Toph sat bolt up right and came face to face with Cat and Ninety-Eight with faces of ecstasy; he had never seen a mermaid before, nor did he know they existed for all that matters; so their faces, if anything, showed exactly what Toph was feeling though he showed extreme difficulty in expressing that emotion due the dream he had had of himself as a naked llama. Was he really squirming around on the hammock in front of them? His throat was a little dry, did that mean he was shouting while he was falling towards the swirling water of a giant monster's mouth? Toph looked down and, thankfully, he still had his clothing on – though they are quite damp, he thought, as he struggled to pull himself out of the hammock and on to the wooden floor. He watched Ninety-Eight and Cat leave the cabin before he grabbed the urn of water under his hammock and poured it over his face.
Mermaids?, he said to himself, trying to remember if that's exactly what Ninety-Eight said, but mermaids are mythological creatures. They won't be here in the middle of the ocean …and then he remembered he was heading off towards an island to fight a witch who had cursed several people into mixed species; moreover, at that precise moment, a soothing song streamed through his ears. At first he thought he imagined it, that he was going delusional, but then the song stopped followed by people cheering and laughing and talking. Toph got to his feet and, cautiously, walked up the sunlit stairs, out of the cabin, and into the open as the sea-breeze brushed against his wet face. To his right, along the railing, stood everybody watching the water … the song began again and, as though pulled by an invisible rope, Toph walked directly towards the sound whilst everyone stood aside for him to see; and there, swimming along side the ship, were several women with a large fishtail in replace of legs.
As the ship sailed onwards, the mermaids sang in a speech that wasn't English, nor was it any other language Toph could think of, and assumed it was a language known only to mermaids. Just like everybody else, he stood motionless watching them swim dolphinlike through the ripples of water, bopping in and out of the surface as though their bones were not bones at all, but merely cartilage. Toph counted three of them, though he was sure he could see more further below: the one at the front had straggling blonde hair with a large purple tail sparkling in the sunlight like amethyst; the second, swimming further out than the others, was a brunette with a crimson tail, though her tail fins had tattoolike designs on them; the third, however, had shortened black hair, who swam towards the back of the ship with her grass green tail flowing serenely in a world of its own.
'Aren't they beautiful,' said Jen, her unicorn head casting a large shadow against the water, joint by E's.
Either by the need of attention, or for the mere sake of it, Suzie, with her green sparrow wings, soared through the air and began gliding above the surface of the water with the mermaids, leaving a trail behind as her claws sliced through the water with her wings spread either side. Toph was strongly reminded of his dream, and hoped Suzie's feathers will not depart her body to nakedness as his llama wings had done when he was some distance in the air. He then began to sweat, not because of the sun burning the back of his neck, but because he imagined having to sail through a hurricane, like his dream, battling a large sea monster with huge goggling eyes and an enormous mouth that could swallow the ship whole. He leant forwards to see how Anna was responding to all of this; however, once again, she was not with the party, but on the quarterdeck steering the ship. At first he tried fooling himself into believing she didn't want to hit the mermaids; although he was quite sure the mermaids were smart enough to not get too close to the rudder. Not wanting to watch the site of the mermaids singing their songs through the sea, he left the group and walked up the stairs to speak to Anna who remained determined to pretend she didn't see him coming.
'Hello, Anna,' said Toph awkwardly, trying to find something to talk about which he thought was stupid for not thinking of something before.
'Hey, Toph, how are things?'
YOU ARE READING
Cupcakes and Tea
خيال (فانتازيا)Toph is battling his need for an escape of reality, only to find that dwelling on dreams and forgetting to live is a path of fools. His future is pulled together by his curiosity, finding himself seduced by a witch's curse whom Toph, alone, is to de...
