The Mermaids of Atlantis

Art by DollDivine.com

The Mermaids of Atlantis
by Rebecca Fyfe

Atlantis was once a prosperous city in ancient times, one known far and wide for its culture and art. It wasn't until the city was attacked that Atlantis disappeared from human eyes forever, hidden deep under the sea.

The attack came by men form over the sea. They came by ship and murdered and pillaged until the city's population had fallen from thousands to not even one hundred people. Most of the men were killed, though a few remained alive. The majority of those who survived were women and children, but the murderous barbarians who came from across the sea had no intentions of letting any of them live free.

Before they could be taken as slaves, the women, as one, all fell to their knees and prayed to Poseidon to save them Poseidon was the god worshipped in Atlantis, and the women of Atlantis had always been his most faithful followers.

As they prayed, a great wave surged forward and swallowed up Atlantis. No one could escape the rushing waters and those who tried to pillage the city were swept away to drown at sea.

But the women who had stead-fastly remained faithful to their god Poseidon did not drown when the waters closed over them. Instead, they were given the tails of fish and the ability to breathe under the sea. The few men left and the children of Atlantis were also given these gifts.

To this day, the people of Atlantis still live in their city, ruling a new, underwater civilization. Their children and their children's children have repopulated the great city and, due to their new found longevity, for every mermaid of Atlantis lived for thousands of years, they have a rich oral history which they pass down to their offspring so that every child knows who to thank for their fortunate existence.

Atlantis is still a land of art and culture, music and storytelling, but no human has ever been able to find Atlantis for themselves.

The Reaper and the Ocean's Lost Souls

art by DollDivine.com

The Reaper and the Ocean's Lost Souls
by Rebecca Fyfe

People who die never expect to see me. They expect someone in a long, black cloak wielding a scythe, or maybe angels with a bright white light and feathered wings. But never me. It sometimes helps that the dead I come across are in the ocean. They still don't expect to see me.

I am where the legends came from, those old tales about sirens who lure men to their deaths or mermaids who sing songs of enchantment. It's true that I look like a mermaid, but I don't lure anyone to their deaths. They are already dead when I find them.

The problem with dying at sea is that your body gets swept away by the currents, sometimes half-eaten by sharks or other predators and sometimes tangled in seaweed deep under the surface. The sea can go down for miles, and for many of the dead, that means their bodies are never found.

I'm built the way I am, with gills on my neck to breathe underwater and a fish tail on my lower half, to help me find those lost corpses. Because, until a reaper can touch the body, the soul remains trapped forever within it. And then death really would be a true death.

There are reapers who don't look like me. Some of them  look like angels, some of them look like businessmen or businesswomen, some of them look like tribal medicine men, and some of them look like the traditional black hooded reaper, nothing but a skeleton inside. We are created to serve our duties in whatever fashion works best for the environment we collect the souls from. Some of us are created based on the most common belief in the region that they serve.

I'm just one of many here in the sea, but we all have scales, tails, gills and fins. I can sense the dead. Well, actually, I sense the souls that are trapped within the dead. And I find them, so that they don't have to be lost anymore. The human world might never find their bodies, but their souls will never be lost as long as we reapers are around.

So I guess that makes me both a mermaid and a reaper. I'm not really alive in the traditional sense, but that doesn't really matter since everyone I meet is dead too. I just touch them, maybe grab their hand, and their soul leaves their body. Then I can take them to the portal to their afterlife.

Once in a very long while, a soul we grab isn't dead yet and the body is found in time to revive it. In those instances, we take the soul back. The only thing the soul remembers, on the rare occasion that they remember anything, is seeing a mermaid. And that is what started the legends.

Eternal

This story was written on April 24th, 2014, but has been back-dated to the 16th of April when I did not write a story, so I can keep up with posting one story for each day in April.

art by DollDivine.com

Eternal
by Rebecca Fyfe

Baelen checked the map again. He looked up at the mottled tree with branches that looked like arms and hands reaching towards the sky and nobs in the trunk making it look like it had a face. Yes, this was the tree on the map. He was getting close. The stream should be near here.

He stumbled as he walked over ground that rose up slightly. He'd been out all day following the map, looking for its clues. He was getting tired, but he was so close now. As he reached the top of the rise, he could hear the sound of the water trickling over rocks somewhere close. He ran on staggering legs until he found himself falling face first near a small stream. This was it! He wearily dragged himself back to his feet and slowly made his way upstream, to the stream's source. As he walked, the trees and plants grew more lush and closer together. Eventually, when he felt as though he could go on no more, he found it, the source of the stream. A small lake spread before him, its water glinting a clear blue in the sun.

He sat and pulled a jewelled cup out of his backpack. It was time. He'd sacrificed everything for this. He'd left his wife and son when she'd made him choose between giving up his quest or them. He'd spent all of his money. He'd even lost what few friends he had. And now, all he had to do was say the incantation and fill his cup from the small pond, and he would finally have immortality.

He leaned forward, filling the cup and whispered the incantation. It was something in Latin. He'd memorized the Latin, but never bothered translating the entire text. He knew enough to know that it was the right incantation. He knew enough to have been able to follow the clues, find the map and then find this place.

When the final word left his mouth, the water in the lake began to bubble and froth. From right in front of him a blue lady rose from the water. She had scales that shimmered a darker blue than her light blue skin. Her eyes were large and black. She was lovely and alien, and he couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight of her.

"Think carefully, mortal. Do you really wish for immortality? Are you willing to give everything for what you seek?"

"Yes," he said, tears of joy glistening in his eyes.

"Then drink from the cup, and you shall have it."  She touched the water in his cup and it started to glow.

He gulped the water down eagerly. It tasted bitter. He felt something start to change within him.

"I can feel it!" He said to her. "It's happening!"

"Yes, it is." He wondered why she looked so sad as she said the words.

But it was too late to ask. His body was frozen in place. He felt a heaviness overcome his senses, and his skin started to change color. Just as he began to realize what was happening to him, his skin and organs turned to stone. He became a living statue, forever gazing over the lake.

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.

The Legend of Merkind and the Harpies

picture via DollDivine.com

The Legend of Merkind and the Harpies

by Rebecca Fyfe

Long ago, mermaids could be found in all corners of the ocean. There were different races of mermaids: the dark haired sirens who sang sailors to their deaths, the copper-haired mermaids who watched over the sea and all of its creatures, and the golden-haired sea nymphs who were fascinated with mankind and most often shed their tails in favor of legs and living amongst the humans.

Today, mermaids are so scarce that few believe they ever existed. It's because of the Harpies. Harpies were much larger and stronger than mermaids, but they were very beautiful. Though they had wings to carry them high into the sky and all across the land, they were sea carnivores, preferring to feast on fish and dolphins and other creatures from the sea.

One day, the Queen of the Harpies fell upon a mer-princess, one of the dark-haired sirens and carried her off, feasting on her later that night. The siren's final song, sung in place of her death cries, layed a curse on all Harpies, making them forever hideous and misshapen, with beaks in place of their nose and mouth and claws for their fingers. Their feet became those of a bird of prey.

The Harpies blamed all merkind for this tragedy and their Queen commanded that all of merkind be hunted down and killed. They killed every mermaid, siren or sea nymph that they found, even the children. The few sirens, mermaids and sea nymphs who were left banded together and hid themselves down in the deepest part of the ocean, where the Harpies could not reach them. They are so rarely seen now, that humankind has stopped believing they exist.

But the legend claims that they have lived in a city under the sea, building up their numbers for centuries now, training for battle. And one day, they will rise again and have their revenge on the Queen of the Harpies and her descendants. The legend foretells that mankind will be caught in the middle and will suffer until the chosen human, one with the power of a siren's song, the power over water that the mermaid's possess and a sea nymph's ability to shed or gain a tail, rises to save them all.