The Pirate and the Mermaid

Chapter 1 - Erma's Cousin and the Funeral

It had been three days since Erma's cousin had lost the love of her life. The romance wasn't long, it seemed as though they never were. Erma had been staying with her trying to comfort her the best she could. Life in the sea had many wonders but it also had many hardships. Through tears and wails into Erma's shoulder her cousin had explained that he was everything to her. Her cousin had been out sunning herself on the beach trying to avoid the many chores her aunt had planned for her when he had appeared. He had been in the nearby forest, and he was tying up his pants, when he suddenly stopped upon seeing her.

“No, no, no...,” he had begun and turned to run from her. She didn’t understand the language he was speaking but seeing him panic she had tried to assure him that she wasn’t a threat. He stopped shortly after she had begun and turned around smiling. He had seemed enraptured by her every word as she talked on and on about herself and her family. Truly, it had been love at first sight for her. For him it had seemed to be second.

With him showing no resistance, she dragged him into the sea in order to meet her family and begin their formal relationship. Then when she had gotten about halfway home he started pulling against her hand and struggling to get back to the surface. She asked him what was wrong, but he wouldn't answer her, he seemed to settle back into a pleasant smile as bubbles escaped his mouth. She continued hand in hand with him all the way home, but when she turned to introduce him to her mother his eyes were wide and had rolled back into his skull and his lips had turned blue.

It seemed that no one understood what was happening and by the time the doctor got there, he was dead. The doctor couldn't explain it. She had said that it was almost as though he had suddenly lost the ability to breathe underwater. Erma didn't understand how such a thing was possible. The doctor took him away in order to prepare him for the funeral which was set for this evening.

"He was everything, Erma," she cried, "It was just like all the stories your mom used to tell us about when the mermen were still around."

Erma remembered then that while she preferred the stories with strong mermaid warriors who had slain great sea monsters in defense of their homes, most of the women in her village preferred her mother’s stories of whirlpool romances with strong finned mermen who swept the heroine off balance and carried them off to some faraway castle.

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"His beard made him look a little like an octopus, but I didn't mind too much." Her cousin gave a melancholic smile, and Erma’s heart ached for her.

"What do you think you two are doing, Erma?” her aunt scolded, after entering the room abruptly. “The funeral is about to begin, and you haven't got her hair in the proper braids!"

"Sorry, Auntie, I will get right on it." With that she swam around behind her cousin and began to braid her hair into the braids of mourning. It was a complicated pattern, but Erma didn't mind, she liked doing her cousins silky hair.

The entire village gathered around the nearby volcanic vent where funerals were held. Their village wasn't very big. Ever since the mermen had died out, fewer and fewer children were being born. This is why the death of the man that Erma's cousin had brought home was such a big deal. He would have been able to help their population grow; without him they were facing extinction.

The man’s body was laid out on a flat rock carved out for such purposes.

“Now that everyone has arrived will those closest to the deceased please step forward,” the village elder intoned ceremoniously. Erma and her cousin stepped forward. Erma was participating at her cousin’s request because no one really knew the man. They had tried to find anyone related to him, which is why the funeral had been delayed so long. Seeing his bloated corpse, Erma wished that they hadn’t.

After the elder prayed to Voldire, the god of fire and the dead, and the villagers repeated after her, it was up to Erma and her sobbing cousin to feed the man’s body into the volcanic vent securing his soul’s passage into the underworld and returning his physical shell to be reborn into the world. Erma had never done this before, and she was surprised by just how hot the water became.

The smell burned her eyes and nostrils and she had to force herself not to gag as the body began to disappear. She was horrified when from out of the vent she saw fiery arms grab his body and begin to pull him away from the two girls. Erma pulled back as her cousin screamed with her eyes shut. One of the arms had grabbed her by the wrist.

Erma rushed to her cousin’s side, and began beating at their arms, desperately trying to get them to let her cousin go. Every time her hand came near them it seemed to sear her skin, she couldn’t even imagine the pain that her cousin was experiencing. Finally, the hand let go, leaving behind only her red palms and the blackened imprint of where they had grabbed her cousin.

Erma hugged the girl tightly as the body of her cousin’s love left their sight.