Tigerlily, the Rebel Muse

This story was originally written on April 30th, but it was the second story written that day and I neglected to add a story on the 23rd of April, so in keeping with my goal of writing one mermaid story per day in the month of April, I am post-dating this story to April 23rd.

art by DollDivine.com

Tigerlily, the Rebel Muse

by Rebecca Fyfe

Tigerlily was a muse. She had the form of a mermaid and the coloring of a tiger. She lived in the ocean, but she had the magic of her voice to inspire people with. It was her job to sing to the right people. She didn't have to be near them, only to picture them in her mind when she sang. Her voice's magic would take care of the rest, delivering inspiration and ideas to musicians, artists and writers when needed.

If you look up the names of the muses, you won't find Tigerlily's name listed. That's because she never wanted to be a muse. She wanted to be a storyteller. When she sang her songs, she never knew what story or art or music would be delivered to her charges, only that they would find inspiration. Inspiration was sent to humans only, so none of the other muses, mermaids all, ever created anything. But that meant that, aside from her magical songs, Tigerlily never got to hear music, or read stories or even see a beautiful piece of art.

Tigerlily wanted to hear, read and see all of it, and she wanted to create her own. In her heart, stories burned, waiting to be written down, but how could a mermaid write anything? Paper wouldn't last underwater; the water would soak it through.

Tigerlily wasn't like the other muses though; inspiration often came to her. And, because of this, figuring out how to write her stories down was no problem for her. She found some bottles that had been used to litter the ocean and some cork, also litter just left floating in the ocean. She took the bottles and the cork and swam to one of the rocky outcroppings form the shore. She crawled up and hid the bottles and the cork away in the crevice between two rocks, somewhere where no one would find them and where the water wouldn't reach.

She knew where some old shipwrecks lay at the bottom of the sea and, using broken bits of seashells, she cut away the ropes holding the sails. She took the cloth of the sails and added them to her hiding spot in the rocks. A floating seagull feather was added next to her collection. She waited many days for all of her finds to dry out. Then she grabbed a squid as it swam by.

By squeezing the squid gently, some of the squids ink ejected into an empty shell she had brought with her. She used the seagull feather and dipped it into the ink and started writing her stories on the cloth from the sails.

For each story she wrote, she would sign her name, tear off the piece of cloth with the story and put it into one of the bottles. Then she would seal up the bottle using the corks. She made sure no water could get into the bottles, and then she set the bottles into the sea, hoping they would float to shore for humans to find and read.

Mermaid muses live for thousands of years. To this day, the rebel muse Tigerlily is writing her stories and then setting them free. Maybe you have read something by her.