Saturday, 25 April 2020

Quarantine entry #35 - April 25


Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and your family is often ensuring that you feel worse on top of anything more vague and indirect. The good news that Ford, at least, seems to be intent on thawing the U.S.-Canada border interactions in May…whatever that means; I’m being cautiously realistic, and suspecting that nothing will come out of this until the middle of the next month, (i.e. we got another couple of weeks of lockdown/quarantine left at least), but what can’t be cured must be endured… unless you’re like G.W., who did something else, and now the situation is worse… on a local level… in Nova Scotia… at least. Now what?

Here is another piece of original fiction, that is what. What do you think, anyhow?

Once upon a time, there lived a merrow in the northern sea, and she had a mermaid cousin, with whom she did not get along.

“How will I ever get myself a handsome fisherman, if you are scaring them all away?” She would ask when the two would meet... occasionally. As far as the two cousins went, the mermaid was the more feral one, and both cousins knew this. Thus, the mermaid was dismissive of her cousin, until she was not.

“You’re lonely?” She suddenly asked during one such occasion, starting them both, if truth were told - the lives of the two cousins rarely crossed and they had nothing to talk about... usually. “Fine. Go to the Whale bay tomorrow - there you’ll meet someone, I’m certain,” she muttered, and with a flick of her tail, she was gone.

The merrow thought this over: she and her cousin didn’t get along, but nothing more, so why not to follow her advice? Plus, there were no bad rumours about the Whale bay, just some odd ones, and so the merrow decided to cooperate, and swam to the Whale bay to reach it by tomorrow...

...As far as the two cousins went, the mermaid was faster, but the merrow had more endurance, and so she had no problems in reaching the Whale bay by the designated time. What she found there was a large but obscure bay, rocky and out of the way, which provided shelter from both sea storms and prying eyes. “A girl could enjoy living here,” she muttered to herself.

“Glad that you approve,” someone sarcastically muttered, and the merrow was grabbed, unceremoniously, across her waist. “Kara, I told you- wait. You’re not her.”

“...” A merrow is stronger than how they look, when compared to humans; right now, our heroine was grabbed by a very large sea troll, and wisely said nothing, she just made some vague noises, lest the troll ripped her in two.

“Crossbones.” It was Kara and her partner, a merman of her own species. “Behave. This is Kara’s estranged cousin, and we’re in a special place.”

“Fine,” the sea troll reluctantly muttered, as he left the merrow go. The latter was not done herself, (her cousin set her up with a sea troll, really?), when she felt something big move through the water and decided to cooperate. This was the right choice, for thus she got a prime spot to observe the whales arrive, for this was their birthing ground, (hence the bay’s name, you know!).

For some time the foursome observed the semi-sacred event, (except for krakens and their kin, most sea-dwellers hold the whales in high regard for their strength and wisdom), and once it was over, the whales began to sing, in gratitude, for keeping the sharks and orcas out. (We are talking killer whales here and not orcs - orcs do not like water actually).

The whales sang of the north, where it is snow and ice all year round, of the south, where it is hot constantly, and of everywhere in-between. And then they were done, they said good-bye in the whale tongue, and left for the open sea, from which they came.

The foursome were left to their own devices once more.

“Now what?” The merrow muttered to no one in particular.

“Let’s go to our place and celebrate!” Her cousin said brightly and somehow everyone complied and did just this, but that is another story.

End

…Well, this is it for now. Did you like it? Comments, criticisms are welcome! And I will see you all soon!

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