The Merman Boxset: Gay Merman Romance

by Aratare, X.

  A thousand responses ran through Gabriel’s mind at that moment, but each of them would have extended the conversation with Johnson and might even have led it in directions that he would rather not go. He settled on replying, “I’m not. Why would I be?”

  “Exactly. There is no need to be.” Johnson’s eyes flickered over to Greta and Corey before he added, “What I told you earlier on the beach was to help you. What I want to show you here is to help you as well.”

  “Help me how?” Gabriel asked.

  “Help you to understand. When the time comes,” Johnson said.

  What does he think I need to understand, Casillus? Gabriel asked.

  I believe he knows of the entity that this temple is dedicated to. I believe he thinks that the Mer are … are responsible for it, Casillus said.

  Is it … is it your Guardian? Gabriel finally asked the question he should have from the beginning.

  No, Gabriel. It is not ours. It is … it is not anyone’s.

  Realizing that he had been silent for too long and Johnson was staring at him again, Gabriel gave the older man a bright, fake smile. “I’m really sorry, Johnson, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. You seem to think I have some secret information that you also know, but I don’t. I really don’t.”

  After a beat of staring at Gabriel without blinking, Johnson asked, “How’s your breathing, Gabriel?”

  “My …” Gabriel’s mouth went dry and he swallowed hard.

  “You should drink the water you have left. This heat must be difficult for you. Drying you out.” Johnson tipped his head towards the nearly empty water bottle in his hand. There was only a mouthful left. “I have more if you need it. You don’t have to restrict yourself.”

  Gabriel knew his lips were trembling. “I—I appreciate that, Johnson. I’m sure Corey and Greta will need water, too.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Gabriel turned abruptly away from the older man and headed over towards the other two. Thankfully, Johnson hung back.

  Gabriel sent to Casillus, He knows! He knows I’m a Mer!

  Yes, yes, I believe he does, Casillus agreed and gave a nervous kick in the water. It is so strange that a military man should have such imagination that he can accept that we exist while your scientists are blind to us.

  Something happened to that base where Kane was. Something terrible. Johnson sees a threat out there. That’s why he joined Miskatonic. He’s trying to defend humanity from whatever it was. What happened at that base opened his mind to a ton of possibilities, including Mers existing, I think.

  Gabriel tugged on the collar of his shirt. It felt like it was strangling him. He fumbled with the water bottle and cracked it open. He drank down the meagre remnants before he pulled out the full one and drank half the contents of it, too, in one large gulp. There was no sense in hiding his thirst since Johnson already knew about it. He stuffed both bottles back in his rucksack.

  We are not humanity’s enemy. We never have been, Casillus said.

  So what attacked that base, Casillus? I think you know. Was it the entity that this temple is dedicated to? Is that why you won’t talk about it? Gabriel pressed.

  Casillus swam in a tight, anxious circle. To even speak of it is to invite its presence. I cannot tell you of it while you are in that temple!

  Gabriel’s steps stuttered at Casillus’ words. He looked at Corey and Greta. Both were deeply involved in their conversation. His best friend was his happy, eager self, loving finding out something new and exciting. Greta was clearly charmed by Corey, though he still sensed unease flowing from her. This place was dangerous and they didn’t know it.

  Once again he found himself asking, What’s going to happen when I go into the water and this temple is still here with Miskatonic students continuing to poke around inside? Casillus, I know I can’t just blurt out that this place is dangerous, but we have to do something!

  You are right. Something must be done to protect the innocent. Let us think on it, Casillus answered with a sigh. The Mer did not want innocent people to be harmed either. Gabriel though understood that keeping the Mers secret was his greatest duty.

  At that moment, Corey noticed that Gabriel had joined them by the inscription. “Gabe, Greta was just explaining that this language is an offshoot of Sumerian! That’s how they were able to translate it so fast. Pretty cool, huh?”

  “Uh, yeah, that is cool,” Gabriel said. He thought about Casillus’ comment that this language had probably been used to write about many bad things, and he wondered if Greta knew that. “So can you tell us what it says, Greta?”

  She nodded. She laced her fingers together in front of her and began to speak. “The inscription begins by describing the land tribe’s first contact.”

  “First contact with aliens?” Corey asked hopefully, which had Gabriel as well as Greta smiling.

  “Sort of,” she said with a mischievous smile that matched his. “First contact with the people from the sea. The writer calls them the ‘Gods of the Sea.’ ”

  “Oh? Gods? Wow!” Corey exclaimed, his eyes shining with interest.

  “The text states that the chieftain of the land tribe performed a ceremonial dance to try and save his people,” Greta explained. Her voice took on a storytelling quality. It was clear from her bright eyes that she was fascinated by the topic. “There had been a terrible drought and the tribe’s luck with hunting and fishing had been very poor. They couldn’t leave the area because they were harried on all sides by enemies who would pick them off if they tried to flee. With his people dying, the chief had no choice but to call upon the ‘Gods of the Sea’ to save them.”

  “How did he know about the Gods of the Sea?” Corey asked.

  “They had been seen frolicking in the surf by the hunters of his tribe throughout the ages,” she said.

  Gabriel remembered his mother’s account of people in Ocean Side seeing beautiful people in the ocean as well. These Gods of the Sea are Mers, aren’t they, Casillus?

  It would seem so, Casillus said.

  “The ritual to call the Gods had been passed down from chief to chief from time immemorial, but none before him had been bold enough to do it,” Greta added.

  “So then things were pretty darn bad for the tribe if he was willing to call these Gods?” Corey guessed.

  “Desperate,” she said. “Because the chieftain knew that the Gods’ help came with a price.”

  Gabriel darted another glance up at that first line of text. Once again, the words seemed to detach from the surface of the wall and hover a few inches off of it, but unlike before the words didn’t just hover. They continued to move. They moved towards him.

  Casillus! The words—the words are—

  Gabriel’s vision blurred as the words filled it, and then, between one blink and the next, the world faded out altogether.

  Gabriel gave out a startled gasp as the world popped back into sight again, but the world was not as it had been before. He was no longer in the temple. Instead he was standing on the seashore right above where the waves crashed against the sand. The air was filled with the scent of salt and nothing else. No car exhaust. No cooking smells. No scent of modern human habitation.

  Where am I? What is going on here?

  “Corey? Greta?” Casillus?

  None of them answered. The place where he connected with Casillus in his mind felt like it was suddenly made of cold, smooth glass. He could not reach beyond it to the Mer. Panic flooded him and his hands shook. He spun around to face inland and recognized the area as the Morse Place. Something about the shape of the coastline must have told him this, though, because there were no other identifying landmarks. There was no temple. There was no settlement sprouting up from the sand. There wasn’t even the old ranch home that had once stood farther back from the waterline. There was only sand, long grass that whipped in the wind and the endless sea.

  Suddenly, Gabriel heard chanting to his left. He jerked towards the sound and saw a man stand
ing beside him who hadn’t been there before. Gabriel stepped back in surprise. The chanting man was Native American. He was dressed in animal skins instead of modern clothes. His flesh was a rich, dark brown color like mahogany. His eyes were a velvety black. He wore an elaborate feather headdress that moved as he danced to the sonorous rhythm of his chant, and Gabriel abruptly realized what and who he must be seeing.

  It’s the chief of the land tribe. Gabriel then understood something more. He’s performing the ritual to bring the Mers to land just like Greta described! But how am I seeing this? How am I here? Actually … am I here?

  The chief did not acknowledge him at all. Instead, the man continued with the ritual. His arms rose up into the air. There were shells tied around his wrists which clicked together as he moved. Like seagulls diving down into the water, his hands swiftly lowered to point down at the earth before they soared back up into the sky once more. He then reached towards the sea. The rhythm of his chanting increased. Gabriel felt the vibration of it in his chest. Anticipation built within him.

  Something is coming, something amazing. The old familiar phrase raced through his mind.

  The chief’s hands opened just before he pulled them back against his chest as if drawing whatever was out in the deep to himself. Just as suddenly, he thrust them back towards the ocean. Gabriel followed those hands with his eyes and gasped again.

  Instead of the open, empty ocean, the chief was reaching towards over a dozen people, both men and women, who were standing among the waves like statues. Around their waists were brightly colored shifts that were exactly like Casillus’ except in color and design. They wore nothing else. Their beauty—and the gills at their sides—made it obvious what they were.

  The scene faded and the world as he knew it returned, but not before Gabriel gasped out just as he had at the engraving of this moment, Mers!

  Gabriel? Casillus sounded alarmed.

  Gabriel caught himself from falling forward. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice his strange reaction. He was back in the present. He could touch Casillus over their bond. Corey and Greta were talking beside them. A feeling of wild relief went through him. I’m—I’m all right.

  What happened? You were gone—

  I—I had a vision. I saw what Greta translated from the inscription. He reflexively squeezed the top of his nose as if a headache were coming on. His head did hurt. Didn’t you see it? Didn’t you see a chieftain dancing by the ocean and Mers appearing in the waves?

  No. I saw only the interior of the temple, though it did seem like things grayed out slightly, as if you were not paying attention, but then you did not answer me when I spoke to you. Casillus sounded shaky. He had thought that Gabriel had cut off their bond again, but he hadn’t. Not on purpose.

  It felt like I was really there in the past, Casillus. I could feel the wind on my face. I could smell the chief’s sweat. I could taste the salt of the sea on my tongue! Gabriel explained.

  Apparently completely unaware of what was happening to Gabriel, Greta continued on with her translation. “The Gods of the Sea answered the chief’s prayer and came to him. They brought with them a bounty of fish. They also aided in defending the land tribe against its enemies.”

  “But what did the Gods of the Sea want in return for their help?” Corey asked.

  “Ah, you remembered that the Gods’ help was not without cost.” Greta leaned forward, as if speaking conspiratorially. “The Gods of the Sea wanted to mate with the land tribe.”

  “Ho, ho, hooo, loving! See, Gabe, love is in the air no matter who you are!” Corey chortled.

  “R—right, Corey.” Gabriel’s voice sounded hoarse to his ears and he felt disconnected, half there and half somewhere else. The inscription—and the past—were calling to him again.

  Will I see the past again? Will I be transported back once more? Gabriel wondered. He both wanted it to happen again and desperately did not want it to at the same time. He clutched onto Casillus through their bond. The Mer held him just as tightly back, but Gabriel wondered if it would be enough to keep him here if the past called to him again.

  “At first it wasn’t thought of as that much of a price, as the Gods were said to be very beautiful.” Greta’s right hand rose and touched the next line of text. More of the words seemed to streak off the walls towards Gabriel.

  I—It’s happening again, Casillus! Gabriel cried.

  As the world disappeared once more, he heard Greta continue, “But when the children of those first matings grew up, the price became far more apparent and, in some cases, unbearable.”

  Gabriel was back on the shore again. He tottered on shaky legs. He could not feel Casillus. Corey and Greta were gone. He spun around to face inland. Where he had seen just a flat expanse of sand and grass in his first vision, he now saw the base of the temple being laid. Just like he had glimpsed when they arrived at the settlement, he saw the stones of the temple levitating into place, but this time he saw two Mer standing before the stone with their arms upraised. He turned back towards the sea as he heard murmuring voices come from that direction.

  Gabriel saw a young woman of the land tribe walk out into the waves and take the hand of a male Mer. The Mer had long black hair and stunning blue-green eyes. An older Native American couple stood on the shore. He guessed that they were the girl’s parents. They looked on in stony silence, arms crossed, expressions grim, as the Mer cupped their daughter’s face in his hands. She looked upon the Mer with awe and a little fear.

  The scene suddenly blurred again. The same woman was before him, but she looked older. There was a touch of frost in her hair. This time, instead of walking into the waves she was standing on the beach and watching while a teenage boy, with the same stunning eyes as the male Mer, ran into the sea. The black-haired Mer was there to greet him.

  Father and son, Gabriel realized.

  Gills appeared on the teenager’s sides as soon as the water touched them. His expression was joyous and his father picked him up and spun him around in happiness. In contrast, his mother wept. The Mer then led the child into the ocean. Neither looked back at the woman, as if she did not matter anymore. Gabriel felt a trace of sadness at this. He could not leave the people he loved on land so easily. But maybe if he had been told all his life that he was going to leave then it would be easier, though he doubted it. This was the price. The children wanted their Mer parents more.

  Gabriel blinked and he was back in the present once more. Again, he felt relief that he was back, but he knew that he had not yet seen everything he needed to. He reached for Casillus and found the Mer right there with him again and not the cold, chill feeling of glass. He was embraced mentally and sagged against Casillus eagerly.

  You were gone again! Casillus cried. Did you have another vision?

  Y—yeah. It’s the inscription. It’s doing something to me, Gabriel got out as the world continued to spin. He wanted to lean against the temple’s wall, to give his shaking legs a break, but the thought of touching the glowing stone cause his stomach to roil. He forced himself to remain upright.

  Do not look at the inscription. The energy stored in the stones themselves might be causing your gift to react and force you to see the past, Casillus advised.

  All right, I’ll—You’ve come nearer to shore! Gabriel realized as he sensed that the Mer was now directly opposite the temple in the water. Casillus, you can’t be anywhere near here! Johnson could see you and—

  He will not see me. I am safe, but I fear you may not be, the Mer said. I want you out of that temple.

  But before Gabriel could answer Casillus, Corey was already asking Greta a question. “So you’re saying the last chief’s daughter was the cause of the war?”

  Despite himself, Gabriel lifted his head and listened carefully to Greta’s answer. “Yes. She was to go into the ocean with the Gods of the Sea, but her lover would not release her. Instead, they hid her from the Gods. But she grew very ill, and then --”

  Gabriel knew it
was coming. He didn’t even have to look up at the words before the vision overtook him.

  Gabriel! Casillus cried faintly, but then the Mer’s voice was lost again.

  Gabriel expected to see the vast expanse of sea again like he had the other times, but instead he was inside a structure. It took a moment for him to recognize that he was in a wigwam.

  I’m not in the settlement! Where am I? Am I near the sea even?

  He could smell wood smoke from the fire and the richness of tanned hides surrounding him. There was no salty tang from the sea in the air. A shudder ran through Gabriel. He was far from the sea. So very far. When he looked out the wigwam’s opening, he saw only grass bathed in moonlight. There was a whispery sound as the wind whipped through the blades, but no crash of water on sand or rock. Gabriel’s heart clenched.

  Too far. I’m too far from the sea. Gabriel swallowed and his mouth felt full of dust.

  He then heard a soft moan to his right. He jerked towards the sound.

  A Native American girl with braided black hair and feverish blue-green eyes was lying on top of a pile of furs. Even in the dim light, he could see that her lips were blue from cyanosis and her breathing came in harsh, short gasps. A young Native American man, his lush long hair spilling over his bare shoulders, was kneeling next to her. He was stroking one of her hands, murmuring words to her in a language that Gabriel did not know, but somehow he still understood the meaning behind them. The young man was begging her not to die, not to leave him. He loved her more than life.

  But it was no good. She let out one last gasp, her eyes bulged, and her lips skinned back from her teeth before her body went completely limp. She was gone. She had died. The young man curled over her body, his own wracked with sobs.

  Feeling numb, Gabriel thought, That would have been me if Casillus hadn’t found me and convinced me that I needed to go into the water.

  At that moment, the light from the opening into the wigwam dimmed for a moment. Gabriel turned and saw a female Mer entered. She looked so much like the dead girl on the furs that they could have been twins.