Hello folks :)

Merry Christmas everyone, and I wish you all a happy new year in advance :)

Here we are back, to the first adventure in our series, with a new part: 'Mervellya.. The Many Faces of Evil: The First Clash' following 'Reunions & Revelations'. I hope it'll meet your expectations.

Mervellya.. The Many Faces of Evil

The First Clash

Prologue

"Everyone, hold on!"

The captain voice fought to reach his crew when suddenly a crushing wave of a fierce wind blew on the ship and almost inverted it; while the crew tried their best on holding -for their dear lives- on their poise -that was slipping away from them- via anything their hands could reach.

A couple of days ago, the Nomad started its sailing to the uncharted waters and an obscure course; only following the little that was provided by the trio-bracelets. They were told by Caipra that the land they were aiming for had been given the name 'Mervellya' by some ancient wizards, for what it carried from supernatural power with both its dark and good sides. Though, that name wasn't original and the land actually remained anonymous since they heard of it.

The rainbow bracelets helped the crew nonetheless, with only Sinbad's radiating and leading them. And after a long two days of a surprisingly calm sailing, they eventually felt it... a change in the air around them... they could smell the alteration in their surrounding ambience!

It was almost tangible!

True to the word, not a few moments afterwards that they started to notice the fickleness of the weather as the horizon turned into charred darkness in a swift progress.

Now that their suspicion got confirmed, their senses were highly alerted. Goosebumps, hasty heartbeats and hitched breaths weren't anything to ignore.

Storm was ahead! Not the tiniest doubt of it.

But, when lastly their sights could accommodate the darkness, they were welcomed by scene they were sure nobody witnessed it and could make it out alive. Their freezing was interrupted by their deep gasps as they stared at the monstrous swirl of the untamed wind that engulfed the horizon!

It was devouring everything in sight! And Nomad would be no exception!

Sooner or later, it would reach them. As the harsh realization stroke them with full force, everyone jumped into life, racing for their urgent duties without any word exchange; fueling by the innate desire to survive.

And that was exactly what lead them into the first mentioned situation.

Sinbad –trying his best ever through all his sailing years experiences to get his crew out ALIVE from such anomalous storm- was shouting his orders out loud in attempt to encourage and guide his crew to withstand with their powers; all the while he was holding the tiller for his dear life and steading it with the best strength he could bestow.

With the crushing blast, no one could keep his eyes open in face of such fierceness; and some of the crew were almost taken by the angry wind hadn't they anchored themselves to the ship body by only their hands and arms.

Ears deafened and minds blanked, they only felt the huge pressure exerted on them that was nearly smashing them with extreme velocity.

Then, all of a sudden a complete void serenity overshadowed in a split of second, full calmness that was accompanied by what seemed to be a breakthrough as they sensed their passage through something that felt like.. gelatinous barrier!

It felt like pushing through a creamy butter curtains!

Then absolute silence dominated their surroundings, just absolute nothingness.

They stayed like that without daring opening their eyes for few seconds that they thought hours! A scaring thought invaded their minds simultaneously: were they dead, then? Was that how death felt like?

The answer hit them in no seconds later in the form of a concealed explosion sound giving birth to slightly big shaking wave spread centrally.

And then everything was over, just like that.

These last sensations pushed them to eventually open their eyes spurred by the new coming phonemes and their gazes lied on the calming water sheets spread around them just tickling the Nomad slightly as usual, as if nothing ever happened.

The tweets of the sea gulls fill the atmosphere nicely, and the breeze was smoothing their faces gently.

None of them moved at first, still not recovered from the shock of what they have been through and that they were still alive, not believing it really was over. They still frozen in their spots in funny positions of holding firmly to anything their hands had reached until Sinbad was the first to recover slowly.

He gulped and blinked twice then restored his posture. This slight movement seemed to awake the others out of their stupor, they quickly regained their postures and balance as well yet with caution.

Some of them murmured with faint words incomprehensibly even to themselves as they were taking in the surroundings suspiciously and obviously not relieved by this calmness.

Something was out there in the depth of this silent and gentle atmosphere causing them uneasiness, though nothing was out of nature.

It was then when their ears caught soft giggles and gentle splashing of water coming from ... everywhere!

Firouz hurried to his magnescope while heading to the bow of the ship followed by Sinbad who gave the tiller to Said. After mere seconds the scientist gasped in disbelief and astonishment as he adjusted his instrument and looked over and over, mouth opened.

Sinbad rolled his eyes with slight annoyance, this adventure was dragging him out of edge and his friend wasn't helping by his speechless wondering. He grasped the tube lenses from his friend and gazed through it in the same direction Firouz was looking, and for a moment he thought he was dreaming!

"What's out there?" Doubar's voice came from the other side of the boat as he headed to them, bringing the captain quickly out of his muse only to find the crew was gathered by then around them.

"Trouble? Was that a lunker?" the Ronin exclaimed. Sinbad turned his gaze to him questioning. "You don't need that thing to see them, they are coming closer" Tetsu explained as he pointed to the sea where the others were looking then.

The captain returned his gaze fluently to this direction to locate the large caudal fin emerged from the water and returned back to it splashing soundly water everywhere.

Actually, there were few others as well but in spite of their great size, it wasn't that fact that astonished him and Firouz. They saw further.

"Now what? A whale? We're facing a fishy monster?" the first mate tone showed his discomfort as his face turned pale and grimaced.

"N.. no it's.. it isn't like that!" answered hesitating Firouz who obviously wasn't recovered yet from his wonder.

"They are not whales, but I'm not sure if they aren't monsters." Sinbad caught the conversation sternly as he frowned at the gradual rise in the fins number.

"What exactly are they? Just spill it out already!" was the furious reply from an inpatient Doubar, before the answer hit him from behind as the sage voice of Caipra reached all of them in determination: "Mermaids."

Everyone turned to her in speaking surprise and disbelief as the old woman finally reached the rails. She was in Maeve's cabin during the last events keeping her safe during the transition they just made.

"W.. what?!"

"So it's real, I'm not dreaming! They are real! I thought they were a myth."

"They have never been a myth Firouz. They're one of the magical creatures in this world."

Clearing his throat gently, Sinbad focusing his attention to Caipra while keeping his eyes side on the creatures in the sea not so far from the ship, "Either they're real or myth, I believe they have a dark reputation. I'm not sure if we can be safe while being within their reach. Right?"

"They are evil." Were the first words by which Bryn decided to took part in the conversation, eventually. It was a status rather than suggestion. She was sure they are dark creatures somehow but had no clue about further details or what was their danger exactly.

But her words were enough to ensure Sinbad's uneasiness and the frown on her friends faces.

"This is quite true." If there was any hope against the brunette fellow, now was completely dammed by the firm confirmation coming from the old sorceress. "You can never-ever- trust a mermaid."

oOoOoOo

A/n: Yeah... Mermaids!

However there is a WARNING here: Not every character introduced in the plot should have a deep role, including the mermaids which only make an appearance in the first couple of chapters but aren't involved deeper in the main events of the plot line. However, they may play some essential role in a future fiction. :) ;)

-There is a missing part in-between 'R&R' and 'Mervellya, the First Clash', which is the 'NOMAD' part. But as it doesn't contain many events, just describe the crew emotions during the couple of days they spent in the open sea.I didn't find a reason to hold Mervellya till I finish NOMAD... that's why I posted Mervellya first. NOMAD, however is closely related to another romantic fiction I still didn't start it yet.

-Most of this part chapters are already written, I planned to update regularly. Bad news is I'm terribly busy these days/months so the update will be very difficult even though many chapters are written. And I still have few troubles with the next chapter as well, still not completed it. So, who's interested just be patient with me. :)

TS