Dangerous Waters Unexpected Love

My First Swim

Chapter 1

Calissa’s POV

Gliding through the water, I felt weightless and free. I am truly happy at this moment, as this is my special time. It has been over five years since I could honestly say that I have been happy. I am on a swim by myself right now, but I still feel safe. I know that my Uncle Ronan is out here somewhere, watching over me. I know that if I needed help, he would be here quickly. He has been very watchful over me, as he teaches me how to be safe in the ocean.

I cannot believe that it has been just two weeks since my life changed for the better. The biggest shock of all was being told that I was a mermaid. Yet here I am, slicing through the water on my own. As I look at the beauty that is all around me, I can think of no more peaceful place than where I am right now, at this moment. My cousins Varon (Va-rune) and Asherah (As-here-a), are also out here with me. I can’t see where they are right now, but they weren't supposed to be helping me anyway. This was supposed to be a test for me.

I am somewhere between a mile and a half to two miles out from the shore right now. I was swimming about five feet above the kelp field, but not near the surface of the water. I can still see very clearly out here, as I am swimming during the day today. I am trying to keep my attention hyper-focused on my surroundings. I don’t want to run into a shark or any other predator out here just yet. I am still new to this whole experience, as I just got my power to shift a week ago on my eighteenth birthday. I was still a beginner at learning how to be safe in the ocean. I am very thankful to my Uncle Ronan for all of his help. I wouldn’t have been able to make it on my own, and it would not have been safe at all out here for me anyway. I still have a great deal to learn, but I have never really been happier than I am at this moment.

I haven’t been able to sit down and speak to my father yet. I finally know who he is now. He is the King of the North and South America mermaid kingdom. I knew that he had a family. They are considered to be royalty in our kingdom. I have also heard rumors about my father, but not all of them are good. He has been very proactive in helping increase the local mermaid population to grow exponentially. The rumors were not told to me to speak ill of my father. They wanted me to know a little of what to expect. That way, I wouldn’t be caught unaware when I go to visit the local kingdom. My father, Kano Firth, was in charge there. I will be the newest member of the kingdom when I go and if I pass the test. I already knew that there was a clear hierarchy already in place. They didn’t want me to arrive and be caught unaware.

I appreciated them letting me know. I had already assumed that I would not have an easy time of it when I got there. Nothing in my life has come to me easily anyway. I had already expected that his official family would probably be very upset about my being there to be formally introduced. I have struggled with being accepted for most of my life. Why would finding out that I was a mermaid end up being any different for me? Uncle Ronan had told me that my father did want to be the one to come and get me. He wanted to take me back to the kingdom once he learned about me being mistreated. But he couldn’t. He had already put a charm on me at my birth that was to protect me until I turned eighteen.

I was honestly very happy to find out that there were several others like me in our pod. They will be half-siblings to me, just like the children in his royal family. I am pretty sure that my arrival will be met with anger. But I was excited. I wanted to get to meet them. To clarify, I wanted to meet the mermaids who were like me, a crossbreed. I wanted that much more than my father’s official family. I was surprised to find out that there were only a few of them that had abilities like I do. I had just assumed that everyone had been born with special gifts too, as mine came when I made my transformation. I thought that they would all be much more advanced in their abilities than I was. I was learning things on the fly, as unexpected issues would come up during my training. I didn’t know how many special abilities I had yet. It was solely by accident that I even found out that I even had one.

I went out on my first swim, the night of my birthday, with my Uncle Ronan. When I was surprised by my first barracuda. It was huge, about 7 feet long, and with his mouth open, and his teeth exposed, I was terrified. He had been almost invisible as he had glided towards me. He was about 15 feet away from me when I first saw him. I had forgotten all the instructions that my Uncle had given me a short time earlier at that moment. I only had strangling fear in my mind at that moment. I thought that he was going to take a huge bite out of me, putting my blood into the water and attracting sharks to us. The thought of me dying on my very first swim as a mermaid had been the only thought racing through my head.

I started swimming backward away from it. But as it was my first swim, I did not move backward as fast as I felt I needed to. I instinctively held my hands out in front of me. Like I was trying to tell the barracuda that I was here peacefully when it happened. The moment I held my hands up and out towards the barracuda, he was pushed back. Tumbling quickly back away from me, end over end. It was as if my outstretched hands had created a powerful wind, or controlled the surrounding water to push it back. It ended up pushing him very forcefully away from me. He was now about 40 feet away, and he seemed to be just as surprised as I was about what had just happened. He swam away from us as soon as he could right himself.

My uncle Ronan was as surprised as I was about what had happened. He hadn’t wanted to hurt that barracuda either. He told me that it is a part of our job to help the creatures that live with us in the ocean. We are not supposed to kill what we are not going to eat. I was told how the conservation of the ocean was very important to all the Merpeople. We live here, and conditions are just getting worse and worse with trash being thrown into the water. I could feel how proud my uncle was about what had happened. Neither one of us was hurt in that incident. Despite it being an utter accident on my part, my uncle was still very proud of me. It confirmed to him that I had indeed been blessed, whatever that meant.

My Uncle Ronan didn’t compliment me often, but it made my day when he did. I have only ever received praise from my grandfather, my teachers, and now my uncle. I had always craved to receive a kind comment from my family. I have gone the last four and a half years without hearing one, and it has been hard on me. It made it all the more special that my uncle had given a compliment to me. I can remember him praising me once in front of my cousins.

They had been very surprised that he had done it. He expected each of his children to excel out here in the ocean. He trained each of his six children to be the best that they could be. They were all highly effective and powerful Merpeople. Three of his six children had been blessed with special gifts. He told me that of my father's seven royal children with his wife Doris, only three of the seven had been blessed with special powers. Hearing that, I know it does not bode well for me to be welcomed into his kingdom, especially if I had received more special powers than they had.