Trans-Coastal Sapphic

Rocking the Boat

Just beneath the shallow waters of the shoreline surrounding Teal's Crest, a fair young mermaid gently lay floating, basking in the warm glow of the bright sun that didn't dare to shine so brightly deep below the ocean. Her soft pale skin and hair reflected the bright light that lovingly shone upon her, only to be rivalled by the sparkling of the ocean versing the shimmering of her gently floating paled blue tail. The look on her face was of one that hadn't felt so at peace in what had felt to be ages. Sleepily she opened her gem-toned green eyes, feeling a disturbance in the water next to her. It appeared that her state of serenity would once again be cut short. Next to the girl restlessly lay a merman, putting in little to no effort to join in what was obviously, her suggestion of activity. Reef, was his name, the only other merperson she had ever known aside from her parents who had long since left her to her automatically appointed life partner.

"Coraki this is so boring, let's just go dive down and do something already! Come on, we can go swim, whatever you want, let's go swim Raki." Reef insisted, annoyance starting to turn towards anger as his girlfriend sighed and started trying to bargain with him.
"Reef it's called relaxing, please! The sun is so warm and bright up here on the surface, it feels amazing," Coraki begged in reply "Please Reef, it's so dark, I love it up here." Not wanting to have to listen to her pleas any longer, he grabbed Coraki by the arm, giving her a frightening glare when she pulled away, causing her to cower back in submission once again. Satisfied with her reaction Reef began to swim off, making sure she was meekly following behind him.
"Now. We're going to go do what I want to do, you know what that is don't you?" She knew. That was why her fear didn't let up any, once they got back to their cavern. Later as Reef slept, Coraki turned over in their bed, curling into a ball away from him, trying to rest before he woke again but unable to find any sleep left for herself to take. She looked longingly up at the ceiling of their hideaway where a hole let the sun in but wouldn't let it give off warmth. Until suddenly, everything went dark when up above a long shadow started passing by, blocking out the sun. Coraki looked to her sleeping partner, hesitating before slipping away, leaving swiftly through the gap to investigate the shadow.

Meanwhile, on that same stretch of ocean, the crew of the Maiden's Folly had been at sea near to three weeks now. Their captain had been delighted by the effective time they had been making on their course, putting them almost ahead of schedule by days. Up above in the crow's nest, Jan spotted the landmark he had been most excited to see and slid down the ropes to report the sighting to his sister.

"Cap! Sis!! VAL!!! Coming up on port, Teal's Crest!" He yelled, panting out of breath as he reached where Valkyrie and Ferran had been talking below. Both girls looked to him, one surprised and the other amused at his rowdy enthusiasm. "Ch-check it out..." the thought that there may even be a small chance he may see a mermaid filled the young man with childish glee, causing him to impatiently watch for the ship to pass by the infamous island. Ferran looked between her friends before her eyes settled on her captain. It was clear just from the fire in her eyes that she had an idea, Valkyrie knew the glance well.

"Why don't we finally test out that sonar and see if our new oracle can't find us something interesting with that damned contraption." The first mate proposed, managing to catch Val's interest. They had been starting to run short on ideas for what the electronic device might be useful for. The three colleagues hurried below deck to where the strange device and equally odd member of their crew held to her post. The machine when turned on would give the user a moderately painful electric shock, and then, in turn, would project their heightened pulse into the water to attract predators for capture. Valkyrie grinned and gave her command, standing back to start watching the prophetess work to turn on the device.

     Uttering a quiet prayer, she laid her hands on the glowing orb standing nearly half her height on its pedestal. Electricity filled the air as the oracle let out a yelp, hair standing on end as the electric currents coursed through her body. Seconds later a low sound of a beating heart began to echo through the lower half of the ship and down into the oceanic depths below. Jan clasped his hands together in excitement and hurried above deck to check the waters for evidence of mythical life, readying the fishing crew to fire their nets at command. Ferran followed, intrigued and almost half-convinced herself that they might manage to actually find something interesting.

     From the depths of the ocean, Coraki continued to swim upwards, curious by the shadow before her sensitive hearing picked up on the distressed call of a wounded heart. Deep down, her instincts started yelling to her mind that she had to hunt, an easy meal was nearby. She began to swim faster towards the boat, teeth turning sharp with a primal urge, approaching the ship, approaching-

"THERE! Fire!"

     An electronic blast from the sonar knocked Coraki out instantly, overwhelming her sensitive hearing. A net dropped into the water, scooping up the unconscious mermaid. The crew worked double time at Val's now deeply invested command, starting to pull the heavy net out of the water. Ferran was the first to lay eyes on their bounty, her first reaction was that her eyes HAD to be deceiving her, there was no way.

"Impossible!" She cried out, staggering back, Val caught her by the arm and held her first mate to her side so she wouldn't runoff. The look on her own face without words asked 'what did you see?', but Ferran was left speechless. More and more of the crew gasped in awe and disbelief until they pulled the net onto the edge of the main deck. "Q-quick, tie it to the mast so it won't escape, it'll come-to soon!" Ferran stuttered, still trying to fully grasp the situation. The shocked crew swiftly did as they were told, untangling the fish-girl from their nets and restraining their new prisoner to the ships' mainmast.

      A moment later Coraki's eyes slowly began to open, then all at once she jolted into consciousness and began to struggle against her restraints, whimpering in fear. This was it, this was finally it. Reef was right, she should have listened to him, she should have stayed below the surface! She'd finally been captured by humans she was going to be killed! Just like-
"'ey Cap! She's awake!" Like an excited young child, Jan sat cross-legged on the deck, looking up at the imprisoned mermaid and furiously scribbling his observations and crude drawings in a well-worn leather journal, attempting to capture her semi-humanoid form. Val emerged from her office and hurried to join him, standing confidently to look the shorter girl in the eyes.

     "'Aight ladies calm down. We don't know what we've got, she might be just a trick. All the stories could be wrong." The captain tried to talk down the excited crowd reforming. "On the other hand...maybe they're right..." she reconsidered, remembering one story in particular.