Maame Water: The Legend Of The Fish Queen

The Fish Queen

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Again, I did the cover art myself, though this time I actually drew and coloured the dark siren and the prince. I really enjoyed drawing them!! I know the editing is not the best, but I like it! Any way, comment and vote, I am a beginner and I would like to know what you think about my story!

APPRECIATION

I thank God for blessing me with enough creativity to write this story- no matter how short.

I made my way through the forest in the dark of the night, careful not to trip on any of the tree roots that crossed the trail, lest I fall and sprain my ankle. The forest was quiet as I made my way to the cave reminding me that even the animals eschewed my destination. I tried not to think about where I was going and how the flimsy spear that bore the royal mark offered me negligible protection from the danger I was about to face. I had no other weapons and I did not even carry any armour. In fact, I was bare-chested, with only the green-and-gold royal cloth folded around my waist. Father asked me to go to the cave with little protection so the being I was seeking would assume that I meant her no harm. My people needed her help and hostility would only serve to anger her. Even without provocation, she has been known to kill. Men who have wandered this close to her cave have never returned. Fishermen whose canoes have drifted to the point at which her cave opens out to the sea were never seen again. She is the most feared creature in the whole of the land and the elders say her voice is as lovely as that of a bird's and that when you hear her song, you are lost forever.

Yet tonight, I was going willingly into her cave.

She was the only person who could save my people from the warriors that came from the Sea. They had arrived last two days from beyond the sea line in great big canoes and had declared war on my people. Their skin was as white as bone and their warriors as numerous as the sands of the beach. They had stayed out at sea and had sent a messenger to land to tell us that they were given us two weeks to surrender and become their slaves or they would slaughter our tribe's men and rape our wives and daughters. They would steal all our riches and lands and sell our sons as slaves. Two weeks and my tribe would either be decimated or enslaved. My father is a proud man.

He killed the messenger.

Now a week had passed and we were facing imminent destruction. We were desperate and that is why when I suggested that we seek aid from her, my father offered little resistance. He reluctantly sent his son on a doomed quest to seek assistance from the fish-queen.
To seek help from Maame Water.

I stopped when the forest trail led me to a small clearing because at the end of that clearing was the cave.

Her cave.

As I stared at the cave whose opening resembled the mouth of a beast, my resolve dissolved.
What was I doing here?

Had I not heard the rumors about the fish-queen? Had I not paid attention to the stories that told of the tragic fates that befell all who tried to seek her? Did I not recall all the gruesome songs that were sung about her?

In fact, the first part of one particular song had stuck with me since I started on my quest and now I heard it all around me, as if the forest itself were singing me a warning.

Young Warrior, Young Warrior
You wish to go out to sea?
Have you not heard of the evil that lurks deep in its depths?
Have you not heard of the fish queen?-
Her countenance like an angel's;
And yet the blackness of her hair
Reflects the darkness of her soul
As the gore of her kill
Bathes the crimson of its tips
Haha, the fish-queen shall get you!
No doubt she will!