The Little Mermaid of the Gulf (#OnceUponNow)

Part 2: Strangeling

Tucked away beneath gray, jagged rocks that had been vibrant coral when Maro was a young one, the alcove was a sanctuary from the part of the ocean where the pod resided since the black waters came. A stain of black sand still marked where they had last lived, where Miranda's mother died. Maro didn't like to think of that--luckily, he wasn't often forced to think about it, except during times of tragedy like this--and instead Maro filled the alcove with sea flowers to brighten the gray. Miranda made a different, more secretive (or so she thought) choice. Miranda chose to fill her part of the alcove with hidden trinkets from shore.

When Maro found his daughter, she was admiring one of these trinkets, though this one was new: a small, silver loop of shining metal with a circular face at the top. Maro thought of how recently Miranda must have traveled close to shore to get this item, possibly even while he was meeting with the council in Mississippi Canyon, and the thought of her disappearing like Calder did sent a quake of nerves from Maro's dark, matted hair to the ends of his silvery fins.

"What is that?" he asked, startling Miranda enough that bubbles grew around her with her sudden movement.

She dropped the item--a watch whose face had exploded beneath the water's pressure--and let it float into the wall of the alcove. Another bit of glass loosened from her treasure. Miranda's hair, like dark, twisted vines of kelp emerging from the shadowy blue depths, moved to catch up with the rest of her body. Her cheeks were made even darker by the shock of having been caught, but her voice played the role she meant for her body to play as well: the young ingenue.

"It's just a strangeling I found in the golden water," she said in the sweetest voice she could use. This was another fault of Maro's. As Miranda grew up in the wake of tragedy and black waters, Maro persisted in finding the beautiful things still available in the Gulf. The area of golden water was one of these beautiful things. Past the stream current, through the neighboring dolphin pod, the golden water was a place where the sun shone straight through to the seabed, making the whole area light up like a precious gem. He had introduced Miranda to a world of treasure, and now, like the greedy landfolk, he had to take it away.

"You can't go to the golden water anymore," Maro said with a sigh.

Miranda rose to meet her father's eyes, her one brow lifted in confusion. "Why?"

"It's too dangerous. The pod is searching for Calden as we speak, and we must take precautions in case Calden was reeled into one of the landfolk's traps."

Miranda's stomach churned, not only at the thought of one of their own being dragged onto a landfolk ship, but also at the idea of landfolk traps. Every day since Calden went missing, Miranda had been given a gift. Usually she would scavenge the leftover treasures of the landfolk for strangelings. A pair of sunglasses some swimmer lost, an old bottle, one missing sandal. But for the past three days, Miranda had found a strangeling purposely placed for her, she supposed, in a wooden box staked to the newly formed seabed just beyond the bluffs on Grand Isle.

The first day, it was a fresh water pearl necklace, dark purple and opalescent like Miranda's fins.

The second day, it was a golden box filled with pressed flowers from the land.

And now, on the third day, it was a silver watch.

Could this be a trap?

She didn't dare worry her father with her suspicions, but instead, continued to play it off as if she had no idea what sort of danger she might be in.

"The council believes Calden was captured? Do they have any evidence?"

"Dover has his suspicions. He even suggested that you might have something to do with Calden's disappearance."

"Why?" Miranda asked, the sweet tone no longer audible in her voice. Miranda barely knew Calden. She was only familiar enough with him to know that he preferred the company of his friends and of more beautiful mermaids than she, that he often traveled even closer to the landfolk than Miranda, and that he was slated to take his grandfather's council seat and perhaps one day, her father's seat as head of the council. He was the bright hope for their pod, a boy whose glow never blinded Miranda as it had done to so many others in the pod.

"He knows you go to the shore."

Miranda's heart clenched. "You know too?"

Maro flashed a smile. "You don't hide your strangelings very well." He straightened his posture. "Promise me you won't return to the golden water or the shore."

"Papa--"

"--No more strangelings. No more danger. You are all I have left in this ocean."

Miranda wanted to argue with her father, but the look on his face quelled any sparks within her. "Yes, Papa," she said.

Maro smiled. "The rest of the pod is starting another search for Calden," he said.

Miranda understood. "I'm ready, Papa. Let's go."

As they left the alcove, the discarded watch, Miranda's third gift, floated aimlessly, finally sinking to the sandy seabed.