Waves of Love

by Free Coman

  “Liar! Coward! You should never leave a man behind! A good Captain goes down with the ship!”

  Now, an interesting thing about Charles is that as mentioned before he earned his status by force and people feared or respected him but he always had a group of men around to create whatever kind of chaos Charles felt like igniting, which means that with just one look, Charles assembled a team of at least four men as tough as he was. Lead by Charles himself, the group of five sailors shot out of their seats and ran towards Rachel. Her response was immediate. She flew out of her seat, through the aisles, the hallways and out the door of the city hall. They chased her like a rabbit. Maybe they wouldn’t have hurt her, had they caught her, maybe they just wanted to scare her… maybe. They didn’t catch her though. Rachel might have been way smaller but she was fast and as strong as her body could be. It wasn’t a lie when she said she had thirty year out in the sea. She was as experienced and tough as all of them, if not more. The only difference was that she wore her power and her skills with grace and beauty, and she cared for personal hygiene.

  Rachel ran through the empty streets of the town until she was convinced they had lost track of her. Even then, she moved cautiously and stealthy, but she had a destination in mind. The Great Roman was her father’s most prized possession. But that didn’t mean it was his only boat. Rachel was probably the only other person in that town aware of the lovely hiding place where her father kept a much smaller and humble boat he used to explore the main land’s rivers and just for short recreational trips. Maybe she didn’t have to go that far to escape her persecutors, but she wasn’t taking the boat just to avoid trouble. In fact, she had a plan, and it involved going out to look for trouble.

  Chapter 4

  Rachel’s voyage was long and tedious. For the first part it had been exciting, she had been still running with the adrenaline of her rebellious moment in front of the whole town, and the chase through the city. When the excitement wore off, Rachel found herself delighted to be on a boat, by herself, leaving the town and all its judgmental people behind. She felt free and more like herself than she had felt in years - completely unrestrained - and she simply loved being at sea. However, that pleasure also started to subside and she still had no sense of orientation at all, of where she was supposed to go. She had the general idea though. She was going back for her father’s ship. She was going to take back the Great Roman by herself.

  She didn’t count on the fact that reaching that mysterious island that had been their downfall had been a truly difficult ordeal that had taken them days, and that had been on a big and wonderful boat. Now she was by herself in a craft that was about a quarter of the Great Roman. It would probably be impossible for her to find that place alone, no matter how passionately she worked. So, she started feeling afraid. She had no provisions and if she got lost, she’d have no way of coming back to the shore. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the way she died, she thought to herself, it couldn’t be the end.

  Just as the worst of thoughts started crossing her mind, she heard it. The music was back. The fateful melodies that took the lives of all those men. Just hearing it again was almost enough to make Rachel jump off the boat. Terrified, she covered her ears with her hands and tightly closed her eyes, hoping to ignore the sound and keep her life. However, the seconds dragged on and on and nothing happened. The singing got louder and louder but Rachel still felt fully in control of her body and mind. Eventually she opened one of her eyes to peak around her, the next eye followed and she even let her hand fall from her ears and she sat up straighter.

  “Why isn’t it working?!” someone shouted, followed by the sound of angry splashing on the water.

  The sound made Rachel stumble around the boat terrified. Finally, she could see a head staring at her from the water. It was a woman, beautiful, of fiery red hair and dark angry eyes. Rachel was staring at her in awe when another head swiftly lifted from the surface.

  “I don’t know. This has never happened before. What should we do?”

  This woman had light blue hair like the sky and she spoke slowly and calmly.

  “Let’s drown her either way!”

  The shouted suggestion made Rachel scream and stumble around again. Except this time, she did end up falling into the water. She struggled with the waves and she took handfuls of water. Her heart was complaining against all the crazy emotions she had felt in so little time. But miraculously she managed to get back up on the small boat. She fought to catch her breath, to make sure she was still alive, and even then, she didn’t feel like opening her eyes, though she did hear the murmurs around her.

  “It’s a human woman, you dumbasses.”

  “So? Is she seriously immune?”

  “It seems so. That’s what I’ve heard.”

  “She’s beautiful.”

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t hurt her in any way?”

  “What for?

  “Stop it! I know her!”

  As if the declaration wasn’t worrying enough, Rachel actually knew that voice, she had heard it before. So, she dared to open her eyes. The sight she found in front of her was the most astonishing thing she could have dreamed of. Her tiny boat was surrounded by at least a dozen of mermaids. Fascinating creatures of the deep waters that looked like the most ethereal women imaginable. In all shapes and sizes, hair of every color of the rainbow, glistening skin and otherworldly beauty. Maybe they couldn’t hypnotize her with their voices, but still Rachel thought they could get her to do absolutely anything they wanted if they just asked her.

  “She was in the last ship we took. The men almost let her drown. Let me help her,” continued the same mermaid from before.

  “Are you sure?” said another one. “Just call for us if you need us, if there’s any trouble, okay?”

  “I’ll be watching you,” threatened the first mermaid of the furious red hair.

  As most of the extraordinary beings went back under the surface and left them alone, Rachel started to feel at ease, as much as she could under such circumstances. As fear started to subside on her brain, she tried to review the facts that she knew. She was lost at sea, found by mermaids. She could communicate with the mermaids, some were violent it seemed, but mostly they were reasonable beings. One of them, the same from the other day, with the spectacular face, blue hair and deep eyes had stayed to help her…

  “Hello,” said the mermaid coming closer to the boat. “Mermaid here. Who are you?”

  For a second, Rachel remained speechless. This was still a lot to process. She almost cowered away from the beautiful creature in fear, but she thought that might have seemed rude or impolite. Her parents had raised her to be kind always, to everybody. Did that include mythological creatures? She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t taking any risks.

  “My name’s Rachel,” she answered breathlessly. “And what’s your name?” she added.

  For a response, she only received an intelligible sound spilling from the lips of the mermaid. It sounded beautiful and melodic, but she didn’t understand it all. Luckily, the mermaid then explained, “Abigail,” she said, “I think it means that in your language.”

  “Beautiful name, Abby.”

  The words seemed to surprise the mermaid as much as they surprised Rachel herself. She couldn’t help but flirt on impulse whenever she was in front of a beautiful woman. Her heart apparently wasn’t interested in the fact the Abby wasn’t just a woman, she was a mermaid. What an adventure those two were about to start.

  Chapter 5

  After the rest of the mermaids left and Rachel found herself alone with one of them, she felt observed and vulnerable, scared and curious, awkward and excited - mostly, she felt confused by all the emotions she was feeling. She considered that to be an effect of the magic of the mermaids, maybe they didn’t have such a strong effect on women but maybe they did affect them somewhat. Though she also considered the chance that all those emotions were just her natural reaction at being in front of somebody s
o beautiful. Not knowing what else to do, Rachel simply started to move. The small boat continued its unsure route and the mermaid followed quietly beside her. Rachel had expected Abby, the mermaid, to be the one to break the silence, but in the end, it was her who couldn’t bear it anymore.

  “Are you sure you’re not going to kill me?” she asked in a burst of anxiety. Upon receiving a negative shake of the head, a brief relief was replaced by worsened fear. “You’re not sure if you’re going to kill me?!”

  The laugh of the mermaid was undoubtedly the most fascinating sound on Earth, Rachel thought. It was melodic and sweet and not entirely human but obviously it was a joyful laugh. “I will not hurt you. I have no interest in causing you any harm. I’m here to help you, if that’s what you want.”

  “How would you help me?” Rachel asked, finally feeling slightly calmer by the soothing voice of her unusual company.

  “I guessed you’d want to go back to the ship you’ve left behind. And you look a little lost. You should try that direction.”

  Abby then raised a slender finger and pointed west. Rachel could have sworn that from the tip of that finger a light emerged.

  “Thank you, Abby.”

  Rachel whisper almost got lost with the sea breeze. But she did get to catch sight of the pretty sea creature smiling at her. Their trip continued peacefully and their conversation grew like a garden in the middle of the sea. There were seeds of curiosity, and here and there they blossomed into a timid question they’d ask each other.

  “Did you kill them?” Rachel asked, somehow knowing she didn’t have to give any more details to her question.

  “I don’t think you really want to know,” Abby replied.

  Although her voice was still soothing, her smile had dimmed.

  “Why do you do that? Attacking ships and sailors, I mean.”

  “I don’t participate in those activities.”

  That was not the kind of answer Rachel wanted and both of them knew it. But they also knew that the real answer would be too big for them to handle at the moment and it would be better if they just moved on. Besides, Rachel couldn’t hide her relief upon learning that her new friend wasn’t violent like other creatures. That seemed like an invitation to lighten the mood further.

  “May I see your tail?”

  This time, the mermaid didn’t laugh that fantastical laugh of hers. She looked at Rachel with an unimpressed expression of her gorgeous face and she dipped under the surface completely. For a second, Rachel was terrified she had offended the mermaid. She wouldn't forgive herself. But before her mind got too far ahead of herself, something extraordinary happened. A few feet in front of her, Abby jumped out of the water. She raised several feet in the air and she seemed suspended in there for an eternity. In reality, it had been barely a second, enough for Rachel to stare at the magnificent golden tail of scales that looked like gold. The drops of water that fell from her seemed to leave a rainbow surrounding Rachel’s entire boat. It had been a breathtaking sight.

  “That was beautiful,” Rachel breathlessly said as soon as Abby emerged again from the surface of the sea. “So beautiful.”

  “Don’t you want to ask me anything?” Rachel asked her then.

  “Actually, I’m already familiar with the anatomy of the female body.”

  Rachel was sure, she was convinced that it was a terrible idea to allow butterflies to take flight in her stomach because of a mermaid, a magical creature of the sea. But she couldn’t help it. And Abby herself wasn’t helping either. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to look at a human woman like that, to smirk at her like that, to seek her company like that. The magnetic pull they were starting to feel towards one another was too strong though, it was undeniable. So, more than allowing their seeds of curiosity to grow, they purposely feed them, and soon enough their questions grew into a full garden of pleasant conversation.

  “My father’s trick worked out then, and the pirates had to leave them alone,” Rachel was explaining how her father had come to own the Great Roman. “He was a simple teenager, but the owner of the boat had been so grateful that he declared that once he died, my father would be the rightful owner of the ship. That was exactly what happened. My father adores that thing. That’s where he proposed to my mother. Even where I was born. Technically I was born at sea, too, so you’re not that special.”

  Rachel's teasing got Abby to smile. “Don’t tell me you’ve been hiding a tail all along,” Abby said, moving her tail more strongly to raise further up from the surface of the water and jokingly attempt to look at the inside of the boat where Rachel was sitting. The action was funny and lighthearted, sure, but there was an interesting detail about mermaids, Rachel realized. Since they didn’t live like humans, precisely, they had no exact knowledge of clothes… when she came up from the surface of the sea, Rachel could see Abby bare chest. A sight so wonderful and overwhelming that although she had to stare for a second, Rachel had to quickly turned her face away and hope her blush wasn’t too obvious.

  “I can’t believe you’re real,” Rachel confessed after a while. Wonderstruck by everything about Abby, her beauty, her kindness, her entire self, how she stood out even among other mythical creatures.

  “It’s been a while, Rachel. Mermaids do exist.”

  “It’s not just about mermaids,” she explained. “It’s also you, just you… I can’t believe you are real… tell me more about yourself.”

  Rachel’s request took Abby by surprise, especially since at first, she didn’t know how to react to the compliment. She had been curious about Rachel since the very first second she had seen her. But she could feel her curiosity growing and taking a different and beautiful shape.

  “Well, as I’ve told you, I’m not really interested in the violence that some of us are dedicated to inducing. Instead, I’m more often exploring, caught in some trouble here and there, befriending creatures maybe I shouldn’t have… that usually means harmless sharks. You’re the first human I come this close to.”

  As she talked, Abby swam around Rachel’s boat, she did so gracefully and happily and it was beautiful to watch. They were finally getting closer to the magical island.

  “Have you ever wished to be human?”

  Rachel’s inquiry was met only with silence and a mischievous glint in Abby’s eyes. The mermaid swam closer to the boat and actually perched herself to the edge of it.

  “Have you ever wished to be a mermaid?” she questioned Rachel instead.

  “Of course! Obviously. All the time, actually. It was my dream when I was little. At this very second I would die just to join you in the water.”

  “Why don’t you?”

  “It’s cold…”

  “Come on, don’t be scared,” Abby chuckled fondly at the human. “Water is warmer near the island. I’ll show you… I’ll show you everything you’d like to see.”

  Abby’s promise, like most things Abby said or did, left Rachel speechless and smiling happily.

  Chapter 6

  When they got close enough to the island to catch sight of the Great Roman, Rachel felt her heart stop for a second. She felt an instant of terror, remembering the awful fear she felt the other day being at that exact spot. Something was different, though. Abby was there with her. Abby brought light to the world around Rachel and instead of dreading what was coming for her, she felt filled with excitement at what she could possibly be about to discover.

  Their lively conversation has finally come to a lull, a pause, and Rachel stared at the Great Roman in awe. The ship looked enchanted, anchored there among menacing rocks in front of a mysterious island. Rachel’s heart was beating rapidly and she scrambled out of the tiny boat and went up and up into the big boat. Abby was left behind, but she smiled at her from the surface, before diving underwater to explore.

  It hadn’t been long since Rachel threw herself off the ship, but it already felt different, charged with the magic energy of those waters. However, it also felt a lot like coming home. She
walked around the deck, up and down the stairs, checking everything to be in order, untouched. It was as if the mermaids’ magic had transformed into a very thin dust and settled all around the Great Roman. The ship looked better than ever, totally unharmed. With that knowledge Rachel could feel herself breathing easier, calmer. Her father would be overjoyed with the news. Her father, however, could wait a little. There was something much more exciting waiting for her below the ship.

  “Hey! Abby! Are you still here?!” Rachel shouted from her place looking out from the deck of the ship. Just a few seconds later Abby’s head popped out from the surface of the water with a bright smile on her lips. “So, is it true?”

  “What is it?”

  “Is the water warmer?”

  “Come and find out.”

  Abby’s voice was the sweetest thing Rachel had ever felt. The sounds wrapped themselves snuggly around her. Rachel felt pulled by the sound of Abby’s voice and she was almost helpless against such a temptation. Plus, she was leaning out of the deck of the ship staring down at a mermaid. She was in the same situation where countless men had met their deaths. But Rachel was different, Abby was different. Rachel was completely conscious of her actions and Abby’s intentions were the complete opposite of violent. Who’s to say Rachel couldn’t find love in the same way most men found death.

  Rachel jumped. She jumped off the ship fearlessly and she reached the water more excited than she had ever been. Abby was there waiting for her, looking more than magnificent. Underwater, the visual effect of seeing Abby in all her glory was even more overwhelming. The blue hair imitated the waves of the sea, the dark eyes guided Rachel around and she would have followed them to the end of the world. Abby’s skin seemed to glow underwater, her naked chest and the extraordinary gold tail were just as impressive. Rachel herself had taken off most of her clothes to swim more comfortably. The second their bodies brushed against each other resulted so thrilling and marvelous that Rachel was forced to rapidly swim back to the surface for air.