Sparkles in the Sand

[stelmarisa]

Ewelani was sat cross-legged on the sand, perched on a small heap of sand that she had fashioned into a cushion. She was surrounded by beads and sparkling trinkets, having spent the morning collecting items for her jewellery. Small piles of pearls were interspersed with colourful shells, unusual beads and the odd, glittering chip of precious stone.

Growing bored of her scavenging, she had sat herself down by the shore and started playing, creating small 'dishes' out of sand to hold her collections. Now she was hard at work, twisting wire to create bracelets and necklaces, adorning them with the beads as she went.

Totally focused on her work, she was unaware of everything around her.

[Glimmeringpearl]

Lurking among the deep was Glimmer, in search of surface jewelry to redeem herself. The hunt is not going well and she's very disappointed. Maybe she was looking in the wrong places. Glimmer then digressed, coming to the surface quickly and back onto the shore. But, alarmed, you found there was a young woman on the beach. At first, she paid no mind until something glimmered into her eyes. Something brilliant and white shined in the sand around her.

Glimmer instantly neared to her. "Where did you get those?!" She asked, near screamed, while she looked at the pearls.

[stelmarisa]

"Aiee!" Startled by a screech, Ewelani jolted, dropping her work as she did so. Shrugging off the inconvenience, she reached out to gather the scattered pearls, eyeing this new addition to her tranquil afternoon.

"I collected them!" she said chirpily, holding out a palmful to show the mermaid. "Some I traded for, some I found. Aren't they pretty?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

She stared at them, mouth a-gape, then back to the woman holding them. "W-What do you want? I'll give you anything for all the pearls you have and some string!!" She looked at her with pleading eyes, as if her heart would simply break into a million pieces if she said no. She'd found it! The one thing that could allow her to go back home, "I'll give you anything, name your price!!"

[stelmarisa]

She cocked her head to one side, giggling. "Why do you want them so much? Don't they just... grow in the sea?" She was confused, and intrigued. "Couldn't you just harvest your own?"

Moving on to her knees, she crawled closer to the mermaid, watching her with interest. "Do you know how to make jewellery? If that's what you want, I could help you?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

The mermaid was intensely frantic. She couldn't believe her eyes. She wanted to scream and cry and hug this stranger. "W-Where do I find them? How? Please, tell me. Oh please, oh please..." She continuing, slapping her tail down on the shallow water and splashing as she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping with all her might. "Please teach me all you know, please..."

[stelmarisa]

Ewe stopped laughing as she realised how intensely emotional this mermaid was. Living on Yoreiq, she was no stranger to mermaids and had conversed with one or two, but she had never met a creature quite like this one. She wriggled further down the sand, sitting in the shallows next to her companion.

"Well, if you don't trade for them, like I have... you have to swim for them!" She explained, slightly baffled that a sea-creature didn't know this. "You can dive, right?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

Of course she could dive! She was the best diver of all diving!! Well. She didn't even know what that meant but she knew she could swim. That's about the same, right? She nodded her head vigorously. "I-I can. Where do I look??"

[stelmarisa]

Ewelani stood up, tying her hair back. "Why don't I show you? We can bring some up and I can show you how to get the pearls and make them into jewellery." Her eyes were shining at the idea of such an adventure. "There's a cove near here with lots of oysters - follow me and then we can dive."

She untied her cloth top and sarong, leaving them on the beach where she had been sitting, and plunged herself into the water. She bobbed along side the mermaid, laughing. "Come on!" She struck out through the shallow water, keeping to the shore for a several meters, until they reached a coral-enclosed cove. Treading water, she turned to look for her new companion. "Ready?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

She'd been waiting for this her whole life, she was much more than ready for this. Her rite of passage could be completed, she could become an adult and choose a mate. Oh, how wonderful!! She clapped her hands a little at the thought. "I am ready." She said, assuredly.

Then, suddenly she remembered what the siren had told her, about there being more to life... She pondered on that thought as she entered the cove with the strange woman. "O-Oh! I'm Glimmer. My name, that is. Glimmer. W-Who are you?" She said, beaming at her brightly.

[stelmarisa]

"Oh, I'm Ewelani," Ewe returned the mermaid's grin, amused by this excitable creature. "You can call me Ewe though, everyone does." She swam over to the edge of the cove, holding on to a rock as she spoke.

"Okay, I'm not gonna be able to talk underwater like you can, so you'll just have to follow me," she explained. "I'm going to find a particular type of shell and bring them up, so if you want to do the same we have more chance of being lucky! Then we can go back to the beach and look at them. Okay?"

She shot a bright grin at Glimmer, took a deep breath, and pushed herself underwater. As her outstretched arms touched the bottom of the cove she opened her eyes, scanning around the seabed. Working quickly, she spotted a cluster of oyster shells and pointed them out to Glimmer, before gathering as many as she could hold. Rapidly running out of breath, she just had to assume that the mermaid would have followed her lead, and kicked her way back up to the surface, oysters held tightly to her chest.

She broke above the waves, gasping for air, and looked around for her companion.

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer took a bit longer before pulling up to the surface with all she could hold. She pretty much took every oyster. "But these aren't the stones you showed me earlier." She was deeply confused and to be frank, a little disappointed. This wasn't going to make her jewelry! She frowned. Maybe she'd been tricked...

[stelmarisa]

Still gasping for breath, Ewe tried to laugh and ended up spluttering and choking on the salt water. Spitting out a mouthful, she giggled over at Glimmer. "No! These are oysters... the pearls are inside them! Follow me."

Twisting on to her back to better hold the shells, she swam the few metres back to where they had been before, hauling herself back onto the sand. Arranging the wet shells in a pattern, she looked curiously at the mermaid. "Haven't you ever collected pearls before? I thought mermaids would have."

[Glimmeringpearl]

She shook her head, water dripping all over for a moment. "I didn't even know these shells had stones in them at all..." She wanted to pry one open and peek but she would be patient. Her fin flopped around in the water as she watched her arrange them. "What do you humans call them...?" She asked, her sea-green eyes curious upon her.

l[ Hey, sorry it took me so long to respond. I'm still in college and I'm SOOO tired this week! ]l

[stelmarisa]

((Don't worry about it! I know what that can be like ^^))

"Weird!" Ewe laughed, taking the shells from Glimmer and adding them to her pile. "Well the shells are oysters, and so is the gooey bit inside. And we call the stones, pearls." She smiled, enjoying teaching Glimmer. "And you open them like this..."

She looked around for a suitable tool, quickly finding a sharp, flat stone, and wiggled the oyster open. "Like that!" She showed Glimmer the inside of the shell, poking around to reveal a tiny pearl.

"This one only has a little pearl though..."

[Glimmeringpearl]

It was obvious that size didn't matter to Glimmer. Her eyes watered as she looked at it with unspeakable joy. She cupped her mouth and smiled. "I can't believe they've been right in front of me this whole time!"

[stelmarisa]

She smiled gently, pulling the pearl from its bed and handing it to Glimmer. "There you go then, your first pearl."

She set the oyster shell aside, beginning to open another. "Not all of them will have pearls in though, you understand. Not all oysters grow them."

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer held the tiny, cool pearl in her hand. She squeezed her eyes shut and the waterworks began. Tears streamed down her cheeks one after another and her shoulders began to shake as she sobbed. She was so overwhelmingly thankful. Even if it was just one pearl, it was enough to make her feel some self worth. She felt like she meant something to her people.

[stelmarisa]

Ewelani tilted her head, baffled. Why was the mermaid crying? She had seemed so happy and excited before - and now, all of a sudden, she was acting as though the entire endeavour had been a failure.

"What's wrong? You don't like it?" She frowned, unsure of what to do. Was it her suggestion that they may not get many pearls? "There probably will be more, you know, if that's what you're worried about," she said gently, reaching a hand out to Glimmer's shoulder.

[Glimmeringpearl]

"No, Ewelani. This is the best moment of my entire being. I could not possibly explain what this means to my people, what it means to me." She sobbed, tears sliding down her cheeks as she clenched her teeth. "I could not be more thankful. The sea smiles on me today when she brings me these. I can go home...."