The Mermaid's Sea

After her brush with the Trolls, Rochelle must find her way through the Mermaid's Sea, while resisting the temptations of their deadly songs.

In the morning, Rochelle packed up and followed the track once more. She wanted to hurry, as Alyx was running out of time. She took up a brisk pace, and soon the track began to widen slightly, returning to its former dirt-path glory.

The tree line ended a little before midday, opening out into a spectacular sight. For as far as she could see, a body of sparkling blue water stretched out in the distance. The morning sunlight sparkled off its surface, creating a second sun that Rochelle had to squint to see past. There was a faint black line on the horizon, which she took to be as the other side. It looked awfully far away, especially to a girl who had never seen a body of water this large in her life.

Rochelle looked around, but there was no boat in sight. The lake was clearly too large to walk around, so Rochelle assumed a boat would be by to ferry her across.

The sun was hot, so Rochelle took off her shoes and dipped her toes in the water. It was pleasantly cool, so she waded in up to her ankles. The mud squished pleasantly between her toes, making her giggle. What about this was an obstacle? Rochelle wondered idly. Certainly, it was a large body of water, but compared to the experiences of the last task, she was distinctly unimpressed.

She should have known better. There was a rippling in the water, and a young girl emerged from beneath the water. This took Rochelle by surprise, as she didn't recall seeing any other person when she had first arrived.

"Hello, there," she said to the girl. "What's your name?"

The little girl smiled at her, showing a mouthful of sharp, razorlike teeth.

Rochelle's blood ran cold, but it was too late. Two more mermaids appeared out of the water and dragged her under before she could protest. Rochelle had enough sense to hold her breath and her bag as she went under, but she quickly ran out of air, forcing her to open her mouth and suck in a lungful of water...

Rochelle's eyes popped open in surprise. She took a tentative breath, then another. Somehow, she was able to breathe under the water as though it were air. This took a bit of getting used to, as her body still felt as though it were under water, so every breath was a bit frightening to the girl. She quickly became used to it, however, and began to wonder where the mermaids were taking her.

It seemed as though the mermaids would never let her go. Down they sank, into deeper and deeper water, changing from the lighter, greener hue of the surface to the navy of true depth. Finally, Rochelle could see the bottom of the sea rising up swiftly to meet her. The mermaids set her down on the bottom, depearting nearly as swiftly as they had arrived. Rochelle watched them as they left, their iridescent scales shimmering in the diluted light from above. If she hadn't been able to see their human halves, she might have thought them harmless fish, drifting about beneath the waves.

Looking around her, Rochelle guessed that she had been dragged to about the middle of the lake, as there was no sign in any direction of an elevation that would lead her to the surface once more. Letting out a sigh, she turned her feet in the direction she had been taken and began walking.

It was very lonely underneath the water. An occasional fish would drift by, notice her, and flee in the opposite direction, and sometimes she would see the shapes of strange creatures in the distance, staying far out of her way. The bottom of the sea was mostly sand, with a nothing but small rocks and random dottings of seaweed to interrupt the vast stretch. Rochelle kept walking, hoping that she would see the surface again soon. She worried that she might not make it in time before the spell that had been placed upon her that allowed her to breathe underwater ran out. The thought filled her with a sudden panic, and she picked up her pace considerably, hoping to soon see her way out.

After a time, the ground began to slope upward in a gentle incline, and Rochelle was filled with hope. New growth began to appear on the hillside, brightly colored patches of coral and exotic undersea plants she had never encountered before. Fish of all shapes and sizes began to appear, swimming right past her without giving her a second glance. Rochelle moved up the hill ever faster, hoping to soon see the warm sun once more.

Above her, the hill levelled out into a flat ledge. Climbing up onto it, Rochelle was confronted with a sight that made her heart sink in disappointment, yet fill her with awe.

She had climbed up onto a ledge that was level with the tip of the tallest building she had ever seen. It was as tall as five of the tallest trees in her home woods, and it took up more space than the entire perimeter of her village. It looked as though it were created from all different kinds of coral, a multicolored sculpture that took her breath away. She could see that the building was sunken down into the seabed, creating a huge crater in the ground with raised sides that had fooled Rochelle into thinking she was nearly out of the water, and there were many holes and doors in its sides, allowing for mermaids to come and go as she pleased.

Realizing that this must be the home of the mermaids, Rochelle felt a knot form in her stomach. As lovely as the sight was, she could not stay, for fear of the mermaids noticing her presence. She didn't know what they wanted from her, and she had no desire to find out.

Rochelle decided to stay on the lip of the crater, but as far away from the edge as possible, hoping the mermaids would pass her over. She tried to swim as they did, but the spell that had been cast on her seemed to prevent her from simply swimming though the water, forcing her to walk on the bottom, as if on land. It was agonizingly slow, but she began to make progress.

It wasn't until she was nearly all the way around the crater when the singing started. It floated toward her as if a wisp of smoke, faint and barely noticable at first, but becoming louder and greater in strength. It stirred within Rochelle a deep longing, a fierce desire to turn back around and head into the heart of the coral tower, to stay with the mermaids and become one of them, joyful and free with her new friends, swimming around under the waves with a tail of silver...

No. Rochelle shook her head, trying to dislodge the singing as one would a drop of water stuck in their ear. She had to continue on, she had to make it out of the lake...

But surely, there was plenty of time for that? the song whispered to her. Surely, her journey could wait a day, maybe two? After all, it had been very hard work, and she deserved a break. She worked so much, for so long, why not rest a while?

Rochelle tried to resist, but her willpower was failing. She sank onto her knees in the sand, digging her fingers into it like it would keep her from being taken in by the music. She had to leave, had to get away from this place. For...for Alyx.

Alyx. Sweet, kind, unassuming Alyx, who wouldn't let her go on this journey because he thought himself unimportant. She needed to help him, to save him, or he would die.

With the last ounce of her strength, Rochelle jammed her fingers deeper into the sand, ignoring the pain as her knuckle was scraped on a rock under the sand. Her fingers touched mud, and she pulled, bringing the dark substance to the surface and shoving it into her ears.

The thick mud helped to block the sound of the mermaid songs, and Rochelle was able to think more clearly. Packing it in more tightly with her hands, Rochelle stood again and continued to walk, keeping her hands over her ears and focusing only on the pain in her knuckle and the ground under her feet. As she walked, the song faded slightly, reinforcing her determination. She barely noticed her progress, so when her head broke the surface of the water, it startled her into looking around.

She had made it to the other side. Rochelle had never thought the green of the forest would look so good to her. She quickly washed the mud out of her ears, wanting to be away as quickly as possible. Being absorbed in her task, she didn't see the young mermaid behind her until the girl tapped her on the shoulder.

Rochelle jumped back with a yelp of surprise, wary of the creature in front of her. It was the mermaid from before, who had smiled at her and had started this whole mess. The girl didn't look sad now; in fact, she looked rather remorseful, looking at Rochelle with dark, sad eyes.

She held out her fist, and Rochelle stared at it warily. The mermaid swam a bit closer and opened her hand. In it was a pile of small silver scales. Understanding, Rochelle took the pouch off around her neck and opened it, and the girl poured the scales into it.

"You will need them later, on your journey," the girl told her, in a voice that reminded Rochelle sharply of her younger sister, Arica. She nodded slowly, and the girl smiled, this time without teeth, as she disappeared back under the water.

Author's Note

Now, on to the third task: The Elder Forest.