Chapter 5

Having returned from his trip empty handed, Skiff didn't bother to open his stall that morning, or afternoon. Pescecorp was probably serving his customers anyway. Instead, he gathered armfuls of adverts for job openings, and spent the morning sitting at his coffee table with a red biro, ticking here, crossing there, jotting down phone numbers etc. His mind kept wandering back to the meeting from the previous night. Once or twice he found himself wondering if he'd simply imagined it. Perhaps the lack of haul had caused his mind to hallucinate the idea there was a supernatural reason for his failure to retrieve catch. But even as he thought this he remembered the shimmer of Captain's scales, and the smooth but dry feeling of them underneath his finger tips as he cut the ropes. They were less like fish scales and more like sequins, he thought, layered on top of each other, and cool to the touch. He imagined stroking a dragon's neck would feel much the same way – something seemingly obvious to the whole thing was, in fact, much more extraordinary when zoomed in.

At one point Skiff took one of the newspaper adverts he'd marked with an X and tried to redraw the merman from memory. Even as he drew, the features trickled away like water off the side of his boat. It had been dark of course, Skiff blamed that. He could only really recall the outline of the human half – the slender nose, the swimmer's muscles – if he hadn't of had a tail, he'd have been tall, Skiff thought. But it was the tail that fascinated him the most. He couldn't remember the exact pattern to any great detail, but the pretty arrays of colours were etched at the front of his mind, filling his vision with oranges and ebonies. The dolphin mermaid he's seen two decades before had been amazing, but it had been a short sighting with what looked like a standard ocean fish. Skiff's meeting from the previous night was far more impressive, and if the merman kept to his promise, might continue into another. He still had no idea why Captain wanted to meet him again, nor why Skiff needed to bring a bag. But the merman understood that Skiff needed money, and Skiff certainly wasn't in a position to argue. Of course merfolk currency might just be seashells, and so Skiff decided he better have a backup plan just in case.

He'd narrowed it down to three jobs. None of them were exciting, but they paid. Not a lot, but it would feed him. One was a janitor for the local school. Lonely late hours picking up pencils and vacuuming up sharpening from between wiry carpets. Not ideal, but a wage was a wage. The next was a little more companiable – working with the Blair twins as a dishwasher in their cafe. Then again, Skiff remembered how Dan had acted the other day, and thought it best not to give him a reason to be suspicious. The third one appealed to him the most – the mayor was after a secretary. It was a tedious sounding job, but the pay was higher than the other two, and so Skiff mustered up the courage to inquire for an application.

Lucy had been friendly in her rejection. She appreciated the fisherman's offer, but wasn't sure he was quite suited for the job.

"We're looking for someone who's more comfortable with a ... confined environment. Surely you'd prefer a more hands on occupation?"

Well of course Skiff would, but times were desperate. He returned home that evening exhausted, and still unemployed. After an uneventful dinner, he spent the evening asleep next to his alarm, which was set for 11PM.

The ringing sound woke him in the middle of a particularly strange dream about riding on the back of a large goldfish that was suspended in the sky. After stumbling around, a little disorientated, Skiff managed to slip his shoes on, grab a bag that he strategically placed by his front door, and slip out into the night. Although he was wearing a jacket, the cold air was still a shock, and Skiff's teeth chattered as he ran along the streets of Brigodston towards Pirate's arch. It was named after the two jagged cuts in the rock face, which more or less caused it to resemble a skull. The lower areas were flat enough that kids would often sit and skim stones across it in the summer, or swim in the rock pools that the arch created. Tonight, in the moonlight, it looked more like a skull than ever.

Skiff gulped, and checked his watch. 5 minutes till midnight. He hugged himself for warmth, watching his breath evaporate into the darkness. Soon enough, Skiff saw a shape moving through the waters towards him, and a familiar dorsal fin – now vertical, cutting through the surface of the ocean. Skiff let his arms drop to his sides, and rushed over to the flat areas of the rock.

Sure enough, Captain swam just beneath it, looking even more majestic in the water than he had done tied up on the boat.

"Did you come alone?" He asked, looking up at the sailor.

Skiff nodded.

"No one here but me"

"Good" The merman breathed out a sigh of relief. "I've known humans to double cross. You're a good one. I assume you still need the money?"

"Unfortunately" Skiff looked at his hands sheepishly. "I tried to get another job today but-"

"After tonight you won't have to work another day in your life" Captain smiled, showing a flash of pearly white fangs. It was not a threatening act, but Skiff was pleased to be on his good side all the same. "Have you brought the hollow item?"

Skiff held up his bag.

"That will do just fine. Hold on a moment-"

Captain's head suddenly dove under water, followed by the rest of him in a quick, streamlined motion. In a few moments he surfaced, and Skiff noticed the water glowing slightly even before he brought the item to surface. In the merman's hands was a single pearl. But not any tiny little pea-sized pearl. This one was almost as large as a melon, with a smooth surface that was cool to the touch. It's body seemed to radiate with some sort of energy not quite known to anything Skiff had ever seen. If he peered closely, the pearl seemed to swirl around, a little storm of pastel blues pinks and silvers floating around like magical smoke.

"These merpearls are usually only seen by our people" Captain explained "They're as hidden to your technologies as we are. Apparently the very first merpeople used these to achieve strange feats and transformations, although I think there may be more wishful thinking than truth in that. But I've seen how your kind scavenge for the small pearls, and I have no use for this since merfolk usually use them to p-" Captain suddenly cut off, looking a little embarrassed "I figured this would be just what you need"

Skiff stared at the pearl, utterly amazed. It illuminated the features of all its surroundings with the same silvery glow as the moon, and it was the first time Skiff could see his new friend's face in detail. He had no idea how long merfolk lived for, but Captain had the face of a slightly older male, if he judged his human half then probably in his thirties. But it was not a wrinkled, weather beaten face. It was more experienced than Skiff's, and the skin wasn't quite as smooth. How much of this was down to constant exposure to the ocean Skiff couldn't be sure. Captain may well have been anywhere between 10-300 in merman years. But facially he was more or less only a few years older than Skiff himself. Most of his features were rather sharp – hooked nose, high cheekbones, square jaw and angular eyebrows, and yet he still maintained a kind aura, and his eyes were ocean like – deep blue, and a little mysterious. Next time, Skiff was sure he'd have no trouble recalling those features. But he didn't want to appear rude by staring, and so he looked at the pearl instead.

"I have one other favour to ask you" Captain said after watching the human gaze at the treasure for a while.

"Sure" Skiff nodded, slipping the pearl into his bag. It was surprisingly light for it's size – still heavy, but Skiff could hold it on one hand. Something about the object seemed magical. Even as it sat next to him, it seemed to hum an otherworldly tune (although, Skiff reasoned this was probably the wind. Pearl's didn't hum. They were made of calcium carbonate)

"That thing is bound to make you richer than you ever have been, and with riches comes responsibility" Captain licked his lips "I want you to use that influence to ... do something about Pescecorp"

Skiff blinked, thinking about the idea of his reasonability and promise. Then he nodded defiantly.

"I promise"

His friend smiled.

"Somehow I knew you would" He pushed off from the rock, swimming backwards as he slunk back into deeper waters. "And when they ask where you found it, tell them it washed up or something. No need to reveal our secrets"

"I promise! But ..."

"But what?"

"Will we ... meet again?"

"Why do we need to?"

Skiff wasn't sure. He was so fascinated by the merfolks now. He wanted to know everything – how many were there around Brigodston? What were merfolk customs? Did Captain have merfolk friends? A merfolk family? He needed to know, but ... there was no time.

"I'm just ... curious"

Captain cocked his head slightly, so that some of his hair fell upon the surface of the water.

"Curious? But you have your money now, and I have my freedom. How many questions do you have?"

The sailor didn't know how to explain that his list was endless, and that answers alone were not enough for him. He was never going to be satisfied. Skiff momentarily imagined himself as an old man, surrounded by books and sea charts. Till the day he died he was going to wonder about the kingdom beneath the waves, and there was no way his curiosity would ever be satisfied. He decided that it was best not to feed it and make things worse.

"I ... I suppose it doesn't matter" Skiff sighed reluctantly.

"Then this is where we part ways" Captain bowed his head "It was good to know a human that kept his heart in his chest and his money in his wallet. Most of you seem to mix those up" And then Captain was gone, leaving only a ripple on the surface of the water as a memory of his existence. And the pearl. Skiff looked down at it, his body buzzing with excitement. As promised, his wallet would be more than full by this time tomorrow. But he knew deep down he cared less about the pearl now and more the place and people that had found it. Such knowledge would have made him richer than all the money in the world, if only there was some way to obtain it.