Things have been exceptionally difficult for Marjan. She was facing an internal struggle each day. On one hand, she was supposed to look for her sister of whom she had zero progress so far and on the other, she was starting to have feelings for a human she barely knew and above all, she saved his life. She was nervously swimming around the reef talking to herself. "Your sister is in grave danger and you're here thinking about some human who doesn't even know you exist. Mother would be highly disappointed in you. It's been several moons now and I haven't even figured out where Sanho is. I should resume the search, yes." So she focused on finding her sister and got back to work.
She would ask the migratory shoals if they had seen a mermaid in any other region or not. But it's been almost a month since the last attack so it was extremely difficult for her to look for her now. And by now, most of them had forgotten that they had seen a mermaid or not. The reef's inhabitants we
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Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 19
It was a bright sunny day and the team was getting ready to go to the wedding. Zaid and Shehzad were wearing kurta shalwar and Nadia wore traditional clothes. The professor wore shalwar kameez with a coat on top and was waiting outside talking to the driver. Shehzad and Nadia were taking pictures with their phone while Zaid was playing Tetris on his phone. Professor came inside and talked to them, "So I just talked to the driver. The village is an hour long drive from the substation. The wedding festivities will start at around noon and will go on throughout the day. We'll get there at around 2 and leave at sunset. It might take a while until we'll be back home by midnight". '`Ok!", said Shehzad and Nadia. Zaid was busy beating his high score of 762. Shehzad smacked him on the back of his head. "Ow! Hey, what the- Oh hi Professor!", said Zaid massaging his neck. "Anyways", said the professor rolling his eyes, "We better hurry up if we have to get there on time." The team t
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 20
The fish and the corals started to hide in their homes. "Honey, you have to hide now! They're after you!", said flower pot. Marjan frightfully hid beneath the reefs. "Come out, come out wherever you are princess.", said one of the sirens. She was holding a spear head. "Come out and play. We're not gonna hurt you". "Yeah our leader wants to see you. She says that you'll be an excellent guest for her '', said another. They were approaching the place where Marjan was hiding. She was holding still. "Infidels! Filth! Get away from our homes!", Oldie shouted at the sirens. "Oh shut up you old twig!", snapped back the siren. "Don't you wanna meet your sister, princess? She's getting lonely with us", said one siren. "She's practically starving. She said she won't eat until she sees her baby sister". "Yeah the dungeons are a bit sad with just one mermaid in it" and then they all cackled loudly. "And don't try to use any of your fancy powers! We know all about them now. Thanks to Mi
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 21
The road was dark, lit up by the headlights of the cars passing by. They reached the coastal highway in about an hour and headed towards the city. It was the night of the full moon and the light shone brightly over the sea. Shehzad fell asleep in the car and Nadia was having fun taking his pictures.Suddenly the car got bumpy and began to slow down. The driver slowed down and drove it to the edge of the road. They had a flat tyre. "Aww man!", groaned Zaid and Nadia. "Now, now there's no need to worry. We have a spare tyre in the trunk. It'll just take a while and then we'll be on our way in no time", reassured the driver. They all got out of the car and looked around. The cold sea breeze felt heavenly against their faces. They were standing at the edge of the road overlooking the sea and its majestic beauty."Hey, isn't it the night when the corals will release their eggs?", asked Nadia. "Ah! I wanted to see that!", groaned Zaid as he completely forgot about the coral breeding season.
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 01
It was a normal day in the village by the sea near Gwadar. The weather was the usual sunny and windy as Allah Wasaya started his boat and headed off to the sea. The ocean showed its fierce anger as the boat powered on. Allah Wasaya threw the net and waited for the waters to do its work. He lit a cigarette and looked around. He had moved ahead of his fellows and was quite far in the deep ocean. He smiled and thought that today he might get more fish than the rest and greedily laughed. The sun was shining brightly and all he could hear was the sound of the water crashing by his boat and the flocks of seagulls moving by. Suddenly everything went quiet as if he had gone deaf. The weather changed drastically and got cloudy. The mist enveloped the boat and he could not see anything. He turned on the flashlight to check around for the other boats but he was so far away that they could not be seen. Allah Wasaya breathed deeply and thought "What is going on? There was no prediction of clouds
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 02
The fishermen searched all around but couldn't find Allah Wasaya. There were no signs of struggle, no bite marks which suggested that he was attacked by a shark. They concluded that he was drunk and had slipped off the boat. But they still couldn't figure out where his body was. They pulled Allah Wasaya's boat along to the shore. His friend informed his family who were devastated about the loss. The village got over his loss over the few days but over the next few days, similar incidents of disappearances occurred. Fishermen going out at sea only to disappear but no evidence of struggle. This got everyone worried. The villagers sat down to discuss the current situation. Some stated that they ate some shellfish off the coast that gave them hallucinations, some said that the waves threw them off, one man said that India had sent his navy to kidnap the fishermen but none of those theories explained the situation. While they were discussing, the beggar was shouting inexpressibly outside,
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 03
About 500 km away in the Institute of Oceanography in Karachi, a team of marine biologists were working on the case of the coral reefs growing along Astola Island. The team consisted of the research students, Zaid, Shehzad and Nadia supervised by Prof. Javed Bashir. The team was packing up to go to the island to collect samples from the reef and then going to the Pasni substation. Shehzad was looking up pictures of different types of corals on his laptop and Nadia was watching the news on the television. Professor was pacing around and checking his watch, muttering under his breath "We were supposed to leave at 9", "He never respected the importance of being on time". After quite a while, the office door opened and Zaid entered. Out of breath and disheveled as always, he stumbled in, carrying his box of equipment and his enormous bag on his back. He quietly placed his box on the table and shyly looked at the professor who gave him a disapproving look "Late again Zaid?". Zaid looked do
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 04
After a few hours, the team returned from the exploration with boxes full of samples from the reef. Zaid looked at them with anger as they were chatting about how clear the sea was and how beautiful everything looked. "I must say, this dive went better than my expectations. The sea was clear, the corals were thriving and we managed to see new shoals of fish in the area. Shehzad, write back to the department at once and inform them about the latest development. Nadia, put the new samples in the tank. And Zaid", he said turning towards him, "I hope you learnt your lesson". "Yes", Zaid pouted. "Good! Now be a good boy and help Nadia with the samples. Nadir, set up lunch. We are starving!", the Professor called out. "Ok sir, coming right up!" Zaid helped Nadia with the new samples. The new samples looked more of less the same from the previous expedition. "Was the trip really that good?", Zain asked Nadia. "Nothing out of the ordinary though", Nadia shrugged. "The reefs looked the same a
Somewhere in the Sea Chapter 05
Deep down several meters below sea level underneath Astola Island lies a kingdom unlike no other. Tall limestone buildings mimicking the coral reefs above are scattered across the city. Sea creatures as small as the jellyfish to large shoals of fish are also seen swimming peacefully.In the center of the kingdom lies the castle of the King Fadel who lived with his wife, Queen Durre and his two daughters Marjan and Sanho. Legend has it that the Haft Talar Kingdom was formed after the tsunami wiped out their homes in Maldives. So as to prevent any further damage and exposure to the human world, the King decided to take his people and move to the nearest uninhabited sea, Pakistan, where they moved to Astola Island. They named the kingdom Haft Talar for what the locals called the island.The king was moving around nervously as if he was waiting for someone. Fear was etched upon his face as he floated from one end to the other end of the room. The Queen sat on the throne deep in her thoug