5 Chapter 3

Remi and Reuben rushed down to the coves on the cliff side. A hearty laugh echoed off the side of the coves. The two men swam through the water to reach the end. They'd swam up to find five mer casually sitting with their backs against the walls and their tails on the floor in full display. One of the mer told a story while the rest listened and indulged in her.

"Good evening mer." Remi greeted the group.

"Hello Mr Djinn and Mr Fae." they all greeted back.

" Every time?" Reuben asked.

"It's fun." giggled one of the mermaids.

" We'd like to thank you for your help today. You saved your own asses." Reuben scoffed.

"The humans would've eventually forgot." one merman with a shark tail and sharper than normal teeth commented.

"They have social media. It was recorded. If it wasn't set right, they'd be searching the seas high and low and waiting for a fuck up." Remi explained.

"What happens now?" an androgynous mer with a soft female face yet a clearly male upper body spoke up.

"Lay low."

" I'd like to know why you were out in the first place." Reuben folded his arms.

"Didn't have a choice." shrugged a mermaid with grey scales.

"The undersea folk arrived and had taken over our homes." the shark mer spoke up.

" They were swimming from the princes." the grey scaled mer added on.

"Their demons had rampaged and ransacked the outer villages. We were spared because we didn't pick a side."

"This is ridiculous. That's the fifth home invasion this month." Remi tapped the wall of the cove. The mer swam further away from him.

Reuben grabbed Remi by the shoulder and made him face him. "Remi, we have to do something before they turn our kingdom into a refugee camp."

" We'll chat to the council and assert our position on this stupid little fight."

"Ah, yes. The promises of a politician." the androgynous mer scoffed.

"Why should we trust what you have to say, djinn?" a merman spoke up.

"Understandable. I believe in action rather than words." Remi tapped the wall of the cove again. Reuben placed a hand in the water. A blue glow emitted from it. The heat coming off from Remi was chilled by Reuben's magic.

" I'll believe it when I see it."

"You'll see it. I'll make sure of it."

"We'll be waiting."

" See you around Mr Djinn and Mr Fae."

"Goodbye mer." Remi and Reuben tipped their heads to the mer before swimming out the cove.

**

Mbilu watched the video more than five times. It was a film shoot. She kept telling herself. But why couldn't she believe it? It felt too real, looked too real. She knew that if she were in that water and she was near them, the chances were if she pulled a scale, whatever that thing was would scream in pain. She replayed to video on her laptop again. After she'd gone to the beach, the next day she and her friends spent their time in the school's editing lab. She'd sent the footage there and asked another one of her friends to separate sound from it, render it and analyse it. They improved the quality, improved the sound and filtered out any unnecessary sound and blurry footage. Her phone and laptop sat side by side. She watched it on her phone then again on her laptop. There was a strange sound the laptop had picked up that her phone didn't.

"Evening love." a familiar voice called out.

"Evening." she replied back not moving her eyes from the laptop.

Footsteps got louder as he got near her. Remi came behind her and hugged her. The beads hanging off his short braids tickled her cheek. "What's up? Making another trailer for a film?" he asked.

"Just analysing some footage." she said absently.

"Ok." he pecked her temple and let go of her. He walked away.

She replayed the video again and zoomed in on the water. Through the water, she couldn't see any cameraman in scube gear near the alleged mermaid. The creature swam alone in the water. A few seconds later a cameraman appeared out of nowhere. She slowed down and replayed the clip. In one frame the mer is alone but in the second frame he just appeared.

" What's this film about?" Remi asked after he'd changed out of his work clothes.

She saved the clip and rendered it. "It's not a film. You know the trending video of the snaaks things in the ocean." she turned to him.

"Yeah." he leaned against a doorway.

"So you know how I went to the beach and took a video? Well I rendered it at school and made it better looking and sounding. And I get that it was a film shoot and all but no film shoot looks this good during production and no special effects." she started her theory.

Remi furrowed his brows and looked around. "I don't know what that means but go on."

"You know when you bake a cake and you have the ingredients. When you put them together and make the batter it's a gooey mess? Then when you're done it looks pretty but only after you've put the decorations and stuff." she simplified her theory.

"Yeah. I get that."

"That's what I'm saying about this video. It's too clean. I doesn't matter how amazing of a special effects artist you are. This stuff and the actual freezing ocean don't combine."

"You think it's real?" he gave her a look that said she was lying.

"I'm not exactly sure on that but maybe. Weird things have been happening lately. It could be a pattern." she looked back at the laptop. It was still rendering the short clip.

"Did you consider that maybe it was a Hollywood movie with a budget beyond our wildest dreams and actors that have trained in freezing water so they look natural?" her heart sank as he said that. He could be right. He knew more about the human body than she does.

"Yes but you're a doctor. You know how long a person can withstand the freezing water. So does it make sense?" the whole thing didn't make sense. Cape Town's water is too cold for a human to completely withstand it.

"Honestly, the human body is complex. It has the durability of a go – pro and smart phone. You can trip on a brick and shatter your entire knee or fall of a cliff but only break a finger. Once a lady sat on a needle and didn't feel it. We did an X ray scan because her arm broke and found the needle in her thigh. Humans are whack. I can't back you up." he's right. The human body is untrustworthy. So this could not be a human body then.

"But scientifically?"

" Science is not my department, I'm just a doctor."

"But make it make sense."

He moved from the doorway and crouched beside her. "My love, I wish I could help but I can't. You're getting too worked up over some video when the evidence is in your face."

"It just doesn't match up." she slapped her laptop screen.

"I know, let's make some tea. I bought marula flavoured rooibos."

"You did?"

He turned on his cutest smile. The one where he squinted his eyes and puffed up his cheeks. "Yep. I found a dodgy store in town that sells a lot of random food which I'm sure more than half is illegal."

"Did you buy anything illegal?"

"I don't know what's legal or not. All I know is I found my favourite foods and soju."

" You're glowing."

"You'd be excited too if you found your favourite foods."

"I don't think I'd sleep hey."

"Come let's watch catch up."

**

He took in deep laboured breaths as he laid on his bed. Panic had settled into him. He had to control his hearts. They couldn't stop fluttering. His tail wrapped around his arm. The arrow pointed end settled along his wrist. He couldn't stop stroking it. He knew something like this would happen. He knew humans would latch onto the idea. Human had evolved from being mindless sheep to exploring secrets of the universe. He stared up at the slow moving ceiling fan. Each blade sent down a breeze of warm air. He wanted to turn it up but Mbilu got cold easily. He turned to his side. He pulled the blanket over her shoulders. Mbilu had almost seen through the ruse using a smartphone and media industry software. He couldn't imagine what would've happened if she had an professional camera. He didn't know how long before he had to start lying outright to her. How long would it be before they run out of excuses? They had to be more careful. Next time he wouldn't be able to get away so easily. As strange as humans were, as progressive as technology was, their lies would spill over and they'd be caught. But what would happen then? The younger generation was more likely to accept them. Their obsession with leaving the pain and suffering of being human had tempted them way more than he'd originally thought. The older generation not so much. It wasn't long ago when they'd banned lynchings of different looking humans. But it's not like the humans would be able to unify in order to go against the magical world. If they can't deal with small things like skin colour or sexual preferences aside, what are the chances of them being able to deal with magical creatures? A war most likely. But the deaths would be humans barely magical creatures. He shook his head. It wouldn't come to that. He couldn't think of that. He'd hide all of this. Keep the two worlds separate as they've been for centuries. He'd have to convince the rest of the council not to succumb to either side and convince the council to set the other courts straight.

A gasp sounded in the room. He turned to the source. Mbilu clutched the blanket towards her chest. She was having a nightmare. He shuffled closer to her. He touched her arms. She instinctively wrapped them around him and placed her head on his chest. He placed his arms around her and patted her head. Goosebumps formed on her arms and she gasped again. He placed a hand on her forehead and muttered a peaceful sleep spell. A white glow surrounded his hand before it sunk into her head. She released a breath and sagged into his chest.

"I'm here, my love. I won't leave you." he whispered.

She nuzzled her head in agreement.