It all started as a game.
   Now, of course, he thought it was a stupid idea. So foolish. It was strange, he had so little time, and all he could think of was "why the hell did we do this?" as he fell with Kara's fading scream in his ears, and the sea came closer and closer...
   "This is gonna hurt", was his final thought as he hit the water; it seemed so solid with the dark colours and the sun painting white patterns on the waves...
   And now he was sinking. It didn't occur to him, that he could try and get up again, his legs where cold and heavy, feeling dead already, and his arms weren't any better. Nor was any other part of him. His eyes still held a little open, he could just see the rays of the sun brighten the water around him in bluish colours. Maybe dying like this wasn't so bad after all. But how he wished, he had got the chance of saying goodbye to them all - to his mother and elder brother, to Patrick and Kara.
   Kara. He could see her dark hair so clearly, as if she was standing right in front of him, smiling that same smile that he liked so much; shy but still curious and exited. That was how she smiled to him, anyway. He thought of her brown eyes, and could see her face even more clearly than before. Her little nose, her lips, her neck, the hair floating slowly in the water.
   Green eyes.
   He opened his own two blue eyes and stared. This wasn't Kara, couldn't be. Although she looked so much like the beautiful girl of his dreams, her eyes where green, very green, nothing like the dark, sparkling brownish colour of Karas eyes.
   He tried to make a sound of surprise, but doing this, he let the last of his air float up through the water he was still sinking trough. Feeling the desperate need for air, he momentarily felt irritation surface in him, as he realized he would never find out, what this Kara-alike creature was doing right in front of him.
   But right then, as he could almost see Death himself gently stretching out his hand, the not-Kara-creature came closer. She kissed him.
   He was too shocked and confused to understand right away. He first began to think, when he suddenly could breathe again.
   Air. She was blowing air into him. Not air like on the surface, but he was alive and breathing.
   The creature moved away from him again. He now saw, with a sudden trembling of shock, that the girl had a fishtail instead of legs. It was grey, but with nuances like a rainbowfish, starting a little above her knees.
   She smiled, and he could se clearly, it wasn't at all like Kara's smile. He had obviously thought so hard of Kara, that somebody who looked a little like her, became her in an instance.
   He couldn't keep the air inside anymore, but blew it out, hoping so bad it hurt, that the strange mermaid would help him again. And she did, leaning forward and blowing air into him once more.
   Trying to make his message clear, he raised a finger and tried desperately to signal "up". She looked at the direction he was pointing in, then looked at him again, as if she didn't understand. He was close to panicking, when she put both her hand around his neck. Thinking she might be knowing what she was doing, he didn't resist, not even when his body began to shiver as if it would never stop again.
   His legs began to stretch, but he didn't notice. He needed air again, and this time it didn't seem like the mermaid was going to help, as she was now once more floating in the water in front him, watching him closely.
   "Help," he tried to say, but the only think that happened, was that his last breath of air disappeared above him. His lungs hurt. "I can't breathe," he thought over and over again, as if hoping the mermaid would somehow hear him. Then, his thoughts went on; "This time, there's no way out."
   And he let his lungs fill with water, very well aware that he would die of it, but also knowing he couldn't do anything else.
   The mermaid was still looking and smiling her odd little smile. Slowly he began to understand, that he was alive, and that he was breathing in the sea like another fish.
   Or a mermaid.
   "I am... I am..." This time he had no problem with speaking, but it was not a language that could ever be heard anywhere above water.
   "You are like me now," the mermaid said softly. She was talking to him! He looked at her, completely stunned.
   "But... but..." He blinked and stared at his fishtail, looking very much like hers. "But I don't want to be like you," he finally ended his sentence.
   "Good. Because I don't want you to be like me, either," she answered.
   "Not? Then how come you saved my life, transforming me like this? Wasn't it you, who did that?"
   "Indeed it was." He couldn't help but admire her beautiful voice, like a waterfall and a teardrop at the same time. "But you are not to stay like this," she continued.
   What did she mean? He was confused, and it was probably written in his face, because the mermaid let out a tinkling, little laugh.
   "It is not often, humans understand the ways of a god, little man," she whispered gently. "I saved your life, and I will bring you to surface to unite you with her. Don't suspect you can't be given to, without having to give something in return."
   "So why?" he asked silently. The things she said confused him a lot, but this was the only question, he thought was important. "Why did you save my life?"
   For a while, she just looked him into the eyes, then said; "Maybe I didn't have a reason. Maybe I was just being friendly."
   "You said you wanted to unite me with her." It occurred to him that she had moved a little away, and he swam closer. "Have you seen Kara? You look a lot like her, you know." His heart somehow filled with sudden bravery, he gave the mermaid - was she a goddess, like she had said? - a challenging look.
   For a few moments, they stared at each other. Then she turned her head down.
   "Yes, I was aware of that," she said silently. "I saw her from here, from the ocean. It was her scream that called me out of the darkness." She made a little wave downwards in the water. "There was so much love in her cry, and I had to see this human, see if he deserved the love she was giving him."
   They where both silent. His mind was racing, and so was his heart. For his eyes, he could see Kara, could see her smile again and again and again...
   But it was the mermaid, who was in front of him, and she was not smiling at all. She looked really sad.
   "When you saw me... it was clear, it was her, you where seeing. And... no one has ever looked at me like that. Like you loved me. Gods aren't allowed to that." She sighed and he could have sworn, she was crying. "It messes things up. So I decided... if I couldn't receive love, at least I could help others keep theirs intact."
   "So that's why you turned me into a mermaid like yourself?"
   "Yes. So you could breathe and swim to shore." Her beautiful face turned up and the green eyes became sad and pale. "You should go. She is so scared. They all are. Go to her. She deserves your love... and you deserve hers."
   He couldn't think of anything to say but; "Thank you."
   "I won't help you again," she warned him. "This... isn't really allowed either. I can't interfere. So it can't happen again."
   "I understand." He thought again and went on; "Or actually, I kinda don't. You have some stupid rules, you know. Not to be able to love and be loved seems horrible to me."
   "As I said before, humans rarely understand gods. It's a matter of responsibility and order. Can't have one without the other."
   Turning this over in his mind, he answered her: "Love is a lot about responsibility. But there's no rules in love, it's just... love. Love and be loved. Isn't that enough?"
   She smiled, a true smile, with joy and sorrow all at once. "You must go now," she said. "Goodbye, my friend. And thank you." He closed his eyes as she kissed him on his forehead. When he opened them again, the ocean had hidden its goddess.

"Alex! Alex!"
   The wind whispered the name into his ear. "I've heard that before," he though. "That's my name."
   "Alex..."
   The voice is crying, the wind told him. He frowned as another one interrupted; "Kara, don't. He's not... not coming back..."
   "Shut up! Get away from me! Why won't you listen? He's somewhere nearby, I can feel him..."
   "In the ocean, for crying out loud!" The other voice was actually crying out loud, sounding even more desperate than the voice coming from a girl. "Kara, we have to tell his mother..."
   "Go to hell, Patrick! I know he's here, I know it..."
   "This has got to end," he thought. "Get up. Help them search for..."
   Him. It was him, they where searching for.
   Kara. Patrick. The game. It all came back to him...

"Kara! Alex! You stupid lovebirds, come feel the wind over here!" Patrick standing with his arms wide open on the edge of a high cliff, leaning gently against the wind coming from the ocean. "Man, this is wild... bet I can stand here a lot longer than you, Fat Alex!"
   "Patrick, cut it of, what if you fall?" Kara yells to him, but she's laughing. And Alex, running to his best friend, taking the same pose as him.
   "No way, I'm way better to this than you! Kara, come try..."
   "No, Alex." Her grin fads away into a small smile, as he turns so he can see her. Shy, but yet curious and exited...
   And he thinks of nothing else for a moment.
   A long moment.
   Alex is falling through the air, and Kara runs to the very edge to scream all her fear out, as she realizes, she will never get to see him again...

"But I'm alive!" Alex thought, shocked of what had happened. He got up from the sand and started going in the direction the voices came from. And then he began running, suddenly afraid he would somehow lose Kara again, that she would fall and hit her head on a stone, or that she would go looking for him in the water and drown.
   But then he saw her. Kara's hair where dancing wildly in the wind, and Patrick was on his way back along the beach. Alex froze. Kara began to move slower, then stopped completely like him.
   "Don't stop here. Don't take the chance of loosing her again."
   Alex moved one feet, then another, until he was walking calmly, but his heart racing in his chest, on his way to Kara.
   When he finally stood on front of her, they just stared at each other.
   It was Kara, who broke the silence. "How did you survive?"
   "I was rescued."
   "By who?"
   "The Goddess of Water."
   "I thought you where dead."
   "She saved me, because you loved me."
   They once more stood still. Then Kara gently raised her arms and laid them around him. He did the same to her and smelled the sweetness of her hair. Not even Patrick yelling his name and racing towards them made them break apart. They stood completely still. Alex was happy.

She looked at them with envy in her green eyes. "It's not fair," she whispered.
   "I know," said the God of Wind, who was right by her side. "It never is."
   "I liked him, you know," said the goddess. "Not just because he loved me for a brief moment."
   "Yeah. But he was wrong in one thing, though."
   She turned towards him. "What was that?"
   "He said we weren't able to love or be love. I don't know about you, but I sure can love." He smiled warmly to her.
   "I know." She looked even more sad. "But we can't."
   "No, we can't be together, but that doesn't mean, we can't love each other."
   "Secretly," she said, smiling.
   "Secretly," he nodded. Then she turned into a hundred tiny water drops, and he lifted her up into the sky in a wild, windy dance.

"Wauw, the wind sure is blowing today," said Patrick, feeling a little uncomfortable, that his to friends where hanging on each other like squids in love. "Well, if you guys don't mind, I'll be going home now... so, like... se you..."
   He sighed as he got nearly no response at all, and began to walk home. "Love sucks," he thought sourly to himself.