The Maidening Ceremony

Chapter Seven - Scene 2

            

With the festivals approaching, the merphen grew rowdier than usual.  In anticipation of the games and prizes, spontaneous races broke out all over the Community.  The Elders and other adults were annoyed, but Millicent's time with Arilya had softened her and she found it rather charming.  She spent less time alone in her cave and more time out in the Community meeting merpeople she had only ever heard about in Council meetings.  She felt more alive than she had in a century.

Though Arilya had not confided in her yet, it did not take long for Millicent to surmise the subject of Arilya's preference conversation.  She spent every minute with Finley that she did not spend teaching or training.  It was obvious anytime Millicent saw them together that her preference was not one likely to be overcome, and Millicent vowedsilently to ensure Arilya was not hurt by it.

****

In the midst of the merriment, Finley challenged Arilya to a race.  "We will go to the edge of the Community – the first one back here," he pointed to a rock beneath their tails, "wins."

"I cannot go to the border, Finley."

"Why not?"

"Do not you remember what happened the last time?"

"Of course, but that was a fluke.  There are not any sharks near the border now, we have been hunting extensively – they have all been scared off."

"We can just swim around here – or around the Elders' Cove and back."

"No, come on, live dangerously!  To the border!"

"Finley, I am forbidden."

"What?"

"I never told you before, because I was embarrassed, but the Council forbid me from going within fifty taillengths of the border."

"That is ridiculous.  All because of a little accident?"

"It was not a little accident.  You were nearly killed."

He waved his hand dismissively, as if being nearly eaten by a monstrous shark was commonplace.

"They think," Arilya paused and lowered her voice so the other merphen around them could not overhear, "they think my red tail attracted the shark.  If I go near the border, it puts the entire Community at risk."  She turned away, ashamed.  Finley swam around to face her.

"Sharks are attracted to any kind of movement.  It probably saw the other merphen I pushed out first and just happened to close in when you got caught in the current.  Okay?"

"You are probably right."

"Of course I am.  Now, race me around the cove?"

"You got it!" She charged forward, leaving him in her bubbled-path.  He struggled to catch up, but she was the fastest mermaid in their class.  She dipped under other merphan, flung around rocks and reefs, darting to and fro as if she was performing a dance.  Finley forgot he was racing and stopped to watch her graceful strokes slicing through the water.

"Come on, you turtle!" she yelled over her shoulder, tapping into her competitive nature.  He dashed after her, but she still ended up at the starting point with an embarrassing, for Finley, lead.

"I thought hunters were supposed to be super fast," she teased when he finally reached her.

"I thought teachers were supposed to play fair – you cheated with that head start."

"Teachers are supposed to teach the merphen to play fair.  No one said we had to follow that teaching!"

They both laughed and found a bed of kelp to sit on and watch the other races.  After they watched Japhet destroy a merphan from a younger class, Arilya turned to her friend and asked him about his Ceremony training.

"It is fine, I guess," was his response.

"What do you talk about?"

"We do not do a lot of talking."

"What do you mean?  That is pretty much all Mills and I do."

"Mills?  Your Elder lets you call her by her name?"

"Well, Mills is actually short for Millicent, so I guess I am calling her by her nickname."

"That is insane.  My mentor makes me call him 'Mentor Elder.'  He has not even told me his name."

"I guess my mentor is  than yours."

He laughed.  "I guess so."

"So, what do you do then?"

"Mostly he shows me diagrams and books on marriage."

"Diagrams?"

"Yeah, showing how sex works so I can start procreating right away, I guess."

Arilya flushed as red as her tail.  "Mills has never talked about procreating."

"Really?  I thought that was the main point of training, so we would know what to do at the ceremony."  Finley did not notice Arilya's discomfort.  "I hope we only have to do it that one time, at the ceremony.  Mentor Elder says it is very unpleasant, but necessary.  That merman has only spoken about twenty words in total to me, 'unpleasant, but necessary,' is a direct quote."

A strange tingle rose in Arilya's stomach.  She tried to ignore it, but the more Finley talked the more pronounced it became.  She wondered why Mills had not mentioned sex.  In fact, she had not mentioned the Maidening Ceremony at all since their first session.  They had spent their time talking about her career training, her family, her hobbies, but never the Maidening Ceremony.

"What do you think, Arilya?  What has 'Mills' said about sex?"

"Um, the same thing.  Can we talk about something else?"

"I do not care what we talk about.  You brought up training."

"I know, sorry.  I am feeling a little strange.  I think I will go home and get some rest."

"That race really took it out of you, huh?  You should not have swam so hard, I would not have humiliated you too terribly."

"As if you could!"   .  At home     and had to conclude it was the sex talk.  She remembered her poor sister, the day of her Maidening Ceremony, being forced to fuse with her husband right there in front of everyone.  It was so wrong.  Horrifying.  The act itself did not look so unpleasant as Finley's Elder described it, but it did look private – like it should only belong to the two people involved.  Arilya had felt like a monster witnessing it.

Soon the Community of monsters would be witnessing her forced to fuse with some merman.  Even if it was Finley, she could not bear the thought of everyone she knew seeing them do that.

Why?

No one else saw it as a big deal.  Finley did not.  The Council obviously did not.  Her sister had not – she called Arilya an infant after Arilya tried to comfort her.  Why did it bother Arilya?  Why did she care?

Care.

It was a revelation.  She had always known it, but had never known it.  The Maidening Ceremony, sex in front of an audience – it bothered her because she cared.  It was so simple, yet brought up more complications.

Why did she care when no one else did?  It was so clear now that none of her classmates, her parents, or the Elders cared about anything and she cared about so many things: the merphen, her parents, Mills, Finley.  Most of all Finley.

What did that mean?  Could she undo it?  She did not want to undo it, but how else would she survive?

Her parents came noisily into the cave, arguing about the importance of their respective careers.  Shaz moaned loudly that without her and the other performers the rest of the Community would have nothing to look forward to in their miserable lives.  Dalphen argued that without hunters they would not have lives at all because they would all starve to death.  When they noticed Arilya, their fight halted long enough for Dalphen to make the charming comment, "You are still here?  I am so glad the Maidening Ceremony approaches.  It will be nice to get you out of our hair, once and for all."  He resumed his jabs at Shaz as Arilya slumped off to her chamber and cried herself to sleep.