Here is a sneak-peek of my story The Ocean's Hope!
Click the button above to read the rest of the story!
---oOo---
** Marina's P.O.V **
I woke up with a start this morning to the fear from the strange voice in my dream, and the shooting pain of a migraine. It was rocketing up my neck, then separating, and ending at both temples. My hands instantly went to my head, gripping it in order to try to relieve at least some of the pain. I cried out, into the darkness of the early morning.
But suddenly, the pain subsided, and my muscles relaxed. I thought it was over until a day dream began, or at least I thought it was a day dream...
I was in my pool at SeaWorld Orlando, and the man in the suit came. He was speaking to someone via his cell phone."The activists again. They only want us to be shut down... the mermaid? Yeah, she's in the tank... I know we need to be on our highest guard, but right now we can't afford it... I know our profit is low! " The man seemed outraged about these so called... activists.
A large group of people then walked up towards where the man in the suit was. They were all shouting, and talking at once.
Then, before I knew it, the memory ceased to exist. I blinked a few times, my eyesight, which was once blurry, was returning to its normal state.
"Why was the man there, and who was he talking to?" I wondered aloud. "Who are these 'activists' and what do they want with me? And I thought I raised the profit at the park? Why is it suddenly low?"
But mostly, the only thing I could think about was the reason why I had that vision.
Suddenly, a woman materialized out of the darkness shrouding my tank. She was absolutely gorgeous.
Her hair was light blonde, almost white, and flowed across her shoulders and down her back. She wore a pure white dress, embedded with small white diamonds at the waist. She also wore a diamond crown, that sat atop her head like a bird perched on a rock above a golden waterfall. As she began to walk towards the glass separating us, I noticed she was barefoot.
She stood with her face inches away from the glass, and I lowered my body in the water to meet her height. Silence filled the night, and the mysterious woman simply stared in at the tank, making direct eye contact with me, her sea-green eyes staring blankly into mine. She didn't speak. But I too remained silent, not out of fear, but out of something more than that... something I hadn't felt in a long time...
...Curiosity.
After many minutes, the woman opened her mouth to speak, but instead of the soft, calm voice I expected to hear, I heard one that sounded flat... robotic... fake.
"You listen not to my words? You still trust those who have scrutinized our home, looking for our kind, then eradicated your life?"
I swam to the surface, and grabbed onto the thin glass wall of the tank I was in. "THEY ARE MY FRIENDS!" I shouted, my body shaking with anger. "AND WITHOUT THEM, I MIGHT NOT BE ALIVE TODAY."
The woman began to speak again in her flat voice. "Think what you want, but when you are let down once more by those who tell no truths, your soul will be the one to pay." Then the woman turned sharply, and walked away. I watched as she went, until I could no longer make out the harsh glow of her dress that shone through the darkness.
I was enraged, that this person criticized who I was, and tried to tell me that I couldn't be myself. But yet, for some reason, I felt a connection to her. I swam in restless circles around my tank until dawn, when I heard Alexis and Brenna walk by one of the viewing areas. They always arrived early for some reason.
I swam to the area in which I heard their voices, glad for a distraction from my thoughts. I saw my trainers walk past the glass, and I followed them, mentally begging for their attention. Brenna turned and saw me staring back at her with my seal pup eyes. She giggled in response and turned towards Alexis.
"Alexis," Brenna said as she gently tapped the other trainer on the arm. They both turned towards me as I stared back at them. "Look's like somebody wants attention!"
"Yes! Please! I just need something to distract me!" I thought. The pain in my head returned once more. Then again, another daydream appeared.
The mob of people was back, only this time, instead of being in front of my pool, they were out in the parking lot. Some of them had signs, but I couldn't make out what they said. Then, a few of the people shouted.
"Mermaids should me in the ocean, not in an amusement park!"
"How would you feel if you were taken from your home, forced to perform tricks, and live in a pool the size of a bathtub?"
"Free Marina!"
Just then, the noise of the crowd faded to a dull tapping sound, like rain falling on the surface of the water. Even in the vision, the noise was horrible after a few minutes. I blinked a few times, and my vision once more faded. My eyesight was blurry, but after a few moments, was normal again.
I shook my head, as if to clear the confusing visions from my brain. I noticed I was floating on my stomach, still facing the glass of my tank. The horrible noise continued. Alexis and Brenna were standing in front of the glass. Alexis was gently patting the wall of the viewing area, while Brenna looked nervous.
"Marina, Marina," Alexis said, as she hit the glass with her hand. I looked at her, and she stopped.
"That a' girl," She said, in an effort to keep my attention.
Alexis looked back at Brenna with a worried expression, then continued to walk again. This time, their chatter was hushed, in an almost solemn manner. I swam after them as far as I could before the slideout declined my further passage. I watched them walk to the changing room that is behind decorative wall, and waited for them to return. Both Brenna and Alexis appeared a few minutes later, both wearing their standard mermaid trainer wetsuits.
Both women stepped into the shallow water, and made the signal for me to complete a tail wave. In response, I dove underwater and raised my flukes above the surface. I shook my tail until I heard the sharp pitch of a whistle. I surfaced, and swam to where my trainers were standing in order to receive a fish. It never came.
I looked up at the two women, who were suddenly alarmed. Brenna turned towards Alexis, with a worried look on her face. "Did you just hear that?"
"Yeah."
"We need to get down there now."
From what they just said, there was some form of an emergency. I didn't hear it because I was underwater completing the tail wave.
Alexis crouched down, and looked at me. "Sorry girl, there was an emergency. We need to go." I just stared at her.
"You're so cute," she said, as she rubbed the top of my head.
"Alexis, we need to go."
"Okay, I'm coming."
Alexis stood up and walked with Brenna, as they headed to the site of this "emergency". Little did Alexis know, that when I was staring at her, I was looking through her intentions. I could only see a little bit, but I could hear the announcement over the intercom through her mind.
"Attention trainers, please report to the Blue Horizons stadium now. This is an emergency. I repeat, an emergency. All trainers, please report to the Blue Horizons stadium now." The message abruptly cut off.
I suddenly remembered...
"When I was laying in my stretcher on my way back to the Mermaid Lagoon pool, the trainers took a path that went by a dolphin pool. There was a stadium nearby that was connected to the main tank. The sign by the path leading to the exhibit was labeled 'Blue Horizons'," I thought to myself.
That meant there was an emergency with one of the dolphins. Another jab of severe pain rocketed up my neck and separated at my temples. My reflexes made me grab my head. Then, as it had done twice before, the pain vanished; but was suddenly replaced by a vision.
I was walking. "Wait, walking?" I thought. I had legs! I was heading towards the Blue Horizons dolphin pool. I walked down the large, paved path that led to the viewing area, and I stood at the glass. Suddenly, a dolphin swam up to me, and opened its mouth, as if it was going to speak. The crowd gasped around me, and suddenly pushed towards my location, almost as if they were trying to drown me in an ocean of humans. A trainer then walked by the crowd, curious of why the mob of children, and adults on their phones were pushing their way nearer and nearer to the glass.
I looked over, and I was suddenly filled with anxiety. Alexis was the trainer standing in the viewing area. I walked away from the glass, and tried to make my way out of the viewing area before she saw me, but as I quickened my pace to escape, Alexis stopped me."Hey," Alexis said, as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
I slowly turned around, dreading what was to happen next."She's going to recognize me," I thought. "She's going to alert security, and I'm going to be forced back into that concrete prison." I forced myself to look her in the eye.
"Do I know you?" I sucked in a breath, and shook my head.
"No, not at all. I've never even been here before. It's not like I'm a mer-" I snapped my mouth shut. I had said too much.
"Right... Okay, sorry. I just thought I had seen you before." The vision ended, leaving me in a state of utter confusion.
"How did I have legs? How did I get out of my tank without a trainer noticing me? Why was I speaking to dolphins? Why was Alexis not at Mermaid Lagoon?" The thoughts cycled over and in my head. "The visions," I said to myself. "They're telling me how to get out, how to escape, how to be free."
I figured out what I needed to do. "I need to follow them." I prayed to Neptune, god of the ocean, to help give me legs.
A few minutes passed, and I decided to swim in my pool in order to kill some time. Circle after circle I swam. I was so bored, it wasn't even silly anymore.
Hours passed, and the sun sunk lower and lower, until it was dusk. My trainers still hadn't returned from the emergency at the Blue Horizon pool, meaning I hadn't gotten fed yet today. My stomach rumbled angrily, and I felt dizzy and nauseous from low blood sugar.
I then suddenly heard a voice in my brain.
"Repeat these words, and a spell will turn you into a semi-human." The voice was deep and masculine, as it spoke the fabled words.
"Da mihi duo crura, ut super humum gradieris, sed mox ut tetigerit aquas me mer."
After the voice finished speaking, I repeated the spell. "Da mihi duo crura, ut super humum gradieris, sed mox ut tetigerit aquas me mer." The water around me began to bubble and fizz after I finished the spell. A bright light then flashed a harsh white glow. I tilted my head backwards and closed my eyes, and let the water take me.
When I opened my eyes, I was underwater. I tried to take a breath through my gills, but I didn't have them anymore. I tried to flick my tail to propel myself to the surface, but all I had was... I gasped. I had legs. I kicked both hard, and swam to the surface. I choked and sputtered from the water I inhaled, and coughed up the chlorinated liquid.
I swam to the slideout and pulled my clumsy body up onto the smooth surface. I grunted from the effort, but I eventually got myself into a sitting position in the inch-deep water. I stared at my new appendages. They were as pale as my arms, and were almost as long as my tail. Covering my legs, and waist, I was wearing a pair of navy-colored denim shorts.
I looked down at my chest, and noticed I was still wearing my sky blue bikini top from before I transformed, but there was something new. I had a gold dolphin necklace hanging around my neck. I heard voices, and remembering what I needed to do, I stood up. "Wow," I thought. "These are a lot easier to learn how to use than a tail."
It only took a few seconds for me to learn how to walk, but I became more frantic, as the voices became more and more audible against the silence of the night. "I still can't believe that Diego has pneumonia. There were no symptoms or anything." It was Brenna, walking down the path to my tank, talking to Alexis. I made the split-second decision to jump behind some bushes that were near the slideout, as the voices rounded the corner leading to my tank.
I hid in the foliage and watched, as the two trainers stepped into the shallow water covering the slideout. Alexis blew her whistle, and waited. She blew into it again, and looked over at Brenna with a nervous look."She normally comes up by now," Alexis said, her voice shaky and fearful.
"Just give her a second," Brenna said. "You're probably just uneasy because of what happened to the dolphin you used to work with. Alexis stared out into the pool for a minute or two, and then turned around to face Brenna.
"She's gone," Brenna's face went as pale as Alexis's. Not wanting to stick around any longer, since I knew they would begin to search for me, I quietly sneaked out from behind the bushes, and ran towards the park gate. I slowed to a walk once the ticket booth came into sight. "A running girl would be too suspicious," I thought, as I pushed open the unlocked exit gate.
There was a large parking lot where I stood, and behind that, a heavily wooded area. "Woods typically have streams," I thought. "And streams lead to lakes, and lakes lead to oceans." I ran towards the woods with excitement. I was finally out of that horrid place. I was finally free.
---oOo---
Click the button above to read the rest of the story!
---oOo---
** Marina's P.O.V **
I woke up with a start this morning to the fear from the strange voice in my dream, and the shooting pain of a migraine. It was rocketing up my neck, then separating, and ending at both temples. My hands instantly went to my head, gripping it in order to try to relieve at least some of the pain. I cried out, into the darkness of the early morning.
But suddenly, the pain subsided, and my muscles relaxed. I thought it was over until a day dream began, or at least I thought it was a day dream...
I was in my pool at SeaWorld Orlando, and the man in the suit came. He was speaking to someone via his cell phone."The activists again. They only want us to be shut down... the mermaid? Yeah, she's in the tank... I know we need to be on our highest guard, but right now we can't afford it... I know our profit is low! " The man seemed outraged about these so called... activists.
A large group of people then walked up towards where the man in the suit was. They were all shouting, and talking at once.
Then, before I knew it, the memory ceased to exist. I blinked a few times, my eyesight, which was once blurry, was returning to its normal state.
"Why was the man there, and who was he talking to?" I wondered aloud. "Who are these 'activists' and what do they want with me? And I thought I raised the profit at the park? Why is it suddenly low?"
But mostly, the only thing I could think about was the reason why I had that vision.
Suddenly, a woman materialized out of the darkness shrouding my tank. She was absolutely gorgeous.
Her hair was light blonde, almost white, and flowed across her shoulders and down her back. She wore a pure white dress, embedded with small white diamonds at the waist. She also wore a diamond crown, that sat atop her head like a bird perched on a rock above a golden waterfall. As she began to walk towards the glass separating us, I noticed she was barefoot.
She stood with her face inches away from the glass, and I lowered my body in the water to meet her height. Silence filled the night, and the mysterious woman simply stared in at the tank, making direct eye contact with me, her sea-green eyes staring blankly into mine. She didn't speak. But I too remained silent, not out of fear, but out of something more than that... something I hadn't felt in a long time...
...Curiosity.
After many minutes, the woman opened her mouth to speak, but instead of the soft, calm voice I expected to hear, I heard one that sounded flat... robotic... fake.
"You listen not to my words? You still trust those who have scrutinized our home, looking for our kind, then eradicated your life?"
I swam to the surface, and grabbed onto the thin glass wall of the tank I was in. "THEY ARE MY FRIENDS!" I shouted, my body shaking with anger. "AND WITHOUT THEM, I MIGHT NOT BE ALIVE TODAY."
The woman began to speak again in her flat voice. "Think what you want, but when you are let down once more by those who tell no truths, your soul will be the one to pay." Then the woman turned sharply, and walked away. I watched as she went, until I could no longer make out the harsh glow of her dress that shone through the darkness.
I was enraged, that this person criticized who I was, and tried to tell me that I couldn't be myself. But yet, for some reason, I felt a connection to her. I swam in restless circles around my tank until dawn, when I heard Alexis and Brenna walk by one of the viewing areas. They always arrived early for some reason.
I swam to the area in which I heard their voices, glad for a distraction from my thoughts. I saw my trainers walk past the glass, and I followed them, mentally begging for their attention. Brenna turned and saw me staring back at her with my seal pup eyes. She giggled in response and turned towards Alexis.
"Alexis," Brenna said as she gently tapped the other trainer on the arm. They both turned towards me as I stared back at them. "Look's like somebody wants attention!"
"Yes! Please! I just need something to distract me!" I thought. The pain in my head returned once more. Then again, another daydream appeared.
The mob of people was back, only this time, instead of being in front of my pool, they were out in the parking lot. Some of them had signs, but I couldn't make out what they said. Then, a few of the people shouted.
"Mermaids should me in the ocean, not in an amusement park!"
"How would you feel if you were taken from your home, forced to perform tricks, and live in a pool the size of a bathtub?"
"Free Marina!"
Just then, the noise of the crowd faded to a dull tapping sound, like rain falling on the surface of the water. Even in the vision, the noise was horrible after a few minutes. I blinked a few times, and my vision once more faded. My eyesight was blurry, but after a few moments, was normal again.
I shook my head, as if to clear the confusing visions from my brain. I noticed I was floating on my stomach, still facing the glass of my tank. The horrible noise continued. Alexis and Brenna were standing in front of the glass. Alexis was gently patting the wall of the viewing area, while Brenna looked nervous.
"Marina, Marina," Alexis said, as she hit the glass with her hand. I looked at her, and she stopped.
"That a' girl," She said, in an effort to keep my attention.
Alexis looked back at Brenna with a worried expression, then continued to walk again. This time, their chatter was hushed, in an almost solemn manner. I swam after them as far as I could before the slideout declined my further passage. I watched them walk to the changing room that is behind decorative wall, and waited for them to return. Both Brenna and Alexis appeared a few minutes later, both wearing their standard mermaid trainer wetsuits.
Both women stepped into the shallow water, and made the signal for me to complete a tail wave. In response, I dove underwater and raised my flukes above the surface. I shook my tail until I heard the sharp pitch of a whistle. I surfaced, and swam to where my trainers were standing in order to receive a fish. It never came.
I looked up at the two women, who were suddenly alarmed. Brenna turned towards Alexis, with a worried look on her face. "Did you just hear that?"
"Yeah."
"We need to get down there now."
From what they just said, there was some form of an emergency. I didn't hear it because I was underwater completing the tail wave.
Alexis crouched down, and looked at me. "Sorry girl, there was an emergency. We need to go." I just stared at her.
"You're so cute," she said, as she rubbed the top of my head.
"Alexis, we need to go."
"Okay, I'm coming."
Alexis stood up and walked with Brenna, as they headed to the site of this "emergency". Little did Alexis know, that when I was staring at her, I was looking through her intentions. I could only see a little bit, but I could hear the announcement over the intercom through her mind.
"Attention trainers, please report to the Blue Horizons stadium now. This is an emergency. I repeat, an emergency. All trainers, please report to the Blue Horizons stadium now." The message abruptly cut off.
I suddenly remembered...
"When I was laying in my stretcher on my way back to the Mermaid Lagoon pool, the trainers took a path that went by a dolphin pool. There was a stadium nearby that was connected to the main tank. The sign by the path leading to the exhibit was labeled 'Blue Horizons'," I thought to myself.
That meant there was an emergency with one of the dolphins. Another jab of severe pain rocketed up my neck and separated at my temples. My reflexes made me grab my head. Then, as it had done twice before, the pain vanished; but was suddenly replaced by a vision.
I was walking. "Wait, walking?" I thought. I had legs! I was heading towards the Blue Horizons dolphin pool. I walked down the large, paved path that led to the viewing area, and I stood at the glass. Suddenly, a dolphin swam up to me, and opened its mouth, as if it was going to speak. The crowd gasped around me, and suddenly pushed towards my location, almost as if they were trying to drown me in an ocean of humans. A trainer then walked by the crowd, curious of why the mob of children, and adults on their phones were pushing their way nearer and nearer to the glass.
I looked over, and I was suddenly filled with anxiety. Alexis was the trainer standing in the viewing area. I walked away from the glass, and tried to make my way out of the viewing area before she saw me, but as I quickened my pace to escape, Alexis stopped me."Hey," Alexis said, as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
I slowly turned around, dreading what was to happen next."She's going to recognize me," I thought. "She's going to alert security, and I'm going to be forced back into that concrete prison." I forced myself to look her in the eye.
"Do I know you?" I sucked in a breath, and shook my head.
"No, not at all. I've never even been here before. It's not like I'm a mer-" I snapped my mouth shut. I had said too much.
"Right... Okay, sorry. I just thought I had seen you before." The vision ended, leaving me in a state of utter confusion.
"How did I have legs? How did I get out of my tank without a trainer noticing me? Why was I speaking to dolphins? Why was Alexis not at Mermaid Lagoon?" The thoughts cycled over and in my head. "The visions," I said to myself. "They're telling me how to get out, how to escape, how to be free."
I figured out what I needed to do. "I need to follow them." I prayed to Neptune, god of the ocean, to help give me legs.
A few minutes passed, and I decided to swim in my pool in order to kill some time. Circle after circle I swam. I was so bored, it wasn't even silly anymore.
Hours passed, and the sun sunk lower and lower, until it was dusk. My trainers still hadn't returned from the emergency at the Blue Horizon pool, meaning I hadn't gotten fed yet today. My stomach rumbled angrily, and I felt dizzy and nauseous from low blood sugar.
I then suddenly heard a voice in my brain.
"Repeat these words, and a spell will turn you into a semi-human." The voice was deep and masculine, as it spoke the fabled words.
"Da mihi duo crura, ut super humum gradieris, sed mox ut tetigerit aquas me mer."
After the voice finished speaking, I repeated the spell. "Da mihi duo crura, ut super humum gradieris, sed mox ut tetigerit aquas me mer." The water around me began to bubble and fizz after I finished the spell. A bright light then flashed a harsh white glow. I tilted my head backwards and closed my eyes, and let the water take me.
When I opened my eyes, I was underwater. I tried to take a breath through my gills, but I didn't have them anymore. I tried to flick my tail to propel myself to the surface, but all I had was... I gasped. I had legs. I kicked both hard, and swam to the surface. I choked and sputtered from the water I inhaled, and coughed up the chlorinated liquid.
I swam to the slideout and pulled my clumsy body up onto the smooth surface. I grunted from the effort, but I eventually got myself into a sitting position in the inch-deep water. I stared at my new appendages. They were as pale as my arms, and were almost as long as my tail. Covering my legs, and waist, I was wearing a pair of navy-colored denim shorts.
I looked down at my chest, and noticed I was still wearing my sky blue bikini top from before I transformed, but there was something new. I had a gold dolphin necklace hanging around my neck. I heard voices, and remembering what I needed to do, I stood up. "Wow," I thought. "These are a lot easier to learn how to use than a tail."
It only took a few seconds for me to learn how to walk, but I became more frantic, as the voices became more and more audible against the silence of the night. "I still can't believe that Diego has pneumonia. There were no symptoms or anything." It was Brenna, walking down the path to my tank, talking to Alexis. I made the split-second decision to jump behind some bushes that were near the slideout, as the voices rounded the corner leading to my tank.
I hid in the foliage and watched, as the two trainers stepped into the shallow water covering the slideout. Alexis blew her whistle, and waited. She blew into it again, and looked over at Brenna with a nervous look."She normally comes up by now," Alexis said, her voice shaky and fearful.
"Just give her a second," Brenna said. "You're probably just uneasy because of what happened to the dolphin you used to work with. Alexis stared out into the pool for a minute or two, and then turned around to face Brenna.
"She's gone," Brenna's face went as pale as Alexis's. Not wanting to stick around any longer, since I knew they would begin to search for me, I quietly sneaked out from behind the bushes, and ran towards the park gate. I slowed to a walk once the ticket booth came into sight. "A running girl would be too suspicious," I thought, as I pushed open the unlocked exit gate.
There was a large parking lot where I stood, and behind that, a heavily wooded area. "Woods typically have streams," I thought. "And streams lead to lakes, and lakes lead to oceans." I ran towards the woods with excitement. I was finally out of that horrid place. I was finally free.
---oOo---