Chapter Five

The nerves almost got the better of Amera as Eros' led her back to the palace. She'd given up on asking him who was training her a several miles ago, realising he wasn't going to tell her. The only hint he had given her was 'they're not like you'. She silently prayed that it wasn't Aphrodite, while the goddess usually remained calm and collected there had been an instance while she was living at the palace, where she had lost her temper. The east channel was still in the clean-up stage of its repair. The crabs frantically worked day and night fixing the motorway so that underwater traffic could flow smoothly again.

They ended up in a room on the north side of the palace, two guards standing on either side of the door, two had tails and were part of the palace's guard while two were standing on two legs, looking small in the doorway. Amera glanced nervously at the guards as she slipped past them into the room, she leaned back into Eros' hand that rested in the curve of her back, noticing a smooth rock in the centre of the room. She caught a moment from the corner of her eye and startled, quickly turning to see what it was, there was a flash of blonde hair as a woman brazenly tapped an open palm against her forehead. Immediately Amera fell limp, drifting to the sand, Eros barely having time to catch her as she fell.

The hair on his arms standing on edge, and his heart racing with adrenaline, he gently laid Amera down on the rock, making sure she was comfortable before he turned around to scold the woman who had forced his heart into his throat. He'd only half turned when he registered the hand flying at his face, but he couldn't duck in time and he too fell, his mind leaving his body.

Eros pried his eyes open, seeing the glow of the sun as it washed the treetops overhead in a bronzed light. 'What the hell, Athena!' Eros groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead where the heat of her palm still burned.

He stumbled to his feet, nausea rolling in his stomach as he looked around for Athena. He paused, recognising the temple that rose up on the mountain, tall, white, and statuesque, it was his home. He heard Athena drop to the ground, the leaves under her feet crackling as she landed. 'I'm not sorry,' she said stoutly, sparing no sympathy as he breathed through his teeth. 'It works best when the participant is least expecting it.'

Eros scoffed, lifting his eyes to glare at her, 'except I'm a god, and I didn't need your help to get here.' Taking one last deep breath he looked around. They were in Amera's head, in a world that Athena had created for the merchild, but as he saw how accurately the goddess had created their home on Mount Olympus he had to wonder if that was their best idea. His home never ceased to amaze him, so he had no idea how Amera would react to the astounding sights. 'You didn't want to start with something a little simpler?'

He set out in search of Amera, trying to find where she had landed in the grassy field. 'Where would the fun be in that?' Athena chuckled, watching him through slitted eyes as he paced around the field. 'Stop looking for her. You know it takes other's longer to get, we should be looking for Heracles.'

Eros froze, his breath halting in his lungs, and he slowly turned back to Athena. 'You brought Heracles?' he was convinced that he would leave, and if it hadn't been for Amera he would have, instead he resigned to looking around the field for a hulking man hiding in the shadows. 'I carried Megara's veil, and we all know how that ended.'

Athena rolled her eyes, speaking softly as she told him the truth. 'She didn't die because you held her veil. Her death is not your cross to bear.' She didn't let Eros stew on the thoughts as she waded through the grass, a spear in hand as she waved along the ground, searching for Heracles. 'You also carried Hera's veil, and, although she's a little angry that her husband has been gallivanting around with other women, she is still alive.'

Eros forgot about their conversation as Amera, and the rock she had been laid upon, shimmered into the field. He immediately stopped his search for Athena's brother and started trekking through the tall grass to get to Amera.

Amera's eyes fluttered open, but her eyes didn't have time to focus when they rolled back into her head, her stomach heaving. She felt warmer than usual and her head was pounding, but she chalked it up to be after effects of spending the afternoon in the sun.

She brought her hand to her head, clutching it between her fingers as she tried to open her eyes again. She peered up at the sky, wondering if she had accidently fallen asleep in the sun, and had only dreamt of Eros and the woman, but as her eyes started to drift over the skyline she noticed the trees. She sat up quickly, banging her tail against a rock, 'agh,' she groaned looking down to where her tail should have been. She shrieked loudly trying to push herself away from the two legs, only realising that they were attached to her when they followed her across the lounging rock. 'EROS!'

Eros who had started running over when she had screamed reached her side as she started to fall from the rock, catching her in his arms and holding her safely against his chest. 'Hey, I'm right here, it's okay.'

'I want to go home.' she whimpered, her hands tucked up against Eros' chest, her eyes squeezed shut. 'Just take me home.'

Eros threaded his fingers through Amera's hair, his thumbs massaging the sides of her skull. 'I won't let anything happen to you, Meri, I promise.' He nudged her back until she was safely on the centre of the rock, following her up onto it and bringing her into his arms. He rocked her back and forth for a while, waiting until her breathing evened out, humming a soft tune against her temple. 'You are safe, nothing here can hurt you. We're in your mind, Meri. You can leave any time, just give it a try.'

Amera finally looked up when boisterous laughter broke the silence of the empty field. Athena spun on her spot, spear flying from her hand in the direction of the laugh, it sliced through the air towards the line of trees. Amera thought it was going to hit a tree until a man stepped out and plucked the weapon from the air, grabbing it by the shaft of the spear. Athena's eyes lit up and she stalked towards the man, 'You've gotten better.'

Amera was astounded by the height between the pair. The woman wasn't short by human standards, her lithe body was at least six feet, but the man beside her shadowed her with his hulking figure. He would have been six foot seven and entirely made of muscle, he had his dark hair long, and everything about him seemed fierce, everything except the boyish smile that softened his face. 'Is that her?' he nodded towards Amera and the mer looked away quickly.

In the safety of Eros' arms, she looked down at her legs, she tried to tough them, but she could only feel the scales of her tail beneath her fingers. She looked at the ends of her feet, looking at her feet fingers wondering if they were meant to be as short as they were. 'Do you have these weird things on your feet as well?'

The sound of Eros' laugh vibrated through her body and she twisted to look at him through wide eyes. He pressed a quick kiss to her temple and nodded with a grin, 'they're called toes.'

Amera stared at them with new fascination, 'toes.'

Eros stepped down from the rock and held a hand out for her, and when she refused to take it he reached forward to tickle her, snatching her around the waist and hoisting her into the air. 'Come on, princess. You can't stay there forever.'

She wrapped her legs around his waist when he tried to place her on the grass, clutching at him desperately, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. 'The grass will hurt me.' Eros struggled to keep his face neutral, but Amera squealed when he tried to jolt her free and he couldn't stop laughing. 'Stop bubbling!'

The laughter fell from Eros lips and he was left breathless. His brow's furrowed with confusion as he looked at her carefully, 'excuse me?'

'Bubbling!' she bit back, a wash of confusion spreading over her face, 'except you do not bubble on land?' Eros thought Amera looked cute when she tilted her head, her face soft with curiosity. 'What do you call it, that sound you just made?'

Eros squinted at her, waiting for her to laugh and tell him she was joking, but she kept her eyes on him, waiting. He chuckled hesitantly, searching her face for any sign of mischief. 'Laughter?' Amera nodded her head, an excited spark in her eyes, as she tested the word by herself. 'Do you call it bubbles?'

Amera nodded animatedly, her eyes drifting away from him as she looked around at the world Athena had replicated. 'Yes, because when you laughter underwater there are bubbles.'

'When you laugh, baby.' Eros corrected, smiling at her small mistake. 'You don't use laughter then.' He wanted to hear her talk more, to distract her from fearing the grass, but he couldn't remember any words they'd come across that were different since their first day. 'What else is there?'

Amera looked back at Eros, squinting as she thought about it. 'Well, a bubble can also be a... um... when you breathe out?'

Eros snorted, raising his eyebrow in question and Amera mimicked the sound. 'That's called a sigh, baby.'

'You bubble when you are really angry, and really sad.'

'So, bubble is pretty versatile then?' Eros smiled, running his hand up and down her arm, trying to distract her even more. 'Alright then Bubbles, let's get a wriggle on.'

Amera's jaw dropped and she frowned at him, 'did you just call me Bubbles?'

'Yeah, it's versatile,' he teased, unwrapping her hand from around his neck. Fear shook her as she fought against him, clutching frantically at him. 'What's up, baby?'

'I'm scared.' she whispered, keeping her eyes skywards so she didn't have to look down at the grass, as a child she'd always been told tales about grass and how it cut up human skin, it was a widely believed rumour that every merchild heard as a fry. 'I do not have any feet protections like the humans do, Larina says that the green blades can cut my feet and slice off my toes.'

Eros's expression became serious as he caught her eyes with his. 'Has Larina ever been on land?' he already knew the answer, but he wanted Amera to understand the insignificance of Larina's word before she trusted him. When she shook her head, he smiled softly at her, 'that's right, she hasn't, but I have. It won't hurt you. I promise.'

'Really?'

Eros nodded, a small smile on his lips as he noticed the vulnerability in her voice, he knew that he couldn't tease her about her fears, not in that moment. 'Cross my heart.'

Amera kept her eyes squeezed shut as Eros helped her down, she appreciated that when she looked at him through slits he had a blank expression on his face. She knew that if he was right, the terrified look on her face was out of place, no one should have been worried, like she was, about stepping on grass.

One of her feet pressed into grass and she climbed back up Eros with a squeal. Slowly, with Eros' patience, she opened her eyes and peered down at the grass. Her breathing was shallow as she lowered her foot back down to the ground, a heavy sigh of relief filling her as she realised nothing had happened. 'See,' Eros pressed his forehead against hers intimately, making sure she was focused on him and not her fears when he said, 'you're fine.'

When she finally hand both feet firmly on the ground, Eros' arms still wrapped around her waist, she looked around the field in awe. She'd never seen trees so closely before, and she realised the green clouds on top were made of small individual leaves. There was a distant sound of running water and she strained her ears to hear which direction it was in. Finally, she looked up at the palace, it's beauty unable to be compared to her own home. It was white with golden roofs, the tips of the spires glittered in the sunlight, their tips made of diamonds. The palace covered the entire mountain top, much bigger the Nero Palati, and water cascaded down the sides of the mountain, Amera was so far away that it looked like ribbons in the wind.

An owl hooted loudly nearby and it broke Amera's gaze with the palace. She looked over at the unfamiliar creature where it was perched on the branch of an olive tree. Athena was walking towards it, her spear in hand. As she got closer Amera realised the goddess wasn't heading towards the bird, but rather the tree itself. The olive three's think, gnarled, trunk started to untwist itself as Athena neared, shaking its branches with a groan as it opened to display a cache of weapons.

Amera watched on in awe. 'Where are we?'

Eros rested his head in the curve of her neck, watching Amera from the corner of her eye as she soaked it all in. 'Don't get to excited,' he whispered into her ear, 'that doesn't happen in the real world.'

Athena placed her spear into the tree, muttering under her breath as she turned away from it. The tree creaked as it started to twist in on itself again, hiding away Athena's weapons. Before it had finished twisting Athena had marched over to Amera and Eros, a passive look on her face. 'So, you're the girl who's going so save the Merpeople.'

'Eros let Amera go, moving to her side as he introduced the two women. 'Amera, this is Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, crafts and warfare,' he waited for them to size each other up, letting Amera come to her own conclusions. When she was done he pointed over to the man. 'Heracles, Athena's brother.'

'Half-brother.' Heracles chimed, he twirled a twig from the olive tree between his fingers as he walked towards the group. 'But you're more like my mother.'

'Great,' Athena grit through her teeth sarcastically, 'I'm like the woman who left you in the forest for Hera to find.'

Hercules chuckled, nudging Athena with his shoulder. He didn't understand his own strength and she stumbled forward under the force. 'Don't be silly.'

Athena looked at the girl as Eros held her up, 'I think for today, weshould focus on walking. Most seventeen-year olds can walk.'