Water: The Mermaid Legacy Book One

“Don’t ever do that to me again, Alex!”

I nodded and gave him a wobbly smile, my mind still trying to unscramble the mysterious events that resulted in me still being alive.

Josh draped his arm around my shoulders as we walked to the cave we’d be staying in that night, keeping up a falsely cheerful conversation that soothed my shattered nerves, and a tight hold on me that bore most of my body weight.

The boys treated me like I was made of china for the rest of the day, insisting that I get into some borrowed dry clothes as soon as we reached the overhang which was to be our shelter for the evening. Josh quickly built a fire while Luke went hunting for our dinner.

I watched in awe as the sun, which had almost set, bathed the view from the cave in blood-red light edged in shadows.

Directly beneath me and above me, the rock face ran in an unrelenting gash across the middle of this comparatively small mountain, curving away from me into a valley dark with trees. I could hear the chuckle of a stream somewhere below where I was standing and could make out the grassy plain we’d walked through earlier in the day, now a pool of violet shadow.

I turned to see what lay ahead of us, what the rest of this camping trip might hold.

Its beauty left me breathless.

We had walked deep into the Injisuthi and the mountains that were a pretty backdrop from the Van Heerdens’ farm, now soared majestically skyward, their jagged outline looming in confident grandeur above me. I felt so small and insignificant pitted against their timeless magnificence.

Josh’s sleeve brushed my arm, startling me, as he joined me in admiring the view.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” His voice was hushed as the night’s chorus washed over us.

I nodded. We stood in companionable silence watching the last of the light bleed into the shadows, before moving back to the crackling fire.

Our conversation spanned a vast array of subjects, from Josh’s theories about the female leader in the cave, to school. Josh politely avoided talking about my family and particularly about Brent, which I was grateful for, and instead hovered on light and happy topics.

Josh was going into his final year of school the following semester and was then planning to go on to study further in medicine.

“What about you, Al?” he asked casually. “What do you want to be?”

I hated this question, mainly because I didn’t know the answer to it.

My parents had decided that I would study further after school and were trying to persuade me that my grades in maths and science should naturally lead me to engineering or medicine or something along those lines. Just because I was good at those subjects didn’t necessarily mean I liked them, in fact, I couldn’t think of anything more terrifying than being trapped in a world constantly bombarded by routine. A world, that from my perspective, most adults I knew seemed to suffocate in.

I shrugged “no idea”.

“Oh come on,” he goaded, “you must have some clue?”

“OK,” I grinned. “I want to be a warrior princess.”

Josh laughed at me. As children we’d often played a game where Alexa the warrior princess, along with her trusty sidekick Josh, rescued the world from Luke the dragon.

“You look like you’re turning into just that,” he replied, grinning at me, seemingly pleased at the blush that crawled up my neck. “Although maybe the warrior element needs a bit of work, most warriors can hold their own against baboons,” he amended, lightening the sudden intensity of the mood.

I laughed, nodding.

“What’s so funny?” Luke asked, walking into the cave.

“Just teasing Alex about her clumsiness today,” Josh replied easily.

The rest of the evening was lovely. One of the last uncomplicated evenings I remember. The night sky, so far from any manmade light, was crowded with billions of stars, the summer air warm and gentle on our exercise-weary bodies.

The boys had decided to go back to the pool I’d fallen into the next day. As it was only a short distance from the cave, I was given the option to join them or stay at base camp.

I shuddered at the thought of going anywhere near that pool again, remembering the icy water closing over my head as my lungs fought for air and black spots danced in front of my eyes. It wasn’t just the water that made me edgy, he might be there, or was the right pronoun it?

After dinner, we climbed into our sleeping bags around the fire and chatted until the moon rose brilliant and full, eclipsing the stars.

I don’t remember falling asleep, but I do remember waking up!

The firelight had faded and the crackling and popping of burning wood had subsided to a smoky hush. My eyes opened heavily my mind trying to sort through what had woken me.

I was just drifting back to sleep when I heard it again. The soft pad of footsteps as someone walked past my head.

My heart began to pound.

I opened my eyes to tiny slits searching for Luke and Josh’s sleeping forms, hoping against hope to find one of their sleeping bags wrinkled and empty. They were both sound asleep, their faces a warm orange from the dying fire.

A sigh to the left of Josh and on the edge of the cave had my heart pounding, freezing my muscles in place as I twisted my head to see who or what had made the sound.

He was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the small cliff below the cave, outlined by the moonlight.

I felt a scream building in my throat as panic gripped me.

I must have moved, or he felt my eyes on him, because he swung around into a crouch very suddenly, his long hair swinging out behind him, his muscles bunched and poised for flight.

I sat up very slowly trying to make out who it was. Moonlight glinted off his skin and he turned his head fractionally, the silvery light revealing clearly that it was the same person who’d rescued me earlier.

Fear and curiosity tugged at me. This time curiosity won.

“Please don’t go,” I whispered.

He was motionless for what seemed like an age and then stretched out his hand to me.

I took a deep breath, pushing the fear that almost incapacitated me away, as I untangled myself from my sleeping bag and crept toward him. Sitting down a few paces from him I wrapped my arms around my legs and stared in fascination. His profile in the moonlight reaffirmed my initial impressions from the afternoon. Strong features countered by youthful softness.

“Hello, Alexandra,” he said quietly, his voice rich and warm.

“How do you know my name?”

His full lips curled into a smile.

“Am… am I dreaming?”

This made the most sense to me. Somehow, I must have sleepwalked to the edge of the cave and this was a dream created by my sub-conscious mind as it wrestled with my miraculous survival of the fall into the pool.

He slowly shifted closer, watching me the whole time as if I were a bird that would take flight if he moved too quickly, and took my hand in both of his.

They were rough and warm.