Chapter 20 - Terra

Chapter 20

Terra

"Rimulus, I didn't expect you to come, what are you doing here?"

"You were wanting to meet up right? I came to get you to start our tutoring lessons,"

"Yes, but I didn't ask you to come out of the water,"

"Your highness, shh!" Rimulus shushed Amelia while glaring at Eddie.

"I don't see why you have to keep it a big secret from me. I already know everything, Rim,"

"My lady! You didn't..."

"I had to, he..."

"I saw her other form," Eddie bluntly interrupted.

"You! How dare you! I should kill you," Rimulus grew angry at Eddie's declaration.

"Rimulus, no! He won't tell,"

"You can't trust a terra, my lady. Have you forgotten our history?"

"No I have not, but I can guarantee you he will not endanger our secrecy or our race,"

"How? How does this terra make any of the other ones special?"

"Do not question my judgment. Have YOU forgotten my capabilities?"

He stopped dead in his tracks as she uttered those words insulting his trust in her.

"No, my lady. My apologies," Rimulus submitted.

"Eddie, I will call you later,"

"Okay, have fun and be careful," Eddie kissed her gently on the forehead and walked away.

"Shall we go, my lady?"

"Yes,"

Amelia went under the dock to strip and dove into the water. Rimulus followed suit. Amelia was swimming faster than Rimulus. Then he tried to speak to Amelia.

"My lady, wait up, it's too dangerous to swim this fast during these currents,"

Amelia ignored him and swam faster. Then Rimulus cut her off from swimming any further at that direction. As he caught his breath, he spoke once more.

"My lady, you could get sick if you swim fast in temperature changing currents. Your gills cannot handle the process fast enough like similar temperatures,"

"I thought we need to get to our destination quickly,"

"We do, but even traveling, we must be cautious and learn the changes in the currents around us. Not every sea is going to have this warm temperature like Atlantica. Surely you must have realized when you were in Oceanus?"

"Very well,"

"My lady, I apologize if I crossed you, but you must realize that mer and terra shouldn't mingle with the..."

"The legends, the stories, the artefacts, yes, I get it, I get it all, but did you forget I am human as well?"

"Yes, but telling a full terra our existence could possibly endanger us all,"

"Eddie would never tell anyone else especially if he knows if it will put me in danger as well,"

"My lady, they say that but you..." Rimulus stopped and realized with his eyes wide open when he heard Amelia defend him.

"You... no, gods, no," Rimulus spoke covering his mouth in shock.

"Yes, and I love Eddie. We've been together for a few years. He's no stranger. I think that might have a little difference in the scenario then the sailor who was drowned by the maiden,"

"But my lady, you can't... you can't trust him!"

"I can, and I will still do so," Amelia said with a firm tone.

"If you trust me to be Queen of the Realm, then I must ask you to trust my judgment calls. I don't want there to be a rift between the terra and the mer any longer. It has gone long enough. Wouldn't you agree?"

Rimulus quivered at Amelia's question even knowing she could read his mind. His whole life, he avoided going to the surface with a few exceptions and didn't interact with the terra unless he needed to. But he also knew that a lot of the mer are no better either looking back at the situation he was in.

"You must understand that if you want to rule Atlantica and have the mer obey you, you must give them a reason to trust you, and that is the difficult part," Rimulus stated.

"I know, we can take it step by step. First off, let's start off with our first lesson, teacher,"

"Magister,"

"Hm?

"First lesson, magister is Latin for teacher. We should head for the archives for a more suitable learning environment,"

"Lead the way, magister," Amelia smiled as she allowed Rimulus to lead her to the archives where they would intensively study Latin for hours of each day ahead of them.

Meanwhile back in Oahu, Lynae was in the office awaiting the guidance counselor to see her unannounced. She then grew the courage to knock on the door, but the door opened before she could knock it.

"Ah Lynae, what can I do for you?" the lady spoke.

"Could we talk?" Lynae said hesitantly.

"Of course, come in, come in," the lady ushered her into her office.

Lynae sat down in the chair twiddling her fingers trying to take deep breaths.

"What can I do for you?"

"Miss Carina, I was wondering if I could graduate early," Lynae asked shyly.

"Oh my, can I ask for a reason behind your decision?"

"I just want to get out in the world, I don't want to drop out, but..."

"But?" Miss Carina pushed futher.

"School isn't for me,"

"I see, is there a college you were wanting to go to?"

"No, not particularly,"

"I see, is there...I hate to ask this, but I have to, but were you wanting to be closer to your partner in some ways?"

"I don't have a partner,"

"Okay, good, I had to ask because there were several cases of mine in which girls your age even younger were asking this request, and they had a significant other they wanted to be with,"

"Well I'm not one of them," Lynae said firmly.

"Good, I'm glad to hear, okay let me take a look at your schedule and your GPA," Carina was typing on her computer.

"Okay, your GPA is good, but with the classes that you will have to take, I must advise that it would create more stress for you."

"Can I change my grading periods to be shorter?"

"I can't switch you for this grading period but you can enroll into faster paced classes with what you have. However, it is a lot faster and you will have a lot of work ahead of you. I can't guarantee you would graduate in December, but you may be able to graduate in March if we get you in," Miss Carina explained.

"Can I be homeschooled? Can I take my classes at home?"

"You can, but that is more stressful and that is more suited for students who are single parents..."

"I don't care! Can I be enrolled or not?!" Lynae grew impatient.

Miss Carina took a deep breath, reached for something in one of her drawers, got some papers, and laid it on her desk in front of Lynae.

"Have your parents sign this, and we'll transfer you online but under our school name,"

"Why do they have to sign this?"

"Even if we transfer you, you are still underage. We need a parent's signature before we move on the transition for you,"

"Ugh...fine,"

"Okay, here are the papers your parents will need to sign about the transfer to an online school sponsored by us, have them sign it, and you'll be enrolled when the second grading period hits." Carina explained.

While she was explaining, Lynae noticed some ice forming onto her cup, and began feeling anxious as her feelings were encouraging the growth on the cup.

"Okay, I'll get it signed, thanks!" Lynae rushed out of the counselor's office.

Carina had a dumbfounded look on her face and then touched her cup to drink her coffee surprised by how cold it was.

After school, Meredith went over to the beach and decided to take a swim. After she hit the water with her tail, she headed into town looking around observing more of the culture involving trading, the structures, and conversations around her. What struck her next was seeing some merchildren along in an open area slapping a medium rock on their tails passing it onto each other.

It reminded her of her ability to move rock and earth at her command. It also reminded her of the times when she was playing volleyball before she became a mermaid. Then all of a sudden, she saw the rock flying towards her. She used her quick reflexes and slapped her tail hard on the rock and it was sent flying past the children and dove into a rocky hill.

"Gee, thanks, lady, now we lost our ball because of you..." One of the boys pouted.

Meredith got up towards the rocky slopes and pierced her fingers cutting away making it a circular piece of rock. She grabbed the rock and compressed it with her two hands rubbing it to make it smoother as if she were creating a snowball out of the rock. The children were stunned looking at what she could do.

"Speak none of this to your parents or anyone, understand?" Meredith said in a firm tone.

The children nodded silently and she then handed the newly made ball to the boy. She then left silently without another word. While going back into the town, she saw a local blacksmith shop. For some reason, she was drawn to the shop after looking at some of the weapons that were created in the shop.

She looked intensively at the blacksmith smiting away at his craft still blaring hot amber flames. She also looked at the weapons that were on display as well with pricing stones.

"If you're looking for pot holders, you're out of luck, I'll have to make a fresh batch for you which would take a while," The blacksmith said.

"Actually, I was just looking at these weapons, what are they? I know this one is obviously a sword but is there a name for it?" Meredith said looking at the weapons on display.

"See that axe over there? That's an Epsilon axe, it came from the terra land over in the Middle East and Ottoman Empire. The curved hammer is a Fagu Lima. It was invented by the Samoan mer tribe on the Oceano rim. A hammer and scythe in one but light enough to create some damage if used properly."

Then the blacksmith swore under his breath in frustration.

"Well I won't be making anything until I get some more magma rocks,"

"Magma rocks?"

"Yes, magma rocks, they can be found nearby an underwater volcano only and the nearest one is half a day away and I can't leave my shop,"

"Do you want me to go get them?"

"You would do that?"

"Yeah, I would, for a price,"

"I don't have much money on me, but I'll see what I can come up with,"

"I don't want money,"

"If you think I'd let you have one of my swords then you're out of your mind!"

"No not the swords either,"

"Okay, if you don't want my money or my swords, what do you want?"

"I want to become your apprentice."

"Wait what?"

"What's wrong? Never heard of taking up an apprentice before?"

"Y-yes, we do, but over some magma rocks?"

"I want to learn to create armor and arsenal,"

"You'd need to do a lot to get to that stage, but come back with some magma rocks that will last me for about two weeks, then we can arrange the apprenticeship's bond and terms,"

"Thank you, I won't be long,"

"Wait a minute, it's half a day's journey..."

The blacksmith was warning her but she rushed out of the shop on her way to the volcano with a chain made burlap made to carry the magma rocks. She swam as fast as she could and did not stop until she reached to volcano.

Once she reached the volcano, she started huffing to catch her breath. She then looked up to see if she needed to get the rocks from the top or if she should get them from the bottom. Either way she did not heed to hear any more instructions from the blacksmith as to where she would need to gather the rocks where they could do the job in lighting up the shop like it should.

Instinctively, she went for the top and saw the lava down below. She also was sweating from the immense heat she was feeling from that boiling lava. Meredith looked around to see where she could get the most out of the rocks from the volcano. Her eyes gazed on a large lump on the other side and decided to start using her ability to chisel away on the area of substance. She went ahead getting out the axe the blacksmith gave her before she darted but was wedged in the rock. She tried getting it out but it was beyond stuck in the strong area.

Her next move was to swim backward to gain speed to punch the rock as hard as she could. After she hit it, it began to crack little by little, but the axe had more room to move around. Then Meredith was able to get the axe free and began picking at the cracked area. After she made a boundary on the rock formation, Meredith focused on her teachings from Allura to focus all of her energy without any distraction. She then extended her hands toward the rock but not touching it, and it began ascending from its whereabouts at Meredith's command.

While the large boulder of volcano rock was still floating, she then dove with all of her might, and smashed through the boulder splitting it in half. Then she dove again at the halves to make them smaller to the point where they were the size of the magma rocks that the blacksmith had. She then collected the pieces and placed them in the chained burlap.

After collecting the pieces filling almost to the brim of the burlap, Meredith decided to take out a couple of the rocks and swam again up where the lava was. She threw the rock into the lava and lifted the rock at her will ignited with lava and placed it in with the chain burlap. She then closed the burlap tight and swam away with the heavy bag with no hesitation on the weight.

This time she decided to take her time since she was still a bit winded from rushing to get to the volcano in the first place.