Mark of the Ranger

XXX. The Special Pearl

          Karen dashed right in to the sea. That was her job--to find clams, break them open, and steal their goods. As she dived in, she held her breath. Her lungs changed into gills as slits appeared in her throat. Transparent eyelids closed over her eyes, and webs formed between her fingers. A dorsal fin grew on her back, and her human legs finally formed into a dolphin's tail. Once she hit the water, she pumped furiously, having to dive deeper to find better clams. All the ones near the surface had been taken that morning, since the non-merfolk could get to those.

          The water became dark. To anyone else, it would be hard to see, but a mermaid's night vision would kick in at this level. Karen searched back and forth for a little shell, whether or not it be holding a pearl. Karen had no idea what the oysters were for, because they certainly weren't in the bowls of something. "Here, clammy clam," Karen muttered. To anyone but a merfolk, it would have just come out as a bunch of bubbles coming from the sides of her throat. There was a joke about merfolk speech--"Talking out of your neck." The phrase was meant towards people who didn't know what they were talking about, but it was the contrary with merfolk-no one else knew what they were talking about.

          Finally, Karen found a clam. She launched with her webbed fingers and her tail, speeding towards the clam. She grabbed it quickly, then realized she forgot a bag. It was no matter, she could just hold them in her arms. Karen found another clam, and another one. She gathered her clams in her left arm. When she neared an armful, she prepared to return to the surface, but something sped by and knocked the clams out of her hands.

           "Hey!" Karen bubbled, and turned toward the thing that had knocked her clams away. She saw a snickering merman, his face twisted in a mischievous grin. He swam around, his shark's tail swishing back and forth as he collected all of Karen's clams and dropped them in his bag. Karen shook her fist at him and charged him. The mischievous merman made a frightened expression, then swam off. Karen followed in hot pursuit. If she didn't turn in enough clams, she would be forced to work until she did. That's what the merfolk last night had told her, at least. 

          "Give me back my clams!" Karen gargled loudly at him. The merman turned to grin again, but he slowed down, and Karen grabbed him. She raised her fist to strike him, but he screeched and quickly gave his bag to her. She took only what she had already had--twenty-three clams. "Why did you take my clams?" She asked him angrily. 

          "You know how hard this work is!" The merman responded.

          "That's no excuse to take mine. You'd make me work more."

          "But if I take yours, then I don't need to work."

          Karen whacked the merman in the face for his stupidity, then swam off again, making sure to hold on to her clams. She only needed two more--the quota was thirty--before she was to start opening them. She swiftly found two more clams near the bottom of the ridge--two large ones, the size of her head--then sped up towards the beach. She made landfall and changed back to land form. There, she walked over and checked with her leader. The leader gave her an okay for her clams, so she sat down in the sand and began to get to work shelling clams.

          Karen felt like shelling the two large ones first. The first one had no pearl, so she tossed its oyster into the oyster chute, but the second one was quite different.

           Karen snapped it open, mildly disappointed in the last clam. When she did, a large milky sphere dropped into the sand. Karen quickly ran over to the water and washed it off. She gazed at the amazing thing she had found. It was as bright as the full moon and the size of Karen's fist--she had to hold it in both hands. Is this even real, or am I dreaming? Karen thought to herself.

          But it was not a dream, Karen found out as she bit herself on the arm. The pearl she had just found was real! But of course, Karen couldn't keep the pearl in the open or let anyone know about it. She had to keep it a secret, hide it. Karen had no idea what the pearls were used for, but she knew that this pearl was too beautiful to be used. She dug a quick hole in the sand while nobody was looking and dropped the pearl in there, then covered up the hole. She memorized where she had left the pearl, then went back to work.

          Karen continued to break open clams. None were as interesting as her special pearl, but she did find a few pearls. She dropped each and every one of them into their respective chutes, thinking of how boring this job was and how much more boring it would have been if she hadn't found that special pearl. As Karen worked, ever thought came back to that special pearl. She decided to ask  one of her coworkers, who was sitting near her, what the pearls were used for.

          "I think they're used for food to Toxiclaw, but we can never find anything large enough to do anything else but keep him awake," her coworker answered. Karen had heard of the giant poison-talonned beast. That gave her an idea. She could fit twelve pearls inside that special pearl that she had found. Perhaps she could give it to Toxiclaw in exchange for some sort of favor.

          Karen's coworker noticed her thinking. "Why did you ask?" He inquired. 

          "Oh, no reason," Karen answered, with one reason in mind. "I think I just had an idea, that's all." With that, they both went back to work.