Ocean Tales- The Mermaid in the Eternal Night

The mermaid with golden, shimmering hair glided along the ocean floor. She had a waltzing grace to her demeanour that made the creatures of the ocean mesmerized by her beauty.  Her sparkling specs of light shimmered off the surface of the ocean. Each streak of light held a millennium of knowledge. For she was the Mermaid of Wisdom. Her beauty was sought all across the world. The thunderclouds had lustfully wanted her light for themselves, for they had wreaked havoc of darkness across the lands for a century. The surface of the ocean, and its depths had relied on the mermaid’s light to guide them to safety. The mermaid was forced into hiding to be shaded by corals. She was grateful that they could provide respite from the thunderclouds that had wanted to consume her light.

The menacing thunderclouds lurked ominously overhead. The thickened-ink clouds swelled with jealousy as they looked for the mermaid’s light from the skies. The sound of the slight movements of the clouds inching towards the horizon was only heard amongst the weighted silence. The waves waited with trepidation to start their metalcore rhythms. For now, the mermaid was safe under the shade of a Precious Coral.

As she swam towards the coral, she saw a silhouette of a hill in the distance. As she drew closer to the coral, she could make out the shape of the hill was of a turtle’s shell. The mermaid heard a screech, ‘Eeep, Eeeep,’ in a fleeting moment, she saw a green sea turtle. She heard the slashing of water like a continuous waterfall whose water never touched the floor. The mermaid looked with great intensity and waved her arm to emit a light, while being careful not to give away her cover. What she saw was that the turtle was stuck between two rocks. It flipped and flopped as its flippers slashed against the water. The turtle could just about make out the mermaid’s golden hair and iridescent-scaled tail.  Blinded by the light, the turtle spoke first for fear the mermaid would disappear, “Oh most Illuminated Being, Miss Mermaid, I beg of you to help me with my prison! The clouds have stopped me from seeing the light. I am but a lowly turtle who has got caught between these rocks,” the green sea turtle explained hurriedly, as she nervously swiped her flippers through the water, “I wasn’t aware of where I was swimming. I have poor vision and cannot see when I am on land or in water.”

The mermaid breathed with great remorse, for she was regretful to share with the turtle the words that she was about to say, 

“In my three large hearts,

 I sadly lament to you, 

Your plea means nothing."

"No light visible

With the  absence of stars

I will be consumed.”

The green sea turtle begged again, “Please most Illuminated Being, Miss Mermaid. I have to return home to hatch one-hundred-and-fifteen eggs that are inside me. It is my first time meeting a mermaid, and from the folk stories I’ve heard. You mermaids have exceptional powers, can’t you make these rocks go away? ”

The mermaid tilted her head slightly and placed her hand on her chin. She weighed up the possibilities of helping the green sea turtle with the slightest of her movements,  

“I will try to help,

But my light will surely fade,

As I shift the rocks."

"Leave your prison soon,

Seek the land for your future,

Before the night falls.”

The mermaid flicked her hair magically. The green sea turtle saw a glowing bundle of hair in a  blurry haze. Once the strands of hair entered the field of the clouds’ range, lightning came zapping down from above as if they were tree branches reaching out to touch the storm. The mermaid screamed in arduous agony.  The strands of hair lost their luminescent glow and faded to indigo. Some of the rocks surrounding the turtle started to shift for a brief second. But it was only the briefest of movements, small enough to make a plankton pass through. The mermaid thought that if she made a miniscule movement, at least she had tried to assist the turtle with the capacity that she had.

The turtle squirmed and flipped. She was still not able to break free from the rocks, “Oh most Illuminated Being, Miss Mermaid. Thank you, plenty for your attempt to save me!” She said with utmost sincerity, that the mermaid had felt one of her hearts beat with tenderness, “My shell is caught on the rock’s spikes. If I continue flapping, my shell will surely tear from my torso.”

The mermaid’s powers began to fade, as the mermaid could feel the electricity from the zap of lightning intoxicate her powers, and slow her down,

“Oh young sea turtle,

If I aid you further still,

My light will fade out.

The thunderclouds’ grasp

Leaves me with but a dim glow,

My fate is sealed now.”

The mermaid breathed with dismay, where one of her hearts moved in response to the weighted loss of her glow. She knew that mermaids could only breed if they glowed a luminescent light. Darker mermaids were seen as impure as mermaids and mermans reciprocated light to breed.  The mermaid had never seen a merman for the centuries she had lived, and had not seen any mermaids. The Illuminated Being had thought she was the last of her kind. Was it due to the fact she was hiding from the thunderclouds? Was this the reason why she had not seen another one of her kind before?

‘Light is to breathe life

Forever I have turned dark

Mermans will see this.”

The green sea turtle cried with sorrowful tears, "I am sorry to have put you in this position. But I too am the last green sea turtle of the ocean. My path was hindered due to the hovering clouds that appear before us now.” She spoke with a quaver while ignoring the pain she was in, “My eyesight is truly horrendous, and due to the dark, I cannot see a thing in these waters.”

The mermaid was stumped and enquired, 

“I ask for your thoughts

I am all out of ideas

Oh green sea turtle.”

The mermaid’s vision began to blur as she felt the effects of the thunderclouds and could feel her diminishing power being sucked away from her in each passing moment. 

The mermaid reflected on her thoughts as her energy was being drained away. The light she had imparted to marine life was of mystical power and served as a guiding light to animals lost in the deep.  She weighed up the possibility that preserving her own powers could benefit marine life. Memories of the creatures that she imparted light to came to her mind. The strawberry squid whom she gave bioluminescence to support itself for finding his way home. She thought about the starfish whom she gave eyes to so that it could see in the dark, and to the seahorse where they travelled together to see an eternal waterfall. She now faced a profound question, was it her time to sacrifice herself for the turtle’s lineage? Was this the last time she will ever help a sea creature of the ocean?

The young green sea turtle said, “You’ll waste your life on a lowly green sea turtle.” The green sea turtle was distraught by the dilemma she was in, of keeping the generation of green sea turtles alive, or to keep alive the whole ecosystem of marine life. “ I'll forever be stuck in the dark and I will never return home to lay my eggs." The turtle closed her eyes, as if she had accepted her ending in relentless pain. The pain from keeping her eggs within her egg sac, unable to be laid, and having her shell caught in the rock’s spikes.

Each breath the mermaid made, she recalled the last moments of each creature she had helped, “May your light reach the vast oceans of the world,” said the strawberry squid. She felt the rough prickle of the starfish’s arm as it caressed her cheek and the seahorse’s generous bid to take her to the nearest waterfall once she had lighted his path. As the mermaid’s energy ebbed away, she knew that each creature was safe and that she could carry on her legacy through imparting light to the creatures of the ocean. As she lifted her chin, she called out in a voice that was charged with thunder,

“I’ve seen no merman

I will give my life to thee

Follow the light path.” 

The green sea turtle said in shock, "We need mermaids to protect the sea creatures of the ocean. How will us animals survive without you?" For it was true, the sea creatures relied on the mermaid for her light. She radiated the light to guide the animals to safety after they had hunted their prey.

The mermaid sang with determination, 

“I will protect you 

The light path will beckon forth

In oceans you swim.”

As she sang her song, the mermaid moved away from the shade of the Precious Coral. A lightning bolt struck her three hearts, and her luminescent skin turned to indigo while her scales darkened from iridescent scales to a malted black. The sizzle from the attack emitted a sound like a dolphin’s whistle. Her cry of agony, as if a thousand voices from the sky had merged into one, echoed across the oceans. In her next breath she had then disappeared into thin air.

The thunderclouds began to part, as golden rays scattered through the depths of the ocean. The last shrill of the mermaid’s voice had jolted the seahorse awake. The seahorse looked up to the skies and fondly remembered the day they both journeyed to the waterfall with no floor. He could now honour her memory for generations to come by visiting that same waterfall. As for the starfish, it basked in the warm glow of the mermaid’s last sacrifice, and the strawberry squid whispered to himself, “My last words to the Illuminated Being were true!” 

“What a hasty decision,” the turtle had thought. A pang of guilt struck the green sea turtle, “I had just made the only mermaid of our century extinct, or even for a millennia. What have I done?” The turtle was feeling so unworthy. She had thought that the mermaid’s sacrifice must have been for the lives of her young ones, “I will not give up her sacrifice.” With this thought, the rocks began to rumble and clutter against her shell, and then slowly drift apart to set the green sea turtle free.

The green sea turtle's vision became clearer as the pathway lit up with bright lights back to her home. She felt a pang of guilt, “What an unequal exchange! How will I live up to the mermaid?” The turtle had thought that the mermaid was an omniscient being, and she thought she could never be as beautiful or powerful as the mermaid. But what she could do was endure pain for decades. Seeing that she was caught between rocks for so long. Now the turtle had to endure another half a decade of swimming to travel to her shore. As the turtle regained her vision, she reflected, just like how the light was reflecting off the water. “The mermaid had wanted the marine ecosystem to thrive. She knew that there was no merman left in these waters, and I with one-hundred-and -fifteen eggs have the hope to live on.” deeply thought the turtle. 

“I can now lay my eggs for the new season,” she thought. But with the thought came sadness, “I hope my young ones are protected by the mermaid's light,” whispered the green sea turtle, "I will remember the mermaid by the incredible vision that I now have in the waters that I swim in.

“Now the eternal night has ended! Thank you Illuminated Being for giving the green sea turtles life again.” The green sea turtle swam with great serenity and followed the light path to the same shore she was born.

The path which was lighted from the mermaid’s lingering powers still emanates for the green sea turtles to this day. Green sea turtles always return to the shores they were hatched, all because of the mermaid’s sacrifice to protect the lineage of the green sea turtles.