She woke
up surrounded by the smells of fish and algae, while her dark hair stuck to the
round edges of her face and scattered over the rocks. Her legs ached in a
satisfying way. The young girl gathered herself at the edge of a lagoon, the
blue-green water steaming like smoke over fire. As she groggily stood up on the
rocks, she could see shapes in the water, like ones dolphins make near the
surface. As she took in the world around her, she had a feeling that it wasn’t home.
As she climbed up the rocks to get a closer
look, she noticed the shadow of a high cliff overlooking the lagoon. A
trickling stream fell off the edge like a child into their father’s arms. The
cliff had apparently lost rocks over the years, so she stepped on the huge
rocks protruding from the underside.
Curiously,
she was still wearing her bathing suit, a one-piece with maroon and yellow stripes
down her body, like a colourblind Zebra. She felt rather uncomfortable after
wearing it for what seemingly felt like days. She vaguely remembered her trip
with her Aunt Bertha to Kensington Garden’s pond, where she loved to swim. Yet
her Aunt had brought someone new along and didn’t want to spend time with her
that much. Somehow she found a new island in the center of the pond inhabited
by birds, including tiny flamingoes…
Which
she now realized had grown so tall, their heads poked above the clouds! Their
enormous pink feathers blew in the winds above as pillar-like legs shuffled the
water, their backs carrying a body of water that swayed with each step.
Lagoons,
on top of flamingoes! But that’s not possible…
She
stared upwards until she heard another voice call to her-
“Maple!
What are you waiting for? The water is fine!”
Turning
down in surprise, she saw a girl waiting for her at the mouth of the lagoon,
someone older than her with a beautiful shell in her hair. Her eyes were wide
and blue, with sharp cheekbones that gave room for gills and slits for where a
nose should be. Her pale webbed hands folded in front of her, gripping onto the
moss.
A
mermaid…
She knew
it was a mermaid, and that it knew her name. Then she remembered thinking that
the island could use a mermaid or two, or three. Suddenly, she saw two other
equally gracefull mermaids jump through the water in glee, as if they had
returned hom from a long trip away. She looked down as more of them waited for
her, their tails flapping happily beneath the water, the sun illuminating the
colours in their barnacled hair.
As she
stepped away from the cliffs, she jitter-bugged to the edge of a diving board.
She used to do that by the ocean, but now she had no smelly saltwater to worry
about. Without a second thought she shimmied off the edge into a perfect dive
over their heads.
The
lagoon had bathed in sunlight enough to make the water perfectly warm. She swam
up for a breath as the other mermaids surrounded her in friendly circles. Maple
knew that mermaids were magical, and this time she was the reason they existed.
She had seen them hatch from their unprotected eggs and led them to the sea.
They even considered her royalty amongst their kind, as they never saw a human
before. How many girls would reject the offer to become a mermaid princess?
Surely Maple wouldn’t turn that down. She even gave them names; Madeline, Dolphin,
Silverfin, Azure and Sirena (a word she learned from her friend).
Her
strokes were clumsy compared to the grace of the mermaids. As she swam faster,
she forgot about Aunt Bertha and her whiny boyfriend Johanns. They found
underwater caves and played underwater tag. They flew with the fish, her new
friends helping her swim faster than she ever though she could, her legs
pumping with their powerful tails. Now she remembered why her legs hurt. Sirena
held her shoulders as they streaked across the waters of Neverland, in what
could only feel like a dream. Only when they suddenly stopped did she wake up;
the fact that she didn’t have a stopping system like the mermaids caused her to
skip on the water’s surface like a smooth stone.
“Oh no!
Maple!”
Flipper
dived down after her, but she couldn’t find her. Only Azure had the idea to
look up at the shoreline, the place their domain ended.
Maple
looked up in a furious daze, forcing her brain to stop moving. She stood up and
took in her surroundings again, this time with the light of the sun constantly
smacking her eyes shut. After shooing it away with her hand, she finally took
in the warm sand curling around her toes, the breeze churning the leaves of the
palm and oak trees and the neverending stretch of beach covering the island
like the cover of a beautiful picture book.
She
never expected to see other humans here, yet there they came. Two of them and a
third flying-
A person
was flying?! She had never seen that before.
Then the
flying one sped at her at top speed, a sword glinting in the light.
She knew
what it was like to see someone wield a weapon at her. It never ended well.
“Maple!!
Come back to the water! Now!”
Dolphin
crawled up to the shore, her powerful arms pulling like a sea turtle. She
heeded her advice without second guessing. She was safely in the water in time
to seek cover amongst the mermaids.
It’s
never been documented what a mermaid looks like when in danger, but when their
favorite human is threatened, they don’t swim away quietly.
They
snarled at pitches only a crocodile could match in ferocity. Their mouths
extended downward, exposing many rows of ripping teeth. Their eyes expanded as
their gills inflated to double their size. Their tails found a balance in the
water, standing on the water itself to a frightening 6 feet above.
Yet
Peter stood his ground, facing them with the Glider poised in his favourite
form; sword extended in his left hand with his right petting the air behind the
ear. Lively, Buckeye and Foxtail stopped running and stared at the spectacle
only a few feet in front of them. Only Lively could speak through the standoff.
“What are
you? Some kind of fish?”
Madeline
turned directly toward her, massive blue eyes meeting hers.
“We are
neither, human! We are Mermaids, denizens of Neverland and ruled by the
gentle and talented Maple! You touch her and you’ll suffer a slow death beneath
the depths!”
Lively
contemplated those words aloud, in her typical fashion.
“So
you’re mermaids. Got it. But who’s Maple?”
“The
girl you just scared into the water!”
Maple
raced up to the surface gasping for air. Her fear compressed her lungs and
didn’t allow enough air to get in. Lively ignored Azure as she talked to the
girl.
“Oy,
Maple, right? Can you get your friends to stop trying to attack Peter? He
didn’t mean to do that.”
She
waded in the blue water, surrounded by her aquatic bodyguards, with the
advantage in her favour.
“And why
should I do that? You’ll just kill me when my guard is down.”
The
mermaids hissed in unison. Lively stepped back while motioning to Buckeye to
step in. By the time he could gain composure, the mermaids whisked her away,
the biggest one carrying her on its dorsal fin.
They all
stared in unison as the mermaids sunk beneath the blue waters, their splashing
turning to waves at their feet.
“Why did
you do that for?! How could you not tell that she was a grown up?” Lively
stormed up to her mentor, blood rushing to her cheeks as sand covered her feet
with each step.
He just
shrugged his freckled shoulders, the sunlight illuminating a halo of red around
his head.
“She was
so far away. How was I supposed to know?” He turned away and started building a
castle out of the sand, Buckeye and Foxtail joining him soon afterwards. He was
about to put the tiles on the roof when he noticed that she wasn’t helping. She
just stood there, her usually animated arms tightly folded against her chest.
“What’s
wrong, Lively? Why don’t you join us? There’s still a water closet to build.”
She
never understood how he worked like that, going from one task to another
without caring about what just happened. As she forgot about the whole ordeal
and helped build the chimney, she never saw the boy watching from the other side
of the islet, with a crocodile not too far behind him.