The moon was bright overhead, with only a few wispy clouds drifting through the sky and occasionally obscuring the brilliant orb and the litter of stars dotting the skies. Despite this, Katie had still brought a flashlight with her when she snuck out of her tent – her mom and Lewis had set her up with a smaller, personal one that she was thrilled to be using – to help illuminate the rocky path down to the water. The last thing she had wanted was to trip and fall in the dark, and potentially wake her parents up.

She had brought a blanket with her over top of her hoodie. The night air wasn’t really cold enough to warrant it, but bugs were buzzing around her head and the blanket helped provide some extra cover.

Instead of going to sit at the dock, Katie had picked her way across the shoreline to a large, flat boulder that was perched just above deeper water. Riley had been nearly beached earlier, and she hoped this would be more comfortable for her new friend. She had left the flashlight shining as she sat so that the mermaid could find her since she imagined Riley would be expecting to find her at the end of the dock.

If she came. That thought put a damper on Katie’s mood. She hoped that she would. It still baffled her to consider. She had met an actual creature of myth today. Part of her thought that maybe she had imagined it, but Riley had left mucky sand from her fingers on Katie’s handheld speaker, and while it wasn’t express proof, it kindled enough hope in her chest to drag Katie from her tent once night had fallen.

She tapped her sneaker against the rock and pulled her blanket closer around her as the bugs buzzed in her ears. She had squatted down with her knees against her chest, but with every minute that ticked by, she began to wonder if she should simply slip back into her tent and go to sleep. If her mom caught her out here, she would be very upset, and Katie didn’t imagine that her mother would accept that she had snuck out to meet her new aquatic friend as a valid excuse.

Katie yawned and blinked sleepily out over the water. The night was calm and there was hardly any wind, so only the smallest of waves lapped lazily against the rock she was perched on. Because of this, the larger ripples just in front of her feet caught Katie’s attention pretty quickly, and a moment later, Riley's blonde head broke the surface. The mermaid shook her head to toss her colourful bangs off of her face and then she squinted towards the flashlight.

“T-that is b-brighter than the sun, what is it?” she inquired. Katie smiled. It seemed like Riley wasn’t used to speaking English, because she spoke a little slow and struggled over a few words, but Katie didn’t mind.

“It’s a flashlight,” Katie explained. “It’s so I could see in the dark to get over here. Do you want me to turn it off?”

“Please,” Riley requested.

Katie picked the flashlight up and clicked the switch to kill the light. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but the night was bright enough still that she could still see Riley. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming. That maybe I imagined you.”

Riley shrugged. “It took longer than I thought to sneak past my pod’s scouts. And I went to the dock first.”

“Sorry about that,” Katie winced as she spoke. “I just thought this would be a better spot to meet since the water is so shallow over there. I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

The young mermaid grinned and Katie tried not to shudder at the long fangs among her other teeth. She had seen them earlier in the day when Riley had hissed at her, but she had forgotten that the mermaid had them and they were rather frightening. She hoped Riley wouldn’t get angry or feel inclined to bite, because Katie imagined it would hurt quite a bit. “It is a bit easier over here,” Riley agreed. But then she negated the point by pulling herself up onto the lip of the rock and shaking her free-flowing hair.

Katie had to duck away from the showering water droplets that were sent flying. When she straightened back up, she found her gaze drawn to the sparkling, light brown scales that ran down the length of Riley’s tail. “What does it feel like?” she found herself asking before she fully registered the question. She blushed and glanced away when Riley’s brows furrowed with confusion.

“Umm…I guess you could find out if you wanted,” Riley offered after a moment. Katie glanced back to see that she had pulled her tail the rest of the way from the water so that her colourful fins were flopped near Katie’s shoes.

Katie hesitantly reached out and placed her hand on the scales. They were smooth and rigid and tough, but they also almost felt silky, and Katie carefully rubbed the tiny ones near the tip of Riley’s tail as she admired them. It was truly amazing.

Riley’s tail shuddered and then pulled away from Katie’s fingers. “That tickles,” she complained.

“Sorry,” Katie apologized.

Riley shook her head and then leaned forward and reached for one of Katie’s shoes. “What about yours?” she inquired as she grabbed Katie by the ankle and pulled.

Katie nearly lost her balance and had to brace herself on the rock to avoid falling backwards. She didn’t even have time to protest as Riley tugged on her shoe and then poked at her sock. She laughed at the mermaid’s explorative prodding. It tickled too, so she supposed it was payback. Riley peeled her sock off next, so Katie wiggled her toes and watched Riley’s head cocked to the side. “Humans are strange,” Riley announced finally as she released Katie’s foot.

“Well, so are mermaids,” Katie countered playfully as she started putting her sock back on, followed by her shoe.

Then she looked up when she heard a snort and saw Riley shaking her head. “Mer,” she corrected. “We are Mer.”

Thankfully, Riley didn’t seem angry, but her tone was firm, so Katie nodded her understanding. She didn’t quite understand the difference or why it was so important to the other girl, but the last thing Katie wanted was to offend Riley. She didn’t want her to leave. Or attack her. Both seemed like possible outcomes. Katie coughed. She wanted to change the subject and break the awkward silence that had settled over them, broken only by the buzzing insects and the waves lapping at the shore. “So…what is like being a merma- a Mer,” Katie corrected hastily.

Riley’s head tilted to the side and her slender blonde brows furrowed together. She pursed her lips and tapped her fingers on the surface of the rock. “That is an odd question,” she stated.

“How so?”

“What is it like being human?” Riley countered.

“Uh,” Katie paused as she floundered for an answer. How could she explain something so normal to someone who probably wouldn’t understand the answers? Being human was just…living. “I see your point,” she coughed finally.

Riley grinned and leaned back on her hands. She flicked her fins and sent drops of water skittering across the calm surface of the ocean. Katie watched as the Mer tilted her head as far back as it appeared she could manage and studied their campsite from an upside-down view. Then she sat up and twisted onto her belly to point. “What are those?” she inquired.

Katie followed her outstretched finger. “Those are tents,” she replied. “They’re like…little temporary houses made of fabric with poles inside to keep them upright. We sleep in them when we’re camping.”

“Camping?” Riley echoed. “Houses?”

Katie stared at her for a moment and then began laughing hysterically. She slapped a hand over her mouth to try to smother the chortling. “Okay. Okay. Umm, so houses are the buildings – the structures – that we build to live in. It’s where we keep our stuff, where we eat and sleep, and live our lives when we’re not working or at school. And camping is the term for what me and my family are doing now. When we come out into the forest or wilderness away from the city, have campfires to cook our food and sleep in tents. It’s just meant to be fun and relaxing. What do you do for fun?”

Riley shrugged and flicked her fins again. “I tussle with my friends. We race, explore, sneak along on hunts or catch smaller fish on the reef.”

“That sounds like fun,” Katie agreed.

“It gets me in trouble sometimes,” Riley admitted. “Do you like to swim? Can you swim?”

Katie scoffed and leaned over to give the Mer’s arm a shove. She giggled when Riley nearly toppled into the water. “Of course I can swim! I mean…maybe not as well as you, but I love the water, I swim all the time.”

An impish grin split Riley’s lips and Katie squeaked and ducked under her blanket as the Mer flicked her fins up and showered Katie in cold, salty water droplets.

“Shh,” Katie protested. “If my mom wakes up, I’m going to get in lots of trouble! I’m not supposed to be sneaking out of my tent in the middle of the night! She warned me that animals come out at night.”

Riley shook her head and clucked her tongue, then puffed out her chest and cheeks. “I am way scarier than any land beast that might lurk in the trees,” she declared. Then her smile slipped. “But it would be bad if your parents found me.”

Katie shook her head and took Riley’s hand. “They wouldn’t hurt you, I promise,” she assured her. And she knew they wouldn’t. Her mom lent her efforts to oceanic conservation and Lewis was one of the best sea-vets on the coast. She couldn’t imagine either of them trying to harm her new friend. “I promised I wouldn’t tell – and I won’t – but you don’t have to hide from them. Maybe you could come back tomorrow for lunch. They could meet you and we could actually go for a swim. We’re here all week.”

Katie felt hope swell in her chest. She liked Riley. She had felt a little lonely lately, since her best friend’s family had moved away. There weren’t a lot of kids her age in Sophie’s neighbourhood, and though she loved her adoptive mother dearly, her friends had helped keep the sting of abandonment at bay. She was desperate to fill that void.

But just as she eagerly awaited Riley’s agreement, the other girl’s face fell and she shook her head. “I am sorry, Katie, but you should not even know. I guess I just wanted an excuse to slip away a little longer and make a friend, but I probably should not have. I cannot put my family in danger, even if your parents are good people. And my family is leaving with the dawn anyway. We were only here for a little while. It is time to move on.”

Katie’s heart squeezed and she sat back from where she had been leaning forward. “Oh,” she murmured. “I, um…I guess I’d hoped we could hang out a little more.”

Riley shrugged. “I meet a lot of people on migration that I only get to know for a turn or two before we leave again. If I am sad about it, I will never get to be happy for a little while.”

Katie nodded her head slowly and pursed her lips. It made sense. She wondered if all Mer were nomadic, how many there were, and if her family was a large or small group. But none of those questions really mattered as much as the one lingering currently on her tongue. “Do you think we might ever meet up again?”

Riley licked her lips and leaned back on her palms again. “It would be nice,” Riley admitted. “But I do not imagine so. We were not meant to meet at all, and we live in different elements. It is not as though I can come to land to find you.”

Though she didn’t like the answer, Katie acknowledged the logic in Riley’s words. “Well…hey, maybe if I’m ever out on or in the water, you could come say ‘hello’? I promise, I won’t ever tell anyone.”

The look that crossed Riley’s features made Katie think perhaps she was just going to placate her, because her lips pursed into a rue grin and she shrugged once more. “Okay, yes. If I ever happen to see you out on the water and it is safe to do so, I will say ‘hello’.” Riley’s gaze tilted up and she sighed. “I cannot linger for very much longer. My absence will be noticed eventually.”

The Mer made to slip off the rock, so Katie lunged forward and caught her wrist. “Wait a minute, okay? I have something I want to give you. I was going to before we left at the end of the week, but you’re leaving first, so let me just go get it, okay? I’ll be right back. Please don’t leave yet.”

“O-okay,” Riley agreed.

Her shoes squeaked against the slick rock as Katie pushed herself up and hurried as quickly and quietly as she could back to her tent. She didn’t want to keep her new friend waiting in case she decided just to slip away. Goodbyes were unpleasant and Katie wouldn’t blame the Mer for bowing out to avoid one, but she really didn’t want that to happen.

She unzipped her tent just enough to reach inside and grab a small pouch off the little plastic table acting as a nightstand. The only other thing on it was the lit coil, which Katie appreciated. She was going to be scratching like crazy tomorrow.

The relief Katie felt when she found Riley still sitting there as she hurried back, clutching the pouch to her chest, was immense. The other girl was half-curled on the rock with her fins tapping up and down against the hard surface, and her head turned when Katie approached. She sat back down with her legs bent beneath her, and offered out the little, dark purple pouch towards Riley, who gingerly reached out and picked it up.

Katie bit her lip so she wouldn’t laugh as the Mer held it awkwardly between her fingers and brought it closer to her face to sniff it. It would be mean to express her amusement, but she could not help feeling it as Riley tilted her head and her brows furrowed. Then her lips pressed up into a forced smile. “Thank you,” she murmured, though the confusion in her voice made Katie sputter. “But…what is it?”

“Look inside,” Katie prompted.

She watched Riley slowly pull the pouch open and reach inside it. She pulled out a small black device and a tangle of white wires, and her frown deepened. “I still do not understand,” she admitted after a moment of silence.

Katie leaned forward and took the tips of the earbuds from Riley’s open palm. “These go in your ears,” she explained as she reached up to put them in place. Riley flinched as her hands passed in front of the Mer’s face, but she didn’t pull away and allowed Katie to adjust the earbuds in her ears. Then she took the MP3 player and held it up so Riley could see what she was doing. “Then you press this button and hold it until the screen lights up,” she explained while demonstrating. “Then press this middle button here, and press it again.”

At that point in her demonstration, Riley flinched again, but then her eyes widened with surprise. “It is like your box,” she whispered.

Katie grinned and nodded. “You can scroll between songs with these buttons, and these two adjust how loud it is.” She spent the next few minutes showing Riley how to work the small device and how to change the batteries with some of the spares she had put in a plastic bag. “Remember that you can only change them at the surface though, okay? The player is waterproof, but the batteries aren’t and the inside of it isn’t either, so if they get wet, it’ll wreck it. The pouch is just to make it easier to carry it all. I’m afraid the batteries won’t last forever, but it’s the best I can do.”

Riley remained silent with her fingers clutching the small music player. Her eyes looked a little glossy, but Katie supposed that could have been the light. “You are really giving this to me?” she checked.

Katie shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I mean…you seemed to really like it earlier. I’ll just tell my mom I lost it. I can get another one with my allowance money or something, it really isn’t that big a deal. I’d like you to have it. And I guess if we ever see each other again, I can try to get you more batteries, so there’s one incentive, maybe?”

Riley’s amused bark of laughter was boisterous enough that Katie leaned forward to clap a hand over her mouth and then nervously glanced towards her mom and Lewis’ tent. After a few seconds of silence, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Katie?” Riley caught her attention again and she looked up at her friend. Riley lurched forward and hugged her, smacking Katie in the face with some of her short, sopping blonde hair. “Thank you for all of this,” she whispered. “It was really nice to slip away for a while and make a friend. I hope the rest of your…camping is fun.”

“I wish you could stay,” Katie admitted. “But I hope your migration goes good. Enjoy the music, and stay safe, okay?”

Riley scoffed as she pulled away. She tucked the player back into the pouch and cradled it gingerly before pulling the string around her waist and knotting it so that it would stay. Katie grinned. She had thought that would be a good way for the Mer to carry it. “There is nothing in all the oceans that I fear. They should all fear me, instead,” she bragged, puffing out her chest as she did.

Katie nodded. “Okay then,” she agreed. “I hope I see you again.”

Riley tilted her head and nodded. “I hope so too,” she replied. The moment she finished speaking, she dove off the rock and her fins smacked down on the surface of the water, showering Katie with water in the process. Katie fell backwards with a startled squeak, then began to laugh even as tears stung in her eyes. Somehow, that seemed like an appropriate way for the mermaid to say goodbye.