Page 2 of A Merman's Tail
Lyric
Around a year ago….
I stared at the object in my hand and the weird shape of it. I’d never quite seen anything like it before. Long and round at the tip with two circular objects hanging from underneath one end, I couldn’t quite understand what the people above the water used this for.
“Do you know what that is?” Pru asked, his waist length hair dancing in the water around his head. I once had hair as long as his before I sheared it off with a blade I’d found in father’s hunting weapon vault. Now mine barely reached past my shoulders
“What?” I asked, turning the human object in my hand.
“It’s what humans use to mate.” Pru swam around me, flicking his emerald tail like he always did when he wanted to show off. His scales were prettier than mine, and they sparkled like lost treasure under the sunlight that filtered through the water.
“I don’t understand.” I stared at the human contraption and turned it around in my hands again. How did humans mate with this? It was pink and almost see-through.
“It’s a phallus!” Pru said, chuckling. He did a swirl in front of me before he swam closer and pointed at the tip of the long part. “That’s where theiressencecomes out. It impregnates their females.”
“Where?” I stared down at the end of it, squinting. “I don’t see any essence.”
“And this….” Pru wrapped his hands around the two round sections of the phallus, squeezing them. “This is where the essence is created.”
“How?” I turned it around in my hands again, but it seemed solid.
“What you have in your hand is fake, though. The real thing is connected to the human males. Here.” Pru patted himself just below his belly, near where his tail began. “That’s why they wear pants. So they don’t spray it everywhere and impregnate all the human women.”
“That sounds scary,” I murmured, attempting to decide whether I should drop the object or not, but it was human, and I always kept everything that I found from above in my treasure box.
“They are. Human males areveryterrifying. Alas, it’s why I don’t visit the surface often. They are scary beings, Lyric. You don’t want to go up there.”
I did, though, and had since I’d found my first piece of treasure. Mother explained that it was a doll, and even though one of the legs had been ripped off and the hair was twisted and matted, it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. That was when I’d first wished I had legs, like the one the doll had, except I wanted two and not just one. I’d told Mother that, and she’d laughed and patted my head before telling me that I could never be human.
“What is this, then?” I asked, holding up the object toward my older brother. “Why do you think they have something shaped like their breeding tool?”
“I don’t know.” Pru shrugged, his green eyes glimmering in mischief. “Humans are strange.”
I shook my head. As far as I was concerned, they were interesting—a mystery I wanted to solve.
“It’s your birth date today,” Pru said, as though I wasn’t aware that I’d finally turned twenty-five summers old. “Are you going to do it?”
I knew what he was talking about, of course: the journey. When our kind turned twenty-five, we finally had the right to travel to the surface and feel the sun on our faces for the first time, breathe in the air that the humans used. We could never stay above water for long, but we were taught that as soon as our lungs hurt, it was time to return to the depths, away from the dangers that were humans. Our elders told us stories of the humans, and how they killed without mercy. They told us to always be wary of them, to hide whenever we saw them in their floating contraptions, but I’d felt anything but fear when I listened to the stories. I wanted to meet one and to understand how they lived their lives. I wanted tobeone of them.
“Yes. I’m supposed to meet Grandfather at the throne room soon.”
“Now, actually,” Pru said, grinning. He’d always had such a beautiful face, with high cheekbones, sparkling eyes, and a pretty mouth. The men and women of Atlantia loved him, though not as much as they loved our other brother, Crown Prince Wily. Our eldest brother was the epitome of merfolk. He was regal in all the right ways. “Grandfather sent me to get you.”
“Oh.” I stared down at the object in my hand, the phallus, and frowned. I didn’t want to lose it, and if any other merfolk saw it, they’d throw it in the Pits: the darkest and deepest trench of the sea. They hated everything to do with humans. “I’ll take this to my treasure box, and then I’ll go.”
Pru rolled his eyes. “Why do you keep their possessions?”
“Because they are beautiful,” I murmured, running my hand down the phallus and over the circular ball shapes attached.
Pru waved his hand. “If you insist, hurry up. You know Grandfather doesn’t like to be kept waiting. He’s busy.”
I nodded and didn’t waste any time, flicking my tail to propel me forward. I swam as hard and fast as I could, heading in the direction of my human treasures that I kept secure in an old wreckage not far from Atlantia. The merfolk avoided this area, claiming the humans would come back for it eventually. It’d been here since I was born, and still they had not come for it.
I sneaked through a hole in the wood and it creaked. Sharks sliced through the water around the old floating device—the humans called it a boat—but they never worried me. They had enough food without worrying about the merfolk, and they were used to us being around. This was their home as much as ours.
Heading toward the treasure chest—it’s what Mother had told me they called it—I opened the lid and stared at all the human possessions I’d collected over the years. My prizes ranged from the balls they kicked, to things they ate with, to sparkly coins. I’d obtained knowledge of what the objects were over the years, too, by talking to family and other merfolk who’d seen the humans, and even though they hated talking about the world above, they’d tell me so I would leave them alone.
I placed the possession on top of all my other treasures and smiled.There.Another human piece for my collection. I didn’t know the reason they had the phallus, but I was sure someone would know. I’d ask around later. Mind made up, I closed the lid to the chest and turned, sneaking back out of the hole. I didn’t get far before someone tackled me, and I did a twirl, the breath knocked out of my lungs.
