Hollow Depths

“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”

-Anaïs Nin

His head broke the surface, showering glistening drops of water in the stratosphere and shattering the tension of the air above. His eyes blinked slowly, trying to take in his new environment. All around, the copse seemed to thrum with an unseen magic, a scene from what the humans would call a “film” and it was necessary to point out this foreign concept because he was not a human. He was a creature spoken of in mythology, touched upon in fairytales, and believed to be the stuff only seen by crazed, alcoholic sailors.
He was a merman.
The half breed breathed steadily and surveyed his surroundings with curious eyes. He had only ever been to the surface once. It was generally something not done amongst his kind and only in emergencies, for the sighting of a merperson by a human could be seen as catastrophic. In the past, yes, merpeople were more playful with their human cousins, teasing boat people and showing up to garner amusement from their reactions, but merpeople weren’t stupid. The days of gods and mythology were behind them, and they knew that human kind had developed. They had developed to a point that they were now a threat to the underwater kingdom. The advent of cameras, and even more recently camera phones, meant that no Aquarius was safe.
And could you imagine what would happen if a merperson was properly sighted?
Oh, the humans would try their best to communicate, of course. They would be very patient, very methodical. But it was only a matter of time before they found reasons to begin the dissecting. Merpeople had the distinct advantage of spying on humankind while the land walkers stayed blissfully unaware of the fish people that lived under the water. There were still people that communicated with the merpeople, like the Inuit’s that lived in the land of ice and blood. They considered merpeople sacred, and would never dare to reveal anything about them to the arrogant white folk.
His name was Gawain (well, this was as close as his name could be interpreted into the English language, given the complexities of his native tongue) and he was aware of the dangers that the above world posed him. He had been taught it from a very young age, when he resembled something closer to an amphibian than a human.
He chose to take a very slow, steady stroke to the riverbank, and rested his strong, powerful arms upon the muddy, grassy edge. His skin shimmered strangely in the sunlight, and the mint green film that covered his body was much more visible from this angle. His body was wonderfully toned and he looked not unlike an Olympic swimmer, though such a physique would be expected from someone who spent their life in the water. Despite looking like some sort of mythological creature, a huge scar covered his back and his left arm- huge and unsightly, it looked like it had been there for many years. Gawain himself did not seem at all phased about it, so enraptured was he in this new environment. The skin that had healed over the scar was a strange, alien sort of green, and only on his scar were veins visible. Purple, blue and sometimes red, they sprawled across the surface area of the scar, like some sort of translucent glass panel into the inner working of his body. It was very uncommon for mermaids to be scarred in general, due mainly to the healing abilities of a salty sea water environment, as well as the technology of the merpeople, but his was a special case. His upper left arm had lost some function due to the accident that had caused it and Gawain kept it loose and relaxed as he looked side to side, taking in the lush, green surroundings. He listened carefully to the chorus of birds communicating with one another and the calming sound of water trickling into the sea. Butterflies and other insects fluttered through the glade in a scene reminiscent of a fairytale, their colourful bodies perfectly complimenting this part of nature that had been placed under the category of “wildlife reserve” by the white people. To Gawain, all these concepts were still very new. He would be breath taken if his mission wasn’t so dire, if his presence was not to find something that had been lost to his people. He flicked his tail playfully through the water, reflecting the sunlight off of his transparent scales. The curious batch of fish that had begun gathering around his stationary form flittered away at this sudden movement. A colourful bird looked upon him from a tree, chirping softly; unaware of the true magnitude this half human was bringing by coming to the secluded forest.
Gawain’s reverie was broken by a rustle somewhere to his left and he immediately pricked his ears, looking for the source of the sound. His senses were a little out of touch when he was above water and his anxiety was at its peak. For a few short seconds he tensed, his eyes trained carefully on a solitary bush just a few feet away from him. He was mistaken in believing it was some sort of threat, however, as a small family of ducks emerged from the undergrowth and walked placidly across the grass, carrying themselves across the water. He relaxed once again. This environment seemed safe but he had been told to keep on guard. His eyes scanned over the area one more time, noticing nothing interesting, nothing that he had been told to look for, no sort of special plant life or trace that some of his ancestors may have been here, something that would change the very meaning of life for the merpeople if it were to be discovered.
Gawain had seen all that he had needed here. The thing that his people had planted here hundreds of years ago was not in immediate sight. He turned his body in a way that would have proved impossible for humans and plunged his head in the water, bringing his hands up to his ears and covering them in order to focus himself. He closed his eyes and uttered a series of clicks, whistles and whines into the water, thinking deeply as they carried their way down into the deeper ocean. A human watching over would have found this very odd indeed, and perhaps have been scared by such a strange display, but there was nothing to be afraid of. Gawain opened his eyes and waited a few seconds before the information he was after bounced back. Underneath him for a few miles was nothing but harmless sea creatures, some small sharks and a dolphin- nothing he wasn’t familiar with. The echolocation technique had told him all he needed to know about the journey he would be taking back to the kingdom, and if he had a few dolphins to keep him company until they hit the deeper oceans, why would he complain? As a young merman he was taken to the shallower depths on very special locations, and only when his family knew there would be no interaction from human life. Their chameleon like skin was most useful in these instances. The thought of playing with young dolphins, flitting through the water and squeaking with laughter as they head butted him as part of their games filled him with a strong sense of nostalgia, and a calm remembrance of a simpler time.
The merboy lifted his head above the water again and looked plaintively around the small glade. Perfect. Untouched. Yet, it hid something and it would not yield. This would not last too long and somehow, Gawain felt, the beauty of this place would likely be destroyed in the search. He frowned once, unsatisfied, and dove into the water, his only witnesses being some some birds that watched him from a nearby tree, exchanging what could only be described as looks of confusion.
—
The underwater kingdom was everything you’d imagine it to be, full of splendour and beauty, and yet, completely beyond our reach of imagination of humans. Since the capture and crucifixion of a merman prince thousands of years ago, this particular tribe of merpeople had taken extra precautions for protecting their own kind. They took refuge into the darkest, most sinister parts of the ocean, where not even certain sea creatures could survive, and began to build tunnels. Using technology and natural abilities that only the merpeople were capable of, they created a new way of living, a brand new colony to live in relative safety. As always, there was conflict when this first occurred. Many merpeople had not been happy with this decision, the decision to run away scared, their tails between their legs at the first sign of catastrophe. But no, this was not just any old sighting from a human- their prince had been captured, and had been forced to masquerade as a human just to protect their kind. They had heard tales over time from fisherman, from the Intuits’ (who kept in contact with western civilisation enough to know what was happening in the world) and from tuning the sounds of intelligent sea animals that carried across the water. The prince was noble, he was selfless and kind and he had protected the merpeople from discovery and certain destruction. In fact, the humans had been so taken by this prince, who they had convinced themselves was a child of some sky wizard deity, that they had formed a completely new religion in his honour. He could turn water to wine, and he could heal the sick! Well, changing the chemical nature of water was something even the smallest merchildren could do, and all of the meisaltze royalty had been trained in healing at some point, so this was not very impressive. In the eyes of humans, who at the time were on the verge of great changes amongst their people, his presence was nothing but supernatural.
The Great Separation, as it was called, had occurred sometime after that. The merpeople, who at the time had three colonies in different parts of the oceans, broke into smaller groups. While the regultas, the merpeople that had stayed in their original spot, had disagreed with hiding themselves out of fear and acting like victims, the mursailtze took refuge into the dark, deep parts of the ocean that only the most advanced of human technology could navigate. Tension between the two tribes was heavy and communication was sparse between both of them as the mursailtze built great domes to create their city, while channelling out tunnels to create a civilisation. They were very rarely threatened by the outside world or by menacing sea creatures and thus, there was very rarely any sort of inner struggle. The regultas, on the other hand, broke apart on regular occasions, living alone in the ruins of sunken ships, or in small villages together. All the while their echolocation techniques (which would scatter even the most sophisticated human technology) and innate camouflage ability kept them safe...but it was only a matter of time before things evolved and they were no longer safe.
Gawain moved his tail back and forward as he swam deeper and deeper into the Dark Ocean, the name of the waters where his kingdom was held. He moved through a tunnel with an entrance covered with seaweed, adjusting his eyes to the minimal amount of light, and made it through to the other side. The grand, glistening city of Marathea lay sprawled out beneath him. Breathtaking and beautiful, the huge, glass-looking domes fit in perfectly with the natural setting. Strange, wonderful and dazzlign varieties of fish moved around him and throughout the city, not caring about the kingdom they were a part of. Gawain moved down to the bottom and approached the 2^nd largest dome, noticing the circular shape that could only be a door, and noticing the hand-imprint upon this distinct shape. He took a look at his hand- the two, small fin-like protrusions seemed to become more obvious and purpler in the presence of this door. He slowly, tentatively moved his hand towards the imprint and placed his hand inside of it, the fin attachments on his hand perfectly fitting inside two separate slots. He closed his eyes and began to mutter something.
The door began to glow.