WritingCamp - A New Tide

Week 5 A New Tide Conflict

  Having anchored the yacht, he waited to see if her answer would be snorkeling or SCUBA.  Ela looked at him, and said simply "I don't have any SCUBA certifications, and a snorkel won't reach that  shipwreck.  We can either freedive, or you SCUBA and I can stay here.  Or you SCUBA and I freedive.  But no cameras, at  all."

  Kane frowned, and shot his friend a look, meeting Dane's confusin with his own.  Then Dane said "Okay, no cameras.  Why not?"

  Ela said rather primly "I didn't have a swimsuit to bring, and I am not letting you publish half naked pictures of me."  Both men blushed hotly at that honest answer, and Dane stammered "I would . . that's not . . . Never!!"  The thought of him being such a colossal jerk to take inappropriate photographs and then publish them hadn't even occurred to him, and wouldn't have.  It just wasn't something one did.  He took a deep breath, and said solemnly "Miss Ela, I solemnly swear that I would never do such an inappropriate thing, and that Kane would never do such a rude thing  either,  I swear this on my personal honor."

  This seemed to satisfy her, and she said "Okay.  You get yourself ready to swim then."  She peeled off the shirt, revealing an odd top that looked to be made of braided kelp and two strange shells of a type he hadn't seen before, although it certainly contained her curves nicely.  And should be waterproof.  He went  to the locker, and fished out the tanks and masks, putting his own on, then handing Kane his so that he had an official diving buddy.  Both of then stared when they realized she'd stepped out of her shorts and left them lying with the shirt on the deck, and had already moved to the little water-level deck at the back.  They looked over the side at her, and she said "Aren't you coming?  The water feels wonderful." 

  Dane and Kane traded looks, then came down and dropped into the water.  Ela smiled, and slid into the water behind them, and they both heard her voice as she said "Last one to the shipwreck is a rotten oyster."  Turning, both of them got a brief flash of her long white hair as she upended, and then the water was white with an eruption of bubbles as she raced down.  They took off, pursuing her, even as Dane wondered how she was moving fast enough they couldn't see her yet through the bubbles.  She shot down, into the shipwreck, even as Dane was hot on her heels, Kane descending more slowly, his expression troubled.  Neither one of them were prepared for the sight awaiting them inside the sunken vessel though, as they moved into the hold and saw Ela, a Moray eel wound around her arm like a friendly snake, and her hair spread about her as she kept herself in place with the other hand, a few old barrels blocking their view below her waist.  But she wasn't wearing a tank, or a snorkel, or a mask, and they could both see the pulsing of her gills on either side of her white-skinned throat.

  Dane's PoV

  Wait a minute, GILLS????  His eyes went wide, and he stared in shock at the beauty before them as she whispered something to the Moray, and it unwound from her arm and swam away, into the darkness beyond her.  I didn't see those last night, where did they come from?  Who IS she, and how can she give herself gills to breathe water??