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Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid is by far my favourite fairy tale. I have always wanted to retell it in fanfiction form in one fandom or another, and so with Ash and Misty I shall do just that. However, unlike most other retrellings of the Little Mermaid that preceded this, the point of view will be first person, unlike the Original Version by Hans Christian Anderson. I can also promise you that I won't be copying the original story word for word while replacing the names. A lot of events that happen in the original tale will still happen, but they'll be written in my own words.
Putting my own spin on such a loved tale is the perfect challenge for me to stretch my writing skills and imagination. I had a lot of fun with this and I hope you enjoy reading it. Have some tissues handy, some parts do get pretty emotional.
I hope you really like my entry. Even though it is rather long, I think it's good enough not to come last place in the Contest.
Also I'm posting this here as the Judges of the Roses and Chocolates: A Romance One-Shot Contest made a small understandable mistake so I have to post my entry here.
Okay, this author's note is getting ridiculously long, so I'm going to shut up now. I hope you enjoy the story. Please review so I know if I did the fairy tale justice or not.
Thanks!
Rating: T
The sea.
It was once my home. A world of shimmering, eternal blue like the finest cornflowers.
I turn my face into the wind. My fingers tighten slowly around the dagger's handle. The handle is sculpted into two gold serpents holding a sharp silver blade between their claws. I was supposed to plunge it into his heart, making his life forfeit to mine, but I could not do it. I love him more than my own life; killing him would only break his new bride's heart.
I know the agony of loss. It is a pain I wish I never had to inflict on anyone.
He won't miss me for long. They have each other and I have nothing. And thus, it is with a heavy heart that I stand here now, alone, gazing into the water. Dawn is fast approaching over the mountains. As the horizon grows brighter, I feel pain behind my breasts. My heart is breaking, but whether it is the beginning of my death or the sorrow from loving in vain, I do not know.
I can no longer bear to look at this instrument of death, so I fling it into the waves and watch it dissolve in a flash of red. As I prepare to follow it, I can not help but remember how I came to this miserable fate.
I don't remember when the stone statue of a tall, pretty young boy of his age with ebony hair and a sword at his hip appeared near my garden. In my memory it was always there, just as the water was always blue. Such a thing may not have interested me had I not noticed the lack of a tail. This figure stood on two long stilts my Grandmother called "legs". Everyone who lived above the sea walked on them. I always wondered what walking on legs must have looked like. The way my Grandmother described it made it sound as if land dwellers walked with the same ease that a mermaid swam.
I began to rebuild my garden around the statue until it formed a giant circle like the sun. Brilliant red flowers with a rose-colored weeping willow that cast its form between light and shadow. When I had nothing else to do, I rested in my garden with my tail wrapped around the statue's legs, my eyes staring up at this its stone face. It had such beautiful eyes that I often traced with my fingertips. Its expression always seemed so heart-warming, as if it could peer into my heart.
People often told me that I, the youngest of my six sisters, was the fairest of them all. Then the statue must have been of the fairest man on land.
Sometimes I sang while I tended my flowers. Everyone said I had the most beautiful voice in the sea, and people often stopped to listen. They would then swim away sad, for I always fell silent when I noticed I wasn't alone. The songs I sang to the statue were for no one but myself and its stone ears.
When I was not in my garden, I liked to stand by the windows of Father's coral palace and stare up towards the moon. Occasionally, shadows of whales or land vessels drifted across its round face. Did the men on those ships ever wonder about life below the sea the way I dreamed about life on land? Did they know how much I dreamed of being among them?
I will never belong up there, but I don't think I belong here either. Is there a place anywhere where I can fit in?
Then I heard talk about what one person or another saw above the waves. Grandmother, who had been to the surface more times than any other mermaid, wrapped me in her thinning white hair and wove fantastic stories about the world above. It sounded so beautiful! Mountains, stars, a sky as blue as the sea, animals with four legs, green trees, flowers with scent, fish that swarm in the air and sang in the trees, music, cities and grand ships that flew across the water. The more I heard, the more I longed to see for myself. I wanted to see it all!
Alas, I had to wait. I was only ten years old, and Grandmother always told me I could not venture to the surface until I reached my fifteenth year.
"...Grandmother is already making my wreath for tomorrow." It was my eldest sister, Daisy, whose tail was as gold as mine was green as the sea. She turned and her wavy yellow hair curled around her face. All she wanted to do was boast - excuse me - talk about her plans for the next day. I hadn't paid any attention until she burst out, "Misty! Stop fawning over that statue and listen! Are you going to see me off tomorrow?"
"Of course," I replied, but remained wrapped around my statue, "You are so lucky...I have to wait the longest of us all."
She turned her tail to me, "Your time will come, little sister."
"Daisy! Father wishes to have an audience with you."
Daisy faced Violet, the second eldest. Violet's skin was pale and her tail dark indigo-violet. She always adorned herself with the jewels she found in shipwrecks. Her breasts and hair were covered in lovely gems and beads that glittered every which way she turned.
"I'll go, then," said Daisy, and she swam away.
Violet crossed her arms, "You're always so quiet, Misty. Are you jealous of Daisy's coming of age?"
"Maybe a little." I answered. "There is nothing I can do but wait."
I watched Violet pick one of my red flowers and place it in my hair. "You can't just dream the time away. Ever since that statue fell down here, you have spent hours here instead of playing in the shipwrecks like you used to."
That made me laugh, "Each time I do, I find that you already went through and took the treasures for yourself. You never leave any behind for me."
She giggled at me. "But your hair is so fiery red that such things would not suit you as well as they do me. I fancy that when my hair begins to turn whiter like Grandmother's, no one will even notice."
"Definitely not. Your hair is like your tail!" I caught a strand of her vividly coloured hair and playfully tossed it back towards her face.
Another laugh. "Perhaps...now come along."
The next morning was all fanfare, music, dancing and celebration. My sisters all began to sing, only to drop out when my voice joined theirs. Father clapped his hands and beckoned me to sit with him. I did so and watched Grandmother dress Daisy for her journey. She placed a wreath of pearl flowers atop Daisy's head and ordered eight of her own twelve tail oysters to attach to Daisy's flukes.
Father gazed around and a frown creased his lined brow. "Where is Buttercup?"
"Here!" Called a tiny voice by the squid bowl. Buttercup loved to eat, and I'm surprise that she is not yet as fat as a sperm whale. I saw her dark grey tail ripple and then she appeared beside me. As always, her midnight hair was twirled into a bun. "Rose was supposed to tell me when you were seeing Daisy off. Weren't you, tuna tail?"
Rose pushed her chartreuse curly hair out of her face. She had a yellow tail like the fins on tuna fish, which Buttercup always made fun of. "Excuse me if I didn't want to miss this." She pouted, "Maybe if you stopped stuffing your face for once - "
"Will you two stop it?" Lily thrust her magenta fins between them. "Sometimes I can't believe you two are older than I."
"Girls! Cease this bickering!"
They gasped. "Yes, Father. Sorry, Father!"
Daisy drifted towards the arching coral door, which was shrouded by tall, green seaweed. "Well, I suppose I should be off. I'll see you in a while." And I watched as she twisted outside and shot straight up out of sight.
"...the moon wasn't as big up there as it looks to us, but it was glowing white like a silver coin under sunlight and surrounded by stars." Daisy was relaying to everyone about her journey to the surface. She talked excitedly about everything, "I really enjoyed lying on a sand bank in the moonlight. The ocean lapped at my tail, and between the crash of waves I heard the gongs in the shrines and temples Grandmother told us about last year. I could also hear the monks chanting in prayer and smelled so many things I can not tell you which scent belonged to what."
My other sisters listened attentively, but said little. I asked the most questions, many of which Daisy could not answer. In my frustration, I departed from the room and curled myself around my statue.
"At least you don't get short with me when I ask too many questions," I said to it.
A shadow fell across me. "Aww, Misty! You look so sad." I looked up to find my friend, a merboy around my age named Drew, floating near the top of my willow tree. He swished his dark green tail, a much deeper shade of green than mine tail's, once to reach my level. "C'mon, I found a new shipwreck that Jessie must have sunk. Let's go there and look at it...maybe it'll take your mind off what has you so upset."
Little did Drew know that his choice of activity would have the opposite effect. Still, it was better than spending the afternoon completely alone. I gave my statue a farewell kiss and drifted to Drew's side. "It will be nice to see the treasures in a ship before Violet can get them."
"Oh, yes," he laughed, "I'm surprised she can swim with all those jewels attached to her."
We both snickered to ourselves.
Drew led me past a whirlpool, then pointed into a shallow valley of coral. There, turned over on its side, was a large wooden vessel. It had a jagged hole on its upturned edge. He and I both looked at each other.
"Last one there is a guppy!" I took off as fast as my tail allowed.
"Hey!" He came after me. I was almost to the hole when he slapped my tail and caused me to spin completely around in the water. We knocked heads and, after a stunned moment, laughed.
Tugging his hand, I pulled him inside. "C'mon, let's go in."
The first thing I saw was a roll of white material Grandmother called parchment. Land dwellers used it to write words or draw pictures. I could not read the text, but there were pictures of strange shapes with text written between them.
"Check this out!" Drew said, pulling something metal off the floor. "A sword! Hyah!" He swung it around with both hands, causing the muscles in his arms and chest to flex. He flailed it so eagerly that he accidentally cut the wall above his head. Debris drifted down. I had to dart aside to avoid being buried!
"Drew! Be careful!"
Drew swatted debris away with the sword. "...Sorry. Misty, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine, but watch where you swing that."
He looked sheepishly at the sword. I swam past him and towards a doorway leading deeper into the land vessel. The floor there was littered with strange metal objects that were either curled, had a 'head' of sharp edges or like a miniature sword. I noticed they seemed to come in pairs, even in threes.
Drew leaned over my shoulder to peer at the objects in my hand. "What are those?"
"I'm not sure." I slipped my fingers around their 'hilts' and clicked the curled head one and the edged one together. They made a nice, tinkling click. "Perhaps they are musical instruments! See how they click?" I tapped them twice more before my attention fell on the edged one. It had a flat 'hilt' and a head made of three sharp 'edges'. "Oh...oh! I know what those are! Buttercup uses them to hold her hair in a bun." I snatched up one of each of and hastily wrapped my hair around them. Then I turned so Drew could see.
He laughed, "That looks kind of funny on you."
I giggled and let my hair free again. My heart grew heavier with each moment I spent gazing at the treasures from above. "Oh, Drew...the world on land must be full of more wonderful things just like this. I really wish it was my turn to go up."
"What are you going to do if it's really boring up there? What if none of it is as fantastic as everyone makes it sound? Then what?"
Such a possibility never occurred to me. I hung my head and sighed. "I don't know. But it can't be boring. I've heard too many amazing stories for it to be anything less than fantastic."
There was no way I could ever tell him how I thought the world on land was so much vaster than under the sea.
The years passed slowly for me. Each year one more sister got to rise above the waves while I stood alone in my garden or the castle, staring dreamily up towards the surface. My heart grew heavy with yearning. So heavy, in fact, that I hardly spoke to Drew when we explored sunken ships or teased the sharks.
Violet went to the surface and came back with stories of a beautiful sunset. She described how the sky changed colours as the sun sank into the ocean.
Buttercup was very bold upon her journey on the surface. She swam up a river and saw land-dwelling children playing, but they noticed her tail and were too frightened to play with her.
Rose proved less adventurous and had little to tell, just one brief sentence about seeing a ship in the distance. I swam away from her disappointed.
Since Lily was born in the wintertime, she saw a different surface than the rest of us. For her the sea was green and the sky grey, and enormous icebergs rocked on the stormy water. "Then a storm came up," she said, "and the tips of the icebergs glew an ominous red."
And so life went on. My sisters visited the surface many times to sing to sailors about to sink in one of Jessie's storms, but I doubt the ears on land would understand their voices as music.
Drew and I explored the resulting shipwreck, finding just a few pipes, rolls of cloth and broken weapons. Violet had already been there, and thus I found nothing worth keeping. I became so desolate that Drew tried everything to cheer me up - from playing hide and seek in the sails to tricking an angry lion fish into eating pearls.
I pretended to enjoy it for Drew's sake.
When my sisters swam up to the surface, I often stood alone in my room, my heart breaking under my desire to be fifteen. Would that day ever come?
Eventually, they stopped going. Daisy claimed it didn't seem that special and that the world under the sea was lovely enough for her taste. My only link to the surface was gone. I wanted to scream.
"Your day will come, my daughter." Father curled his tail gently around mine. "But your mind must not always stay above the water. It will only make the time pass more slowly."
"You're right, Father." I sighed and left him to tend my garden, where I lost myself in pulling weeds.
The day of my fifteenth birthday arrived. At last! I was up before the sun, brushing my hair and scraping my tail clean of all sand and slime. Time moved at a sea-slug's pace! My time to surface had been chosen by Grandmother, but she had yet to tell me when I could go! The day wore on and nothing, nothing, nothing!
"Misty! You'll sully your tail if you keep swimming in circles!" Violet scolded me. "Look, you're tangling your hair again..."
"I'm sorry! I can not help this excitement! I want to go now!"
"Are you that eager, little one? Come, come, let me dress you up and then you can go." Grandmother held out her hand. I took it and she led me into her chambers to dress me properly.
The wreath of pearl flowers turned out to be a dreadful, heavy thing. My own garden flowers would have suited my hair much better. Grandmother pulled eight oysters from her flukes and attached them to mine. They pinched terribly!
I complained, "Oh! But they hurt me, Grandmother? Must I wear these?"
She eyed me sternly, her mouth a tight line, "Sometimes one must suffer in order to be beautiful. If I can wear these oysters every day, surely you can manage them for one night."
That silenced me. But I would gladly shake off all the finery that made me feel like something other than myself.
I swam out to greet my sisters. They each gave me words of advice on what to avoid and what to watch for, and then I could bear the wait no longer.
"Goodbye! I'll tell you what I enjoyed the most when I return!"
And I was off! Up and up as fast as I could swim. Though the oysters pinched me and my wreath dug into my scalp, I soon found myself oblivious to their presence. The shimmering water's edge grew nearer until finally, for the first time in my life, I splashed up onto the surface.
How light the air was! For many moments I floated there, just breathing it. I smelled the sea and heard dolphins splashing about. The sky turned darker and a few stars twinkled like pearls above my head. I faced the sun as it sank behind clouds building on the sparkling horizon. It was all so overwhelmingly beautiful and I did not know where to look first.
The stars began to vanish into darkness caused by clouds. It proved disappointing, as I had hoped to spend more time gazing at them. Little did I know that those clouds would signal the moment my life changed.
I finally looked behind me. There, I found a vast ship floating gently on the calm water's surface. It had one sail unfurled. But best of all...it was full of land dwellers! They sat on rope ladders and on benches, all of them laughing and playing stringed instruments. I watched how they walked on their two legs just as gracefully as any merperson swam. I paddled right up to the ship and grasped a rope dangling into the water; I did not want the ship to suddenly sail away before I had satisfied my curiosity. From there, I could watch the shadows of men cast on the sails. They were lighting torches and singing, but their singing was not as wonderful as that of my sisters.
Footsteps thumped gently above my head. A figure appeared behind the wooden rail, and my heart skipped a beat. That hair, those hands, those eyes...he looked just like my statue, but much, much more beautiful. He had fair skin and his hair shone the same colour as the darkness of the night. His eyes sparkled innocence and purity. He wore black armour over his clothes and the sword was in its hilt, strapped around his slim waist. The only difference between him and the statue became the fact that the real version was so much better.
The young boy poured something into a tiny bowl from which he heartily drank. Whatever it was, its effects were extremely soporific.
I could not breathe when a zephyr spilled his hair mere inches from my head. He leaned on the railing and I pressed myself harder against the ship's hull so he wouldn't see me. Between the ornate columns of the rail, I saw his feet. They were covered in black leather and looked so oddly small that I wondered how land dwellers managed to walk on them.
"My Prince!" a soft voice called from out of sight, "Why are you way down here? You are missing your party!"
"I don't see why everyone has to fuss over my birthday." said the young prince. His voice was the most wonderful sound ever created.
The voice replied, "You are drunk."
"I thought it was a party, Max."
"Oh what are going to do with you Ash," came the soft mutter. The other presence left and Prince Ash stood alone once again. He finished the bottle and flung it into the waves. Then he slid down to sit with his back against the wooden rails. Now his hair did brush against me. I did not dare play with it even though I badly wanted to.
I was right behind him, and he had no idea.
Gathering my courage, I dared to speak to him. If I moved quickly, I could always dive off the rope if he started to look behind him. "Why are you so sad on your birthday?"
Ash did not stand up or turn around. "I would rather be in the forest than on the water. Why do you care?"
"I know the feeling, and..." I trembled at the power in his voice, "It's my birthday, too, but it's not sad for me."
"Happy birthday," he scoffed, his speech mildly slurred.
I chewed my lower lip. Why was he so sad? "What is that substance you consume?"
"Wine, and I'm going to get more." He stood up and disappeared off the deck.
I dared to follow him by pulling myself up the rope. What a sight I must have been. I exhausted myself climbing all the way to the uppermost deck where I could see everyone aboard the ship. They cheered when Prince Ash walked slowly into view from behind a sail. He spoke to several of the men and women, but his words were too faint for my ears. Still, I forgot everything as I watched him move about. He never smiled, but he did consume another full bottle of wine without bothering to use a bowl.
Hours passed without my notice. I did not want to tear my eyes off the fair beauty of a man whose eyes with such beauty and sadness.
The sails began to billow. What had started as soft breezes were becoming strong gusts. Jessie and her cronies must have been stirring far below the ocean. I swore I heard her throaty chuckle, though the people on the ship would only understand it as thunder. They didn't pay it mind until the ship started rocking and those who drank too much alcohol began to fall over. Prince Ash merely wrapped his arm around a mast while the ship swayed. A few lost their stomachs all over the deck.
Lightning flashed in the distance. Alarm quickly overtook the festivities.
"There's a storm brewin' in the west!"
"Furl the sails before the wind rips them open!"
At that very moment the wind smashed the ship with a violence like I have never seen. The calm sea grew violent with waves taller than my Father's castle and tossed the ship hither and thither. Lightning lit the sky brighter than daylight. Rain battered anything in its wake. I lost my grip on the rope and landed painfully on my back in the wild water. Less than an instant after I fell, the very mast my rope was attached to crumpled in the howling wind. I dove below to avoid it. Waves flung the ship onto its side.
I grew delighted. This same ship was going to be near my home, I could explore it at my leisure later! I had great fun leaping away from beams like a dolphin. People aboard the sinking ship began to cry out. Did they not know what awaited them below?
Then I saw Ash leap off the deck. He stood erect on a strange cloud that formed at his feet. The one called Max stood at his side, clinging to his leggings.
But Fate had a cruel trick waiting in the waves. Just as the young prince moved forward, the waves hurled the empty bottle he tossed overboard straight into his head. He was blinded by the rain and did not see it coming. The glass shattered the centre of his forehead. He instantly fell into the water with blood running down his face. I glimpsed him clinging to a floating plank, his wound bleeding into the sea foam. Then a wave slammed down and the wood bobbed back up empty.
"Your Highness, YOUR HIGHNESS!" I heard Max screaming as the strange cloud carried him away.
Oh! Now he can live forever with me! I clapped my hands in delight. Then I remembered how Grandmother told me that land dwellers lacked the ability to breathe underwater. They drowned, and only reached the sea floor as corpses. No! I can't let him die! He is too beautiful to die and dissolve to nothing!
With that I dove far down under the tempestuous swells, my tail slapping the surface. It was difficult to see through all the murk created by the dirty ship debris.
"Ash? Where are you?" I looked around, grasping many drowned men until finally spotting him trapped against a coral shelf. His right arm was caught on the coral and he was too stunned by his wound to effectively free himself. He looked up at me with fluttering eyes when I swam down to his level. His lips changed to a strange, dark shade of blue. By the time I reached him, his eyelids had closed and he no longer moved.
Please don't die! I thought as I struggled to pull him free of the coral. I pulled against with all my strength. Soon I pulled him free from the wrenching hands of coral. A small intricate knife with a hilt of golden serpents fall out of the Prince's armour and I watched it fall and keep stuck in the coral as I pulled to free Ash. I wrapped my arms around my land-dwelling Lord and swam to the surface.
He coughed up some of the water he swallowed and his small lips gained a little colour. I saw his eyes flutter open. They were unfocused and trembling. He looked right at me, "...who?" and drifted back to unconsciousness before I could reply. His long eyelashes were dark fringes on his white cheeks. The wound on his brow was still bleeding slightly, causing blood to run down his wet face like crimson tears. I shifted his head to my shoulder so I could press one hand to his injury, my other arm supporting him to prevent water from entering his mouth. I felt his soft hair on my body when I laid back and kicked my tail so that the suction of the sinking ship could not snatch us back under. Hopefully, the current would take us to land.
I sang softly to Ash as the sea carried us away from the bubbling wreck. The storm weakened and quieted until the only sound became my voice. I paid it little mind. All I knew was the weight of the young prince's warm body against mine and the strange heat it created in my belly. I brushed my fingers over his graceful stripes and softly kissed his mouth. His lips and skin were softer than flower petals.
Ash started breathing only through his mouth, same gasps of warm air exhaling outwards. His breaths got very small and obviously painful. Each time he stopped breathing, I desperately stuck my fingers into his throat to irritate him into vomiting...it was the only way I could think of to make him start breathing properly again.
Time passed, turning the eastern horizon a rosy red. I looked over my shoulder and spotted land not far away. It was a huge island with a castle on the highest cliff, a stretch of beach at its base and a small village just offshore.
"We're almost to land," I told him. "Hold on, you can rest in just a moment. Please don't give up!"
I let the waves cast us to shore and used all of my strength to pull Ash away from the water. The effort left me breathless. I collapsed on his chest, gasping. His heartbeat grew very faint and he did not breathe well while flat on his back. I heard his chest make unnatural rattling sounds, so I cradled him on my tail and rested his head on my budding breasts. A small string of seaweed floating on the surf found new use as a bandage for his bleeding forehead.
I lost all track of time. The first rays of dawn washed over the ocean and shone on the lovely man resting against me. He shivered despite being warm. His cheeks flushed. A fever...that did not bode well for him, but I knew not what else to do besides scoop cool water from the waves and sprinkle it on his burning skin. It didn't help.
Ash opened his eyes, clouded with pain, when the sun hit his face. He grabbed my hand, looked at my tail and then up at me. I smiled and kissed the soft spot right in front of his ear. "Are you all right?"
The Prince stared at my face for the longest time. The hand gripping mine relaxed and his eyes fluttered shut. He made a gurgling sound and foamy pink water dribbled from between his lips. My smile dropped and I nuzzled his cheek. I didn't know what else to do besides hold him and stroke his hair. If he was going to die, the least I could do was comfort him in his last moments.
I sang to him softly, singing my Grandmother's lullaby as sweetly as I possibly could. The Prince seemed to relax all of a sudden, looking more happy and calm than before. I smiled as I looked at him, singing to him; as if nothing else mattered in the world.
Suddenly, voices! Music! Oh, no! I couldn't let the humans see me!
I hurriedly built a mound for Prince Ash to sit against. At that time I honestly believed that would be the last I saw him alive. My final close up view of Ash was of him covered in sand, shivering and turning blue again.
"Goodbye, Ash. I'm sorry that I can't stay with you." I slithered into the water and covered myself in sea foam.
A group of human women dressed in dark blue with white hoods over their heads came over the hill. The one in the back of the line was dressed differently and the most beautiful. Her eyes reminded me of the sapphires and her brunette hair was pulled back away from her pale face. The flute I heard a moment ago lay tucked in a fold of her pink and green clothes. She saw Prince Ash and rushed to his side.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" The woman touched his face. He didn't move, not even a fluttering of his eyelids. She examined his injured head and bent to listen to his chest, then looked up at her companions. "His lungs are full of water...he isn't breathing, but his heart still beats."
"I will fetch help," one of the women said, and rushed off out of sight.
I watched the loveliest woman lay Ash on his side and pound his back and side with her fist. He sputtered a little. Try as he might he did not seem capable of inhaling. The woman bent and covered his mouth with hers. His chest rose twice. He heaved up a ton of water quite suddenly and the woman rolled him back onto his side.
"There, cough it all up." She continued to pound his back and side until his coughs no longer spewed foam or water. Even from that distance I could hear him taking in full breaths. His colour already looked better.
The young prince opened his eyes. He looked dazedly up at the beautiful woman and whispered something I couldn't hear. Probably the 'thank you' that should have been mine. He lost consciousness again almost immediately.
I did not stay any longer. Turning from the scene, I dove into the waves. I found the small knife still tangled in the coral where I left it. Pulling it hard with both hands, I managed to tear it free and took it home with me.
My sisters met me part way. Father grew worried when I did not return after a short time and sent them to search for me. They were relieved to see me, but I had not the words to explain what happened or where I obtained the furry pelt. With a heart heavier than lead, I swam into my sleeping room and spoke to no one for the entire day.
For months afterward, I swam to the spot where I left the handsome prince. I saw no sign of him. I watched the seasons change from calm to stormy to snowy, but not once did I see my Lord. I feared the possibility of him not surviving the fever brought on by the water he swallowed.
My sorrow deepened. I could not bear to explain anything to my sisters. Eventually, they stopped asking, and I spent even more time alone either on the surface or in my garden, wrapped around my statue and touching his pale lips. I had long since stopped caring for my flowers. They grew wildly all around, choking the tree and invading the pathways to the castle.
I believed then that Prince Ash was lost to me.
Daisy found me in my garden. I hardly left it anymore, save to search the surface for Ash. She wrapped her tail around mine and looked worriedly down at me. "Misty...it's been months. What happened up there? Please tell me. Did a fishing boat nearly catch you? What happened?"
I could not bear it any longer and told her everything. She in turn told my other sisters. Somehow, Drew got word of it.
"Misty! Why didn't you tell me right away? The Prince is alive and well! My sister saw the ship and she knows where he lives...he's Crown Prince of the land and lives by the western shores of the biggest island." Drew grabbed my arm and tugged me away from my garden, "C'mon, I'll show you! It's this way."
Drew led me past a place where the shore narrowed into a channel. We swam dangerously close to fishing nets to emerge in a lovely bay. The waves couldn't reach the deep blueness, which was fed by a waterfall that made the water oddly misty near the surface. Night fell just as Drew and I surfaced near a sprawling castle.
Drew pointed to the lights on our right. "There it is."
The castle was made of many buildings of all sizes, but the main building had a dock that stretched far out over the water. It ended in steps that would be underwater when the tide came in. Set off to the side was a small hanging bridge that led to another small dock under a giant weeping willow with boughs that kissed the water. Candles and torches were lit inside most of the structures. I saw silhouettes of people moving around behind the thin paper screens.
"Thank you very much, Drew." I hugged my friend. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to."
He blushed and turned away. "Yeah, you're right...I'm really not supposed to be up here. Don't you stay too long, either, or the tide will leave and you'll be stranded."
"I won't." I heard a splash and knew Drew was gone. A short time later, I glimpsed Ash walking up the path to the main building. Beside him was the small young boy, a page apparently, that owned the small soft voice...that was the one he called Max. I did not hear what they were talking about.
Knowing where the Prince lived gave my heart new joy. I could see him whenever I wanted!
The next night, I took Ash's knife and a bouquet of my sea-flowers to the castle. When all the lights had been extinguished, I left the knife on the end of the dock with the flaming red blooms resting on top. Then I rushed back into the water, hiding myself under the dock to wait until morning.
Prince Ash's door slid open precisely at dawn. I heard his soft footsteps creak the wood above my head. Then I saw his reflection at the end of the dock. He was kneeling to pick up his pelt and paused upon seeing the flowers.
"Your Highness? Breakfast is being prepared." Smaller, faster steps skittered across the dock. "What did you...oh! Your knife! How did that get here? And what of those odd flowers - "
"I don't know." came the soft gentle reply. He stood there staring at the red flowers in his hand. They were lovely against his fair skin. "Could you put the knife back in my home? Thanks."
I know not what Ash did with the flowers. He seemed to like them. It felt right to continue leaving him blossoms from my garden. I collected them in the prettiest shells I found on the sea floor and left them on the dock.
One night, many weeks after returning my Lord's knife, I surfaced to find the Prince lost in thought on the little bridge between his castle and the willow tree. The moonless night offered me a cloak of darkness, allowing me to stick just my hand out of the water and place the abalone shell full of flowers on the dock.
"Huh?" He turned just as I slipped out of sight. I heard the bridge creak, then his footsteps just above my head.
If only I had the courage to simply reply. Surely I could explain myself. Yet, at the same time, I knew my tail would repulse him. I remained motionless. Prince Ash knelt and picked up the abalone shell.
The Page Boy Max spoke from out of sight. "What is it?"
Prince Ash straightened. "It looks like another present."
"Ohhh, shall I place it with the rest?"
"I suppose..." Their voices and footsteps faded towards the castle.
The next weeks were filled with me surfacing to watch the happenings of the people on land. Once every month Ash disappeared into the forest. On the days he was gone, I observed the others at the castle. I think I saw his father once - a tall man with his silver hair pulled back. He wore a cape of royalty. The King only carried one sword, which bore a large jewel on the pommel.
Talk around the castle told me of the Prince's travels. Sometimes he ventured out over the sea in a small boat or on his flying cloud. If he knew that I sometimes followed him, he gave no indication. When I followed his adventures over the water, I remembered how I pulled him from beneath the waves, held him to my breasts and kissed his small lips...but he clearly had no memory of my saving him and couldn't even dream of me.
Everything on land seemed vaster than my world under the sea could ever be. There were mountains to climb, boats to sail on and many more things I could not see. My heart grew fonder towards it with each passing day.
"...you can't tell me anything else?"
Buttercup put down her seaweed kebab and said, "That's all I know, Misty. What has you so enchanted anyway? This world is so much prettier than that drab place."
Her casual disrespect for what I loved sent daggers through my spine. I stiffened. "Fine, I'll have to ask Grandmother. You can have the rest of my supper."
My older sister shrugged and grabbed my food. She laid herself back on her tail and happily ate. I swam out of the room, my mind twirling. Grandmother sat on her throne with her scarred tail curled around the base. Her hair floated just above her left shoulder as she fed a fish from her hand.
"Misty, what brings you here?" A smile wrinkled her face, "More questions?"
I nodded, coiling my tail beneath me to sit on her flukes. "I wonder about how they die up there...can they die without drowning?"
"Oh, yes. A bad wound can kill almost anyone." Grandmother drew me to her chest. "Humans normally have a short lifespan less than a century, far less than our mermaid lifespan of three hundred years."
"Do they become foam?"
"No...when a person from the land dies, their body releases their soul. The soul is an immortal thing that rises up to another realm, a realm called Heaven, leaving the earthly body behind." She lowered her tone, her face serious. "Merpeople have no souls, Misty. When we die, we cease to be. But it is better that way. We have a long life, a long time with which to enjoy the beauty of the sea, so don't worry your pretty little head about all this soul talk."
"So I am to disappear from time and memory when I die? With nobody to remember me?" I rocked back when she nodded. "That is a terrible thing, Grandmother! I would give up all of my years for one day, one chance to live on land and have a soul and be remembered when I'm gone!"
"Misty- " she said.
I didn't let her finish. "Grandmother...is there any way, any possible way I could win myself a soul?" I clenched my fists while looking intently into her pale eyes. "I need to know!"
Her silence proved long and frustrating. Would she tell me? She had to know how badly I needed this information!
"My sweet little Misty...to win yourself a soul...a man from the land has to give you part of his own. To do that, he must love you more than anything in the world and declare his undying love for you. Then part of his soul would enter you and to God, that would be more than enough to accept you in Heaven." Grandmother stroked the tangles from my hair and smiled. "But my dear, your tail is ugly to those on land. No man would want you unless you had legs just like every other girl. Now stop your worrying."
I looked away. She turned my head back with one finger. "There is a ball tonight. Please attend, it will take your mind off this silly soul business."
There was no room to ask further. Grandmother swam away to prepare for the ball, leaving me alone to ponder the inevitable oblivion in my future.
Little did I know that the song I sang at the ball would be the last song that left my lips. Yes, I did go; I stayed just long enough to sing so that everyone believed I was enjoying myself. Then I fled the dancing and laughing to be alone in my garden.
Drew found me there, tearing off the party adornments my sisters placed in my hair.
"Misty, aren't you going to sing some more?"
I avoided his eyes. "No. I didn't want to stay."
"Why?"
"I've figured out how I can become human, Drew." I said, hugging my statue. "...and I don't want anyone to stop me. Especially not you."
"Misty..." he flicked his tail and thrust his face angrily into mine, "...don't say what I think you're going to say."
"I am going to see the Sea Witch."
He glared at me, his emerald orbs flaming in anger and fear. "NO! Misty! Don't you dare! She'll kill you! Are you really that stupid?" Then he crossed his arms. "I swear, if you go, I'll go tell your father and grandmother. They'll make sure you don't see the surface ever again."
"Drew..." now it was my turn to glare, "if you do, I'll never speak to you again. I mean it!"
His pupils shrank. For a moment his lips moved silently, then finally he sputtered, "Misty, you wouldn't do that to your best friend!"
"I would!" I straightened myself fully, clenching my fists. "I want this, Drew. Nobody under the sea can give me legs except for Jessie."
"I hate it when you get these ideas in your head. I hate it." If merfolk could cry, I am sure Drew was about to burst into tears, of anger and of despair. He knew I was headstrong and there would be no convincing me to stay. With a deep sigh, he averted his eyes. "If she can't do it-"
"She can, I just know she can." I kissed his cheek and offered him a smile, my anger melting. "This might be goodbye. If I don't return, you'll know I made it."
" Misty, please..." Drew tried to swim in my path, but I easily rolled around him and darted past my tree. He followed me. "Misty, I-"
"I'm going." I left him there, alone.
The path to the Sea Witch's dwelling place proved long and terrifying. I swam past volcanoes, boiling whirlpools and eels that glowed odd colours in the murky darkness. The whirlpools threatened to suck me into a place where nightmares came from, and the squids darting in the path tried to capture me in their monstrous tentacles. I trembled, binding my hair around my breasts as I swam with my arms crossed.
Eventually, all life ceased. There existed only rock, skeletons and pieces of old flesh. Bone traps held fast anything that dared swim between them. A treasure chest, fish, an eel, many human skeletons and even a poor mermaid child who swam too close. I wailed and swam past her body at my fastest speed.
I got past the bone trap forest and darted into a giant whale skeleton with flesh still clinging to its bones. I saw a bowl in the middle, a strange torch of blue light and many grotesque white crabs that crawled all around.
"Hello?" I drifted to sit by the large bowl.
Suddenly, a piece of the darkness wrapped around my tail! I shrieked in fright.
"So...here is the little mermaid." I heard a low voice from above. "I knew you were coming to me."
Then Jessie descended from the ceiling. She had the lower body of an octopus that intertwined itself endlessly about the whale's ribcage and ended in flukes shaped like fans. Fleshy, twisting tentacles extended from the lower half of her body, one of which held me firmly still. Long cerise hair floated around her sickly white face. Her narrow eyes reminded me of blood droplets that gleamed in cruel pleasure at my plight. Her eyelids were pale blue like the unnatural torch. She might have been once beautiful if her eyes weren't so cold and mocking.
I felt her icy fingers wrap around my shoulders. Our faces were mere inches apart. My heart beat so hard I saw my left breast moving. "Please, Jessie...if you knew I was coming, then surely you know what I came for."
The Sea Witch laughed softly. "You want to become human so that Ash will love you enough to proclaim undying love to you, thus granting the soul you desire. It is a foolish wish that can only leave you in pain, Misty, but...if you're willing to pay the price, I'll grant it for you." She smiled at me, her face so deceivingly gentle.
"Anything." I shivered. Fear twisted my voice small. "No price is too high for a soul."
"Good." The tentacle holding me up relaxed, letting me slip to the ground. Jessica tossed a serpent into the bowl to clean it and then began adding several foul ingredients. A tongue, serpent scales, the eye of a squid and crocodile tears. The last was some of her own dark blood. She looked up at me. "It is a good thing you came now. One more day and you might have ended up waiting a full year for my help. Now...this potion I am making will cause an alchemic reaction that will turn your tail into legs. Once you drink it, you will become human forever. You will never again be able to join your family in the sea."
"All right- "
"The potion will cause you agony when you swallow it. Every walking step will feel as if burning swords stabbed your feet. Shall I continue?"
I set my brow and pushed my hair out of my face. Grandmother once said one must suffer in order to be beautiful. Now I understood what she meant.
"Yes."
Another chilling smile. She stirred her potion with one tentacle. It made horrible, monstrous sounds like something terrible being born. "If the Prince does love you enough to take you as his wife, then you have nothing to fear. However...if he should fall for another woman, your life is forfeit. The morning after he marries that woman, Misty, your little heart will break and you will melt into sea foam. Your will utterly cease to exist. Heh, heh. Now for your half of the bargain..."
Her words clenched my innards. My hands shook. I thought that surely the pain and risk of death were the only prices I had to pay. What more could she want? "P-please tell me the price."
"I want your voice, Misty." She faced me. "It is your greatest gift and it is what I require as payment for your request."
"My voice? But..." I felt my world shrink. Without a voice, there was no way I could tell Prince Ash the truth of who saved him! "How will I speak to the Prince?"
The Sea Witch chuckled and said, "You can speak to him with your eyes and the graceful way you move. Yes, you will retain your mermaid-like grace. Surely you can make him love you with more than just a sweet song."
I said nothing, my eyes staring unfocused into space. My mind was trapped around the idea of losing my voice and home and how it was very possible that I could die. Then I became a little arrogant. What was the chance of him finding a mate in such a short time when I've always seen him alone? Surely if the Prince was courting a woman, I would have seen her. I had a chance!
Jessie swam towards me and her hair became like a infernal fiery chrysalis around us. It seemed alive in its own right. "So, Misty...why the hesitation? Are you afraid of the pain? Or is it the thought of doom that strikes fear in your heart?"
My resolve hardened. I lifted my chin to meet the Sea Witch's icy mocking eyes. "No, I want this. Anything to be with Prince Ash."
(End of Part One. Continued In Part Two. I'm sorry but the whole thing was too big to fit in one post!)
Putting my own spin on such a loved tale is the perfect challenge for me to stretch my writing skills and imagination. I had a lot of fun with this and I hope you enjoy reading it. Have some tissues handy, some parts do get pretty emotional.
I hope you really like my entry. Even though it is rather long, I think it's good enough not to come last place in the Contest.
Also I'm posting this here as the Judges of the Roses and Chocolates: A Romance One-Shot Contest made a small understandable mistake so I have to post my entry here.
Okay, this author's note is getting ridiculously long, so I'm going to shut up now. I hope you enjoy the story. Please review so I know if I did the fairy tale justice or not.
Thanks!
Rating: T
The Little Mermaid
The sea.
It was once my home. A world of shimmering, eternal blue like the finest cornflowers.
I turn my face into the wind. My fingers tighten slowly around the dagger's handle. The handle is sculpted into two gold serpents holding a sharp silver blade between their claws. I was supposed to plunge it into his heart, making his life forfeit to mine, but I could not do it. I love him more than my own life; killing him would only break his new bride's heart.
I know the agony of loss. It is a pain I wish I never had to inflict on anyone.
He won't miss me for long. They have each other and I have nothing. And thus, it is with a heavy heart that I stand here now, alone, gazing into the water. Dawn is fast approaching over the mountains. As the horizon grows brighter, I feel pain behind my breasts. My heart is breaking, but whether it is the beginning of my death or the sorrow from loving in vain, I do not know.
I can no longer bear to look at this instrument of death, so I fling it into the waves and watch it dissolve in a flash of red. As I prepare to follow it, I can not help but remember how I came to this miserable fate.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
I don't remember when the stone statue of a tall, pretty young boy of his age with ebony hair and a sword at his hip appeared near my garden. In my memory it was always there, just as the water was always blue. Such a thing may not have interested me had I not noticed the lack of a tail. This figure stood on two long stilts my Grandmother called "legs". Everyone who lived above the sea walked on them. I always wondered what walking on legs must have looked like. The way my Grandmother described it made it sound as if land dwellers walked with the same ease that a mermaid swam.
I began to rebuild my garden around the statue until it formed a giant circle like the sun. Brilliant red flowers with a rose-colored weeping willow that cast its form between light and shadow. When I had nothing else to do, I rested in my garden with my tail wrapped around the statue's legs, my eyes staring up at this its stone face. It had such beautiful eyes that I often traced with my fingertips. Its expression always seemed so heart-warming, as if it could peer into my heart.
People often told me that I, the youngest of my six sisters, was the fairest of them all. Then the statue must have been of the fairest man on land.
Sometimes I sang while I tended my flowers. Everyone said I had the most beautiful voice in the sea, and people often stopped to listen. They would then swim away sad, for I always fell silent when I noticed I wasn't alone. The songs I sang to the statue were for no one but myself and its stone ears.
When I was not in my garden, I liked to stand by the windows of Father's coral palace and stare up towards the moon. Occasionally, shadows of whales or land vessels drifted across its round face. Did the men on those ships ever wonder about life below the sea the way I dreamed about life on land? Did they know how much I dreamed of being among them?
I will never belong up there, but I don't think I belong here either. Is there a place anywhere where I can fit in?
Then I heard talk about what one person or another saw above the waves. Grandmother, who had been to the surface more times than any other mermaid, wrapped me in her thinning white hair and wove fantastic stories about the world above. It sounded so beautiful! Mountains, stars, a sky as blue as the sea, animals with four legs, green trees, flowers with scent, fish that swarm in the air and sang in the trees, music, cities and grand ships that flew across the water. The more I heard, the more I longed to see for myself. I wanted to see it all!
Alas, I had to wait. I was only ten years old, and Grandmother always told me I could not venture to the surface until I reached my fifteenth year.
"...Grandmother is already making my wreath for tomorrow." It was my eldest sister, Daisy, whose tail was as gold as mine was green as the sea. She turned and her wavy yellow hair curled around her face. All she wanted to do was boast - excuse me - talk about her plans for the next day. I hadn't paid any attention until she burst out, "Misty! Stop fawning over that statue and listen! Are you going to see me off tomorrow?"
"Of course," I replied, but remained wrapped around my statue, "You are so lucky...I have to wait the longest of us all."
She turned her tail to me, "Your time will come, little sister."
"Daisy! Father wishes to have an audience with you."
Daisy faced Violet, the second eldest. Violet's skin was pale and her tail dark indigo-violet. She always adorned herself with the jewels she found in shipwrecks. Her breasts and hair were covered in lovely gems and beads that glittered every which way she turned.
"I'll go, then," said Daisy, and she swam away.
Violet crossed her arms, "You're always so quiet, Misty. Are you jealous of Daisy's coming of age?"
"Maybe a little." I answered. "There is nothing I can do but wait."
I watched Violet pick one of my red flowers and place it in my hair. "You can't just dream the time away. Ever since that statue fell down here, you have spent hours here instead of playing in the shipwrecks like you used to."
That made me laugh, "Each time I do, I find that you already went through and took the treasures for yourself. You never leave any behind for me."
She giggled at me. "But your hair is so fiery red that such things would not suit you as well as they do me. I fancy that when my hair begins to turn whiter like Grandmother's, no one will even notice."
"Definitely not. Your hair is like your tail!" I caught a strand of her vividly coloured hair and playfully tossed it back towards her face.
Another laugh. "Perhaps...now come along."
The next morning was all fanfare, music, dancing and celebration. My sisters all began to sing, only to drop out when my voice joined theirs. Father clapped his hands and beckoned me to sit with him. I did so and watched Grandmother dress Daisy for her journey. She placed a wreath of pearl flowers atop Daisy's head and ordered eight of her own twelve tail oysters to attach to Daisy's flukes.
Father gazed around and a frown creased his lined brow. "Where is Buttercup?"
"Here!" Called a tiny voice by the squid bowl. Buttercup loved to eat, and I'm surprise that she is not yet as fat as a sperm whale. I saw her dark grey tail ripple and then she appeared beside me. As always, her midnight hair was twirled into a bun. "Rose was supposed to tell me when you were seeing Daisy off. Weren't you, tuna tail?"
Rose pushed her chartreuse curly hair out of her face. She had a yellow tail like the fins on tuna fish, which Buttercup always made fun of. "Excuse me if I didn't want to miss this." She pouted, "Maybe if you stopped stuffing your face for once - "
"Will you two stop it?" Lily thrust her magenta fins between them. "Sometimes I can't believe you two are older than I."
"Girls! Cease this bickering!"
They gasped. "Yes, Father. Sorry, Father!"
Daisy drifted towards the arching coral door, which was shrouded by tall, green seaweed. "Well, I suppose I should be off. I'll see you in a while." And I watched as she twisted outside and shot straight up out of sight.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
"...the moon wasn't as big up there as it looks to us, but it was glowing white like a silver coin under sunlight and surrounded by stars." Daisy was relaying to everyone about her journey to the surface. She talked excitedly about everything, "I really enjoyed lying on a sand bank in the moonlight. The ocean lapped at my tail, and between the crash of waves I heard the gongs in the shrines and temples Grandmother told us about last year. I could also hear the monks chanting in prayer and smelled so many things I can not tell you which scent belonged to what."
My other sisters listened attentively, but said little. I asked the most questions, many of which Daisy could not answer. In my frustration, I departed from the room and curled myself around my statue.
"At least you don't get short with me when I ask too many questions," I said to it.
A shadow fell across me. "Aww, Misty! You look so sad." I looked up to find my friend, a merboy around my age named Drew, floating near the top of my willow tree. He swished his dark green tail, a much deeper shade of green than mine tail's, once to reach my level. "C'mon, I found a new shipwreck that Jessie must have sunk. Let's go there and look at it...maybe it'll take your mind off what has you so upset."
Little did Drew know that his choice of activity would have the opposite effect. Still, it was better than spending the afternoon completely alone. I gave my statue a farewell kiss and drifted to Drew's side. "It will be nice to see the treasures in a ship before Violet can get them."
"Oh, yes," he laughed, "I'm surprised she can swim with all those jewels attached to her."
We both snickered to ourselves.
Drew led me past a whirlpool, then pointed into a shallow valley of coral. There, turned over on its side, was a large wooden vessel. It had a jagged hole on its upturned edge. He and I both looked at each other.
"Last one there is a guppy!" I took off as fast as my tail allowed.
"Hey!" He came after me. I was almost to the hole when he slapped my tail and caused me to spin completely around in the water. We knocked heads and, after a stunned moment, laughed.
Tugging his hand, I pulled him inside. "C'mon, let's go in."
The first thing I saw was a roll of white material Grandmother called parchment. Land dwellers used it to write words or draw pictures. I could not read the text, but there were pictures of strange shapes with text written between them.
Look at this stuff
Isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Wouldn't you think I'm the girl
The girl who has ev'rything?
Isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Wouldn't you think I'm the girl
The girl who has ev'rything?
"Check this out!" Drew said, pulling something metal off the floor. "A sword! Hyah!" He swung it around with both hands, causing the muscles in his arms and chest to flex. He flailed it so eagerly that he accidentally cut the wall above his head. Debris drifted down. I had to dart aside to avoid being buried!
Look at this trove
Treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Lookin' around here you'd think
Sure
She's got everything
Treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Lookin' around here you'd think
Sure
She's got everything
"Drew! Be careful!"
Drew swatted debris away with the sword. "...Sorry. Misty, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine, but watch where you swing that."
He looked sheepishly at the sword. I swam past him and towards a doorway leading deeper into the land vessel. The floor there was littered with strange metal objects that were either curled, had a 'head' of sharp edges or like a miniature sword. I noticed they seemed to come in pairs, even in threes.
I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty
I've got whozits and whatzits galore
You want thingamabobs?
I got twenty
But who cares?
No big deal
I want more
I've got whozits and whatzits galore
You want thingamabobs?
I got twenty
But who cares?
No big deal
I want more
Drew leaned over my shoulder to peer at the objects in my hand. "What are those?"
"I'm not sure." I slipped my fingers around their 'hilts' and clicked the curled head one and the edged one together. They made a nice, tinkling click. "Perhaps they are musical instruments! See how they click?" I tapped them twice more before my attention fell on the edged one. It had a flat 'hilt' and a head made of three sharp 'edges'. "Oh...oh! I know what those are! Buttercup uses them to hold her hair in a bun." I snatched up one of each of and hastily wrapped my hair around them. Then I turned so Drew could see.
I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see
Wanna see 'em dancin'
Walkin' around on those
Whad'ya call 'em?
Oh – feet
I wanna see
Wanna see 'em dancin'
Walkin' around on those
Whad'ya call 'em?
Oh – feet
He laughed, "That looks kind of funny on you."
I giggled and let my hair free again. My heart grew heavier with each moment I spent gazing at the treasures from above. "Oh, Drew...the world on land must be full of more wonderful things just like this. I really wish it was my turn to go up."
Flippin' your fins you don't get too far
Legs are required for jumpin', dancin'
Strollin' along down a
What's that word again?
Street
Legs are required for jumpin', dancin'
Strollin' along down a
What's that word again?
Street
"What are you going to do if it's really boring up there? What if none of it is as fantastic as everyone makes it sound? Then what?"
Such a possibility never occurred to me. I hung my head and sighed. "I don't know. But it can't be boring. I've heard too many amazing stories for it to be anything less than fantastic."
There was no way I could ever tell him how I thought the world on land was so much vaster than under the sea.
Up where they walk
Up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin' free
Wish I could be
Part of that world
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin' free
Wish I could be
Part of that world
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
The years passed slowly for me. Each year one more sister got to rise above the waves while I stood alone in my garden or the castle, staring dreamily up towards the surface. My heart grew heavy with yearning. So heavy, in fact, that I hardly spoke to Drew when we explored sunken ships or teased the sharks.
Violet went to the surface and came back with stories of a beautiful sunset. She described how the sky changed colours as the sun sank into the ocean.
What would I give
If I could live
Outta these waters?
What would I pay
To spend a day
Warm on the sand?
If I could live
Outta these waters?
What would I pay
To spend a day
Warm on the sand?
Buttercup was very bold upon her journey on the surface. She swam up a river and saw land-dwelling children playing, but they noticed her tail and were too frightened to play with her.
Rose proved less adventurous and had little to tell, just one brief sentence about seeing a ship in the distance. I swam away from her disappointed.
Since Lily was born in the wintertime, she saw a different surface than the rest of us. For her the sea was green and the sky grey, and enormous icebergs rocked on the stormy water. "Then a storm came up," she said, "and the tips of the icebergs glew an ominous red."
Betcha on land
They understand
Bet they don't reprimand their daughters
Bright young women
Sick o' swimmin'
Ready to stand
They understand
Bet they don't reprimand their daughters
Bright young women
Sick o' swimmin'
Ready to stand
And so life went on. My sisters visited the surface many times to sing to sailors about to sink in one of Jessie's storms, but I doubt the ears on land would understand their voices as music.
Drew and I explored the resulting shipwreck, finding just a few pipes, rolls of cloth and broken weapons. Violet had already been there, and thus I found nothing worth keeping. I became so desolate that Drew tried everything to cheer me up - from playing hide and seek in the sails to tricking an angry lion fish into eating pearls.
And I'm ready to know what the people know
Ask 'em my questions
And get some answers
What's a fire and why does it
What's the word? Burn?
Ask 'em my questions
And get some answers
What's a fire and why does it
What's the word? Burn?
I pretended to enjoy it for Drew's sake.
When my sisters swam up to the surface, I often stood alone in my room, my heart breaking under my desire to be fifteen. Would that day ever come?
Eventually, they stopped going. Daisy claimed it didn't seem that special and that the world under the sea was lovely enough for her taste. My only link to the surface was gone. I wanted to scream.
"Your day will come, my daughter." Father curled his tail gently around mine. "But your mind must not always stay above the water. It will only make the time pass more slowly."
"You're right, Father." I sighed and left him to tend my garden, where I lost myself in pulling weeds.
When's it my turn?
Wouldn't I love
Love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea
Wish I could be
Part of that world
Wouldn't I love
Love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea
Wish I could be
Part of that world
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
The day of my fifteenth birthday arrived. At last! I was up before the sun, brushing my hair and scraping my tail clean of all sand and slime. Time moved at a sea-slug's pace! My time to surface had been chosen by Grandmother, but she had yet to tell me when I could go! The day wore on and nothing, nothing, nothing!
"Misty! You'll sully your tail if you keep swimming in circles!" Violet scolded me. "Look, you're tangling your hair again..."
"I'm sorry! I can not help this excitement! I want to go now!"
"Are you that eager, little one? Come, come, let me dress you up and then you can go." Grandmother held out her hand. I took it and she led me into her chambers to dress me properly.
The wreath of pearl flowers turned out to be a dreadful, heavy thing. My own garden flowers would have suited my hair much better. Grandmother pulled eight oysters from her flukes and attached them to mine. They pinched terribly!
I complained, "Oh! But they hurt me, Grandmother? Must I wear these?"
She eyed me sternly, her mouth a tight line, "Sometimes one must suffer in order to be beautiful. If I can wear these oysters every day, surely you can manage them for one night."
That silenced me. But I would gladly shake off all the finery that made me feel like something other than myself.
I swam out to greet my sisters. They each gave me words of advice on what to avoid and what to watch for, and then I could bear the wait no longer.
"Goodbye! I'll tell you what I enjoyed the most when I return!"
And I was off! Up and up as fast as I could swim. Though the oysters pinched me and my wreath dug into my scalp, I soon found myself oblivious to their presence. The shimmering water's edge grew nearer until finally, for the first time in my life, I splashed up onto the surface.
How light the air was! For many moments I floated there, just breathing it. I smelled the sea and heard dolphins splashing about. The sky turned darker and a few stars twinkled like pearls above my head. I faced the sun as it sank behind clouds building on the sparkling horizon. It was all so overwhelmingly beautiful and I did not know where to look first.
The stars began to vanish into darkness caused by clouds. It proved disappointing, as I had hoped to spend more time gazing at them. Little did I know that those clouds would signal the moment my life changed.
I finally looked behind me. There, I found a vast ship floating gently on the calm water's surface. It had one sail unfurled. But best of all...it was full of land dwellers! They sat on rope ladders and on benches, all of them laughing and playing stringed instruments. I watched how they walked on their two legs just as gracefully as any merperson swam. I paddled right up to the ship and grasped a rope dangling into the water; I did not want the ship to suddenly sail away before I had satisfied my curiosity. From there, I could watch the shadows of men cast on the sails. They were lighting torches and singing, but their singing was not as wonderful as that of my sisters.
Footsteps thumped gently above my head. A figure appeared behind the wooden rail, and my heart skipped a beat. That hair, those hands, those eyes...he looked just like my statue, but much, much more beautiful. He had fair skin and his hair shone the same colour as the darkness of the night. His eyes sparkled innocence and purity. He wore black armour over his clothes and the sword was in its hilt, strapped around his slim waist. The only difference between him and the statue became the fact that the real version was so much better.
The young boy poured something into a tiny bowl from which he heartily drank. Whatever it was, its effects were extremely soporific.
I could not breathe when a zephyr spilled his hair mere inches from my head. He leaned on the railing and I pressed myself harder against the ship's hull so he wouldn't see me. Between the ornate columns of the rail, I saw his feet. They were covered in black leather and looked so oddly small that I wondered how land dwellers managed to walk on them.
"My Prince!" a soft voice called from out of sight, "Why are you way down here? You are missing your party!"
"I don't see why everyone has to fuss over my birthday." said the young prince. His voice was the most wonderful sound ever created.
The voice replied, "You are drunk."
"I thought it was a party, Max."
"Oh what are going to do with you Ash," came the soft mutter. The other presence left and Prince Ash stood alone once again. He finished the bottle and flung it into the waves. Then he slid down to sit with his back against the wooden rails. Now his hair did brush against me. I did not dare play with it even though I badly wanted to.
I was right behind him, and he had no idea.
Gathering my courage, I dared to speak to him. If I moved quickly, I could always dive off the rope if he started to look behind him. "Why are you so sad on your birthday?"
Ash did not stand up or turn around. "I would rather be in the forest than on the water. Why do you care?"
"I know the feeling, and..." I trembled at the power in his voice, "It's my birthday, too, but it's not sad for me."
"Happy birthday," he scoffed, his speech mildly slurred.
I chewed my lower lip. Why was he so sad? "What is that substance you consume?"
"Wine, and I'm going to get more." He stood up and disappeared off the deck.
I dared to follow him by pulling myself up the rope. What a sight I must have been. I exhausted myself climbing all the way to the uppermost deck where I could see everyone aboard the ship. They cheered when Prince Ash walked slowly into view from behind a sail. He spoke to several of the men and women, but his words were too faint for my ears. Still, I forgot everything as I watched him move about. He never smiled, but he did consume another full bottle of wine without bothering to use a bowl.
Hours passed without my notice. I did not want to tear my eyes off the fair beauty of a man whose eyes with such beauty and sadness.
The sails began to billow. What had started as soft breezes were becoming strong gusts. Jessie and her cronies must have been stirring far below the ocean. I swore I heard her throaty chuckle, though the people on the ship would only understand it as thunder. They didn't pay it mind until the ship started rocking and those who drank too much alcohol began to fall over. Prince Ash merely wrapped his arm around a mast while the ship swayed. A few lost their stomachs all over the deck.
Lightning flashed in the distance. Alarm quickly overtook the festivities.
"There's a storm brewin' in the west!"
"Furl the sails before the wind rips them open!"
At that very moment the wind smashed the ship with a violence like I have never seen. The calm sea grew violent with waves taller than my Father's castle and tossed the ship hither and thither. Lightning lit the sky brighter than daylight. Rain battered anything in its wake. I lost my grip on the rope and landed painfully on my back in the wild water. Less than an instant after I fell, the very mast my rope was attached to crumpled in the howling wind. I dove below to avoid it. Waves flung the ship onto its side.
I grew delighted. This same ship was going to be near my home, I could explore it at my leisure later! I had great fun leaping away from beams like a dolphin. People aboard the sinking ship began to cry out. Did they not know what awaited them below?
Then I saw Ash leap off the deck. He stood erect on a strange cloud that formed at his feet. The one called Max stood at his side, clinging to his leggings.
But Fate had a cruel trick waiting in the waves. Just as the young prince moved forward, the waves hurled the empty bottle he tossed overboard straight into his head. He was blinded by the rain and did not see it coming. The glass shattered the centre of his forehead. He instantly fell into the water with blood running down his face. I glimpsed him clinging to a floating plank, his wound bleeding into the sea foam. Then a wave slammed down and the wood bobbed back up empty.
"Your Highness, YOUR HIGHNESS!" I heard Max screaming as the strange cloud carried him away.
Oh! Now he can live forever with me! I clapped my hands in delight. Then I remembered how Grandmother told me that land dwellers lacked the ability to breathe underwater. They drowned, and only reached the sea floor as corpses. No! I can't let him die! He is too beautiful to die and dissolve to nothing!
With that I dove far down under the tempestuous swells, my tail slapping the surface. It was difficult to see through all the murk created by the dirty ship debris.
"Ash? Where are you?" I looked around, grasping many drowned men until finally spotting him trapped against a coral shelf. His right arm was caught on the coral and he was too stunned by his wound to effectively free himself. He looked up at me with fluttering eyes when I swam down to his level. His lips changed to a strange, dark shade of blue. By the time I reached him, his eyelids had closed and he no longer moved.
Please don't die! I thought as I struggled to pull him free of the coral. I pulled against with all my strength. Soon I pulled him free from the wrenching hands of coral. A small intricate knife with a hilt of golden serpents fall out of the Prince's armour and I watched it fall and keep stuck in the coral as I pulled to free Ash. I wrapped my arms around my land-dwelling Lord and swam to the surface.
He coughed up some of the water he swallowed and his small lips gained a little colour. I saw his eyes flutter open. They were unfocused and trembling. He looked right at me, "...who?" and drifted back to unconsciousness before I could reply. His long eyelashes were dark fringes on his white cheeks. The wound on his brow was still bleeding slightly, causing blood to run down his wet face like crimson tears. I shifted his head to my shoulder so I could press one hand to his injury, my other arm supporting him to prevent water from entering his mouth. I felt his soft hair on my body when I laid back and kicked my tail so that the suction of the sinking ship could not snatch us back under. Hopefully, the current would take us to land.
I sang softly to Ash as the sea carried us away from the bubbling wreck. The storm weakened and quieted until the only sound became my voice. I paid it little mind. All I knew was the weight of the young prince's warm body against mine and the strange heat it created in my belly. I brushed my fingers over his graceful stripes and softly kissed his mouth. His lips and skin were softer than flower petals.
Ash started breathing only through his mouth, same gasps of warm air exhaling outwards. His breaths got very small and obviously painful. Each time he stopped breathing, I desperately stuck my fingers into his throat to irritate him into vomiting...it was the only way I could think of to make him start breathing properly again.
Time passed, turning the eastern horizon a rosy red. I looked over my shoulder and spotted land not far away. It was a huge island with a castle on the highest cliff, a stretch of beach at its base and a small village just offshore.
"We're almost to land," I told him. "Hold on, you can rest in just a moment. Please don't give up!"
I let the waves cast us to shore and used all of my strength to pull Ash away from the water. The effort left me breathless. I collapsed on his chest, gasping. His heartbeat grew very faint and he did not breathe well while flat on his back. I heard his chest make unnatural rattling sounds, so I cradled him on my tail and rested his head on my budding breasts. A small string of seaweed floating on the surf found new use as a bandage for his bleeding forehead.
I lost all track of time. The first rays of dawn washed over the ocean and shone on the lovely man resting against me. He shivered despite being warm. His cheeks flushed. A fever...that did not bode well for him, but I knew not what else to do besides scoop cool water from the waves and sprinkle it on his burning skin. It didn't help.
Ash opened his eyes, clouded with pain, when the sun hit his face. He grabbed my hand, looked at my tail and then up at me. I smiled and kissed the soft spot right in front of his ear. "Are you all right?"
The Prince stared at my face for the longest time. The hand gripping mine relaxed and his eyes fluttered shut. He made a gurgling sound and foamy pink water dribbled from between his lips. My smile dropped and I nuzzled his cheek. I didn't know what else to do besides hold him and stroke his hair. If he was going to die, the least I could do was comfort him in his last moments.
I sang to him softly, singing my Grandmother's lullaby as sweetly as I possibly could. The Prince seemed to relax all of a sudden, looking more happy and calm than before. I smiled as I looked at him, singing to him; as if nothing else mattered in the world.
Suddenly, voices! Music! Oh, no! I couldn't let the humans see me!
I hurriedly built a mound for Prince Ash to sit against. At that time I honestly believed that would be the last I saw him alive. My final close up view of Ash was of him covered in sand, shivering and turning blue again.
"Goodbye, Ash. I'm sorry that I can't stay with you." I slithered into the water and covered myself in sea foam.
A group of human women dressed in dark blue with white hoods over their heads came over the hill. The one in the back of the line was dressed differently and the most beautiful. Her eyes reminded me of the sapphires and her brunette hair was pulled back away from her pale face. The flute I heard a moment ago lay tucked in a fold of her pink and green clothes. She saw Prince Ash and rushed to his side.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" The woman touched his face. He didn't move, not even a fluttering of his eyelids. She examined his injured head and bent to listen to his chest, then looked up at her companions. "His lungs are full of water...he isn't breathing, but his heart still beats."
"I will fetch help," one of the women said, and rushed off out of sight.
I watched the loveliest woman lay Ash on his side and pound his back and side with her fist. He sputtered a little. Try as he might he did not seem capable of inhaling. The woman bent and covered his mouth with hers. His chest rose twice. He heaved up a ton of water quite suddenly and the woman rolled him back onto his side.
"There, cough it all up." She continued to pound his back and side until his coughs no longer spewed foam or water. Even from that distance I could hear him taking in full breaths. His colour already looked better.
The young prince opened his eyes. He looked dazedly up at the beautiful woman and whispered something I couldn't hear. Probably the 'thank you' that should have been mine. He lost consciousness again almost immediately.
I did not stay any longer. Turning from the scene, I dove into the waves. I found the small knife still tangled in the coral where I left it. Pulling it hard with both hands, I managed to tear it free and took it home with me.
My sisters met me part way. Father grew worried when I did not return after a short time and sent them to search for me. They were relieved to see me, but I had not the words to explain what happened or where I obtained the furry pelt. With a heart heavier than lead, I swam into my sleeping room and spoke to no one for the entire day.
For months afterward, I swam to the spot where I left the handsome prince. I saw no sign of him. I watched the seasons change from calm to stormy to snowy, but not once did I see my Lord. I feared the possibility of him not surviving the fever brought on by the water he swallowed.
My sorrow deepened. I could not bear to explain anything to my sisters. Eventually, they stopped asking, and I spent even more time alone either on the surface or in my garden, wrapped around my statue and touching his pale lips. I had long since stopped caring for my flowers. They grew wildly all around, choking the tree and invading the pathways to the castle.
I believed then that Prince Ash was lost to me.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Daisy found me in my garden. I hardly left it anymore, save to search the surface for Ash. She wrapped her tail around mine and looked worriedly down at me. "Misty...it's been months. What happened up there? Please tell me. Did a fishing boat nearly catch you? What happened?"
I could not bear it any longer and told her everything. She in turn told my other sisters. Somehow, Drew got word of it.
"Misty! Why didn't you tell me right away? The Prince is alive and well! My sister saw the ship and she knows where he lives...he's Crown Prince of the land and lives by the western shores of the biggest island." Drew grabbed my arm and tugged me away from my garden, "C'mon, I'll show you! It's this way."
Drew led me past a place where the shore narrowed into a channel. We swam dangerously close to fishing nets to emerge in a lovely bay. The waves couldn't reach the deep blueness, which was fed by a waterfall that made the water oddly misty near the surface. Night fell just as Drew and I surfaced near a sprawling castle.
Drew pointed to the lights on our right. "There it is."
The castle was made of many buildings of all sizes, but the main building had a dock that stretched far out over the water. It ended in steps that would be underwater when the tide came in. Set off to the side was a small hanging bridge that led to another small dock under a giant weeping willow with boughs that kissed the water. Candles and torches were lit inside most of the structures. I saw silhouettes of people moving around behind the thin paper screens.
"Thank you very much, Drew." I hugged my friend. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to."
He blushed and turned away. "Yeah, you're right...I'm really not supposed to be up here. Don't you stay too long, either, or the tide will leave and you'll be stranded."
"I won't." I heard a splash and knew Drew was gone. A short time later, I glimpsed Ash walking up the path to the main building. Beside him was the small young boy, a page apparently, that owned the small soft voice...that was the one he called Max. I did not hear what they were talking about.
Knowing where the Prince lived gave my heart new joy. I could see him whenever I wanted!
The next night, I took Ash's knife and a bouquet of my sea-flowers to the castle. When all the lights had been extinguished, I left the knife on the end of the dock with the flaming red blooms resting on top. Then I rushed back into the water, hiding myself under the dock to wait until morning.
Prince Ash's door slid open precisely at dawn. I heard his soft footsteps creak the wood above my head. Then I saw his reflection at the end of the dock. He was kneeling to pick up his pelt and paused upon seeing the flowers.
"Your Highness? Breakfast is being prepared." Smaller, faster steps skittered across the dock. "What did you...oh! Your knife! How did that get here? And what of those odd flowers - "
"I don't know." came the soft gentle reply. He stood there staring at the red flowers in his hand. They were lovely against his fair skin. "Could you put the knife back in my home? Thanks."
I know not what Ash did with the flowers. He seemed to like them. It felt right to continue leaving him blossoms from my garden. I collected them in the prettiest shells I found on the sea floor and left them on the dock.
One night, many weeks after returning my Lord's knife, I surfaced to find the Prince lost in thought on the little bridge between his castle and the willow tree. The moonless night offered me a cloak of darkness, allowing me to stick just my hand out of the water and place the abalone shell full of flowers on the dock.
"Huh?" He turned just as I slipped out of sight. I heard the bridge creak, then his footsteps just above my head.
If only I had the courage to simply reply. Surely I could explain myself. Yet, at the same time, I knew my tail would repulse him. I remained motionless. Prince Ash knelt and picked up the abalone shell.
The Page Boy Max spoke from out of sight. "What is it?"
Prince Ash straightened. "It looks like another present."
"Ohhh, shall I place it with the rest?"
"I suppose..." Their voices and footsteps faded towards the castle.
The next weeks were filled with me surfacing to watch the happenings of the people on land. Once every month Ash disappeared into the forest. On the days he was gone, I observed the others at the castle. I think I saw his father once - a tall man with his silver hair pulled back. He wore a cape of royalty. The King only carried one sword, which bore a large jewel on the pommel.
Talk around the castle told me of the Prince's travels. Sometimes he ventured out over the sea in a small boat or on his flying cloud. If he knew that I sometimes followed him, he gave no indication. When I followed his adventures over the water, I remembered how I pulled him from beneath the waves, held him to my breasts and kissed his small lips...but he clearly had no memory of my saving him and couldn't even dream of me.
Everything on land seemed vaster than my world under the sea could ever be. There were mountains to climb, boats to sail on and many more things I could not see. My heart grew fonder towards it with each passing day.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
"...you can't tell me anything else?"
Buttercup put down her seaweed kebab and said, "That's all I know, Misty. What has you so enchanted anyway? This world is so much prettier than that drab place."
Her casual disrespect for what I loved sent daggers through my spine. I stiffened. "Fine, I'll have to ask Grandmother. You can have the rest of my supper."
My older sister shrugged and grabbed my food. She laid herself back on her tail and happily ate. I swam out of the room, my mind twirling. Grandmother sat on her throne with her scarred tail curled around the base. Her hair floated just above her left shoulder as she fed a fish from her hand.
"Misty, what brings you here?" A smile wrinkled her face, "More questions?"
I nodded, coiling my tail beneath me to sit on her flukes. "I wonder about how they die up there...can they die without drowning?"
"Oh, yes. A bad wound can kill almost anyone." Grandmother drew me to her chest. "Humans normally have a short lifespan less than a century, far less than our mermaid lifespan of three hundred years."
"Do they become foam?"
"No...when a person from the land dies, their body releases their soul. The soul is an immortal thing that rises up to another realm, a realm called Heaven, leaving the earthly body behind." She lowered her tone, her face serious. "Merpeople have no souls, Misty. When we die, we cease to be. But it is better that way. We have a long life, a long time with which to enjoy the beauty of the sea, so don't worry your pretty little head about all this soul talk."
"So I am to disappear from time and memory when I die? With nobody to remember me?" I rocked back when she nodded. "That is a terrible thing, Grandmother! I would give up all of my years for one day, one chance to live on land and have a soul and be remembered when I'm gone!"
"Misty- " she said.
I didn't let her finish. "Grandmother...is there any way, any possible way I could win myself a soul?" I clenched my fists while looking intently into her pale eyes. "I need to know!"
Her silence proved long and frustrating. Would she tell me? She had to know how badly I needed this information!
"My sweet little Misty...to win yourself a soul...a man from the land has to give you part of his own. To do that, he must love you more than anything in the world and declare his undying love for you. Then part of his soul would enter you and to God, that would be more than enough to accept you in Heaven." Grandmother stroked the tangles from my hair and smiled. "But my dear, your tail is ugly to those on land. No man would want you unless you had legs just like every other girl. Now stop your worrying."
I looked away. She turned my head back with one finger. "There is a ball tonight. Please attend, it will take your mind off this silly soul business."
There was no room to ask further. Grandmother swam away to prepare for the ball, leaving me alone to ponder the inevitable oblivion in my future.
Little did I know that the song I sang at the ball would be the last song that left my lips. Yes, I did go; I stayed just long enough to sing so that everyone believed I was enjoying myself. Then I fled the dancing and laughing to be alone in my garden.
Drew found me there, tearing off the party adornments my sisters placed in my hair.
"Misty, aren't you going to sing some more?"
I avoided his eyes. "No. I didn't want to stay."
"Why?"
"I've figured out how I can become human, Drew." I said, hugging my statue. "...and I don't want anyone to stop me. Especially not you."
"Misty..." he flicked his tail and thrust his face angrily into mine, "...don't say what I think you're going to say."
"I am going to see the Sea Witch."
He glared at me, his emerald orbs flaming in anger and fear. "NO! Misty! Don't you dare! She'll kill you! Are you really that stupid?" Then he crossed his arms. "I swear, if you go, I'll go tell your father and grandmother. They'll make sure you don't see the surface ever again."
"Drew..." now it was my turn to glare, "if you do, I'll never speak to you again. I mean it!"
His pupils shrank. For a moment his lips moved silently, then finally he sputtered, "Misty, you wouldn't do that to your best friend!"
"I would!" I straightened myself fully, clenching my fists. "I want this, Drew. Nobody under the sea can give me legs except for Jessie."
"I hate it when you get these ideas in your head. I hate it." If merfolk could cry, I am sure Drew was about to burst into tears, of anger and of despair. He knew I was headstrong and there would be no convincing me to stay. With a deep sigh, he averted his eyes. "If she can't do it-"
"She can, I just know she can." I kissed his cheek and offered him a smile, my anger melting. "This might be goodbye. If I don't return, you'll know I made it."
" Misty, please..." Drew tried to swim in my path, but I easily rolled around him and darted past my tree. He followed me. "Misty, I-"
"I'm going." I left him there, alone.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~
The path to the Sea Witch's dwelling place proved long and terrifying. I swam past volcanoes, boiling whirlpools and eels that glowed odd colours in the murky darkness. The whirlpools threatened to suck me into a place where nightmares came from, and the squids darting in the path tried to capture me in their monstrous tentacles. I trembled, binding my hair around my breasts as I swam with my arms crossed.
Eventually, all life ceased. There existed only rock, skeletons and pieces of old flesh. Bone traps held fast anything that dared swim between them. A treasure chest, fish, an eel, many human skeletons and even a poor mermaid child who swam too close. I wailed and swam past her body at my fastest speed.
I got past the bone trap forest and darted into a giant whale skeleton with flesh still clinging to its bones. I saw a bowl in the middle, a strange torch of blue light and many grotesque white crabs that crawled all around.
"Hello?" I drifted to sit by the large bowl.
Suddenly, a piece of the darkness wrapped around my tail! I shrieked in fright.
"So...here is the little mermaid." I heard a low voice from above. "I knew you were coming to me."
Then Jessie descended from the ceiling. She had the lower body of an octopus that intertwined itself endlessly about the whale's ribcage and ended in flukes shaped like fans. Fleshy, twisting tentacles extended from the lower half of her body, one of which held me firmly still. Long cerise hair floated around her sickly white face. Her narrow eyes reminded me of blood droplets that gleamed in cruel pleasure at my plight. Her eyelids were pale blue like the unnatural torch. She might have been once beautiful if her eyes weren't so cold and mocking.
I felt her icy fingers wrap around my shoulders. Our faces were mere inches apart. My heart beat so hard I saw my left breast moving. "Please, Jessie...if you knew I was coming, then surely you know what I came for."
The Sea Witch laughed softly. "You want to become human so that Ash will love you enough to proclaim undying love to you, thus granting the soul you desire. It is a foolish wish that can only leave you in pain, Misty, but...if you're willing to pay the price, I'll grant it for you." She smiled at me, her face so deceivingly gentle.
"Anything." I shivered. Fear twisted my voice small. "No price is too high for a soul."
"Good." The tentacle holding me up relaxed, letting me slip to the ground. Jessica tossed a serpent into the bowl to clean it and then began adding several foul ingredients. A tongue, serpent scales, the eye of a squid and crocodile tears. The last was some of her own dark blood. She looked up at me. "It is a good thing you came now. One more day and you might have ended up waiting a full year for my help. Now...this potion I am making will cause an alchemic reaction that will turn your tail into legs. Once you drink it, you will become human forever. You will never again be able to join your family in the sea."
"All right- "
"The potion will cause you agony when you swallow it. Every walking step will feel as if burning swords stabbed your feet. Shall I continue?"
I set my brow and pushed my hair out of my face. Grandmother once said one must suffer in order to be beautiful. Now I understood what she meant.
"Yes."
Another chilling smile. She stirred her potion with one tentacle. It made horrible, monstrous sounds like something terrible being born. "If the Prince does love you enough to take you as his wife, then you have nothing to fear. However...if he should fall for another woman, your life is forfeit. The morning after he marries that woman, Misty, your little heart will break and you will melt into sea foam. Your will utterly cease to exist. Heh, heh. Now for your half of the bargain..."
Her words clenched my innards. My hands shook. I thought that surely the pain and risk of death were the only prices I had to pay. What more could she want? "P-please tell me the price."
"I want your voice, Misty." She faced me. "It is your greatest gift and it is what I require as payment for your request."
"My voice? But..." I felt my world shrink. Without a voice, there was no way I could tell Prince Ash the truth of who saved him! "How will I speak to the Prince?"
The Sea Witch chuckled and said, "You can speak to him with your eyes and the graceful way you move. Yes, you will retain your mermaid-like grace. Surely you can make him love you with more than just a sweet song."
I said nothing, my eyes staring unfocused into space. My mind was trapped around the idea of losing my voice and home and how it was very possible that I could die. Then I became a little arrogant. What was the chance of him finding a mate in such a short time when I've always seen him alone? Surely if the Prince was courting a woman, I would have seen her. I had a chance!
Jessie swam towards me and her hair became like a infernal fiery chrysalis around us. It seemed alive in its own right. "So, Misty...why the hesitation? Are you afraid of the pain? Or is it the thought of doom that strikes fear in your heart?"
My resolve hardened. I lifted my chin to meet the Sea Witch's icy mocking eyes. "No, I want this. Anything to be with Prince Ash."
(End of Part One. Continued In Part Two. I'm sorry but the whole thing was too big to fit in one post!)
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