Little Gold- reaching the docks

he sighed a bit and shook his head. How many times had he wished he DIDN'T have a "night light" following him around?
More than he could count that was for sure.

But he quickly disregarded that, they were reaching the docks. As they walked up he motioned for her to get down, they were out of the forest now, with no more stupid branches for the girl to trip over.
He wondered briefly if he should bother taking his hoodie off.. he wouldn't get cold either way, he never got cold- but should he take it off anyway? maybe just to seem more 'normal.'

As soon as Deneli's feet touched the ground she kicked off her flip flops and put them in her bag. She realized she'd forgotten to bring a towel, but knew she probably wouldn't have used it if she'd remembered anyway.

She turned back to Shae, throwing her arms around his waist in what would be the third hug she'd given him that night. "Thank you!" She always wore a bathing suit under her clothes, whether she was planning to go swimming or not. When she pulled back she removed her shirt and threw into her bag without folding it, but kept her shorts on. "Are you going to go swimming too?" She giggled.

The premature mermaid was too skinny to possible pass for 15 years of age. It wasn't healthy to be as skinny as she was. It didn't look healthy.

"ahh yeah" he replied grinning. "I think I might.." he shrugged, pulling down the zip on his jacket and letting the oversized garment fall to the ground.

He looked at her, noting how thin she was. It didn't look healthy but, then again he himself was hardly much better- although his body didn't look unhealthy.. just thin.

He looked at the water, wondering at its temparature- not that it really mattered as he himself had never been much affected by cold, at all.
He wondered how she was with cold though.. she was probably used to it, right?

Deneli smiled at Shae, glad that he was going to join her, and turned to run to the dock. She left her shorts at the end of the docks before jumping in, releasing her golden fin as she did. Small bubbles danced under her stomach and arms as she broke the water's, struggling to get past her and reach the surface. She loved that feeling.

Once she was completely submerged, she swam to the bottom and scooped up the first thing that caught her eye, which happened to be a smooth stone. Resurfacing, she looked back at Shae still on the shore. He was going to think the water was cold. Humans, or at least non-mers since she knew full well that Shae was not human, always seemed to overreact about the water temperature.

Deneli gestured to Shae, inviting him to come into the water. She wondered what would happen if the ghost light went into the water.

he grinned wider and strolled over to the edge- watching her dive in.
Her tail was quite something he mused thoughtfully, before giving the water one last quizzical glance and diving in after her.

The water was cold against his skin- but not cold like it was for humans. To him that was just a temparature- not a discomfort, infact eh rather enjoyed it. He resurfaced and turned to look at her laughing.
"Nice night for a swim, the sky is rather dark- and the water's calm.." he sighed, leaning backwards to float on his back, his pants were soaked already ofcourse but he didn't care- what did it matter if they got wet- it wasn't like he could take them off anyway.

Deneli swam over to where Shae floated on his back and dropped the small stone on his chest. "What happens if the ghostie light gets wet?" She asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.

She loved the feeling of being underwater again. It was such a relief to not have to worry about staying hydrated or drinking just enough water that it lasted for as long as she needed it to. She wondered what kinds of fish lived in the area. She still hadn't strayed too far away from the islands shores yet. They were always told not to wander too far if you were by yourself. Sharks and sting rays were the major issue. A shark wouldn't mess with a group of mers, but if it was just one mer out alone then it would have no qualms about trying to make a meal of them. And most likely it would succeed.

he laughed and wobbled, going back to treading water. "I dunno.. nothing- it's never followed me underwater though.." he replied shrugging.
The light itself was simply hovering around on the shore, showing no sign of going near the water- it never did..

He sighed and looked around at the water then back to the mermaid, shamelessly looking over her with a small smirk.
"So.. you're obviously fine with the temperature then?" he asked casually, making general conversation.

Deneli looked back to the dock where the ghost light simply floated. Then she turned back to Shae and shrugged, giggling. "It's a funny night light."

Deneli swung her arms in a wide circle around her, splashing Shae just a bit. "It's a little colder than I'm used to but not that bad. It always seems like humans think its so much colder than it actually is, but maybe thats just because I'm used to it." She giggled again. "It doesn't seem to bother you."

Now she changed the subject, "Do you know the little mermaid story. With Ariel? My Uncle says its super popular with humans." She only really knew the actual story. She'd seen the movie once when she was little with her Uncle's human friend. They couldn't watch movies underwater for obvious reasons, and that seemed to be the only real opportunity she'd had to watch it.

"yeah.. me personally I don't really feel temperatures... like at all" he chuckled, wondering for the hundredth millionth billionth time why that was.

"And I'm sorry no... I.. don't think I'm familiar with that story" he answered sheepishly, being isolated from society had done that to him- he honestly had no idea what she was talking about.
The little mermaid? Well he wasn't really human was he.. so how WOULD he know..

"Care to enlighten me..?" he added, smiling pleasantly, a humans take on mermaids- sounded like it might be interesting..

Deneli was a little surprised, and she let out a giggle. "You've really never seen it? It's a mermaid who wants to be a human so she can be with a human prince. It's funny because she can't turn her fin into a pair legs like I can. Her daddy was super protective though and didn't like her collecting human stuff." She stopped swaying her arms and just floated. A pout came to her face. "I kind of wish my daddy was more like that." Maybe if he was more protective like King Trident was he'd realize how her step-mom was pushing her away.

She brought her smile back and proceeded to say what she was going to tell Shae when she assumed that he'd seen the Little Mermaid. "But my sister looks just like the little mermaid. Red hair and green fin. Only her hair isn't as.... gigantic, and she has a ton of freckles."

He raised an eyebrow, ok that definitely sounded like a weird story. "That sounds.. really quite strange..." he mused thoughtfully.

Why would she wish her father was over protective? Well to be fair he'd never had parents or anyone to be protective of him, or ever needed them.. but that didn't sound like what most teenagers would say.
Most teens hated overprotective parents.
A lot.

Then he laughed at her description. "As.. gigantic you say?" he chuckled, she really was funny. She didn't make much sense half the time and when she did it still sounded at least a bit like childish nonsense.
And she was also one of the most gullible people he'd met on the island. Not that he minded gullible girls.. at all.

Deneli's excitement rose as Shae laughed. "It's huge! It's like that big!" She held her arms over her head to show how high the little mermaids hair went. "They exaggerate it so badly. And humans don't know anything about mermaids." She giggled at this. "The music is pretty though. Even the stugeon and the ray, they get the urge and start to play. We've got the spirit. You've got to hear it under the sea!"

Deneli started dancing a bit in the water, doing much better in her own element then she did on land. She loved dancing when she was underwater, but on land there was whole other dimension missing. She didn't understand how people did it.

Shae just watched Deneli's dancing and singing about.. sea creatures dancing and singing.. with an amused expression, unsure what to do.
She really was funny to watch.

She was quite good at dancing though, he could see. It was interesting to watch her become ten times more cooridinated, now the were in the water.
"You're a very good dancer in the water.." he noted in a casual tone- he himself was starting to get tired of treading water, so he reached out and grabbed the end of the peer so he could just hang there lazily.
"I suppose that comes naturaly though.."

Deneli smiled at Shae's compliment. "I love dancing. It's no fun on land though. Or on the surface either. You need to be underwater." She kept dancing as she spoke, gesturing to each noun as she did with fluid motions. The land, the surface, underwater.

Multiple questions popped into her mind. She opened her mouth to ask them but stopped herself with a giggle before she bombarded Shae with 20 different questions all at once. This happened to her sometimes. Now she had to decide on just one of the questions to ask first.

"Um, can you dance, Shae?"

He couldn't help but laugh-
did she mean for him to dance in the water or out.. well he knew for a fact he could dance out of water.. but in the water... pffft..

"yes I can dance.. although I think i face a rather different problem from yours my dear" he replied, keeping up an amused tone. "I can't dance underwater.. nor can I dance on the surface of the water- only on land I'm afraid..."
He shrugged his shoulders slightly as he spoke and gestured back to the shore.
"I don't have a lovely tail like yours to help me you see"

Deneli giggled again. "I know, Silly." She was trying to remember the name of something again. She wasn't sure if people considered it a sport or not and she'd never seen anyone do it before. "I've seen people dance in the water before though. Without a fin. It was called.. some-long-word swimming." She laughed knowing the vagueness wouldn't help Shae to figure out what she was talking about. Either way, she couldn't imagine Shae doing it. When she saw it on her human friends TV she hadn't missed that all the participants were female.

He tilted his head to one side, admittedly in all his years, he'd never really watched television or sport.. so he wasn't sure he could guess what she was talking about just from that description.
Maybe if he knew the name... he might have read it somewhere..
"Hmm... I don't think I've ever done -some-long-word-swimming before.." he smirked slightly. "What does it look like? U bunch of humans trying to be fish?"