Page 28 of Monster's Melody

He looked startled.

“We spent all last semester perfecting different ways to do so.I have no less than ten spells I can call on at any moment and I’m asiren.I don’t actuallyneedany of those spells.”

“Huh.”

“All right!”Professor Puddlemoan stamped into the room.“No lollygagging around!Get in the pool and enter the tunnels now!”When no one moved, he lunged forward and yelled even louder, “Now, now, now!”

Students began diving into the water as I processed the fact that Vorzak had no plan at all.

“Damnit.Can your snakes breathe under water?”

“No, but as long as we stay close to the surface, they’ll pop up on their own when they need a breath.”

I just stared at him.“Youdorealize this is anunderwatersports class, right?”

“Well, sure, but it’s still just a pool.”He waved a hand toward it.“I mean, I know it’s deep, but it’s not like it’s the ocean or anything.”

I shook my head in exasperation.“This class doesn’tstayin the pool, moron.Sometimes, we’ll be swimming in the moat.”

“Where the kraken lives?”he exclaimed.

“And sometimes we’ll be in the deep, dark depths of the ocean.”

Finally, he started to look a bit worried.“I don’t suppose there are any scuba diving tanks around.”

“Ugh.Here.”I took off my shell necklace, then motioned for Vorzak to bend down.I hooked it around his neck, trying not to breathe in his luscious scent, even as I sneaked a couple kisses to a few of his snakes.“Once you’re underwater, squeeze the shell in your handhard.That should release the spell that will give the person wearing it the ability to take in oxygen through their skin, basically turning you from a singular breathing organism to a bimodal one, allowing you to breathe through your skin while in the water yet still with your lungs when outside it.”

“What about you?”

“I’m a siren.I’m already a bimodal breather.”It was because of my abilities that I’d even considered trying to develop a spell that would gift that ability to someone else.Most of the other students worked on some form of charm that would provide oxygen at various intervals.If they did try for bimodal breathing, they typically went for spells that gave them gills.

“Really?”

“Yep.Here’s the critical part: It won’t feel like breathing so you’ll have to resist the temptation to inhale because if your lungs fill with water, the minute you come up for air, you’ll drown.”

“Why aren’t you in the water?”Puddlemoan bellowed as he stamped toward us.

I rolled my eyes and said to Vorzak, “Good luck,” then dove into the pool.

It was a typical Olympic-sized pool with ten lanes, but that was pretty much where the similarities ended.

The shallow end was over seven feet deep and it just got deeper from there.

For those who just came to the pool for exercise, they might never realize the pool itself had secret entrances to secret tunnels that led elsewhere.

For those of us in Extreme Water Sports, though, we were required to pick a lane, swim to the end of it and thenuseone of those entrances to begin the day’s challenges.

As I swam, I was relieved to see Vorzak swimming one lane over, matching his pace to mine.Considering I was one of the fastest swimmers at the Academy, that was pretty impressive.Better yet was that his snakes didn’t seem to have any trouble staying underwater with him, which meant the spell must have worked.

When we reached the opposite wall, I motioned him to follow me and I dove deep.

Somewhere around ten feet down were the tunnels we had to enter.I swam to Vorzak’s side and showed him a button on the wall.

He pushed it and a piece of the wall slid to the side, revealing a long water-filled tunnel.

Vorzak gave me a wide-eyed look.

I took a moment to check in with each of his snakes.