Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The moon hung covered by a veil of dark clouds that promised rain. The wind blew steadily through the trees as Daniel, Josiah and Zoe drove through the darkness to a small pier she knew stood further up the coast away from the boats and late night revellers. Daniel drove steadily and flicked his lights off 200m before the turn off, turning onto the bush track and melting through the trees. Luckily Daniel had a 4WD which easily handled the rough, sandy track. Zoe couldn’t see any evidence that they were being followed, but Josiah felt edgy he claimed so Daniel did what he said. 

After bounding in silence for another few kilometres, the bush suddenly melted away revealing a deserted beach. Zoe stepped into the cool darkness, feeling the steady breeze brush against her skin, listening to the steady roll of the waves crashing onto the shore. Daniel turned the engine off as Josiah hopped out, eagerly making a bee-line for the dock shedding his clothes as he went. Daniel watched the completely naked Josiah take a running leap before diving off the edge of the dock and vanishing into the inky waves. 

Zoe took his hand as he looked back to her. He hesitated for a moment, sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes. “Do you love me?” he asked. 

She had been expecting this question for awhile now. Daniel had been very quiet over the takeaway dinner, reading through the notes he had made and seemingly ignoring Josiah‘s constant chattering. “Of course I do!” she exclaimed.

“Well as long as you love me, I will stay your fiancée, but if you want to run of with-,” he began. 

“I don’t. I still want to marry you, don’t be ridiculous,” Zoe cut him off firmly. 

Daniel nodded. “Ok. Its just he’s handsome, charming and did I mention butt naked?”

Zoe whacked him on the arm but felt glad to see that twinkle in his eye that had been absent until now. Zoe stretched up to kiss him but Josiah interrupted. Zoe groaned lightly. 

“Hey! Are you coming or what?” he yelled from the water.

Zoe sighed. “I gotta go.” 

“You will do good, you always do when you set your mind to stuff,” Daniel said taking her clothes as she stripped out of them at the foot of the dock. 

Zoe nodded. “I hope so. I will see if I can get you a post mortem victim, I mean patient.” 

Daniel nodded enthusiastically, ignoring her poor taste in joke. “Please do I want to-”

“Come on! Time and tide waits for no one!” Josiah yelled out. 

Zoe rolled her eyes, hugged Daniel and then turned and began running. At the foot of the dock she got ready to dive into the choppy water when she put her foot on some slime and felt her feet slide out from under her. With a squeal she landed on her bottom, slid across the remainder of dock and went head over tail into the water. 

Righting herself, her tail already formed she spotted Josiah rolling around in some loose kelp nearly hyperventilating with laughter. She didn’t realize it was possible to hyperventilate under water. Apparently so. “I wanna see that again!” Josiah managed between hoots of laughter. 

Zoe glared and began swimming out to sea. Josiah followed, giggling to himself for ages. Just when she thought he had gotten over it, she would look back, he would look at her and then it would start all over again. Zoe ignored him, instead focusing on the scenery which very quick soared into rising sea mounts encrusted in coral and swarming with life. The currents were strong here as they swirled around the sea mounts, Zoe and Josiah swimming hard against them until they hit a band of current that pushed them north westerly towards Fiji. From there they simply had to hang in the currents which pushed them along at a steady rate, similar to how a highway funnels traffic in a certain direction. 

“Have you got a girlfriend?” Zoe asked matter-of-factly, wanting to distract him from laughing at her. 

Josiah cleared his throat and after a moment shrugged. “Not really. You offering?”

Zoe rolled her eyes and pretended to watch a big old turtle that swum above them, nearer to the surface. Turtles were so ancient and beautiful. “In your dreams,” Zoe retorted. “Not really. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Josiah stared ahead. “I had a few but the moment they heard I had gained immortality, they dropped off. Mer-folk can live to over 300 but if your going to live forever….”

Zoe shrugged. “If it bothers them that much why don’t they go bite a human? I mean wouldn’t they want to be immortal too?”

Josiah laughed shortly. “I don’t know I never asked. They both decided to move to the Barbados.”

Zoe paused. “Both?”

Josiah grinned impishly. “Twin sisters, Scotia and Mandy.”

Zoe stared wide eyed. “You rat. You dirty, stinking rat,” she backed this up by trying to throw some seaweed at him but it just floated off. 

Josiah laughed, clearly enjoying himself. “The worst part was I couldn’t tell the difference between them. If they were side by side I could, but apart? I had no chance so I kind of had to date both of them otherwise I would have cheated the other for sure!”

Zoe shook her head. Somehow this didn’t surprise her. “And they were fine with this?”

“Oh sure those two did everything together. My sisters went nuts when they found out, I had to pay them to stop them from not telling my parents,” Josiah grinned. 

Zoe stared at him sideways. “Wait, do I want to know how your sisters found out?”

Josiah coughed. “No. No you don’t.”

Zoe shook her head. Quite suddenly Josiah grabbed her hand, flicking his tail powerfully dragged them from the currents. Zoe looked over her shoulder as they entered calmer waters, watching the currents they had ridden on rush in the opposite direction. They seemed to have entered an underwater plain of some sort, the water hung deep and silty. The sunlight barely filtered through above their heads and dropped into a grey darkness far below them. 

“You can let go of my hand now,” Zoe said pointedly. 

“What if I don’t want to?” he smirked.

Zoe smiled wickedly, lifted his hand up and quickly sunk her teeth into his wrist. Josiah yelped dragging his hand away and gaping at the bite marks. Zoe didn’t have the teeth of a true mer-person with their razor sharp front teeth and pointed canines with the venom glands behind them, but she still left a reasonable red mark.

“That’s not very nice,” he said, rubbing his hand. 

“Nice? You want to talk about nice? You gain immortality through me, take advantage of me when I was suffering from shock-”

“Ahh I clearly remember you enjoying that,” he retorted. 

“You drop me off at a reef. You leave me with these pesky fins. I hear nothing of you for eleven years and then you force me to tell Daniel about my secret which did I mention is your fault,” Zoe continued. 

“How could you not tell him you was a mermaid. I mean you were marrying him. What about love, honour and no secrets.”

“AM! Josiah AM marrying Daniel! And don’t you dare start with that Mr. I-date-twins-because-I-cant-tell-them-apart,” Zoe raged. A school of silvery fish darted away from her, squealing and chattering about rude mer-folk. 

“Why because I’m right,” Josiah stated. 

Zoe glared and said nothing. After she said nothing, Josiah grinned smugly, clearly believing he had won the argument. He hadn’t, she would get him later. 

“Where are we going anyways?” she asked briskly. 

“The Royal Palace in Lartangya,” Josiah replied. 

“Lar-What??” Zoe asked. She had expected Atlantis or something. 

“Lartangya is the centre for Mer-folk. The Palace is there, the people gather there if they have a problem that they bring before the king, a lot of Mer-folk live there too,” Josiah explain. 

“Ok where is that?” Zoe asked. 

Josiah looked thoughtful for a moment. “The nearest landmass is Tonga, but Lartangya is on a ridge just above the final drop off into the Tonga Trench. Its about 5000 meters below sea level so we‘re pretty safe.”

Zoe looked surprised. “Ok so where are we now?” 

“The South Fiji Basin. We have to swim over one range of sea mountains and then over a valley and then we will be on the outskirts of Lartangya.”

Zoe stared at him wide eyed. “How can you find your way? Its looked exactly the same for ages, just flat endless sea plains and the water is really silty.”

Josiah stopped for a moment. “It normally isn’t this bad. Ok, you see in the distance those three peaks?”

Zoe stared through the silty water and nodded. Just visible, like mountains smothered in smog were three peaks. “That’s the three King Peaks. Now we go over those to get to the Tonga Trench. If we were to go North-west we would end up where all the Geo-thermal vents are. Due north we would end up on the coast of Fiji and South you would eventually hit New Zealand if you followed the undersea rift. With practice you learn how to navigate by the sea mounts, the currents and other things.”

“So you don’t use echolocation or whatever like whales?” Zoe asked. 

“CAAAAAN YOOOOOOOOOU HEEEAAAARRRRRRR MEEEEEE!” Josiah pulled a stupid face and did a passable imitation of Dory from the movie Finding Nemo.

Despite herself, Zoe laughed as did Josiah. “No,” he grinned shortly. “Come on we’re nearly there.”

Zoe broached the surface just on sunset, the seamounts just below her that pitched into the depths of the Tonga Trench. Her arms and fins were aching painfully but the sunset made her forget it for a second. The ocean waves rose and fell around her, the radioactive orange sunset spanning out over the water. No matter how far she looked she could see no land, just water, endless spanning water. She had been swimming for almost a full day and had never been this exhausted, ever. As mer-folk went, she guessed she must be really out of shape.

Josiah popped up beside her and shook the water from his hair like a dog, before grinning at her. “Wow that’s some sunset,” he said. 

“I’m exhausted,” Zoe groaned. 

“Come on, I know somewhere where you can stay,” he said taking her hand.