In the bathroom, you take your hair out of it's braids and run your fingers through the waves left behind. Then, you fill the cup from your nightstand up with water [[halfway|Water]].\n\nYou return to your bedroom and set the cup down on your desk. Picking up the little alien, you slowly drop it into the cup.\n\nThen you [[wait|Watch]].
You chose the safer route, unlocking the front door and stepping inside. You shake your umbrella off outside and lean it against the corner where the wall's meet and slowly peel off your muddy boots, placing them next to your umbrella. The slicker comes off next, hung up on a hook.\n\n"Hunny? Is that you?"\n\nShoot.\n\nYour mother pokes her head out of the doorway, eyes slightly narrowed.\n\n"Why are your wellies all muddy?"\n\n"[[Well|Excuse]]..."
It's raining.\n\nThere's something in the [[road|Street]].
Right away, your heart leaps at the chance to stay here forever. You feel at home. You know this is your home.\n\nBut what about your parents?\n\nWould you just disappear without a trace? Would you be erased from their memories? Would a second you, one that didn't think of the ocean and the waters below as much as you, live with them?\n\nThere's still other options: stay on [[ground|Above]], stay [[here|Mermaid]], or live like [[Persephone|Half]].\n\n
You feel your heart break, but you cannot stay here.\n\n"... I need to go back home. With my parents. What would they do without me?"\n\nThe axolotl looks sad, but they nod.\n\n"I understand. You love them. I will return you to [[them|Awake]]."
You gently lay the pink little creature down on your desk. It's still not breathing, but you're sure you can fix that. Your backpack drops besides your [[bed|Bed]] and you grab the cup on your [[nighstand|Nightstand]].\n\nYou take a quick [[detour|Bathroom]].
English, math, world history. Easy enough.\n\nYou start on math but find yourself looking again and again at your [[cup|Creature]].\n\nIt takes you a full hour to do ten math problems that don't even require much work shown. You have two hours left for English and world history before dinner.\n\nYou're torn: [[homework|Continue]] or [[cup|Creature2]].
Every time you look, you swear you see it move a little pink foot.\n\nBut you know it's just your imagination. It certainly can't be coming back to life.\n\n[[Continue]]
As you unlock the back door, your mother is leaving the kitchen. In a comical way, you both stand there, her in the hall and you by the stairs, and her mouth turns into a tight, pretty line of red lipstick.\n\n"Honey? What are you [[doing|Sneak]]?"
Everyone could always use a little extra luck.
Pink.\n\nTranslucent, but it might be the rain.\n\nSmall, frilly looking antenna on either side of it's head.\n\nBut what you notice most of all is the fact it's not breathing.\n\nIt might be dead.\n\nYou hope it isn't.\n\n[[road|Street]]
You decide to follow your heart and keep heading forward. The castle awaits you, all soft coral of it.\n\nThere are more pufferfish guards at the castle's entrance and they bow again, letting you into the doors.\n\nInside, the castle is dreamlike, almost like a mermaid was reincarnated as a place to live in. Soft and pink, you feel your heart leap into your throat.\n\nThis is [[home|Prince]].
"The path from school was a little muddy. I tried to find a cleaner way, but it was worse on my other paths. Sorry!"\n\n"Just don't forget to rinse your wellies off before dinner. It's at six. Homework should be done by then."\n\nYou nod and your mother ducks back into the kitchen, presumbly to finish up dinner or whatever baking project she's on now.\n\nQuietly, you sneak the small pink alien up to your room, covering it with your hands as if it looks any less suspicious then just carrying somethin foreign up to your room.\n\nYou arrive [[safely|bedroom]]
You watch. And wait.\n\nSurely, whatever this creature is, it was trying to get water, hence being in the rain. So, giving it a surplus, it must wake back up.\n\n[[Right|Sad]]?
"I," You pause, think, then shrug, "I wanted to take my boots off back here, so they didn't track mud through the house. The grass walking home was a little gross."\n\nYour mother eyes you carefully and decides that's a viable enough excuse. You smile, take your boots off at the door, and hang your slicker up by it. She just watches for a moment before turning and starting up the stairs.\n\n"Dinner's at six. Have your homework done by then."\n\nYou're [[safe|bedroom]].
The kids at school tease that you're a test subject and your parents do magical experiments on you in their swampy city hut. You laugh along with them. If only they knew the magic that existed within your swamp; far greater then anything they'd ever know.\n\n[[home|House]]
The stained glass is geometric shapes. As a kid, you loved to lie in front of the door in the sun and look at how the colors changed your skin.\n\n[[home|House]]
You wake up abruptly, covered in sweat. Your eyes dart around before you look at the cup on your desk. It's gone, along with the alien.\n\nYou look at your nightstand and the cup is there, like it never left.\n\nYou smile, rub a hand over your face. What a strange dream. Your mother is calling you for dinner and you call back, climbing out of your bed and patting down your pants.\n\nConfused at the feeling of something in your pocket, you dig your hand in and pull it out.\n\nA single swirled purple stone.\n\n[[end]]
You belong here. Your heart pulls, your body vibrates. You were never for above ground; it was always loud and bright.\n\n"I want to stay."\n\n"Your parents?"\n\n"... I love them. But... I belong here."\n\nThey [[smile|Change]].
"Do you know of Persephone?"\n\nThe axolotl shakes their head.\n\n"She's a Greek goddess. She spends half her time with her mother, above ground, and the other half with her husband, below ground."\n\nThey just look at you, confused.\n\n"I'm asking... can I do that? Can I spend time with my parents, and with you?"\n\nThe axolotl thinks for a moment before nodding their head.\n\n"[[Yes|SummerWinter]]."
You have a key for the front door. It sticks in the rain, so you'll make a bit of a racket coming in, but if your mother is baking (and she surely is) she won't pull away enough to fuss over you.\n\nHowever, the stairs are towards the back of the cottage. If you were truly to go through the front door, you'd still pass by her. She still might ask you about school.\n\nYou decided no or never and unlock the [[door|Frontroute]]
mermaids and gems
Inside, it's beautiful.\n\nThe water seems nonexistent now and it might be from the flurry of fish that are racing here and there. A shadow passes above and you watch a whale swim overhead.\n\nYou just gently swing your legs to mimic walking, propelling yourself forward as you take in the sights.\n\nTo your [[right|Stalls]] there appear to be shopping stalls.\n\nTo your [[left|Building]] sits a large building. You're unsure of what is inside.\n\nDirectly ahead is the [[castle|Gohere]].
You decide to watch the cup more, a little closer this time. Climbing off your bed, you walk back towards your desk and kneel down, resting your arms on the top as you watch the creature inside. Still unmoving.\n\nYour heart starts to ache. Maybe it really was dead when you found it in the road and you carried it up to your room for no reason.\n\nYou hope that's not true. You pull away from your desk and go back to your bed, pushing your homework off and burrowing under the blankets. A little [[nap|Dream]] before dinner won't hurt.
Your mother likes to bake and thus the kitchen always smells divine. When you feel bad, you like to sit along the floor boards and relax.\n\nGingerbread is your favorite.\n\n[[home|House]]
Veering to the left, you check out the large building besides you. You peek inside the door and find it to be a school. You're not interrupting any classes, but you can see all sorts of fish swimming in and out of other doorways.\n\nThey're so lovely. You wish you could stay here forever.\n\nYou leave, a little disheartened.\n\n[[Inside]]
In the summer, you race dolphins and chase sharks.\n\nIn the winter, you suffer through colds and sore throats.\n\nThe swirled gem from the mantis shrimp allows you to change between your forms.\n\nYour parents believe you go to a camp for the summer. You just smile and kiss them goodbye every time the summer solistice starts.\n\n[[end]]
You hide the pink alien in your pocket, manuvering it ever so carefully into the space. Umbrella hoisted back above your head, you rush [[home|House]].
You plan on setting the creature inside. You don't want it to overflow\n\n[[Bathroom]]
"You were expecting me?"\n\n"Yes. You saved me today. I owe you a tremendous debt."\n\n"You... the... pink thing?"\n\n"Yes. I'm not an alien, like you kept saying I was. I'm an axolotl."\n\nThat doesn't help anymore. They just smile at you, bowing their head.\n\n"Whatever you desire will be yours."\n\nWhatever you desire. You swallow. What a big [[decision|Choose]].
It's modest sized, if castles could ever be modest.\n\nThe outside is textured like coral and you can see the fish swim in and out of the holes inside of it. Some are dressed, which seems funny to you. You can make out a clown fish that seems to have a shrimp for a tie.\n\nOutside the entrance are two pufferfish, inflated. You assume they are the guards with the menacing spikes.\n\n[[Palace]]
Your bed sits entirely on the floor. No boxspring, no frame, just a mattress on the wood. It gets cold, sure, but you've got plenty of blankets. They cover your entire bed and in one corner, they're all bunched up to act as half pillows, half as blankets.\n\n[[bedroom]]
The mantis shrimp is standing behind a stall covered in what appears to be gemstones. They smile at you, eyes blinking out of sync, and gesture with their legs at the stones.\n\n"Interested? They're to bring good luck!"\n\n"I think I do alright."\n\n"Oh! Come now, no charge. Lovely darlin' like yourself, you could always use a little extra."\n\nYou frown for a moment before deciding the lovely colored shrimp is right. A little extra lucky never hurt anyone.\n\nYou pick out a swirly purple gem and pocket it.\n\nThe shrimp winks at you and you leave their stall\n\n[[Inside]]
They're dressed in pure white's, decorated with navy trims. Like a sailor's outfit.\n\nThe shorts are puffy and cinch at their knees.\n\nThe shirt buttons down one side and gold chains cover the buttons. \n\nOver one shoulder sits a cape, scaled instead of furred. It sits over their chest and just touches the bottom of the steps.\n\nTheir hair is just gently floating in the water and not at the same time, almost bubbled around their head like a halo. They have no ears, but instead, have long pink stalks. Something tells you they're gills.\n\nThey're so lovely.\n\n[[Prince]]
You decide to continue your homework. You'd rather face your mothers lectures for housing a strange alien creature then not doing your homework.\n\nEnglish and social studies take another hour together. Now, you just have an hour to yourself.\n\nYourself and the strange alien [[creature|Creature2]].
You have a mother and a father and no siblings. Your mother is kind but has hawkish eyes. She notices scuffs on your shoes from miles away. She's the one you're worried about here.\n\nYour father is more lax. In fact, he's probably in his home office drawing or taking conference calls. He smiles when he sees your out of place hair, your muddy shoes.\n\nHe would probably delight in seeing this weird alien creature you've picked up. Your mother? Not so much.\n\n[[road|Street]]
You're dreaming.\n\nAt least, you hope so. You don't think your mother would approve of her cottage in the [[ocean|Sea]].\n\nYou move fluidly through the water, letting your toes touch the coral beneath you before leaping forward again to land elsewhere to do it again.\n\nYou're not sure where you're going, but your body does. Wherever it is, it's [[important|Palace]].
You continue half hopping, half floating to your destination. Soon, it comes into view.\n\nA [[castle|CastleDesc]].\n\nYour heart leaps and you know you belong here.\n\nYou make your way towards the entrance, greeted by two inflated pufferfish. They smile at you, tip their bodies towards you as if tipping a cap, and let you [[in|Inside]].
You live in a three bedroom home with your parents. It was built to look like a cottage in the city. It just looks like a pin cushion to you; squat, circular, and full of weird odds and ends. The kids at school call it a [[witch's hut|Hut]].\n\nThe front door is arched with a circular shaped [[stained glass|Glass]] at the top.\n\nYou can see your mother shuffling in the [[kitchen|Kitchen]].\n\nYou can go through the [[front door|Front]] or try the [[back|Back]].
The back is closer to the stairs, and thus closer to your room. The back door, like the front, is also locked but you also have the key for it. The bad part is the path around to the back is muddy and slightly flooded from the rain water.\n\nYou could chance tracking in this mess and have your mother angry with you, but it would get you quickly upstairs.\n\nYou chance the potential scolding later and unlock the [[back door|BackRoute]]
You got them last Christmas. They're wellies, pink and decorated in gold koi fish. Right now, the soles are muddy from jumping in puddles at school.\n\n[[road|Street]]
It doesn't wake up, it doesn't move, it just lays there.\n\nYou're suddenly overwhelmed by how upset you are. You really thought you could fix this alien, but now it's a lost cause.\n\nYou wipe an eye, set your jaw, and sit down on your bed to do your homework. Your mother had [[asked|Homework]] you to do it, anyways.
It's [[small|Description]]\n\nYou splash your [[rain boots|Boots]] as if to scare it. It doesn't move.\n\nYou pull your slicker's hood up, drop your umbrella to the ground, and pick it up.\n\nYour [[parents|MotherFather]] are home. You'll have to [[sneak|Sneaksneak]] it in.
Your nightstand is rectangular and taller then your bed. On it sits a photo of you and your parents from last summer, standing in front of a sparkling lake. There's various pens and pencils littering the top, and before you grabbed it, it housed your favorite cup. You take it to bed every night, filled to the brim with water, and when you wake up the water is alway's gone.\n\nYou never rememeber getting up to drink it all.\n\n[[bedroom]]
Your legs are there, and suddenly they're not.\n\nYou're still wearing your shirt. That's funny. You pull it off like it's nothing and hear the clatter of a stone. You reach down, turning in circles a few times before you steady yourself and grab the stone from the mantis shrimp earlier.\n\nKnowing just what to do, you kiss it and close your eyes, holding it tight in your hands. You let go of the gemstone and it floats eye level with you before starting a slow, lazy swim towards your parents home.\n\nThey'll understand. You love them.\n\n[[end]]
The water is so blue, like food coloring, and so clear. You can see everything. The fish are tropical, blended together in various colors. In the distance, you can make out a shark.\n\nIt's beautiful here. You never want to leave.\n\n[[Dream]]
You half swim, half walk over towards the stalls. Many fish are here, standing in front of stalls and selling their wares. Behind one stall is a lobster duo, claws snapping at fish who try to get too close to the food laid out before them.\n\n"Darlin'"\n\nYou turn your head and see a mantis shrimp waving you over.\n\nWithout hesitation, you move towards their [[stall|Shrimp]].
bee
Standing on the grand staircase is [[royalty|PrinceClothes]].\n\nYou struggle not to gasp and try to understand why you feel so connected with them. They descend the staircase, holding their cape out as to not step on it, and they smile at you.\n\n"You've come. I'm so glad."\n\nThey speak soft and light.\n\nYou feel your heart [[leap|Convo]].