The Little Mermaid of the Gulf (#OnceUponNow)

Part 1: Missing

After sea levels rose, Grand Isle was transformed from that forgotten finger of land jutting into the Gulf from Louisiana to an example of the resiliency Miranda loved so much about the human species. Life didn't change much when the streets flooded in Grand Isle. Developers had the foresight long ago to build houses on stilts and, being that this community was so close to the ocean and all of her threats, everyone in the community already owned a boat of some kind.

Yes, for those citizens of Grand Isle who stayed after the water breached the bluff, life didn't change much. Rumors of sea serpents kept residents inside after dark, traveling was now exclusively done by boat, and insurance rates went up. But that was the extent of the change for those living in Grand Isle.

For the ocean, however, and all that lived in her waters, it was the start of a whole new era entirely. Especially for the merfolk in the Gulf after Calder went missing. An era of blurred lines between land and sea.

After the pod of merfolk living just off the coast of Grand Isle, of which Miranda was a part, had officially declared Calder missing, a small council met in the depths past the Mississippi Canyon to discuss their next steps.

"The border between land and sea used to be defined," crowed the eldest merman in the pod, Dover. "But now that our waters have spilled onto the land and the young ones become less and less wary, everything is blurred. Young ones are swimming too close to the landfolk, and we have all seen what the landfolk can do."

The head councilor Maro, Miranda's father, swallowed hard at Dover's statement. His daughter had always been brave, free-willed, and adventurous like her mother--he knew that. But Maro also knew that that is precisely what led her toward the black water years before, when Miranda was still too young to grasp what had happened. Maro saw the trinkets from shore that Miranda regularly brought back to their cove, despite her best efforts to hide them. Strangelings, she called them. Maro never once lectured her on the dangers of swimming too close to shore, after all, it was in the water where Miranda's mother had met her death. Maybe the key to facing danger is in understanding it, he always wondered. Although now, with one their pods most prized members missing, Maro wondered something new: Could he be part of the problem?

"The landfolk," Dover continued, his voice shaking with anger, "they find treasure in our waters, so what do they do? They become pirates and blow our waters apart to fight over it. They find black oil, and what happens next?"

"We all know what happened next," Maro said.

"They build islands of metal with gargantuan feet digging into our floor. I suppose I don't need to remind any of you of the black water. We all lost loved ones that day." Dover paused to allow the sadness to sink in, never once giving up the hatred painted on his face. "We have been pushed farther and farther away from where we first settled our pod each year so that the landfolk can do, what exactly? Sit prettier? Conquer more? Destroy all that we love? I'm not entirely sure they didn't cause the water to rise just to claim more of our home even still."

"I wouldn't go that far," another of the councilors said. "The landfolk are greedy, yes; but to call them short-sighted enough to ask for their towns to be submerged in the sea? Just to take it from us? That's just absurd."

"Absurd as it may seem, Calder is missing. My grandson is gone, and I know those air-breathing monsters took him. He was one of our finest, but I am close enough to my grandson to say, he was also one of our dumbest. We all know he went to the shore. With your daughter, I'm sure, Maro," Dover said, pointing a webbed finger at Miranda's father.

He pressed his palm to his dark, bare chest. "Miranda never even knew the boy. She has only fifteen years to her life. Your grandson has three more. They swam with different schools." He peered around to the other councilors. "Besides, Miranda would tell me if she knew anything about Calder, and she has not spoken a word."

"The young ones...," Dover growled, now wagging his finger at Maro. "They will be our ruin. Once those land beasts realize all their songs and stories about us are true... it will be the end of all of this. We will be hunted, one by one. Slaughtered. Put on display. There will be nothing left of us but our flesh."

"Enough, Dover," the councilor who had opposed him earlier said. "We will find Calder, and until then, we will warn our own against going too close to shore."

The council members nodded in solemn understanding. All but Dover, who, still shaking with rage, gripped the shelf wall for balance.

"We will form search parties," Maro said. "We will stretch our search perimeters. Calder is in this sea somewhere."

The council agreed, though Dover never formally voiced his approval, and Maro swam back to his alcove, his first stop in creating his search party.