The Pirate and the Mermaid

Chapter 8 – Returning to the Island

Solu’s time in the infirmary was supposed to be restful. Unfortunately, there is no ship big enough to hide gossip from the crew of the Belmarie. Word spread in a matter of hours that Solu was planning to leave the ship. She didn’t manage to make it to dinner before the room was filled with her crewmates.

The cacophony of overlapping voices was horrendous, and the room was far too small for everyone, so the crowd spilled into the hallway. Finally, Beth managed to bring the girls to some sort of order, and Solu couldn’t help but smile as she knew that she was going to miss everyone.

One by one, every member of the Belmarie wished her well, expressed their own version of farewell ceremony, some of them with gifts, and gave her a hug. There was not a dry eye by the time everyone had said their piece, save one. The only woman who didn’t visit her - Captain Ruth.

The reason Captain Ruth hadn’t shown up, Solu learned shortly, was because she was preparing the supplies that Solu would need. Furthermore, it turned out, she was going to be the one helping to row Solu to the island.

“I’m not giving you a boat, on top of everything else,” Ruth explained coldly, “I’ll drop you off and help you unload your stuff, but we need every boat.”

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Solu said nervously.

“Good. I always liked you had a good head on your shoulders. Just don’t forget to keep using it. Now, help me lower the boat and get all your stuff in.”

The two silently worked the ropes, and after nearly a half hour, the ship was firmly tied to the side of the ship, and Solu’s supplies loaded in. She turned to see the entire crew watching her. After another hug from each girl, it was Ella’s turn.

“Don’t let her gruff manner fool you, Ruth is sad to see you go too. She’s just got her own way of showing it.” Ella whispered to her as the two embraced.

“Thank you for everything Ella. It means everything to me.” Solu had to wipe her eyes to even see the kind smile of the older woman.

“I’ll see if I can’t manufacture some sort of excuse to come check on you,” Ella winked conspiratorially, and Solu laughed in spite of herself. Ruth and Solu shoved the boat away from the Belmarie and began rowing to the island.

Erma was trying her best to forget the beautiful woman who had died on the beach. She and her cousin had decided that distraction was the only way to deal with their grief. The village chief, upon hearing Erma’s story, had told everyone that going to the surface was forbidden until the people above left.

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That meant the only place the two mermaids could go to distract themselves was the kelp fields, much to the delight of her aunt. Instead of busying themselves with work, which was what her aunt wanted them to do, the two were idly floating in the gently waving plants, and talking about nothing.

“Erma!” her aunt yelled out from the cave. Her aunt couldn’t see her through the tall field, but Erma instinctively grabbed her tools and pretended to work.

“Yeah?” She shouted back.

“Get over here, you have to hear what Gilla just told me!”

“Coming?” Erma turned to her cousin, who rolled her eyes as Erma sighed.

“It’s probably some stupid thing about her kid.” Erma’s cousin said.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Go. Mom will just keep yelling if you don’t.”

Erma gave her cousin a hug and swam to the house carved from the sea rocks near the kelp field. What Gilla told Erma shocked her. According to Gilla, who heard it from Cav’s mom, who heard it from the wife of the woman on guard duty, while most of the people above had left, there was one who had started doing some sort of construction on the island.

“...and the strangest thing is the woman apparently has deep red hair.” Gilla finished nearly out of breath. Erma’s mind reeled. Was the woman she had saved still alive? Erma couldn’t bring herself to dare to hope, and yet it bloomed in her heart anyway.

It had taken hours for Erma to go the long way around the sentries the chief had posted to keep the mermaids from leaving the village. The sun was nearly setting when she peaked her head above the waves near the island. Sure enough, there was some sort of structure being made, but what really caught Erma’s eye was the long, deep red braid of the woman who had so unexpectedly dropped into her life.

Solu was trying to figure out what a strange shaped pole (was it a pole?) was supposed to be for, when she thought she heard sobbing nearby. Her hand on the hilt of her cutlass faster than she could think, she spun only to find the bald headed mermaid floating just off the shore, desperately trying to wipe her eyes dry.

With barely a second thought, Solu ran to her, and tried to say something in Mermaid from her book.

“I greet thee fair maiden of the wide sea, you troubled havings? Help I do can,” Solu sang in what she hoped was a suave way. Given the fact that the mermaid stopped wiping her eyes, tilted her head in confusion, and then burst out laughing, Solu was certain it was not.

When the woman finally stopped laughing, she sang something in response, and Solu’s brain just managed to successfully resist the compulsion behind it.

“Wait,” Solu responded in her own tongue, and she splashed her way back to the shore, drying her hands on a nearby towel before grabbing her book and desperately flipping through the pages.

“With the modulation in this frequency…,” Solu murmured to herself trying to keep what the woman had said in her mind, “Oh! You asked me where I learned that? I think? Shoot, this is gonna be hard.” Solu was excited to find that she didn’t mind the difficulty, as the mermaid carefully pulled herself up to the shore.

With the last light of the sun dying in the far horizon, Solu sat in her makeshift canvas shelter, magic stone in her left hand illuminating the book on mermaid language cradled in her lap, and Erma cuddled to her right. Occasionally, Solu would try to say something, and Erma would gently correct her pronunciation or grammar. When Erma would respond, Solu would try to learn what it meant.

Through the months and years that followed, never had the two of them felt as though everything was so right in the world as when they were with one another.