The air in the little village always tasted salty. The breeze continually blowing over the houses carried the scent of the sea with it, most villagers didn't even notice the taste on their tongue having lived there for so long. They didn't mind tasting and smelling the ocean; the very thing that gave them sustenance.
The small, isolated town overlooked the ocean, safe from harm when the sea chose to flood the shore. Four wooden boats glided on the water in the inlet, delicately shaking with little waves that undulated the surface. Once every two days, three of the boats would take the men out on the ocean before dawn and return at sunset with -hopefully- full nets of fish.
Each other day when the night fell, a fire was made and the legends of the gods of the sea were told. The villagers sang and danced, and commended the ocean for supplying them with their meal. On the following day, life would go on as usual. Men assembled houses and went fishing or hunting, while the woman of the town tied the nets for the fishers, collected drinking water from the not so close by river, and taught their children the way of life they must follow and what their role must be in the community when they grow up.
It was a quiet yet hard life they led, without any foes undermining to attack them. Sometimes outsiders would drop by, some bringing charms and pharmaceutical or uncommon herbs, others essentially having simply lost their direction. They would be invited in with open arms, be offered a spot to stay for whatever length of time they needed, and asked by the children to tell stories of the unknown land past the hills that they originated from.
Nakoda, known as Koda to the younger children, abhorred the salty taste in his mouth and the way the willows made his fingers feel dry and numb in the wake of working with them too long. He was a thoughtful, kind-hearted boy but had no patience for such fiddly errands, which meant he struggled with each task given to him by the elders.
"To start with, there was just water, Mermaids and mermen lived in the sea, deep enough that no light of the sun set out to get through. They created great cities and lived in harmony with fish. Their eyes were acclimated to the haziness and they led peaceful lives, not even once needing or wanting the daylight like us people do."
Koda listened to the story told by one of the eldest men in the village. His hair was grey and his facial hair unruly, his voice as deep as the sea. Koda had heard the story a hundred times before and didn't give careful consideration to it, however, the younger children were enthusiastic audience members that held on tight to every word coming from the old cracked lips, despite the fact that they would definitely know the story word for word already. Koda found the story moronic. Once when he was a young boy, he had been intrigued by it as how the other children were that night, but he has recently discovered that it was only a silly story. People didn't develop from fish and merfolk didn't exist. His mother used to sing songs to him to send him to sleep, claiming that they were of the merfolk of which she gained from listening to the sea. They were about the generosity of the merfolk and their kindness, but Koda hadn't encountered any of it the day he saw his mother being taken away by the harsh elements and the stormy sea.
It had been years, yet Koda could still clearly remembered the day his mother had been taken. She had chosen to join the men out on the boats to fix the nets as they were sailing. Koda had clung to his mother's leg and begged her not to go, but all she did was crouch down alongside him, run her fingers through his chestnut hair, place a kiss on his head and promised him that he has no reason to cry or worry.
"The merfolk will ensure that we are protected, my dear Koda, I assure you."
He had waved after the boat then gathered shells on the shoreline. The wind was brutal yet the bluffs offered him shelter. When he had gathered a bunch of shells, he went to where the ocean kissed the ground and threw them beyond what many would consider as an offering to the merfolk to keep his mother safe. His eyes dashed to the wooden boat that was being shaken by the waves, They weren't far out. Koda has just tossed a handful of shells into the ocean, when he saw it- the exact moment the vessel tipped over. Six men and his mother were taken by the ocean that day.
The day he began hating the thought of beings living under the ocean, giving a false feeling of security to the anglers when truly there was nothing to protect them from harm. There was no one there to help the inconspicuous village- they were on their own. It was then that Koda discovered that fairytales weren't real.
