Yush! Chapter 2 is posted and ready to read!
Please enjoy!
A foul taste in his mouth was what Morgen woke up to when he finally started coming to. He moved his fingers, feeling the soft sands of a beach under his touch.
He relaxed against the ground, he and his father must have gone home early and he fell asleep on the beach, which was a relief because the dream he had was a rather frightening one. But he was safe at home, on land and not drowning at the bottom of the ocean.
But when he opened his eyes, he still felt like he was still inside a dream.
The sky seemed to glisten with a very unusual soft light, almost light it was dancing, and a school of bright colored fish flew over him in graceful waves...
Wait a minute...fish?!
Morgen sat up with a gasp, looking around, glimpses of seaweed and coral telling him that he just wasn't on a sandy beach.
He was under water!
Out of habit, he sucked in a breath and clamped his hands over his mouth. He then propelled off the sea floor and frantically swam upward. He had to break the surface before he ran out of air and...and
...and drowned?
He paused, slowly sinking back down from his fall of momentum. He hesitated for a moment, but then slowly let out his breath and inhaled again.
He could breathe perfectly.
This was physically impossible, He couldn't understand what was going on. He then moved his left arm through the water to turn and look around and see if he could find his bearings or spot anything that would seem familiar.
But when he saw nothing in that direction, he tried to do the same thing with his right arm, only to immediately give a yelp when pain suddenly shot up and down his whole shoulder and the side of his torso. He briefly wondered why he was hurting so much, but then it all came back.
He freed the dolphin that got caught in the net, and then he was dragged down by the anchor.
Morgen rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, and sure enough dark bruises crisscrossed along his forearm from where the rope had wrapped around it. He must've had some torn muscles because of it as well.
When he felt his feet touch the ocean floor, he looked around again to see if he could spot that anchor. But when he saw no sign of it, he figured that he just somehow got lose from the rope and the current just swept him away.
So this meant that not only was he injured, but he was lost.
"Well this is just great, I have absolutely no idea where I am," Morgen mumbled, pausing as he saw another colorful school of fish swim by. "...or how I can possibly breathe under water."
"I don't know either, I just found you laying here." A voice suddenly said making him gasp. "You were asleep for the longest time."
"Who said that?" Morgen started, looking around to find the owner of the voice. "Where are you?"
He gave a yell when a pair of eyes suddenly dropped into his line of vision and he shot away from them, his legs kicking him back until he smacked into the base of a large boulder.
"OW!" he yelped, clutching at the sore spot on the back of his head.
"Oops, sorry about that," came the voice again with a bell like laugh.
He looked up, his eyes widening at the sight before him.
It was a girl, a girl about his age who had long, bright red hair, sparkling blue eyes and a big friendly smile on her fair skinned face.
She also had a large green fish tail in place where her legs should have been.
"I didn't mean to scare you," she continued, "are you okay?"
Morgen didn't answer her at first, he just continued to stare at her until his mind finally registered exactly what she was.
"You're a mermaid..."
She gave him a nod. "Well yes, yes I am."
"You are a Mermaid!" Morgen said again, a smile suddenly spreading across his lips. "This is incredible! I always thought that mermaids where just a fairy tale, But…but here you are right in front of me, living, breathing, talking to me..."
"You're real!"
"Well of course, silly, why wouldn't I be?" she asked him, giggling a little at his enthusiasm.
Morgen just let out a laugh of his own, slapping his left hand to his forehead."This is just amazing, if this is a dream I hope I never wake up!"
"Ariel?" a softer voice suddenly asked.
The mermaid, now known as Ariel, looked over her shoulder and waved over at a patch of winding seaweed. "Flounder, everything's fine." She said. "He's friendly, come out and meet him."
A small yellow fish with blue fins poked his head out, trembling a bit as he eye's Morgen nervously. "But Ariel, what about all those stories?" he asked fearfully. "He's one of THEM!"
Ariel sent him a 'don't be such a scaredy cat' look, and motioned for him to come out. His eyes darted between Ariel and Morgen, and after a while he finally did come out.
Well, 'raced' out before hiding behind Ariel.
"I'm one of who?" Morgen asked. "And stories about what?"
"You're a… human, aren't you?" Ariel asked.
"Yes, why?"
"I've never seen a human up close like this before," Ariel said, swimming around him to get a better look with Flounder close behind her. "My father has forbidden anyone to ever come in contact with them." At that, Morgen raised a brow.
"Sooo, if you're forbidden, then what's all this?" he asked, gesturing to the two of them.
Ariel sighed, "I just can't believe that all humans are what he says they are," she told them.
"And that leads to my next question, why?" Morgen asked. "What does he say?"
Ariel bit her lip nervously, "well, to put it bluntly, he says that humans are evil, fish eating barbarians," she finally told him.
Morgen whistled, putting a hand on his chest and giving a rather hurt look, "Well, that kinda hurts..." he said.
He suddenly noticed the ashamed look on her face and quickly put up a light hearted smile. "So, uh, did you say your name was Ariel?"
"Oh that's right, we haven't properly introduced ourselves," the mermaid said.
"This is my best friend, Flounder," she started, gesturing to the little yellow fish that hesitantly swam a little ways from behind her, offering him a weak smile.
"And I'm Ariel." She continued with a bright grin, "It's nice to meet you."
"Morgan," He started with a smile, "It's nice to meet your acquaintance, my fair mermaid." He started, Ariel let out another giggle as he gave a playful, dramatic bow.
"You're name is Morgen?" Flounder questioned, talking to him for the first time.
"Yes...Why?"
"It's just a little surprising," Ariel began, "Morgan means 'Born of the Sea', but you're human."
Embarrassed, Morgan gave a short laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, "yeah, well, my mom kinda had a reason for that." He said. "But that's a long story, I won't get into it."
"Is…is it true about what they say about humans?" Flounder suddenly asked. "About…eating, fish?"
Morgan gave him a sad look, he really couldn't lie to him. "Yes Flounder, it's true."
Flounder gulped, and shuddered in disgust and fright. "But hey, you don't have to worry about me being like that, I don't eat fish." Morgan assured, ruffling a hand over his head. "In fact, really don't like eating any kind of meat, just vegetables or anything green."
Hearing that, Flounder finally relaxed, and even gave him a soft smile.
A clicking sound suddenly rang in his ears, and he looked around confused. "I'm not the only one hearing that, right?" He asked.
"Look!" Flounder said, pointing up behind them with a smile.
He followed his fin and saw another dolphin swimming towards their group. She let out a happy cry when she saw Ariel and swam right up to her in greeting.
"This is Nelly, she's one of the local dolphin's that lives near these parts." Ariel explained, rubbing the dolphins head. "She's very friendly, but you should probably keep your distance, most fish and sea mammals fear humans and they are very wary of them."
Morgen gave a nod. "It's fine, I completely understand why."
When the dolphin heard his voice, her eyes widened in surprise and she turned around to see him. And after a few moment, she gave another excited cry and quickly swam into his arms, nuzzling his face with her nose and cheeks.
Morgen couldn't help but cry out from the unexpected show of affection. "Whoa! What's going on?!"
"She...likes you," Ariel stated in surprise.
"Why?" Morgan asked in bewilderment as Nelly backed up and started swimming around him. "I thought you said most sea creatures feared humans."
"They do," Ariel said, just as confused as he was.
Then, something off color from the usual grey on her skin at the base of her tail caught Morgens' eye, and he noticed a red ring around her tail; it looked like some sort of bad rope burn.
Gasping in realization, he looked into Nelly's eyes. "You're the dolphin that got caught in my dad's fishing net!" he exclaimed.
At that, Nelly nodded her head enthusiastically, clicking at him happily.
"Net?" Ariel asked.
"I thought you didn't eat fish," Flounder reminded in a worried voice.
"I don't, I don't even like fishing." Morgen insisted as Nelly continued to cuddle against him. "But my dad finds that highly unacceptable and forced me to go out with him this morning to practice it. And by the time we finally put the net in the water, that was when Nelly showed up."
"We were about to pull it back up so she wouldn't get caught, but then something spooked her and made her swim right into it."
"So I cut her out of it with a knife I had on me." Morgen continued. "After that I was dragged under by an anchor, and then I woke up and met you guys…somehow"
He slowly looked upwards towards the surface, a distant look on his face.
"I should be dead right now..."
"We'll figure that out later, you're here and that's what matters." Ariel suddenly said, breaking him out of his musings as she wrapped her arms around his right one. "Why don't you let us show you around?"
Morgen inwardly gasped when she started to move. "Wait! Wait! That's my-GAH!"
Ariel instantly let him go when he gave a howl of pain, looking at him with concern when he clutched at his arm. "I'm so sorry, I didn't think I was pulled you that hard,"
"Don't worry, it wasn't you," Morgen quickly said, slowly easing his grip on his soar appendage as the pain ebbed away. "Like I said, I was dragged down by an anchor; I must've hurt myself more than I thought."
"But I probably won't be able to use my arm properly for at least a day or two."
"I can dress it back home," Ariel told him, "We have a special salve that will make it feel better in no time."
"You'd do that for me?" Morgen asked, feeling a bit surprised at her generous offer. "But you hardly know me."
Ariel looked over at Nelly, the two of them sharing a smile before the mermaid met his eyes.
"I know that anyone willing to help others no matter who they are must be good." Ariel said. "That's all I need."
"Maybe we can use the time during your recovery to become better friends."
Again, Morgen felt surprised. Did that mean she actually... already thought of him as a friend? They hadn't even talk to each other for more than ten minutes.
He didn't really know what to think about Ariel, he had never met anyone that seemed as friendly as she was, and nowhere near as bubbly. But, despite the fact that he wasn't used to it, he still had to smile. "Sure," he said softly, giving her a large grin afterwards. "If you don't mind having a land lover as a friend, that is."
Ariel gave a small laugh then she swam ahead a little ways. "Well what are we waiting for?" she asked. "Let's get you back home."
"I'll try to follow you, but it'll be kind tough to keep with a hurt arm and no tail fin." Morgen said looking down at his feet. He still had his boots on, but he just kicked them off. He'd be able to go a little faster if he didn't have those heavy things on.
"I think we can do something about that," Ariel said looking over o Nelly. "Would you mind helping Morgen get around, Nelly?" Ariel suddenly asked.
Nelly clicked at her and then moved herself under Morgen's good arm, urging him to grab hold of her dorsal fin.
"Are you sure?" Morgen asked.
The dolphin persisted by nudging against him until he finally complied, wrapping his left arm securely around her fin and lacing his finger together so he had a good grip.
Once Nelly was sure he was ready, she gave a powerful flick of her tail and began following Ariel and Flounder.
"So, where is your home anyway?" Morgen asked, making Ariel look over to him with a large,excited smile.
"Atlantica."
Woooo! Ariel and Flounder enter the story!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter guys, let me know what you think:D