“Hali!” 

I look around and I hear the waves crash and birds cry, but there is no one calling my name. I turn once more and see her, Cassie, on top of the rocks. 

“I’ve been looking all over for you, I didn’t want to climb those rocks, they are such a hike!” 

“Cassie, I like the hike, and I wanted to swim.”

“Hali, it’s winter, people don’t go in the ocean in the winter, unless your like those crazy surfers that have on, like, 6 millimeter wetsuits.”

“What if you were in Hawaii right now, would you still be saying that?” Sometimes Cassie amazes me by the crazy, human thoughts she has. I bet half the surfers out there aren’t completely human.

“I would still say that because in Hawaii it is like always summer.”

“Cassie, why were you looking for me? You got here and started complaining.” Sometimes when anyone is with Cassie they get off track, even some teachers!

“Sorry, I wanted to tell you the library at school just got some more books!” 

“That’s exciting news, how did I miss that?”  My job is basically to stay on top of everything, those humans just love to put themselves in horrible, deadly situations! 

Cassie is, well, Cassie, she will go around town looking for someone for the littlest things. I’ll definitely miss her when I leave. 

“Hello, Hali, what are you thinking about. You have a weird look on your face.”

“Sorry, just thinking about all those books. I hope there is a good murder story in there!” 

“Hali, you and your murder stories, read something else for a change!”

“Cassie, I enjoy talking with you but I have to go. See you tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

Cassie starts walking but I don’t, she doesn’t notice though. I turn towards the water, now I can go to my house, not my home. 

My home is far away. In a far away land. Here I live in a small house. It’s filled with many pleasures and tools, but it is not my home. 

My home has my friends. My home is quite large, in the middle of a massive city. Not the city you would think of, my city is unlike any other. 

My palace is made of the finest pearl and quartz. My room is filled with the most comfortable of beds and the best computers and other electronics that will help me do my job. 

I suppose I should tell you what my job is now. My job is to rule my country, I am Queen. Queen Hali, of the country Sagara. Of course you have never heard of Sagara, you are a human. 

Sagara is one of the many oceans of the world, we don’t name our oceans the way you name your oceans. Sagara is like your Atlantic, but of course we didn’t name our lands the same way you name yours. 

I have finally made my way down to the water and the waves rush up to my feet, only to fall away again. I wade into the water and turn around a bit, I need to make sure no one is looking as I do this. As I dive into the murky water I realize someone was watching me, but now it is too late. 

I glide through the silky water and feel my beautiful fins take the place of my legs. My fins are silver where my legs would have been and black and blue around the feet area. 

I glide through the murky water. Swirls of green and blue dance around me, twisting and turning with the rise and fall of the waves. The sand moves under me as I swim over it. The rocks are as dark as night under here, and they are painful when you swim into them. The green tentacles coming out of the rocks try to grab me. They twist and swirl to the movement of the waves. I easily evade them, they’re attached to rocks, after all. 

Looking around now I notice how beautiful this world is, it’s and art palette. A vast expanse of blue with a bit of white on the top. The bottom has tannish yellow color, scattered with bits of black and gray. Swirls of green finish off this picture. 

Suddenly I stop, almost hitting my door. After all that beauty my door is not the most exciting thing to look at. I mean it still is pretty, all blue and green, but compared to everywhere else, well, to put it nicely, it’s unable to be compared. 

“Ring, ring ring!” I look down at my wrist and a tiny person seems to be hovering over it. That’s my Nonton, a fancy devices that Sirens use to do a plethora of things. From calling people, to doing work, to listening to music. Nonton’s can do basically anything. 

I answer and immediately I hear a loud noise. “Hi Hali! How are those Tagata treating you?” 

“Milani, I can’t believe you called! I haven’t seen you ages. You should know by now I don’t like when you call the humans tagata, it is quite rude. They are an intelligent species. Why don’t you call them Manusa instead.”

“Ugh, Hali just because you’re queen, doesn’t mean that you can’t be rude.” 

“Right now I really want to shove you. You know I can be rude, but only when I want to.”

“I want to shove you too.” 

“That is not the way you should speak to your queen.” I’m joking, and she knows that, but I still like to bring up I’m technically in charge of you. Only when she gets annoying.

“Hali, you can be really annoying sometimes” 

“That may or may not be my goal.” I say sarcastically, and Milani can tell. “I’ve got to go, have to do the stupid Homework that all the stupid, so called teachers give us. The teachers teach us NOTHING by the way. They actually teach us untruths. They really think they are the smartest animal on this planet! How hilarious is that!”

“I feel so bad for you Hali, that must suck. How the hell do you deal with it?”

“It’s really hard but I suffer through it. I really have to go though, talk to you soon.” I look up from my nonton and realize I am sitting on my bed. My fins curled up beneath me. The plush bed sinks under my weight. I get up and look around.

I grab some food. My daun asin is tasting quite good today. 

Daun asin is seaweed baked in warm water, with salt. It is very simple, but it it taste so good sometimes. There is multiple types, with all the different types of seaweed there can be many different types of daun asin. 

I drink my dar grele. A very strong alcoholic drink. It’s heavier then the water which is why we drink it. We have very few drinks that taste good. 

A human may say, us Sirens are alcoholics but that is most definitely not true. We just can’t find drinks that will stay in our cups.

 I do actually enjoy coffee. If it is very strong. No milk, cream, or sugar. That makes it way to sweet. When I go to this store called starbucks I ask for it to be extra black. Sometimes it works other times people just look at me weird. 

I decide to grab torta dolce. A type of candy that us quite popular. I chew it slowly, savoring every flavor. First carmel, then a chocolate like taste. It’s so much better than any human food. 

I go over to my bed and plump it up and get in. It has sheets made out of woven seaweed. Seaweed is used for many things in our culture. Clothing, food, and decoration, just to name a few. We write on it and draw on it. It really does have many uses.