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Excerpt
China Blue Eyes
by
June E. Bradley
Alone on the beach,
Lorelei walked toward the foaming surf and rolling waves. Palm trees
swayed lazily along the white sandy shore. Waves lapped in slow
motion at the pristine sand before returning to the sea. Trees and
volcanic seamounts dotted the landscape. Sand dunes lined the beach
where white crystal sand reached an aquamarine sea, beckoning her to
explore its wondrous depths.
She stepped into the
water and walked until submerged. She was surprised when she
realized she didn’t need air to breathe. Alarm raced through her as
the sea current pulled her deeper. She forced herself to relax, and
a peaceful feeling seeped through her body. Finding a level area,
she stretched her arms and looked about.
The land under the
sea was similar to her home above water. There was a cultivated area
in front of her filled with lush green plants and what appeared to
be trees growing underwater. She thought this to be strange, but it
didn’t frighten her. Everywhere, there were well-attended gardens.
The fragrant, somewhat salty, scent of flowers and plants was,
although strange, very pleasant. Their leaves and blossoms beckoned
her to explore. Red, white, purple, blue and gold flowers peeked out
from their green foliage. She had never seen such strange blossoms.
They invited her to
enjoy their exotic forms and to enter a path leading to fountains
and lawns of green sea grass that hinted of a quiet and peaceful
place. There was not another person to be seen in this peculiar
setting. The only other life around her was some exotic fish lazily
swimming about.
She hoped John, her
husband, wouldn’t worry about her. When he went to sea for months at
a time, she worried something would happen to prevent his return to
her. This time she was the one who was away.
She had no memory of
how she came to be in this beautiful sea world. At the end of the
path, she found an old open gate. Hung on it was a jagged wood plank
with antique lettering carved into it.
She deciphered the
archaic writing to read ‘Vel Com Ye To Zeakreast.’ “Welcome to
Seacrest!” she exclaimed.
Lorelei remembered
the legend of the mystical world of Seacrest. She recalled from when
she was a child her grandmother entertaining her for hours with
tales of Seacrest, the land of mermaids, mermen and other weird sea
creatures.
The excitement of
her discovery was tempered when she realized she was in a very
unusual site on the seabed. Instead of being cold and murky, the sun
shone through the water. The calmness of the water revealed clear
blue skies. She could even see puffy white clouds moving across the
blanket of blue above.
The gates she
entered swung closed behind her. Lorelei made her way down a path
and stopped when she saw a handsome merman and a gorgeous mermaid
swimming toward her.
They were smiling as
they waved a friendly greeting. She thought she heard them say,
“Welcome, Lorelei. We have been waiting for you.”
They were close
enough for her to notice they didn’t move their lips. Lorelei
thought, “How come?”
The merman answered,
“Sound does not transmit too well underwater. It has a very short
range and becomes garbled by distance. So we merfolk developed a
thought-talk that enables us to communicate underwater. It allows us
to talk to any semi-intelligent creature in our waters.”
The merman was every
girl’s dream. Tall and muscular with dark golden skin and wavy
blonde hair tied with a leather band that hung below his shoulders.
His eyes sparkled like emeralds.
They made a handsome
couple. Those were the only words she could use to describe them.
The mermaid was beautiful and self-assured. She was shorter than her
mate and was the most alluring woman Lorelei had ever met.
“I am Gemma,
Princess of the Mermaids. This is my mate Lars. Welcome to Seacrest,
Lorelei. We hope you will enjoy it here.”
“What is this
place?” Lorelei was nervous and not sure what she was doing there.
“It is a
way-station. A place for people who are sick and can’t return to
Earthland, which is what we call the air world above the sea.”
“Am I dead?” Lorelei
asked, frightened and unsure.
“No, just very ill,”
Gemma replied.
“You can’t be
serious?” She couldn’t think straight enough to ask more questions.
“For now, this is
where you’ll live,” the golden haired Gemma told her.
“I don’t want to
live here. I want to go home,” Lorelei complained.
“The time is not
right.”
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