The Enchantress of the sea

CHAPTER 7

The training began with a swimming race to warm us up, a specialty in which Melody stood out a lot. Her body moved forward in a flowing "S" movement, driven by energetic flexions of his silver tail. I stretched my arms by my sides, while I tried not to think that on the mainland, in the car, Bryan was waiting for me. My fin moved in a regular up and down, digging in the water and giving me the push. So I drew a somersault and joined my sister, followed by our parents. Melody, feeling close to me, arched with her body and jumped away. We met a flock of cods that parted as we passed, preventing me from touching them with my hands, even though I almost grazed them. Once passed, the cloud of fish closed again, like the head of a jellyfish. I took a leap to the bottom, touching the sand with my hand and then I pushed myself up, at a distance of a few meters from her. Immediately after, our attention was captured by a series of whistles, progressively close and accompanied, after a few seconds, by the laughing face of a dolphin.

"Great way to train." I thought. I began to bring the oscillations from the head to the pelvis and I described a wave, imitating its movement. I leaned on its dorsal fin, letting myself be carried away by the dolphin. The magnificent animal continued the run with me for a hundred meters, so I left it and it pushed itself towards the surface to breathe.

"Very well, now that we've warmed up, let's move on to the attacks." Said my father's thought. Another power that our species had was that underwater it was possible to communicate through thoughts.  We could not read in the mind, but it was possible to interact in that way, since, in the water, it was not possible to speak. In our original form, we could only intone hypnotic melodies and thought was the only means of communication. It was like a sort of intercom that rang in the heads of those who wanted to participate and listen. Privacy was equally respected, because we only let people know what we wanted.

He motioned for me to start and moved into an attacking position by pointing his hands forward, then he launched himself on me to give me a tail blow, so as to make me lose my balance. With a somersault I turned on myself, dodging the attack.

"Um, I'd say you haven't lost your verve."

In a flash he was behind me, in a movement so fast that it made me see only a trail of bubbles. He was about to wrap my arm around my waist, which the sirens could do with the intention of crushing you, or to hold you back before biting you. But I jumped up a split second before his arm caught me and my father embraced the void.

I saw it advance in a zigzag, moving the tail to the right and left, so fast that it took my breath away. His movements seemed to personify the anger he had towards me for the pain I had inflicted on him with my rebellion.

"Come on Ari, don't be a delicate girl ... let off steam, let your fury burst" -.

As I dodged away from his attack, incited by him to be angry, his fin brushed my arm, causing me to burn, but I didn't stop and with irregular jumps, I avoided the hits.

After me it was my sister's turn, who with a grace and a mastery of movements, gave an excellent performance. I saw her bend over, stretch now passing over and then under Dad's arms and legs and, later, respond with her attacks. She was quick, safe and awake; I had always envied her incredible readiness.

After her, my mother prepared for her performance, circling. Her gaze crossed that of my father and I was able to admire their wedding. I noticed the perfect comparison with two violin strings, touched by a single vibration, fitting each movement of one to the other, so much was the complicity that bound them. I had always observed their great love with deep esteem: every day, they faced life together, counting only on themselves, with no secret that divided them, both above and below the sea. They loved each other completely, accepting each other's defects. If there was one thing that I always wished for me and for Melody, it was to be as lucky as them.

My thoughts were interrupted by the call of my sister, who showed me a small sea urchin in her hands, with her short and blunt spines. I smiled at the memory of the night before, when in my long story, I had told Bryan that sea urchins were harmless animals, which if grasped with delicacy do not sting, but at best stick with the suckers. I watched the animal spin the spines while my sister chuckled with tickling.

We were about ten meters deep and I didn't know how much time had passed.

"Now move freely for a few minutes." My father said. “Then we'll go back to the surface. The storm seems past and I would not like there were complications. " For him, the word "complications" was a clear metaphor for "humans".

I climbed up to two or three meters from the surface and, through the blue, I admired life on the dark rocks, where an umbrella-shaped alga moved shaken by the water. I also caressed a starfish, the size of the palm of my hand.

"Well," my father announced, pleased. "Let's go back to the mainland."

As I went up, I looked up first, dazzled by the light, which filtered through the water like a sword blade. When the sun was out, its rays were able to reach the bottom, but seeing that light that touched the surface, albeit slight, made me still in a good mood: the sky was lightening slightly. I then also glanced over the seabed, admiring the silver mantle that housed pieces of broken shells and shells. I said goodbye to a fish, which was nibbling something on the rocks and went to the water.

When I went out, my eyes saw another infinite blue, which overlooked the one from which I had emerged. It was really true: sky and sea seemed two distinct waters, each populated by different lives, but both custodians of an indescribable beauty. We gradually approached the rocks, making us push by the still rough waves. I felt tired, in fact, we all were. To catch our breath, we climbed a rock that lapped the beach and sat down to look at the surface of the ocean as it turned bluer, as the patches of cloud increased. As we dried, I felt the electricity inside me that caused me the idea of seeing Bryan again. Melody began to sing her song and I followed her mother, knowing full well that Bryan was safe. Singing was instinctive and we couldn't help it. After several minutes, I felt my tail stiffen and pull when I was touched by the sea breeze and saw my scales come off piece by piece. In a couple of minutes I lost pieces of my tail, which fell on the rocks in shining trails, inch by inch, as if I was flesh-striking, while under each laceration, I saw the skin turn white. The transformation lasted a few minutes and once our human half had returned to take possession of us, we got dressed and went back to the parking lot.

I ran those meters anxiously and when, around the corner, my gaze met my father's car, I ran even stronger. He was there, waiting for me, with a broad smile on his face. As soon as he saw me, he removed the wax from his ears.

"Here you are," he said cheerfully, when I opened the door to hug him. "I missed you."I confessed to him. I heard my father's roar, but I didn't care much. Bryan gently stroked my still wet hair, sinking his face into it.

"It was the longest two hours of my life." He whispered in my ear. I looked up, smiling at him and before my father could react like the night before, I went to sit with Mum and Melody in the back seat. Inside me, however, I could not wait for the moment when I would be alone again with him.