Neryssa

With a squeal of delight, Neryssa flicked her tail and went speeding around the first turn.

Of all her favorite games to play, Coral Circuit was at the very top of her list. And nothing was more exciting than playing it at night.

Neryssa swam ahead at full speed until she reached the tunnel where she had to go either left or right, both options beautifully illuminated by bioluminescent creatures too small to see.

There was just something mysterious and thrilling about playing at night when you had to rely on your other senses and not just your eyes.

Going with her instincts, Neryssa swam left. Her heart leapt with joy as she spotted the pearl neatly tucked in a crevice that another player might've swam past without noticing. Grabbing it with her nimble fingers, she turned around and headed back to base.

"Aha, first!" she cried as she slotted the pearl into the large clamshell where the tokens were kept. "Better hurry up, Cara, if you want to beat me!"

But there was no squeal of disappointment from her octopus, which was a little unusual. Neryssa shrugged it off and went racing after the second pearl. This time, it was hidden inside the wreck of an old drylander's ship that had been around so long it was scarcely even recognizable anymore as being from their world.

When Neryssa got back to base and tossed in her second pearl, she noticed that Cara hadn't gotten her first one yet, and that worried her.

"Cara? You slacking off tonight or what? I'm kicking your butt, girl!" said Neryssa.

She listened carefully, but there was nothing, not even a squeak or a chirp. Neryssa felt the hairs on her arms stand up as she abandoned the game and went looking for her pet. Cara loved playing Coral Circuit just as much as she did, so where was that goofy octopus?

"Cara? Where are you?" said Neryssa, growing ever more frantic as she searched the game course, but there was no sign of her octopus.

Now fearing the worst, Neryssa nervously looked around for any sign of sharks, but there were none. Anyway, they usually stayed away from the shallower waters, and Cara was a smart girl. Even if a shark had ambushed her, surely, she would've sent out a warning squeal, right?

It just didn't make any sense that Cara was missing. Even when Neryssa reached the end of the deepest tunnel, there was no sign of Cara, and all of her pearls were still there, waiting to be collected.

The only thing Cara loved more than playing Coral Circuit was eating. Had she perhaps spied a tasty crab and swam off after it? It was possible. But Neryssa's gut was telling her that something was seriously wrong here.

"Cara! Come on, girl! Where are you?" shouted Neryssa, her heart racing in her chest. "You're scaring me half to death."

It was only when she swam around the final bend that she spotted the ring of bright lights coming from the surface. The lights were so powerful that they were turning a stretch of the ocean into a parody of daytime, the crystal blue waters shimmering under their focus.

And in the center of that ring Neryssa recognized a shape that she knew was the keel of the object the drylanders called a boat.

The older mermaids had long warned her to flee if she ever saw such a vessel because the split-tails would toss nasty sharp objects into the water that could hook into your skin and seriously wound you. But Neryssa had never heard of them going about their business during the nighttime.

Cautiously, Neryssa swam closer, although she stayed well outside the reach of those bright lights. Up above, she could hear the strange grunting that the split-tails used for language which sounded almost like the chortling of a cuttlefish when it spies its prey. What were those cursed drylanders after? And did they have anything to do with Cara's disappearance?

Just then, Neryssa saw the shadowy outline of something dip into the water. It was so transparent that it was hard to see, but it was attached to a long stick of some kind, which made it easy to track.

Neryssa watched with horror as the object reached down to the bottom of the ocean, enveloping a surprised group of lionfish which had been resting near a rock. The semi-invisible thing then lifted them up to the surface until the drylanders hauled it into their boat and out of sight.

Scared out of her mind, Neryssa threw caution to the wind and shouted, "Cara! Are you there?"

Cara must've heard her because she let out a little squeal. Neryssa swam closer to the boat, desperate to locate her octopus.

Breaking every rule in the mermaid book, Neryssa lifted her head out of the water. To her horror, she saw half a dozen split-tails on the boat, all covered in some bright yellow material that kind of looked like the inside of an abalone shell. Their hideous, strange faces frightened her, but Neryssa had to know if they'd taken her octopus, so she swam even closer.

Cara let out another squeal, and the sound about broke Neryssa's heart. She could just make out some kind of cylindrical thing on the bottom of the boat. Neryssa watched as Cara raised one tentacle before one of the split-tails brutally slapped it away and then put a lid on top to prevent her from escaping.

Neryssa's heart felt like a stone in her chest as she sank beneath the waves. What was she going to do? The drylanders had kidnapped her octopus, and there was no telling what they were going to do with her.

Neryssa had heard the rumors about the barbaric practices of the split-tails, sometimes even going so far as to eat octopuses, which made her want to throw up. Oh, it was all so horrible to contemplate, but she couldn't just swim home and forget about her beloved pet.

As Neryssa debated what to do, the split-tails switched off their lights. A few moments later, their vessel began to rumble and shake like a thermal vent, and then it zoomed off in the direction of the land.

Neryssa flicked her tail and began pursuing the boat, pushing herself to the limit. For a species that couldn't swim, it was astonishing how fast their boat could move across the surface, so she was exhausted by the time it arrived at a secluded lagoon.

Hanging back to as not to be noticed, Neryssa watched as their vessel rumbled to a stop. The drylanders began shouting and grunting in their strange language, and Neryssa saw them transfer all of the sea creatures they had kidnapped onto a dock, including the cylinder thing where they had Cara caged.

It was a truly revolting spectacle to witness, but Neryssa had to know what they were doing to her sweet octopus that she'd raised from a fry scarcely bigger than her little finger.

Realizing there was little more that she could do other than say a little prayer for her lost friend, she noticed a sign mounted high above the dock. It took her a minute to parse out the strange glyphs that the drylanders used, but eventually she managed to sound it out: TideStar AquaPark.

She had no idea what it meant, but she knew enough to know that it was where they were taking Cara. With tears streaming down her face, Neryssa turned around and slowly began swimming back home.

Why did the split-tails have to be so cruel? The merfolk never went into their domain to steal their companions and wreak havoc, so why couldn't the drylanders just leave them alone?

And to know that her best friend was now trapped by those awful savages was almost too much to bear. They were probably lighting one of their ghastly fires and preparing to eat her at that very moment, which made Neryssa nauseous.

Or maybe they were going to do something far worse to Cara like poke and prod her and stick hooks in her. There was no telling what those barbarians would do when they got their hands on creatures from the sea.

Neryssa knew exactly what her parents would say when she told them what had happened to Cara. They'd shake their heads and cluck their tongues and say there was nothing anyone could do about it. Sometimes, the drylanders head out to sea to perform their cruel rituals, and all the merfolk can do is accept it and move on.

But Neryssa didn't want to hang her head in sorrow and give up. She wanted her friend back. And if there was even the smallest chance that Cara could be rescued, she was going to take it.

But how? All Neryssa had to go on was that strange name - TideStar AquaPark. Furthermore, she was just a teenage mermaid, not a mighty warrior of old like Poseidon.

Nonetheless, she was determined to try, even if that meant risking everything by going straight into the heart of the drylander's world!