Cursed to the Sea

Dark Depths

"Aye there little fish girl.  I'm takin' ya back where ya belong."

Everything ached and throbbed horribly.  I could barely move once I regained consciousness and I couldn't quite remember anything at all.  I kept repeating the words that had been burned into my memory.  Someone had grabbed me on the docks.  I had felt their hot breath in my ear as they whispered.  Somehow I had blacked out then and ended up here on the only dry ledge of an underwater  cave.  I wasn't quite sure how there was any air in here at all.  Perhaps I was closer to the shore than I thought I was.

It felt like days had passed and I had been laying here alone.  No one had brought me any food and my stomach felt like it was caving in on itself.  I couldn't concentrate on anything and my legs refused to move the way I wanted them.  There was no hope for my fate at all.

"Don't die," a quiet voice whispered from behind.  "They'll punish me."  It took me a minute to roll myself around so I faced the small pool of water that led out to the ocean and seemed to be the only way in or out.  A boy leaned against the edge with his chin resting in his palm.

"How long have you been there?"  I gasped.  The boy had long unnaturally fiery red hair that fanned out around him, perhaps even longer than mine.  His eyes were golden and large.  He seemed to be gazing past me distantly. 

"Long enough.  I brought you food,"  he lifted himself out of the water.  I shouldn't have been so surprised to find that he possessed a fiery red tail to match his long locks.  He held a dead fish in his hands that I could have sworn flopped as he adjusted himself and placed it down in front of me.  I sat up and poked the fish's slimy head.

"You can't expect me to eat this," I tried to say in the nicest way possible although it came out in more of a snobby tone than I'd have liked.  He knitted his eyebrows and then shook his head.

"We don't have human food down here.  You're lucky they even had me bring you something at all," he nudged the fish closer towards me.  I cringed at the fishy aroma that filled my nose.

"It's just-I don't want to get sick," I muttered under my breath.  The look in his eyes was unamused, almost frustrated.  I didn't want to annoy him, especially since he was the first person I had spoken to in who knows how long.  I could barely even remember how I had even gotten here.  It wouldn't be such a great idea to try and break out of here without any information from someone who seemed to work here. 

"Are you going to eat it or not.  Food is precious around here and I'll eat it if you don't," he mumbled sternly. I glanced down at my makeshift meal and picked it up by its fin.  It smelled rotten and the scales were peeling.  It appeared to be a bass.  My father used to fish for them during the day when he wasn't patrolling the light house.  I would wait for him by the docks all day, watching with my mother's telescope for the little sailboat he had made himself.  He would return late in the evening with enough for the three of us to eat.  My mother would cook it and skin it herself while humming a sailor's wife's tune and I would watch with great interest.  Those were the nights that Father would actually come down from the tower so we could all enjoy the meal together.  I sighed deeply.  Both of them were gone anyways.  I would never be able to enjoy those nights any longer.  Father had promised a feast when my curse was broken.  There was no feast.