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The Little Merman (Boys Love)
Hello! Thanks for taking an interest in my story! The chapters you will read here are only the first draft. I am going to rewrite them as I receive critique in order to make this a good a story as possible. Please enjoy chapter one below, and if you have an comment, critique or suggestions please post them HERE
Chapter One Deep beneath the rolling waves of the ocean in dark places human beings have never known there are creature which human kind have heard of in myth, but have long since stopped believing in. Of these creatures there are the merpeople who have a torso and arms like humans do and yet look nothing at all like people. They have long fishy tails that are like no other fish, and gills with which they breathe. Their hair is long and unlike any colour a human might know so that when they hide amongst the sea plants to await some careless fish to become a meal their untamed tresses wave with the currents and look not at all out of place. Their eyes are wide and dark, and they do not use them except when at the water’s surface for there is very little light at the bottom of the ocean to see by. These creatures are a part of the other race, the fair folk, and so are said to not have souls that live after their bodies can no longer. Because of this even though they all might live several hundred years frolicking and hunting and living in their beloved caves in which they store their treasures, sometimes they become envious. While they are not human, they are not animals either, and they feel all the things a human might. Sorrow and joy, love and bitterest hatred; it is not uncommon for a maid or man of the sea to rise and sing to human ships with hopes to lure them to craggy rocks or glaciers and sink them. It was in the attempting of just such a thing that a young and foolish merman would find his destiny. The waters are always so much warmer near the surface and it was a peculiarity among his race that sometimes young are born with less tolerance to cold then most. This particular merman was born with just that trait and spent a great deal of his time near the surface of the water gazing at the sun's reflection against the water. In truth he hated life under the waves; he hated the icy depths and longed to always be in the sun. To be warm and dry and happy was all he longed for. Of course it could never be. What would his sires say if he told them his wish? They would groan and frown and dismiss it as foolishness. Only creatures with souls could change their destiny, and he did not have one. The whales had souls, and so the dolphins and squid, but not he. On the surface birds that flit through the air had souls, dog and cats too, but not he. Humans had souls, and they could do as they pleased. They could dive deep in the sea with their inventions, and soar through the sky like birds. They could walk and dance and create fire which he had never seen except from a distance but was told was the warmest thing of all. He hated them for it. He hated them because a soul should be something good and wonderful, and yet the humans for all their freedom were unkind creatures. They bobbed along atop the waves in their boast and let down their nets and stole from the ocean. For the merfolk who live so deeply under the surface that they hear not even the tiniest hint of the rumbling sounds the human boats make it not so important. They eat the fish the humans cannot catch. But to he whose home was in the warm water near the surface the creatures the humans store were his companions. If hunger found him he might eat a fish swimming by, but in return let the brothers of that fish nibble at the gauzy skin of his fins. And like that they lived and played, until the humans came and took them all away. And so he hated them, cursed them, and when he was old enough to breath above the water through his mouth and not his gills he sang. His voice was strong and clear, and he would wait nestled against the tiny caps of icebergs, his hair covered in creamy pale froth, for the humans and their ships to come. The low groan of the ship's call would fill him with chills and at once he would begin his song. A merman's song is not at all like a human's might be. There are no words to understand for they do not speak as people do. The song is like a particularly pleasant breeze ruffling one's hair, or the ghostly wine across the deck of a ship. The song is always tempting to something with a soul, and humans are especially susceptible to them. He often would see their strange faces peering over the edge with funny little grins as they sail happily to their deaths. The moon was at its apex, the coldest time of night, when he surfaced to do his mischief. He had been startled from his dreamless sleep by the low unpleasant rumble of a boat and wanted greatly to sink it. Without moving even to twitch his tail as some curious fish nibbled at him he clutched the tip of a great iceberg, and waited for the human vessel. When he could hear it above the water he sucked in a great gulp of air, but before he could let the first note fly the night was suddenly swallowed up in a great light. He exhaled in a gasp and slipped from the ice back into the water. With eyes wide with fear and surprise he looked up at the fading light through the waves. For a moment things were dark again, and the boat's approach grew louder, then as before the sky lit up, this time with it came a great whine and a crack of thunder. The colour of the light was different then before, it was like the colour of dawn dark pink and lovely. Hesitantly he surfaced to see with clearer eyes. Wherever the light touched the sky looked scared, and the stars hid as if in fear; when he thought the light was fading a new one came and took its place. It was strange, beautiful and terrifying, and it was coming directly from the human vessel. The vessel itself was much smaller then the others he usually saw and it did not look to be made of the same stuff. He swam closer until he could reach out and touch the slow moving thing. Atop of it was a human, and when ever the sky lit up it whooped and danced about. Was it the human that called the light, he wondered. The merman pushed his hair back from his face to better view the colourful display in the sky. It seemed as if the human might summon the lights until the sun itself came to compete with it's dawn's radiance. So, when at last the human summoned the last of them and they filled the sky so completely that he couldn't help but shriek with delight, all thoughts of mischief were gone from his mind. The sky dimmed, but still he waited against the cool wood of the boat for more, his chest heaving with excited breath. No more did come, however, and he peered up towards the top of the vessel to try and see where the human was. Unable to determine the human's location from that angle he pushed far enough away so that if he craned his neck and swished his tail hard enough he could see the deck. The human was nowhere in sight. With a splash so lacking elegance that his sires would surely scold him had they observed it he fell backwards under the water. The human was gone and that must mean that it would summon no more light. Boats like this little one rarely appeared before him, what would he do if another did not come? He loved the strange light as only a creature of fae can love anything, and he was quite certain he might die if he never saw it again. Surfacing once more he felt there was only one thing he could do. Again his chest heaved this time to take in a great gulp or icy air, and this time there was no interruption. He sang, loud and clear, the meaning of his song precise. 'Come to me.' It said. 'Come to me; stay with me forever. Human who can summon beautiful light when the sky is darkest, come and belong to me forever.' |
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