The Sea Nymph

Manatee at Sea World, Orlando, picture from Wikipedia

The Sea Nymph
by Rebecca Fyfe

Pearl slipped past the manatee and swam through a school of colorful fish. She often left her ocean home to patrol the waterways and rivers leading from it. It was her job as a sea nymph. More and more humans kept moving closer to the water, building their homes at the banks and letting their waste and garbage clog up the natural environment.

The worst they brought were the vehicles that raced through the water, maiming and killing her beloved sea cows and filling the water with a poison the humans called oil. She cleaned what she could, but there was too much these days and she couldn't clean it all. Even her sisters were finding that the poisons and dangers brought by humans were too much for them to handle on the waterways and rivers which they tended.

Today, she came with a specific purpose. Word had reached her of a manatee that had been badly cut by the propeller of one of those evil machines that humans used to travel on the water. This particular manatee had recently given birth and still had her young one to tend. Pearl hoped what she found was something that she could heal.

When she spotted the rust colored water, she knew she'd found the blood spilled by the manatee. By the amount of blood, she knew that she was not going to be able to save this gentle creature, even before she spotted the manatee herself.

The gash along the manatee's belly was large and deep. Some of the internal organs of the creature were visible through the large wound's opening. The gentle soul was already struggling to breath. There was nothing Pearl could do for her.

The new born calf snuggled close to its mother's side. Small, sorrowful sounds came from the little one. Pearl's heart felt heavy with sorrow. She sang to the calf, calling it to her, letting her magical voice calm the little one. She would take this one and care for it until it was old enough to venture out into the waterways on its own. It was all she could do.