LandWalker

LandWalker

Chapter 1

I stood at the edge of shoreline, just breathing in the sweet salty sea air. The waves crashed against the sand and washed up on my feet. The water tingling my skin as its fingers dragged back out to sea.  It had been exactly 4 months since I lost his voice, his eyes, his body, and most importantly, his spirit. It would be easier if I knew that he was dead. Then at least I would know that his spirit was free from this world. I could live with that. Then I would know that he was with God but in reality he wasn’t. In reality he was trapped. I touched my shell that hung around my neck. A round shell that glints in the sunlight tied together with some string. I tried to push all of my horrible feelings into it. It always made me feel better just to feel it against my neck. That very cold December day was when the tragedy occurred. That’s when the sea kidnapped my one and only true love, Ayden. It still stung me to say his name; all it did was reopen old wounds. Wounds that never really healed but were just filled with denial and thankfully thoughts that helped block out reality. The sun was halfway underneath the sea now and the temperature was dropping. In only jeans and a tank top, I could feel the goose bumps popping op on my arms. It was a cold April day. The wind was picking up, dancing with my curly blonde hair. It was getting too late for a swim but I needed one and I was willing to take the risk. So slipping off my jeans and top, I let down the barrier I had around me to keep the moisture of the salt water out of my body. I took in a deep breath and ran into the water, when I was waist deep I dove into the world below.

Mermaid, a word that when spoken sounds like a fairytale but it’s not, this is reality and reality sucks. Life’s a bitch and those who don’t know it will have a rude awakening someday. I have always hated life. I never had a reason to love it. Life has never been sweet to me. I had lost all hope in being happy. Ayden was the exact opposite; he embraced life whereas I just got through it. He opened my eyes to this world. He made me see that there’s more than just surviving. In life you have to live each moment to its fullest. I could hear his voice speaking the words. He was the strangest human I had ever met. Of course he knew I wasn’t human. I have always despised this world but now there is no joy left in it. Ayden was the only thing that was beautiful that was still in this cruel life. Now he’s gone but that will not be for forever. I refuse to believe that he’s dead and I refuse to let them win.

As I dove in the water I felt myself changing. I felt my lungs quit and my gill slits slowly open beneath my jaw. My legs joined together and a skirt of scales ran down my thighs to my toes. Which were replaced by a fan shaped fin. The scales on my chest had already appeared and now my arm fins were coming along. This took all 0f 10 seconds before the transformation was complete. I looked around and felt my lens closing in on my naked eye. Now I could see very well. I saw all the oceans many wonders that was hidden from the human world. I could feel my ancestors calling me to stay in the ocean, forever. Endlessly roaming the universes many wonders never having any ties just me and the wonders of my life that would let me catch my destiny and always have Ay- Damn that ancient curse of mermaids! The endless want of the sea was strong and it really screwed you up. Eventually you learn to ignore the calls for you.

The ocean was exceedingly quiet today. Well it was very late. By now everything was starting to quiet down. There were no fish out; not even a starfish or shark. An eerie feeling crept over me and I decided to head to shore. Then, very suddenly, I was grabbed from behind and something sharp stabbed my fin. I screeched in pain and tried to wriggle away. I managed to break free and see who my attacker was. A great white shark, he was probably out for a midnight snack. I didn’t know if I could out swim him especially with my hurt fin. So I decided to fight him off. I swam at him and hit him in the gills with my webbed hand. He began to cough water and took a death strike at me. He hit me in the stomach but I dodged the teeth. Luckily I would only have a bruise. I cringed back from him cradling my stomach and then he struck at my face. I dodged once more but his teeth nicked my left cheek and I began to scream at the sight of my blood. That was it, this was going to be hard to hide from people and I was sick of being pushed around today. I looked up from under my mass of hair and gave him a death stare. He was lurking in the dark ocean and I looked directly into his soul and gave him a horrific hiss. I focused on his dark soul that I could see so perfectly clear. Slowly I began to imagine it smashing into pieces. The black orb began to tremble. I stared deeper into that dark mass. It began shake fiercely but wouldn’t give. Finally I let out a war hiss and I saw the sphere burst into tiny pieces. The beast was floating gracefully down. I looked at him with rage and began swimming back to shore leaving my guilty thought behind. As I reached the shore of my favorite cove I checked to see if anyone was around. No one. I didn’t really need to check, my cave was on the shore but it was surrounded with other high cliff walls. A bunch of sharp jagged island rocks were surrounding to. The only human I knew that could get there was him. And he wasn’t even 100% human. I swam through the underwater opening of the cave and came to the surface. My cave was the largest I could find. It had a cone like ceiling but at the very top there was a hole where you could see the sky. There were shelves that lined the cave walls. I had stored all my shells along the walls. Each shell contained a precious memory. I had a tough time remembering all my memories. I think it’s because I’ve lived so long. I started collecting shells and decided to give them a memory to keep. On the other side of the cave was a bed that I had made for myself. My little home even had a few rooms on shore. You walked into a hallway and there were 2 little rooms. I had taken to storing clothes there. I mean, my clothes just didn’t appear and reappear when I changed. If I did change while dressed they just stayed there. I had never transformed in jeans though.