A Merman's Tale

Fates: Chapter Thirty-Two

Margaret

      I ran away from him, hoping to forget everything I knew, everything he had ever told me. I didn’t care where my feet took me, I just ran and ran until the ground I had been stepping on had become uneven and muddy. A few seconds passed until I realized that I had escaped to the cover of the trees that surrounded the park like a mini-forest. I slowly came to a halt, shivering and sobbing. A tree was as good as anyone’s shoulders as I leaned my forehead on it and wept.

      Why did he have to tell me all of this in bits and pieces? Didn’t he understand how confusing this is? I was prepared to be his friend but to be someone much, much more than that…How could I have forgotten that? I forgot someone I actually loved? There are only a few of them, how could I have forgotten someone as special as him?

       All these thoughts swirled in my head in chaos as they twisted my heart into knots of confusion and desolation.

      I cried louder and louder until I felt a warm hand touch my shoulder. I fought to control my tears and he patiently waited as he soothed my back. I had to take several gulps of air before I straightened and turned to face him.

      “Better?” Robert asked.

      I nodded, still unable to speak.

      “I know it’s totally confusing so take your time to accept it,” he told me in a soft voice. His face then turned solemn. “But Marge, you’ve got to be fair to Seirra. Keep an open mind. Perhaps if you do, you’ll remember him and everything would finally be clear. You think you can do that?”

      I didn’t actually think I could but I didn’t want to disappoint him so I said, “I…I’ll try.”

      I lifted my tear-streaked eyes and saw him smiling gently at me. Robert really was a good friend. He had asked me out some time ago but after one Saturday together, I couldn’t get myself to lie to him. I answered him with a question if we could be friends and he never asked again. I knew how much it hurt him but as I studied his face, I also knew with certain clarity that it was only now that he had finally accepted my decision.

      And then it struck me. He had accepted because he believed that I couldn’t possibly have loved him when the merman in my drawings was real. From that idea alone, he concluded that I must have been in love with Seirra or all of these wouldn’t affect me the way it did. I continued staring at him and he touched my cheek with his palm, wiping with his thumb what remained of the tears that clouded my eyes. His smile widened and I tried to grin back.

      And then everything happened so fast that I didn’t know if a sound actually escaped from my lips or not.

      We were smiling at each other when Robert was hurled to another tree with an invisible force that could have killed him. Terror seized my heart as I found myself shaking. I had no idea why but the fear I felt was not unfamiliar to me. My mind told me that this had happened before but I couldn’t point out when or where. I screamed—or at least tried to—when monsters began to materialize in front of me. The terror in my heart began to turn into something worse as I stared helplessly at the creatures that hounded everybody’s nightmares. They were green and ugly with eyes the color of blood, and all five of them surrounded me like walls, blocking all exits.

      At that moment, I was sure that they had come to slaughter me into pieces.

      They hissed and growled, baring teeth as sharp as a shark’s and I shook more violently. I closed my eyes to keep from seeing the cruelty in theirs.

      “Please,” I whispered my plea to no one in particular. “Help me.”

      The hissing grew louder and only after I heard a howl of pain did I open my eyes to find another green creature taking his sword off the body of the monster he just killed. His eyes were fierce but what I felt from him was not fear but relief. He looked just as scary but there was something in him that told me he was here to save me. He lifted his sword in defense. The monsters took it as a challenge. I knew then that his interference was meant to take the monsters’ attention away from me.

      There were only four left now as the dead one slowly turned into bubbles. They hissed at him like snakes and I felt another kind of fear—something that was familiar to me again. I didn’t know why but as the monsters surrounded him, my heart started slamming into my chest and pictures of death flashed through my mind. They all attacked him at once and my hand flew to my lips as I gasped in horror. He fought them with the agility of an experienced warrior and one by one, the enemies retreated from him, now deflecting his attacks. He sliced his sword through air as if it weighed nothing while sparks—magic, I realized—emanated from his fingers. It was his weapon for a long-distance attack.

      I was so transfixed with the fight that I hadn’t noticed one of the monsters sneaking at my right until he had slammed me against the tree, his sword threatening my throat. He snickered in victory and pressed the blade closer to my skin. I felt the cold metal as I swallowed in dread.

      “Don’t,” I pleaded in a hoarse whisper.

      My savior must have heard me or noticed just then what had happened because he roared like an enraged animal and he moved even faster, intent on saving me. He caught hold of my attacker and threw the enemy on the ground causing the earth to crack. His sword poised, I covered my eyes as he stabbed his victim to death. Without a pause, he went back to the remaining three but when another tried to kill me again, bright light burst from his chest and I found myself suddenly encapsulated by water. I held my breath as the same thing happened to Robert’s unconscious body. I need not to, however, when I realized that my shield actually allowed me to breathe. My warrior was defenseless for only a second but it had been enough for one of his enemies to attack him from the side. He was able to move away but only after his skin was pierced.

      “No!” I cried, certain that I felt the same stinging pain he had suffered.

      His eyes flew towards mine for a very short moment and it seemed to me that it was all he needed to keep himself from feeling the throbbing of his wound. It was also what I needed to know without a doubt that he wasn’t going to die.

      I watched him move with less anxiety, probably because he was now sure that I wouldn’t be harmed. He fought with sharp accuracy, and without a care for his bleeding wound, he killed each of the other green monsters within the next minute.

      The water that surrounded me began to disappear but only until the last of the dead monsters had turned into bubbles did I manage to move and drop to my knees. I only lasted a few seconds though because my savior began to transform. I began to stand as I watched his green skin seemingly peeling off as it was replaced with something similar to a human’s. The next thing I knew, standing in front of me, wounded, was the guy I just walked away from.

      “Seirra,” I gasped.    

      The warrior who saved me was Seirra the Merman. And as he slowly fell on the ground, I became conscious of one other detail.

      He was naked.