed through her nose before deciding to try his way. She followed his directions, unsure of whether it'll work or not. She wanted to use the mike test dialogue, but decided against it. Her words soon were projected, at first as a whisper, but later increasing in volume to normal speaking volume "Like this? Can you really hear me like this?"
Luna raised her eyebrows as she laughed "And our guest finally speaks! So, you really aren't brain dead," That earned Luna a glare from Cora. Luna then asked "So, care to tell us your name?"
Cora answered "My name is Cora. That's what I was trying to say with my gestures earlier,"

Soon Shine was ushering the…merchildren to bed, and Xuan and Luna were warned to not stay up too late. Luna groaned and rolled her eyes saying "We won't, Father," After he was gone, she grumbled "I don't see why we have to help that old lady anyways,"
Cora was a little annoyed at Luna's comment and she asked "What's wrong with helping someone?"
Luna rolled her eyes and answered "Pieth's a little crazy. She's always having delusions, and she's always trying to convince everyone that humans exist. Hah! Can you believe that? Humans! Existing? Bah!"
Cora was dumbfounded and amused at the same time. She was human, and here was a mermaid telling her that humans didn't exist. Which was very ironic.

Cora redirected the subject and asked Xuan "An-Anyways, what did Mr. Roe mean when he said you found me in the Midnight? I highly doubt he meant the time midnight,"
Luna looked a little irritated that Cora was ignoring her comment and was changing subjects with Xuan.

“It is nice to meet you, Cora.” Xuan said moving back to where he had been before shuffling through Mimi’s basket.

“She is a part of the community, Luna,” Xuan said. “We take care of our own. Everyone is commissioned to help one another that is our way. Surely, you are not being selective, Luna? What if some day you are in a state of distress and no one helps you because of something you cannot help?” He shook his head. “There is nothing more important than family or community. Nothing. Without it there is only chaos.”

“She is a little strange,” Mimi whispered. “And she is grabby.”

Xuan faced Cora, not familiar with the language she had used. “Mr? Is that a title of some sort? There is no reason to be formal or anything here. You are a guest and family while you are in our home. Don’t feel awkward or shy. Mother will have you with a list of chores soon enough.”

“Yea, there is always something to do here with the brood.” Mimi snorted.

He shrugged a shoulder surprised she hadn’t been taught about the layers of their world. He was curious just who her family was and what they taught in their lessons. He had heard that some communities didn’t offer that knowledge to their broods, thinking it wasn’t important. Hunting, gathering and other necessary tasks were put in front of such things. “There are five regions or layers to the ocean,” he held up his hand, lifting his tail and easing it down moving forward toward her.

“The No Light,” Mimi said and pointed to the floor. “Very cold and really very little life except for prawns and nasty fish that like to bite.”

“We live in the Dark Layer about in the middle of it, above that is the Midnight layer, it is a little lighter than this one.”

“Yea and warmer, but no glow worms.” Mimi piped up. “Strong currents also, so you always have to keep out an eye for the rip currents or you will be moved very fast and very far away before you can untangle from it. That is what happened to Peith.”

“Above that is the Twilight Layer, which has even more bright than the Midnight when the sun is out then the Shine Layer.”

“We never go there, it is rough water and very bright. Many stories of merfolk going missing and never returning. We stay safely down here where we belong,” Mimi said finishing the loop around the metal disk. She held it up for their inspection. “One like this came from above and knocked Sandy on the head, he was not happy. We took it to Peith and she said it was human money. Whatever that is.”

“She would,” Xuan said.

“She kept the one I showed her, luckily there were more for my jewelry.”

“I wonder if you had been carried by the rip current,” Xuan wondered out loud. “You were just floating a little above where we killed the tuna.”

“What were you doing?” Mimi asked anxiously. “Hunting starfish? I like starfish, I had to have my brother take mine back because it needed the Twilight layer to survive. Those rip currents are tricky things, they shift and will swallow a merperson if they are not careful.”

“Tell us of your family and community, perhaps we can figure out where you come from.”

When Xuan asked about the title she had used, she answered "It's a polite way to address someone," After he told her not to be formal, she blushed red and commented out loud "It doesn't feel right being familiar with people I just met…" Well, at least it seemed as though that she would be helping out with chores, so she won't be free loading. She then listened to them as they explained the five regions of the ocean, and mention Peith and the human coin (which looked really familiar to Cora). After they mentioned Peith, Cora made a silent mental note to ask Peith if she had any idea on how to turn back to human…

Soon Xuan was wondering to himself about her situation, and she shrugged at his rip tide current comment and she answered Mimi and Xuan "I don't really remember…I was just minding my own business, and then I suddenly woke up in this cave," When Xuan asked about her family, she paused. She couldn't come up with a story that would be considered believable for these people. She clearly couldn't tell them the truth either! She instead opted for "I'm sorry. I'd rather not talk about them,"

Xuan didn't like that she dismissed his inquiries, there was something off about this Cora. He let it go for now, he would figure it out soon enough. She would eventually drop hints of where she came from. "As you wish," he said.

Mimi frowned at the new girl and put her things away, yawning. "I should follow Father's advice," she said hugging her woven basket close to her chest. "Sleep well," she hugged Xuan warmly before swimming to the gap near her parents and slipped into the chamber. She put the basket near the ceiling before snuggling against the wall and closing her eyes.

Hunter and Winter entered the cave relaying a gory story, Hunter barely acknowledged anyone as he passed. Winter glanced at Cora with interest, he winked at her as he waited for Hunter to wiggle through the gap to the sleeping chamber. He followed close behind then poked his head back through. "Come on, X."

"Sleep well," Xuan said and moved after his brothers. He couldn't get rid of the feeling the girl was hiding something that would put his family at risk. He didn't like jumping to such drastic conclusions. It was too easy to say she was doing nothing and suddenly passed out. That was a bad stink. He hovered in the middle of the cavern his brothers peering at him.

"Who is that cute girl?"

"Cora," Xuan said, then lowered his voice to keep the discussion amongst them. "Do you remember what happened to Uncle Tide's family?"

"How could anyone forget?" Hunter snorted, following Xuan's example and quieted his voice. "The whole brood was wiped out. Why bring that up?"

"They let in a stranger among them," Winter said softly with a snort. "Our dear brother is getting paranoid. You think that skinny girl is going to start cutting throats?"

Xuan shook his head and eased his body into his sleeping spot. "I don't know what to think. I hate not trusting. I don't want to be blind to dangers either."

"A tough spot," Hunter stated.

"What brought all of this on?" Winter asked floating toward his brother and wrapped an arm around Xuan's shoulders.

"She supposedly far away from her brood and she doesn't want to talk about them? That is just odd. Even when Mimi is emotionally distraught for one reason or another, she still talks about us," he whispered. Mimi was the most emotional girl in the whole of the community, she was far too sensitive for her own good. Feelings easily hurt.

"We will keep an eye on Cora, if she keeps acting strange, we will take her for a dance with the rip current."

Xuan nodded and the bothers settled for sleep, he felt better talking about it. Though the worry continued to grind inside him until he drifted to sleep.

Cora noticed that Xuan seemed suspicious of her after she had answered his question, but she didn't say anything about it. Honestly, she couldn't blame him. She figured she would've thought the same thing if she was in his position. She watched Mimi, Luna, and Xuan leave for different rooms, blushing when Winter noticed and winked at her. She soon sank back to the floor and curled her fin towards her and wrapped her arms around her fin, just like she was hugging her knees on land, and lowered her head, begging to herself silently to wake up from this dream. She eventually fell asleep in that position.

Luna had stayed back a bit and watched Cora curl up strangely and she could hear her whisper to herself, telling herself to wake up. Luna swam and soon heard the boys' whispered conversation. She rolled her eyes before she swam off to her own corner. She was curious about the stranger, but she could see that this stranger clearly meant no harm. Soon she too drifted off to sleep

The morning came quickly and the brood rose early, Shine entered the main room glancing at the guest and wondered how the girl was able to fold herself like that. Mimi retrieved some tuna and helped her mother pass it out to the smaller ones. They were pretty clam this morning compared to most. Shine nursed the youngest while Mimi did what she could to keep up with the demands of her younger siblings.

Xuan entered shortly thereafter and gave his sister a hand. He was given the infant and he cuddled the little one while his mother dealt with discipline issues revolving hitting. He kissed the baby tiny fingers wrapped around his index. "You are just so happy right now," he cooed. "All full and with big brother."

Mimi chuckled. "You are so weird."