Mariana Trench

One: Tails On Pendant Day

"I figured I'd find you up here." I turned, the waves lapping against my back as I stared up at the crystal blue sky so far away. Floating on my back, my tail exposed to the air, I turned my head. A nine foot dolphin floated next to me, her dark eyes watching me. "This is one of the only places I can be alone." "Which is saying something, as it's also a very, very, very, public place." She nudged my arm. "Come, we can't be seen." "You, can't be seen." It was a law, a rule, something that was a given amongst our, my, people. "I was once one of you." The dolphin had told me once long ago. "But something happened to my pendant, and I have been stuck in this form ever since." Pendants, oh, right, those things. My Pendant Day was today, hence why I was up here, hiding from the world below. "Do you not want your pendant?" Asked the dolphin. "No, I want it, I just don't want everyone to make such a big deal over it." "Come on Mariana, in these hard times, anything special should be celebrated. Pendant Days are important to all merpeople, why not you?" "Why not you?" There were reasons, many as to why the Pendant Days didn't matter to me. Many reasons as to why I didn't care about my Pendant Day.
The Pendant Days signified the time when the merperson, male or female, became ready to shift for the first time. Shift into their other form. For merpeople, it meant a great deal, the perfect body. Those who could turn into sharks, could pass through schools of sharks, and hunt along side them, learn the ways of the shark. Those who can shift into whales, squid, found themselves among those creatures, living as they did. Yet, as always, there was a backlash. For those who lived most of their lives as their other half, as the creature of their birth, as the creature of their clan per se, too long in that form, and you become stuck, unable to shift back into your mermaid form. Unable to swim above the surface, trapped, as what you were. There were rare cases, like the dolphin's by my side. Said dolphin nudged my arm as I reclined on the waves. "Come on," she said. "We have to go, or we'll both be missed. It's your day today Mariana, enjoy it." "I am." I thought. "I'm enjoying it the way I want to, in the exact place I want to." My hair, a shade of deep blue, floated about me lackadaisically, my eyes trained on the perfect blue of the sky above.
    Getting no response, the dolphin tried another tact. "If you don't go to your own Pendant Day ceremony, the queen will be very unhappy." "Unhappy." I murmured. "Let her be unhappy." The dolphin sighed through her blow hole. "Mariana—"Zoe." I said. "If they wanna drag me to that thing, then they can send someone else, not my best friend." Zoe preened a little, but said, "What's so bad about your own Pendant Day?" "You should understand." I thought. "You don't have one." "What am I Zoe?" "Is this a trick question?" "No, seriously, what am I?" "A mermaid." "Yes, but what kind?" "Um, a mermaid of the house dolphin." "Exactly, but what blood?" "Oh," Zoe's eyes fell, fell sadly. "Say it." "You're a half-blood." I nodded emphatically, waving a hand. "Exactly girl, and because I am, because for whatever reason, the, queen, chose a human male, for, whatever, reason, she gave me to him for like what, a few months, not even a real year, and sent me back here. Where all merpeople hate humans, and any reminder of them. I won't turn into a dolphin, or anything like that, I'll turn into a human Zoe, I'll turn into a human. I'll be used as nothing but a merchant or something, forced to live on beaches, and fish for humans and never see the sea again. I'll never know what it's like to truly swim among my kin in the deep blue, never further my sonar, learn what it's like to talk as a dolphin rather than human." Zoe's eyes remained sad. "I'm sorry." She said, licking my bare shoulder. I waved it away.
    Hence why I don't care about Pendant Days. Because mine is going to be nothing but them, all of them, outcasting me. I sat up in the water, staring around at the blue skies, the endless blue ocean. "I'll never know what it's like to even catch a glimpse of the blue god, of our true god." I looked down at my tail, at the black and white tail that spoke of my kin, the type of dolphin I would turn into, if I wasn't a half-blood. Zoe nudged my side, "Come on, whether you want to, or not, we have to go." I sighed in defeat, and took a breath. Recognizing the signal, my neck opened, and gills opened. Holding my breath, I dove into the water.
    I followed Zoe down into the great blue. One of the many countries of merpeople, laid in one of the most inhospitable places. We swam deeper in the blue until it was dark, until sonar was the only thing that kept us able to see anything. Zoe bowed to a dozen guards who swam around one of the many ways into the country, into my, country. I opened the porthole myself, and we swam down a long wide tunnel. Water gushed by in massive bubbles, singing my return. We swam deep into the ground, until we came to a porthole passage that swam up, and out into a bay area. Merpeople were nowhere to be seen, all presumably awaiting in the grand square, in the grand square, for me.
    I put on the speed, swimming faster as I began to hear the song of songs, a prelude I knew, to the speeches that were another prelude, to the start of the Pendant Day ceremony. Zoe swam after me, those who remained behind working the underwater farms and other deeds that couldn't be taken off. Murmured songs echoed behind me as I dashed by, flicking my tail as fast as I could. "Isn't that the queen's half-breed?" "Don't call her that." "She's late to her own Pendant Day." "Well wouldn't you be too?" It is sad, when even the lowest of us feel ashamed of you. I pushed myself, spiraling almost out of control as I swam through a grove of kelp and out into the outskirts of the grand square. The sight of thousands upon thousands of merpeople all clustered together in one place might've been exciting under the great dome of lights from the bioluminescence of underwater deep sea plants and fish. In fact, it probably should've been a beatific sight, but at the moment, I, didn't, care.
"Wait," said Zoe. "You're going to draw a lot more attention if you just swim through the crowd rather than be a little discrete." "Then what would you have me do?" I asked. Zoe nudged me to the left, and I dove under her as we swam around the great gathering. "How wonderful it is to see all of us here, together." The Queen's voice rang out, a beautiful song of pride and passion. "Yeah right, sure." "Pendant Days are days to remember for centuries, for centuries to come. We as a people, know Pendant Days signify the change we go through, the big change, from one being, to another. From half a creature, into it's full form. Depending on the ranking of that pendant, tells the roll we play in those creature's lives." I sighed dramatically. Oxygen slid smoothly through my gills, and out. "Many of us know what it's like to bee trapped in one form for eternity. To loose that changing gift from the blue god. We know how that feels, and who is one of the only creatures to be able to take those gifts from us." A dramatic pause. "Yes merpeople, only humans can truly take that away from us, and, they, have." "Oh cat fish dung," I thought. "Here we go with the pontificating."
"We've lived for more than five thousand years, and in that time, we've yet to fight with humans, man against seas, as our first merpeople predicted. We've yet to have a full war between us and them, however, that time, is coming, and when it does, we, need, to, be, ready." "Yeah, like I'm fighting in a war." "I know that as a people, one who want nothing but peace, no one can ask anything of you, and I nor the sea guard will, just know when it comes, we will protect you, all merpeople from all corners of the ocean. From here, to the long mountain spines, to the shores, to the forbidden basins." "Oh please, really, can we just get it over with, like now." I thought. "However, today is about pendant days. And so, if our princess would please come forth, and we may celebrate this pendant day." Zoe nudged me, hard. "Go, don't run off like normal." My tail flicked, and I was ready for it, but instead, I flicked my tail and swam toward the stage. Underwater plants lit the way, though the songs of all the merpeople was a guide more than the lights. I circled above the stage languidly, flexing my tail, hey, if I was gonna shift into some disgusting human shell, may as well enjoy these moments. The queen stared up at me, her green eyes filled with, something, eyes different to my own blue, they watched me, even as the eye above her nose, the bit that allowed us to create our sonar and communicate underwater, painted a much better picture.
I dove and swept up a little wave of water, to the songs of the people before us. "Our princess, princess Marianna, next in line to take the throne, has finally come of age to take her pendant, and begin the next part of her existence." The songs quieted till barely any vocals sang out. I almost shivered. But I refused to show any weakness. There was no way I'd let them see anything more than my clear lack of any feeling to this day. The queen gestured, and a merman swam forward, carrying a shell, with a pendant in it. I lowered myself as the pendant slid out, and the merman waited. "Let us place the orca pendant over the one who will rule the orcas, one of the most apex predators of the ocean. Let us celebrate Marianna, who shall swim amongst them, learn their ways, learn how to rule them." "What udder shark bate, seriously, who does she think she's playing at?" The merman neared my neck and terror suddenly lashed through my gut, spearing straight for my heart. I almost gasped out loud, almost opened my mouth and sucked in water. Even though it wouldn't have any negative effect on me. The huge crowd was silent as the forbidden basins, and that terror speared again, again, again, before the merman paused, and began to lower the pendant. His warm fingers touched my face as the pendant lowered and settled between my breasts, it pulsed, just once, then the merman looked away, just as the queen did.
    Power roared through me, energy and life such I had never felt before. THe pendant lashed brightly and that substance roared through my body, making my back arch and a song of pure puissant bliss explode from me. I rolled and felt the change began to take it's tole. Terror wove itself along with the bliss until it was some sick mockery of pleasurable climax. Though to be fair, I never felt any such thing before. When the power faded and the light subsided, I floated there, a fully grown orca. Confusion lashed through me, "What was this, I wasn't supposed to be this, I was supposed to be—"THE PRINCESS OF THE ORCAS." THe queen sang. The crowd hundreds, thousands, cheered their own songs, adding to the etherial music of the Trench Colony.
"Are you surprised?" Asked the Queen after the ceremony was concluded. We floated in one of the many underground towers that was the castle, the Queen's castle. I concentrated on my mermaid body, and felt the hot, almost erotic sensation as I shifted back into my normal skin, or, as normal as it was. The Queen nodded in satisfaction. "There, in no time at all you will master your first shift." "First?" The question popped out before I could've thought to hide my interest, and keep hiding my shock and surprise. Today's pendant day was, so, not, what I had expected. I hadn't shifted into a human female. I hadn't choked on the water, I hadn't been crushed by the pressure, nor frozen by the temperature of the water.
    Down here, miles below the surface, humans couldn't survive. Yet, could, if they got pass one of the only ways to get into the castle. There were pathways in the castle that weren't filled with water, that specific servants whom didn't have their pendant or were half-bloods, used to travel from place to place. Though my fear was completely valid in becoming a human merchant, forced to survive on the beach, though it was completely valid and sensible, it might not have happened. "Yes first, because there are three. Your normal skin," she gestured to my mermaid body. "Your orca body, then there's the third, your, human, skin." "But merpeople can only have two forms." I controdicted. "In normal circumstances yes, this is true. However, there are exceptions to every rule, you, are a rare exception." "How?"
"Do you remember our history my child?" "Was that a trick question?" I wondered to myself, then out loud I said, "Is that a trick question?" The queen frowned slightly. "Fine, then you'll remember we've always had interactions with humans since our very beginning. Since the sea god Poseidon blessed us, since his enemies tested our strength. We've always had contact with humans, for good or bad." I waited, trying not to doze off. I had heard the story one way or another, in one form or another. By this point I'd be able to quote these lines in twenty-one languages. "You will remember that our ancestors long long ago mated with human kings, to create merpeople who could remain on land, learn the way of the human, and report these things to us."
"Yes yes yes yes, I had heard this story so many times." I flicked my tail in annoyance. The queen ignored the gesture. "However, it became an illegal action, because there were uprisings and wars that were waged against the merpeople because ruling families abandoned their offspring on strange lands. Something the merpeople hadn't expected, was the fact that the offspring of ruling families, do to their blood, were actually more powerful, not to the average Mermaid, but to the ruling king or queen."
    The queen smiled at me and said, "Follow." She spun in a graceful flip and moved down another tunnel. I swam after her, wondering just what I was getting myself into. "Some ruling families do it intentionally, break the laws, to start uprisings with other ruling families, to wage wars, to kill off humanity. Even though we keep our existence a massive secret to protect ourselves and the humans, some do indeed break that law among others. Why you may ask?" I said nothing. "Because some believe we should rule the humans, believe we should make them kneel before us for destroying our ecosystems, for destroying the ocean and the world. "Do you believe that?" I asked.
    The queen's laughter was a bright echo of glee, as if she expected the question. "No I don't, the humans have their place and it's not on their knees before us. Do I believe they've destroyed the ocean, yes, but it's their lust for progress. No excuse, but when you understand them, you pity them." "Hmm." I said as we came into another room, though this one was different. There was a human stairwell carved into the rock, rather than a mermaid shoot. Deep sea plants made the room glow a variety of colors, which showed that the water only filled part of the room. I frowned as she turned to me with that smile. "Time for you to realize your third form." She pointed to my pendant.