Mystic Waters: Out of the blue

Chapter 11

           

"Mama..." Roselyn woke up screaming from the reoccurring nightmare that had been nagging at her, but tonight it was vivid. Salmonia went flying out of bed to get to her daughter's side.

"It is alright baby...it was just a dream." Salmonia didn't understand why her daughter had night terrors because she lived a rather sheltered life.

"But mom... it seemed so real. There were serpents and giant eels and they were killing merpeople and humans. They had you and daddy. I couldn't help you--I could only watch."

"It was only a dream. Try to go back to sleep. I know a little trick. If you start dreaming that same dream again change the dream by having some big strong Viking Warrior come to the rescue." Salmonia worried there could be more to these nightmares than she cared to admit right now.

"I'll try mama. Will you stay with me for a while?" Roselyn looked up at Salmonia with those big brown eyes and Sal's motherly instinct to make her baby feel safe in her arms melted her heart.

"Of course sweetie, slide over." Merfolks didn't need a mattress bed but rather a down filled waterproof pallet that was always near a pool port. Even still, Roselyn had as girly of a room as a little mermaid could have. She loved agates and had been collecting them for years.

Actually her dad, Zane, started the collection with some very large frosted tear shaped agates he called mermaid tears. Since then she had filled her cavern walls with large and small agates from Lake Superior. The collection was probably worth a fortune in the human world.

It wasn't long before Roselyn fell asleep when Sal heard movement coming from the port. "She's sleeping Zane." Salmonia said tenderly.

"I heard her cries." Zane slipped up on the pool ports ledge.

"She had that same nightmare again. I am beginning to wonder...it seems her dreams line up with what has happened or is about to happen." Sal was finding it hard to dismiss the timing and alignment of her daughter's dreams. 

"I'm sure it is just her anxieties about us both being injured. Maybe we need to tell her that if anything ever happened, she would be cared for. After all, she is not a baby anymore, she will be nine soon." Zane worried that his and Salmonia's line of work could very well leave Rosie an orphan.

"Yeah, maybe" Salmonia was not convinced that was all that was going on.

"I will leave you. I just needed to make sure she was alright, goodnight Nia." Zane slipped back into the water.

Sal stayed and listened to her daughter's steady breathing and knew she was in a deep sleep and no longer in danger of visiting the dream world.  She slid off the pallet and went to her own station.  She laid awake thinking of the dreams her daughter has had and the correlation to the recent events, she felt sure there was a pattern.

It was written that some Merfolks had special abilities, of how mermaids could sing alluring tones drawing men to their death. That the men would hear the siren's song and walk or jump into the water and drown, maybe there was some truth to those old stories. Sal made a note to talk to Pete or his father about the legends. After all, legends were built around some root level of truth. 

The waters were calm for now, and the morning was off to a peaceful start. The mer community began their daily tasks. Roselyn was up and ready to get to the lab and help her best friend.

"Hi baby, how did you sleep?" Sal decided she would leave it to Rosie whether she wanted to talk about the nightmare or not. 

"Good mother and you?" Roselyn didn't seem to remember the dream.