Tide

The Shipwreck

Jolono

"I'm a what?!" Phaedra yelled.

"Phaedra, It's fine," I said calmly.

"Jolono!" Phaedra yelled. She tried to leap at me, forgetting about her tail, and landed face-first in the sand. I started laughing hysterically.

"Leave me alone, Jolono!" She said, spitting sand in my direction. I swerved, also falling, but managing to save my face.

I fell onto my back, still chuckling. Eventually, Phaedra's scales melted away, though it took fifteen minutes. In that time span, word had spread of Phaedra finding out about her tail. Half the island shook with laughter, tears springing to many eyes. Phaedra looked annoyed for the next hour, but she finally gave in and laughed too. When she did, Father took us back out to the sea, this time with 5 other men. "What are we doing?" I asked Father.

"We are going to scavenge the ship. It is how we got most of our resources." He looked extremely serious. "There is something I have to tell you before we go out to sea."

"What?" Phaedra said.

"Half of us on the ship chose not to follow me, and those half are on the other side of the island. We made a pact. We stay on our own side, and we don't fight. The only thing we fight about is the ship. The others on the island try to scare us with heads on pikes. I am not joking when I say this. There will be heads, and if you don't want to go, I understand."

I just stared at my father, comprehending what he just said.

"You said... heads?" Phaedra looked as though she was going to be sick. "I think I'll sit out on this one."

"Ok, we'll come back in about an hour. If we don't, get help." Father then walked forward into the water, and once the water was to his waist, he sprang forward, diving head-first into the water. I followed him, as well as the others on our team. Phaedra walked toward the forest, throwing a soft "Goodbye, sheesh," over her shoulder. I dove into the salt-filled water, feeling the scales come again. I looked down. Seeing the glittering blue scales felt so weird, especially knowing that they were attached to me. I strained to catch up to my father. "Wait up!" I tried saying, noticing talking underwater was much different from talking above the surface. My father turned, signaled to the other mermen, and swam back to me. He looked towards me and tilted his head. I made motions saying he and the others were going too fast. Father nodded, told me to follow his body movements. I peered at Father as he moved in a serpentine motion. I repeated the movement, finding I was moving as fast as Father now.

We swam for another five to ten minutes when I saw three pikes. Though they were stained with blood, they were empty of heads. My father looked at me. I tilted my head, and he nodded sadly. We swam on, and soon we saw a massive ship, pieces missing in many places. I looked at the seafloor and saw them. Around thirty pikes with heads on them, some terrified expressions, some just calm with closed eyes. We swam past the heads and into the ship. I looked around for useful things. My eye caught on a brown ball. It was a football. I laughed, or at least tried to, and picked it up to show father, but he hurriedly shushed me and shoved me under an instrument. He went to his own hiding area, and soon, I saw our men hiding as well. I looked at Father and he motioned again to stay quiet. Other mermen entered the ship, and Father leapt out, tackling one of them. I looked at Father and he shook his head, punching the man. Everywhere there was a muffled commotion as the other merfolk on our side leapt out as well, evening out the odds. The mermen that owned the other side of the island were outnumbered, five to three. I looked for my father, finding him scrambling with the same man he had tackled. I looked behind them and froze.