Above the Waves

Chapter 6: The Arrival

[Word Count: 1206]

Baby unborn, flippers torn. Forced into walking, before even talking.
Above the waves he'll stay, right out of a wizard's way.
It'll be your all fault, when your brother can't live in the water and the salt.

I awoke in the middle of the Summer Island with a tune playing through my head, over and over. Though it had no meaning to me, it made me uneasy and I couldn't remember where I'd heard it before. In fact, I couldn't really remember anything of what I'd done today. I sit up and strain my memory, trying to figure out what had happened and why I couldn't remember any of it.

"Oh god, June I thought you'd never wake up," I hear a voice and turn expecting to see Lincoln but instead I see Isaac, my mother's boyfriend. I'd been more than sixteen years since my father died but I admit that Isaac still made me uneasy.

"W-What happened? How'd I get here?" I ask.
"June, it's probably best not to ask questions, your mother needs you," he says calmly.
"Mother needs me? What's going on-"
"You're just lucky I found you," he holds out his hand to help me up.

He rushes me back to the Summer Island's main beach to find a group of people all huddled together. One of my mother's friends, Katrina, turns and runs towards me. She smiles, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the group.

It starts to hit me, it's been 9 months since Isaac and my mother had announced their pregnancy. My mother wasn't close to Isaac before it happened, she missed father and Isaac took advantage of this. I remember finding the two of them on the Winter Island in the middle of the night, they were both asleep with legs but no clothes. That's when I knew things were bad.

Since their little slip-up, Isaac has been a lot nicer as he tries to get closer to my mother. Eventually, they started going out, which I never really approved of but I guess it's just what's best for the unborn baby.

Baby unborn, flippers torn.

It was all coming back now. I'd been to Lincoln's brother, Kenneth, also known as The Dark Warlock, for closure about my father, who'd been killed. We got into a fight and he'd tried to place a fate worse than death on my mother. The poem stuck in my head wasn't a poem at all.

It was a curse.

Flora, the pod's midwife, grabs my mother's hand, "Big push now, you're almost there."

My mother shrieks and I kneel beside her and smile. The baby was about to born human because of me, but I didn't want her to know that, not yet. What are they going to say when they see legs instead of a tail? How could I possibly fix this?

Flora backs up between my mother's legs, ready to catch the child. With a final scream from my mother, I hear the baby fall into Flora's hands and I see the look on her face when she realizes the child's been born with legs.

(A/N sorry if this made anyone uncomfortable, I didn't really know how to tell the story without a birth scene.)

Most mer-children are born with a light colored tail, which turns darker as they get older. The child must be cleaned and transformed into a human to discover their genders. But when a baby is born with legs, everyone knows that's a very bad sign.

Flora fakes a smile and hands the child to my mother, "Congratulations, it's a boy."

I lay eyes on my new half-brother for the first time. He was so tiny with wrinkled closed fists, a round face and clenched shut eyes. Small strands of black hair sprouted from his head and his skin was clean and pure, he was beautiful. I smile at my mother, despite the fact that he had legs, I could see the feeling of true love in my mother's eyes.

Isaac pushes through the crowd with a disgusted look on his face. "It-It has legs?!"
"Isaac, please," my mother winces as she cuddles the baby.
"This is not my child," he shouts.
"He is, Isaac, I swear." My mother sounded fed up.
"I refuse to believe that. No son of mine would be born human."

One of Isaac's many brothers places his hand on Isaac's shoulder as if to tell him to shut up and enjoy the moment. Many of my mother's friends congratulated her but she didn't take her eyes off the baby, she just smiled angelically.

"Henry," my mother says after a while of silence. "His name is Henry."
"To Henry," Flora shouts and the crowd rise into cheers.

                                                                       + + +

The crowd of my mother's friends and Isaac's friends slowly begin to disappear. After Flora had left, it was only my mother, Henry, Isaac and I still sitting on the beach. It wasn't long until the pod leader emerged from the ocean; Abalone. She drifted onto the sandbank and quickly changed her aqua tail into a long, flowing dress with a simple hand motion.

Abalone had been voted the pod's leader every time the pod has had an election, simply because she's so nice and always helps others. Her beauty showed physically, but she was very beautiful on the inside as well.

"My congratulations go out to the new parents, Oceania and Isaac," she says as she spots Henry.
"Thank you," my mother smiles.
"I see we do have a problem though," her mood changes.
"A very big problem," Isaac grunts.
Abalone glares at him, "I'm afraid this looks like the work of a dark curse."

It'll be all your fault, when your brother can't live in the water and the salt.

"What do we do?" Isaac asks.
"You have several options," Abalone starts. "You may leave the baby in our care while you look for the sorcerer who did this, you could abandon the baby on human land and forget about him or you could move to the human world and raise the child. It's up to you."

I stare at my mother, her face full of worry but I'd support whichever option she picked. She shook her head as a tear fell from her eyes. I felt terrible, it really was all my fault, I was the one causing my mother all this grief.

"I'm sorry Henry, I really wanted this to work out but it appears that'd just not how it's going to work. I'll miss you," mother says.
"Oceania! What do you think you're doing?" Isaac shouts.
"You're the last person I'd expect to care," she shouts back.
"He's my child too, what-"
"No son of mine would be born human," she mocks what he said before.

I laughed, it was good to see my mother standing up for herself. I never liked Isaac, I'm glad mother was finally realizing he never cared for her at all. He was just pretending since ever she became pregnant. 

"Henry's going to be a great son, but not for me. I'm taking him to the human land so he can have his best chance."