• Saya walked out of the summer home that her family went to every winter. She didn’t know why her parents made her and her brother, Riley, do weird things like this. As she walked around, the cold assaulted her senses, making her shiver even though she had three jackets, two long sleeve shirts, two pairs of pants, four thick socks, and boots on. The smell of pumpkin pie became fainter as she wandered farther from the house. The smell of pine replacing it and the homey smell she was so used to when they came to this cabin. Saya made her way to the clearing she always went to, to forget her problems and just relax. She looked around the clearing where she could see squirrels and owls and hawks resting in whatever part of the tree they could. Saya started getting a little bit warmer as the sun shone on this clearing to make it sparkle and shine on the snow, making it even more beautiful. She sat against a tree and slowly dozed off, letting the wind and the soft chirping of birds and the scurrying of tiny animals trying to find food in this cold lullaby her.

    “-ya? Saya? Where are you, Saya?” Riley called out, walking slowly, cautiously around trees in search of his sister. He called out once more after getting no response.
    Saya stretched her arms and legs out and groaned as she grew more aware of her surroundings once more. “Hnn... I’m over here, Ri.”
    Riley walked over to his sister and said, “Mom wanted me to ask you if you’d go to the lake and go fishing with me. Will you?”
    “Do you really expect there to be fish in the lake at this time of winter?”
    “Well, you never know. There could be some type of fish that can only live in the cold. Like the Gollipod.”
    “That’s just a legend and you know it.”
    Riley thought a moment before he spoke. “I believe there really could be one out there. And this would be the type of weather it would be in. Will you please go with me and look even if it is just a story? Please? I’ll do anything you want to do next time. Come—”
    “Fine, fine. I’ll go, but you will owe me, ya little brat.” Saya said, smiling at her brother.
    “Okay, let’s go.” Riley said, helping her up and dragged her towards Lake Metabo.

    When they were at the lake, Riley and Saya went their hands and knees, their hands submerged and searching for any type of creature, but probably were scaring them away. There was a ripple in the middle of the two like a fish was swimming away.
    “This is not an effective way to fish or look for something. Don’t you have a—” A pearl blue hand popped out of the water and grabbed Riley by the arm and began tugging him, trying to pull him into the cold lake.
    “Riley.” Saya exclaimed and rushed over to him, capturing him by his legs and pulling him back.
    Another blue hand latched onto Riley’s arm. The creature pulled harder, off-balancing Saya, making her let go and fall forward into the icy lake. She saw a blue smaller-than-average human-looking fish-type creature pulling her brother farther down into the lake.
    She opened her mouth to breathe in, ready to yell her brother’s name. Saya immediately brought her head above the water, coughing and sputtering.
    When she felt like she could breathe properly again without hacking, she dived back into the water after she peeled off her boots, socks, and clothes, leaving one thin layer on her. She shivered once before quickly becoming numb from the cold and kicked her feet so she could propel her way further into the darkness.
    ~
    Riley struggled to try and get away from the blue creature as they swam even further into the blackness and as he ran out of oxygen.
    ~
    Cal dragged the human lower into the lake, where her people lived.
    Boy, am I going to show them that the human creatures are still alive. I’m almost surprised myself that they still exist. And that it was extremely easy to catch. Cal’s mind kept going on in a tirade about homo-sapiens. She looked back when, what she assumed was a child, stopped trying to get away. It had stopped moving completely.
    Uh-oh... I bet that’s not a good thing. She stopped and looked closer. The child’s mouth was slightly open and its eyes were closed. Crap... Cal summoned an air bubble-like thing and put it over the human’s mouth area. Hopefully that’ll be enough to last him.
    Wait, him? Why did I call it, ‘him’? It looks nothing like our males. Our males, even the young ones, are more powerful than this human child. Though, that may be the reason why—because it’s another species different from our own. Fine. It will be a male.
    Cal noticed that the newly discovered male was making weird noises and heaving motions. He was spitting out water that went through the air bubble to join the rest of the water surrounding them. Cal frowned. The motion was similar to when they got too much air in their systems, but when they got back in the water, they never spat out the air. Or do we? The air just disappears when we cough it out. Hm, that’s weird. She thought as she continued to pull him down into her world.
    ~
    Saya kept swimming further down into the dark blue. She still had not seen a glimpse of her brother throughout her thirty minutes of searching. Every few minutes, she had to go back to the surface to get some more air, but she felt her situation was hopeless because she kept travelling less and less farther underwater for she couldn’t hold her breath as long each time she went under. When she came back to the surface this time, she had just about given up on being able to find her brother when she saw scuba gear just lying at the bank of the lake.
    What the hell...? How did that stuff get here? It wasn’t there the last time I came up. Ah, whatever. I’m going after it. It’s going to help immensely with finding Riley and the damned creature that took him. Saya swam toward the bank where the gear just sat. She shivered violently and replaced the thin layer that was on her with another set of lightly layered clothes before she started putting on the gear. Even though the body suit was just a tad too loose, she became very warm and soon her shivering ceased. She put the two tanks on her back and put the mask attached to them on. Saya kept the mouth piece off until she was chest-deep in the water.
    When she had it on properly, she dived once more into the lake, following the same path she had been for approximately an hour.

    Eventually, Saya came to a wall of seaweed that she would have ignored, except for the fact that it was too barrier-like. Saya put her hand on the seaweed, but it seemed to push her hand to the side, resisting her touch. She frowned as this happened. How was she supposed to get through this? There didn’t seem to be a way around it and when she tried to push her hand over the seaweed, it forced her hand to go side-ways. The next thing she did was search the bottom. When she didn’t feel anything loose immediately, she went to her right and kept investigating like this until her hand landed on a rock. She tried picking it up, but it didn’t move. Her brows furrowed and she pushed down on it, expecting nothing to happen. So when it shifted downward and a grating sound was made, she jumped back, startled. After she gathered herself, Saya leaned forward and saw a cave-like opening underground. It looked very ominous as she inched closer to it.
    If it’s the only way around this seaweed, I’ll take it. She gulped as she looked into the black emptiness.
    Well, here I go...
    ~
    Cal dragged the still unconscious human to her father who was sitting in his throne.
    “Papa, look. I caught a human. They still exist.” Cal exclaimed to her father, putting the boy next to her.
    Her father’s brow rose. “Why did you bring it here, my child?”
    “To show you and everyone else that humans are not just a legend or a made up story. They’re really alive.” Cal said, enthused.
    Her father shook his head. “You had to bring him here?”
    Before she could answer, the boy woke with a start.
    “Hey, Saya, I just had the weirdest dr—” he looked around him and his eyes widened. “That wasn’t a dream,” he whispered.
    “Father. He has woken. Oh, can we keep him? Share him with our people?”
    “Daughter, it is a living thing, how can we keep it? It needs air and food that we do not have.” He turned to Riley. “Child, what is your name?”
    “M-my name is Riley, sir.”
    “Such an unusual name, Riley. What is your sex? Are you truly a homo-sapien?"
    Riley gave a puzzled look before saying, “My gender is male and... yes, I am a human. What are you, if I may ask, sir?”
    “We are the race called Gollipods—” Riley’s eyes widened. “—and I am their king. My name is Guantor, please refer to me as my name, Riley of the humans.”
    “O-of course, Guantor. Must I stay here, though? My sister will be worried about me. Please, I must return to my family.”
    “But of course, young Riley. You will—”
    “Father.” Cal exclaimed. “Why can’t we keep him?”
    “Cal, he is a living being. I already told you why we can’t.”
    “Fine, can we at least call an assembly and show our people that humans exist?”
    “Ask the boy.”
    “Riley, please?”
    “Only if you let me show you to my family. Just my family. We’re living in a cabin not far from here, for a while. Then we’ll be going back home. Will you do it for me?”
    “I would, but I can’t leave the water for great lengths of time.”
    “And if I brought my family to the lake?”
    Cal thought a moment. “That could work. Father, can I?”
    Guantor looked as if he was going to tell her ‘no.’ She caught on to his facial expression and said,
    “I’ll be staying in the water, I swear Papa.”
    He sighed. “Okay. But you stay in the water and you will take your brother, Teonu, with you.”
    ~
    Saya’s eyes opened wide as she faced an underwater world. There were pearl blue and pearl green creatures swimming from place to place.
    A green creature came up to her. “Creature, what are you doing here?”
    “U-uh, I’m searching for my brother. He was taken here, I believe.”
    “I will take you to our castle, to our king, to see if we can find your brother.”
    Another green creature came up and the one in front of her saluted to the other one.
    “Teonu, milord, I was just about to take this strange creature to the castle to your father. To see if he could help find the creature’s brother.”
    “I’ll take it, then.” The first creature nodded and swam away.
    “I’m Teonu, son of Guantor. Who are you and what’s your sex?”
    “Um, I’m Saya and I’m a female.”
    “Ah, Saya, follow me to my father’s castle.”

    “Father.” Teonu called. “We have a visitor who is looking for their sibling. She was wandering if you would be able her.”
    Saya went into the same room where Teonu, his... father, another pearl blue crea—
    “You! You’re the one who took my brother.” She looked next to it. A figure was floating there.
    “Riley.” She exclaimed and swam forward to embrace her brother with a tight hug. “You’re safe. Oh, thank goodness. I was so worried.”
    “Saya.” Riley hugged her back.
    “So this is your worried sister, young Riley?” Guantor asked.
    “Yes, Guantor. Gollipods, this is my sister, Saya.”
    Cal went over and took her hand. “I’m Cal. Sorry for taking your brother. I was just ecstatic that I saw a human. It was an unbelievable opportunity.”
    “It’s, uh, okay. It’s just in my nature to be protective over my brother and I didn’t know where he was going or who you were.” Saya smiled. “So what’s going on here?”
    “My father,” Teonu said, now standing next to Guantor, “will be calling an assembly shortly to show our society that humans still exist. Then I will be following you and your brother with my sister to show your family that we live here.”
    Guantor went out to the balcony that overlooked the city.
    “Margie, ring the bell, please.” A blue creature passed the balcony and pushed a button. Riley and Saya couldn’t hear anything, but everyone in the room was more alert. Cal and Teonu went out onto the balcony, joining their father after Teonu motioned them to stay where they were.
    “Gollipods of all ages, I have brought you together to address an important thing. You all know the legend of humans that we all thought was just that—a story. But my daughter, here, went out of her way to find one and show us that they still exist. I will now show you the two humans that are here with us. Riley and Saya, siblings of the human world, please come join my family and show our people that you exist.”
    Saya and Riley moved as one to join the three Gollipods on the balcony. As soon as they were seen, Gollipods below began to chatter. Saya looked below her to see that there were some blue and green creatures holding...hands and some of these...couples had a little blue child and/or green child. She figured out that the pearl bluish Gollipods must be females and the green ones were males.
    How interesting... Saya thought as her gaze surveyed the rest of the crowd beneath.

    After about twenty minutes of the civilian Gollipods oo-ing and ah-ing and asking questions, Riley and Saya watched Cal and Teonu get ready to travel up to the ‘air world’ as the Gollipods called it.
    A few minutes later, they were headed toward the seaweed barrier. Teonu and Cal put their hands together and touched it. They pushed the humans out through it and then followed them upward.
    It was only two or three minutes later that Saya stopped moving, her hands on her throat. Her air tanks had just ran out of oxygen to give her. She thought for a moment that they should’ve warned her when she was running low. Maybe it did and I wasn’t paying attention. Oh, well, s**t. Her vision started fading.
    “Saya.” Riley exclaimed, rushing toward her.
    “Saya, if you can still here me,” Teonu started, “hold your breath.” He took the mouth piece out of her mouth and summoned the air-bubble and put it over her mouth.
    Saya immediately began gasping in the air, her lungs grateful that they finally had oxygen to fill them. Soon her breathing evened out and her eyes opened.
    She took a deep breath before saying, “Thank you, Teonu.”
    Her brother latched onto her, glad he didn’t lose his only sister.
    They began swimming up again and it wasn’t very long before everyone was at the surface. As soon as Saya and Riley broke the surface, the air-bubbles popped.
    “Stay here and we’ll be right back. We’ll call you so you know when you can surface. Kay?” Riley asked. When they saw them nod, they got out of the lake and Riley began to shiver. Saya stripped the two jackets and shirt off and replaced them with her now-dry jackets.
    “Let’s go and come back.”

    Approximately ten minutes later, they were back at the lake, wearing new, warm clothes.
    “Cal, Teonu. You can show yourselves.” The Gollipods poked their heads above the water, water-bubbles over their mouths.
    “Mom, Dad, these are Gollipods. Their names are Cal, the blue one, and Teonu, the green one. As it turned out, they exist and aren’t just stories made up.” The siblings’ parents’ mouths dropped open.

    Soon, they said their good-byes and see-you-laters and the human family was on their way home.
    Saya saw a glimpse of movement toward her clearing and walked toward it. When she was in the clearing, a lady was sitting on the rock.
    “Did you find what you were looking for?”

    Owari