text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  Fingers shaking, you reach out and clasp her hand, and immediately she swims away, tugging you along. Watching the water fly past makes you gasp, the power in Mala's flicking tail pulling you along. "How am I breathing?" You ask, bubbles coming from your mouth as you speak.
  
  "I am helping you," Mala explains, gripping your hand tighter. Eventually, she comes to a stop, floating outside a massive underwater cliff-face, lined with holes and caves. Merrow, similar to Mala except so very different, flit out of the caves, swimming in all directions.
  
  "This is the colony," Mala says, a note of pride in her voice.
  
  "Wow," You say, awe filling your voice. "This is - this is beautiful, Mala." It was. The blues and greens of the water flashed off the the rocks, giving everything a blue tint. She tugs at your limp arm, your body is a ragdoll being dragged along by a slipstream with an iron grip. The underwater world is a confusion of colour and vibrancy, your eyes cannot comprehend the vibrant, colourful stimulus and movement.
  
  As you swim towards it, you turn to Mala, and ask, "What is the Goddess?" She turns to look at you, confusion in her eyes. "I - sorry, just - you keep swearing by her, and thanking her. Who is she?"
  
  "The Goddess... She created us, all the sea. She was the first Merrow, and we are all hers. She is our oracle, and She warns us of dangers."
  
  "You sound sceptical," You say, and she looks away.
  
  "You see, there is no doubting the fact of her existence. She simply is. We merrow pass our secrets and legends orally, word by word, the sacred legend of the Goddess is the forefront of all law and beliefs, she is the backbone and structure to our society. Tell me, how can she not exist when everything around you is touched by her?"
  
  You both swim towards the entrance of a daunting cave, the rest of the dark pockets pale in comparison to the size and depth. Squinting your eyes, you can only make out furry outlines that shift in and out of focus. Miniscule bubbles shimmer as light reflects of their fragile exterior, then float to the surface. You guys enters the cave and you are immediately struck by the sheer elephantine size of it. Without Mala with you, you would have been lost within seconds. She leads you through an unprecedented series of twists and turns, dodging stone pillars and smooth boulders with a flick of her agile tail. She sets a hurried pace and your hand slips from her scaly, fringed hands. Her deep brown eyes widen and she catches you in an iron grip, sending you a fleeting smile, eyes crinkled. You notice, she pointedly always stays above the darkness where sunlight still shimmers golden. "What's down there?" you ask her.
  
  "It's to keeps out strays, anyone who has wandered down into here."
  
  "It, it's something alive? I don't feel very safe anymore knowing that the only thing separating me from and untimely ending is a mass of opaque water."
  
  She sucks in her breath, if that's possible, and gives you a curt nod. "If you are so desperate to know 'What's down there', why don't I take you to see first hand." She changes direction into a sudden steep dive, and the pressure is like a stampede of elephants have trampled you twice." Her voice is edged with steel, "One VIP experience with a multi-headed monster coming right up."
  
  A deafening roar thunders from the abyss below. Out of the darkness rises a horrific sight, a towering monster with multiple serpentine heads whose eyes crackled with lightning and mouths' reveal gleaming jagged teeth. Its leathery green body writhes, the powerful muscles beneath it shift as it tries to get a closer glimpse of the two.
  
  "I-i-it is a hydra?!"
  
  "Yup."
  
  Your eyes are set on the rows of glistening teeth in the open jaws of the fearsome creature. One of the heads rise like a giraffe's neck to gaze at these tics bothering its peace in isolation, it holds your gaze before it groans from the bottom of its throat and retreats, as it the confidence you have built with your relationship with the ocean. A slight tremor sends ripples through the water, unsettling some rocks balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff cace. Once upon a time you swore that you knew the coastal waters that provided for your whim and need, the one consistent in your life. This sudden revelation of a mysterious, uncharted world was a massive blow straight to your core.
  
  "Mala!! Mala!! Where are you Mala?!" a voice crooned out. Mala swam faster away from the direction of the voice. "There you are Mala! What's gotten you in such a rush?" Mala twisted around to face the merrow. The merrow's skin was a pallid white, it stretched across her features like a wrinkled bed sheet. A luminescent orb hung from her head like a lantern, revealing her features in the dim light. "The elders want to see you. I'm sure it's nothing serious but they did sound pretty rushed, so I think you might wanna hurry up just a tad." Her hands were coated in a transparent skin and barbed with venomous barbs. Her red eyes startle you, and you unconsciously drift closer to the warm presence of Mala. "Oh, who is that with you? Aren't they just the cutest thing."
  
  "Celine, you see I'm in somewhat of a cucumber. I rescued this land dweller when they got swept up by a dangerous fast current. They were going to die if I didn't intervene."
  
  Celine nodded and muttered to herself beneath her breath, clicking her needle teeth together to create a chattering noise that sent a numb sensation beneath your neck, before she fixed her gleaming blood red eyes onto your face. She stares at you with a petulant air. "I will leave the elders to judge your actions. Let them see whether your waste of energy was worth the prize." Her lack of reference to you as a sentient being worries you. Could the elder be truly heartless enough to punish your new friend's display of empathy and kindness?
  
  ...
  
  Mala swims into another cave, Celine trailing behind. This cave is shaped more like an amphitheatre, a wide hole in the top allowing what limited sunlight there is to shine through in beams of blueish-gold. There are lots of Merrow there, all different types, their scales glinting. One stood in the centre, his tail a mottled brown, with sharp-looking spines tracing down the back. He wore a medallion, a silvery gold pendant on a line of kelp.
  
  "Mala," He says, his voice low and gravelly. "Why is there a Drylander in the colony?"
  
  "I'm not an animal," You protest. "Mala rescued me."
  
  "Mala," The Merrow says, ignoring you. "Explain."
  
  "I just helped them, Elder. They was drowning, and I rescued them."
  
  "And brought them to the Colony?"
  
  "They were curious. The Drylanders only know of our species in legends, you know this."
  
  The Elder sniffed, before turning his nose away from you. "It is of no matter. We did not summon you to talk about the drylander, and you shall be punished later."
  
  Mala winced, and you murmured a quiet 'Sorry'.
  
  The Elder continued. "The Oracle has died." A ripple of noise washes though the crowd, a wave of shock, sorrow, and fear. "A Merrow has been chosen to take the mantle. You, Mala. You are the new Oracle."
  
  Celine's voice echoed a shocked, "No!"
  
  Mala just stared in shock.
  
  "You can't!" Celine cried. "Everyone knows the Oracle will die young, Mala, you can't!"
  
  The Elder just pursed his lips, before turning a grabbing an orb, with a luminescent blue light glowing inside. "Mala, you must. The colony needs an Oracle."
  
  You watch on in horror, conflicted.
  
  > urge her NOT to become the oracle
  Everyone in the hall were focused on the the figures at the centre of the room, held on a pedestal elevated from the ground. One figure stood proud and tall, he had long flowing green hair and and the other two were smaller, one was hunched in worry and the other glowed, emitting a rich blue light. "Mala, you don't have to do this."
  
  "For once, I agree with the drylander. Mala's still a youngling, incapable of dealing with the burden of being Oracle. Find someone else more suitable, someone other than Mala, any girl will do," Celine says, a note of urgency in her voice.
  
  "You know, I've sort of seen this coming. Ever since I was young I've had certain tendencies that have become permanent. Feeling sleepy all the time, bouts of unexplained fainting, dreams that were too real... They were all indications, signs of fate. It's okay Celine, (yn), this is how I must be." Mala shut her eyes and exhaled her last breath, relinquishing hold over her body. The shouts of anguish echoed throughout the hall. Even those in attendance who didn't know the merrow girl hung their heads in shame and looked away to let them grieve in silence and respect. The wails of Celine were fainst against the drumming in your head. Dum da dum da dum, dum da dum da dum, silence... Shaking her lifeless form, the Sun's rays cast a halo over her fierce opal blue locks. The zealous atmosphere she caried with her like a breath of fresh air has disappeared, disippated like a summer's rain. "
  
  Ba dum, ba dum, ba dum...
  
  Ba dum, b dum, ba dum...
  
  Ba dum, ba dum, ba dum...
  
  A heart beat... A heart beat! She's not dead. "Mala's not dead!".
  
  Joyous cries erupted from the audience and poor Celine laughed as tears dripped down her scaly face. Mala slowly woke up and unwinded like a rusty clockwork toy, everyone looked at her anxiously hoping to see any difference. The only aleration to her appearance was a blue ring around her iris that radiated a glow when seen through the sunlight. She surveyed the crows and turned to face the Elder and bowed her head in respect, he in turn bent down onto his haunches and benevolently bowed down, forehead against the cold stone floor.
  
  "My people, my legacy will live on in this girl. I expect you to treat her with the same reverance and respect you have for me for eternity, my people. Farwell until the next coming and transfer of the soul, heed my words and merrow society will have fruiton and good luck in the indefinite future. Ignore them, abhor them, there will be consequences. Do not let yourselves my people, be carried away by the material pleasures of the world, and do not forget me."
  
  Mala's face contorts and she falls. Celine and you rise to break her fall, relieved she has survived the tremendous ordeal. "Are you okay?" you ask.
  
  "I've had better sleeps but nothing like this wake up call." she smiles.