Secrets of the Past- Year 1 Read online

  Secrets of the Past

  Ocean Academy: Year 1

  Sarah Elizabeth

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  In this free novella, you’ll discover hidden secrets about one of the beloved side characters from this book.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue

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  A Word From Sarah

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Coral sat in the trenches just outside of the city where all manner of fish, dolphins, and other underwater creatures loved to play. This was somewhat of a playground for them. It was far enough away from the city that they didn’t get skittish. Coral often came here to get away from the hustle and bustle of ocean life. She felt at peace here. Alone with the sea animals.

  Of course, it didn’t hurt that out here, she never got picked on. Out here she could be herself and feel like she was at one with the ocean.

  She spoke softly to a group of crabs playing in the crusty ocean floor beside her—her eyes adjusting as silt billowed up around them. She used two of her eight tentacled legs to bat the cloudy water away so that she could enjoy the crabs’ revelry. They were scuttling back and forth trying to climb atop one another. Their version of king of the hill, she guessed.

  The crabs didn’t seem to mind Coral’s presence, strange as she must appear to them. Regular sea life usually avoided the Oceanids. This was likely the first time these crabs had been this close to an Octopod like Coral. She surmised the only reason they stayed was because she had a silver-tongue—one of the Oceanid gifts. It allowed her to communicate with sea life. Otherwise, seeing a half-human, half-octopus would surely frighten the crabs away. By using her gift, she could make the crabs feel comfortable enough to play around her.

  She fixated on the crabs playing in the muddy water, imagining what it would feel like to be so carefree. Suddenly, something hard slammed into Coral, knocking her completely off balance. She fell to the ocean floor and felt something pin her down. Coral craned her neck to see what had crashed into her. She waved her hands in the water, trying to grip the object that held her to the floor. She gasped. It was an Adaro. Fierce, brutal, and full of muscles.

  What was an Adaro doing here in the trenches? she thought. Dazed by the attack, Coral thrashed her tentacles around trying to grab onto any part of the Adaro to throw him off her. Although some of her tentacles smashed into the Adaro’s shark-like body, his dark gray skin was so slick that she had trouble gripping onto him, even with the powerful suckers that lined her tentacles.

  The Adaro gripped her flailing tentacles with his powerful clawed hands and pinned them to the ground. He thrashed his tail violently to maintain the downward pressure he needed to keep Coral pinned to the ground. The effort was kicking up clouds of dust and clumps of mud from the ocean floor, causing Coral to choke as she struggled to free herself from the fiend.

  Coral continued her attempts to shove the Adaro away, but she wasn’t gaining any traction. He was powerful and he had caught her off guard. The Adaro held her fast. She didn’t see any way of escaping. She couldn’t get free and was confused as to why she had been attacked in the first place. The Adaro hadn’t hurt her—not really. So, what was he after?

  While she struggled, another Adaro swam up to her and grabbed ahold of Coral’s satchel. His presence startled Coral. She quickly looked over at him and caught a glimpse of his face through the now-murky water. He was surprisingly handsome, for an Adaro. It was strange that of all the Oceanids, the Adaro looked the least like humans, especially from the waist up. His face was human-like, but it retained much of the primal features of the sharks. His face came to a point at the nose, he had a sharp chin, and his eyes sunk deep into their sockets. The back of his head was elongated but rounded at the base. Typical of the Adaro, he did not have any hair.

  This second attacker tugged at her satchel taking the slack out of the strap. He raised his burly arm and swiped at the strap with his sharp claws. The strap ripped in two. The second Adaro shrieked in triumph and quickly darted away, satchel in hand. Once the theft was complete, the Adaro that had Coral pinned sped off behind the other, laughing menacingly.

  Coral rose off the ground, rubbing her bruised arms and tentacles.

  Seriously? Coral thought. This was the exact reason she came to the trenches—to get away from the prejudices that seemed to plague her everyday life.

  Earlier that morning, she had a similarly unpleasant encounter with some Merfolk. True, there was no physical violence involved, but the abuse was still real. Octopods were at the bottom of the social ladder, and it seemed like every Oceanid, from the Sea Nymphs to the Merfolk to the Adaro, was determined to remind her of it.

  Coral had woken up early that morning to open the salon that she and her mom ran together. It turned out to be a crazy-busy morning. Coral couldn’t remember the last time they’d had that many customers in the salon. It seemed that everyone in the ocean wanted to get primped and dolled-up today.

  Her first customer of the day was a disgusting Merman who wanted his beard cleaned and trimmed. She got him in the barber chair and started working. She immediately had her hands full shampooing the barnacle-filled beard of this particularly nasty Merman. His dirty beard mirrored how dirty the rest of him was. Slime covered the scales on his long tail all the way down to the large fluke. Brown muddy splotches covered his chest. Most Mermen who got this dirty worked near the surface of the water cleaning up the trash and other filth that leaked its way into the ocean. Everyone knew that it was caused by the humans, but no one seemed to mind. Humans were still revered down here in the ocean.

  Coral had never seen a human or even been in shallow water. She spent all her days deep down in the belly of Glimmerfalls, which was built into the ocean floor.

  As Coral worked on the man’s beard, her attention was drawn to several young Mermaids bantering near the salon’s entrance.

  “I need to stand out today. I think I am going to dye my hair blond,” one of the Mermaids said. Her current hair color was a deep shade of green. It would be difficult to change that much green to blond, Coral thought.

  “That’s pretty gutsy. Only Nymphs have naturally blond hair,” her companion said in return. “You aren’t worried about offending the Nymph King?”

  “That’s a myth. There are other Oceanids who have blond hair. Besides, how else am I going to get selected? I’m not very magically gifted.”


  “That seems risky to me. I intend to have my hair slicked back and woven with flowers and sea urchins. That’s sure to help me get noticed,” the second Mermaid said. This Mermaid’s hair was vibrant green and wavy. Her skin was highlighted with streaks of orange and yellow, like the florescent stripes Coral had sometimes seen in different tropical fish.

  “Oh, you’d look so pretty with sea urchins in your hair. I can’t wait to see it!” the first one squealed. “But honestly, you don’t need to stand out with your looks. You’re already so talented at bending water; I am sure they’ll pick you to go to the Academy.”

  At the mention of the Academy, Coral twisted her hand inside the Merman’s beard and it got caught in some major tangles.

  “Mom! Can you hand me some detangler? My hands are stuck here.”

  “Sorry honey,” Cassandra shouted from across the room. “I’m in the middle of a head massage. Just use your tentacles.”

  Coral hated using her tentacles to grab things. Sure, it was super convenient, and because she had eight tentacles, she could multi-task just about anything. But it wasn’t very human-like. And if there was one rule of the ocean that everyone lived by, it was to be as human as you could be. After all, the Nymphs who ruled the ocean were practically human themselves. All of them had two legs, fair skin, and long shimmering hair.

  Her mom didn’t pay attention to those kinds of things, however. She was content being who she was. Just an Octopod. Coral admired it. She had even grown proud of her heritage. She just wished she could prove it to the world—that Octopods deserved as much respect as everyone else.

  Refusing to resort to using her tentacles, Coral tried yanking one of her hands free of the Merman’s fussy beard. She got her hand free, but she also brought a chunk of dirty black hair with it. The Merman screeched in pain and sat upright, fuming at Coral.

  “You blasted Octo! Don’t you have any finesse?”

  “Cool it. It was an accident.”

  The Merman was still furious. “This is what I get for mingling with the lower classes. I knew it was a mistake coming here.”

  The other patrons in the salon started to stare. Coral’s mom hissed at her. “You are making a scene. Apologize. Now!”

  Coral rolled her eyes and looked at the Merman. She cocked her head to one side and said, “Sorry. My mistake.” The Merman wasn’t buying it.

  He quipped back. “That’s no way to talk to your superior. You Octos will never learn your place.”

  Coral reached behind her with one of her tentacles and grabbed the detangler. She tossed it to another tentacle off to the Merman’s right. She waved the bottle in the water above the man’s head in a threatening manner. She eyed him disdainfully.

  “Do you want me to finish the treatment or not? I’ve got other customers waiting.”

  Before Coral realized it, Cassandra was by her side.

  “Watch your tongue,” she said privately to Coral.

  “I am really sorry, sir. Sometimes my assistant doesn’t know her own strength. I will comp your treatment today and allow me to throw in a massage as well.”

  The offer seemed to satisfy the grumpy Merman because he settled back down in the chair. Cassandra gently pushed Coral out of the way, grabbed the detangler out of her tentacle and began applying it into the man’s beard. While she combed through his beard, Cassandra used her tentacles to massage the man’s back and head. The sound of the suckers gripping and releasing the man’s back made Coral sick.

  She hated that the upper classes treated her people this way.

  Cassandra shot Coral an annoyed glance. Her mom knew what she was thinking. Coral could tell just by the look in her eye. Cassandra thrust her head towards the long line of customers beckoning Coral to attend to them.

  “I don’t have time for one of your moods today, Coral. Not when we are so busy.”

  “But Mom….”

  Cassandra interrupted her. “Go see to the next customer. And be sure to be extra careful this time.”

  Coral huffed as she swam over to the other Merfolk waiting at the front of the shop.

  “Next customer please,” Coral said to the group.

  A slim busty Mermaid lurched forward towards Coral, eyeing her from head to tentacles as she approached. Coral could feel the judgment oozing off of this woman. Coral’s blood immediately started to boil, but she looked back at her mom and bit her tongue.

  “Follow me please,” Coral said demurely.

  The Mermaid followed Coral as she glided over to another salon chair.

  “Please have a seat.”

  The Mermaid fluttered gracefully into the chair and settled down. Her hair floated in a bunch just above her head. It was as green as seaweed and just as knobby.

  “I want you to smooth my hair out and give it an extra shine. I need to look perfect for the selection ceremony today.”

  At the mention of the selection ceremony, Coral recalled that the other Mermaids mentioned the Academy. No wonder they had such a large crowd in today. Coral had forgotten all about Selection Day. Although, why would she remember? It only occurred every four years and Octopods never got invited to attend the selection ceremony. Even if they were invited, Octopods were never chosen to attend the Ocean Academy.

  Cutting her thoughts short, she said to her customer, “That’s no problem. I’ll get started right away.”

  Coral set to work beautifying the Mermaid’s hair. She grabbed two bulging sea sponges from her workstation and squeezed them onto the Mermaid’s hair. Silicone spurted from the sea sponges into the green knotted hair. Coral used her tentacles to put the sponges back while she used her hands to knead the silicone through the hair. As she worked, the hair became less clumpy. Coral grabbed a comb from her station and began combing through the hair. With each stroke, the hair became more luscious and shinier. The silicone was doing its job.

  Coral twirled the woman’s hair into a spiral rising high above her head and outward away from her back. The look was striking. Coral was impressed with herself. She always did have an eye for the dramatic.

  “How’s that, ma’am?”

  The Mermaid looked over the hairdo and actually looked pleased. Coral saw a smile spread onto her lips. However, the Mermaid quickly erased any sign of satisfaction and merely shrugged her shoulders.

  “If that’s the best you can do.”

  Coral could slap the woman.

  The Mermaid rose and swam towards the entry of the salon. She waved to one of her companions, an Adaro. The Adaro swam up to Coral, dropped a few small white pearls into Coral’s outstretched hand, and gestured back to the Mermaid.

  “My lady gives her compliments.”

  “Really? It looks to me like you are giving her compliments.”

  The Adaro sneered and swam away, clearly unimpressed with Coral’s attitude. Coral couldn’t help herself. Mermaids. So pretentious.

  Cassandra and Coral worked tirelessly throughout the morning to give updos to dozens of Merfolk. Not surprisingly, no Nymphs visited their shop today. They rarely came to visit the far reaches of the city anymore.

  Just about an hour before the selection ceremony was to begin, the salon was empty.

  Cassandra slowly made her way over to Coral, cleaning up the shop with her tentacles as she went. When she approached Coral, she embraced her and tucked some of Coral’s hair behind her ears. Coral’s pink earring shimmered in the water’s light.

  “Why do you let them bother you so much?” her mother asked.

  “I don’t know. I just can’t stand being treated like we are inferior to them.”

  “Mermaids have always been that way. You just have to learn to ignore them.”

  “It isn’t just the Mermaids mom. The Nymphs and the Adaro do it too. It feels like the whole ocean hates us.”

  “I know it seems that way to you. But don’t forget what the first Nymph King decreed.”

  “Ya, ya. Every creature of the ocean has greatness inside of them. No one be
lieves that anymore.”

  “No one?” Cassandra gave Coral a wink.

  “Well. Almost no one.”

  Cassandra hugged Coral tightly and Coral let out a little giggle.

  “If the first Nymph King didn’t believe that, he wouldn’t have granted humanity to all the other races.”

  “Let’s not get into a history lesson, Mom. I don’t think I have the energy.”

  “Very well,” Cassandra said. She turned around and glanced over her empty salon. “Well, what should we do with the rest of our day? I’m guessing everyone will be at the selection ceremony till late tonight. So, we can do whatever we want!”

  Coral was excited. She hardly ever got to spend alone time with her mom outside of the salon. If they had the whole afternoon together, she wanted to make this a good outing. Coral thought for a moment.

  “We could always go swim in the kelp fields.”

  “The kelp fields? No thank you.”

  “OK. OK. Touchy,” said Coral. “Well, how about we go visit the sea life down in the trenches. There’s always loads of fish, some funny eels and sneaky stingrays swimming about down there. You know how much I love listening to them.”

  “Says the one with the silver-tongue.”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t talk to animals. Besides, just because you can’t understand what they are saying doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of them.”

  “Who says I am afraid? Besides, you got that ability from your father, not me.”