Tidal Wave 19 Sneaky Exploration

Darya had been in her room for the last couple of days. At least she thought it had been a couple of them, time was hard to tell from way down under the waves. She didn't want to face her father and his other daughter and he hadn't come to her so she decided to sneak out and explore on her own. She knew the ocean but she had never gotten the opportunity to be this far under the waves.

There was a window in her room and since they were underwater it wouldn't allow her to fall to the ground if she was to climb out of it. Essentially, she would be able to swim up from the window and head out of the kingdom from there.

Taking the idea and running with it she glided over to the window and put her plan into action. Peering out she made sure there were no mer-people around the side of the house and carefully swam through the window and up past the tops of the buildings. She knew most of the people in the city wouldn't come up this high, they had a fear of humans finding out where they were, even if it was impossible for humans to find this place.

The moment she was free of the kingdom she felt this weight lifted off of her chest. She didn't realize how much stress she had been under. She swam and swam until the water looked unfamiliar and she was as far as she could be from her father and the stress of being his daughter.

Swimming up to a small rock formation she glided in and out of the rocks looking for nothing in particular. She almost wished she had an underwater camera like back home, there were so many things her mother would love to see. Darya knew this would be the only time she would be able to see beauty like this so she saw slowly, taking her time. Darya swam over schools of fish and a sea of multi-colored coral that grew like wildflowers near the rocks she had just found.

Her exploring was beginning to bore her since it felt just like free diving only she would never have to go up for air. Her exploration had brought her all the way to an underwater cave, it was different than the small one that she swore she would never go near again. This one seemed almost...inviting.

She swam quickly over to the entrance and after noticing that there wasn't any sort of danger around the entrance she continued on. The water became warmer and warmer as she glided through the water effortlessly, she only stopped when she noticed that there was an air pocket above where she was currently suspended.

She stretched up until her hands broke through the water and when she felt the warm, damp air on her hands she swam all the way up. Her head broke through and she took her first breath of air in two-ish days. It burned a bit when the air hit her lungs and her gills tightened on the sides of her neck. It was a bit painful but the more she was exposed to the bit of air around her the better she felt.

Looking around she noticed that it wasn't just a pocket of air, in fact, it was an underwater cave that actually had an open area of air with a rock ledge that she would be able to sit on and maybe even walk around a bit.

"Wow, I never thought I would see something like this." She spoke out loud to herself for the first time in a while. Her voice sounded odd bouncing off the walls of the cave. She wasn't sure what would happen if she came out of the water completely so she stayed in it for the time being.

Pulling her self up a bit and resting her crossed arms on the rocks she closed her eyes for a moment. It was peaceful here and she could think about something other than the disaster of a summer break she was currently having.

Nearly a half an hour past and she was getting bored again. Letting go of the rock sh.o.r.e she dipped back into the water and waited for the stink of her gills to reopen on the sides of her neck. Once they were open and operational she pointed herself down and aimed for the entrance again.

Taking her sweet time gliding through the water even throwing in some twists and turns as she did so. The only thing that stopped her was the shark in the distance. She had never been afraid of them, she respected them and even studied sharks for a good while as a younger child. What scared her was the small black dot in the distance that the shark was preparing for. It was a scuba diver that had wandered too far out in the ocean and now she was going to have to save him.

She wasn't sure if her tail would carry her faster than a sharks would carry him, but she was about to find out.

Pushing and pushing herself as fast as she could through the water and right before the shark descended on the scuba diver she rammed right into the side of the shark. Darya aimed for the side of his head where the shark's gills would be, knowing it would make him swim off and stop going after the scuba diver.

However, the commotion alerted the diver and when he turned around to see what the movement was behind him, Darya could see the person's eyes go wider than the goggles they were wearing at the moment. She knew that if a human saw her for what she was being at the moment she would be in deep trouble.

Darya quickly swam as fast as she could back towards the cave she had just found.

"Can't led them back to the kingdom." She told herself as she swam as quick as she could. Right before she entered the cave she looked back to see if the person had followed her. Seeing that the coast was clear she glided her way into the entrance of the cave.

Pulling herself up to the rocks of the side of the cavern she took in a big breath and tried to ignore the stinging on the side of her throat.

"That was too close." She mumbled to herself.

Closing her eyes for a moment she relished the fact that she saved someone's life today and, for the most part, kept Raj and her's secret.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" She suddenly heard from behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know that the scuba diver had followed her and was now in the cave waters as well.

Turning slowly she tried not to cringe when she saw the scuba diver's face that was now goggle-less and staring with wide eyes at her.

"c.r.a.p." She stated, before trying to think of a way out of this c.r.a.ppy situation.