The Maidening Ceremony

Chapter One - Scene 1

Arilya had seen the color red before. Merpeople in the Community had red hair, on occasion a crimson-hued fish had wandered into her path, lobster was her favorite food, and she had enough injuries as a growing merphan to know red was the color of her blood.
When she woke after a fretful sleep to find her tail a shade which could be described with no other term than red, instead of its usual luminous white, her young heart froze and she screamed as loud as she could, "I'm dying! I'm bleeding to death!"

Cries of this nature are common in the Community. The merpeople have tried to block themselves off from the sea monsters who hunt them, but occasionally one will slip in and snatch an arm or tail from the merperson who was not fast enough to get away.

No aid rushed to Arilya's side as she cried for it. Her parents, sleeping in the next chamber over, heard their daughter, but did nothing. Neighbors heard and counted their own limbs, thankful to discover the shark had not gotten them. No one cares if their fellow merperson is in trouble. "Save oneself" is not just a motto, it is a way of being.

Once Arilya exhausted herself, she examined her tail with her fingertips, searching for the source of the blood. She found nothing. Confused, frightened, she pushed off her rock bed and tested the strength of the red tail. It flipped, thrashed, and pumped normally as she moved towards the arched opening to her chamber. It still glowed, like her hair, but cast a red hue on her room. She paused, leaning against the dark grey rock wall, and looked across the massive cave to her parents' room. Her vision blurred slightly as she worked up the courage to swim towards it; she realized she was crying.

"Shaz, Dalphen, there's something wrong with my tail."

"You claimed you were dying," Shaz replied, not moving from the rock she lay upon.

"I thought maybe I was. Look, it looks like blood."

Dalphen swam lazily to his daughter and gawked at her tail. "As red as blood, she is right. Have you ever seen a merperson with a red tail, Shaz?"

At her husband's question, Shaz finally looked over to where Arilya floated at the entrance to their chamber. "My goodness! Your tail is blood red! I have never seen a mermaid with a red tail before!"

Dalphen rolled his eyes. "There must be something wrong with her."

"Something wrong with me?"

"Of course, you are absolutely right. She must be diseased. I have never seen a mermaid with a red tail before. Is she even old enough for her tail to turn?"

"There's something wrong with me?" Arilya repeated, her voice getting higher and squeakier.

"She is five, maybe six, so it is time. But red? Our tails are blue. Her sister's tail is blue. How did this happen? Why must I end up with the diseased merphan?" Dalphen pondered aloud. "I have not the time for this."

"And you think I do?" Shaz retorted, angrily. "I have a performance tonight. I need to be as calm and relaxed as possible."

"Am I going to die?"

"You have more time than I do. And if anyone needs to remain calm, it is I. I am the one risking my life to find food for the Community," Dalphen said.

"You and twenty others. Honestly, I am getting rather bored of hearing all the time how much you risk your life to find food. You have never even encountered a shark!"

"I am more likely to out in open water than you are on stage in some silly play!"

"Shaz, Dalphen, please, help me!" Arilya sobbed.

Shaz turned away, distaste plain across her face; Dalphen swam past Arilya and beyond the mouth of the cave. "Take her to see the healer today and find out if she is diseased."

"And then what?" Shaz snapped.

"If she is, ask the Council to leave her beyond the border, it will work itself out. I cannot support a diseased merphan."

Shaz nodded and retreated to her vanity, turning her back on her daughter; Dalphen swam off, leaving Arilya alone with the knowledge that her parents would rather throw her away to be food for a predator than take care of her.

Arilya knew the way her parents treated her was normal. Other merphen her age were treated similarly by their parents, but Arilya still did not understand. She felt a powerful closeness to her parents, a closeness she knew for a certainty they did not feel for her. A closeness her peers did not feel towards their parents and vice versa. And as all young merphen do at such a tender age, all Arilya could do was ask, "Why?"

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