“I answered Leviathan’s Call. You are not what I expected, however,” said the merman with an American accent.
“You’re not Danish!” exclaimed Marley in surprise. She had incorrectly assumed, she realized now, that since Eddike had spoken Danish that all mermaids spoke Danish.
“Certainly not.” The merman smiled sourly. “There are many regions in the ocean, more widely dispersed than land dwellers bunched as they are on the continents. Compared to the kingdom of water, the kingdom of land is much smaller. I thought any emissary from Leviathan would be more open and aware of knowledge related to the environment.”
Marley crossed her arms defensively at the merman’s tone. “I’m a linguist and a translator. I’m best at communications. Sorry, I’m not a scientist or a naturalist. Who are you?”
“I am called Xoc. And you?”
Marley tested Xoc’s name on her tongue, sounding it out, which came out like szock in pronunciation. After a moment of embarrassment in which she realized the merman was watching her with an impatient manner, she blushed, feeling the surge in body heat quite explicitly compared to the coldly surrounding water. “I’m Marley Tanner.”
“Curious,” Xoc stated baldly. “We have several linguists of our own, however, so why would we need a transformed land walker to facilitate communications?”
Marley was of the opinion that Xoc was clearly not a person who feared questioning the decisions of a deity.
“Because none of your linguists can be a bridge between perceptions in addition to language,” she said. “Though, if language is shared, people must have shared an ancestor long ago.”
“Yes, in a way. The selkie bring much to the merfolk, being they traverse both land and sea and take mates from both.” Xoc considered her with a piercing stare. “We may discuss philosophy and culture at a later time, Marley. Please follow me.” In a smooth, shallow arcing dive, Xoc went beneath the water.
She was momentarily transfixed by the gleam of sunlight that flowed over his body, the arc of muscle and bone. Fin and flesh were seared into her mind and gave new definitions to Marley’s perception of athleticism and perfect form. She shook off her open-mouthed wonder and in a clumsy attempt, followed Xoc beneath the waters and discovered that she was much slower than him. Under the water, he stopped Marley to hover parallel to her body and his lower body rippled with undulations of the muscles of his chest, abdomen and tail.
At first, constricted in thoughts bound by puritan convention, Marley blushed, but then quickly realized in this underwater world that undulating one’s hips was not a purely sexual movement, instead, it was a movement with economical value. She soon grasped the optimal way of locomotion from Xoc’s example, still, to her frustration, remained slower in her inexperience.
Marley studied the ocean as she trailed along, following Xoc. She was forced to the surface once in a great while to breathe because, she assumed, she did not have gills. She would explode with great motion to the surface of the water whereupon she would exhale mightily and then breathe deeply, gulping oxygen rich air. Despite her lack of blubber, as her body had remained lean and coltish except for the beautifully full tail, she did not notice the coldness of the water either, beyond knowing that it was cold. It did not seem to change her body temperature very much and she noticed no ill effects of hypothermia. At least her fingernails remained flushed and not blue, which she felt sure if she was suffering hypothermia she would be shivering and experiencing loss of warmth to her extremities. There were many things magical about this state of existence, though nothing overwhelmed the unreal feeling of speaking with an entity regarded as a god.
Marley, lagging behind, had the opportunity to study him. From her tail tip to her forehead, Eddike had been nearly seven feet long. Xoc, while longer than Eddike, was very close to the seven-foot mark as well. Marley found she was closer in proximity to five feet and three-quarters of another foot long, still fairly close to her height in land walker form.
Xoc had a silvery blue fin color and no trailing fronds, his flukes were sleek and bare, and like Marley’s own, horizontally placed. She noticed his flukes beneath the short fronds of silvery-blue were wider than her own and thicker. Xoc swam with less frequent tail flips and undulations then her. She felt like a goldfish swimming frantically to keep up with a marlin.
Above the water’s surface, she had seen a slight dorsal ridge on the merman that had started between his scapulas and continued along his spine. He possessed no body hair or fur, not even on his head, which was well shaped and sleek, showing a forehead very similar to her own with a capacity for a large brain, very like humans. Xoc’s eyes had been dark green and narrowed with the intensity of his gaze. His thumbs to his hands had been webbed when he gestured, but Marley had not seen further than that. In examining her own form, she had no webbed skin. Marley briefly thought indignantly that her mer-form was not very efficient compared to Xoc.
Hours must have passed as she followed him in the ocean, which seemed to her still and absent of sound. Only once did she hear a loud calling song, which seemed like a whale song though she didn’t know what kind of whale emitted the noise. There was no whale nearby. Eventually, night must have fallen above because there was hardly any illumination in the water in which they swam. She noticed that Xoc’s form had a pale bioluminescent glow emitting from all over his body, even from around his sleek head. She followed that glowing form, but lagged further and further behind, wondering how to signal Xoc, who didn’t look back. She was frustrated because she knew there must be a way to communicate, but speaking was obviously not the answer, since the merfolk held their breath, like dolphins, whales, seals and otters.
On the heel of that thought, Marley realized her chest was starting to burn with stress and that she wanted to take a breath of air again. She swam to the surface for air and felt her lower body seize with cramps the moment she paused. She had time for a quick inhalation of air before she felt herself begin to sink. It was disconcerting, sinking into an ever-darkening watery environment and having time to wonder how long before drowning started. She shivered a bit with fear while she wondered if any creature below her waited with open jaws. The thought was enough to make her newly gained fins curl. She tried to massage her abdomen and cramping tail muscles, but it was an awkward attempt that required more contortion than she was able to do right now.
A squeak of dismay, emitted with a stream of bubbles and no sound, came from her mouth as a hard muscled, corded arm snagged around her waist and pulled her straight up toward the surface. Pulled in tight to her savior, she could feel sleek muscles flexing erotically against her sensitive back. When they reached the surface, Marley gratefully took deep breaths, limp with relief, as Xoc supported her.
“You should have said something,” he said in a short, clipped voice.
“How?” Marley attempted to growl, but it came out more of a distraught gasp. “How do you communicate under the water?”
“With hand signals or telepathy,” Xoc said slowly. He let out a frustrated, grudging sigh. “I had thought with our form that you would also be granted our abilities such as being able to withstand increasingly colder temperatures, a limited immunity to cold and the skin secretions, which protect us from water and salt. You have eye protections as well, such as the nictating eye membranes and lids, and the increased lung size to hold your breath for a longer period. You have these, but not our mental abilities? It is not logical that Leviathan would withhold any of the gifts of this form. You cannot hear my mind call?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, if you were calling, I didn’t hear you. I wouldn’t have ignored any conversation. That’s rude.” The heavy weight of her soggy hair slithered over their skins. Sidetracked by the sleek form still pressed against her own, Marley’s mind boggled at the naughty thoughts that crossed through her imagination. She swallowed and attempted to regulate her thoughts, all the while wondering if she was having these thoughts because of Xoc’s newness or if because she
found the somewhat aloof merman attractive in his own right. She wished her brother, Jack, was handy so she could ask him what it had been like with Eddike, or if this was even comparable.
He was speaking, but Marley totally missed the spoken sentiments. Then Xoc’s gaze darted to her rather suddenly. She watched with fascination as Xoc’s pupils widened and a dusky blush spread across his cheekbones. He extended his arm and Marley, who was clinging to his arm, away from his body in a quick manner. Confused, Marley clung to him more tightly.
“As I was saying,” Xoc repeated. “As soon as we return to the Conclave, we can work out a better method of communication. It should have occurred to me, despite your appearance, it would take you time to acclimate and become proficient. For my lack of attention, please forgive me. I apologize,” he said in a stiff tone. “I will stay by you.”
He was as good as his word, which was a very good thing. She had to be practically towed the remainder of the way. She hadn’t even realized they were swimming at a downward slope as they passed through a tunnel of rock. Even with her increased capacity for holding her breath, she experienced a pressure and anxiety. Then he towed her up an incline and they broke through the surface of the water. She took another breath of salt-tinged sweet air, as she used one hand clasped around his shoulder for support.
“Xoc, there you are,” a resonant voice called.
Xoc agilely turned Marley and himself toward the voice, which came from a golden-eyed entity with short, seal brown hair sleek from the water and low, prominent cheekbones. The speaker reminded her of someone of Slavic descent. The exotic individual was another merman, who swam forward using a short, powerful burst of speed from a thickly muscled tail.
“Yuri,” Xoc said, nodding his own sleek, smooth head.
“Did you find what the Sea Father told you to find?”
“That I did. Please meet Marley. She is a human gifted by Leviathan to assume our form. She is a communicator and a linguist. I am unsure of her role in the pattern of our race’s life.” Xoc frowned. “Please bid her welcome.”
“Greetings, Marley.” Yuri smiled with predatory grace. “Welcome to the Conclave. Have you any questions?”
“Many, but I am very tired. We swam for hours. Is there…I mean…how do you rest?” Marley asked.
Yuri exchanged a speaking glance with Xoc.
“I’ll speak with Michella and Reef,” Xoc said. He passed Marley over to Yuri’s arm, then executed a smooth dive into the water, the muscular sinuous length of his tail flashing in the moonlight. Marley knew from touching Eddike’s tail that the skin was more akin to snakeskin and was not the messy, mucous-coated scales of a fish.
“Come with me, Marley.”
Yuri, with Marley in tow, led the way. Marley noticed Yuri was closer in length to Marley’s size than Xoc’s. He had a dark gray tail toned with silvery tracings. He was also bulkier and swam a little slower than Xoc.
They stayed on the surface of the water. Eventually, they reached a dark towering side of a rock that formed a ring. Marley had the thought that the Conclave was inside something like a sunken rock formation or a volcano. The merman felt his way along the shallow curve of the rock wall, then pulled Marley underneath and then up again.
She discovered, as her head emerged above the waterline, that they were in a partially submerged cave. On the walls, some type of plant gave off a bioluminescent glow like Xoc’s body did. She had a passing thought that Yuri’s body did not glow. In the dimness, she could barely see.
“Yuri,” a female’s low toned voice called out. “Xoc passed along the message. Reef and I agreed that it’s fine for our guest to use the chamber being held for our nursery since the babe is not yet here for another full month.”
“Thank you. As always, Michella, your generous nature shows. The Conclave will bestow its appreciation on the next gathering,” Yuri replied. “Marley, just follow Michella. We can talk on the morrow.”
Marley obediently followed the very pregnant mermaid whose hair flowed behind her in several tight braids. The mermaid led her to a small chamber partially full of air farther along the rocky corridor. The small chamber had an indented, large smoothly finished basin. The basin’s top exuded into the air-filled portion of the cave and then sunk in depth to about three or three and a half feet. The basin was lined with a still-living sea sponges and there was water, which filled the basin to just above the sponges. Small pink and violet sea anemones dotted the walls below the water amongst lacings of a filmy, glowing type of plant. The chamber was also slightly warmer than the corridor.
Marley remarked on the warmth to Michella, who smiled beautifully and replied, “That was Xoc’s gift. He’s blessed with small magics to serve our people. He’s what our oral traditions call a Spell Singer.”
“It sounds like a cross between a bard and a priest,” Marley responded.
“Xoc, a priest?” Michella said in a disbelieving tone. Her smile crinkled her nose and good humor lit her features pleasingly. “I’ll share your insight some time with him. I am not familiar with your word of bard, however. Please enjoy this room’s use while you are here. If you need to relieve any bodily functions, there is a crater over there. She pointed in another area. “Or there. Reef, my mate, and I caught some algae sucking fish who also seem to consume waste as well, not that there is that much inside our caves, but the fish are useful for the small amount of waste we create during our sleep cycles. The water disperses the rest. I probably have said too much, please have a restful night.” Michella swam off at a careful pace.
Marley curled her body forward, using trembling arms to pull herself into the basin. She shook with fatigue and she knew the feelings of hunger, too. Her weariness overcame her need for food though and soon she fell asleep, enjoying the warmth of the room. She had a moment to think that while the cold did not bother her, the absence of warmth could be draining when not used to the ambient temperature of the ocean.
Marley’s dreams were full of merfolk. She saw a heavily pregnant Michella, her arms up and locked around another person’s neck that seemed to be behind the pregnant mermaid. The merman’s hands covered the full globes of Michella’s breasts.
“Ah, perhaps you share our ability after all, albeit it is slow to manifest,” said a voice in Marley’s dreams.
The voice reminded her of the gentle roar of the sea upon the shore and also of the way fresh washed cotton sheets smelled in winter. Marley had the urge to curl up in those imagined sheets for comfort.
“It is not polite to eavesdrop mentally or otherwise on trysting,” the voice rebuked mildly.
Then she had only the awareness of herself and not Michella’s after-dark activities.
“I bid you sleep gently. I will bring you breakfast in the morning. I can tell you are hungry.”
A gentle fog then covered Marley’s thoughts. Sleep fully claimed her in the next moment.
Marley awoke and stretched mightily with a jaw-cracking yawn and stiffly curled tail. She pushed the stiffened mass of her brine-encrusted hair to her side, reflecting that the feel made her neck itchy. She arrested her movement mid-stretch with Xoc’s appearance. He rose from below to enter her chamber and emerged partially from the water.
“You are awake. Do you wish to eat?” Xoc inquired.
Marley, not sure how to climb down with an absence of legs, nodded to Xoc’s question before she attempted to slither out of the basin. Unfortunately, she fell onto the surface of the water with a yelp. She promptly banged and scraped several body parts, including her tail, which she discovered was rather sensitive. She landed in a hurting heap of bruised flesh tangled with Xoc’s longer form. He gently assisted her into an upright position and uncoiled his body from hers.
“Are you hurt?”
“A few minor scrapes,” she replied weakly, suppressing a whimper of pain. “Just call me Grace.” She examined the bend in her tail analogous with her knee bones where an angry scrape oozed blood.
“That’s not
good. We can’t have you bleeding, it will attract predators to the Conclave,” he said in a concerned tone. He hunkered down to grasp the bend in her tail.
“Predators? Aren’t the merfolk the apex of the food chain?” she asked. She let out a little squeak of surprise as Xoc’s eyes glowed from green changing to silver and back again.
He leaned forward and licked the scrape, leaving behind a clear liquid that seemed to harden and seal the wound.
The liquid felt vaguely like peroxide foaming on a cut and Marley had the nonsensical thought wondering how he cleaned and sealed larger wounds. She also wondered how he sealed injuries located in areas of a body someone might not want licked. Marley noticed that Xoc repeated the process four more times. He looked tired afterward.
“Come along with me. Don’t bump your wounds or the sealant will come off. We can talk,” he bade her.
Xoc produced a tortoiseshell comb for Marley as they settled on some smooth rocks above the waterline. A young child swam over with a basket perched on his head above the waterline.
“Xoc, Xoc,” he cried in the thin clear treble voice of youth. “Arare, my mother, sent this for you. She said thank you for the warding on our cave.”
Xoc took the basket. “Thank you, Moss. And please thank your sister, Arei, for her comb.”
“Sure!” The child waved and dove away.
As she combed at her hair, Marley yanked fiercely on the tangled mass of honey and sand colored strands. Normally, her hair would come to her shoulder blades, but right now it was so messy it seemed much shorter. She despaired of what the salt water could do to her once shiny, silky tresses though Eddike seemed to have healthy enough hair.
At the Far Waters of Forever Page 2