Untold Tales: Books 1-3

Chapter 5

5

I caught myself on the wall, not wanting to admit that I was struggling to walk, but having to slow down for fear of doing some permanent damage to my now human body. I'd never had to deal with being this breakable and it wasn't a great feeling.

"Are you okay?" a somewhat familiar male voice asked.

I looked up, unsure who I'd find until the dark hair clicked into place.

"You?" I asked, feeling my eyes widen.

Something odd crossed across his face. Almost like shock. But it was gone before I could confirm what it was lurking in his eyes.

"Yes, me. But only because of you." He gave me a charming smile.

"I'm glad you made it alright." A warm glow filled me as the realisation sunk in. He was only alive because of me. I'd made a difference in someone's life. Maybe that was worth losing my soul over. Who would decide that? I supposed it depended whether or not there was a god. Or gods. I wasn't picky about which.

"I did. Thank you for that."

We stood looking at each other awkwardly. I had no idea what etiquette was expected on land when it came to situations like this.

"Would you like to go for a drink?" he asked.

Would I? Was that the kind of thing I should agree to?

I nodded, unsure what else to do. "That would be lovely."

"I know a quiet place down the street here, you can tell me how you gained legs." He gave me another winning smile.

"Alright, but I might need a hand getting there." I gestured down at my legs, already teetering unsteadily again. It was taking longer than I wanted to accept to get used to them.

A gust of wind blew past me. That was odd. It had been such a calm day up until that random gust. Was there something in that?

"What's your name?" I asked as he slipped an arm around my waist and helped me to stand.

"Erickson. Yours?"

"Mari." Maybe I should have given him a false name, but it was too late to second guess myself now, we were already on our way to the counter.

"I have a lot of questions for you, Mari."

"I hope you'll answer some for me too," I responded, hobbling along with his help. At least I wasn't falling over still. That would be embarrassing. Shelbie darted in front of us, yapping and checking on me. That was something at least. She hadn't been changed at all by her transformation into a dog.

"Here we are." He pointed towards a small cafe with his free hand.

Had he purposefully ignored my question? I didn't dwell on that too much. I wasn't in the habit of not trusting people. Perhaps I should be after what happened to my soul and the advice I’d been given. In his case, it seemed like I should though. I'd saved his life, which meant he owed me.

The inside of the cafe was warm and homey, with worn wooden tables and comfortable looking chairs. Far more comfortable than the ones we had under the sea. Apparently, that was one of the advantages of living on land. Though so far, I hadn't seen enough of those to want to stay here permanently.

"Two hot chocolates please, Linda." He gave one of his smiles to the woman behind the counter. That was just how he was then, and not something to do with me. It was certainly worth remembering in the long run. The last thing I wanted was to end up infatuated with a man who wanted nothing from me but information. "Here we go." He helped me into one of the chairs and I finally relaxed.

"Thank you," I said as Shelbie curled up next to me, pushing her furry back against my legs and offering me a surprising amount of reassurance. As much as I didn't like the idea of putting her in danger, I was glad she was here and reminding me of home.

"It's no problem. Just an excuse to come and get hot chocolate. I'm never going to pass that opportunity by."

I smiled at him, unsure of what to do or say. Hot chocolate was something I'd heard about but never tried. Drinks weren't precisely necessary while under water. It was one of the many advantages we had.

The woman from the counter bustled over and put them down in front of us. "Anything else?"

"No, thank you, Linda." Another smile. I was starting to grow tired of the sweetness he exuded. It felt wrong, even if I couldn't quite work out why.

I pulled the mug towards me, noting how hot it was and that I shouldn't drink it straight away.

"What's brought you to land?" he asked, stirring his drink with one of the tiny spoons Linda had brought.

"Something was stolen from me when I came above the surface." Technically not a lie. It was all I was going to tell him for now.

"Oh no, I'm sorry." The shifty look was back, but I dismissed it. He'd nearly died the other day, there was no way he knew any more about the problem than I did.

"Don't be. It's a problem that's been plaguing my people for a long time. I promised them when I came to land, I'd try and sort it for us all." It was my turn to smile at him, though I wasn't feeling it very much. The loss of my soul wasn't something to be light-hearted and sweet about.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He took a sip of his drink, leaving the two of us in a somewhat uncomfortable silence.

This wasn't going well, but I lacked any clue about how to extract myself from the situation without looking rude. Or like I suspected him of being the one who did the stealing. Obviously, he hadn't. He'd been so close to the edge of death that he couldn't possibly have taken my soul.

"Have you heard any legends about mermaid souls?" I asked, hoping I wasn't giving too much away.

"Not really." He shrugged. "There's one old tale that says a mermaid soul can allow a man to live forever."

"That sounds like an awfully long time."

He laughed loudly. "There's no truth in it. Most people don't even believe that mermaids are real. I can't say I did until the other day."

I picked up my mug to take a drink, mostly so I didn't have to respond to his unspoken question. I wasn't ready to tell him any more about my people than I had to. It wasn't my place to tell anyone anything, and I would stick to that.

A wind whistled past me again. There was definitely something odd about it. Shelbie raised her head, clearly alerted to something by it. Was there a chance that the wind was Aaron trying to tell me something? Even if it was, I had no idea what he was trying to say and that made his communication almost useless. We'd have to work on that in the future.

"Are there many of you on land?" Erickson asked.

"I don't know." That was the truth at least. For all I knew, every other person in this room was a mermaid with legs. I doubted it. There weren't so many of us that I wouldn't notice if people kept disappearing.

"That's no fun."

"Sorry, we don't talk much about being on land." Not a lie. He didn't need to know that we couldn't talk about it even if we wanted to. Well, sort of. It was just the curse we couldn't talk about as far as I knew.

"So why are you here?"

"I told you, something was stolen from me the day I saved you."

"You weren't carrying anything, were you?"

"No." There was no use in denying it. I'd used both of my arms to save him and he'd seen my tail. Unless I tried to pretend we had a special pouch in our tail that we could use as some kind of purse, I had no chance of convincing him I'd been carrying anything of any value.

I supposed I could pretend it had been jewellery, but then why would I be so certain it was on land?

There really was nothing for it. I had to tell him the truth.

Another whistle of wind had me rethinking my decision, but I needed to find my soul somehow, and this just might be the way.

"My soul was stolen," I whispered.

"Your soul?" Erickson echoed.

Foreboding filled me, no doubt spurred on by whatever weird thing Aaron was trying to do. I ignored it. The damage was done now, and there was nothing I could do about that.

"Yes, my soul," I replied.

"Do mermaids even have souls?"

"Of course we have souls," I snapped, before realising it wasn't true. Only some of us had souls. The rest of us were relegated to my status. Though I'd never noticed any mer being treated any differently from the others.

"But not you?"

I sighed. "No, not me. That's why I came to land. I'd really like to get it back." I rubbed a hand over my face, trying not to let my emotions show in the way of tears. The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was weak and decide not to help me.

"Do you know where to start?"

I shook my head. "That's the problem. I don't even know what I'm looking for, but I feel lost without it."

He studied me intently. "I might have an idea, but you're going to have to trust me."

I nodded eagerly. "Of course. Anything you need." What was I doing? This wasn't the sensible course of action. I barely knew him and yet here I was taking his help? Maybe I'd lost my common sense along with my soul.

"It'll be evening soon, we should get you somewhere to sleep. I have a spare room?"

"You do?" I perked up. Anything where I could get comfortable. And used to my legs.

"Yes. Why don't we go get you settled in? Then I have a couple of people I can ask questions of. Hopefully, we can get some pointers for the direction we need to take.

"Thank you."

He gave me another one of the charming smiles before rising to his feet and going to pay the woman behind the counter.

I'd either just made the best decision of my life. Or the worst.