Fishes

1

Lukas Thomassen had only cried once before. It had been a clear day, the sun shining brightly down as he read intently an old magic book. He sat placidly on a weathered dock that jut out nearly a hundred feet into the ocean. His five-year-old brother, Emil, sat at the dock's far end. Having tired of running up and down the dock's length, he had gathered himself a small pile of stones to attempt to skip across the gently moving surface. Lukas had yet to seen him succeed, however he wasn't paying very much attention. Rather, he was buried in his book, enchanted by its long lists of famous wizards and convoluted spells and pretty diagrams. He whispered an incantation to himself under his breath, and felt a tingling sensation in his spine. The spell had almost worked.
Silence. Then came the first scream. He dropped his book and sprinted down the dock. The vision that from then on was branded on his mind, that came back to haunt him whenever his thoughts were free of other things, was that of Emil thrashing and clawing in vain at the dock, a silver hand holding firmly onto his ankle, pulling him under the water. Anguished screams. Splashing. Muffled noise from underwater. Bubbles rising to the surface before disappearing. Everything but self-preservation told Lukas to jump in after him, but he knew that he stood no chance against the monsters that lived below. Tears began to flow from his eyes. He slept on the dock that night.
However, twenty-eight years later, he was crying again. Just a few minutes ago, while Lukas was out fishing, there was a tugging on his rowboat. He was afraid until a little face popped up above the water. It was a merman, plate-like eyes wide, skin a pale silver, green strands clinging to his wet hair. Despite how unbelievably different he looked, Lukas knew in his heart that those wide eyes, half-open mouth, and shaggy hair belonged to his little brother.
Now, as he rowed back to his family, his vision was clouded by tears. The dock still stood. It served as a heart-wrenching reminder of the day his brother was stolen.
Growing up as orphan boys, -their father had been lost at sea and their mother died in childbirth- Lukas and Emil heard rumors from the local urchin children of merpeople kidnapping kids and turning them into their own. The older boy had brushed it off, not bothering to ask whether or not such stories scared Emil. As they got older, both showed some interest in magic and magical creatures, Lukas planning to study them once he got old enough to attend university. They were extremely poor. Each day was a struggle, surviving on change from townspeople, donations from rich men who liked to feel charitable, and stolen trifles. After Emil was taken, Lukas took up an apprenticeship with a local baker.
He beached his boat, mooring it nevertheless to the dock for fear of the tides rising abnormally high and whisking the rowboat away. It was a short walk back to his house. He was happily married to an Andrei Popescu, and lived as well with Andrei's ten-year-old stepbrother, Ion, to whom he liked to think he played somewhat of a fatherly role. He had met Andrei in magic school, where they had fallen in love.
Lukas opened the door with a creak. "What'd you catch?" said Andrei, feet propped up on the living room table as he read the local newspaper.
"Not much," he said with a deep breath, holding up a basket containing four large fish.
"Did you do the magicky thing?"
"Yeah," he said, grabbing a pinch of a powdery mixture and hissing an incantation under his breath, sprinkling the stuff discreetly over the fish in the basket. This was a trademark spell of his, one that had earned him extra credit back at school. It prevented the fish from smelling as bad as they normally might.
"Great, those can be our dinner until Sunday," Andrei said offhandedly.
"Ugh," came a groan from the sofa. Lukas had not noticed Ion sitting by the fireplace, reading a picture book. "Fish again? Do we ever get to eat anything else?"
Andrei sighed, obviously tired and exasperated. "Yeah, we're gonna have something nice on Sunday. In the meantime, Lukas here is a fisherman."
Ion rolled his eyes.
"Just wait until the spring," Andrei said, "everybody's gonna be falling in love and planting crops and shit, we'll be getting enough magic jobs that we won't need to fish for a living."
"You do realize it's currently late fall, right, bro?"
Lukas interrupted him. "Ion, you should really appreciate him a bit more."
"This is about your brother, Emil." It had not been, but a lurking fear suddenly manifested itself in the pit of his stomach. What if dear Ion were to be abducted and transformed into a merman just as Emil had been? He shuddered.
"I've gotta go take a rest," he said quietly, "Would you mind making dinner, Andrei?"
Andrei raised his eyebrows. "Sweetie, I know you're as introverted as they come, but you've been alone in a boat for all freaking afternoon."
Lukas huffed and marched upstairs to their shared bedroom, a cozy attic with a large east window. His head swam with the thought of Emil's return. He didn't know whether to be scared, relieved, ecstatic, or sad. Of one thing, however, he was certain. Lukas would return to the waters the following day.