Mission Starfin

Chapter One

Nearly three quarters of the earth is covered in water. Therefore it

stands to reason why there is a possibility that creatures such as mermen and mermaids could be in fact real. There are many theories on this very understanding and many have even claimed to have witnessed one, but there is still no scientific evidence that neither proves, or disproves it. My name is Dr. Peter Santos and I have been studying the possibility of Mer-life for most of my life. I began the obsession of Mer-folk, after an encounter with one when I was a small child, roughly five years old. My family was situated in Verrania in 2005.

My father, Bill Santos was a fisherman who was a strong believer in the beauty and power of the ocean. He would tell me tales about the legends that brought on my fascination with mermaids. I could never forget the stories he told me and his crew, sailing for weeks, on Maiden Alissa, named after my mother who was lost at sea back in 2001 when I was just a baby.

One of the many stories he would tell was about Azmar, who was a Merman.

”A storm brew in and I gathered the crew and ordered them to prepare for the hand of Azmar. I had heard tales about this creature from other fishermen who I crossed paths with.” My father began the story.

“Azmar had long golden brown hair that came down to his waist, from the waste up he could fool you as any other human, but below the waste he had a fin like a fish. He was muscular, his skin was a golden color and his fin was a dark green. He had green eyes that were larger than a humans and his nose was small, his lips full. He held in his hand a trident made of whale bone rising out from the waves, onto a large rock in the ocean.

He held it out in the direction of the ship. He wore a necklace made of shark teeth, which draped loosely around his neck.”

I sat on a large barrel gazing at my father with wide eyes along side of his crew, who drank beer from large wooden mugs. I was a small boy, the only child on board. My eyes were blue and my hair a dark brown. I wore a white shirt and jean shorts cut at the bottom, which were frayed at the end.

“The waves rocked the ship and the wind tore at the sails, shifting the ships direction from left to right. Rain poured down and the crew tried to keep steady, but the waves grew stronger and stronger, causing the water to fill the ship quickly. The ship went under with incredible force. The crew struggled to climb into the safety boats that were tossed over board before the ship went under. Not everyone made it out.

One man named Seimore Luis, was stranded in the waters, gripping onto a barrel tightly, struggling to keep above water. The waves pulled him under and forced him back to the surface.” My father sipped his beer and sucked back on a cigar before finishing,

“Seimore wasn’t alone out there. His eyes looked to the ocean in a distant stare, A woman appeared in the water.” He became quiet.

“A woman father?” I questioned him.

“Not an ordinary woman son. This woman was like the Mer-man with long dark hair and big green eyes. A small nose and big lips. She had gills at the edge of her jawline and a slender upper body. She was a beauty above the tale, that swayed beneath the water next to him, brushing against his legs. She pulled him into her arms and took him under. The crew watched near by, paddling towards him.”

”What happened to him father?” My father stared at me long and hard with a glossiness to his eyes.

“She drowned him.”

I couldn’t help but see the pain in my fathers eyes while he told the story. Almost as though he were a close relative of his. I wasn’t sure what Seymour meant to him, but maybe it wasn’t about that, but stirred up feelings he still felt for the death of my mother.

You see, my mother was said to have drowned at sea and my father had to accept it as such, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a mermaid at play at her death, like young Seimore who was under twenty years of age.

I lay in my bed beneath the ship feeling it sway, which for the longest time had made me sick to my stomach. My father sat at my bedside tucking me in, beneath the covers.

“Why do you think she drowned him father?” My curiosity was always there for mermaids. I wanted to understand them, they fascinated me. Maybe because of the tales my father told me.

He always looked as though he was far away... lost.

”I think they are angry with us son. I believe they fear us because of what we can do to them. It is easy to understand the fear. If I were a mermaid unknown to humans I would be afraid, I think.”

“But why father?”

“We are curious and right now they are free and undiscovered. Imagine if man knew of them, imagine the threat we would hold to their existence. Man would want to know more about them. Understand them and with this curiosity they would go to great lengths to prove their existence.”

”Would we hurt them father?”

He stared off into space for a long minute before he answered.

“Yes... I believe we would.”

“I don’t think I could ever hurt such a creature.” I said, “After all, this is their home and they have more of a right to be here than we do.”

He knelt down and kissed me on the forehead,

"You are more brave than I am Peter." He smiled.

"Never lose that."