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Katalina grinned. "Thought you might say so. C'mon, Nezzy. Let's go find him a swimming partner." She gestured to Joshua. Despite herself, she was excited to see how things would work out with Joshua speaking her language. Sure, Caralei and Domenis, the two she'd already decided that Joshua would talk with first, were both pretty gentle with humans, but they still had no real reason to wish Joshua well. "Let's get moving," she said cheerfully.

"Well, of course you're coming," said Katalina, sounding surprised. "How else am I supposed to get you to introduce yourself? You're learning to deal with our folk on their terms. That means going to them. Unless you expect them to be coming to you once I'm not around to ask them to."

She grinned. "Let's get going." Gesturing to Nezik, she set off.

Katalina laughed at him. "Sure, sure. We'll pretend to believe you," she replied cheerfully. "Now come on! The first folk we want to meet are actually much closer than you might think - just around that cliff wall there, there's a clan of merfolk. You can practice on one of them."

She had already let Caralei know that they were coming, so hopefully the blonde mermaid would be the one to greet them.

"We're good at hiding," replied Katalina quietly. "I lived in this cove for years without running across you, remember? We learned to be good at hiding to survive. Don't feel like you're unobservant - there's a reason humans don't see us very much. We work hard to keep it that way." Casually, she rounded the corner of the cliffs and nodded towards what appeared to be a sheer cliff wall. "This way."

Katalina went straight up to the sheer cliff wall. Glancing over her shoulder, she gestured. "And down," she told him. Abruptly, she dived and was soon lost from sight.

Nezik grinned to himself. "What she means is that the entrance is down there," he told Joshua companiably. "Come on, let's catch up."

Nezik was just ahead of Joshua. He gestured to what appeared to be a large boulder. Deliberately, he smacked the side of it with his tail. As slowly and irritably as it could possibly be done, the thing rolled aside and revealed a large dark hole.

"Come on," said Nezik cheerfully, not seeming at all put out by Katalina's not waiting for them. "She's probably already in there."

Nezik kept pace with him, looking ahead slightly with a hopeful look in his eyes. Eventually, a dark form could be seen ahead of them - certainly a mermaid. It seemed reasonable to assume that it was Katalina. But Nezik said nothing, and seemed to have decided to let Joshua come to his own conclusions.

Katalina herself was actually hidden around the corner with a couple of merchildren. They were her alibi for disappearing - she wanted Joshua to try it without looking to her at all, and she thought that having her hovering over him like an anxious mother dolphin wouldn't help his practice run at all. Caralei would be gentle with him.