~~~~DYLAN~~~~
My legs dangle over the edge of the dock, toes skimming the surface of the water as they swing leisurely across it. I feel different today. There isn't that pull to enter the water. Even here, so close to it, I feel quite content on land.
"Did you think about joining the hunt?" Ella asks.
I chuckle. "Your dad was quite persuasive."
"You ought to want to. After what they did to your dad."
I shrug.
"Not the revengeful type?" She asks.
"Guess not."
I hadn't told her about Lauren.
"You're not even a little mad? If I lost my dad I don't know what I'd do. I definitely wouldn't be as calm as you are."
"You might be."
"No. I'd probably be balling right now."
I flick the water with my toe. I'm not sure what to say. Everything changed at once. And now I feel like I'm a part of something bigger. But I'm careful about how much I let on. I don't need to spill all.
We're silent for a moment. The sun is setting on the horizon. The ocean is absolutely calm.
"I'm going to get a drink." Ella says, standing up.
"I'll stay." I say.
"Want anything?"
I shake my head.
She turns and heads down the long dock, towards the beach where there's a small cafe.
Soon I'm alone.
I lean back on my hands and take in the expansive view. Life sure is strange and unpredictable. If there's one thing that doesn't change it's the wonder and vastness of the ocean. It can make you forget about everything.
I hear something beneath the dock. My instinct is to pull my legs up out of the water. I peer down through the slits in the wood, trying to figure out what it was.
"I must tell you something." A voice says from the edge of the dock.
I rush to look over. Floating in the water, Cordelia stares up at me. I smile upon seeing her.
"Don't run away again." I plead.
Her expression remains serious and unchanged.
"You're a mermaid." I state. "You don't have to hide it anymore."
"It's not what I am, Dylan. It's what you are." She says. "When I came on land I was drawn to you. I didn't understand it. I thought it was love."
She pauses and looks past me, checking that no one is near.
"It was my one day." She admits, "Each of us is granted one day per year, one 24 hour period in which to go on land, mingle with the humans, find love, satisfy our cravings, reproduce... I wasn't looking to fall in love. I just wanted to live among humans. To see what it feels like. Dylan, when I saw you I couldn't hold back. You were magnetic. You are so, so different from the rest of them."
"I can breath underwater." I interrupt.
"You're a mermaid."
"A mer-man." I correct.
She shakes her head. "There is no such thing. Every mermaid gives birth to a female. There are no men underwater. That's why we must come on land."
"Then how do you explain it?"
Her eyes flutter up.
"The girl is coming back."
I glance behind me. She's at the other end of the dock.
"Be quick."
"It is said that if a man is born a mermaid he is Uliratha, the chosen one. And he will lead our people through the greatest war to victory." She begins shaking her head.
I can hear Ella's footsteps getting closer.
"But the mermaids don't want a dictator." She says.
And she pops her head underwater just as Ella approaches.