Andrina dashed rapidly through the icy water of the deep blue. She raced against the chance that Arista would catch her. Emily stopped and waved her fins, catching her breath.
"Andrina," Emily breathed airily between ragged forced gulps, "Arista's not going to even know where we are. Can we slow down please?"
Andrina spun to see her best friend and most trusted comrade, a trout fist named Emily. She quickly scooted back and grabbed her friend's fins, "Come on."
"But-" was all she managed before she was drug off.
Andrina turned to make sure she wasn't being followed and when she turned back she was brought to a quick halt.
"Andrina!" Arista was swimming directly in front of her younger sister, arms folded angrily over her chest. "And just where were you going?"
Andrina wrinkled her brow unhappily, and then swam around Arista methodically, "You know where I was going."
Arista spun and caught her sister's wrist, "Hold it."
"Yeah hold it," Angle, Arista's trusted angle fish companion dash up in front of Emily.
"Hey what's that?" Andrina pointed up.
"Yeah right," Arista said, "you think I'm falling for that?"
"No really," Andrina said.
Arista's eyes flittered up to the object Andrina was pointing toward. She gawked awkwardly at it for several seconds before she got a terrified chill, "It's a boat."
"Come on, let's go!" Andrina said, now grabbing a hold of Arista's wrist and dragging her northward.
"No," Arista argued, pulling and tugging but to no avail. "Andrina we can't."
"I've never seen a boat that didn't belong to Eric," Andrina said happily. "I've always wanted to see other humans."
"But daddy doesn't want us to," Arista argued. "They're still bad."
"Nah, just curious. Like me," Andrina said defending them.
"Alright, but I'm only going to keep an eye on you." Arista agreed.
Once they got near the bottom both girls were disgusted to find fishing lines cast from the boat.
"Wow, it's small," Andrina said, rather unamused. "Not at all what I had expected."
"It's bigger when you get to the surface," Arista explained.
"It's no where near the size of Eric's boats, even from the bottom."
Arista shook her head, "Of course not, it's just a small fishing boat."
Andrina smiled and popped her head up over the water, she knew if she gave Arista any kind of warning she would have been dragged back down to the bottom.
When her head emerged over the surface she was faced with a tiny fishing boat, two rods one cast off from either end of the tiny vessel, and two pairs of knees and the tops of two heads. Easily and slowly she slipped over to the boat, quickly being followed now by her older sister.
"They're sleeping," She giggled.
Arista had now found the humor in it, she dove down and rapidly thrust herself to the top and leapt from the water over the boat diving into the water on the other side. When she came up on the other side she motioned for Andrina to follow. Taking her sister's lead Andrina leapt over the boat landing next to her sister. When her head came up from the water she burst into wild laughs, "I've never seen such red faces."
Andrina swam closer to the boat and tipped it lightly and gently she peeked over the side to the two handsome, highly, burnt faces. She smiled examining them, they were obviously brothers; one had sandy blonde hair while the other had black wisps hanging over his forehead.
Arista reached out and lifted the line a bit. She dove under following the line, deep down until she reached the end. She smiled when she found it then taking the end, first removing the hook, she tied it around a plant. She did the same with the other side.
She went, quickly, to the top.
"Rock it," She told Andrina.
"What?" Andrina asked.
"Rock the boat."
"Why?"
"Just do it," Arista laughed.
Andrina pulled on the side of the boat and dove under the water. At which point she found Arista pulling on the line.
"Max! Max! I got one." They heard.
"Me too Tom," they heard another masculine voice say.
"What is going on?" Andrina asked as she saw both lines begin to move and be reeled in. Both men came to the end of their lines at the same time, the wire tied to the plants didn't give and both men went head over heels into the water. Arista burst into laughter and when Andrina realized what her sister had done, she couldn't help but break into giggles. The boat had flipped along with the surprised men.
When the girls got a minute to catch their breath from laughing so much they were both horrified to find the men having difficulty swimming. The sisters exchanged quick glances, both agreeing silently that something needed to be done. Andrina swam and caught the blond under the arms and Arista grabbed the dark haired one, while the fishy friends flipped the boat back over. The mermaids pushed the men up over into the boat, without being seen.
"Max, what happened?" Tom asked.
"I don't know Tom," Max answered.
"It was mermaids!" Tom shrieked.
Max just laughed, "How many times do I have to tell you, mermaids aren't real."
"Then you tell me what happened," Tom told his brother defiantly.
All Tom received in response was a halfhearted laugh.