The Mermaid Story (6 Page Paper on Mythological Creature)

The Mermaid’s Call

By Madison Nef

Chapter 1- A Strange Hand

For years, legends have been passed through my town, Seashville. There are accounts of ghosts, sea monsters, hellhounds- but the most famous legend is that of Shelly. Shelly is a beautiful mermaid said to swim in Seashell Lake. Our legend tells of a wonderful underwater kingdom, with treasures unimaginable. There is a castle made purely of gold and pearls, and the mermaids swim in it. When they get lonely, they simply sing in a lovely voice to attract sailors… and then capture the sailors for themselves. But that is just the stuff of legends…so I thought.

It all started on a day in July. I was hanging out with my two best friends, Emily and Katy. “Hey, you guys want to go to the beach today?” I asked them. “Sure, Melanie,” they replied in chorus. We left my house and walked down a rocky path to get there. The sun beat down on our backs. Our “beach” is just a sand strip that surrounds the lake, but it is worth it. I could already feel the cool, crisp water on my back, the summer breeze whipping through my hair…ahhhhh.

We finally made it to the lake. “Beware of Jelly,” Emily joked. Jelly is our supposed resident lake monster- an oversized jellyfish. Anyone who’s been here long enough knows there is no such thing, and that Jelly is just a sales gimmick. Nevertheless, I am still hesitant to go in the water. I slowly step in, letting my feet soak for a minute. My friends run in, laughing and splashing, and I soon join them. “Let’s play ‘find the locket’,” says Katy. Find the locket is a fun game- we use a plastic, yellow necklace and drop it somewhere in the lake. Then, the ones who do not know where it is have to find it underwater.

Emily hides the locket first, and then tells me and Katy to go find it. I take a big breath of air, and then dive beneath the surface. I scan the bottom and quickly see the necklace. It is halfway covered in sand. I swim over and reach for it, and at the same time, another hand grabs for it. I pull hard, and the necklace breaks free into my hands. I surface quickly to yell at Katy, who I assumed was the one who had reached for the necklace, but she is across the lake with Emily. What had grabbed my necklace?

I look around cautiously. Then, I run over to my friends. “Did you guys grab my necklace?” I ask, already knowing the answer. “No!” my friends clamor. I sigh and say “Let’s head home… I am feeling sick.”

My friends walked me home and hung out for a few hours. When they FINALLY leave, I go to my room to lie down and think. I think about the hand, and right away my brain connects it with Shelly. ‘But Shelly is a myth’, I think to myself. ‘A myth and that is all’. I drift off into a deep sleep, and start to dream…

Chapter 2- The Dream

I open my eyes slowly. Light fills them and I squint. I sit up to look around. I am on a beach SOMEWHERE- I do not remember ever seeing it. I see a huge wave coming- it is going to crash right on top of me! My brain tells me to scramble inland, but instead, I dive into the water. It feels natural to me- I am swimming perfectly and shockingly, I am breathing! I look downward and see something glittering at the bottom of the lake.

I dive down gracefully and find it is a mirror. In entices me, and I look into it- but the face looking back at me is not my own! Instead, a face with big blue eyes and thick, blonde hair looks back at me, flashing a supermodel smile. I cannot pry my eyes away from the mirror, it is so addicting! But when I do pull my eyes away, I look down- only to see that I have a tail! And not just any tail- a gorgeous mermaid tail! It is a soft green color, with gold and pearls all over it.

But even though it is not natural, I don’t feel the least bit surprised. I continue to gaze into the lovely mirror, which somewhat matches my tail. But then, I hear a voice- a screeching, gurgling voice-cry out: “Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvvvvvvveee itttttttt baaaaaaaaaaaccccckkkkk!” I spin around, and an ugly being is coming towards me! Once it is up close, I see that it is another mermaid, and if you look, she is somewhat pretty. She has a shark’s tail, and teeth to match. Her eyes are silver, and her hair is jet black and long. She snatches at mirror. “GIVE IT BAAAAACK, SHELLLLYYYYYY!” she wails.

I wake up shivering.

Chapter 3- Shelly’s POV (Spoiler! The dream is actually reality…Shelly’s POV picks up just after it ends.)

I look back behind myself. Shadow is still tailing me, teeth bared. I grin to myself- I have the mirror, not HER. Everyone knows that there are a FEW key things about mermaids, some of them being:

·         We love to sing and we love music

·         We LOVE mirrors

·         We are very catty and curse any man who tears apart from us after enchantment

·         We love the water and could never part with it

I swim faster, towards my home in a large rock underwater. I grab the seashell handle on my door and swim in fast, slamming it behind me, which causes my house to shake. I hear Shadow banging on the door outside, screeching at me. I am shaking, clutching the mirror tight to my chest. ‘Why should I give it back?’ I think to myself. ‘I found it, not her, so it is rightfully mine!’ I place the mirror carefully under my pillow and swim to the door. I am shaking like a fish out of water as I slowly open the door.

Shadow is hovering in the water, glaring at me angrily. “I saw it firrrrst!” she wails in a horrible, shrieking sound. I clap my hands over my ears. “Yes, and I reached it first!” I contradict angrily. “The mirror is rightfully mine- it even matches my tail.” “Well, when I saw it it looked like me!” Shadow fumes at me. “Oh, so when you saw it it had a bad attitude and a set of chompers too big for its face?!” I retort casually, a sly smile sliding onto my face.

Shadow turns a dark shade of red and slinks away.

Chapter 4- A Friendly Dolphin (Melanie’s POV)

I get up early in the morning, still feeling stricken from my dream. I try to tell myself that it is nothing, but deep down I know the only way to get rid of the tugging curiosity is to go back to the lake and look around- under the water.

I rented some scuba diving gear from a local shop, and after strapping it on, jumped into the water. I try to look around, but the water is very murky and I can’t. Nevertheless, I dive down into the water, and as I am about to give up hope, a dolphin shoots by. ‘Wait, what? A dolphin?’ I say to myself. ‘There aren’t any dolphins down here!’

I quickly follow the ‘dolphin’ through the murkiness. Amazingly enough, it leaves a good, clean trail for me to follow! Finally, I come to a large log. I see that the dolphin has stopped just past it, so I swim over it. As I get closer, I see that the ‘dolphin’ is not a dolphin- it is a mermaid! “Shelly?!” I ask in disbelief as I swim closer. The mermaid turns to face me. She is old looking, with white hair and grey eyes. She shakes her head sadly. She tries to speak, but I do not understand her language.

I shake my head, and then she nods slowly. She softly starts singing, and this I CAN understand:

I’m not She-e-ly,

But perhaps you’ll he-elp me,

I’ve dropped my glasses in this sandy flo-o-oor!

Find them,

I’d be so very glad…

I look around on the floor, and see the glasses lodged in some sand. I grab them and hand them to her. “What’s your name?” I ask. The mermaid made a garbled noise: DAAAAA-LLLLLLL-EEEEEEE. I thought for a minute, and then had an idea. “Is your name Dolly?” I asked. The mermaid nodded. I smiled, and continued on my way. I had been so caught up in my little adventure that I forgot to check my oxygen tank… and I slowly lost air and sank to the bottom of the lake.

Chapter 5- A Mysterious Recovery

When I regained consciousness, I was in the local hospital. My mom and dad were standing by my side, each with a worried look on their face. “Wha-what happened?” I ask groggily. “You were found washed up on the beach,” my mom replies calmly. “It’s a good thing we found you when we did- Stuck in that mask with no air- the doctors thought you were gone!”

I was shocked. I just wanted to relax now. “Could you tell me my favorite story?” I asked. I am 13, and a bit old for stories, but this one is my favorite. It is about a mermaid, and it has a good morale. Here is how it goes:

Opa turned to the first page of the strange book of fairy tales. “This story is called The Entangled Mermaid.”

“I like mermaids!” Arianna said excitedly.

Opa laughed, “Yes, I know you do. Now this story starts with a young mermaid named Cordelia. She was a beautiful mermaid and her parents loved her more than anything. The three of them all lived happily in a little pool connected to the ocean. It was half salt water, like the ocean, and half fresh water, like a river. All of the other mer-families loved visiting this pool because being in the ocean all the time was dangerous.”

“Why?” asked Alex.

“Because the ocean is full of scary sea monsters. That’s why all the mermaids were afraid to travel in the sea without mermen. So, because their pool was safe, Cordelia and her parents often held parties for all of the other merfolk.”

“I wanna be a mermaid so I can go to a mermaid party!” Arianna said, pouting.

“Well, maybe someday, if you wish hard enough, then you’ll turn into a mermaid.” Opa winked. “Now, one day Cordelia’s parents left to visit some relatives in a far away part of the ocean. It was a treacherous journey, so they left Cordelia at home. Excited that she now had the pool to herself, Cordelia invited all of her mermaid friends over for a picnic. After they ate, all of the mermaids searched for seaweed, pearls, and coral to put in their hair to make it even more pretty. Cordelia was crowned the Mermaid Queen.”

“What’s a mermaid queen?” Alex wondered aloud.

“That means that everyone voted that she was the prettiest of all of the mermaids. After they chose their Queen, all of the mermaids talked about how strange it would be to be a human. You see, they didn’t understand things like legs and clothing. They were all having a wonderful time when suddenly a merman came swimming up, looking pale and tired. Cordelia asked him what was wrong and he said that some horrible humans were going to come and drain the pool to build a dam. Do you know what a dam is?”

“Oh, oh! Is that the thing that beavers build with trees?” asked Arianna.

“It is! Good job. So, when they heard this terrible news, all of the mermaids panicked because if the pool was destroyed, then they would have to live in the ocean with the sea monsters all of the time. Cordelia, however, didn’t believe the merman. She thought that he was making it all up just to have an excuse to come see how beautiful she was. She told him to stop trying to scare them and shooed him away. After that, all of the mermaids left and Cordelia went to bed. That night she slept for longer than usual and when she woke up the pool was almost empty. As she swam around in the shallow pool, she noticed that a dam and fences had been built around the pool while she was asleep.”

“The merman was right!” said Alex.

“Yes he was. Cordelia was scared that she would never be able to make it back to the ocean, so she swam up to the dam and tried to climb it. At this exact moment, her parents returned to find their home blocked by the dam. They saw Cordelia trying to escape and attempted to help her, but Cordelia’s beautiful hair got caught in the dam. The more she struggled, the more her hair got tangled.”

“Oh no!” said Arianna, looking scared. “Is she gonna be okay?”

“Just be patient, Arianna. As Cordelia was struggling to free herself from the dam and her parents were trying to help her, some humans nearby heard all the noise they were making. Four of the humans rushed up and grabbed Cordelia, who was so scared that she fainted. Cordelia’s parents cried over the loss of their daughter and their home. They would have stayed there and cried all day if some more humans hadn’t tried to grab them as well, forcing them to swim away. When Cordelia awoke, she found herself in an aquarium.”

“Like Goldie!” Alex said, pointing to his goldfish in its fishbowl.

“Yes, like Goldie, except Cordelia’s fishbowl was much bigger. She could see the faces of many humans coming to look at her every day. For the rest of her life she lived in that aquarium, on display for the humans. She learned that if she had not been so vain and if she had only listened to that merman who tried to warn her, she would be out in the ocean with her parents. So, kinderen, being smart is better than only caring about your appearance.” Opa said, finishing the story.

“I get it!” said Arianna.

I sigh and smile as the story ends. My eyes drift closed and I slip into a deep sleep.

Dolly’s POV (Short Paragraph)

I saw her go down. I couldn’t just leave her there to die; she had, after all, helped me. I knew that humans couldn’t breathe water, they had to use special tanks filled with something called ‘oxygen’. So I swam down, grabbed her, and pulled her to the surface. I left her in plain sight- I hope she was found. I had to leave quickly so I wouldn’t be discovered. I wish there were more people like her around- Kind and generous.

Melanie’s Journal

August 15^th, 2013
I have been out of the hospital for 1 month now and since have not gone back to the lake. Now that I know mermaids exist, I can go visit them- I am still scared though- if I fainted again, it would be dangerous. I don’t know WHO rescued me from the bottom of the lake… but I have a pretty good hunch. The last thing I remember from the bottom of the lake was looking up and seeing a shadowy figure swim over me before my eyes rolled back in my head.

August 28^th, 2013
I finally got up the guts to go back to the lake today. I only waded in up to my ankles though… I think the accident is getting to me. Tomorrow, me and Emily and Katy have plans to dive together- there is no backing out now!

August 29^th, 2013
We just got back from diving! I didn’t run out of air- but I didn’t see any mermaids either. I guess that if they were common, everyone would see them…or maybe I am just crazy, maybe they don’t exist. I am almost positive I did though… otherwise, how would I have gotten from the bottom of a murky lake to the beach?

I closed my diary, satisfied. I had gotten over my fear of water. For the rest of the summer, I was going to scuba dive with my friends. I was going to chill out on the beach, take art class, do whatever I wanted- and maybe even spot a couple more mermaids. As for my friends, I don’t think they quite believe me- but I don’t care. I know what I saw, and I have reason to believe it.

Mermaid’s Prologue

Shelly, like all mermaids, aged slowly and happily. She kept the mirror, despite Shadow’s efforts to claim it for her own. Hundreds of years later, she was crowned the mermaid queen of the lake. She cleared out the murk and pollution that made the lake ugly, and this brought new life the area. Mermaids found underground channels from the sea and came to live in the beautiful lake- and since there were more mermaids, there were more sightings, and since there were more sightings, there were more tourists. The mermaid kingdom thrived, as did Seashville.

Shadow was never peaceful- she wanted the mirror. She let it destroy her completely, and she grew out of control. She was thrown out of the lake when Shelly became queen for thievery of another mermaid’s mirror, when she was denied the one she wanted. She left in a fury, and since there was a large monster passing by, it is presumed she was eaten. In any case, she was never seen again.

As for Dolly, she had reached the peak of her life. She got very ill after rescuing Melanie, and died shortly after. But she died happily at a ripe old age of 2035, and knew she had died for the right purpose.

The End