Pocket Stories: Into the Depths (Part 1)

This story didn't come from a writing prompt or story starter. It came from me, musing about how all these stories about mermaids let them breathe underwater and then breathe air just fine. Fish can't do that, so why should mermaids? Take a look to see where that led me.

The surface was close, all she had to do was reach her fingers a little further and the water tension would break. The perfectly calm water lay like an ice sheet between her and the world beyond. Just a little further and she'd know for herself.

Her parents' warning rang through her mind: You can't be seen. You will be hunted and killed or sold. The air world is not safe for our kind, stay in the water, where you can be safe.

The water was all she'd ever known. It had fathoms yet to be explored.

But she didn't want fathoms, she wanted stars. With rebellion burning in her heart, she twitched her tail fin ever so slightly, pushing her fingers upward, breaking the surface tension at last.

Air stung her fingers and she yanked them back down into the water, holding them protectively to her chest. Hesitantly she tried again, this time only pushing one finger through to the surface. Again the air stung, but she refused to pull her hand back into the safety of the water. She had to know.

Slowly, painfully slowly she swam higher, keeping her hand outstretched above her. Her hand was through, her forearm, her elbow. Just as her head was about to break through, she paused. What if all the warnings of her parents and her people were right? Was she willing to risk everything just to know stars?

She decided she was and her head cleared the surface. The air stung her exposed skin. She could feel the moisture being whisked away. She tried to swallow the air and couldn't breathe. Her gills were above the water line. In panic she dove back down, gratefully taking in huge mouthfuls of water, her breathing returning to normal. She could feel her heart racing, and the spines down her tail were rigid. 

When her body had relaxed back into its usual sleek, streamlined shape, she looked again to the surface. This time, she went head first, but only as far as her nose. She made doubly sure that her gills remained underwater while she stared hungrily at the air world above her. The darkness above her mimicked the darkness below, with one vast difference. Where flashes of light reflected off the scales of the shoals that lived nearby, their numbers more than she had ever cared to count, the lights that shown above her did not dance and move. They did not flash momentarily before hiding away in the safety of the group. The light was steady, like the glow from the lava vents on the water's floor, unwavering and bright. The air was filled with these specks of steady light for as far as she could see. She turned and turned and turned, the lights stayed where they were, shining as though she were the only one to see them.



Comments

  1. David WDecember 19, 2022 at 9:47 PM

    Fantastic! I love the imagery and how realistic something like this would be for a water creature. It did make me think that having a story where the mermaids explore the deepest reaches of the ocean could be an exciting treasure hunt story.
    Kind of like an underwater national treasure, where Atlantis is like the hidden treasure place!

    Thanks for sharing, I really enjoy reading these pocket stories.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knight-Time Adventures: The tale of Sir Gabriel and Sir Jerry episode 1

Image
Once upon a time there were two knights, Sir Gabriel and Sir Jerry. They were knights of honor, always willing to assist a town in distress. One day they were riding on their horses through the countryside, enjoying the scenery and the gentle breeze that cooled off their heavy sets of armor.  From over the next hill, they heard a ruckus. Several people were yelling and crying, their actual words unintelligible. They rode over to investigate. What they found broke their very hearts. A town was in splinters. Every house was shattered, the wooden boards scattered across the square. People were injured and children were crying. Two young lad saw the gallant knights and ran up to them. "Help us, Sir Knights! Help us!" The knights looked at each other before responding. "What is it we can do for you?" asked Sir Gabriel. The lads turned towards their broken town. "A dragon has come and destroyed our town. It's taken off with all our precious things, and left us wi
Read more

Beautiful Rhythms: Distraction Music to Increase Focus

Image
Getting my thoughts written down is not always as easy as it should be. That blank canvas is intimidating. What if I mess it up?  When I was a senior in high school, I was in a class where we had to write a one page report every Friday about our week's activities. The class was over an hour long and we had the whole time to write this report, on computers, just one page. Simple enough.  Except every single Friday I would struggle for most of the class period to get a single sentence written on the page. That annoying cursor just kept blinking at me as if it was saying "Aren't you going to write something?" One day I'd had enough. I had my iPod with me, and a set of headphones. I asked the teacher if I could listen to some music while I worked on my report. She had no problems with that, so I sat down, plugged in my tunes, and looked at the computer screen. Five minutes later I had my report finished, edited, printed, and handed in. Needless to say, my teacher was
Read more

Pocket Stories: Blood Source

Image
Prompt: Sure it hurt, it always did. But the louder you screamed the more blood they would take. My skin burned and itched. My heart beat harder and harder, trying to push precious life force through my failing body. I wanted, more than anything, to push the vile man from my neck, but any movement would rip my veins beyond healing capacity.  A quiet whimper escaped my traitorous mouth and the pull stopped. He let me go and I slid to the floor in a pathetic heap.  His voice rumbled around my head as I started to lose consciousness. "Oh pet, you should have let me know, I would have stopped much sooner." I knew he wouldn't have, he never did, no matter how much noise I made. His footsteps grew quieter and I heard the heavy door slam shut behind him.  I stumbled over to my head, hitting my shin on the bed frame. I groped for the nightstand, grabbing for the handkerchiefs I stashed there for just this purpose. Finally the soft fabric met my fingertips and I snatche
Read more