A/N: One-shot number two is here faster than I'd expected. Not the one I've been working on so long, but I like it nonetheless.
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Title: Deadly
Summary: Rilian says not to trust the mermaids, but Jill can't quite bring herself to believe him.
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Mermaids are especially dark creatures. Perhaps it comes from living in the dim corners of the ocean, of naturally learning to defend themselves from sharks and kraken and the other types of sea monsters that dwell in the deep. To look at them from afar, as Jill had the first time she saw one of the aquatic race, they look just as mermaids are described in fairy stories - their tails covered in silver scales that glimmer in the light as if covered in rainbows, their hair loose and long and sleek, their skin gleaming as they surface. Jill had found herself leaning closer to the edge of the cliff, hoping the mermaids might come nearer and she might see them better, but they disappeared from sight all too soon.
When she later speaks to Eustace about them, she expects to hear all sorts of tales about the mermaids he had seen on his voyage to the edge of the world. But he tells her he had never seen any, ever. The one time he came closest, he says, was when the Dawn Treader passed over a hunting - or perhaps a better word was fishing - party of royalty, but these sea people had not been able to surface. Besides, he adds, he had not actually seen them, just heard about them later. So he is fairly jealous when he learns Jill had spotted sea folk off the coast of Cair Paravel, and she is only able to mollify him when she adds that it had been at a distance and not for very long.
When she speaks to Rilian a short time later, on one of those evenings when the three of them are sitting outside on the balcony and watching the stars - Eustace say he can almost hear them singing, which Jill would have said was all rot if she hadn't known he'd actually met a star once - she is told to be careful of the sea folk.
"Dangerous," he says shortly, and turns his head away from the sky to show just how serious he was. "Never trust a mermaid."
"But why not?" she asks in surprise. "They looked so beautiful-"
"Beautiful and deadly," he responds. "Their song puts men in a trance until they drown themselves in a search for true love. If you are ever near one of the sea folk, be wary."
She does not argue, but all the same, she finds she is not quite able to believe him, either. She has met several naiads already, in the time she had been at Cair Paravel, and all of them are cheerful and kind, if a bit giddy and silly at times. The naiads appear to be quite similar to mermaids, too - Jill had once thought that they could turn to water at a whim, and only took human form for convenience, but it turned out that the human-like form is how they are all the time. Naiads have two legs, rather than a tail, and each limb has a long ridge of toughened skin that works as a fin, and their fingers and toes are webbed. Their hair is white or blond or, occasionally, tinted with green. Their skin is nearly white, for instead of red blood, it is clear water that runs through their veins.
After meeting the naiads, silly and giggling as they are, it is so very hard to imagine that mermaids, which look so very much alike but for the tail, could be so very different.
It is near sunset a few days later when Jill and Eustace are taking a stroll on the beach. They do not often get to do this, as much as they would have liked, for as members of the court and of Rilian's council, there are a great many duties that have to be attended to. (In some places, children of their age would still be in schools or studying under tutors. But as Jill and Eustace have come from Beyond World's End and have already found the lost prince, not to mention proven themselves in the Third Battle of Beruna, the Narnians find it easy to look past their age and give them proper duties. Not that studies and learning are discontinued for them, much to Eustace's dismay.)
The sun is just touching the horizon when Jill looks out over the water by chance, and then she gives a great yelp and gripps Eustace's arm in surprise. "Look! Look there!" she cries, and he turns, but whatever it was she had been pointing to is gone. He most likely would have gone into a bit of a sulk over missing it, but at that moment, a head appears in the water, and a moment later the two children find themselves staring into the eyes of a mermaid.
"Hello," Jill says immediately, and Eustace grabs her arm and whispers for her to hush because he remembers what Rilian had said. But Jill does not quite believe that mermaids could be so dangerous, and in looking at the mermaid, Eustace can not quite, either.
The head disappears underwater again, and the children almost think that it is gone for good when it surfaces once more, only a very short distance away from the shore now. They can see the mermaid much clearer now, for the sun is setting behind them and casting a good amount of light over the creature. Her hair is red - either that, or it looks red in the light - and her skin white like the naiads', but quite shockingly, the mermaid's eyes are black. It looks almost as if the mermaid has giant pupils and no irises, or else thick irises and no pupils. Only a thin ring of white surrounds the black, and it looks as though she is staring not just at them, but in them.
The mermaid does not say anything, but reaches out a hand as if she wants to touch the children. Jill unconsciously takes a step closer, and Eustace with her. The mermaid puts her hand down and tilts her head as though studying the children intently; whatever she sees, she must like, for her face breaks into a smile. And while on most people, a smile is quite a wonderful thing to behold, here, the children both gasp and leap back, for the mermaid has two rows of sharp, pointed teeth that are uneven and jagged and not very white.
The mermaid stops smiling and puts out her hand again longingly; Jill notes that her fingers are webbed like a naiad, although they are much longer. For some reason, she shivers, and then pulls her cloak tighter around her shoulders as though just noticing the cool of the evening air. And then the mermaid lowers her hand once more, and opens her mouth again -
A skittering of pebbles sounds from the end of the beach, and the mermaid flips about and there is one flash of her tail in the light of the sunset. And then all that is left is a pattern of ripples against the gentle motion of the waves.
"You've seen a mermaid, then," Rilian says as he comes near. Jill and Eustace both turn to him slowly, as if they have just woken up or come out of a trance. Rilian smiles grimly. "Be careful around them," he cautions, "You might not be so lucky next time." And Jill looks at Eustace and sees that his face is white, and wonders if hers is the same.
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