But mermaids adore our men, and our men adore them.
I continue paddling for a time with Jye at my back. We’re parallel to the coast as we pass the mouth of the jungle river.
Verdant trees rise in the distance, like a lush blanket of fuzzy moss. Some trees are high, some low, some pale green, while others a bright yellow like Jye’s tail. They all mesh together from a distance. The jungle is dense with life.
Before the expansive river mouth lies an estuary where the Mermaid Gulf’s glorious blue water turns brackish, and past the estuary, where the river begins—and what those brightly colored trees represent—is the Forbidden Jungle. Beaches line the coast of the estuary and all along the Mermaid Gulf.
My home, Shell Rock, is apart from the main jungle, sheltered in a lagoon of sorts. Although the jungle’s borders are near, steep cliffs separate us from the jungle. We are also protected from waves coming in by the many isles and large rocks that rise from the Gulf.
Shell Rock is shielded from the waves of angry ocean storms and from the worst of the behemoth creatures of the jungle.
Now and again, a giant crocodile makes its way to us, but one has never gotten through our protective nets.
I finger the band of croc teeth resting around my neck. My gaze trails back to the mouth of the jungle river. To enter such a place… it is only for the most skilled, the strongest. Venturing there has always been a dream of courage for me. My fingers leave my necklace to grip the hard oar again. Today, I can’t risk journeying in. My lips part. Leith needs my protection.
Yet I daydream of spearing a great ape and bringing its pelt back to my people. I’m the best hunter we have now that my father is old, but I’ve never been given the chance to prove it.
My gaze drags back to my brother, who’s now languishing on his side, his fingers playing with Elae’s wet hair while the mermaid dapples his jaw with kisses.
Leith needs my protection, I think sourly.
Yda is doing the backstroke in the water beside them.
“Aren’t you supposed to be watching for crocs, serpents, and razorsharks?” I huff.
Yda sticks her tongue out at me and flips back around to dive under the raft. A scratchy, odd noise beneath my butt fills my ears, and I squint. She’s dragging her nails under the boat to unsettle me. Jye and Elae giggle.These mermaids and their games.
The high sun comes and goes. As the day lengthens, the red comet barely moves across the sky. Sweat leaks out from every one of my pores, mixing with the salt of the ocean water. My hair clings to the back of my neck where my braids fall against it.
The jungle river mouth vanished long ago, and now we follow the coastline, searching for the smoke-signals on the far horizon. Sand’s Hunters will lead us to them.
One from a distant tribe might ask why we don’t walk the coast, but they might not know of the numerous hungry creatures that dwell along it.
A high-pitched, jarring screech assails the air.
The oars drop from my hands and the raft drifts to a stop. Birds take to the sky in cawing droves, flapping with fear high into the wispy clouds above. The jungle trees shake from their mass ascension. On the shore, reptiles scurry into the water.
Leith sits up. Elae’s attentions have stopped. “What was that?”
I reach over the side to quickly save the oars I dropped. “I don’t know.”
We wait for the screech to come again, but it doesn’t.
Yda pokes my arm. “We should go. It’s not safe to stay here.”
“Do you know what it is?” I ask.
It’s Jye who speaks. “Something that scares all the birds into the sky and the reptiles into the water. It’s a sound I haven’t heard since the last passing of the comet.” Her voice is grave, alarming.
We all turn to face her.
“It’s a mating call,” she tells us.
“Like when swing monkeys howl out in heat?” Leith asks.
Jye nods. “Yes, but for a powerful creature that rarely stirs. Like Yda said, we should keep moving. It’s not safe out in the open anymore.”
A shiver courses down my back.
