Aquata Cove Ch. 10

Merrick froze and then whipped his head around as he feels a sudden presence right next to him. It's one of those small fairies during the dance... An Undine. But... It's over, isn't it? The ritual is over, these sea nymphs, these Undines, shouldn't they be gone?

Merrick looked up to the surface. The light filtering from above still retains a red-pink tint. He looked back at the little fairy. It stared at him through its bright, golden eyes. On top of it's head fin, and its two, black antennae, there are three, tiny specs of light, glowing above itself. On either side of its head, there are small, spiky fins, similar to gills. Its body is small, smooth with a three-pronged tail fin at the end, and two long pectoral fins. On its back, there are thin, blue, fin-like wings that flapped slowly, keeping it afloat in front of Merrick. All along its body, there are elaborate, almost tribal markings glowing in a magenta luminescence. At the middle of its chest, there is a heart shape, around a heart-shaped frame design. Among the red symbols on its body, the heart-shape is glowing brightest, and in a rhythm that resonated with the glowing current of its body. It really does look like a tiny mermaid. This small, strange entity that looks upon this young merman with utmost curiosity.

Merrick looks right back at the lone fairy, silent and brightly beautiful... He wants to reason with it. There HAS to be a way for it to help him right now. If Undines are the love messengers of the Sea Mother Atargatis, then maybe this nymph would be willing to help. Merrick held his hand out, reaching it slowly to the mystical being. The Undine tilted its head as Merrick reached for it.

The water fairy floated closer to him, very curious of this sad merman. It has seen many merfolk at this time of the moon's anomaly, and they usually look content if not brimming with joy, but this one looks... Aggrieved. The Undine shimmered to him as it moves claser, right before Merrick's middle finger touched the heart-shape of the Undine.

The fairy flashed itself and cringed, its pectoral fins wrapping around itself. Merrick gasped and flinched, looking like he caused the Undine pain.

But as he looked, the writhing water nymph seemed to be... Giggling... It shook as it held itself, the three lights on its head flittering even more brightly, its heart blinking under its fins, its wings fluttering as it 'laughed', its yellow eyes clenching as it tried to contain itself. Merrick then traced his finger very carefully along its tail, making the Undine giggle more at him. Merrick felt himself smile a little as he tickled the Undine, next petting its head with the tip of his finger. The fairy laughed, and swam in loop-dee-loop with joy. The little ocean sprite then darted to Merrick's face, and skimmed at his cheek before swimming off, its giggling becoming mystical echoes before it dissolved in the water, vanishing like any other Undine would.

"W-Wait!" Merrick said, reaching out. Surely, an encounter with an Undine like that has given him the opportunity for love, but... It's not really clear. It seemed happy, it didn't feel like he did anything wrong. Are merfolk even allowed to touch an Undine?

Merrick swims up from his spot, looking around, trying to spot the Undine. Alas, it seems to have disappeared. He looked around, spun on the spot, but he can't sense it. It just disappeared...

Then, the merman feels a weird sensation in his mind, the same sensation he feels when an animal is approaching. Something is nearby.

"~Callllliiiiinnnngg~" A foreign voice hymns. Merrick looked around, hearing this disembodied sound. Listening carefully, he beginn to trace the voice...

It's above him, "~You heeaar the caaaaalliiiiinnnng~" The Adra ascends up, listening for the new voice, swimming closer and closer to the surface. "~Calliiiiinnnnnngg ~You hear the caaalllliiiinnnngg~" The voice sings again, dragging on as Merrick swims.

The merman carefully raised his head out of the water, closing his gills to allow him to breathe the air as his eyes look up to see the source of the words.

"~~Let me go ~Gravity ~What's on my shoulder~~" Came the voice. Merrick whirled around and swam over to the rocks and placing his hands upon them as he stays low as a moving entity strolled along the top, "~Little by little ~I feel a bit bet-ter~"

A human. A male? He seems to be chanting words. What sort of things is he speaking of? He can't be singing, no male can sing. Only females can sing, so it's got to be chanting, but what for? Is he praying to the human god or something? "~Let me know ~Set me free ~Feel a bit ol-der~" This thing... This human... His chanting... It fascinates Merrick. The human seems to be wrapped in some sails as cloth is hanging from his upper and lower body.

"~Just once more to the breach ~Dear friend, Once more~" On his head, there is a short patch of blackness, similar to that of a whale's baleen. His skin is light shade of pink and tan color. There are strange, round appendages on either side of his head which held strange objects attached to these thin, string-like lines that lead to a fold in the cloth, "

"~Wake up! ~Leave your hesita-tion! ~Wake up! ~Time of US to realize! ~Wake up! Show apprecia-tion!~" Merrick carefully moves sideways, following the chanting human. The sadness that purged his insides a few moments ago has dissolved and has been replaced by very strange fascination. He can't take his eyes away from this human.

"~Wake up ~Time for us to reeeeaaalliiiiiiizzze~" The human is moving in a strange way as he moved, undulating his torso and moving his arms about. Upon observation, Merrick also sees the two long, think appendages under the human. Those are called legs, he believes. According to Denizyr, that's how humans move about, instead of having tails, like merfolk.

Merrick crept along, keeping himself hidden from the line of sight from the human, while still looking at him with estrange wonder. The laws state that if and when a merfolk sees any human they are move away immediately, but that thought is nowhere near Merrick's mind right now. This human... This male... How can something so alien and dangerous be so... Enticing?

~~~

Adam sings along with the music in his ears, enjoying the pop-music rhythm in his head as he strolls along the sandy turf. He keeps looking at the moon, taking a moment to admire the last of the red highlight on the side every minute or so. When the song ended, he takes his headphones out and rolls them up to stow away, "Huh, the moon's still has some red on it. Kinda creepy and cool..." The teenager said with a smile.

He took a few steps forward as he makes it off the rocks and onto the beach, where the water washes up from each wave. Just when he turns to the water, he stops himself. "Umm... Wha?? Ah..." Suddenly, a feeling came over him. He can feel himself... Blushing. His face feels light and hot, like he just kissed for the first time with his first boyfriend. His chest starts pounding, and this feeling of apprehension and good humor washes over him.

"What the... What's going on with me..." Then, Adam felt himself giggle, out of... Nothing... Why does he feel so happy and so anxious at the same time? "Heh heh heh, what, this is weird... Ahhh." He put a hand to his head, feeling a minor headache come on. Unbeknownst to him, his brown eyes are now gleaming with a faint, magenta shimmer, as well as a few ripples of magenta refractions along his black hair, and very shallow layers the hairs around his body, along with a subtle and dull sheen off his finger and toenails.

"Is this jet-lag or something? Agh... Why am I feeling like... I can't even..." He took a few deep breaths, before he sees something. In front of him is the sea. He looked around, just realizing how far away he walked from his grandparents' beach house.

Adam looked back onto the water, and spotted half a face, hiding behind the rock.

"Oh hey!" He said, stepping his sandaled-foot into the icy-cold shore as it drove up the sand and over his ankles, "You live around here?" With the subtle magenta sheen still playing across his form, completely unnoticed, he approached the rock, "It's a little late for swimming though, isn't it?" There comes no answer from this person... Or what looks like a person. Adam can make out a strange-looking face and an arm, they're probably wearing a mask.

"I uh... I'm not from around here. I'm from Washington State. You?" He asked the hiding stranger. Again, there is no response. "Oook? Can you hear me?" He took another step into the water, "My name's Adam, and you- AHH!" Without warning, Adam is overcame from a large splash from the sea! "AHH!" The teen yelped before he jumbled and backed away, one barefoot pressing into the sand, and realized that his right sandal has left his foot! "Hey! Dang it, my sandal!"

Adam peered over back to where the person was, but they vanished. "Hey! Are you still there?!" He asked while he jogged around onto the rocks to see the tail of a rather large fish! "WHOA!" He gapped while the enormous fish dove quickly down, disappearing after a big, white fin slapped the surface and slipped into the water. "Oh my gosh! What?? What WAS that?!" He exclaimed as the shimmering creature quickly vanished from sight in the dark waters, "What..." The teenager peers down into the water, only able to see the waving fibers from the nearby coral.

"... Oh wait, where..." He moves up to try and look for the person he was talking to. Adam gets up and trots around the rocks to tread the shore again, "Hello?? Are you there?! Where are you?!" He called out. There was definitely somebody there, wearing some costume or something. "Heeeeey! Ah..." He huffed, "Guess they were too shy or something..."

"ADAAAAAM!!!" Came an old woman's call, "Where ARE YOOUU??" The teenager turned around towards the source, and trotted up away from the shore.

"I-I'M OVER AT THE BEACH, GRANDMA!!" He called back.

"WELL, COME BACK OVER HERE! IT'S FECKIN DARK!!"

"OK! I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!!" He yelled back. Adam looked over his shoulder. He REALLY wants to check out the area for that fish, but he needs to get back to his grandparents; he's sorely tempted to just leap into the cold water and swim around, even without any goggles. Sighing, Adam turns back around makes his way back the sandy trail.

~~~

"He SAW me! That human saw me!" Merrick panicked as he swims down. "H-He could've killed me!" He pants, filled with fear. He looked right into his eyes! "He talked to me, he talked and... It's ok... I didn't say anything to him... As long as I didn't associate with that human, I should be fine... Right?" He asked himself.

Merrick clung to the reef as he kept under the water, his mind racing as he thought about this very close encounter with the human. He SPOKE to him! The human spoke to him! He was almost up close and personal with that human, and it wasn't carrying any weapons at all, is that normal for a human???

"It's ok... I'm ok... I... I should get back to the others... I..." After a few moments, Merrick started to remember something... "Wait... That human... The baleen on his head, and his eyes... They were shimmering with the light..." The young Adra connected his thoughts as he remembers the low-lit aura that was coming off of the human. "No..."

Merrick looked down at his tail and gasped as he sees a magenta sheen dance along the scales and the frills of his tail and fin. He looks at his arms and hands, and saw the same run of magenta glow play along his scaled apparatus.

"No... No, no, nooo," Merrick whined with fearful sadness as he rubs and brushes his hands against and along his arms, as if trying to push the aura off of his flesh like it was mud, "No, please nnnoo!"

This glow... The pink and magenta glimmer... This is the light that appears when a merfolk has found their love. The blessed aura of Atargatis's heart. The divine shine of the Sea Mother and the red moon. It's gleaming on his body, and it was radiating from that human male as well...

Merrick's insides purged with terror as a poisonous weight pushed down into him as the implications sink in slowly and painfully.

Besides that, he feels a disturbing sense of yearning. Merrick hyperventilates as he puts his hands to his head, echoing his shock and ill tidings over and over again. The more he thinks about it, the more wrong and unnatural he feels. The more he thinks on the human, the more he wants to see him. He wants to hear that voice again. He wants that... That THING to acknowledge him again like he did.

It's happened... His bond has been formed... With... He's fallen in love with a human...

"But..." The magenta aura slowly faded away, with the intense emotions still thrashing in circles inside of him. The merman looked up at the wavering image of a large, white light in the sky with a sliver of red on it, before it dissipated, reverting to its original silver light. "But... No... I CAN'T fall for a human!" Merrick said, feeling both terrified and rejoice at the same time, "Why, Sea Mother?! Why?!" He cries out at the surface. "N-Not just a human... Tha-That was male human- A-A man!" He hushed himself, grabbing his mouth.

"No, this is wrong, this is wrong... I am wrong, I am not... This, this isn't what I'm supposed to be! Did that Undine MEAN for this to happen?! Does that fairy even know what it's done to me?! WHY?!"

Merrick turns around, looking back up at the washing shore, up at the reef, panting with panic as he signals all around, making sure he is all alone. He feels so anxious... He wants to see that human again. All he can think of is that split second when their eyes met. Oh, his heart is pulling in his chest, commanding him to seek this human out. To meet him, talk to him, touch him...

"NO!" Merrick clutches his head again, cringing into the sand, racking his hand into it, digging harshly into it, "NO! Why?? Why am I wrong?? I wasn't supposed to happen! Why... Why..." He sobbed as despair cradles his injured spirit, with not even someone to answer any questions about this tragic choice...

Who can he even tell? Who would even understand? What could even be done?

~~~

Adam comes up to his grandparents' house, just as the magenta aura faded away from his eyes and hair. He kicks off his remaining sandal to the side right before the door to the illuminated house opened in front of him, "There you are Adam," The old Irish woman said as she looked him up and down, "What in God's name were you doing out there, boy? You're soaking wet! And where are your tongs??" She queried, noticing Adam's bare, sand-covered feet.

"I was walking by the beach, and a wave got me. One of my sandals got loose and I just took off the other one now." Adam replied.

"Well, go on, wash your feet off with the hose."

"Yes, Grandma." He replied as his grandmother went back into the house. He went around, and rinsed off his legs with the cold water of the hose. He recently made the decision of moving from Washington to Hawaii; he just arrived on the plane a couple of hours ago, in fact.

When he was finished, Adam came around, where his grandmother was waiting for him with a towel to dry off his chilled legs and stepped into the house.

"So Adam," The elderly woman said, "I understand you need a place to stay, now that you've moved here?"

"Yeah. Is it ok if I stay here for a while until I can find an apartment?"

"Yes yes, of course you can stay, but we need to talk. You, me, and your urchin of a Granddad-"

"I HEARD THAT!" Came an elderly man's voice.

"Yeeah, you were supposed to ya bastard!" Retorted grandma. Adam laughed as he walked in with his grandmother.

"So, what's this about?"

"Well, you know how Granddad and I keep talking about retiring in Germany...?"

TO BE CONTINUED . . .