Between Land and Sea: A Little Mermaid Retelling by Paul Mouchet

Author:Paul Mouchet [Mouchet, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Mouchet Publishing
Published: 2023-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Luna

Heavy footsteps on the lower deck’s floor echoed through the bilge. Each thump made my heart skip, fearful that they’d find me hiding, wrapped in Dylan’s smelly leather cloak. Despite the stench of the oils used to impregnate the hide, it couldn’t completely mask the young man’s heady scent. I snuggled my face deeper into the rough clothing, inhaling deeply, filling my nostrils with the intoxicating fragrance.

“Are you feeling better?” Dylan whispered, sending a string of bubbles into my ear. It was likely the tenth time he had asked me in as many minutes, and the twentieth time he pulled up the sleeve of the cloak so he could examine the progress of the ferrous poising the iron manacles had infected me with. The way he ran his hands over the scales of my tail fin skin tickled me nearly as much as the bubbles he was blowing into my ear. He seemed mesmerized by my mermaid form. I had switched to it shortly after entering the bilge, hoping it would allow me to heal more quickly.

I nodded lightly and grinned. I didn’t dare open my mouth, fearing I might burst out laughing and alert the mermaid hunters to our location.

“It looks like she escaped out the window,” a harsh voice said from above. “But it makes no sense. Those window frames are pure iron. There is no way she could have gotten past them. I don’t even understand how she had the strength to knock out the porthole.”

“I’m guessing it was her last act as a mermaid,” a man said. His voice was so distinctive, I had no doubt it was Lachlan, the first mate. “See that puddle of water on the floor? My guess is, she succumbed to the iron and turned into sea foam. If we go into the bilge, we’ll find her there. She’ll be the thin slick of scum floating on the surface.”

Four men laughed at the first mate’s joke. It made me want to burst up through the floorboards and drag them all below. I’d show them what it was like to deal with a mermaid in her domain, with the full power of the sea at her disposal.

A leathery tentacle slipped around my neck and gave me a light squeeze. Octavius maneuvered his gelatinous body over my shoulder and slid upwards so that his enormous bulging eyes were directly in front of mine.

“It’s not worth it, Luna. First, we get you free, then we deal with these miserable humans. Once the hunters go back on deck, we’ll find a way out of here and tell Prince Draven what these people are up to.”

I couldn’t see anything with the octopup’s face pressed against mine, but I could feel Dylan thrashing beside me. I immediately recognized what was happening. He was out of air, and no longer able to breathe water. I had seen it before while rescuing sailors who had inadvertently fallen into the sea. There was no place for him to surface, not with the bilge water filling the entire space right up to the floorboards.

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