Don't Leave Me Behind

Prologue

They say that so much of the World's yet to be discovered, that there's still so much unknown to the minds and Understanding of humanity. They also say that there's much humanity's learned over the Centuries and Millennia, only to forget it as Time's continued to pass. Creature upon race've been discovered, forgotten, and rediscovered, some having never been discovered and studied in the first place.

        One of the many things that humanity's discovered, but few actually believe in, are the beautiful, yet dangerous Creatures known as Merfolk. Since they're Water Beings, the majority of them being Sea Creatures, they're most often seen out at Sea, or hidden in Coves very close to it. Many think that those who see them aren't of sound mind when they do, that having been out at Sea for so long has started to rob them of their Sanity. They don't believe the wild tales of beautiful women with bewitching singing voices and the tail of a Fish from the waist down who're as helpful as they are harmful.

        Shy as these Creatures are due to humanity trying to capture and often kill them due to not understanding them, they're Masters and Mistresses of Camouflage. When they're not trying to blend in so one can't even tell they're in the vicinity, they play the ultimate game of hide-and-seek–and they always win. No one's gonna find a hiding place of the Merfolk, on Land or beneath the Surface, if they don't want them to be found, even if the Merfolk sought choose not to kill in Self-Defense.

        However, there are a few of the Merfolk who enjoy coming ashore, despite tales told by some of the Elders of Cruelty beyond their wildest Dreams. Despite their violent instincts in the Water, they're some of the kindest, most understanding and helpful Creatures that man's ever encountered. These are the Merfolk most known for saving drowning humans, then making a hasty escape before the human can regain consciousness and see them. The humans who do manage to catch even the briefest glimpses of them are left wondering if they actually saw them, or if they were Dreaming. Many of these kinder, gentler Merfolk–the Mermaids, especially–long to join the humans on Land permanently, but have to settle for just knowing they saved a Life. They've to live out the remainder of their Centuries without ever knowing what happened to the man or woman that ensnared their hearts without ever meaning to.

        Sereia Cascade, often known by her middle name of Marina or some variant of it, was one of those Mermaids who found herself in that longing position. There'd been numerous men she'd saved from a near-drowning over the decades that she'd been alive, and while she'd fancied herself in Love with a few, none struck her as much as a certain man did in the late-eighties. This man possessed hair far longer than most human men–it actually reminded her of the Mermen she was forced to keep company with–and his features could easily lead one to mistake him as a woman. But those weren't the only things that drew this Mermaid to him, nor bade her to save his Life when he unknowingly ventured into Trouble.

Far as I know, the name in the last paragraph's pronounced seh-RAY-ah. If I've got a reader who's fluent in Portuguese who says differently, great–I welcome any corrections since I don't speak anything fluently beyond English!

~Banshee