Glimmer sat on the edge of the land in the water, lower body completely submerged in the rocking tides. She faced the ocean, looking a bit worn out from the long swim to the opposite coast. She allowed herself to be pushed this way and that by a current and next thing she knew, to the opposite shore. Good thing it was still warm over here. Her fingers played through her hair, grooming it meticulously. While she worked, she sang a soft melody, smiling as if remembering. While she de-tangled her hair, her sea-green eyes looked vacant, as if daydreaming. She was entirely not all there, completely absorbed in herself. Not unusual for a mermaid.
Sorrow and grief had driven Ocarern out of Arca. For at least a month now he had just wandered from place to place, numb and unfeeling inside. He ended up heading west, towards the sea. Ever since he had been a child, Ocarern had wanted nothing more than to see the rolling waves and feel the sand beneath his feet. When he at last arrived, his heart lifted slightly before the pain of loss overwhelmed him once more.
Listlessly he wandered around the beach, never paying much mind to his surroundings. As he neared a particular outcrop of rocks, he began to hear a voice floating on the wind. Looking up, his eyes searched for the source, his wiggling ears were picking up. Curious he slunk in the direction of the singing, marveling at its beauty. 'A fishwoman?' he thought, cocking his head to the side.
He settled down on a rock a ways behind her, listening and feeling his heart break all over again. The song was both balm and and a poison to his fragile state of being. 'She sounds like her. She reminds me of her. I can never escape her, even now so far from...home.' Ocarern's ears drooped and his eyes welled with a month's worth of unshed tears. Without thinking, his fingers reached for his belt and pulled out a wooden flute, the flute he had made for her. Slowly he placed the instrument to his lips. On the downbeat he joined the nameless woman's song.
The flutes notes rose and fell in sync with the mermaid's. While Ocarern did not know the song it was as if his fingers were tied to her vocal chords, causing them to hit the same notes. He glanced down at his hands seeing a misty blue aura around them. 'I miss her,' was his last thought before tears blurred his vision. A shrieking note escaped the sweet instrument as he ripped it from his lips, sniffling and bowing his head.
The mermaid did not notice the sound of the flute as she groomed her hair, continuing her song. It wasn't until the loud, sharp note on the flute that it woke her from her daydream. Incredibly started, she scrambled to turn herself around in the water. A human!! Oh, all kinds of horrors she's run into since she's hit the coast of this continent!! She wanted to flee. She should turn and run.
But what if he was like the siren? He looked a little bit different than Glimmer and Reevahn did... But they had noses and eyes and ears, both two of the latter! Maybe they were alike!!
During her conclusion in her mind, she noted that he was deeply upset, almost a ball of himself. She raised herself higher so her voice would carry. "H-Hello? Can... Can I help you?" She stammered loudly, trying to force the words from her lungs.
Ocarern himself was startled by the splashing and frantic movements of the fishwoman. Looking up with widened eyes he was forced to clap his hand over them as he was blinded by her copper aura. 'Fear,' his mind reminded him as he stumbled backwards off his position on the boulder.
Nervously, he shied away, standing behind the boulder and using it as a shield. 'Can she even get on land?' he thought looking at her tail. Hesitantly, Ocarern bowed before the woman, his eyes never leaving her face. 'A woman is a woman, no matter her species,' he heard his mother's voice recite.
"Forgive me good lady, I did not mean to frighten you." The elf's mouth opened and closed slightly as he tried to think of something more to say. Every muscle in his body told him to run, but his curiosity was winning this round. Despite his age, Ocarern had never seen the sea, had never known anything like the woman before him. 'She sings prettily. Maybe she will sing again?'
"Your voice," he started without thinking. "It is very beautiful." He looked down and to the side, anywhere that was not her. One hand clenched tightly around the wood flute as the other balled up in his tunic. A faint pink dusting warmed his pale cheeks and twitching ears. 'Should not have said that. Should not have said that.' Uncomfortable with the whole situation but not willing to leave, Ocarern fidgeted lightly in place. He really had no idea what to say.
She opened her mouth in a pause, pink lips parting in wonder. "Thank you," She regarded him warily, pushing a lock of hair back onto her shoulder, turning to face him more but in the process, revealing that she was indeed woman on the upper half. Her chest swelled plumply and uncovered, nor modest in the least. Her kind knew nothing of hiding more intimate parts. In fact, clothes he wore were perplexing to her. What was their purpose? She guessed they looked nice as she tilted her head to the side, her bright blue webbed ear shimming translucent in the copper sunlight. She was pale and freckled all over and her coral colored tail moved around in the water. She was unsure of what to say.
"Were you the one making that noise? I did not know humans sang like the winged creatures I see around here..." She looked around, as if trying to find one as an example. "You don't eat mermaids, do you...?" She turned her attention back to him, her brows knitted together in sincere worry.
He watched her turn towards him and glanced over her figure. A cursory glance later and he was looking up at her face again. Her nakedness did not phase him. Ocarern was more focused what she was rather than what she looked like.
"Noise!" he cried offended. "This isn't noise! This is music," he said waving the wooden flute in hand. His entire face showed betrayal and hurt. 'I thought she would understand. I thought she liked music too.' His head drooped as he lowered his hands and stared at his favorite instrument. His thumb rubbed against one carving in particular. 'The lark, she always loved birds.'
"A mermaid?" he questioned, tilting his head to the side. "Is that what you are?" He shook his head slightly and straightened up again. "One has to know what a mermaid is to eat one. But, no, I do not. Nor," he added, "do I plan to start."
Offended and curiosity sated, Ocarern turned, sitting on the rock with his back to her.. "Good day to you lady," he called. Ignoring her, he placed the flute to his lips and began to play a slow mournful tune.
"Music..." She mused, "Is that what people call music above the surface? We do not have one of those... We only our our voices." She blushed when he turned away and her eyes began to well up with tears. She'd never been rejected by a human before and it was the worst. Not only did mermaids not want to be her friend but now this human with funny ears didn't! Surely, seeing as he was not like the others, she would find kindred spirits in him, seeing as his ears were so much different. "I-I'm sorry... I-I didn't mean to... To..." She started before sobbing. She wiped her tears on her wrists, only to have more come pouring out.
Twice he glanced to the side and then looked forward again. As much as he could ignore her, his ears could not use the music to drown out her sobs. 'She's crying.' Finally, unable to stand it, Ocarern turned to look over his shoulder. Where before she was a blinding copper now she was a muted gray. 'I did that. I made her gray.' His pointed ears dropped in shame and guilt.
Warily he stood and made his way over to stand right in front of the mermaid. Silently he watched her tears fall and came to a decision. 'She can't really do me any harm. I think.' Dropping easily into a cross-legged position, he rested his wooden flute across his lap and pulled out a set of panpipes from a pouch at his waist. Looking down at the smooth and well-loved wood he began to nod his head. First slowly and then picking up speed, he found a tempo that only he could hear.
Raising the pipes to his lips, he also raised his hopeful gaze to that of the mermaid's. A fast, joyful tune escape the pipes as he played a variation of a bard his friend used to sing. She had taught it to him when she learned that it always, without fail made him laugh. Even as he played his eyes began to almost dance and a smile tugged at his lips.
The mermaid sniffed, the tears stopping their stream from those that lingered on her eyelashes and face. Looking upon him solemnly she wiped her cheeks clean and looked at him with puzzlement as he began to play. Then, next she knew, her heart tugged at the song and she smiled a little, begrudgingly. Then completely forgetting she was upset as she beamed at him, letting out a small giggle. "I like this... Music... That these shapes make!!" She was careful to describe it as 'music' and not 'noise.' She had no idea what the word 'flute' or 'wind' meant, so as lost as she was, she enjoyed it either way. She clapped her hands a little to a rhythm he seemed to play. Something deep in her blood loved it so but it was missing another sound.
As if it could not be controlled, the mermaid parted her lips and began to sing, a joyous sound that belonged to a dance in a bar accompanied by a fiddle, though she knew not what that was either. Her voice rose higher and higher, intertwining with the sound of the panpipes.
Ocarern smiled lightly, happy that he was able to bring her happiness. 'It's the least I can do,' he thought watching gray bleed into a royal blue. For the first time since he left home, he was beginning to feel pure, free joy. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to sway with the music and truly feel the freeing beat and peace of it. 'I brought her joy. She likes it!' He felt so proud of himself. 'See Aren, I can work the ladies too!'
Bringing the song to an end and opening his eyes, he was shocked to realize the singing had not been her but the mermaid. 'I forgot. I thought it was her.' Placing his hands palm to palm, fingers to wrist in front of him, he bowed at the waist. Rising he spoke, "thank you for your song, lady. I apologize if I was rude and frightened you earlier. Your song...enchanted me."
She bowed back, though from the sitting position, mimicking him in hopes that it's the polite fashion that humans do things. "I forgive you." She said, politely and smiled at him. "I thought you were mad at me." Her eyes drifted off to the side and then back to him. "A-Are you...? Mad at me...?" She asked quietly, her eyes turning sad as she laid her fingers in her lap.
He shook his head minutely. "No," he said simply. Ocarern was an elf of few words and actions. He preferred the shadows. But, her sweet music had been enough to draw him forward like poison from a wound. 'I am mad at myself.'
"I apologize for intruding on your peace. I shall bother you no more and be on my way now. By your leave," he said rising to his feet. 'I should not let her affect me so. It is over. This mermaid does not mean to be like her. I need to let my grief go. Need to let this misty blue fog suffocating me go.'
"Wait!! Human!! If you are not angry, why do you go? Am I offending you?" She asked and checked herself and realized, to her culture, yes. Her appearance was offensive. She had no jewelry on from the surface, like most of her sisters, which is why she is on this coast in the first place. Exiled, glamour-less and now, rejected by humans in the same fashion. She covered her body, or tried to, with her hands. Her eyes welled up with tears again. "I-I... I understand. I know I am... Offensive and not pleasing. I'm sorry, I'm trying, I promise..." She said, slinking back into the water.
Ocarern froze in his tracks as the mermaid called out to him. "You do not offend me," he replied softly. 'She thinks I'm human?' He watched the way she outwardly hunched in on herself, as if by making herself smaller she could disappear. Her emotion's colors flickered rapidly back and forth. He could feel a headache beginning to form behind his eyes. 'How can one person feel so many emotions so quickly?'
"You are not pleasing," he replied, not wishing to lie to her. "But, that does not mean you are unpleasing either." He shrugged, as if that was answer enough, to him it was. "You are you. That is all that should matter. You shouldn't care so much about how others view you. You only end up hurt."
Ocarern fell silent as he realized what he said. 'You only end up hurt. Is that where I went wrong? Did I start caring and let myself be crushed?' He took a few curious steps closer to her, peering over at the water. 'I wonder what the water feels like.'
"I'm not human," he added after a moment. Still staring at the water, trying to judge whether he should get in or not, he took no real notice of the mermaid. "I'm an elf," he finished distractedly. 'It's not black like home. It's so clear. It's beautiful.'
Not pleasing. That was different in her culture too. Mermaids are supposed to be pleasing and if one is unpleasant then she is considered an outcast. They live by beauty, crucified on it in the name of her people. Her eyes welled up more with tears as she shrank away from him. She bit her lip, deepening herself into the water, near flinching away from him. She did not speak, she kept herself covered by her palms and sat upright as the waves slapped against her body. She felt rejection of the highest order. He insulted her with that. Not pleasing. A bland mermaid may as well be a dead one.
All this talk of "not listening to what others say or think" did not make sense to her. These people tell her this and yet she does not understand. What does that mean? All she knows is that if she is not pretty, she is an exile, an outsider. And there she will stay with all beings, including the funny-eared human called an "elf."
Ocarern was blind-sided with a wave of emotion from the mermaid so strong that he almost vomited on the spot. A faint cry of pain escaped him as he clasped his hands to his forehand, pressing the heels into his eyes. 'What is this? This feeling, it's terrible!'
Blindly he took a step forward, precariously balancing himself between a pair of slippery rocks. "What's wrong?" he mumbled out. "Why are you so upset? What did I say to offend you so?" His ears drooped again as guilt flared up again. 'Why do I always say the wrong thing? I always do better when I don't speak; I know better! Why did I bother? I should have ran the first chance I got!' he internally berated.
"I'm not pleasing... A mermaid who isn't pleasing... Then I shouldn't exist. I know I don't have any jewelry but am I really so ugly to you? I am doing the best I can to find it but it's nowhere!!" She cried loudly and began to sob. It was hard to be here, being rejected by your friends and family for not being pretty enough. She never reached their standards. Nor could she please this man, either. She was an ugly mermaid in her own eyes and it made her feel such shame and sadness. She began to sob through gritted teeth, bowing forward onto her belly, grasping her shoulders.
'Pleasing? Rejection? Mermaids are strange creatures.' Feeling extremely awkward and unsure of himself Ocarern had no idea what to do with himself. 'Do I leave her? Do I stay? Do I keep quiet? I always say the wrong thing? Do I try and say something more? What do I do?'
The sinking pit of roiling emotion in his belly strengthened as the mermaid indulged in self-loathing. "Listen Miss, you know I don't even know your name. I didn't mean to upset you. I just-" As Ocarern had been talking, he had been fidgeting nervously which resulted a rapid series of events. One minute the petite elf was standing on the rocks, the next he was in the water.
Ocarern's nervous energy had caused his boot to slip, his ankle to twist, and him to go down like a rock. As he fell, pinwheeling his arms, he managed to knock his head on the very rock he had slipped off. He landed face-down in the water with a hard slapping splash. He was out cold.
No no no no no. Not all of this could go so bad at once, there was just no way. And yet it was and before she new it, he was knocked out. She made quick work of turning him over so he could breathe. Next, she pulled him a bit deeper into the water, on her lap, where she began to wipe the sand off his face. She was mildly upset still but she had a feeling he didn't understand. "As a mermaid, you are born and raised to have beauty, to be pleasing. Isn't that the same as human females?" She asked herself, using the ocean water to wash the sand away from his face. Then, once it was clean, she examined him. He had long ears, she noted, when she was running her fingertips over them. Mermaids were very touch-oriented creatures, so the more she touched, the more she felt she understood him. "I wonder what you think of when you go to sleep." She said quietly as she neared her face closer to his, as if she could see it herself. Her hair began to brush against his neck.
"What do you find pleasing if not me...?"
The elf lay completely limp and oblivious to his current situation. His mind was a thick fog of nothing, no sounds, no thoughts, no emotions. For the first time in his long life, Ocarern was not plagued by the woes and joys of others. His mind was enveloped in a wool blanket made of pale rose. 'Love. Affection. Warmth. Calm. Peace. Safe,' it told his hiding mind.
Her fingertips ran over his forehead, curiously. He seemed to enjoy this slumber. "Mermaids have dreams only of when we find our mate and bare an egg. That is where we find happiness... And yet the siren tells me that there is more than that. Is there more than looks to you? What else is there?" She pulled away from him, examining herself with his head in her lap. She then returned to gaze upon him again. "And yet, there is much more than looks to you... What does that say of you? Are you the prime pick among your kind based on something other than beauty? And to you, what is beauty?" She was deeply perplexed as she mused to herself. Yet he seemed so peaceful. She only knew one expression to tell someone that you accept them and that was to embrace them.
Her hands slipped onto his back and pulled him closely, hugging him firmly. "It's okay, because I like you anyways." She spoke as her set her chin on his shoulder, staring at the swaying sea-foam.
Ocarern came back into consciousness slowly. 'What is all over me? Why do I feel so warm?' Opening his eyes he was shocked to find a half-naked female body pressed up against his own. "Eeee!" he squealed, rolling himself off the mermaid's lap and back into the water. The water splashed and sloshed about as he frantically back-pedaled away from her.
"No touchy!" he screamed holding his hands out in front of him. He held up one finger eyeing the mermaid warily. "No touch." Ocarern did not dare to take his gaze off the woman for long, as he looked about for a way out of the water. He kept glancing back at her muttering "no touchy."
'Humans aren't the only ones? What is it with women and hugging? Too much touchy! Why? Why? Why! Always touching!'
She looked confused at him. What is why these humans and sirens and their lack of touch? Why did they want to be so distance?? It was just a hug. She sighed, she guessed he wasn't normal. But she already said she liked him anyways. She rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "You creatures are all so strange. Why do you want to be so apart from everyone? Don't you hug and kiss and touch other... 'elfs'??"
l[ Ocarern's New Groove. ]l
"Hug? Kiss?" Ocarern shuddered at such human notions. There once was a time where he loved such familiar indulgences but death had a fond way of stealing that from him. Every time he loved, someone got hurt or died.
He shook his head as a blank mask hid his heartache. "I do not know any other elves. My family is dead. I am on my own." He shrugged again. "What would you have me do? I do not know you Miss. I do not even know your name or you mine." Ocarern waded out of the water and back onto a rock, still casting wary looks at the mermaid. "Touch is painful enough for me. Why would I allow some stranger inflict more on me?" He tousled his hair, shaking the water droplets everywhere as he tried to get dry.
She gasped at the part that his parents were dead and also that it was painful for him. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know. That's how mermaids tell one another 'I like you.'" She said, pointing between him and her both. She sighed, what a troubled conversation this is. She slid her body down on her belly to the beach, her tail curving upward, the sash-like pectoral fins dripping water on her back. It was getting dark quickly. "Is that why you look so unhappy? Because it hurts to be happy??"
He looked over at her curiously. "That can't be very comfortable," he blurted out, nodding towards her current position. Crimson flooded his face and ears as he realized what he said. "Doh!" Ocarern slammed his hands into his face. 'Stupid! Why do you bother opening your mouth anyway? Is it just to change feet?'
Ocarern ran his hand through his hair again, flicking water out towards the mermaid. "I'm not unhappy! I'm moonshadow," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. To him that was answer enough. The young elf never understood that others did not few things the same way he did. 'She is...odd,' he concluded, tilting his head.
She smiled, beaming at him with her big bluish-green eyes. "Actually, this is really comfortable for me. Sitting on my tail makes it go numb." She spoke distinctly and clearly when she said that. She had no idea what he meant though. This is comfortable for her. She smiled at with while he blushed too, because she didn't understand mostly. The smile faded when he said that funny word. "Moon.... Shadow... What is that?"
'Did she say hugging is affection? That she likes me? How can she? She doesn't even know me. We just met. Must be a human thing.' He paused looking her over critically. 'Or rather a half-human and above thing.'
Ocarern rolled his eyes at the thought before continuing. "Moonshadow? Well, it's me. And you're," he paused, blinking. "You're also moonshadow but also not. You're..." A color and emotion he could not readily guess at danced before his eyes, irritating and frustrating him. "I don't really know what it is."
'She is giving me such a headache.' Looking away from the mermaid, Ocarern seemed to notice the setting sun for the first time. 'Should head ho-. I mean I should find somewhere to stay. Home doesn't exist anymore, remember.' He let out a soft sigh. "Are you just going to stay here all night? Don't you have some" he swallowed, chocking out the next word, "home to go to?"
Of course, when the mermaid said 'like' she meant in a platonic way. Unlike the word for "love" for which were was no word for in the world of mermaids. She didn't understand the word, "moonshadow." Rather, what either of those words meant were not among the vocabulary of the sea. However, the notion was quickly dismissed after hearing the word home. Her heart plummeted straight to her stomach, laying there like a block of lead. She wanted to cry again but this was a stronger emotion. Not one she could describe with tears. "No." She said plainly, dismissively. As if the word had no meaning to her, nor value. She was an exile. There was no home for her but this shore now.
Ocarern both saw and heard her blatant dismissal. 'None of my business then.' He shrugged to himself, before looking out to the sun diving into the sea. "It's getting late. I should be heading back now. It was a pleasure to meet you Lady mermaid," he told her bowing. "May your song always be heard on the wind," he said bidding her farewell and beginning to walk away.
She paused, musing over the thought. "Glimmer." She called out to him, shifting on her stomach a little. "My name is Glimmer."
He froze in his steps, his back still to the mermaid. "Ocarern," he called back to her. "Goodbye Lady Glimmer." The elf continued onward, slowly walking back the way he came. 'What an odd day indeed.'
l[ Thanks, that was a lot of fun! ]l
(My pleasure. Feel free to play again anytime.)