I can hear them, even now I can hear them.

Lila sat in her room, distractedly trying to write in her journal. Yet, the more she tried to concentrate, the louder the crashing of the waves outside her window became. Finally giving up, she sighed and closed her notebook. Nothing important happened tonight anyway, she thought.

Opening the doors to her balcony, she let in the sound of the waves crashing into the shore, distant but booming. She leaned on the railing, breathing deeply the salt air and letting the faint breeze play with her fiery curls. She watched through turbulent eyes as the moon shone down on the rooftops of the other houses, other people sleeping peacefully through the beautiful night. Lila stood there until the continuous call of the sea became too much to bear. Then she quickly changed clothes, switching her nightgown for a t-shirt and shorts, and crept softly past the room where her sister Bea lay, oblivious to the night and her sister's escapades.

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I can hear them, even now I can hear them.

Nyran hid under the waves, hoping that the calming undulations would sooth his nerves. Yet, even over the crashing of the serf, he could still hear the rustling of the sea grass, the roar of the car engines on the highway, the far-away shouts of laughter from inside lit-up houses.

Hauling himself up onto a sand bar a little way from the shore, he breathed deeply the salt air and let the sea breeze dry his dark locks. His light eyes drifted wistfully over the tops of the houses as he chose to focus on the stars rather than his longing. But, no matter how hard he stared into the galaxies above, he found himself stealing glances at the shore, looking from the corner of his eye at the gleaming white sand.

Soon, he couldn't bear the sight any longer. He dove into the water, pulling himself toward the shore with long, sure strokes, his longing overcoming his fear.

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Lila ran to the beach, pulling her hair out its knotted bun as she went. She was a sight - freckled legs flying, arms pumping in the warm night air, face flushed with exertion and excitement. Tonight was the night she would finally answer the call, the voice that had haunted her for weeks. As she reached the sand she hurriedly pulled off her tennis shoes, sinking her feet into the soft white sand. Then she was off again, running along the beach for the sheer joy of it, leaping and bounding over the stretch of sand kissed by the sea.

All at once, she was on the ground. She had tripped on something from the waves. The ocean had tricked her, called her down in loving whispers only to shame her.

She sat up with a wince of pain and gasped.

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Nyran reached for the sand, adrenaline coursing through him as he neared the forbidden land. He looked over his shoulder at the sea, cold, turbulent and unforgiving, a foil to the green life ahead of him. Then, squaring his shoulders, he pulled himself onto the sand so that he was no longer touching the water.

He had just taken an exuberant breath when he felt a pain in his ribs and something large fell over him.

He turned around with a wince of pain and gasped.

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Lila sat in the sand, too stunned to run away. In front of her was a beautiful boy, with dark brown hair and pale blue eyes. His skin, so pale that he looked as if he had never seen daylight, was nearly the same color as his silver-blue tail. She had tripped over an honest-to-goodness merman.

She regained the use of her legs and her voice at the same time. She crouched and opened her mouth to scream before a pale hand clamped down over her mouth.

"Please don't. I'll get in trouble."

The voice was soft and lilting. Lila looked up into those sky blue eyes, now tinged with alarm. She closed her mouth, tasting the salt and sand still on her lips from her fall and this strange boy's hand. Then she slowly lowered herself into a kneeling position, ready to run at the first sign of danger.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Nyran," he answered simply.

"Well, Nyran," she said, extending a hand. "I'm Lila."

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Nyran was speechless before the beautiful girl, her grey eyes brimming of life and her vibrant hair whipping in the wind. Slowly his fear thawed, and he began speaking. When the moon was low in the sky and the horizon was just beginning to lighten, he broached the topic that had so worried him at first.

"I'm sorry for treating you roughly," he began, not quite knowing how to start. "But you see, my kind has never been welcome with yours. My ancestors were captured and brought ashore in cages, with only a few left to the water. We made a rule, then, that no one was allowed to go near the beach.

Tonight I felt a calling, like the land was pulling me toward it. It wouldn't stop until I came, risky though it may be. Still, I'm sorry if I hurt you." He gestured to his tail, sheepishly.

"You're fine," she assured him, her mind working. After a minute of thinking, she said, "You know, tonight I felt that the sea was calling to me, that I couldn't sleep until I came to the shore. Maybe we were meant to meet tonight."

And as her ocean grey eyes met his subdued blue ones, they knew that this calling had brought them together.