E-Book, Englisch, 180 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-62488-121-3
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Chapter 1-Under the Shroud
Under the shroud of early morning darkness, a giant snail covering a mass of wiry green hair that looked like a clump of seaweed broke the calm surface of the sea just outside of a bay known as Enchanted Cove. After scanning the water for any nearby boats, Mertin, the best of the Mermail Express mailmen, risked rising his manly top half partially out of the water to take a cautious peek into the bay. These movements made his thickly muscled torso and arms feel oddly heavy, because he was used to feeling nearly weightless underwater. He had to beat his great tail extra hard to keep afloat, causing a myriad of little whirlpools to form and dance on the surface. The snail helmet he wore seemed to also have a difficult time being out of water as its grip seemed to slip and it started to slide down the side of Mertin’s greenish face until one eye and most of his nose was covered by the snail’s mushy underbelly. Mertin absently pushed the snail upright. This motion pulled his wrinkled skin taut on one side, which caused his kelp-colored beard appear to be lopsided. The snail looked as if it might be squeezing a little too hard on his head because Mertin’s olive green eyes were bulging out a bit more than normal. “Oh, for Sea’s Sake! Loosen it up a bit, will ya, Snail?” Mertin said, rapping on his helmet. He was not as young as he used to be and figured he needed all the circulation his brain he could get. Snail jiggled slimily a moment, making a loud sucking noise like a soda bottle opening until he was perfectly perched like a bird on a hair nest. A tightly fitting snail helmet was an absolute necessity for mermail men. It became part of the company uniform after some of the best had been tragically lost to headfirst encounters with “messages in bottles”. Of course, most mermail men found it absolutely shocking that topside people ever got their mail with such a poor postal system. They found it necessary to simply toss the bottles onto shore in hopes that some silly topsider would eventually claim them. What else could they do as the bottles rarely had a delivery or return address? Mertin reached for his purple sea cucumber mail pack and pulled out his “Special Delivery” package to read the address again. This was more out of habit than anything else. He knew where he was going and perfectly well for whom this most important package was meant. “Sufferin’ Shrimpatash!” he exclaimed, nearing the Enchanted Cove Marina entrance. “I’m retired, for heaven’s sake! Haven’t had to work a secret service mission in years!” He rapped sharply on his helmet. “Hear that! Snail, old buddy? Years! If it wasn’t a special request from King Dolphinium himself… I wouldn’t a-taken on such a painful assignment. The misses t’would make shark bait out of me fer sure… if she knew.” Mertin had retired from his bodyguard position in the Secret Mer-service the day he delivered Princess Shelleen’s newborn baby onto the deck of that cursed boat and essentially into the hands of a lousy topsider. It made no difference to him that this particular topsider happened to be the baby’s father and Shelleen’s husband. It was entirely bad enough that he had to watch Shelleen grow up from a beautiful little mermaid to an intelligent, adventurous, not to mention extremely stubborn merwoman, only to fall in love and marry him! Jacob Mariner, AKA good for nothing topsider! It was all in the past and just too painful to remember. He didn’t mind the quieter life as a mermail man that much. It gave him more time to tend to his sprawling coral gardens, though he missed Princess Shelleen terribly. “I have to say, Snail, it t’will be good to see wee Destiny. It’s been so long; I wonder how she faired growin’ up topside, without her mother an all. It’s a darn shame.” His bushy green eyebrows furrowed and his eyes were clouded with sadness. “I tell ya, leavin’ that tiny mer-princess, t’were the hardest delivery I ever had to make.” The snail wiggled slightly on his head as if it were agreeing. The package he held was the size of a large oyster shell, wrapped neatly in a soft green sheet of plankton and tied neatly with red wire coral. The tag was folded and sealed with a wax stamp bearing a gold crown surrounded by dolphins. It read: DESTINY MARINER OF ENCHANTED COVE-SEADANCER Mertin put the package carefully back in the pack and continued to cautiously swim into the cove’s sleepy little marina. He noticed that the cove itself hadn’t changed much in the 13 years that had passed since he had seen it, but the Marina had certainly grown. It was barely more than a feeble dock when he had seen it last. Now, several docks with every type of seagoing vessel were lined neatly in a rather impressive collection of slips and covered walkways. “Well, looks like that Jacob Mariner fella has done okay. I can only hope baby Destiny has fared as good,” he mumbled grudgingly to himself. “Never could tell what Princess Shelleen saw in that huge, clumsy boy.” He shook his head, changing his look from sad to disgust. The water was smooth but murky behind the breakwater. Only Snail and Mertin’s eyes protruded above the water as he swam silently, avoiding any light reflections from the nearby waterfront buildings and boats. “Well, if I never have to deliver topside again it will be too soon,” Mertin spat. Snail squeezed harder on his head, quivering nervously. For most sea creatures, going anywhere close to land was dangerous and smelly and all that free-flowing, dry air tended to make them queasy. Mertin, like most mermen, considered himself to be quite handsome and preferred not to turn his pale green tint a few shades darker with a stomachache. The marina residents were quietly sleeping except for an orange striped cat perched on the bow of a sailboat like a quiet sentinel guarding his post. The cat cocked his head sideways and watched the strange pair approach. Mertin winked, grabbed a sea biscuit treat from his pack and tossed it onto the ship deck below the cat. He wasn’t sure if cats liked sea biscuits, but they had certainly saved him from many dogfish bites on his normal route at home. The cat, obviously exhausted from his guard duty, ignored it and curled up into a ball to nap. “AHH, ee ungrateful beast,” he scoffed, under his breath. He resisted the urge to toss another biscuit to the cat, only harder and right between its eyes. He would save his sea biscuits for later. They just might settle his stomach after this spine-tingling mission was over. He dove under and swam just below the surface of the water passing through several clumps of seaweed and small colorful fish. He stopped cautiously behind each boat to read the names on their sterns as he passed. It had been a long time since he had seen the Seadancer and he wasn’t sure if he would recognize her. Footloose, Raintamer, Knotbigenough. Finally he saw the stately, double masted sailboat tied at the end of the last dock. The name Seadancer was printed in fancy black letters on the back. Just as he remembered, the carved wooden mermaid still graced the prow as it had back then. Seeing it again brought a painful twinge to his heart. His beloved Princess Shelleen had insisted on living on that floating contraption. Though it had been little more than a wreck last time she had set eyes on it. The boat was now rather impressive despite its obvious old age. Moonlight reflected brightly on the tidy wooden deck and the masts towered high into the darkness like a ladder to the night sky. “Looks like we made it, Snail,” Mertin whispered, breathing a sigh of relief as they approached. He dove under water again, held his breath and swam slowly along the bottom of the boat, listening intently for any sounds of movement above echoing through the hull. He covered his ears and started to breathe again, hearing a loud rumbling noise on the starboard side. “AHH, that’ll be the lass,” he said quietly, flashing a lopsided grin. “Mermaids always snore like the dickens when sleeping topside.” He surfaced quietly in the shadows and rummaged through his sea cucumber pack for a slingshot and a small, rusted fishing weight. He loaded the slingshot with the weight, licked his lips a few times for luck and carefully aimed and shot. The weight sailed through the air expertly and the light went out in a shower of tiny sparks. “That’s better,” he said, with a relieved grin. He hadn’t had to try that in years! He still had the touch! He put the sling shot back into his pack, feeling a bit safer with the shadows safely covering the side. He then stretched his arms high over his head and dove back underwater, bearing straight down on the muddy bottom. Then fluidly, a split second before he hit, turned sharply upward and intensely beat his tail. He leapt completely out of the water and grabbed the open windowsill with both hands. The water rushed from his scales like rain from a shingle roof and his tail beat awkwardly in the air. The boat rocked slightly under his considerable weight and he froze, waiting for it to settle. His bulky arm muscles flexed as he hefted his body up and wiggled the lacy curtain out of the way with his nose. Moonlight filtered in, somehow finding room around his big head and snail helmet to shine down on the form of a sleeping girl. Mertin stifled a laugh as he peeked through....
