Page 5 of Mermaid on Heels

Liriya was breathless. She could tell that her sisters were too. Therefore, she spoke for herself and on their behalf. “Yes we do, Papa.”

Suddenly, taking Liriya by surprise at his swift moves, Papa lifted his arms. He reached for the heads of the guards holding him and slammed them together, as he bent his own head to avoid being hurt in the process. Their grip from him fell immediately and their unconscious bodies began floating down.

Liriya looked at Papa with appraising eyes, and a smile rose on her face.

The guards holding her and her sisters kept going upwards, not registering what had happened. Papa did the same with Ella’s and Sessa’s guards, and then turned to Liriya’s. Liriya glanced worriedly at Abacus; she didn’t want him to get hurt even though it was the only option they had.

Papa realized her concern. “They will be alright when they wake up, my Liriya. What if I am doing them a favor and knocking them out of the enchantment?” he joked and slammed Abacus’ head with the other guard, freeing her.

Liriya released a sob-like laugh in relief and almost threw herself into Papa’s arms when a flash caught her eyes. She paused and looked above her. The movement was too swift for her sharp eyes to track, and something fell over Papa. He struggled against it, jerking and yanking.

Liriya’s eyes widened in horror, mirroring the one on Papa’s face.The pirates’ trap!

Papa was trapped.

“Papa!” Ella and Sessa cried, swimming towards him, but Papa cried back in protest, “No! Go! Get out of here, angelfishes! Get out of here! Liriya, take them away!”

“We are not leaving you!” Liriya protested, almost sobbing, and floated towards him as the pirates began pulling him upwards.

“No!” Papa’s face twisted in anguish as he looked down at them. “I love you my daughters, you are my pride and my joy. Please, for the love of me and your mama, go! Get away, far away, now! Do not let Faelina get you. Do not surrender! Swim!”

“Papa…”

“Angelfishes go,now!”

Helpless, Liriya grabbed her sisters’ wrists and dragged them backward with her. They watched their beloved papa being taken away from them, pulled further and further up to the forbidden surface.

Just before they turned to swim away unwillingly, they heard him again.

“May the Creator be with you!”

Chapter 1

Liriya opened her eyes. It was a dream, just another nightmare, not history repeating itself.

She heaved a deep sigh of exhaustion from the night’s torture and sat upwards on the soft seafloor. Three months had passed since that dreadful day and she and her sisters had found their new home, far away from their evil half-sister, in a vacant cave of crystals inside the rift on an enormous rock. As much as she missed the comfort of sleeping on a weed bed, Liriya was used to sleeping on the silvery sand now.

She had to admit, it wasn’t bad.

The loss of their parents and their home was still a fresh wound in her heart. Sometimes it felt like just yesterday. Mama’s motionless frame and her out of focus eyes, Papa’s anguished voice calling out to them to swim away—No!

Liriya jerked back to reality.

Stopping herself from reliving those moments, she closed the door in her mind to the past. She couldn’t keep doing this every morning and cry in regret for the rest of her life. What happened was in the past; regretting it and wonderingwhat ifwere useless. There was no turning back, no remaking, none. She should move on with her sisters and live for them. That would be what her parents want her to do, too.

Inhaling sharply, Liriya turned to her left and stared at her sleeping, precious sisters. Ella and Sessa were all she had now; taking care of them and protecting them from Faelina was her priority.

In the past three months, they had been safe in this deserted area of the sea that was still unknown to her. No merman or mermaid had crossed paths with them, and Liriya decided it was safer this way. However, the challenge was the daily boredom to push each day forward. How long like this? Liriya yearned to know. She had never seen her sisters doomed before, or had she felt it herself in her entire life.

Was there a Creator in heaven, after all? Or was it just a tale? Because Liriya felt as though no one as such from her parents’ beliefs existed, a Creator who watched over them. If He did, she and her sisters wouldn’t have been in this seemingly endless misery.

Sessa stirred next to her, turning on her side and unconsciously laying her tail over Ella. Liriya smiled in spite of herself. Being the youngest and only ten, Sessa preferred sleeping between her older sisters in proximity; she was still uncomfortable living in such a strange and open place with a huge rift over them that she thought would let sharks pass.

However, sixteen-year-old Ella, always bold and headstrong, was as almost comfortable with their new home as Liriya. Ella had her mind constantly buzzing with plans to overthrow their half-sister, break the spell, and reclaim the throne.

Liriya had a feeling that Ella hated Faelina more than she and Sessa did, hearing her say at least once a day about her regret of the cowardly act on that dayandof her burning desire to slam Faelina’s head against a wall like Papa did with the guards.

“What if that would break the overall enchantment?” She would ask at last.