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Stella smiled as she heard Antheona wish her a good night. It sounded so genuine. So happy. So fully of life. So human. It was probably one of the most human things she has heard in her time out here. Stella went to sleep happily, with the lapping waves slowly lulling her to sleep. When she slept at sea, she always had sea based dreams. This one, she was a jelly fish. It was odd, yes, but it was also cool.

The feeling didn't last long. She awoke a few hours later, in the dead of morning, with sweat just pouring over her body. She quite literally slipped from the sleeping bag, and looked out into the sea. It was beautiful, yes, but it was also so unforgivingly hot. This was great! It meant that the night would be cold, and she could do something she loved to do.

Stella walked over, and took one of the bigger buckets- the kind you used to wash large dogs, and climbed out of the window. She threw the bucket out, and it sailed in one spot on the water. It was far from the window, so Stella wouldn't hit it. She smiled deviously, and cannonballed into the water. Oh, that was refreshing. It woke her up, and made her alert. She poked her head from the water, and chuckled to herself. She was so childish, how did she ever get a job as a scientist?

Stella pushed the bucket over to the other building, and she climbed onto the platform, and soon jumped away. It was so hot! Stella dipped the bucket in the water, and soon poured it on the hot surface. That was better. Stella soon submerged the entire bucket in the water, and pulled it onto the roof. She would have a hot bath tonight!
 
Antheona decided to spend the night a little away from the others. That wasn't a cause for suspicion, most of them tried to do that most of the time; safe as it was to be together in case of danger, it was also harder to sleep with at least a few of them constantly bickering over something. As long as one remained in the cave, one was safe enough.
The cave was of volcanic origin, with round chambers formed by gas bubbles, and every night before sleep there was some fighting for the little bubbles, the quietest spots. Of course they weren't quite so quiet when everyone tried to get there first. But Antheona was in luck, she got there just when one of the already occupied little bubbles suddenly became free, due to the inhabitant getting hungry. One doesn't get to claim one's sleeping place back after a quick supper - at least not unless one is very good friends with the person who took it. As for her very good friends, even from here she could hear them carrying on about a dolphin they were trying to tame. How does one even get so excited when one should already be asleep? She envied the rememberers who had their very own sleeping spot nobody could take from them - well, due mostly to the fact that they never left it.
Slowly everyone quieted down for the night, and she slept.

As usual, she awoke to being hungry. She left as quietly as she could, part of that was being courteous, part of it being cautious. If she turns out to be sleepy again after eating, she might be able to go back, unless she woke someone up and that someone notices the empty bubble. But since she felt well-rested enough for now, she considered herself courteous this time. And after a very satisfying hunt, it was time to visit the human again.
She still had questions left from last day. And she thought she would for a while. She might even - very, very carefully - ask the rememberers what information would help the most. After all, Stella was a very interesting development - not many merpeople could find a human to go back to several times. Of course it helped that she couldn't leave...
 
Stella managed to swim back to her little 'camp', and took down her tent. It would get so hot in there, and she learned that the hard way. Well, as soon as the tent was disarmed, she soon got an idea. She still had some things to record for her partners back at the base. It was early in the morning. She was alone. It was the perfect time! Stella walked over, and hoisted the heavy air tank over her shoulder, and put on her goggles. She could swim without flippers, because if Antheona saw her with those, she might laugh.

Stella walked over to a large, gaping hole that lead to the floor beneath her, and he jumped in. The hole was there because she took the firewood from there, and the level below her was only partly full of water, so she would fall safely. Stella dove under, and looked around. There was plantlife, along with fish living on the floor. She could even see some coral forming! Remarkable. Stella looked around the room, and soon found a few things that she could use to her advantage. A few magazines from earlier she could read, and a few books. Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis!

Oh, she loved that book. Stella swam back to the surface, and threw the books and papers onto the floor to dry. She would read them later. If they were still readable. Stella continued to dive deeper and deeper, investigating the plantlife and the fish life. She took mental notes, and sometimes reached out to touch the life- to see what it felt like, or if it would react.
 
Antheona reached the stone towers and was just going to go up and look around for Stella when she saw the unmistakably human form in the water. From this distance it was hard to see the details - the distance of clear sight was shorter in the thicker medium - but it had the long arms and legs of a human, and a lump on the back that had to be the big cylinders humans carried underwater, and without which they died so fast.
She didn't know if it was Stella or not, but whichever the case, it was relevant and she needed to get there. Either it was an enemy she would have to eliminate, or she would have to keep her company in case someone else comes around and thinks it's an enemy.
From closer up it indeed proved to be Stella, but she only became sure of that when she got in almost an arm's reach, and from the front too - something she shouldn't really do with humans, even if this one had no distance weapon that she could see. She wore different clothes than earlier, and her head was in the thing humans liked to put their heads in in the water, so she had to look closely. Her hair was the same though. Antheona never quite understood why humans so often had short hair. Didn't it grow any longer? Well, seals had even shorter fur, so that was possible. But then some of them had long hair, so who knows?
She couldn't speak the human way underwater, and Stella wouldn't understand her own language. So she just extended one of her hands upwards and waved it around the way she had heard humans did to greet each other, using her tail to counterbalance the movement so she wouldn't swim away. How cumbersome. Who but surfacers would use their limbs to speak...
 
Stella jumped slightly when she saw her coming up to her, but as soon as she saw that it was Antheona, she smiled through her mouth piece. She took it off for just a moment, to show that she was happy to see her. A few air bubbles flew away from her nose as she did so. Stella put her mouth piece back on, and she took a deep breath.

In reality, she really should be wearing her swimming fins and her protective suit. But it was hot. And what was she to protect from? Antheona was no threat- that she knew of, and the fish were kind. She was alright! Stella dove deeper into the water, and climbed through the windows of the housing complex/ More plantlife that she saw, and some fish even started to inhabit the place! Stella looked over the room, and saw a few more books. She picked one of them up, and inspected it.

Eh, it would be a good read. If it was still readable. Stella placed it under her arm, and continued to look around. Was Antheona with her?
 
Antheona followed along as Stella explored the stone tower. She saw the human collect a book - she knew what a book was, humans liked to look through them, it seemed they gathered information in them. It would be really useful to know how to use these, there were quite a fw of them left here and there. They would be a great source of knowledge, both safer than humans and more accessible as they didn't have to be killed and didn't leave. Water made books soft and frail however, and the few they tried to inspect fell apart in short order. They had thought of drying them out - that must work, since they came from the dry lands - but didn't really have access to permanently dry places, apart from the top floors of a few towers, but those were, of course, very difficult to enter. And they didn't know how to use them anyway, couldn't get to the knowledge stored in them.
So she was suddenly hopeful when she saw Stella with a book in her hand. She now had a human she was on speaking terms with, and the human had at least one book. Maybe she can teach her about that. Now that would be something even the rememberers would be proud of her for. She took a few of the books herself; if she is going to learn to use them, she may as well have more.
 
As Stella looked about the room, she saw a few floating containers. Soup? Vegetables? Fantastic! Stella took ahold of the cans, and looked at them. They still had some of their lables, which was good. She ended up finding two cans of vegetable soup, one with cream of mushroom, and then spinach. Stella turned to go up to the surface, to drop them off, and she saw that Antheona had some books of her own. Stella got her attention, and pointed to the surface. Stella let Antheona follow her, and Stella dropped off her belongings. She expected Antheona to do the same.

Stella came back down, and thought of her supper. She would use the two cans of vegetable soup later that night. Fish slowly cooked in vegetable soup... It made her hungry already! Stella looked around the rest of the building, and managed to find more books and cans, and even some clothes! The shirts were all men's shirts, and the jeans were a few sizes too big, obviously, but she would cut them.

A few hours later, and she was done with finding all of the things she needed, and the books she placed out into the sun were almost dry. Fantastic!
 
Antheona followed Stella back to the surface as the human took the last of her loot up the towers. Now that the books had been out of the water for a while, she found that they looked stronger and might not fall apart. Oh yes, if she decyphers them, the rememberers will be so, so pleased! She could also speak to Stella now, and ask her to help with that. She would, eventually, but there was something rather urgent to get out of the way, just in case. Her voice was almost reproachful as she spoke.
"It's not safe to swim alone. Don't do that. Wait for me. The rest of us don't know about you, they might kill you if they find you before I do."
 
Stella was already on the surface of the small room, and she was already drying off- or, trying too. She had put the tank in the corner, along with the other one, and she was now trying to get the rest of the water out of her short hair. She ran her hands through it, and shook it like crazy. It helped, it really did, but that also made her hair extremely spiky.

Stella listened intently as the other spoke, and she also nodded. " You're right, you're right. I just figured I was safe, because it is early. " Stella walked over to Antheona, and sat down. She took one of the books, The Metamorphosis, and separated the pages. One by one. So she could read it later on. " Thank you. "

After a few minutes, all of the wrinkled pages were turnable and she could read with ease.
 
Antheona waved her tail lazily under the floor as she watched Stella tinker with the book, propping herself up on the edge of the hole with her arms so she could see better. Then she threw herself forward, laying her torso across the floor, to free her hands, wiped most of the water off her palms on the floorboards, reached for one of the books she had brought and tried to imitate what Stella did. The aim was apparently to separate the white-and-black patterned leaves from each other. She knew from observing surfacers who read on the beach that these layers had to be looked at one by one. Now that they didn't try to crumble and swim apart, these layers showed regular lines of black shapes, and the occasional picture. The pictures were of surfacers doing any number of unidentifiable things, so the book would certainly contain new information. In some, humans even sat on top of strange animals with long legs. Antheona had trouble imagining that these animals don't fall over on a regular basis, running in the thin medium of air with such thin legs and even a human on them. Oh well, they must have their methods. She turned around to Stella.
"This is a book, I know that. You humans keep knowledge in books. How do I get it out?"
 
Stella looked at Antheona, and smiled. Did she want to read? Stella fell over on her stomach, and laid across from the mermaid. " You have to read these. How you read is you take the symbols on the pages, and look them over. Some of the symbols can be formed together to make words. " Stella said, as she pointed to the page. " Some words mean good things, and good people use them to describe other good people. Like... Magnificent, and extraordinary. " Stella said, happily. " But, some people- the mean people you should never be, use bad words to describe good people. Like, blasphemous and barbarous. " Stella finished.
 
"...Oh." Antheona was entirely unsure what this distinction between good and bad people had to do with reading. As far as she was concerned, good was something she liked or found useful and bad was anything she didn't like. So did what Stella say mean that in each case the people one liked also liked one another? That would be useful, but she doubted it. Or if not so, what was good and bad anyway? Did reading require one to have a definitive cathegory of good and bad? How does one even go about making those? And what was 'blasphemous' and 'extraordinary', anyway?

"I think the things I think are good are not the things you think are good," she said doubtfully. "How do I find out which symbol is which? Do I need to agree with the human who made the book about good and bad to do that?"
 
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Stella sighed. This was going to take a while. " Well, yes and no. Yes, because everyone who has ever wanted to read has to agree with the person who made the symbols and the person who made the words and meanings. No, because, if you ever don't agree with something in a book you can do two things. The first one is, you can simply close the book and not read it. Or, you can destroy the book. "

Stella sat up, and took her favorite book by Franz Kafka. " I'll read you a little from this book, and you have to tell me if you agree with it or not. " Stella flipped to the first page, and began to read out loud.

" As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes. " She said, and then paused to look at Antheona. " Well? " She asked her.
 
Antheona frowned a little as she tried to decide whether she agreed with that.
"How should I know?" she said finally. "I wasn't there, I don't know if it happened that way. I don't know the words 'segment' and 'bed quilt'. But this Gregor Samsa was probably human before, because the maker of the book was human, so if it doesn't say, Gregor Samsa was human too. Then he turned into an insect. If that can happen, I should tell that to everyone, because we didn't know that. I think he didn't do it on purpose, because he found himself that way and he was helpless. Does this happen often to humans?"
Oh yes, just as she had thought, this was already worth investigating. She only hoped that humans can't learn to do that on purpose, or a least not turn back, because there were very many insects and it would be bad if she had to continuously keep an eye on each one in case it turns back into a human. What's more, if this can happen, maybe it can afflict others than humans too. What if she herself or one of her friends turns into something else unexpectedly? That would be bad. Even worse if they turned into something that can't breathe underwater. Like a human. But at least it had to be rare, because she hadn't heard of anything of the sort. Or maybe it only happened under certain circumstances. She hoped the book would say what circumstances one has to avoid so as not to be transformed. That would be helpful.
 
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Stella thought for a moment. This could be it. This could be the thing that would give the humans an upper hand! She could tell her that, and she could... Spice it up a bit. She could say that, and maybe, say that it happens to almost everyone once in their lifetime! She could do that, and she would be in charge! But... Would that go against her word? Would that possibly break the code?

Stella sighed. " You see, the good thing about books is that some of the events in them have never happened- and possibly will never happen. Gregor isn't real. He isn't alive. He isn't a bug, or a human. Humans can't do this, and if they did- well, someone like me would have came up with a logical solution to it. " She said, taking the book and placing it down, and looked at Antheona. " But, some books don't do that. Some books give information- like the kind of books you want. Some books talk about places that were actual places, and people that actually existed. "

She probably did something terrible. But, it was for a friend.
 
"I see." Antheona thought for a little while. It was certainly a relief that humans couldn't turn into insects. However, it also made things slightly confusing. She was suddenly glad that they hadn't learnt how to use them earlier; they would have thoroughly deluded themselves. "So some books have made-up stories in them, and you read them because they are amusing, is that it? And other books have useful knowledge. How do I tell them apart? Is there a sign on them somewhere?" She picked up her book and looked for a picture of the long-legged animals, with humans on top of them. "For example, do these exist?"
Real or not, the pictures looked good. She was a little sorry that they could only be looked at in dry places; she would have liked to show them to the rememberers, but they would never come out here. Some of them couldn't. Well, if the pictures turn out to be useful, she would try to describe them.
 
Stella looked at the book, and smiled. " Those are real. On land, human's have PLENTY of different climates. Some parts of the land is really dry- called a desert, with little or no water there. But, some people still manage to live there. But, on other parts of land, there are lots and lots of trees and rain and water- a rainforest. They both have animals there, but the animals have adapted and learned how to live there. "

" I come from a part of the land that is... Well, fairly wet. It isn't a rainforest, but it isn't a desert. Human's call it Boston, but you might call it something else. " First grammar, then geography? This was going to be a long lesson. " You can tell that some things in books are real if they use pictures, or they are real things that happened. I'll show you what I mean later, when we collect some more books. "
 
Antheona shuddered. The thought of living on dry land with no water at all arose in her mind - she couldn't imagine the place, but she couldn't help imagining the way she would feel, her parched mouth, her cracking, peeling, desiccated skin. Having to gulp air to breathe, and still feeling like she would suffocate. She had seen merpeople who were thrown ashore by a spring tide and spent too long away from water. They didn't usually survive, though some did manage to come back to die at home. It was a gruesome sight. She sank back into the water momentarily to clear the thought away before coming back up again.
"That's horrible." That was all she could say. She was somehow glad that Stella lived in a place that was acceptably wet, for land at least. For at least a short while she didn't want to hear any more. She turned the conversation away as sharply as she could.
"I promised I would tell you about us too. I remember your guesses earlier, and I'll start with those. We have no gills, look." She pulled her hair back and tilted her head aside to show - true to her word - a lack of gills. "We breathe with our skin, it has to be wet. I don't know what "cannibalistic" is, so I don't know if I am one of those. But we do have lots of members in our tribe, that was correct. I don't know what a scribe is, but if it's the person who makes the books, we don't have any of those."
 
Stella was interested in what the other was saying. No scribe? Well, it was obvious. They couldn't read... But they way they took in water was really fascinating! And they did live in a tripe. Stella really couldn't help herself, but she just had to reach out and touch Antheona's forearm. Stella took her hand, and inspected the arm. She ran her fingers over the skin, and made some observations.

" Cannibalism is when one person from the same species eats another person from the species. It's... really a bad way to go out. I've always wanted to be buried at sea. It seems more natural. " She said, as she drew her hands towards herself and sat up. " How long are your life spans? " She asked. She was so interested, she really knew they were going to be there all day.
 
Antheona was so surprised when Stella touched her arm that she forgot to protest. But then, there was nothing to protest about, after all. It was all harmless inspection, and it didn't even feel bad. Warmer than her own skin, certainly. But that wasn't unpleasant.
"Life span is how long one can live, I assume?" She didn't know the expression, but that was what it sounded like. "I'm not sure how old we could live to be. Sharks and such usually eat the weak, or we get sick, or dry out sometimes... that's an awful death. And then, yes, if one of us dies and is not eaten, we eat him or her. That's our way of goodbye. We live on, and he helped. Or she." Then a thought struck her. Maybe she had an answer after all. "The... how would you say it? We call them something like 'the rememberers', I don't know what you would call them. They mostly live until they just die on their own, because they hardly do anything. They live, I think, for a hundred years, or some even a hundred and fifty. But they are usually weaker to begin with, so I'm not sure."
 
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