text: [Themes: fantasy, fantasy, science fiction]
  
  You take several deep breaths. Your lungs expand and you feel your chest slightly hurt, then you dive into the cave, clutching a spear in one hand and your net in the other. It's almost full, and the clamshells clink together. The water is cool but your insulate suit keeps you somewhat warm. If you fill the bag, you will have enough money to just pay your rent to your measly apartment, and some left over for food and other vital stuff.
  
  The cave is half-submerged, and the water is steadily rising with the tide. You will only have five minutes, or else your exit will be blocked, and you will drown
  
  You languidly glide just below the surface, scanning the cave's rock face for your precious treasure.
  
  There!
  
  About halfway to the bottom, a lone clam shell sits on a ledge. You see it glinting, the faint sunlight reflecting off its glimmering blue surface and you contemplate whether you should risk reaching for it. You are running short of breath, and the water is steadily rising. You know that this bounty will sustain you for at least the next week, even two if you use the money wisely.
  
  You dive. Your hand stretches out, snagging the shell before you deposit it in your bag. As you turn to swim to the quickly disappearing exit, a loose thread gets caught on a protruding rock, and you are stopped from swimming any further. You turn, hands fumbling on the material, your movements cumbersome. Panicking, you accidentally inhale salty water. It fills your lungs and you start thrashing, the clam is of little concern to you now, the only thing on your mind is the urge for air. Sweet, sweet air.
  
  What do you do? Do you:
  
  [Author's Note: When you almost drown in your pearl-diver job, you are saved by a young mermaid named Mala. As you go deeper into an intricate society, you discover a secret about your new friend that could change everything.]
  
  > drop the spear to focus on freeing yourself
  You drop the spear, and your net swings around your neck, as you fully focus your attention on unraveling the snag. Your fingers move quickly, unravelling the thread trapping you in the water. You can feel yourself running quickly out of air, and as the thread finally breaks, and you propel yourself towards the top of the cave, your vision goes dark.
  
  The last thing you see is a dark shape swimming towards you, and a small hand reaching out for your shoulder.
  
  Your head breaks the surface, the hand on your shoulder dragging you into the air. You take greedy gulps of air, your vision is bleary and marred by strange colour of blue, gray and black. The last thing you see is a face framed by a halo of blue hair before you fall into unconsciousness.
  
  Poke!
  
  Poke!
  
  Poke!
  
  What is this poking on your cheek? The fingers are cool, yet strangely rough and leave small blemishes where it touches your cheek. You slowly come into consciousness, groaning, to see a face looking at you in curiosity. The person, at least you assume they're human, because that's what your mortal mind can comprehend, and there cannot be other sentient beings other than humans because mermaids, pixies, and fairies only exist in fables, right? But she certainly has a tail. It's arched and pliant like a bamboo stem. The girl's tail was a metre in length, and by the look of it, very powerful. It rippled, and the hard sinewy ridges were edged with a distinct black spot. Your eyes run up the slender body, looking to find a face for this creature. Relieved to see some semblance of human physicality, your eyes run upwards till you see her face.
  
  You jump away, startled, because the face in front of you is definitely not human. Their skin is light grey, fading to white around their eyes and mouth. Their nose is flat, just two slits on their face. Their large brown eyes are curious, and twinkle with a touch of mirth. Water droplets run of her leathery, cloudy-grey skin. A distinct fishy smell hangs like a heavy cloud of miasma. Pale blue locks run like a waterfall, framing her face. She says something but you miss it in your dazed state, shocked by your discovery of this creature. Can it even understand you?
  
  > politely introduce yourself, and ask her to repeat what she said
  "Hi," You say nervously, smiling briefly, before introducing yourself.
  
  "Hello," The girl says, grinning, revealing sharp teeth. "I am Mala, of the Merrow."
  
  "Nice to meet you," You say. "I'm sorry, but I didn't quite hear you before."
  
  Her brow furrowed for a second, before her eyes widened. "It was a... healing spell. A Merrow healing spell." Her gaze flickered to your arm, and you looked down, to see a scratch sealing itself on your arm.
  
  "You can do magic?"
  
  She gives you an incredulous glance. "No, it is a gift from the Goddess. Magic is a mere figment of human creation, it fails to encompass the true might and gravity of the Goddess. To merrow, the Goddess represents the very essence of magic, and to be granted one of her divine powers is an honour. It's quite rare, it's an honoured burden to be gifted by the Goddess."
  
  You feel inundated by the sudden revelation of an entire world beyond your own familiar one, and do not put up and sort of defence to her inquiring questions. "Do you want to go back to your floating rock?" You nod and she pulls you into the water.
  
  > Chapter two
  She drags you back to the boat, and you haul yourself over the side, much to the surprise of your boss.
  
  "We thought you'd drowned!" She cried, scrambling for the radio to call back the search party. "How did you survive?"
  
  "I, uh, swam to a beach, and passed out," You said, the lie tasting bitter in your mouth. You know instinctively that it would be a bad idea to exclaim about mermaids and fish-girls with shark tails. You pull the net off your neck, and empty the shells onto the scale, taking down the weight to claim back later. You're too tired, now.
  
  The boat chugs back, docking at the marina on the outside of your town. You live in a small fishing village by the sea, which is packed during the summer and practically empty in the winter. You trudge slowly back to your small flat, a one bedroom studio with a small kitchen and a bed in the corner. You collapse in your bed, stripping off your soaked swimsuit before falling asleep.
  
  ...
  
  Blinking you wipe wet stray pieces of hair that sprawl unceremoniously over your thin pillow. This has been some mad, twisted day. It might be the water pressure that's getting to you, or you might be coming down with a fever that must explain these hallucinogenic vision. Mermaids- who are you kidding yourself, those only exist in fairytales. You turn around and abruptly force your body to relax, despite the shining rays peaking through your windows. Curse your flatmate for being overzealous and optimistic, you just want to take an extremely long nap midday.
  
  ...
  
  You eventually force yourself out of bed, by now it is sunset and the sun is setting on the horizons in streaks of red, yellow, pink and orange.
  
  "It wasn't real," You whisper to yourself, pouring a cup of coffee into your chipped mug. It was surely a hallucination caused by your salt-water addled brain. Perhaps you should move to the city.
  
  Do you:
  
  > Research merrow
  You boot up your archaic, third-hand laptop. It whirrs to life, buzzing clicking and tinkling like it has a mind of its own and becomes hotter the longer your hands rest on the concrete keyboard. As soon as it is booted up you open up Internet Explorers because you like to live on the edge; typing "mermaids", it does not take long for your screen to be filled with search results. Suddenly your screen flashes white, erratic grey and black lines strike like lightning across it. The room fills with the stench of melted metal. Your face is blank and expressionless. You shriek in frustration and struggle to control the urge to chuck the useless piece of metal junk out the window. Taking deep breaths, 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1.... Calm, tranquility, the picturesque Danish countryside, Mr Tubbles your stuffed octopus. Calm. The only way you are going to get answers, is if you go straight to the source. Filled with elation and determination, you grab your keys, swimmers and towel and make for the beach.
  
  The sky is darkening and the moon glimmers like a radiant bauble. The breeze carries a salty air and tickles your face. Breathing deeply in, the fresh air flushes all the heated emotions out of your face and you feel a serene smile stretch across your face. The water is welcoming in its dark depths. The chilled water stings your skin and you push your head beneath the water, it's a trance like state you have entered, the water feels like a weight upon your shoulders, yet the surface is barely a stroke length away. Suddenly the pressure becomes unbearable and your lungs yearn to breathe, spread their wings and take flight. Then, a cylindrical shape torpedoes upwards, a wake of miniscule bubbles and white wash in their wake, grabs your hand and jerks you out of the water. Breathing heavily in and out, your eyes are strained and wide open, pupils dilated, on your knees and arms shaking. Trembling you hold you hands to your chest, numbly watching it shake erratically. Suddenly, smooth fingers wrap around your hand and gently lift your chin up, rubbing small comforting circles of warmth in your back. Looking up you see the kind, worried eyes of the mergirl from before. "Are you Mala?"
  
  She nods and covers her face with one of her hands, glancing at the star streaked skies. Away from the cities' bright lights, the stars are visible, even those far off in the distance. You both stare of into the distance, dazed and unseeing. It is a clear night.
  
  > follow Her Into The Ocean.
  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 Mala to become an oracle.
  "Mala," you murmur, and she turns to look at you. "I think you should do it."
  
  You know you've said the wrong thing when you see her expression. A look of pure betrayal and hurt is on her face, and she pushes you into Celine, who is still screaming at Mala not to do it.
  
  "Okay," She whispers. "Okay. I- I guess I should." She turns to the Elder, and Celine is still screaming. The Elder places the orb into her outstretched hands, his fingers leave them in her reluctant grasp. Holding the orb to her chest, her eyelids flutter shut and mouth hardens into a grim line. With newfound reserve she brings the orb to her lips and inhales.
  
  There is light.
  
  Your eyes burn, and eventually you have to look away. Celines cries transform into ragged sobs, and when the light dies down and you look back at Mala, you know instinctively that it is not Mala anymore.
  
  Her eyes glow, the same unearthly blue that was held in the orb. "Thank you," Mala's voice says, but it is so not Mala you almost wince. "You have helped my vessel, and for that, I will help you." She holds out Mala's hands, and in it, is the biggest clam you have ever seen.
  
  You look up at the entity, and she presses the clam into your hands. "Tell Mala I'm sorry," You whisper.
  
  She smiles benevolently. "Mala is me, now. All my Oracles are me."
  
  Celine looks distraught. "Mala... is Mala still there?"
  
  The Goddess (You presume it's the Goddess) reaches out and clasps Celine's hands. "Mala says she's sorry, and not to mourn her. She also asks that you take the Drylander back to their home."
  
  You are crying now. You don't know why. "I'm sorry," You whisper again, this time to Celine.
  
  She turns and glares, before grabbing your wrist and pulling you from the council room.
  
  She drags you to the shallows and dumps you unceremoniously to the sand. "I hope you're happy, Drylander," She snaps. "I'll tell you when she's Dead."
  
  She swims away, and you're left clutching the clam to your chest, horror at what you had done washing over you in waves.