"Aries, this is...disturbing...we should get back to Mother, she needs us you know." Ignoring Caspian's protests, I haul my upper body onto a marbled black and grey rock and watch what I have anxiously anticipated all morning.
Through the oblong viewing glass of the white square a human male awakens, stumbling around drowsily on his separated tail and attritioning his eyes wearily. "Aries," Caspian warns frantically once more, waving his arm back to the crystalline waters. "That is a human! It will kill you!"
"Caspian!" I hiss at my older brother, turning to see him push himself out of the water until the deep purple scales on his waist light up and shimmer from the sun.
"I swear to Neptune I will yank your hind tail off that rock so fast you will swim backwards for the rest of your life!" He growls. I ignore his threats and focus on the human boy in the square. The male opens another square inside of his square, extracting food from it's hollowed inside and greedily bringing it to his mouth.
"Caspian this is fascinating." I whisper, entranced in the human ways of life.
Caspian perches himself on the marbled rock, examining the male's hypnotic ways with disgust etched on his face. "How often do you watch him?" He asks.
"Only once or twice a day...OH! This is my favorite part!" I jump from my rocky viewing area and onto the burning sand and Earth, dragging my lower half until I make it to the fogged glass. Gesturing for Caspian to join me I press my fingers silently on the window, my other hand picking off dead blue-green scales that match my eyes. Caspian's rough hands, warm from beaching himself on the sand, rest gently on my lower back as the human passes by.
Caspian turns to me for answers. "What is he doing?"
"They call it peeing." I respond as the man pulls off his tail-covering and grabs hold of a fin. I run my own hand over the smooth front of my tail, not even a bump.
"He's excreting seawater, Aries...I don't want you watching these..." he seems to struggle for words before finding an appropriate adjective. "gruesome acts any longer. We are going back home to the ocean where we belong!" Caspian has always been muscular since childhood so it was of no surprise when he wrestled my fin down and yanked me back into the ocean's depths with him. His uneven brown hair floats in every which direction as he swims closer to the bottom.
I take deep gulps of seawater, the air from above was starting to burn my gills. Caspian grabs hold of my shoulders, pressing into them until I stare into his muddy eyes. "If you ever go to the surface again...I will tell officials and they will arrest you for life. Mother is already dying, she doesn't need the added stress right now, Aries."
"You know sometimes you act a lot older than eighteen, more like a father than a brother." I pout, crossing my arms over my slick chest.
"If you acted sixteen like you are supposed to and not like a wandering tot then maybe I'd be more brotherly and less fatherly." He snaps.
I tangle my fingers through my reddish brown hair and stare into the sea. The sun penetrates the crystal clear halcyon waters and shines through it's depths to reveal homes made of natural reef formations. Decorated with shells and starfish and the occasional fish skeleton, no two homes are alike. I wander through the traffic of merfolk until I reach a pink half moon of coral, the perfect cave-like home. After checking the empty turtle shell mailbox and trimming our overgrown seaweed yard, I get the chance to see mother.
"Mom?" I whisper as I peek through the doorway.
"Aries?" Her voice is hoarse but it's a sign that she's still breathing. After dad passed away from the shark attack mom was never the same. She stopped feeding the crabs that came to the garden, never checked the mailbox or trimmed the hedges. She used to cook dinner for the neighborhood every night. A feast of shrimp and tuna and occasionally turtle. Now Caspian practically runs the house, dark circles appearing under his eyes from all the added stress in his teen years. If only I could help in some way... "How are you?" She breathes, lifting a withered arm towards me.
Though she is youthful her face has wrinkled and her bones show through her leathery skin. Her once bright sunshiny tail has faded and her fin has dropped like a trapped Orca's might. I gingerly grab hold of her bony fingers and stroke them gently, ignoring her question altogether to lie next to her.
"I should be asking you that." Her small chuckle turns to a violent cough and Caspian is at her side in a heartbeat.
"Caspian stop worrying so much!" She fusses and waves her arms about to stop him but tires out too soon.
"Mom, you're just making yourself sicker." His voice fades into nothingness as I swim out of the house. Letting the water float me upwards, I catch a current and drift, leaving my worries behind. With a backwards glance at the human grooming himself, I allow my body and worries to drift out to sea.
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Special thanks to @CoijeLeverson for the epic cover and @stace150195 for the epic trailer!!! Also this chapter is short because it's a new story and I'm mainly just testing it out. The chapters will be 2-3 MAYBE 4 pages from here on out!
Aries to the side ----->
Also, people are given dedications for a reason so you should go check out @PaintedSky because they are a huge supporter of the books and a killer murder-mystery writer! :D
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The Little Merman: Book One
Fantasy"The algae is always greener on the other side." That seems especially true in this twist on Disney's "tail" of the Little Mermaid. Aries would do anything to become a part of their world. Even go to extreme measures to gain his legs. With his broth...
