The Fate of the Muse - By Derrolyn Anderson Page 0,74

said, her beautiful face puzzled, “That’s Nixie!”

I sighed, smiling with amusement, and turned my attention to the little mermaid, who greeted me as jubilantly as her sisters always did. Enthusiastically leaping out of the water, she frisked about me like an otter, popping up on one side of my board after another in an aquatic game of hide-and-seek.

We surfed and played, and there was no need for conversation, as we all understood each other in a non-verbal way that was eerily familiar. I alone had to stop and rest, sitting up on my board while they patiently waited for the game to start up again. I got an amazing amount of surfing in, for not an ounce of my energy was wasted on paddling into position, and we all instinctively knew which waves weren’t worth trying to ride.

“Look!” cried Nerissa, pointing out a flurry of activity off in the distance. A concentrated spot in the ocean was getting the full attention of hundreds of sooty shearwaters, the dark birds circling and screeching as they landed on the small patch of sea. Pelicans circling overhead dove in, making big splashes as they sliced through the crowd. I could see the fins of dolphins and the shiny black heads of sea lions pop up on the periphery.

“Let’s go!” Lorelei cried with excitement, taking my board in hand and pulling me over to the edge of the feeding frenzy. Once I was closer, I could see the water bubbling with vast shoals of panicked sardines swimming in a dense cloud just beneath the surface. There were silvery striped mackerel nipping at the edges, and they in turn were being preyed upon by the excited dolphins and seals.

The sound coming from the hundreds of birds circling in the air was deafening, and I perched on my board watching the primordial spectacle in awe. The creatures moved in the water like one giant organism in a choreographed dance, bloody and violent, driven by a fierce and terrible need. All three mermaids laughed and flung themselves right into the middle of the action, diving and surfacing with their mouths full of fish, munching away with enthusiasm.

I watched them feeding, fascinated, and it occurred to me that they were a strange combination of child and animal. Their human side was curious and naive; the animal part, wild and wary. I remembered Evie once wistfully saying that the only thing more fleeting than summer was childhood, and I realized that even though their infancy was shortened, a mermaid’s childhood was eternal.

Perpetual children, they were playful, irresponsible and free. Watching them, knowing that they’d be exactly the same centuries from now, was both comforting and humbling. It also made me a little sad in a way I couldn’t quite define.

Nixie was even more excited than her sisters, building up speed to breach the water, leaping over my board like a dolphin. Lorelei and Nerissa laughed at her antics, and their combined voices were almost unbearably harmonic. I wished that someone else could hear it too… someone human, someone I could talk to.

After a while the fish disappeared and the animals drifted away, leaving behind only a few feathers floating on the surface as a testament to what had just occurred. The four of us went back to surfing, and as the day wore on, I ignored my growing fatigue. I was thirsty and tired, but I didn’t want it to end. I was right on the verge of having to ask Lorelei to bring me home when a vision struck me like a bolt of lightning.

I was running through a heavily wooded area, with someone crashing through the trees hot on my heels. I was desperate to escape, but I was dizzy, and the darkness slowed me down as I aimed for a break in the foliage. As soon as I entered the clearing I realized I’d made a terrible mistake, stopping just in time to keep from flying off the steep cliff and splattering on the rocks below. I turned to face my pursuer.

I opened my eyes, and looked into Lorelei’s frightened face. She had seen it too.

I sat up blinking, rubbing my throbbing temples as I came back to reality. The three mermaids were all around me, holding my board steady and looking at me with wide, confused eyes. They had all seen it, only they were unable to make sense of what it could mean. They were speechless– their thoughts confused and scattered. The pain in