After lunch, we spent some time talking with Natalie, trying to get to know her a bit better. She insisted that we call her Natalie or Nat rather than Dr. Emerson. I found myself liking her after the way that she had reacted to our former trainer’s treatment of me. What really convinced me that she could be trusted though was the way that she reacted when she found out that we were actually intelligent, and that most of us used to be humans who were changed against our will or through deception.

Jenny had lost some of her shyness with Nat since she could talk to her as a person rather than having to pretend to be an animal but I had noticed that she had signs of social anxiety and had trouble dealing with new people in general. I recognized those signs because they were the same things that I did when dealing with new people. I had noticed her observing our behavior to get a read on us before socializing more than absolutely necessary, and even then she thought about things before she spoke a lot of the time, as if worried about saying the wrong thing.

She had been forced to accept me and Kieshala, much as I had been forced to put on the false confidence act at first because we were all stuck in a pool together. We were both starting to lose that uncertainty with our fellow Naethari though, we were becoming a family of sorts. Jenny only saw Nat in doses though while my role had insisted that I take a more active role with her from the start. Her observing and hesitance made her seem shy but I found myself feeling more protective of her now that realized the problem. I also promised myself that I would take the time to have a heart-to-heart with her about social anxiety since I knew all too well how alone it could make a person feel.

It was hard to tell how Kieshala felt about Nat. She was hard to read sometimes and the humans on our world had only caused her suffering. I couldn’t blame her for hating them but she needed to see that not everyone was like Pierce and those working under him who had manhandled, hurt, or experimented on her. Natalie’s treatment of us and her defense of me seemed to be a step in that direction. She obviously didn’t trust Nat entirely yet, but it seemed that she was at least willing to give her a chance to prove herself. I thought that that was the best that we could hope for.

Of us all though, I think that Kara and her bonded the most. They actually had a lot in common with Kara wanting to study to be a marine biologist and Nat having only recently graduated. They both had this interest and sense of wonder about the sea and its denizens. They were both especially interested in learning more about Naethari biology, history, and customs. I thought that Nat may have actually been a little jealous of us on some level though.

We might be limited with what we could do on land now but once we were free, we’d be able to explore the oceans in ways that Natalie had probably only ever dreamed of. We wouldn’t need diving gear, oxygen tanks, or any other bulky equipment to do it either. We could just wander the waters wherever we pleased with no real limitations. And there were probably lots of species in the Naethari homeworld that couldn’t be found on Earth too. It would be a dream come true for someone as interested in marine life as Nat seemed to be.

Around what I guessed was mid-afternoon, Nat left to go prepare for her ‘date’ with my sister. It seemed like they were moving a bit fast with her going out for dinner with her after one video conversation. In my head, I knew that a lot of their conversation was going to revolve around us, and the plan to free us, but then there was that offer for my sister to come to her place for ‘dessert’ later. I liked Nat well enough but Maddie tended to move fast and had gone through a lot of girls looking for Miss Right. It seemed like Natalie was the same way and I really didn’t want either of them to get hurt.

“I was thinking about that as she left and I was suddenly surprised as Kara put an arm around me, “Come on, we should get more swimming practice in and try to work on developing our aetral. You still haven’t managed to trigger yours yet.”

“Yeah we can practice swimming,” I agreed with one last look at the doors before we turned and half-crawled and half-slithered our way back to the water. “I’m not sure that anyone wants to hear me butchering whatever songs I happen to know well enough to sing again though.”

Once we were back in the water and submerged she gently turned my face toward her and softly stroked my cheek and ear before kissing me deeply. Once again, the moment that our lips met, my heart took flight and I just couldn’t believe that this beautiful, sweet, and smart person was interested in me. I also discovered one of the major benefits of being Naethari.

With our gills doing the breathing rather than our mouths and noses while we were underwater, we didn’t need to come up for air. We could just keep kissing and kissing and it was making me shiver in pleasure as I practically melted in her arms and vigorously returned her affection. And then there was the other benefit, we could hold entire conversations without needing to break it off either as Kara proved when her voice slipped into my mind, just as gentle and loving as the embrace she held me in. ~ Stop that, Naiya. ~

For a moment I was confused. Because here she was telling me to stop but she was still holding me close, still stroking my ear, and still kissing me with everything that she had. That was making me very much not want to stop as I managed to send back, ~ Huh? ~

~ Don’t put yourself down, Naiya. I realize that you’re used to not liking your body and that must have done a number on your self-esteem but you’re not Jon anymore. You’re Naiya now. You’re smart, and beautiful, and you have an amazing voice. I like listening to you sing, and I’m pretty sure that the others do too. You sing those songs better than the people who recorded them. You are my lovely little siren and nobody gets to mistreat or insult you while I’m around, especially not you, ~ she told me in a stern tone as she unexpectedly broke our kiss and backed off to gaze into my eyes.

I found myself wincing, not just from the vehemence in her tone but for another reason as well as she backed away. I had tried not to do so visibly but Kara noticed regardless. ~What’s wrong? ~ she asked, her expression turning to one of concern.

~ It’s nothing, really. You’re right, that’s a bad habit and I should stop it. ~ Kara gave me a look like she didn’t quite believe me and I sighed, knowing that she wouldn’t give up until I told her. I didn’t want her to feel bad though so I tried to joke about it. ~You should put a warning label on that mouth of yours, or at least give me a little warning if you’re going to pull away like that. I nicked my tongue on your fang. No bleeding, but ouchie. I never knew that kissing a girl could be so dangerous. ~

She stared at me for a moment before breaking down into a fit of giggles. ~ Ah yes, the hazards of making out with a Naethari, something we’ll both need to get used to. I can honestly say that I’ve never had to worry about that before. ~

~ Me either, but then, you’re the first girl that I’ve ever… ~ I trailed off, my cheeks bright red.

~ I’m the first? You’ve never… not even once? ~ she asked, looking at me in disbelief. ~ I… that’s hard to believe, you’re such a nice person. ~

~ I was always on the small side, and I wore my hair long and people never really knew what to make of me. Sure, I had friends in high school, a lot of girls felt that I was ‘safe’ I guess. It wasn’t just that other people weren’t interested… I wasn’t either. I hated myself, I was terrified of interacting with people I didn’t already know, and the thought of being with a girl with the way my body was left me feeling sick, I just didn’t know why. I wasn’t really relationship material, and I knew it, so I didn’t try, ~ I admitted.

~ I’m happy that I was your first then, you’re not bad for a first-timer, ~ Kara offered with a grin. ~ I think you’ll need more practice though. I’ll be more than happy to help you out. ~

I blushed again but smiled at her. ~ This is so much less awkward now that I know you’re interested in me too. ~

~Less awkward is good, ~ she agreed as she smiled and gently caressed my cheek.

That was about when Kieshala decided that we needed to get to work on our training. Our swimming had been improving steadily under her watchful eye but she felt that we still had a way to go before our technique would be as easy and flawless for us as it was for her. We also needed to build up our stamina and more fine control of our tails and fins. Soon she was pushing us hard while giving instructions and tips in both Porpoise and Naethari.

Once we were too tired to swim any longer she set us to training our magic and the aetral that it fueled. I could feel the weave of my magic but I couldn’t try actively using it for anything until I figured out how to use my aetral and I was still going nowhere fast on that front. I felt kind of useless, still being stuck on the starting line while Jenny and Kara were off to the races.

So I tried to work twice as hard, singing and doing voice training exercises that I remembered from my short stint in the school choir before my voice started changing and I began to hate it, and myself. I said twice as hard, right? That’s because I was multi-tasking and doing my tail and fin exercises at the same time. I was determined to improve at something, at least.

It was while we were doing our magical training that I heard the doors to the pool room open and ceased singing midway through a verse of Katy Perry’s, I Kissed a Girl. Fortunately, once the door opened it was a single set of footsteps accompanied by the telltale squeaky wheels of the food cart. It seemed that Nat was back with our evening meal.

The buckets she pulled from on top of the cart weren’t as full of seafood as they usually were and I could see why once Nat pulled two paper bags from the enclosed underside of the old catering cart that was meant to keep things hot or cold as needed. She then extracted takeout containers, paper plates, and chopsticks from the wonderful-smelling pair of paper bags. She had made good on her promise of Chinese food! We Naethari could eat a lot, so that explained why she still brought our usual fare, but there was enough in those bags to feed four or five human people.

She had brought all of my favorites too, so Maddie must have told her what to get. There was wonton soup, sweet and sour chicken balls, beef chow mein, shrimp fried rice, and mu shu pork. Nat also got some sweet and sour shrimp since she had noticed how much I seemed to enjoy shrimp during our daily meals and she thought I might enjoy it.

She had only eaten lightly with Maddie so she sat down cross-legged at the side of the pool to eat with us. It was nice eating something that felt normal and even Kieshala seemed to enjoy it, though she and the others had a bit of trouble with the chopsticks at first. She did insist that all of us, except for Nat, eat a healthy serving of our regular seafood though since she wasn’t sure if the human food would be robust enough for us.

We polished off everything and as we ate we talked about how her dinner meeting with Maddie had gone. Apparently, it had gone well since they were meeting up at Natalie’s place later that evening. She, in turn, asked what we had done while she was gone. She was happy that we were practicing swimming and trying to get used to our tails and stuff since we would be training with someone soon and who knew when Pierce might decide to do spot checks on our progress.

“So what’s with this magic training though? I mean, I saw Jenny heal Naiya but you can all do that?” Natalie asked in confusion.

After a quick mental confab with Kieshala to make sure it was okay to tell her, Kara shook her head. “No, we all have different gifts. I guess that Kieshala will be able to use hers to get us all to her homeworld eventually, and she can do other things with it as well. Me, I guess that I’m an Empath. I can see auras around people and sense their emotions from them, but I’m still working on using it consciously. Just like Jenny is with the healing thing.”

“Kieshala thinks that I’m something called a Soulsinger,” I added, “though I haven’t been able to use my ability yet, even accidentally. I’m supposed to be able to influence people and other living creatures to do what I want by singing. She’s only really going from my voice though since they’re supposed to have naturally musical voices like mine. They’re supposed to be rare though, and she hasn’t seen a Soulsinger before so we can’t be sure.”

“What? So, like mind control and stuff?” Nat asked, her eyes going wide.

“I dunno, maybe?” I replied with a shrug. “I don’t think I’d want to use that against a person though unless there was a good reason. Something like that could be easy to abuse.”

“Do you think that your reluctance might be preventing you from using it?” Kara asked.

~ That is possible, ~ Kieshala conceded once she was caught up with the translation. ~ Your aetral is a part of you, a reflection of your soul. It is unlikely that you would have a gift that you would be unwilling to use though. ~

“Could just be that I suck at magic,” I countered with a sigh. “I mean, the situation that we’re in now is one of those times where I would use it. Our lives and freedom are on the line and I’d love to be able to just whammy Pierce into having his men take us and drop us in the ocean.”

“That’s probably more likely,” Jenny agreed. “You do have an awesome voice though, Naiya.”

Kieshala put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. ~ Keep trying, Naiya. I doubt that you would be able to train it enough to use it reliably before we have to make our escape, regardless. And there could be other reasons that you’re having problems using your aetral. All that you can really do is keep singing and hope to trigger your ability with one of us. ~

I nodded and sighed and tried to shake off my dour mood about it. I had just eaten some of my favorite foods, we had an ally, and my sister accepted me as Naiya and was coming to save us, so this was no time to be a grumpy-gills. “I will Kieshala. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…” I started to sing as I felt my smile returning.

“No! Now that song is stuck in my head!” Kara said with a laugh as she pretended to cover her ears.

“It’s been great spending time with you and actually talking, I feel kind of bad for not seeing through your act so we could do this sooner, actually,” Natalie said with a smile as we finished cleaning up the mess from dinner and she placed the buckets and the bag with the empty takeout containers on and in the food cart. “I should get going and let you get to your practice again before you sleep though. But before I go…” The marine biologist went to grab her purse and reached inside to extract a plastic shopping bag, producing five chocolate bars and a small sealed waterproof bag with a pink smartphone inside.

“What…” Kara started to ask as Nat handed the phone to me.

“Maddie’s parents sent that along for you, Naiya,” Natalie explained. “She says that it’s encrypted and highly water-resistant but they figured that you should keep it in the bag just in case while in the pool, we don’t want anyone finding it up here so try to keep it close. There are actually two of them. We’ll switch them every day and I’ll take one home with me so one is always charged. You’ll need to set them up for security but our numbers are already programmed in. You should be able to do whatever you might need to online but keep quiet about things until you’re all safely out of here. This is mostly so you’ll have a way to contact any of us if I’m not here, things go sour, and you need a rescue or something.”

“Tell her thanks for me, and… give her a hug for me?” I asked, trying to wipe away tears. Maddie, Aunt Clara, and Uncle Max were on the job. They would get us out of here and make sure that Pierce paid for what he did, I just knew it.

“Gladly, I’ll do more than just hug her, but that’ll be for me not you,” she teased. “As for the chocolate, there’s one for each of you and two for the munchkin because Jenny needs a treat after what you’ve all been through. When you’re done with them, just leave the wrappers in the shopping bag and place that on my chair so I can get rid of it tomorrow. Good night, girls, I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

With that, our caretaker left us for the night, pushing the cart out and then turning off the lights to leave us. For the first time since I had woken up with tails, fins, and gills I actually felt hope that we were going to get through this okay. Until now, I had been faking it until I could make it, and I thought that Jenny and Kara had been doing the same, but now we were all smiling as Kieshala set us to training again. Even Kieshala seemed to have a sliver of hope in her eyes that hadn’t been there before as we trained. I kept the phone close and couldn’t stop smiling as Kara held me in her arms when we finally cuddled together on the bottom of the pool to sleep.