arched her back and searched his eyes. She would come back to him. She had no intention of staying on land any longer than necessary.
‘I will,’ Pearlina said in a stronger voice.
Kaito aided Pearlina to the rock wall. As the air bit at her skin, she hesitated about her journey toward land. The troop and Kaito relied on her to complete the ceremony. She wouldn’t fail. He squeezed her hand one more time before swimming away. From a distance, he turned and lifted his hand high above him before plunging under the surface.
The lapping of waves against the rock wall and the birds above her were the only sounds. For once in her life, she was truly alone.
Not for long.
As it was while hunting, she was most successful after creating a plan. The other females had shared their experiences, and all of them had one thing in common. She needed clothing to blend into the human surroundings. Rushing into the experience wouldn’t get her the result she needed. The first step was to appear as human as possible.
In the past, mistakes had happened for those who tried to complete the ceremony too quickly. Repercussions from the humans had threatened the troop. Human boats in search of the missing humans had traveled as far as their cove. The braver humans swam close to their home, forcing the troop to stay hidden until the threat retreated.
The sharp rocky surface cut at her hands. Her skin wasn’t as thick as it used to be. The temperature of the water bothered her more than before. The layer of thickness under her skin was gone, leaving a curve in her shape where her top half met her new legs. She climbed the rock wall and peered into the distance. The air was still cool, but she put it out of her mind. Her determination to return home to Kaito and Syrene overpowered her need to keep warm in this weak, human form.
Pearlina started over the top of the wall, the rocks continuing to dig into her skin. Red liquid seeped from her hands.
There was no use delaying her fate. So, she took one last glance over her shoulder and dove.
Swimming without her fin proved much more difficult than she’d ever thought, but it wasn’t impossible. She pressed her legs together and tried to move them as one. Her arms helped as she cupped her hands and used them in tandem with her new legs. She surfaced more times than she had in her life, drawing in gulps of air.
Each moment she stopped, the icy water continued to press against her body. When she swam, it didn’t bother her – though the land seemed as if it were moving further away. Kaito’s face in her mind stirred something inside of her to keep her going. She found it strange that her connection to the ocean wasn’t as strong as it had been before. Did humans feel the same way when they ventured into the water? It was almost uncomfortable and mixed with a sense of fear. In that way, her kind was superior to them. At least she had that advantage.
Closer to land, she saw the boats bobbing with the movement of the water. They were attached to wooden structures reaching up from the sea. She recalled the human word. Dock. She slowed her movements and kept most of her body under water. The boats were everywhere. They gave her the cover she needed to get to land.
No humans were nearby, but Pearlina scanned the area. This was their home, and she had to stay aware of her new surroundings. She swam to the closest dock, allowing it to conceal her. Her teeth clanked together as the structure blocked the sky light from warming her body. She tried to stop, but they moved on their own. The first part of her plan was to retrieve clothing for her new body. Then, the hunt for a human would begin.
The other females told Pearlina that clothing was inside the shelters of humans. Clothing would help her body adjust to the new temperature as soon as possible. Then, interact with a human. Get it to trust her. Lure it to the water. The sex of the human didn’t matter. All they needed was the sacrifice. A few hinted that the males were easier to bait.
Pearlina had no preference. She wanted to take the first one she found. Then the ceremony would be over. Returning home was the only thing on her mind so that she could prove herself to the troop. She thought of Syrene, wishing she still shared a connection with her sister. The human form muddled their communication. And anyway, it would never reach across the distance, even if she and Syrene were both in their natural forms.
Booming sounds crashed over her. She ducked under the water, expecting a human to appear and notice the naked figure in the water. Going back toward the rock wall wasn’t a choice. Her chest burned. She surfaced for air, careful to draw in a slow and quiet breath. No human grabbed her or revealed her location. When she realized she wasn’t in immediate danger, she waited. Pearlina could no longer feel her fingers or new toes. She needed to get out of the water, but with humans nearby and no clothing in sight, she wasn’t sure what to do.
Excited human voices pierced the air above her. It was only a matter of time before they spotted her. From her hiding spot, she peered at the nearest boat. Strange symbols etched the side. They looked like the markings on Zimra’s body.
Three humans appeared. A female and two males. They raced around the boat searching for something. One of them held a recognizable clear bottle with liquid inside.
When Pearlina was young, she scoured the cove for human items. At least she did until Daryah. Since then, she had wanted no connection with the humans. But at that moment, Pearlina moved toward the boat with rapt interest.
A high-pitched sound erupted from the female, and she flashed her teeth at one of the males. The other seemed unfazed and disinterested. Pearlina understood the feeling.
The female and one of the males, both strikingly dissimilar in looks, broke from the group and stood at Pearlina’s side of the boat. The female’s hair was pale, while the male’s was darker than the depths of the ocean. Pearlina held her place under the dock and watched them.
‘Where is my wallet?’ the second male asked, out of sight. ‘I swear it was here.’
‘Why do you need it anyway?’ the female asked. ‘Ben has money.’
‘Because, Carolina, I’m not going to rely on my brother,’ he answered.
‘Why not?’ the dark-haired male said. ‘You always do.’
‘Oh, burn!’ the female, Carolina, shrieked.
‘Found it,’ the other male said.
‘Why is it so warm today?’ Carolina asked. ‘It’s supposed to be fall.’
‘You complain about the weather no matter what time of year it is,’ the dark-haired male said before disappearing.
Carolina removed a layer from her body, revealing another set of coverings underneath.
Pearlina studied the human. To blend in, she needed the same. Her hands fisted at her sides as if she already held the clothing. Where else would she find coverings near the water? She wanted to walk on land in clothing so she wouldn’t get caught. If she could reach up to the boat and grab the covering from Carolina, she would be off to a good start. But that plan involved coming out from under the dock. If they noticed her, she’d have no way to explain herself. She wondered how the other Drywalkers retrieved clothing so quickly. Had she chosen the wrong part of the land to start her ceremony? Even if Pearlina came out from
