With so much time on her hands she often went in search of adventure. Sometimes she would dive deep into undulating patches of seaweed, just hovering there until a grouper or a swordfish saw her. Then the chase would begin. None of them could swim like she. Flailing her arms and beating her tail, she would outdistance the hungry attackers by the narrowest of margins.
Farnon would not have approved. "Liet, you never listen. Why must you take so many risks? Some day I'm afraid you'll probe the inlets because you are so fascinated by what's ashore, but trust me it's dangerous." Farnon's brow furrowed into wrinkles when she talked of land. Liet pretended not to listen, but she could see for herself the nasty gash and scar that lingered upon Farnon's green tail, and she knew Farnon knew of what she spoke.
Still there were so many new experiences for a girl of Liet's age. She was too young and vital to do nothing but feed in the shallows and rest. Sometimes she would find a motor launch drifting and fishing.
For the sake of mischief she would rise high on her tail, so that she protruded half out of the water. That very morning she had done just that when the boy had glimpsed her from the back of the boat. Blond and handsome, he could not have been more than 15 years old as he sat behind a huge fishing pole. He did not see her at first, so she waved her arm.
The boy turned, and she knew by the shock on his face he had seen her. She heard him cry out though she could not understand his strange language. Immediately she dove. Farnon said it was immodest to remain visible to humans for more than an instant. However, Liet had no way of confirming this, nor if she was pretty, although Farnon once said, "You are very beautiful, Liet, and yet there is not a brain in your head. I fear for your future."
Later that day Liet swam quietly in a great circle around the drifting boat. The sun was brilliant, and the water shimmered blue and lazy about her. At last she jumped. Intentionally, she allowed her tail to smack the surface clumsily as she re-entered the water.
Just as she hoped, she heard excited cries from the boat. Slowly she swam back to the surface, allowing her dark hair to trail barely beneath the water like a shimmering drift of algae. The motor of the launch roared to life. The humans had seen her and were giving chase. How wonderful! There was nothing she adored like the chase.
Swimming at a depth no greater than a foot, she darted straight ahead without a thought to where she was heading. There was a thrilling joy experiencing the surge of power in her young limbs, and exactly where she was going mattered not. Occasionally, she would leap, no higher than a dolphin, of course, but just enough to allow her pursuers a glimpse.
How was she to know that this particular boat had an exceptionally fast engine? Before long, Liet realized the strength in her arms was waning; she was beginning to tire. There was nothing for it, but to dive. Vaulting to the surface for a final gulp of air, she plunged downward just as the boat roared over where she had just been. The turbulence of its wake jolted her diving body sideways, and she felt herself rocked helplessly back and forth in the boat's noisy passage.
Lungs nearly bursting, she swam at depth for a long time before she returned to the surface. Gulping air with a startled glance, she realized she had blundered quite close to shore and was in the mouth of a river. In the distance, she could see the handsome boy looking right and left on the stern of the launch that had begun to slowly move upstream into the river.
On the shore, Liet could see a strange variety of amazing things that fired her curiosity, and for which she had no name: a fenced enclosure in which two humans in white clothes batted a ball back and forth, gleaming white buildings, a huge green field of grass upon which women in colorful garb walked about carrying metal rods.
Overcome with curiosity, Liet decided to be daring. Swimming only slightly submerged, she ignored Farnon's warning never to enter the river, and slowly trailed the power launch that was proceeding upstream at a very slow pace. Drawing closer to the boat, she could see the huge blades of its engine, pummeling the water with a tremendous roar as they turned.
In a moment of impishness, Liet leaped. This time she was not clumsy, but rather she elevated, hard and fast, jackknifing in the flash of the sun. Drops of silver spray feathered from her eyes for the seconds she was above the surface, and she saw the longing glance of the blonde-headed boy looking so forlorn and love-struck that she had to laugh. In a fit of merriment, she lay beneath the surface and began to sing.
Farnon had warned her a thousand times that when a mergirl sang, a human might fall in love. What a wonderful time to test her powers! The trilling lullaby of her song reached the surface with a plaintiff wail. Whereas Liet was not sure if she was pretty, she did know she could sing beautifully, for she could hear her own voice magnified and made wonderful by the vibrations of the water.
Lying close to the surface, she watched in amazement as the boy's face took on a confused, bewitched bewilderment. Oh, if only she could talk to him!
She would say, "You're very handsome, young boy. Do you have a name?"
He would answer with some strange name like Harganol or Silvaneus, but his voice would be very pleasing.
She would reach out and touch his hair. "Can you swim, Silvaneus? Would you like to come to my house under the sea?"
The poor thing would not even be able to swim in the ocean. He would barely be able to swim across a narrow river.
"If you come with me, I will teach you to swim. We can be friends."
That would be a nice thing. No doubt he would sometime take her ashore. She, of course, would be as clumsy there as he was in the sea, but it would be worth it to experience the strange things that existed on dry land.
Thinking thoughts like these, Liet lost track of exactly where she was, for the bottom of the river was dark with unfamiliar mud; and it was hard to see exactly what lay ahead. All she knew was the river was thick with boats. Then she heard a strange sound.
She could barely apprehend it at first, but as she listened more closely, she realized it was a call of distress.
"Onk, onk, onk!" It was a deep cry, not exactly in merlanguage, but similarly aquatic, and clearly coming from beneath the water.
Abandoning the boy and the boat, she followed where her ears led her. Then she saw what it was. A pitiful sight!
A huge creature she had no name for, though it was wrinkled and the size of a small brown whale with an almost human face and lovely whiskers like a seal, lay on its side in obvious distress. Its gentle face was twisted in pain, and as Liet drew closer, she could see a dark smear of blood emanating from its front left flipper.
She swam even closer. Now she could see that not only was the creature bleeding, by its flippers, even its entire body was hopelessly entangled in fishing line that had bound it so tightly it could barely move.
Never asking if she might be endangering herself, Liet rushed forward.
"Can I help?" she cried.
The huge beast spoke a strange river tongue in a guttural roar, but Liet understood.
"I'm trapped. I'm dying!"
Up close, Liet could see the lines that ensnared the beast were full of the dangerous hooks that fishermen use. She didn't know where to begin to help the poor creature.
"Watch out for the hooks," he cried, his voice so deep she estimated he must weigh several tons. Frantically, she used her hands to try and break the line, but it was no good. The line was powerful. There was only one solution. Every mergirl has a certain degree of magical power. As young as she was, Liet's was still untested, but taking her tail in her hands, she began to whirl in a circle, spinning head over heels, faster and faster, until the water about her frothed and tumbled crazily, and then she made a wish.
As she dizzily tried to regain her balance, she saw the trapped creature squirming free of the horrible tangle that had imprisoned him.
"How did you do that?" he groaned, weakly sinking to the bottom of the river into the mud. Liet was so out of breath from all the tumbling that she dashed for the surface and leaped, filling her lungs. The boy was nowhere in sight now, but she no longer cared. She had work to do.
Diving back to the bottom, she worked busily to press mud into the gaping wound in the side of the creature, who now flopped on the bottom in a state of exhaustion.
Then slowly he began to right himself. When Liet saw that he was going to survive, she dared ask, "Who are you?"
"Juanto the manatee," he said.
"I'm very pleased to meet you," Liet said. "How did you get hurt?"
"The boat motors are very dangerous," Juanto said. "I ran into a speeder and got tangled in his lines. Then all hell broke loose. I crashed into a dozen different lines. They're not supposed to fish here, but they do."
"They?" Liet said, patting old Juanto's roughened forehead.
"The river people. They're supposed to care about us, but some of them don't."
"Why don't you come and live in the ocean like we do?" Liet said.
"Look at us. We're too big and slow for that big bathtub," Juanto shook his head. "The sharks would tear us to pieces."
The thought of sharks tearing at a defenseless creature like Juanto made Liet shiver.
"Do you have a family?" she asked.
"A wife and a daughter," Juanto said. "They must be worried sick about me. I think I can move now. I'd like you to meet them."
"I'd like that."
Swimming with Juanto was the slowest thing Liet had ever done, but finally they reached Juanto's house, which was a strange cave under the side of the river with a garden of weeds out front and three huge rocking-chairs, much too big for Liet.
Juanto's wife and daughter were thrilled to have him safely home and really quite nice, but Liet thought they didn't get enough exercise, for they were dreadfully overweight. As the four of them sat chatting and Liet explained her magical powers, she suddenly thought of how late it was getting and the look that would be on Farnon's face.
Leaping up and bidding the manatees goodbye, Liet raced down the river as fast as she could swim. Each stroke that brought her nearer to the bright waters of the ocean lightened her spirits, but the insistent thought of the blond-haired boy just wouldn't leave her alone; and she knew, as she swam, some day, despite its danger, she must return to the river again and once more search for the boy.
-End-
