How the story starts
The story began in a lake surrounded by mountains and trees. The lake has a beach with small rocks. The water seems clean and very clear on the surface. The lake is calm, with small waves slowly breaking on the beach in a regular cycle. On the surface, it all seems so peaceful. But the surface isn’t what matters, it’s an illusion. The lake is very deep and has a forest of algae and trees inside it. The deeper you swim, the darker it gets.
That’s where they sought refuge. The mermaids are young, they are not used to the harsh life in uncharted waters. They lived a life of comfort, ease and abundance. Never knew hunger, never knew violence, never knew loss. They hoped to get rescued, but no one came for them. Days have gone by. They hunt on the surface of the lake, where prey is easier to catch. They try to survive. Maybe we are the same. Weeks have gone by. They try to survive, away from their home. They built a home to protect themselves. They protect each other. They help each other. Because they love each other. Maybe we are not the same. For months I’ve been observing them. I swim around them, I hide between the rocks, I slip through the seaweeds. I listen to their stories, I watch their feelings unfold, I smell their fears.
The lake is my home. I know the lake, I know the waters, I know the creatures, their spirits. The streams help me travel, they’re a route guiding me where I need to be. The surface is reassuring, with its transparent water that lets the sun shine through and illuminate every plant, every fish, every stone. The smell of the heat on the fresh mollusks. The young seaweeds dance with energy and rhythm. The surface is the loudest place. You can hear the different sounds of every life surrounding you. The bubbles escape the gills of the fish to join the surface in a rapid race. The dances of the algae create little flows all around them. You can even hear the wind moving the branches of the trees outside the water, in the mountains. In the water there is a newer sound, one that hadn’t been heard in a long time. It’s the group of mermaids. They laugh, they swim, they hunt, they eat, they tell stories. They’re a High school water polo team. All girls, all young, all innocent. They’re friends, they’re teammates. Some of them are even lovers. They have beautiful tails starting at their hips, covered with hundreds of beautiful scales. Most of their scales are a powerful navy blue, but when they swim at the surface on sunny days, you can see reflections of cobalt blue. The top and bottom of their tail is a shiny honey yellow. Despite the uniformed tails, they all look so unique. They have different skin tones, different hairstyles, different sizes. Each has her own way to smile, her own laugh, her own gestures, her own voice. They’re all so stunning, so charming. Such strong personalities. Such strengths, such beauty, such love to give. Such a life to live. I keep observing them. They never see me but I am always here. They haven’t seen me yet, but they feel me. They don’t know it – not yet, but I’m already in them.
The surface is comfortable. It’s full of sounds, full of light, full of smells and full of life. From there, you can start to see the forest of algae and trees under the water. It forms a link across the lake joining the surface to the bottom through thousands of plants all linked to each other. It’s like a big family. Every member is unique but they’re all part of a family, they are all attached to one another, in some way. At the top, you see the light passing through the smaller branches of the family. When the sun shines high in the skies, the neon green shines bright in the water, turning into a jade green when the clouds come to cover the sun’s rays.
Deeper down in the lake, the forest starts. The algae is thicker, intertwined. The rocks create cliffs, with streams that could swallow a fish into the void. It’s a forest of trees from the water and trees from outside, fallen during the storms and stuck here ever since. The lichen falls down from the branches and floats in the water. The light is almost gone, forcing you to see through a permanent filter of juniper green. Almost everything down there is green anyway. The moss grows on everything, like a coat. It’s soft, and there is no better feeling than laying on thick, centuries old moss like it’s a bed that was designed specially for you. The smell of the mollusks becomes heavier.
The mountain is my land. The lake is my garden. The forest is my home. The mountain protects me and I protect her. I have to nourish my land so she will nourish me. That’s why the mermaids are here. They’ve developed skills to adapt to their new environment and survive. But for how long?
Soon, winter will come. They fail to realise that in the winter, the water freezes, and then the entire lake is covered by a thick layer of ice. There is also snow on top of the ice and all around the lake, on the beach, the trees, the mountains. You feel blinded by the whiteness of your surroundings. Water is everywhere, in every form and you can not escape it. At first, the cold of the water makes you shiver. You can feel suffocated by the freezing water but at the same time you can feel your lungs expanding and growing in your thorax with every breath you take. For me, the cold is like an embrace. The cold is my friend.
Water feels like freedom, like sweetness, like friendship, like a lotus unfolding on the water. Soon, winter will come. The water will turn into a prison, bitter, like an enemy, like the diving knife of a two-legged creature carving the barnacles away from their home. Soon, winter will come, and everything will change. The water, the prey, the predators. The streams, the light, the fears.
I long for winter to come. I waited patiently for months until finally, winter came. It felt so sudden for the mermaids. It felt like an endless wait for me. I welcomed the winter with joy and excitement. They welcomed winter with terror and despair. I watched them fight against the thick layer of ice covering the lake. They used their fist, they made weapons, they used their bodies and all their strength. They tried their best to escape the lake. They want to see the surface again, they need to find food. The ice is as hard as a rock. A two-legged creature could stand on it, walk, even dance. It won’t budge. That’s the beauty of water. Water can change and transform endlessly. It melts from the glaciers into wild torrents, it travels from calm rivers to raging seas, it evaporates from warm swamps into powerful clouds. Water comes from the ocean and from the sky. Water comes from the earth and from the air. It’s everywhere but where it’s most beautiful is here, in my lake.
Although they don’t see me, the mermaids know I’m here. They started communicating with me, begging me to help them survive.
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
I try to help them however I can, but everything has a price. They believe I am the embodiment of the wilderness. They believe I can protect them, help them make it through the winter. They’re not wrong to pray for my help. Only I can save them.
Of all the creatures I’ve encountered, none ever resembled me. I have antlers like the deers who come down the beach to sip fresh water in the spring. My antlers let me hear the sounds, feel the water pressure. My head is covered by a hood, like a tight fishnet. It covers me like a veil, from all around my antlers to my shoulders. My body almost looks like the skirt of a jellyfish, but much longer, much thicker. It’s like a long white dress, with dozens of layers. I swim with grace in the water. The other water beings fear me not because of my uncommon looks but because of my power, because of my hunger. Soon, the mermaids will truly see me. I will meet them one by one. I yearn for the day they meet me.
When the story started, the mermaids were beautiful, innocent souls. When I captured them, they arrived in my lake pure and gentle creatures. They made tools from the seaweeds and the shells. They hunted fish, collected mollusks, raised crabs and grew plants. The sun traveled through the water to create life. Life they could count on to survive. The lake seemed harsh, but it was heaven compared to what it could become. Because when the water transforms into ice, it creates a barrier between the sky and the lake, and everything changes. When the lake grew from a newly met friend to a dangerous enemy, ready to devour you into the deep dark, everything changed. The mermaids starved. Some of them believed in me, tried to communicate and barter with me. Some denied my existence, tried to survive by their own methods. I turned them against one another. I haunted them. They all swam with despair, looking for anything that could save them. I kept haunting them. Until they would all finally understand that their only chance to survive was me.
I’m a creature like no other. Water beings are all part of a food chain. Like water, they form a cycle. You’re a prey to a predator who itself is a prey to another predator. I’m a creature like no other. Mermaids range high on the chain. They eat food from the earth and from the ocean. Big fish eat smaller fish. Smaller fish eat plants. Plants are nourished by the sun. The sun is a god we nourish through our sacrifices. I’m a creature like no other. Because just like the sun, I am nourished by sacrifices. I don’t feed on the flesh of other beings. I feed on their angst, their anger, their losses, their pain. I feed on the souls they will sacrifice in my name. Unlike the sun, I am not a god. I am just a creature like no other. Just like them, I’m not evil, I am just hungry.
The deepest part of the lake is the darkest. Even in the summer, the rays of the sun can not travel to this place. The bottom of the lake is quiet, there are no fish there, no dancing algae or colorful crabs. The bottom of the lake has sand and large stones. It has all the objects from the outside world that fell deep down in the lake, never to be found. Deep down in the bottom of the lake, it’s peaceful and quiet. Deep down in the bottom of the lake, I await. No one can stop what’s coming, no one can stop what is already here. I hear voices coming from above.
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
Finally. I smell panic, I feel trepidation.
The mermaids are hunting except this time, it’s a very different hunt. Or maybe it’s just a very different prey. One of the mermaids swims as fast as she can through the underwater forest. Her arms tear out the veils of seaweeds to create a passage through the many tangled limbs. She doesn’t feel like the strong athlete she used to be back home, swimming like a champion and scoring goals. She feels scared, diving through unknown waters. She’s never immersed herself so deep in the algae forest. Even if they don’t catch her, how will she survive? She can’t hide forever. She hears the screams of her friends. Friends? Is that really what they are? They’re getting closer, she knows she can’t swim forever. Suddenly she stops and hides inside the trunk of a broad lichen-covered tree. In the dark, they won’t see her. They’ll swim past her and it’ll give her some time to recuperate. It will give her some time to think. She stays still in the dark, holding her tail in her arms. The algae caresses her skin softly, giving her a feeling of warmth and affection she hasn’t felt in a long time now. Her lover has betrayed her. She is with her teammates, looking for her, roaming so close to her. She tries to cover her gills with her hands to shush the wheezing sound coming out of them. It hurts, she’s not used to such races, she’s not used to such adrenaline and terror. It’s too late anyway. They’ve heard the whistling of her gills gasping for more water. They found her. It’s over.
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
Hearing this sweet melody, I feel a shiver of excitement. Finally, they’ve hunted one of them. Someone they cherished, someone they counted on, someone who was part of the team. They hunted her, they murdered her, they skinned her, taking off every scale of her beautiful midnight blue tail. They peeled off her flesh, grabbing and pulling it off her slim white bones. They devoured her flesh, every last bit of it. They savored the delicious taste of a starved stomach finally filled up with food. They did what they needed to survive. She was chosen. She had to sacrifice her body. Thanks to her sacrifice, her friends would survive.
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
“We hear the wilderness and it hears us”
On my white dress, I have tied a strand of her scales. She is a part of me now, her soul has nourished me. I am pleased with their sacrifice, therefore, I will help them survive like they have helped me.
Because, just like them, I am not evil. Just hungry.
