Kira's Secret by Orysia Dawydiak Page A

I’m telling you we can trust them. They’re not all the same, you know,” Borin said. “Let me call them.”
    â€œOkay, but I’m won’t go very far. I still have a long trip home.”
    â€œGreat!” said Borin. He dove to the sea floor where he picked up a large empty shell and a fist-sized rock. Then he banged them together in a pattern. Tap, tap, pause, tap-tap-tap, pause, tap, tap. He repeated the pattern two more times. “Now we just wait. They’ll come soon.”
    Once again, Kira shuddered. She was about to meet the treacherous dolphin-eaters.
    When they finally appeared, Kira was surprised at how closely they resembled merrows. At a distance the only noticeable difference was their darker colour. Borin rushed off to greet them and explain what the three merrowlings wished to do. The finfolklings nodded and smiled, staring at Kira and Amelie. Kira felt goosebumps rise up all over her head and back, but Amelie waved and smiled back. She swam up to the smallest ones and they all tumbled around in the water, reminding Kira of a pod of young dolphins.
    Borin waved at Kira to follow as he and a few others headed off in a new direction. She was annoyed that he didn’t consult with her first, but found herself the centre of the pack, surrounded by finfolk who appeared to be about the same size as she and her cousins. She wondered how they could wander the sea without any adult supervision.
    Now they were near her, Kira studied them closely, noticing their different shapes and colours. Their scales ranged from green-grey to bluish silver; their tail tips were black. Skin tones varied a great deal, from ghostly pale to grey to almost cocoa. Most had dark brown or black hair, but a few had grey-blue hair and one was seaweed green. They reminded her of a gang of children at Hallowe’en, dressed up as witches, super heroes, and monsters. But these young ones were not wearing costumes.
    When Kira swam still closer to one of them, she noticed that his hands were like claws with yellow-brown nails. Suddenly he turned his head and stared into her eyes. Kira nearly stopped swimming. His eyes were small and dark and intense, darting back and forth in his grey face. He grinned at her, barely opening his mouth, but she was almost certain she saw the gleam of metal between his thin lips. Did he have braces like Cody? Could they make metal under the sea?
    Ahead of her it appeared that Borin was having an animated conversation with his companions. Kira wished she could hear what they were saying. She still wanted to know how long they would be. She sped up to close the gap, but found that everyone else swam faster as well. How odd, she thought. Was she setting the pace for them?
    Kira figured they had been swimming for half an hour when she realized she was hungry. As if they read her mind, the group slowed down and several finfolk scattered and swam off in all directions. Before long, they returned with handfuls of fish and clams. These were tossed around, everyone grabbing at them and gobbling the fish whole, or ripping open the clams and scraping them out with their claws. Kira watched as Amelie licked out a clamshell. She hoped that there were no seahorses in the vicinity for her cousin to crunch on. Her own appetite had vanished while observing the feasting frenzy.
    Borin appeared at her side, holding a sliver of fish fillet and a clump of seaweed. He wrapped the seaweed around the fish and offered it to Kira. “Here, you’ll need this to keep up. We still have a distance to go. But it isn’t too, too far, because Amelie and I have to return before we’re missed at home.”
    â€œSo do I,” Kira said, accepting the sashimi-like bundle and taking a nibble. It was surprisingly tasty. Salty and tangy, it melted in her mouth. By the time she’d swallowed the last piece, they were on the move again. This time, as they swam, Kira tried to concentrate on the sea