1st 5 Pages April Workshop - Bea Rev 1

Name: Kimberly Bea
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Title: Walking on Knives

Neri's body cut through the water with the speed of a sailfish. She dove behind a giant rock formation with the tip of her tail sticking out. If hiding from a predator, she would have stayed behind the rocks completely, silver scales scattering light and her green-black hair waving like sea grass around her. But no predator was in her wake, only her elder sister, Twyla. Neri had every intention of being found.


She waited behind the rocks and curled her fingers into the seaweed, giggling when fish swam past her belly. Hurry up, Twyla. And she bobbed up and down like kelp. It's my turn to chase after you, and there are places I want to explore! 

When Twyla still didn't come, Neri's impatience turned to worry. Was there a shark or squid she hadn't seen? Twyla wasn't as good a fighter as she was, despite being three years older; she had never needed to be. Twyla lived in the Sea King's palace: protected, guarded, cherished.

Neri lived on the ocean floor, in a cave filled with human bones.
       
Where was that girl? Neri didn’t like to waste a moment when Twyla got herself away from the palace. She scoured the murky waters for a glimpse of her sister or for a predator she'd have to fight off. If something happened to Twyla, Neri couldn't live with herself.
    
She would really be on her own. No one but the Sea Hag and drowned sailors to keep her company.

She pushed out from behind the rocks, swimming like a shark was after her--until she propelled herself straight into Twyla's arms.
      
Twyla giggled, silver eyes twinkling as she encircled Neri in a soft embrace.  "I caught you!"  
      
Neri glowered and made a half-hearted attempt to shake her off. "I thought something got you." But the corners of her mouth curled up, and soon she was giggling, too. Twyla had got her, all right. 
      
The girls laughed together for a moment, then Neri pushed away slightly. "My turn now." Her tail twitched to get moving again. She longed to plunge deeper into the ocean depths, to show her sister the twilight realm few mer explored.
      
But Twyla kept hold of her arm. "My little Neri." She smiled and stroked the side of Neri's face. "You do worry so. I will miss that."
      
"Miss it? I'm not going anywhere." Neri laughed, then stopped since Twyla wasn’t. "Are you?" 
      
Twyla's face was placid, like the figurehead of a ship. "I will be sixteen soon. Father wishes me to wed."
      
"No.” Neri set her jaw and looked away. "It can't be time yet." Hadn't they just been through it with Opal? No, that must have been two years ago. Marriage was always stealing Neri's sisters away. Some of them she had never even met.
      
Twyla sighed. "I am a princess. This is my duty." 
      
And what did Neri care for duty? She only cared that she would be losing her very last friend. She kept shaking her head.
      
Twyla patted her shoulder.  "At least he will not send me away."
       
"Won’t he?" Father, give up a chance to use a daughter as a bargaining tool? That was unheard of. Only Neri had escaped—because he refused to acknowledge her birth.
            
Twyla gave a bitter laugh. "Father has chosen to keep me close at hand.” Unlike Opal, whom he’d sent to the Northern Sea, or the other five sisters Neri had never even met.

Hope arose in Neri’s breast, then receded like the tide. “Not Megakles.” Prince of the Middlesea. The only ruler close to home.
      
Twyla's smile faded. "Megakles is not a kind man. They say he kills dolphins for sport, and swallows anemones whole. His brother died from poison. They say it was a jellyfish, but there was no sign of a wound. Oh, Neri, he frightens me so." Her breath came in small, uneven gasps.
             
“Father would never risk your safety, to even to ensure Megakles’ loyalty. And Megakles would never risk offending the king.” Neri patted Twyla’s arm. "You'll charm him like you have the rest of us. Who would ever be unkind to you?"
      
Twyla nodded and stared down at her fluke.
      
Neri gave her a playful punch on the chin. "And if he is, you come find me. I'll show him a thing or two."  
      
Twyla gave a weak chuckle, then hiccupped. "Tough . . . Little . . . Neri."  She wasn't breathing the way she ought to. She took in water, but it didn't come out her gills; she had to spit it out or swallow it, like a human. And when humans took in sea water, they drowned.
      
“Not again!” Neri put one hand on either side of Twyla's neck and massaged her gills.
      
Twyla gulped. “This is why—” She sputtered, spat out the water and tried again. “This is why Father— “

“I know. This is why Father wants to keep you close.” This was why Neri wanted to keep her close, too, but it seemed she wouldn’t get that chance. “Don’t try to talk. Just let me help you get unstuck.”

But no matter how Neri rubbed, Twyla kept gasping and gulping. What did they do now?
      
Find the Sea Hag.  
      
If the Hag was in her grotto, not wandering the ocean as she was wont to do. 
      
Head for the surface. There the mer used lungs, not gills.

Twyla gulped water, coughed it out again, wheezing with the effort. Her gills strained to open, her skin was pale as a drowned man’s, and her eyes—her eyes stared blindly, like one of the human dead.
   
Neri backed up to Twyla and threw her arms over her shoulders. “You breathe, I’ll swim.” At once they began their ascent.
      
Up through the swaying kelp forest she swam, past floating jellyfish and clutching polyps. Neri swam ever upward, heedless of any plants or fish she passed along the way. Until at last the canopy of the surface hung above them, brighter than a school of lanternfish. And just as Neri swam towards it, strokes away from her first glimpse of unfiltered sun, Twyla whispered, “No.”

And then a huge gulp, and the sound of water pushing out her gills.
      
Neri released Twyla and turned to face her. Twyla's gills worked hard as she gasped and gulped. Her body twitched as it re-taught itself to function. 

What mattered most is it did function again.
      
"Are you all right now?" Neri touched the side of her face, stroked her silvery hair. "I'll still take you up there if you need."
               
"No." Twyla's color was better; her breath getting back to normal. "I think I will be fine."    

“We better not go exploring after all. And I can't take you back to my cave." Her home was beneath the sunlit ocean, in the twilight where the night hunters and phosphorescent creatures dwelt. Much too cold for Twyla, particularly after the scare she’d just had. "I'd better take you home."
      
Twyla's eyes were sad, but there was a noticeable relaxing of her brows.  "I am so sorry. I wanted to visit with you."
      
"Breathing is a bigger priority." Neri was too worn out to conceal her disappointment.  "And you're not swimming back to the palace by yourself."