When the Past Catches Up With You
 

She was sitting there on a large clam shell picking a piece of seaweed apart. She was twelve, had been on her own for two years at the time. The rest of her pod had swam off one day and just left the young girl alone to fend for herself. She tended to stray too close to the shallows, too close to humans.

Her short green hair bobbed in the water around her finned ears as she looked over towards the wooden stems that held up the pier. That's when she spotted the small body plunge into the deep water. In a swift motion, the girl dove off her seat and swam over to the bottom of the wooden poles to find the struggling swimmer. Ignoring every fiber of her being that told her to swim in the opposite direction, she swam down. Tiny arms wrapped around the waist of the young boy as she pulled him to the surface where he could breathe once more. Towing him to the shallows she gasped when he caught a small glimpse of her before she dove back into the sea and swam away...

Assyria's emerald eyes slowly opened to the sight of her long algae colored locks swirling around her. That dream, well, memory, she had been having it more and more recently. Sitting up her scaled fin flicked a few times to stretch a bit as she rubbed at her eyes. As she woke herself up she wondered what ever became of that little boy. Did he dream about her too? Did he ever go back to the ocean or did that drowning cause him to fear the water?

The mermaid sighed and plucked her long stone chipped spear from the soft sand at her side before she swam off to look for some breakfast.

Tristan had always been a bit apprehensive about the water ever since he was a small child. At the tender age of 12, however, he was beginning to notice girls. Girls, loved to be impressed. Amazing feats of strength, bravery, anything that the average, normal person didn't do from a day to day basis. This is how he ended up at the docks with a bunch of other kids. They were daring one another to jump off of the pier, and whoever could hold their breath the longest would be declared the winner.

Tristan gulped as he looked over the edge. The water looked cool, inviting even, but he knew that if his mother caught him he wouldn't be able to sit straight for a month. "Tris," called another boy." I bet you're too chicken to go in. You were always a mommy's boy."

Tristan stuck his tongue out at as he said," I'll show you." Taking a running leap, he tripped just as he was about to jump into the water. Slamming his head on the pier with a sickening thud he slid the rest of the way into the water. Splashing into the water, Tristan looked around disoriented. This was definitely a mistake. Since he had his fear of water he had found that there was no reason for him to learn how to swim. Flailing his arms around, he managed to bang one of them against the poles in the water. Gasping for air, he saw his own bubbles rise to the surface. If only he could do that too. As he looked around to see if the other kids were coming to rescue him he saw a wisp of sea green as he felt arms around his waist bringing him to the surface. It never occurred to him that he was being saved by a mermaid.

"Mr. Everdeen if you continue to waste my class time sleeping away then you can do it in the hallway," said his professor. Snapping awake, Tristan looked around. All eyes were on him. It felt as if he was in a goldfish bowl. Shaking his head again, he tried to clear his thoughts. That was such a nice dream. Not the near drowning part, but that he was saved by someone. After he had been rescued he went all over town asking around to see if anyone knew who the "girl with the sea green hair" was. They all told him no, and that he must have imagined that someone had saved him. The mind does make fabrications up when it is on the brink of destruction. Sighing, he settled into his seat again as he listened to the professor drone on and on about marine biology. He was a marine biologist senior he should be interested in this, but all he could think of was that dream.

After catching herself some squid and devouring her meal, the mermaid slowly swam her way along the bottom of the ocean. She was relatively close to the coast line. Closer than commercial fisherman cared to be, but further out than anyone else would go, so it was her happy medium. Here she could entertain her curiosity and tease her hope of perhaps finding that boy one day again. But that was a far off hope that just lingered in the back of her mind.

The prospects of actually revealing herself to a human again was terrifying. To think of what they would do to her now made her scales stand on end. The probing and stabbing and cutting... Assyria shivered at the thought and picked up her pace a bit.

She didn't really have a goal. It had been far too long since she last traveled with others of her kind. She wouldn't really know what to do if she was with them. Her time was better spent keeping tabs on the humans, making sure they weren't getting too close to the others, too smart, in her opinion any way.

Yet on clear days as her bright eyes would catch sight of the docks or boats with people on them out for fun or science, Assyria couldn't help but wonder if he would be among them. What if he was? Would the now man recognize her as his one time rescuer? would he fear her? Or worse yet, would he hunt her? The mermaid was lonely, even if she was too proud to admit it. That human was the only bit of contact she had had in the longest time. Perhaps that was why she couldn't get him out of her head.

Did she do this to him as well? Was this as maddening for anyone else but her?

Assyria let herself drift closer to the shore. It was getting into the colder months, the humans were hardly ever in the water now. So it was safer, right? It was what she told herself anyway, to let her get closer, to try and see them... maybe him. Her fingers dragged against the silky sand of the ocean floor as she lazily swam towards the shallows. The docks came into view and cautiously, her bright eyes peered around. No boats, no noise for a while, no humans. Swimming towards the surface she took a deep breath. It didn't smell like a human had been in the water anywhere near here for some time. Perfect.

Grinning to herself she dove back down and swam along the bottom until she was weaving in and out of the stilts that held up the docks and piers. Pale arms shooed away the little shoals of fish that trailed after her as she explored the dangerous area that humans so consistently occupied. At least the water here was deep to them. Unless she was close to the surface, she should be out of view, should be.

As her fingers trailed along the barnacle covered beam of wood she felt it shudder under the thundering heard of running feet. Assyria froze, her heart pounding in her chest as her gaze turned heavenward to watch the distorted figure run towards the end of the overhead planks to the edge of the dock. Swallowing hard, the mermaid pressed a hand to her bare chest to try and calm herself. This was the closest she had been since so long ago...

Carefully she pulled herself up the barnacle and algae covered pole until the top of her head broke the surface of the water. Her eyelids blinked rapidly, clearing the saltwater for the first time in years as her finned ears twitched a bit. What was she thinking?... That's just it, she really wasn't. Climbing a little higher, her nose cleared the surface, nostrils flaring as they expelled the saltwater, and helping her lungs to fill with pure oxygen. It was a strange sensation to not have water in them.

Her bright eyes peered at the feet that dangled over the edge, and an idle thought ran though her mind and she wondered what it was like to have toes. But then suddenly the human stood and shouted. Her grip tightened on the beam as a small gasp escaped her. Was it really him? Her heart was thudding in her chest, pounding against her small ribcage as she sat there. Every fiber of her being told her to dive and swim far far away. But she didn't.

Instead she reached up as high as she could and gently knocked on the wooden planks a few feet behind where he was sitting. Then she sank down into the water in disbelief that she actually half made an attempt to contact him. What if... he actually realizes she's there? Yeah... What if he does?

Nothing. He didn't seem to notice her pitiful attempt. Perhaps it was too quiet? Her finned ears drooped at the thought and that reaction actually surprised her. She shouldn't be sitting here wanting a human to see her, no she should be swimming away as fast as she could. Swallowing hard she peered up between the little cracks of the planks and watched him look around before rising to his feet... yes, feet, that's what they were called.

Assyria almost reached out towards him, to stop him from leaving but she pulled her hand back to hold onto the wooden beam as she watched him strip off his clothing. What was he doing? Part of her hoped he would call out again, perhaps another knock would prove more effective? But her bright green eyes got wide as she watched him run and flail as he crashed into the water. Assyria froze, pulling her entire body behind the beam as she waited for him to scream or... something. But there was nothing.

Slowly she opened her eyes and found him floating on his back a few yards out away from the dock. Slowly, she sank down in the water and slipped forward to one of the front beams holding up the dock. Letting just her eyes break above the surface of the water she hovered there, trying to keep her fin hidden in the dark shadows under the dock. Her heart was pounding as she sat there watching him just lazily float there. It would be so easy to just slip away and disappear forever but, his face... it was so familiar. It had to be him. But from this far away she just couldn't be sure.

Against all her better judgement, she put one shaking hand up and shoved a handful of water at him, the water splashing over his face.

She bit her lip as she watched him rub his eyes and look right at her. But he didn't seem to see her. Silently swearing she frowned, she had forgotten that the water effected human's eyes differently. As he started swimming into the shallower water, she couldn't resist the impulse to follow. Staying beneath the dock she stayed parallel with him as far as she could until she could go no further. Circling back she headed to the end where he had left his clothing sitting on the end of the wooden planks.

When the human was out of sight she looked up at the shapes between the boards. still below the surface she didn't know what to do. Reveal herself? Risk it all? Swallowing hard she flicked her tail hard towards the surface and launched another splash up at the planks, soaking his clothes. If that didn't get his attention she wasn't sure what would. Assyria still didn't want to risk just poking her head out if he wasn't willing to take her seriously. Was it him, that same boy?

Slender fingers gripped the wooden beam tightly holding her in place, half keeping her from fleeing and swimming away, half keeping her from just shooting the few feet to the surface and revealing herself.