It was raining when I woke a few days later. Cold drops of water from the sky kissed my cheeks as I stayed above the surface so I could breathe. We Mer always had a saying about the rain: It was nature's way of apologizing to the humans for not giving them tails so they could swim with us. They would become wet while they stood on their land, and we would laugh playfully at their pouting faces.
Remembering this only made my heart ache for my family, so I quickly cleared my head and sat up to yawn. My hair needed to be tamed again, and with this rain the chance of a human encounter was lower. Just yesterday it was bright and sunny, so there was much traffic along the edge of my home as humans walked and talked to one another while fishing or throwing stones. I kept my distance. Today there would be little of that, so I could relax a little. Humans didn't like coming out in the rain. I didn't know why, though. I thought the rain felt lovely.
I would have enjoyed it more if my hair weren't so damn stupid. I struggled with it for almost an hour before giving up and swimming off. It was back to the regular routine of staying hidden on the river bottom and in the reeds to the sides. My human wouldn't show up in this rain – wait, did I just call him my human?
Yes…yes, that sounded okay to me. He was my human. My pet. He would come in the mornings after the sun rose before any other humans came and bring me food. I would come when he called and stay close, but not too close, as he threw sticks in the water and I would follow after them playfully. Yes, he was my human. He was my pet.
Okay, so it was more like the other way around...
I felt a little ashamed of my sudden fondness to this human, this new person of the land I had once feared and hated. But it couldn't be helped, I guessed. I was so lonely that I was seeking out the comfort of even the enemy.
Talk about the lion lying down with the lamb.
As I later sat in the reeds eating my usual diet of river grasses and small fish, I smelled something through the rain. It was the scent of fish…dead fish, and also the smell of dirt and mud. I turned around just in time to spot a large black mass standing above me with a big snarl. It was covered in black fur and had one very large clawed paw raised above my head.
With speed and agility, I dodged as the paw came down where I used to sit and the bear jumped into the shallow water after me. The bear saw a very big fish, and it wanted in on that meal. I kicked my tail to gain speed as it charged and I jumped over a river rock in order to throw it off. It barreled over the rock like it was nothing and continued to huff and grunt at me. I've been chased by bears before; it was really more of a sport to us Mer. They could never catch us, but they always tried.
When I jumped over the rock and out of the water I thought I saw something glint from the shore, but I ignored it due to my current crisis. After a few seconds of thrashing, I was almost in the clear. The bear couldn't follow me out to the deeper water without being taken away by the current, and it was there I'd be safe.
I was just about to dive when a very loud and powerful shot rang out and nearly made me breathe in water from the shock. I had heard that thunderous sound before. I heard it many times, and always when one of my schoolmates was being killed.
The bear immediately stopped and turned to run. The noise had scared it, and my head whirled around for the source. There was the man that had fed me what I now learned was called a 'scone' and had kept me company for the past few days with his soft eyes and gentle smile. He now stood at the river bank with a shiny boom-stick in his hand pointed to the sky with a smoking tip. He looked relieved, but I felt only sheer terror grip me as I dove away.
My human had one of those terrible killing things! He was holding it and fired, right in front of me! He was going to kill me, he was going to skin me and steal my tears as I bled out on the ground like my schoolmates had! The shock made me shake and I clung to a rock on the bottom, emptying pearls all over the river bed to be carried away downstream. I had trusted him, I thought he wasn't a monster, but in the end he was! Serves me right for thinking I could trust a new person of the land! I was so stupid, I almost let the Mer fade away into nothingness…
I felt small vibrations in the water, almost too small to detect, and knew he was calling for me. I wouldn't come. I would never come for him again. I would stay here at the bottom and sing Mer lullabies to calm myself as I waited for him to leave.
Little fish, swimming in the tides…
Hold the reeds carefully and raise your voice.
Sing this melody, sing it loud and clear,
Sing it through the current for the world to hear...
Eventually I had to go for air, so I shot up by the midway rocks and took a gulp before going back down. On the shore the man sat on the sitting place next to mine in the rain. His head was hung low in the rain as he cradled a little wrapped cloth in his arms.
That is where he stayed all day. Every time I went for breath he was there. It wasn't until it began to get dark that he stood and finally left. He still clutched the cloth to his soaked chest as his hair clung to his face and he shivered with cold. He had taken the glass things off his face and was walking back through the woods with heavy steps.
I sighed a breath of relief when he finally left. I was safe once more.
And even more lonely than I'd ever been.
It was MAN-BEAR-PIG.
