My Mermaid Muse

My Mermaid Muse
by Rebecca Fyfe

I sat down to write but lately nothing came to me as I sat. My fingers tapped the keyboard absently. I almost had an idea of what to write, but it was useless. This was the worst bout of writer's block I had ever suffered through. Where was my muse when I needed her?

Closing my laptop, I made a decision; I was not going to spend today the same way I'd spent every day of the last two weeks, staring at a blank page on my computer screen until my eyes hurt with nothing to show for it.

The day was beautifully sunny and I was going to enjoy it. I dressed in shorts and a tank top, placing my floppy sunhat on my head at the last minute. It was sunny enough that, with my fairy skin, I'd be sunburned within minutes where I was going. The least I could do was shade my face with a hat. I hated wearing sunscreen because its oily feel and the scent always made me sneeze.

It only took me thirty minutes to drive to the beach. The plan was to go lay on the sandy beach and enjoy watching the sea before me. I loved everything about the beach, the sound of the waves as they tumbled to the shore, the salty smell from the ocean, the warmth of the sun on my skin and the cool breeze that counteracted it.

Once I walked down from my parking space to the beach, I realized that I didn't want to just lie on the beach. I wanted to go exploring for tide pools and climb up on the rocky outcropping to watch the waves crashing against the rocks. I was wearing flip-flops which weren't the best shoes for exploring along the rocks, but I knew I'd be careful. With one hand on my head to keep the breeze from blowing my sun hat away, and the other holding my flip-flops in my hand so I could walk barefoot, I picked my way up to the highest of the rocky outcroppings.

Up there, the breeze was stronger and the waves crashed so fiercely against the rocks below me that some of the water's spray reached up and splashed lightly against my skin. This felt like the perfect spot, so I found a rock that had a smooth enough surface to sit on, and I sat. I don't know how long I sat there watching the sea below. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. I just know that the sea mesmerized me. A sea otter appeared every so often, floating on its back for a moment and then diving back under to come up somewhere else in the water.

That's when I saw her. Well, I didn't know what I was seeing at first. It was the tail of a massive fish, with gold, pink and green scales. I knew nothing like that existed, so I didn't believe what I was seeing at first, but then she came up for air and I realized, seeing the woman attached to the tail that I was seeing something even more incredible than a large fish.

When she dove under the water and didn't surface again, I knew she wouldn't be back. I drove home and sat down to write, full of new ideas, thanks to my mermaid muse.

Book of the Sea

art by Robert Fyfe

Book of the Sea
by Rebecca Fyfe

Jenny looked on the shelves for the book she would choose today. She loved days like this, when her mom brought her to the library and let her choose any book to spend time reading. After perusing book after book, her eyes fell upon the one she knew she had to read.

Its spine was a dark blue with gold lining. The lettering was gold embossing. On the cover, there was a picture of the ocean, and the gold lettering gave the title, "Book of the Sea." Jenny loved the ocean. Her second favorite place to visit, second only to the library, was the beach.

She waited until they got home to read it. She ran up to her room and laid out on her bed and then, slowly, cracked open the aged spine of the book. Before reading the words, she liked to look through the pictures in the book. A few pages in, she came across the first picture. It showed a pirate ship with a handsome young pirate standing at the stern and looking out to sea. Dolphins swam alongside the ship. Jenny couldn't help thinking that the picture needed something else in it, maybe mermaids.

A melancholy singing started to surround her, seemingly coming from the book. It was accompanied by the sound of the sea, waves swelling and settling. before Jenny could process the strangeness of this, she noticed that the picture was moving. The ocean beneath the pirate ship was moving, rocking the ship, and there were people moving around on the ship. Even the handsome young pirate had moved from the stern of the ship and was walking towards the aft.

She reached a finger out to the moving water in the picture, not quite believing what she was seeing. It felt wet, but even as that realization hit her she felt everything around her begin to swirl and spin. She couldn't focus on anything as the room spun around her and when, at last, the whirling sensation eased and she was able to focus again, she was not herself anymore and no longer in her room.

She found herself in the ocean, with a mermaid tail helping her swim easily through the water and dolphins for company. The pirate ship was too her right, and she could still hear that strange haunting melody being sung, but she couldn't tell where the song was coming from.

The young pirate who had captured her interest stood to the port side of the ship, leaning over the rail. He had noticed her and was transfixed by the sight of her. He yelled to her in a language she didn't understand and she swam closer to the ship, wanting to be closer to him. When she was almost near enough to touch the ship, he drew a sword and, to Jenny's surprise, threw it at her.

She quickly glided away from the ship, out of range of any weapons and continued to watch. Why had he tried to hurt her? Were these pirates afraid of her? Or did they think they could gain something by killing or capturing her? Jenny wished she still had the book with her so she could find out more about where she was and about the people in this world.

As soon as Jenny had the thought, the ocean starting swirling around her, spinning her around and around in a vortex, a whirlpool that made her dizzy and dragged her under the ocean's surface. She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again, the spinning had stopped and she was in her room again. The magical book, the "Book of the Sea," was still open to the page with the illustration.

Jenny started reading, making sure not to wish or hope for anything until she was finished reading all that she could. She fully intended to visit the strange world again, if the magic of the book allowed, but next time, she would be armed with knowledge about the world she was going to.

Daughters of Poseidon

This is the mythology behind a series of novels I am writing. The series is called "Daughters of Poseidon" and the first book is, currently, called "Siren Song." The title is only a working title though and might change before publication of the first book in the series. (This mythology was written on April 22nd, 2014, but is being posted retrospectively (back-dated) on April 14th, to take the place of the story I did not manage to write on that day. I am trying to have one story posted for every day in April.) The Daughters of Poseidon has a Facebook page, where you can find updates and excerpts from the series as it is created. If you are interested in learning more about the series, please go and "like" the Daughters of Poseidon Facebook page.

Daughters of Poseidon

by Rebecca Fyfe

Poseidon, the god of the sea, had nine daughters. His daughters were allowed to marry anyone they chose, and eight of the nine chose human men to marry, shucking their mermaid forms and taking on human forms so that they could assimilate into the human world.

As the centuries passed, their children had children and much of their sea magic was diluted through the generations. A legend foretold that each of the eight who had entered the human world would someday have an heir, many generations removed from them, with the genes for sea magic, even stronger than the sea magic that the original daughters possessed. Their powers would be asleep until Poseidon chose to awaken them when he had need of them.

Their powers are awakened when the ocean was in great need. The ocean is dying, and if the ocean dies, the world will die with it. Each of these new daughters of Poseidon are gifted with different powers and reside in different parts of the world. They will each face different trials, but after each one has passed her trial, they will all be brought together for a much more dangerous mission.

The ninth original daughter, the one who stayed in mermaid form, became resentful of her sisters once they had left for the human world and she instills this resentment in each of the generations after her. No one knows if the ninth new daughter of Poseidon will help or hinder the eight in their quest to save the world.

The fate of the world rests on these nine daughters of Poseidon.