Cumberland (Not A Dream Book 1) (8 page)

I looked up at the sky, and saw the Sun straight up above. I could feel my stomach gurgle. I looked over to my friends and seen their hands on their stomachs as well; it was lunch time for us.

              I asked Murphy, “What is there we could eat?”

              “I can try to find something,” he offered.

              I said, “Okay. What would you be finding?”

              “It is a surprise,” he grinned.

              We sat on the sand, and tried to relax our muscles for a little while.               Jack said, “After we eat, we need to get back on land.”

              I said, “If these poor creatures were caught, so were the others. We must help them, on our way to finding Holden.”

              Mason selfishly claimed, “It might slow us down.”

              I shrugged my shoulders, “They could help us in return.”

              Murphy returns back out of the water, with a handful of many tiny creatures. He called them, “Snaps.”

              “Why do you call them Snaps?” I asked him.

              He held out one to me, and it was shaped like a raindrop, but its head was bigger than a normal rounded tip of a raindrop. It was black and did not have any legs. Its mouth was big, and when it opened its mouth, it suddenly shuts making a snapping noise. I said, “Oh that makes sense.”

              He laughed and told me, “Yeah, but imagine it full grown and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.”

              “We don’t want that,” Olivia said waving her hands in front of her.

              We all laughed at her fear of that ever happening. Murphy quickly set up a small fire, and fried the little Snaps on a stick. They sizzled and popped, and then were cooked. Very quick cook and I wouldn’t discern the taste. It was actually quite delightful, and tasted like chicken.

              I followed the sound of a high pitched whistle, to the sea. There I saw a woman waving at us. She smiled, but I was still concerned for the poor woman.

              I stood up and quickly shouted, “There is a woman stuck out into sea, I believe!”

              Jack stood up as he looked to where I was pointing, and ran out to the edge of the water. He hollered out, “Do you need help, ma’am?”

              The woman answered, with a whimsical tone, “No, I am just fine! I am just enjoying a nice swim.”

              “Will you join us?” he hollered out.

              “That would be delightful!” she answered with a bit of squeal.              

              She quickly went back under the water, and before I could blink, she was floating in front of us. I noticed her hair red, as can be, and it had tight small curls throughout it. One single strand of hair was green. Her top looked like a bikini made up of seaweed and blue kelp.

              I asked her shyly, “Where are you from, exactly?”

              She smiled and answered, “I live in the sea, see?” she leaned back, and revealed a giant fin and tail.

              I asked her, “Are you a mermaid?”

              “Close, I am a Nix. That is a type of mermaid that is more beautiful than any creature in the entire world.”

              Jack stumbled over his words, “What is your name?”

              “Alistabella the Nix. And you?” she asked holding out her hand.

              He took her hand and answered, “Jack Hall.”

              Olivia stepped forward and said, “My name is Olivia, and that is Mason,” Mason waved, “That is Milly,” I waved, “And that is Murphy the Nen,” he waved.

              “Nice to meet you,” she said nodding her head. She then looked at Mason with a grimace and said, “You brought a Vampire with you?”

              “He is our friend, he won’t harm you, I promise,” I assured her.

              She lifted her nose up to the air and said, “Fine,” then she looked at me with her eyebrows scrunched, “Your name is Milly?”

              “Yep,” I said, “Milly James.”

              “Are you related to a man named, Bradford James?” she asked politely.

              “That is my grandpa!” I exclaimed.

              “Wow, that was easier than I thought,” she said to herself.

              I asked her, “What do you mean?”

              She sighed quietly and answered, “Well, when I was released from my prison, earlier today, I ran into a glass prison. A human man was trapped in there. I knocked on the glass, and he was wearing an oxygen mask. I used sign language to communicate with him. He told me to find you.”

              Murphy approached Alistabell, and said, “Well, it was Milly and her friends who freed us of those prisons.”

              “Really?” she exclaimed.

              We all nodded to her and she said, “Thank you, now I must help you in return.”

              Mason held out his hand and asked, “Wait a minute. I am also looking for someone as well. My father, he is named Holden Bridges.”

              “I am afraid, I do not know. He could be anywhere,” she sadly said. She turned to me and said, “He is deep in the water, near the land. But it is too deep to rise for air.”

              “What do we do?” I asked her.

              “I have something you guys could use, that is more effective and productive than those human made face masks,” she said with a half grin.

              Mason pulled me to the side and complained, “I don’t trust her.”

              “It will be fine, Mason,” I patted his chest, trying to comfort him.

              Alistabella began handing out small pebble-like pills. I looked at them, and noticed each were a different colored.

              Alistabell must have seen my confused expression, because she answered, “They only work if you are waist deep in the water. Each color represents what color your fin would be. For example, mine is purple.

              “Once you get on land, you are able to walk again, and return to normal. Any time you do so, if you want a fin again, you must have more of these.”

              “Is that what you did?” I asked her.

              “I was once a human, and didn’t like to be mortal. I was an outcast and I was bullied. Then, I found this magical place. That was over fifty years ago,” she answered.

              “You look so young!” Olivia exclaimed.

              “Yep, even if I get on land, I still stay that of a twenty something year old,” she smiled.

              “Would that happen to us?” Jack asked, and then continued, “I don’t want to live forever.”

              “Only, if you stay here. If you go back up to the Earth, then you will dramatically age to what you should be.”

              “That sounds like a deal,” I said.

              We each did as she said, and I could feel the fin growing on me, and watched as the others had that happen to them as well. Jack was blue, Olivia was red, Mason was black, and I was gold. The gills were grown into where my hips would have been. We could breathe, and talk under water now.

              I caught up with Alistabella, and asked her, “Did you see how low his oxygen mask was?”

              “Yes, it was on empty. Luckily there was a crack in the side, and I was able to give him one of the Nix pills.”

              “Thank you,” I sighed in relief.

              She nodded with a smile, and we continued to swim until land was in sight. Soon after, we made it to the land. Alistabella said, “Down here!” and began swimming down.

              We all followed behind her and she led us to the glass case my grandpa was in. Jack picked up a big boulder, and looked at me with a grin. I nodded and he threw it, shattering the glass.

              I quickly swam to my grandpa and hugged him tightly, “I missed you so much!” I knew I was crying by this time.

              I looked at Mason and the others and seen teenage sea serpents swimming fast behind them. I pointed and they all turned around. The Mermaid screeched which stopped the sea serpents dead in their tracks. We all approached them quickly and snapped their heads right off.

              “They must have been the teens of the bigger one we killed,” Jack said.

              I looked back, and more started to come after us.

I swam in front of my grandpa and watched as they sped closer. Alistabell looked at me and explained, “I am not able to do the screech more than once.”

              “Why?” Mason asked.

              “If I were born a Nix, then it would be a different story,” she said worriedly.

              I began to feel nervous, which made my hands begin to shake. I flicked my tail, and looked at Mason. He then nodded at Jack and Olivia. Shortly after, they all flicked their tails at once.

              We floated next to each other and charged at the teen sea serpents, and screeched all together. The sea serpents froze in place and shook their heads in pain.

              I approached the one leading the pack and punched as hard as I could. The sea serpent went flying through the water, which had surprised me.

              I stared at my fists in shock and Alistabella said, “A Nix has immaculate powers when under water.”

              “Sweet!” I caught myself saying.

              Through my peripheral I was able to see another come at me. This one seemed more buff than the others, so I wacked its face with my fin. It too went flying.

              I watched Mason as he struggled with the third. I yelled out, “What’s wrong? Why are you not fighting back?”

              “I am!” he yelled with a struggle. He continued on to say, “For some reason my strength weakened. Alistabella! I thought you said being a Nix makes you stronger.”

              I swam over to him and grabbed the sea serpent by its tail and twirled fast to send it leaping out of the water, and land more than a hundred feet away.

              Alistabella said with a smirk, “Oops! I forgot to mention that if you are, or will be, a Vampire then the Nix pill will weaken your strength.”

              I looked her with my eyebrows scrunched and she said, “Sorry.”

              I looked over at Olivia, Jack, and my Grandpa Brad, then saw them easily beat down the last two together. My grandpa seemed to be bottling up a lot of anger, because he overkilled the very last one of the two.

              I watched the sea serpent fall down in the depths of the sea floor and asked my grandpa, “You okay over there?”

              He grinned, “Yes I am. Vicious creatures like that, are part of Carolyn’s favorite and trainable monsters.”

              A few minutes later we all decided it will not be safe to stay here any longer, and we need to keep moving. We swam as fast as we could to the land, and made it there in one piece.

              I dragged myself to land, slowly leaving the crystal clear water, and watched as my fin began to glow. As the glow dissipated, my feet reappeared. I grimaced, at my toe nails because the finger nail paint had started to chip away.

              I whispered to myself, “
I miss my pretty fin.
”

              “I don’t,” Mason and Jack said at once. Jack continued to say, “I felt like a frou-frou poodle with that darn thing.”

              My grandpa nodded in agreement. Olivia and I laughed at how they all feel emasculated. Alistabell continued to stay in the water, but she too laughed.

              I looked at my grandpa and asked him, “How are you even alive? I watched you die!”

              He sighed heavily, “I couldn’t stand Carolyn. I knew what she was up to. I knew the entire time. But, I did not want to leave you behind.”

              I said, “Oh! What about the heart attack and machines and nurses?”

              “All fake,” he said. He continued, “I faked the heart attack, because she wanted to clone me next. Like she did with your parents. I knew if I stayed alive, you would of never had left. I rigged the machines and paid the nurses.”

              “You hurt me, when you
died
grandpa!”

              “I know, and I am sorry. It was the only way to motivate you,” he sadly said.

              “Motivate me to do what, exactly?” I asked.

              “To save your parents. I told you, they are still alive,” he calmly said.

              All of a sudden I hear Mason yell, “Ahhh!”

              He clasped his hands over his ears, and fell to the ground. His face scrunched in pain. We surrounded him, not sure what he was yelling about. He kept asking, “Do you not hear that? How can you not hear that high pitch squeal?”

              We grew silent, and I tried to listen. All I heard was a faint whistle in the wind. I looked at my grandpa questionably.

              My grandpa said, “It is a Blue Crow. It is bigger than the size of Texas through Missouri. Blue in color, as well. Only Vampires can hear their cry.”

              “What do we do?” I asked frantically.

              “They only cry like that, when they are in labor,” he said.

              “How long will that last?” I asked hastily.

              “Just a few more minutes,” he said, with hands on his hips, enjoying the sunlight.

              I watched, helplessly, as Mason hunched over. I brushed back his hair trying to calm him down, and said, “It hurts my ears!”

              “I don’t think I want to be a vampire. They are not all perfect and glamorous, like how they are portrayed on television,” I said smiling.

              The screeching stopped, and Mason looked up at me. I held his face in my hand and smiled. He took his hands away from his head and instantly grabbed my face on both sides. I felt shocked, and unsure of what he would do next.

              He stared at me, and the next thing I know, he placed his lips on mine. He pulled away and I could feel my eyes widen. He smiled at me and said, “Thanks for trying to help, Milly.”

              “No problem,” I stammered.
Wow! My first kiss!
I thought to myself.

              “It is still noon, here, so we need to keep going. Cumberland’s daytime hours run about twenty-four hours. The nighttime hours, are the same. But, during nighttime, you can’t see. There are no stars or Moon here. So we need to keep going. I want us to free the land creatures as well,” my grandpa said, while eyeballing Mason and me.

              I heard a stick crack, and turned to see Jack facing the edge of the forest. Mason said, “Owe!”

              I asked lightly, “What’s wrong?”

              He answered me, “The sound of that stick hurt my ears.”

              My grandpa told us, “You may suffer from hearing sensitivity. That screech, if you were closer, would have made you lose your hearing.”

              “How do you know all of this? You are a normal human being,” Mason asked rudely.

              “A dear friend of mine experienced it as well. You might know of him, or heard of him at least.”

              Mason shook his head unsure like.

              “Well, his name is Holden Bridges. Are you sure you don’t know of him?” my grandpa asked with a smile.

              “You were friends with my father?” Mason asked.

              “Yes, yes I was. That is why I am here. I promised him I would come back for him. I intend on keeping that promise.”

              Alistabella said, “Here, Mason. Have these. They may help.”

              I looked over and seen two small sponge like plugs. She said, “They are ear plugs. Just your basic sponge, missing a piece of itself.”

              He told her, “Thank you.”

              Murphy soon came hopping out of the water, and said, “I just got done spreading the secret word about you guys. I only told the ones that do not want to side with Carolyn.”

              “Oh, sweetie! That was kind of you,” Alistabella said.

              Murphy the Nen leaned down, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He said, “I had to. We were all about to lose hope, and just die off.”

              I told Murphy, “You guys have suffered long enough.”

              Murphy held Alistabella’s hand and said, “We can’t thank you enough. After all of this is done, us sea creatures can finally live in peace.”

              Olivia stepped forward and asked, “Are you two a thing?” while pointing at Murphy and the Nix.

              “No, but we would of loved to the chance,” Alistabella answered.

              “Now we can,” Murphy said, kissing her hand.

              They then returned back to the water, laughing and giggling. I felt happy for them. Although, I am not quite sure how they would do
anything
, but I guess that type of thing don’t matter if you are truly in love.