Their sight faded back to them and they - again - were in an unfamiliar world. They were inside
of a bubble of air underwater. Small air bubbles were constantly flowing towards their much
larger air bubble, merging with it and sending vibrations through the surrounding water. In the
crystal blue water surrounding their bubble there was several mermen with spears. To their right
was the biggest merman of all and he held instead of a spear a trident. The epically
large merman had long white seaweed hair which flowed in the current and his hands were
webbed between each finger. It was this merman who addressed them first.
"You come bearing Persephone's most prized possession. Are you friend or foe?"
It sounded somewhat muted, but it was clearly a cautious voice. Ness answered both boldly and confused with,
"We've got no idea who you are, where we are, or what the heck we're doing so if you could tell us any of those things that'd be great."
The merman looked both confused and appalled in one moment, but in the next he looked
relieved. "Then you are friends." he said warmly, having yet to introduce himself. Instead of
doing so he turned and swam away. All but one merman followed him. The remaining merman
had a long sunset-red tail - whose scales were translucent enough for the four of them to see the
blue veins underneath it - and matching hair that flowed around his face. His hair had thick
strands, almost like an anemone, and fish were swimming in and out of it. His torso was lean
and muscular. His face was strikingly handsome with it's angular features and defined jaw
bone. He watched them in the bubble as they conversed.
"Okay, weird." Lizzie muttered breaking the silence while looking into the space where the
extremely large merman had been.
"Agreed." said Ness, still somewhat stunned about the uncertainness of it all.
Abbie was the first one to address their admirer from the outside, "So who are you?"
The merman looked her straight in the eyes and she was shocked to see that his iris's were the
same red as his tail with flecks of blue and gold tickling the rims.
"I am Detrius. " he says. His voice is smooth and melodic, but muted like that of the other
merman.
"What's with your voice? Why are we trapped in a bubble? And where are we?" Jake demands,
annoyed that it took this long for the questions to be asked.
"Oh!" Detrius gasped in response.
A split second later the four of them were swooshing through the water in their air bubble, still
without answers. Their annoyed faces turned to panic when they realized they were rapidly
approaching an underwater canyon wall. The four braced themselves for impact. Just before
they smacked into the wall the bubble started rising. All four of them fell to their knees when the
bubble suddenly changed direction. Their stomachs rushed up their throats! They must have
been traveling around 60 miles per hour! The bubble suddenly jolted to a stop, then gently
floated towards the surface of the water. There was a man standing on the rocky coast of the
canyon wall, which was only a few feet from the bubble now. It looked as if the canyon made a
large strip of island. There were trees on the island, but unlike any tree they'd seen before, but
what's so new about that?
The bubble collapsed once it hit the surface and the four annoyed and nauseated teens were left
swimming in the water. The backpack still attached to Ness's back was getting soaked!!
Realizing this she tore it off her back and held it above the water while she frantically swam
toward shore. They approached the beach and realized the man looked exactly like the merman
that was swimming outside of their bubble.
"Hold up! What the crap is going on?!" demanded Abbie, now really annoyed that she - along
with everything in the backpack, including the sphere - was soaking wet.
"Aren't you Detrius?" asked Ness.
"Yes, I am. I thought you might want to be on land, rather than in the bubble, so I brought you to
the only island in my father's world."
"Who is your father?" Lizzie asked.
Cutting off his answer Abbie raged, "You possibly just destroyed our only way home. So thanks,
jerk!" She stomped away in a very annoyed-teen-girl way into the trees while mumbling, "I'm going to look for a spot to set up camp."
Detrius stared at the place where Abbie disappeared into the trees with shock. Then looked back
at the remaining 3, who also appeared to be mad at him.
"I can fix whatever got wet." Detrius started off, "I can also show you a place to stay."
"Great, you can start by fixing us." Lizzie said holding out her soaking wet hair.
Detrius closed his eyes and the water that was on them started to slide off their bodies. After
about five minutes the three of them were standing perfectly dry in a puddle of saltwater. All
three of their jaws hit the floor when Detrius looked up and smiled a perfectly charming smile
(that would have melted the girls' hearts if they weren't mad at him). Not only were they
surprised that they were completely dry, but Jake had another question.
"How are you human? You were a mermaid before. "
Somewhat insulted, Detrius responded with, "It's merman, not mermaid and I can do pretty
much anything I want in my father's world."
"Again, we don't know who your father is." stated Ness.
"Poseidon." he mumbled under his breath.
"Come again??" said Ness.
"Poseidon! Okay?" bellowed Detrius as he marched off into the trees after Abbie.
"Well that just got weird." mumbled Jake as he marched after him.
"You didn't fix our backpack!!" Lizzie called after him.
Eventually the five of them found themselves together at the front of a cabin that served as a
hotel for any visitors into Poseidon's world. It wasn't much, but it did the job. It was a log cabin
with a small brick fireplace and only 1 bathroom and 2 beds. Despite the group's disagreement,
Detrius would be spending the night with them and he was happy to make them feel guilty about
being mad at him by cooking them a delicious seafood dinner. Due to the lack of a kitchen in the
cabin, they had to make a fire pit outside. Jake and Detrius were elected to make dinner while
the girls did their best to spruce up the inside of the cabin.
"So...." started Detrius, attempting to make small chat while he poked at a lobster to ensure it was dead, "Is Abbie your sister? You both have
similar features."
"Yeah, why?" returned Jake.
"She is a nice girl." replied Detrius with a shrug.
Jake laughed, "You're saying that after she screamed at you and stomped off. You have great
people reading skills!"
"She only did that because she was upset. I seriously doubt anyone that beautiful is upset all
the time."
Only then did Jake realize what was going on. "No! No, no, no! You have a tail fish-man! Keep
your fins off my sister! Besides, you have no idea who she is or what she's like and we literally just met you!"
Taken aback by Jake's reaction Detrius did not reply immediately. Instead he waited a few
minutes, then said, "We'll see."
Jake gave him a hostile glare. The two of them finished making dinner in a tense silence.
When they were done, Jake went to get the girls. As soon as he opened the cabin door, he
could tell they went all out. The 2 beds had several blankets each and the three sleeping bags
on the floor were well cushioned with even more blankets. The cabin now smelled decent
because they had lit several scented candles and opened the 2 large windows. Needless to say,
it was livable.
"Well, I'd say it looks great!" exclaimed Jake as he stepped into the cabin.
"Do you think so?" asked Lizzie, looking around for herself.
Jake jokingly walked around inspecting things and passing his hand over the bedposts for dust,
then said, "Well, it is a bit dusty..."
This earned him a teasing punch from Ness who was standing right next to him.
"Where'd you guys get all this stuff?" asked Jake, pointing to the blankets and scented candles.
"There's some kind of magic cabinet over there." said Abbie while she nodded to an open cabinet near the bathroom. "It had everything we needed. "
"Well it looks great." answered Jake.
"Well I'm glad you like it. Is dinner ready yet? I'm starving." inquired Abbie.
"Yes it is." answered Detrius who had just entered the cabin.
Ignoring him Jake told Abbie, "Yeah, we made seafood. Surprise?"
All the girls laughed then followed him out to the fire pit. They all sat down on the ground near
the fire pit. Jake placed himself by Abbie's side and made sure that Ness sat on her other side.
Lizzie sat on Jake's left and Detrius sat to her left. Together they formed a circle around the
slowly dwindling fire.
They ate out of cups that they found in the cabin's cabinet, and much to Abbie and Ness's dismay they had to eat with their hands. Lizzie, of course, had no problem with this and was happily chowing down her food when Ness broke the silence and addressed Detrius.
"So can you to fix the sphere?" she asked.
He responded with, "I can't but my father can."
"I thought you could do anything in this world?" challenged Jake.
Looking him in the eyes Detrius said, "I really don't want to mess with that sphere. If I do
something wrong I could decimate it's power source so quickly that it would not take you home."
Seeing his point, Jake nodded.
"So when can we see Poseidon? I'm sure he's a busy guy." asked Lizzie.
"I can take you to him tomorrow. He will be glad to meet you all." Detrius said with earnest.
That silenced them, and they thought about the fact that they were going to see Poseidon. This wasn't supposed to be happening, again the question appeared in their minds 'why us?'.
"Did I say something wrong?" asked Detrius quietly.
Snapping out of it, Ness supplied, "Like I said before, we've got no idea what's going on. We were thrust this treasure to 'keep safe' and avoid a war, but before this we were just normal kids. We went to school, got some bad grades, and we liked to hang out. Now we're fighting Minotaurs and meeting Poseidon."
"Ahh." sighed Detrius, remaining silent for a moment before he asked, "You guys fought a minotaur?"
At this point Lizzie laughed despite the somber mood, "I wouldn't say we fought it. We ran from it, that's more accurate."
This lightened the mood slightly and the four chuckled at their escape, but Detrius remained silent.
"Where else have you been?"
Jake replied, "We've been in Persephone's bedroom, but that's it."
"Hmm."
For the next hour they made small talk around the now dim fire about how good the food was and how cool this world was until dinner was over. After they had all stuffed their stomachs with fish, shrimp, and oysters they decided to head to sleep. Abbie remained outside because she, most of all, was missing her home and her family.

Note: Please keep in mind this is copyrighted material