Off the Plank: A Neverland Story

Chapter 28

After her fellow mermaid's departure, Vetralla joined me at the rock's edge where I knelt beside the motionless chief. She held out her arm for me to take and I pulled her up onto the rock beside me. Her tail, a grayish green, reflected in its scales all the colors that glowed in the crevices of the cavern. Those same colors played on her pale skin, and I marveled again at how much her youthful features contrasted the age implied by her colorless hair and eyes. I wondered how many lives she had saved to make her so monochrome.

"How did you know to ask about Kendan?" Vetralla asked, pulling me out of my trance. I realized I must have been staring at her tail for an awkwardly long time.

"Well, he has been a constant companion for some time now..." I said.

"Did you feel something?"

I thought about that. She meant, did I feel a disruption before Solarine did, an impression that prompted me to inquire about him.

"I think... I think I did," I said. "Shiver me..."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Vetralla said. "You two may be close enough now to be capable of sensing the other in distress. You're learning empathy, Silver."

"I suppose," I said, not being able to recall any other instance of similar intuition. "It must be this cave."

Vetralla uncapped the vial and slid her scaly hand beneath the Chief's head, who lay between us on the rock. His breathing was becoming unsteady, and he still hadn't spoken. Vetralla looked to the water expectantly, but Solarine was not back yet. I sensed that she required the help of another to complete a healing, perhaps because the years of life in her were limited - and yes, this was more that I was sensing, not just speculation. It had to be this cave.

"Do you need my help, Vetralla? With the healing?" I asked.

"It would be more powerful with more than one person," she said calmly. "But it may take years from you, too."

"That's alright," I assured her. "I owe him. And you."

I placed my hand over hers behind the chief's head to raise it from the rock. She placed the vial delicately to Taputu's lips and let its contents spill down his throat. We heard the faint sound of a gulp as his body accepted the fluid, followed by a long sigh. Vetralla then laid her hand on his chest, and I repeated the act, my long mannish fingers overlapping her slender pale ones.

Gradually, I began to feel a warmth within me. It began in my chest in the same general area as my heart, and grew more dense with every beat of my pulse. Then I felt it running through me, down to the tips of my fingers that grazed the deep brown skin of the sleeping chief. I imagined the same thing was happening to Vetralla, and I was close enough to her that soon I could feel it too, the warmth emanating from her cold-blooded body.

When I looked at her, she was visibly glowing, albeit faintly, and appearing so ethereal that it took a conscious effort to look away. Few things had I seen in my short lifetime that were as breathtaking as a mermaid imparting years of her life to a dying man.

Taputu stirred. It was just a small turn of the head and crinkle of the still-closed eyes, but I wanted to cry with joy. He was alive. He was waking. Slowly his eyes opened, and the weary chief looked first to me, then to Vetralla.

"Chief!" I said, trying not to be too loud. "Can you hear me? Are you still in pain?"

There were storm clouds in his irises, and darkening ridges beneath his pale-ringed eyes. His lips parted as though he wanted to speak, but instead he lifted his hands, took us each by the wrist, and dragged our hands from his chest to the sides of his head so our fingers touched his temples.