Mia dug her toes into the warm sand on the edge of the Pearl Sea as she stepped out of the water. She turned her head to grin at her friend, Amaris, who was visiting for the day from The World Beyond.

“The water is the perfect temperature,” she called out. “You should come over and try it.”

“And ruin the perfect opportunity to improve my sun-tan?” Amaris replied. She stretched and sighed.

Mia laughed. “Are you sure it’s not the royal treatment you’re receiving? Compliments of my little friend?”

Moth, Mia’s brownie, was using a large banana leaf to fan Amaris as she relaxed on the pristine golden sand that lined the shore.

“It might be,” Amaris agreed. “Thank goodness Karel didn’t think there was any danger looming when we heard the unicorn’s horn sounding.” 

“Right? It’s so exciting. I hope he’s correct. I hope it was part of bringing Julius back to us.” Mia looked up at the pristine blue sky. “That is my fervent wish.”

“Me too. Julius deserves to get his mind back.”

“Yes, he does,” Mia said. 

Mia stooped down to pat a small seagull searching for its breakfast in the damp sand.

The little bird spread one wing across his chest and bowed. A whistle sounded further down the beach. He answered and took flight.

“Bye, little guy,” Mia called after him. She drew in a deep breath, savoring the salty tang lingering in the air. “I love living here in Jirvania.”

“I will admit I could get used to this,” Amaris called out, chuckling and pointing to Moth, who still waved the banana leaf. “He’s already folded my clothes and brushed off my sandals.”

“I see that,” Mia said, surveying the neat piles of folded clothes and towels, next to the seashells they’d collected arranged into two rows in front of a burlap sack. “Moth is a housekeeper extraordinaire.”

Moth glanced up and his brow furrowed. “Princess Just Mia need Moth?” His gaze drifted toward the gently rolling waves splashing onto the sand, and he gave an involuntary shudder.

“Come on, Moth. Join me. It’s just water. It won’t hurt you,” Mia said, giggling as she splashed her foot in the sea foam.

Moth drew himself up to his full height and puffed his thin chest out. “Not afraid. Careful.” He set the banana leaf down, which earned a groan from Amaris, and picked his way down to where Mia stood, now ankle deep in the gentle surf.

A ghost of a smile drifted across Mia’s face, as Moth placed one foot into the water, eyes widening in shock.

“Princess Just Mia, water too cold for Moth. Not good. Make sick.”

“It’s cold to you? Feels just right to me.”

Moth lunged into the water, grimacing as it splashed on his belly.

Mia reached down and scooped him up, depositing him back on the dry sand. “Moth, you don’t have to follow me into the water.” She patted his head. “I was only teasing.”

Moth gasped and grabbed his hair. “Tease? Moth’s hair needs no teasing. Is already mess.”

Mia shook her head. “No, dear heart, teasing as in joking around with you.”

Moth’s wrinkled brow furrowed even deeper until he resembled a shriveled prune.

Mia stifled a laugh, careful to hide her amusement by covering her mouth. She pretended to cough.

This alarmed Moth further. “Princess Just Mia must come out. Cold water makes sick already!” He tugged on Mia’s hand.

“Aww, it’s okay, buddy. I’m not sick. I promise.”

“You cough. You sick.”

Amaris lifted herself on her elbows. “Come over here, Moth. How would you like me to pamper you for a bit? I could fan you with the banana leaf.”

Moth stood so still he reminded Mia of a garden gnome statue.

She smiled down at him. “Go on, Moth. You do so much for me. All the time. Go enjoy a little relaxation time.”

“But,” Moth began.

“I insist,” Mia added.

Shoulders slumping, Moth turned and walked to Amaris. His feet left trails where he’d dragged them through the sand.

“You’d think I planned to force him to do hard labor,” Amaris said, laughing.

“Right?” Mia agreed. “He might like that better.”

Moth muttered under his breath but sank onto the sand, face down.

Amaris picked up the banana leaf and fanned him.

“Hey, I’m going to swim out to those rocks,” Mia called out. “I think I saw Kai and Nai’a and I want to say hello.”

Amaris gave a thumbs up with her free hand.

Mia waded back into the water. When it was up to her waist, she dove into a wave and vanished under the surface.

Amaris glanced over the water’s surface with a smile. Mia loved to swim with her dolphin friends. She brushed the sand from her legs and looked over the water again.

Her smile faded. Mia hadn’t reappeared.

“What the heck?” Amaris tossed the leaf aside and running to the shoreline. She cupped her hands and shouted, “Mia!”

Moth scrambled to his feet and ran to Amaris’s side.

Amaris bit her lip. “I don’t know where Mia is. She disappeared.”

She waited a few more seconds, hoping Mia would appear. When she didn’t surface, she hurried into the water.

“No,” Moth shouted, grabbing the hem of her tee-shirt. “Not follow.”

Amaris hesitated. She knew the Brownie was right. She couldn’t possibly hope to find Mia. The tide was coming in and the wind had picked up considerably in the past few minutes.

“But Moth, I don’t understand. Where is she?” She looked into the Brownie’s somber eyes. “She might have drowned,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Moth crossed his arms over his frail chest. “Princess Just Mia swim like fish.”

“I know, but even excellent swimmers can get into trouble.”

Moth slapped a hand across his forehead. “Swims like fish,” he repeated, emphasizing each word with deliberate slowness.

Amaris wiped tears from her eyes. “I know you don’t understand, but being able to swim doesn’t mean, oh, never mind. Come on. Let’s find Karel. He’ll know what to do. Maybe she just swam out of sight while I wasn’t looking.”

Together they headed toward The Great Library.

The brownie trailed several steps behind Amaris, muttering underneath his breath.

“Moth understand. Girl not understand. Moth says Princess Just Mia swim like fish, because Princess Just Mia breathes like fish. Not drown. Duh.” He slapped a hand to his forehead. “World Beyond people so weird.”

***

The moment she dove, Mia opened her eyes and looked around. Here in the Pearl Sea, her vision was crystal clear for seeing underwater. A school of bright blue fish with silver speckles flashed past her and into a lush garden of coral. A lazy eel shot off tiny electrical charges as it navigated toward them, pretending nonchalance.

Mia was about to breach the surface and take a breath when she noticed a beautiful mermaid approaching.

Her chocolate-brown hair fell in ethereal ringlets around her shoulders, glowing with tiny lights. 

As she drew near, Mia saw the lights were coming from bioluminescent sea creatures. They swam alongside the mermaid, weaving patterns as they drifted in and out of her hair. They reminded her of the fireflies she’d once seen when visiting a dairy farm one evening in the Midwestern United States.

“Welcome,” the mermaid called out. “Julu sent me to find you.” 

“I remember you. Your name is Angela.” Mia replied without thinking. She gasped. “I’m speaking underwater.” 

Angela flashed a pearly-white smile. “You are. I’m glad you remember me. We met when you visited Crystal Lake.” 

“That’s right.” Mia nodded. “Why were you sent to find me?” She glanced up at the surface of the water, now at least twenty feet above them. “My friends, Amaris, and Moth are up there, on the shore I mean.” 

Angela gave a flick of her tail and swam to Mia. 

“Julu has requested that you accompany me. Don’t worry. Your friends will be okay. They have already headed off to find Karel.”

Mia chewed her lower lip. “Poor Moth. He’ll be beside himself.” 

The mermaid laughed, and a sound like tinkling bells filled the surrounding water. “Two Moths. I can’t imagine,” she said, flashing her beautiful smile once again. She beckoned to Mia. “Come, my friend. Time is precious.” 

Mia followed her, not surprised to find she could swim effortlessly behind her. She glanced behind her and her mouth opened wide.

“I have a tail like yours,” she called out to Angela.

“A temporary arrangement,” Angela called back. “So you could keep up.” 

Mia pondered this. She imagined how it would feel to keep the tail and remain in the ocean for a while. Then she thought of Jack, Maisie, Moth and her parents. No, perhaps not, but she would enjoy every minute of her brief mermaid experience.

“What about Moth?” Mia asked as they swam. “He’ll make himself sick worrying about me.” 

“He will miss you,” Angela replied, “But he understands what’s happened.”

“Okay, good to know,” Mia said. “I’ll miss him, too.” 

Angela swam a few feet above the ocean bed, and Mia followed until they reached an enormous structure resembling a palace.

“It looks like a king’s home,” Mia called out, even as Angela circled back to her.

Angela nodded. “It is.” She reached for her wrist and slipped off her pearl bracelet. She handed it to Mia. “Here you are, sister. We shall always be the closest of friends.” 

Mia took the gorgeous pearl bracelet and slipped it on the opposite wrist to her charm bracelet. “But I have nothing to give you in return.” She looked at her charm bracelet and grinned as she slid it from her wrist and handed it to Angela.

They smiled at each other and held up both hands for a double high-five.

“The more you give, the more you receive,” Angela said. “Look.”

Mia grinned. “Wow. How did you do that?” She and Angela both now wore a pearl bracelet on one wrist and a sparkling charm bracelet on the other.

“I used magic. Did you forget where you are?” She gave Mia a warm smile. “Are you ready? Let’s go.”

Mia followed Angela through the gates into what looked like a large underwater courtyard. The moment she passed beneath the arbor of coral, her mermaid tail vanished, and she used her legs to swim. Within seconds, the extra effort and slower pace had her wishing the tail would return.

Cheers erupted across the courtyard, and someone cried out her name.

Mia’s eyes widened in recognition. “Mom? Dad?” She allowed herself to sink feet first onto the sandy bottom. She scanned the people who gathered and a smile spread across her face. With a loud cry of joy, she broke into a run and flung herself into the arms of her parents. 

King Nereus walked up with his wife, Doris. He chuckled and patted Beau on the back. “Now do you understand why I couldn’t let you leave to go find your daughter, Mia?”

Beau grinned. “Yes, Old Man of the Sea. She was already on her way to find us.” 

The king smiled. “Speaking of old men and La Mer, I have someone I’d like you to meet. He’s a frequent visitor to our world, and it just so happens, he is here today. Would you come with me? Our daughter, Halie, will see to your wife and daughter’s every need until we return.”

A girl broke ranks with her forty-nine sisters and skipped across the courtyard, kicking up spirals of sand as she did. “It will be my pleasure.” 

Beau glanced at Lily and Mia, who stood together deep in conversation and shrugged. “I suppose there’s no harm in it. It’ll be hours before I get a word in. You know how that is, right?”

Nereus threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Careful, my friend. La Mer is also female, and she’s as temperamental as they come. Let’s go to my library. I believe my friend, Papa, is there with his friend, Jimmy. They can’t wait to meet up with you again.” 

Beau’s brow furrowed. “Have I met them? I don’t recall it.”

Nereus clapped him on the shoulder as they made their way into a spacious room, lined with coral bookshelves. Each book lay nestled on a broad seaweed leaf. Tiny seahorses darted to-and-fro across the room with small pieces of dark brown seaweed held in their tails. 

“They keep the shelves clean of moss and cockles,” Nereus explained.

Three figures, two men and a boy, sat in polished sea shell seats across the room. They waved.

Nereus waved back. “There’s Papa and Santiago. Papa calls him Jimmy. The other one is Manolin.”

Beau glanced down at his hand, now carrying another book he’d read as a child. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. A smile crept across his face. “Papa,” he repeated, reflecting on the word as a long-lost memory surfaced. “Now I remember.” 

Angela the mermaid swam up, waved, and then made her way over to speak to James.

The man Nereus called Papa got to his feet and strode forward, shaking hands with Beau.

Manolin dug into his pocket and withdrew a pocket watch. A shadow crossed his face as he studied the cracked glass face. He rose to his feet. Without speaking, he tipped his hat and hurried off. Santiago hoisted a fishing net over his shoulder, got up and followed the boy out of the room.

“I admire your characters, Papa,” Beau said. “Santiago never gave up, and he never lost hope. But why do you call him Jimmy?” 

Papa grinned. “Santiago is the Spanish translation of James. James became Jimmy. Suited him better. I’ve always loved a good nickname.” 

“Is that why you’re called Papa, Mr. Hem-”

Papa held a finger to his lips. “Ah, ah, King Beaumont of Jirvania. We’re all on first nickname basis here.” He winked at Nereus. “Isn’t that right, AquaBoy?”

Nereus gave him a thumbs up.

Beau laughed. “Point taken, Papa. Point taken.” 

Papa clapped his hands. “Good. Now, let’s talk to Angela. She knows the very best places to dig up a new plot or two.” 

Beau shrugged. “Why not? I could use a good new book to read.” 

A violent shudder shook the ground beneath their feet. 

King Nereus cleared his throat. “Your Majesty. I’m afraid we have run out of time. Come quickly. We must move you and your family to safety at once.”

Papa pointed to the bookshelf. “What about that story?”

Nereus followed his gaze. He studied the title. “Baker’s Inn.” He looked at Papa and Beau. “Yes, perfect. Let’s roll.”