Dark Water

Eyes closed, nose pointed to the sky, Stjarna swirled in angst to break through to the world above the surface as the sounds of her mothers cries taunted her. The sorrow in her heart grew and the image of her mother taken aboard the ship pierced her mind: defenceless, alone, battered. Stjarna burned with anger as she broke the surface and sprung to the air, screaming at the other world.

Why? She thought. Why must they take away everything we have!

Fists pumping to the heavens, pleading for guidance from her mother. The calm of the sea that night was stirred by Stjarna’s tail thrashing about in cries of pain, causing a whirlpool of tortured waves.

Earlier that night, Stjarna saw her mother sneaking away to an area off limits to all Merpeople and decided to follow after her. As she trailed behind, the two set out far from home; Stjarna, confused as to why her mother would put herself in danger by entering these forbidden waters. Merpeople were not to speak to or be seen by humans and Nova; Stjarna's mother knew exactly where she was going. Nova left the depths and surfaced without hesitation. Afraid, Stjarna lingered behind, fearful her mother or worse, humans might see her. Stjarna slowly poked her head out of the water: her eyes sitting just above the surface, widened at the stunning sight in the near distance. There, for the first time in all her life, Stjarna saw a ship. She had heard about them in the stories passed down from the elders but never had she seen one with her very own eyes. What truly terrified Stjarna was seeing her mother venturing closer to the ship. Nova investigated the odd vessel that sat high above the surface with the most unusual structures. Upon the ship were these creatures, foreign things, with hair and faces that seemed familiar but they had odd appendages coming out of their lower half. No tail. No scales. Unusual beings.

Stjarna watched as they threw a net over her mother and took her aboard as she screamed and squirmed about. Before Stjarna could do anything her elder sister Narine appeared and restrained her from helping their mother. The two watched helplessly as the humans wrangled Nova. No sooner had the boat left, Narine dragged Stjarna behind her and warned her little sister never to enter those waters again or she shall suffer the same fate as her mother. Stjarna, an emotional mess could not hear the words coming out of her sisters mouth, for all she could see were the images of her mother begging for her life and laying mercilessly at the hands of these vultures.

Once again, the peaceful life of the ocean beneath had been disrupted by the greediness of man kind; an alien life form from the Merpeople who lived beneath. These beings, these humans were unlike any other creature from Heaven or Earth. Their willingness to prey on the vulnerable and anything weaker than them was horrifying. One could only hope they would not unleash such cruelty on each other.

Knowing her sister would not simply let this lie, Narine brought Stjarna before the council of elders. There she was thrown to the bottom of the ocean floor, entrapped by the deadliest, most poisonous creatures. Each elder proceeded to tell her why she must not pass the surface nor communicate with beings from the other world. Stjarna begged them for help, she begged them to avenge her mothers death. They did not comply, for they had long been afraid of the human kind. The Merpeople did not know what weapons or secret powers humans possessed or what they were capable of. The fear of not knowing was far greater than the desire for retribution.

Stjarna left the council in a rage so fierce, the waters around her began to boil. Narine followed closely behind, trying to calm her sister but there was no reasoning with her, she was out for blood.

The next evening after spending hours burning with the temptation to destroy the men, one blood drained body at a time, Stjarna decided to return to the forbidden waters where her mother was seized. There, she came nearer to the ship on the horizon that had been the murder scene of her beloved mother. Just as Stjarna was about to leap aboard and wreak havoc she heard a laugh that shocked her to her core. Narine! Her sister was here. Stjarna quietly made her way around the boat where she peered through the nets to see a man. He sat on the stern laughing as Stjarna’s own sister Narine splashed about in front of him. The two were enjoying conversation: no hard feelings, no vengeance in sight. As a pit of anger began to grow and filled the emptiness inside of Stjarna, she overheard the man tell Narine he felt remorse about her mother. Narine simply responded with “I told her to stop following me out to these waters! You had to do what you had to do.” The man leant in to kiss Narine. He traced the curves of her body, running his hands along the back of her scales as she made her way up to find his mouth, tongues dancing as she pulled him into the water. The sight of this made Stjarna revolt. Overwhelmed with immense pain, Stjarna turned away while hearing her sister tell this man not to be seen again or her little sister was going to come after them.

Stjarna returned to the Council of Elders where she told them of her sister's betrayal to their mother and to all Merkind. Stjarna asked for her sister to be followed and brought before the council for justice. The council agreed and Narine was brought in for trial. Her punishment for handing over her mother to the humans was to be stripped of all her beauty. Gone was her long dark raven hair and each silver scale taken from her body. The enchantment of the ageless Mermaid youth was stripped away and before them she turned into the 344 year old that she was in age and now also in appearance. She looked like that of a lost dark soulless being. Her punishment for betraying the Merpeople was to be treated like a human; without kindness, without mercy, without hope. Narine no longer had the luxury to use her tail and she was made to drag herself along the ocean floor, begging for help and shamed with the knowledge of her betrayal. Stjarna had one last thing to do.

Upon the surface the moonlight kissed the sea in the still of the night and Stjarna began to sing. As she let out a melodious tune so mesmerising it captured the hearts of all the men aboard the boat. They turned their heads to the heart of the sea, their eyes now in a trance, their gaze fixed across the horizon in wonder. The helm: silent and as still as the wind did not move an inch. But the waters beneath began to move the boat in the direction of Stjarna’s song.

The boat moved slower as it came closer to Stjarna. There the men stared yearningly at the silhouette of her curvaceous body, it had been many a night these men spent without their wives. Her voice drew them nearer and had them transfixed on Stjarna’s beautiful form, as she moved so gracefully between the waters beneath and the air above. The crew made their way to Starboard to see Stjarna in all her beauty. Her unclad breasts glistened in the moonlight, her long flowing hair reached far down her back, her shimmering green eyes sparkled as she caught their gaze and her voice, so captivating they lost all sense of their surroundings.

Stjarna began to conjure a huge storm cloud above the vessel and with a hunger for vengeance she commanded the sea before them to rise and swallow them deep into the depths of the darkest ocean. They struggled for their lives as the sea violently took hold of them. Now her prisoners, she watched them suffer in her world just as her mother suffered in theirs. Stjarna had the men thrown into the ocean floor before the council of elders.

With victory in her eyes Stjarna roared for the creatures of the deep to join her as she announced “Tonight We Feast!”