The Mermaid’s Tail

John William Waterhouse — A Mermaid

Abraham had never seen the ocean before, but now sat on a sandy beach, transfixed, staring out at its vast rolling expanse. It was evening, the sun was at his back and his cloak hung loosely about his body. His staff laid across his lap, its broad-leafed head was in the sun. Something about the pacing of the waves, how they rolled up to the beach before another would replace them made him think that the ocean was somehow breathing. It was a relaxed breath, soft and even. A wet splat shattered his focus, unfortunately. How did he miss it? It was a great fish’s tail. Not just that, it was the tail of a mermaid, lounging on the beach not four feet from him. She was beautiful, as all merfolk are. Sea-elves some called them, but Abe had yet to form his own opinion on that comparison. Unlike elves, her skin was tan and her hair was dark. She was staring at him with big brown eyes, giving a friendly but curious smile.

“You’re a big one,” she said. “What sort of man are you?”

“A jotun, a man of the mountains,” he replied.

“So you come from waaaay out there?” she pointed to the west.

He didn’t bother looking, “sort of…”

“What are you doing here?”

“I’ve never seen the ocean before. I’ve grown tired of the heat of summer, but heard that the ocean was cool and could smell it in the air. Figured I would get a look at it before heading for the highlands.”

“You don’t like the sun do you?” she said. “I’ve never seen one so pale! I know a place where you can watch the sea out of the sun and the heat. I am Naia,” she added as Abe hesitated to answer.

“Abraham,” he replied, rising from the sand. The cave was not far from where he was sitting, but to him it seemed like just one of many blackish rock formations jutting out of the beach. The cave had been licked smooth by the waves. Two narrow ledges ran along the walls while the ocean passed in between. Naia bobbed up and down with the waves while Abe sat contentedly on the rocky ground.

“Your people can’t swim, can they?” she asked.

“We can, but I can’t.” He thought the mermaid would laugh at him for this admission, but she shrugged and replied, “I can’t slither on sand with just my tail, but many of my friends can. Are you a wizard? Your staff, I mean…”

“Most of my kind have these, always made from living tree branches. They extend our reach and allow our power to flow farther.”

“So you are a wizard!”

“I wouldn’t say that, but we do have similar abilities.” He touched the leafy tip of his staff to the cave wall and a perfectly square protrusion formed. “Geomancy is my peoples’ specialty, we live in caves, after all.”

“There was once an old man in my village who would wave a bundle of kelp around and propel himself through the water like a sailfish. I wish I had such talents,” she replied wistfully.

As he sat there, curiosity grew within him, where did this cave lead? Naia was wary of the darkness of the cave, but didn’t believe the superstitions that her people had about this beach. People — that is her people — had been disappearing recently. A search party was going to come soon and she came just to see things for herself before they closed off the area. Naia admitted that she had not ventured very far into the cave all day, but denied being nervous. Abe rose and asked her if she was coming with him, puffing herself up the mermaid followed along from the water. It wasn’t long at all before she drifted into a net.

Despite his poor swimming skills, Abraham dove in without hesitation and used his great strength to pull on the thick ropes. They stretched enough for the slender mermaid to swim free but he had failed to notice that his foot was caught in the net and as he struggled to break free another net fell over him. He fought to rise out of the water while also working on the ropes, someone in the darkness was starting to drag him along. Beneath the water Naia tugged on the net but Abe motioned for her to flee while she could.

Abe was slowly dragged deeper into the darkness and tried using his jotun magic to unwind the bands of the net but he was fast becoming exhausted. It was harder for him to unbind the ropes while trying to tread water. As his strength was failing he was jerked out of the water and onto the rock. A new surge of adrenaline revived him and he began trashing, punching, swinging, at his captors. With his last bit of energy he became a frenzied animal but he wasn’t even hitting anyone, all he accomplished was tumbling back into the cold water. Again he was pulled out and this time he could do nothing, but lay there, soggy and tangled up like a great hairy fish.

He had been grabbed by over a half dozen men. Their panting echoed through the cave as they drug him along the slick ground. Abe was limp, resting, waiting. They took him to a rounded chamber where little candles sat on tables, barely able to light up anything at all. Just visible against the back wall of the chamber were several crates, attracting an audible cloud of flies. Abe was propped up against the wall and restrained with his palms outward. Barely lit by the candles an older man in a tattered and rain streaked coat stepped into Abe’s view.

“I don’t believe it!” he said. “The boys said they had caught somethin’ special, but…a half-giant, the half-giant…”

“Let me go, I have nothing to do with you,” Abe grunted.

“Shaddup!” the man spat. “Nothing we’ve been doing here is as valuable as this. There are many men who want you.”

“But we got deliveries to make, Jerry!” complained one stooge.

“Shaddup!” Jerry snapped. “Half of you will deliver what we have and I’ll lead in turning in this creature here.”

Who would want Abe? Could be the bandit king he disfigured, could be the wizard whom he turned to stone, could be many people…

“All you need to know,” he said turning to the jotun, “is that you will pay for your crimes: bewitching people, disfiguring honest men, slaying our bravest. Get those crates ready to move!”

Two men started lifting a crate but the bottom fell out of it and a human torso hit the ground. It’s lower half was missing. It was clear from its delicate features that the victim was a merman. The two men scrambled to clean up and nail the crate shut again.

“Are you dense?” Abe cried. “Harvesting merfolk will only invite death. Poor folk like you could just fish. Who hired you?”

Jerry struck the half-giant across the face. “Not your business!”

A stone struck the man upside the head in turn. A loud and sudden splash alerted all of the thugs to Naia’s presence. Nets were cast into the water and slowly dragged along, catching nothing. Torches were lit, revealing the mermaid placing Abe’s staff into his hand. He touched its tip to his manacles and they unlocked. A net was cast at Naia but Abe caught it up in his staff and the net unwound itself.

“Look out!” cried Naia and Abe spun around to find a man lunging with a stumpy knife. He couldn’t avoid being stuck by it but the man was easily taken up by the strong arms of the half-giant and thrown against the wall. From the tip of his staff came a gushing blast of water, knocking a couple of the poachers to the ground. The leader made for the mermaid and she waved her tail, smacking him with a wet splat but his knife cut her anyway. Abe leapt on top of him and took hold of his knife hand, his hand shriveled and turned black, unable to hold onto the knife or anything at all.

“Alright, giant,” he said with poorly concealed fear, “we surrender. Are you going to eat us or something?”

Abe didn’t answer, he gathered up all of the poachers and placed them against the back wall of the cave then he checked on Naia. The cut was not too bad, a few cut scales, she was still shaking, half out of fear and half out of exhilaration. Abraham returned to his prisoners and interrogated them. They wouldn’t divulge who hired them but their operation was made quite clear. They were hunting merfolk, any who came into the cave or the beach at night were potential victims. They were killed and divided in two, the tails going to the black market and the torsos going to a clan of vampires. Where these fiends were none would say, perhaps they truly didn’t know, there was sure to be many go-betweens at least in this whole operation.

He tied the men up and together he and Naia led them out of the cave and into the night air. They waited for the search party she had mentioned before who arrived very late that night. Three stern mermen were led to their location by Naia and Abe let them take charge of the poachers. The thought of vampires being connected to this disturbed Abe but he was quite done with this business, the locals could handle it. He bid Naia good-bye, who kissed him farewell — a great gift indeed from a mermaid — and he continued his journey to find cooler country.