Sparkles in the Sand

[stelmarisa]

"Oh, well that's good then." Ewe withdrew her hand from Glimmer's shoulder, relieved but bemused. Now this strange creature was crying out of happiness? Ewe rarely cried, but when she did, it certainly wasn't becaus she was happy. Happiness was for celebrating - laughing, dancing, singing - not crying!

"Well then, if you stop crying, we can look in the other shells. I'll show you how." Ewe held out another sharp rock to Glimmer, pushing some of the shells over to her. "Do you just want the pearls, or did you want actual jewellery?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

She sniffed, trying desperately to rid herself of tears. "I-I need the jewelry, to wear it. It's for my rite of passage. I cannot go home until I have it." She explained, figuring that the reason Ewe looked so bewildered was that their rites of passage were not even close to the ones mermaids endured. She bite her lip to stifle her cries and began to bust open the shells with a rock, prying the shell apart with her eyelashes wet with tears.

[stelmarisa]

"You can't go home? Why? Who will stop you? Why don't you just... go?" Ewe was confused, totally baffled as to why a lack of jewellery would put a person out of a home. "Your rite of passage is about jewellery?" She frowned as she looked at the distressed mermaid, wondering about this culture. It sounded so strange to her.

"Well, either way, I can make you a necklace, or bracelet if you like. It will take a little while, but it will be jewellery. Or does it have to be something specific?" She offered, considering the idea of a long afternoon spent threading pearls. She might as well - it wasn't as if she had any pressing obligations.

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer looked puzzled. Did no one else understand her culture? Did humans not do things such as this? She digressed. "I am exiled. As a rite of passage, a young mermaid must go and find a jewelry type that explains her and befits her. Then she can find a mate and bear an egg and take her place among society. Without the jewelry, we do not attract mates and are useless. So we are exiled." She was looking very sad as she said this

"I wanted to make a large necklace that will cover me from head to fin!"

[stelmarisa]

Ewe bit her lip, feeling sorry for Glimmer as she explained her plight. But, she couldn't help but ask more questions about this odd life. "What do you mean, you're useless without a mate? Why can't you do something else? ... What if you just don't want a mate?" She frowned, trying to wrap her head around the concept, then realised something else.

"You only have one mate? Ever?" Whilst Ewe herself was still young and unattached - to anyone - she had never heard of someone only having one partner - why would someone want to limit themselves like that?

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer reflected Ewe's confusion double with her own. Why would anyone want more than one partner? So many different cultures. "Well... In our culture, you have to be someone who is highborne in order to decide not to mate. If you don't, you are ostracized. We have occupations, but mating is most important." Her lips pursed together momentarily. "You don't want to have an egg...?" She pressed.

Mermaid culture was very simple. She did not understand these feelings of rebellion that others not of her species seemed to immediately evoke.

[stelmarisa]

Ewe thought for a moment, considering the idea that mating was so crucial. "Well of course family is the most important thing - but you just have an egg with one mate? How does that work? Everybody here is raised by the whole village. If you-" She stopped suddenly as she realised what Glimmer had said next, and fell into peals of laughter.

"An egg?! We don't lay eggs!"

[Glimmeringpearl]

Don't lay eggs? Human reproduction sure is weird! Glimmer pouted at the burst of laughter. Was it so silly that she didn't know what humans were like? Originally, she thought they were monstrous, sharp-toothed creatures who ate mermaids as well as anything else they could find. An incessantly hungry beast. "I don't understand. How come you don't lay eggs? And what about the whole village? What is a village?" She tried to mimic the word but couldn't get her mouth around it.

[stelmarisa]

Ewe stopped laughing, feeling a little guilty when she saw Glimmer's pout. "I'm sorry! It's just so strange to think of us laying eggs," she giggled again. "We have human babies. They're born looking... well exactly like tiny people! They sort of grow inside a woman, I suppose." She glossed over the details, not exactly sure of them.

"And the village is our... community, our society. We live in huts, and there are lots of huts all in one place. That's a village. How do your people live?" She was curious now.

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer didn't know how to explain it. Pretty much all of the castle belonged to everyone, but the ruling body was the queen. Glimmer remembered her queen well. She was blonde and was covered in strips of lace and very soft-spoken. "We live all in one place, in the castle. We sleep wherever and we only mate once a year, then the men leave and the women tend to the egg beds." She said, matter-of-factly. She then continued to pry pearls from their shells.

[Glimmeringpearl]

l[ Dude, I am so sorry it took me so long to respond. I just started work last week and I've been so damn tired. :CCC ]l

[stelmarisa]

((No worries! Real life is tricksy like that!))

"A castle?" Ewe was curious. She had heard the word before, she thought... a vague memory of a mainland trader came to mind... but she didn't really know what that entailed. "What is a castle like?"

She set her pearls aside and settled down to talk to Glimmer, genuinely intrigued by the differences in their cultures. "Mating... is mating having ... physical relations?" She wasn't sure of the words to use in her attempt to correctly translate the concepts.
"But you only do that once a year? Why? And why do the men leave?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

She tried to think of a way to describe the castle. It was made of marble and other stone-materials and was largely claimed by the sea. It had marble floors that were a beautiful blue that shimmered in the water. "A castle is... Like a large hut with many rooms and many floors." She tried to explain. She wasn't quite sure she understood what a hut was all the way, but she could guess it would be like what outsiders live in. "Mating is... Physical, yes. Is it not for humans?" Maybe they used telepathy to inseminate, she had no clue.

"The men... Are violent and they only tend to be calm and not feed during mating season. They are hostile and some have even slaughtered weaker mermaids. But... They're nicer.... During mating season..." Her voice shrank as she spoke. She didn't like thinking of her mate. It was the egg she wanted.

[stelmarisa]

"Yes, mating is physical, but that sounds as if you do it just to have children - I think? But here people do it whenever they want to, it doesn't have to do with babies." Ewe tried to explain.

"Violent? Slaughtering?" Distracted from her explanations of sex, Ewe broke off and stared at Glimmer in shock. "They hurt you? All of them? Why doesn't anyone stop them, or punish them?" She was horrified. Of course fights occured on Yoreiq - it was human nature, after all - but systematic violence such as this was unheard of.

"That sounds awful!"

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer paused when Ewe mentioned sexual relations in humans were more than to reproduce. Wasn't that the whole point? She did not understand. Listening to her concern over the violent-nature of the men of her race, she frowned. "They hurt us if we get close to their dens in times that mating is not available. The men are violent by nature and are cursed with an insatiable hunger. This has to do a lot with The Goddess we worship. We kill those stragglers who close in too much on our castle, however, most of the year they are away. They usually prey on outcasts. I am quite fortunate indeed!" She smiled at the last sentence, so lucky to be alive was she. A good fighter such as herself would be a shame to lose.

[stelmarisa]

"That's horrible!" Ewe frowned, aghast at Glimmer's admittance. "You kill people? Why would you do that?" She didn't stop to think that maybe she was being unfair, so horrified was she by Glimmer's casual talk of death.

"You don't sound very lucky... it's terrible that you're an outcast. That's so sad." She pouted and reached out to pat Glimmer's hand.

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer brushed some of her scarlet locks behind her blue-webbed ear, which shimmered translucent with the sun against it, in great discomfort. She didn't know what to make of this response. If she didn't get the men of her race, they would surely kill her and feed on her. It was awful, yes, the curse that plagued them, but despite her pity for them should would not be succumbed to them and become a feast. "Well... We have to. It's an awful curse that plagues their blood. I feel bad for them. They weren't always such... Beasts. However, if I were to let them live, they would conquer us and feed on us all. Even our little ones." Her sea-green eyes cast downward. That's what was most important. The children.

At the sentiment about feeling bad for her, Glimmer wanted to cry some more. Here was the first person in the whole world to feel bad for her and give comfort for the exiled mermaid. Glimmer sat upright and scooted closer, enveloping her arms around the young lady. This was at least how her people said hello and thank you and expressed things. Mermaids were very touchy creatures. "Thank you." She said quietly.

[stelmarisa]

Ewe frowned as she leaned forwards, watching Glimmer intently. "So the men try to kill you, and you try to kill the men? That sounds so complicated... and bloodthirsty!"

She smiled gently as she was hugged, returning the embrace gently. It was an odd feeling, hugging a mermaid. As she let go, she sat back on her knees, returning to something Glimmer had said before.
"A curse? As in a real one? What is it?"

[Glimmeringpearl]

Glimmer's eyes seemed to wander off to a distant place, as though she bore witness to it. "The great goddess of all waters, Illume, once had a mate who was constant and not a beast. His name was Noct. Noct enjoyed the dazzling revels of his queen, and did not provide but instead basked in the goddesses constant flow of abundance. They even slept in the same place without worry one might kill the other..." She remembered the art done in their favor, the mosaics on walls of the palace made with shells. She remembered all the colors on Illume's tail and how it shimmered in the daytime. Oh, when she was a girl she would loved to have had such a magnificent tail. Her eyes sparkles at the memory and just as quickly, faded. Her smile faded from her lips and eyes as she continued. "He was not faithful. Instead, Noct could be found on the shores of the earth and took the form of a man somehow. There he found many women and lie with them in disrespect to the great wonders Illume had given him."

Glimmer resembled clear disdain and disgust, resenting the deed Noct had done that had driven Illume from her waters. "Noct had never known what it meant to be hungry due to Illume's constant giving and lavishment upon him. So... She gave him fearsome jaws and made his stomach unendingly empty. He feast upon the flesh of all his mates except Illume. Illume then banished Noct and all men from the palace to some loathsome den... Where they are always hungry."

[stelmarisa]

Ewelani was quiet through Glimmer's story, thinking. As the mermaid finished, she sat silently for another few minutes, considering the tale.

"In Yoreiq, relationships are never between only two people. They are open and giving, and you may be with as many as you like... it is seen as almost selfish to keep your lover just to yourself." She shrugged. "Perhaps if Illume had thought like that, then that tragedy would never have happened."

She paused. "I don't understand, though. Why did Illume punish all men, when only one had hurt her?"