13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Meria

M y tail hurt. I tried to sway it back and forth to figure out exactly what was wrong with it; only, something did not feel right. Noise–I could hear noise. Waves were crashing against rocks, and something above me was making strange squawking sounds, and air –air was all around me. My melody sang out, hoping to connect with any nearby mer. I took in gulps of air, greedily, touching my hand to my heart.

I was on land.

This is okay–I will be okay.

Feeling even more pain in my tail, I opened my eyes, wondering if I had injured myself. My head was turned to the side, and the view before me distracted me from my goal for a moment. There was a human man there beside me–breathing heavily, soaking wet on the sand.

In a surge, it all came back to me.

I saved this human. We both passed out on this beach.

In the morning light, I could see the man more clearly; he had a glint of gold at his ear, a ring of sorts, a scar on his cheek, and his dark brown hair went this way and that and partially covered his face. I remembered that hair did not float around people, or mermaids, when they were above the sea. My hair was just hanging there all around me–and rather heavily.

I reached out to rub my aching tail when I realized that I was missing my scales. I had skin where my tail should have been. I sat up with a start, surprised to see two legs there, instead. It was strange. I blinked over and over again, as if blinking would make it less shocking. It did not work.

This is good–you are half human.

I had no idea how to use those legs. I knew that humans balanced on them.

Perhaps, before this human wakes up, I can practice.

I needed to behave like a human, after all, did I not? I wasn't sure that I wanted this human to know I was a mermaid, especially because I didn't know if humans were still evil, as they once were when we had gone under the Marren Sea. Finn had always said humans had changed, but I wanted to be safe.

I placed my hands on either side of me in the dry sand, and I tried to lift myself up, bending my legs as I attempted to use my feet. I only knew the anatomy of legs because Finn had once explained it to me. Pulling myself up, I wobbled and fell back down. I tried over and over again in frustration until, finally, I stood and balanced myself. I took my first few steps, and to my surprise, it was quite easy. I walked back and forth, falling every once in a while, but my legs were surprisingly strong, and once I figured out how to balance on them, I could walk easily, just putting one foot before the other. I smiled at my triumph.

It is easy because it is part of who you are.

My melody was singing so loudly I was sure it would wake the human if he had a melody of his own somewhere inside of him–although I detected none. I walked back down beside him, looking him over once more. Then after some time, I turned to look at the island, the place that my people must have once inhabited. I wanted to see what it was like.

There were no clear signs of my people having ever lived on Marren Island from my walk through nearly half the island. I was disheartened by that. How could there be no signs that my people had once dwelt there? I had legs. That had to be the place where we spent time as humans.

As I walked through more of the wet foliage and tall plants on the west side of the island, I was in awe of it all. Although so different from the kelp forests, which I had always thought were rather beautiful underneath the sea, those plants had their own beauty, a land forest of sorts. I walked a while longer before deciding to turn back toward the beach where I had left the human, when I stopped suddenly, wobbling at the abruptness, because something on the wet ground caught my eye. Bending down without falling was not particularly easy, but I managed. It was something hard, like stone, yet carved and buried deep within the sand. I pulled at it, and after digging about it for a while, it came out of the ground, causing me to fall. It was hollow beneath it. It was dark and deep. I dug around the edges for many minutes, and soon a sort of cavern was revealed. I crawled in just a little ways, where I discovered something white and partially covered with the wet, brown, sticky sand that was all over the island's forest floor. I wiped it off, revealing ridges and a beautiful pink inside. A seashell. I smiled. Then at my left, under some small rocks, I discovered something else. I pulled it out from the brown, wet, sandy ground, wiping it off to reveal a strand of black pearls. They were Marren pearls–a necklace. My sister’s pink strands were strung in just the same way. Surprised, I looked even closer around where I stood. There were small things all over: some netting, more pearls, Abalone and conch seashells, as well as small slates, which were cracked and partially buried, but clearly carved in a Marren script.

My people have been here. This must be part of an old home.

There were no structures or buildings. It had been five hundred cycles. Perhaps, they tried to destroy any evidence of their civilization before going into the sea, or their buildings might have been destroyed by storms, or even just the natural processes of time. And yet, those seashells, that strand of pearls, so clearly mer. That made me smile.

We had been there–my people.

You are exactly where you are meant to be, my melody sang.