The Stockholm Mermaid Effect

“…take me down to the sea, yes down to the sea below.” Amatheia’s voice sang, her vibrant golden vocals seeming to light the dark caves in an enchantment that stretched out beyond the large mouth and bring it back into darkness as soon as the echo of her song died within the cavern walls.

Amatheia’s mother took the seaweed from her ears when the golden shine dissipated back to a safe level, her tail aglow to light the water around them, illuminating their faces like an underwater rainbow.

“That was beautiful my love,” Shellina cooed softly, bringing her hand around to place on her young daughter’s shoulder and smile proudly. “This pod will be yours one day to lead and with your body growing stronger with each passing moment, we will see you become the princess that we all hope you to be.”

The sounds of the gentle waves brought a serenity around them both, causing Amatheia to smile.

“Thank you, ma’ma.” Amatheia spoke softly, her young head bowed respectfully to her life-giver, eyes closed to take in her praise that she so desperately kept seeking.

It was important to Amatheia that she make her mother proud and in doing so, she prayed to Neptune that it in turn would please her pod, especially Esrathellia; their leader and that mermaid was hard to satisfy.

She opened her bright green eyes and looked into the orbs of Shellina, not completely understanding why she had to practice inside the desolate cave or why her mum plugged her ears with seaweed paste to block the sounds of her voice, especially if it was as beautiful and enchanting as she claimed it to be.

Moving her arms back and forth in a continuous motion to keep afloat, the young mermaid moved her head to the side.

“Ma’ma? Why am I different?” She asked, her small voice carrying around them loudly despite how gentle she spoke.

Her mother told her the same thing she always had.

“Because you are special, Amatheia,” She held her smile, leaning in to kiss her daughter on the forehead.

“It was Neptune’s will that brought you into existence to someday be the rightful princess of the sea and only his will can break that. You are blessed my darling and someday those around shall see exactly that and what you are capable of accomplishing.” Shellina finished with confident fondness laced in her reassurance.

Amatheia nodded obediently, knowing her mother only spoke the truth.

Though she still didn’t understand what made her special. No one would utter a word to her of her attributes that made her rise above the rest of the pod and something she feared she would never know if it was kept secret, even from herself.

She hesitated, trying to swindle more from her mum.

“What makes me so special, ma’ma? I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Amatheia questioned further, but the sharp shush from her parental figure quieted the obedient mermaid, making her swim back a pace.

“You’ve questioned this far too much my darling. Let the whales sleep and Salacia sing her song to the deep abyss below. You are special, there is nothing more I can explain, no more than I am allowed to by the pod leader at least.” She trailed off, her eyes reflecting a knowledge that remained a secret that only she was aware of.

Amatheia tried to lighten the mood.

“I’m afraid to still be lost, ma’ma, but I know now not to question it further. As you’ve stated, all will reveal itself in time.” The ten-year-old gave up, figuring the two didn’t need to fight over such trivial things.

When the time was right, she would accept her fate with proud dignity, helping the mermaids of the underwaters to finally rise up and take back what was rightfully theirs.

Though with that all aside for now, she intended to make her worn mother smile, as that is what she seemed to need at the moment. Amatheia may have been young, but she did not miss how stressed her mum looked with every passing day.

“On the plus side? If I’m fortunate enough to be that of Neptune’s daughter, rising up shall be a piece of kelp.” She grinned, though sobered when receiving an earnest look from her mother in return.

The rainbow reflection began to dim around them, leaving just the outshine of their mysterious silhouettes.

It was quiet for a moment, the air tense and stuffy, before Shellina sighed with defeat and made her way through the darkness to the mouth of the underwater caverns toward the fading light of the sun outside, her tail flapping against the water every once and again to keep momentum.

Amatheia followed behind quietly, ashamed for some reason as it was simply meant as a joke – something they always did.

“Did I say something wrong, ma’ma? T’was only a jest, I assure you, I am dedicated to this cause.” Amatheia promised, her young voice confident and sure.

Shellina sighed quietly, turning to her beautiful daughter – another thing that made her stand out among the rest.

Mermaids were beautiful, but Amatheia was flawless. Every piece of her shimmered like gold in a sunken ship and if she weren’t careful, Shellina fretted to think the possibilities, especially since jealousy ran high amongst the other pods.

Her daughter was young, she didn’t have a clue and Shellina wanted to protect her as long as possible.

Even the pod leader didn’t have all the details, if she did, Shellina had no doubts that she and her daughter would be exiled.

Shaking the troubled thought from her head, she smiled gently again, hoping to assure her daughter that everything was fine.

“Oh, Amatheia, it’s alright. I’m just tired, luv,” Shellina assured, taking her small hand and swimming out toward the popular spot for fresh crab and crawfish. “Let’s say we catch some supper and retire to the pod? I fear the sea will be quite active tonight with the storm coming in.” She meticulously changed the subject to ease her daughter’s worry.

Amatheia nodded enthusiastically, squeezing her mum’s hand, her sparkly flesh glimmering in the orange glow of the setting solar above.

*

His green eyes shone like two jaded emeralds. They were both dark in contrast and mysterious in color – though that could have been due to the annoyance of his friend beside him.

“Louis! Stop!” The younger merboy ordered the older one, shooting him a warning glare.

Louis and Harry were sent out to hunt for their pod – Louis had the right idea, but the wrong intentions.

Like enchanting the boat full of fisherman for example.

The idea was to enchant the two leggers long enough to cut the net along the seams at the top and grab their loot to haul back, but Louis decided he wanted to have some extra fun.

That extra entertainment happened to be sinking the boat and drowning all the men aboard.

“Lucky fair men, follow the voice of your God to the sea, yes down to the sea below.” Louis sang with a smirk, watching the boat start to veer course toward a large formation of rocks, ones that would almost assuredly send the boaters to their doom.

“Louis! I command you knock that off right this – “Harry’s eyes widened, not even bothering to finish his sentence. Arguing with Louis was futile at this point so without any more time wasted, his beautiful colored orange and black tail moved as fast as it could in order to help save the human men – though, he was not too hopeful of saving their vessel.

Louis chuckled, halting his enchanting song and moving to catch up where Harry had swam, but felt a sharp pull at the end of his beautiful blood red tail.

Looking back, his smile dropped.

“Pod master Caol! An ever pleasure to see you out and about on this fine beautiful eve –“

Louis was cut off with another rough tug to his barely developed tail.

“Enough, Louis. Go help Harry savage the ship, that is the third one you have tampered with this month – one more and I will take your voice until you learn how to use it properly!” Caol shouted, pushing the young merboy toward the inevitable disaster.

“Technically? This makes my fourth – “Louis started to correct, getting cut off again.

GO!” Caol yelled louder, small hot bubbles forming and waves rising up around them to help motivate the younger merboy.

Louis rolled his eyes, gave a hand gesture he didn’t understand that he had picked up from the sailors and swam to help his friend nab the loot, but curly green eyes was on his own when it came to saving the land dwellers. He would as soon as drown a human than try to help one.

“Wait up, curly one!” Louis exclaimed, his body moving and arching elegantly against the tides of the sea, a smile on his face at the freedom he felt as he glided easily through the salty water.

He jumped into the air, his body landing perfectly back into the endless body of aqua.

“And it’s a perfect ten for Louis, go Louis!” Louis cheered himself on, imitating the sound of a cheering crowd.

“Stop pissing around!” Harry’s young, deep tone invaded into the air, his body being tugged toward the boat that was about to hit the rocks. “Unenchant them, right NOW!”

Harry hit the water with his growing palm, rushing to where the nets were shaking violently back and forth with their banquet for tonight, leaving Louis to deal with the two-leggers.

With a sigh he closed his eyes, inhaling a big breath.

“Oh, charming fair men –

CRASH!

Louis’s eyes snapped open when the boat hit into the rock structure, the large formation stopping the vessel, its stern damaged beyond repair.

The sudden halt was accompanied by a large wave, the high tail of it bucking the bowel up from the water, making at least ten men – still enchanted – to fall overboard, guaranteeing them an appointment to Davy Jones locker.

Harry veered off, his arms encircling one of the fallen men’s waist.

“I got ya.” Harry assured the dazed man, his tail propelling back against the wave so they bobbed upward allowing them to remain above the cold currant.

While Harry was on human saving duty, Louis was beside the sinking boat with his sharp fingernails easily ripping along the seams of the net, grabbing the heavy haul and moving as fast as he could from the whirlpool the large object was creating beside him.

He saw one of the bodies get pulled under.

“Whoops? Well, that certainly doesn’t look fun.” Louis observed passively, flipping his red tail vigorously to stop from becoming the next victim of the sinking vortex – but unlike the humans, he could breathe underwater.

“Louis, help save them!” Harry exclaimed, his twelve-year-old body being pulled toward the ship, the human still clutched tightly to him.

“The ship’s gone, let them go! Their lost to Poseidon!” Louis called over the roar of the chaos around them.

“NO! SAVE THEM!” Harry yelled in a growl, his dark green eyes determined, mad at his friend for creating another situation he needed to fix.

“Uh, food? I have my hands full, I’ll drop this off and be right back!” Louis promised, propelling away, not really planning to return as the humans weren’t really his problem. Pod master Caol ordered him to go out to hunt for their pod and that’s exactly what he did – well, he let the humans do all the hard work and then stole their haul and potentially sent them to their deaths, but hey, he merely followed orders…his way.

“LOUIS!” Harry pleaded, his body struggling to keep hold of the one human he managed to save.

Louis was already a half distance away from the disaster he inevitably caused, leaving Harry to sort out his choices; which weren’t many at this point.

Looking sadly at the human still gripped in his death embrace, he slowly loosened his arms, getting ready to release him to Poseidon to do what he willed.

“I’m sorry.” He apologized to the man, gently letting go and swimming away from the wreck in defeat.

Harry was glad that the men were too deep under enchantment to be aware of their life’s end. He suspected that was better than being alert and knowing they were going to parish horrible demises.

“Pod Master Caol needs to stop partnering us together, because I’m always the one who gets in trouble.” Harry muttered, his young mind not fully comprehending what Louis just did having an everlasting effect on the families of the men they had just let die.

To the young merboy, he simply wanted to earn Caol’s attention. He knew he was special, his pod master even told him he was, but it wasn’t because he could control the weather of the sea or that he learned faster than any other merman in his circle. It was because he knew when he was older that he had a very specific job. Caol had told him so and he would not disappoint his group. They were counting on him.

The only thing was, he hadn’t a clue what the job was, just that it would change the lives of every merman that resided in the seas…and even those whom had settled on land.

With one last glance behind him at the almost sunk boat, he swam out a small way toward his rock to catch the beautiful sunset in the distance. He didn’t feel like going back and facing a lecture, so he didn’t.

Instead, the young boy swam out to a nice sized rock and climbed up onto it, settling his back against the rocky surface.

His green eyes stared unblinkingly at the yellow halo in the sky with fascination and wondering how the sun sunk below the sea and reappeared in the early twilight hours of the morning when all the merfolk were still asleep.

It puzzled him to no end, but he loved seeing it rise every morning, the sight of it never boring him. Luckily, Louis always got up well after sunrise – because if he didn’t, Harry had a feeling he wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

“Why do I always end up being on pod master’s ragging list? It’s Louis who is the troublemaker. That’s not fair if you ask me.” He whined to the sky gods, his beautiful orange with the perfectly aligned black striped tail slipping into the water, swaying back and forth absently.

Harry sat on his rock and reveled at the silence. There was no sound he enjoyed more than the calming movement of nature and the salty air around him.

He inhaled deeply, jumping when a flash of blinding white light traveled out across the horizon to meet the dimming gold hue.

Harry flinched.

“Poor Louis.” He shook his head, knowing what the pod master did and hoping he wouldn’t be punished the same way.

It was perhaps an hour or so later when Harry saw Louis pop up beside him with a defeated look adorning his still boyish features, but he didn’t come empty handed. There was a small portion of net filled with crab, krill, crawdaddies, lobster, shrimp and scallops.

It looked absolutely delicious with the medley of sea creatures that resided within it.

Harry moved over some to let his friend up on his rock, noticing the skies were darkening, which meant a storm was about to brew.

“We sharing?” Harry gestured to their bounty, frowning at the sudden memory of the human men lost below. It hadn’t been worth the loss of life in the younger merboy’s eyes, but that was just the way it was and Louis only followed what his nature told him to do.

It wasn’t cruel, his actions – they were just frowned upon and if Caol had to frown any deeper, his face might stick that way.

Shaking the thoughts away, Harry tried to comfort his friend.

“Did he say when you’d get your song back?” He tried to find out; that was a dead end.

Louis shrugged.

“You don’t know? He usually gives you a time.” Harry prompted, making Louis shake his head in confirmation.

The slightly older merboy didn’t know and a teenaged merboy not allowed to talk or sing was the ultimate torture as far as Harry could tell.

Then again, he never had his voice taken away from him, because he knew how to use his responsibly.

Without another word, he took the net from Louis, watching as he climbed up beside him.

Harry thought it best to start with the good food, no use getting filled up on the appetizers.

“Lobster first, yeah?” Harry suggested, cautiously opening up the net and grabbing a still live lobster from it.

Louis shrugged again moodily, a tight glare darkening his features, which was contrasting perfectly with the skies above.

“I’m sorry, mate, but you were going to be nourishment for the humans, now you’re food for us.” Harry told the Lobster, hearing the thing beg to be let go.

Tell any human their food is begging to be free again and you’re almost guaranteed to end up in the local asylum

Thankfully, the sea was so much different and the bottom of the food chain always begged the higher up to spare their life.

As imagined, it almost never worked.

With nothing left to say, he leaned forward.

Strategically, Harry forced the Lobster to his mouth, biting down on his head and crushing the creature’s skull to kill it – if he didn’t do that first he would find himself getting the love pinch of his life.

Louis reached in next and popped a few krill into his mouth, chewing with force, clenching his jaw.

Harry noticed and sighed, figuring his mood was soured by his punishment.

“Lou? There’s a storm coming, but if you don’t want to go back, we can take shelter in a cave I found a couple of kilometers down, yeah? Will that cheer you up?” He tried to coax, tearing into the outer shell of the lobster with his sharp rows of teeth.

Louis just shrugged again, stuffing a handful of wiggling shrimp into his mouth and clamping down, the crunch of their outer shells breaking apart.

Harry nodded, taking that as confirmation. Luckily, he could show his friend what he learned that day and hope it would take his mind off his own trouble.

“Okay, I got something super neat to show you. It’ll be mersome!” Harry grinned, his dimples showing.

Louis smiled, though it was somewhat forced. He hated their pod master for the punishment, but maybe next time, Louis will listen and do what he is told to…then again, it is Louis we’re talking about.

Harry knew Louis deserved what pod master Caol gave him, but he was still his friend, even if the punishment did fit the crime, it didn’t make it any less hard to see the usually carefree lad so solemn.

“I have an idea.” He smirked, looking down at the barely touched net of food.

Louis popped a brow up to show the younger lad had his full attention.

Harry’s dimples grew, along with his bright green eyes.

“If you cooperate, I promise we won’t eat you.” He spoke in lobster, following it up in crab, his gaze intently on the net.

Louis cocked his head, his smile also growing.

Harry had an idea and Louis already loved it.

“We’re going to be in such big trouble, but it’s going to be worth it.” Harry warned with a chuckle, grabbing the net and jumping back into the ocean.

He didn’t like getting in trouble with pod master Caol, but he was already in hot water for letting the humans drown and since he knew he wasn’t getting out of a lecture, he may as well make the yelling he was to receive worth the ear lashing.

He heard Louis jump back into the water and swim beside them.

This was going to be fun.

Notes