4. The Mermaid Sisters' Gardens

      Each of the six mermaid princesses had her own little garden plot to decorate as she saw fit.

         N’Shal patterned her garden plot after the shape of a dolphin and kept her garden plot fairly simple.
     Ayon made hers into a wide arc, so that she could turn her head and see it on three sides of herself. She arranged the plants and items in her garden according to size. The smallest items and plants were placed closest to the inside of the arc, and the largest plants and items were placed at the back. Others were placed in between. Here and there, a rock or larger item would be placed to make the arrangement look more natural.

     Eeba preferred a complex arrangement of passageways rising to eye level or above. Anyone swimming through it would discover a different arrangement each time he turned a corner.


     Sirena kept a small garden plot, in which she created an imaginary, miniature sea kingdom. Rocks, for example, represented mountains; and small plants represented much larger plants.

     Makki patterned her garden plot in the shape of an S. To her, this shape traced the movement of a mermaid when she is swimming through the water. At least that’s what Makki said after she had completed her garden. Not having the imagination of her sisters, she just wanted her garden to look like a garden. Fitting the garden to the space available to her, it ended up shaped like an S.

     All of the mermaid princesses adorned their little garden plots with things they had found after ships had sunk into their kingdom. They especially liked things that sparkled and shone: gold and silver coins, jewelry, watch chains—even broken glass—as long as they were beautiful.

     Don’t let me forget to mention Momo’s little garden plot. Hers was in the shape of the sun. She chose red and gold and orange sea plants to adorn her garden. As for decorations from wreckage,

      Momo chose only one thing: A life-sized statue of a human boy stood in the very center of her garden. At times when she was daydreaming, Momo would occasionally imagine that he was a real boy.
   Entering her world of imagination, she would ask him about himself and about his life on land.

3. Palace Life

      Rays of light from the sun penetrated the ocean waves and scattered throughout the Kingdom of Marbella, casting a glow on the undersea scenery. The bare sand, the barnacle-encrusted rocks, the gently undulating sea grasses—in fact, all things beneath the sea displayed such stunning clarity that the undersea kingdom gave you the feeling of being in a living 3-D photograph.

      I mentioned that dolphins and merchildren enjoyed sporting with one another, but other living things of the sea liked to draw near the merfolk. Countless little fishes of every color and combination of colors swam through the windows of the palace and played in its spacious halls. In remote corners of the palace, some fishes made their nests and laid their eggs. 
      Because the little fish were much too small for merfolk to kill for food—and because they were just the right size for larger fish to kill for food—the little fish seemed to think that the palace was a safe place for them to live.          
     Schools of smaller fish would swim right up to the merfolk and eat from the palms of their hands. Dolphins and certain larger fish that merfolk preferred not to eat—and which thought the fish in the palace were too small for them to eat—would swim up to the merchildren and let it be known that they wanted to be stroked like pets.

     In their free time merchildren freely sported about with one another and with playful sea creatures. Since merfolk houses have fewer breakable items than our houses on land, no one scolded them for their careless behavior.

     I also mentioned that merchildren had to attend school. Merfolk schools had no classrooms because most of their lessons were built upon children’s natural curiosity about the world around them. More “serious” subjects, such as the languages and cultures of people on the land, were acted out, and the merchildren and their teachers would pretend that they were landsmen.  
     Merchildren got more laughter from the “serious” subjects than they did from the others. (Could landsmen possibly be as foolish as their teacher looked when he imitated their behavior as seen from a distance?)
      Merparents never have problems getting their children to take a bath because, under the sea, there’s no need to take a bath. Merchildren don’t have to clean up their rooms or make their beds, either, because they have no need of rooms or beds. They can play or sleep almost anywhere.

2. Six Mermaid Princesses

      N’Shal, the oldest of the mermaid princesses, had the darkest eyes. Her eyes were as dark as the deepest chasm in the sea. Except for the alertness in her face, you could hardly tell if N’Shal was looking at you. A less charitable person might wonder if N’Shal were a little cross-eyed; but everyone who knew her thought her eyes were hauntingly appealing.

     To complete our general description of her face, N’Shal’s hair was a deep chestnut brown. The merfolk would describe her laughter as “bubbly;” those of us on land might compare her laughter like water splashing across the rocks in a little brook. N’Shal also had the most willowy figure, which made her the most graceful swimmer of the mermaid princesses.

     Ayon, with hazel eyes and honey-colored hair, was the most studious of the mermaid princesses. Yes, mermaids have teachers and have to study. Ayon was especially talented at art and languages: the languages of merfolk and and landsmen. Ayon was also considered the most beautiful of the mermaid sisters. Perhaps her sparkling eyes and dreamy, yet friendly smile that caused merfolk not to notice that her teeth had a slight overbite. On the other hand, perhaps folk found this imperfection vaguely endearing. Beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.     Ayon was so inclined to observe the world around her with a sense of wonder, that she never seemed to notice or care whether she was beautiful or not.

      The third child was Eeba. Oh, my goodness, how can I describe the child without seeming unkind? With her flaming red hair, emerald-green eyes, and bubbly personality, Eeba was considered the prettiest, for what it’s worth. To go with her deceptively bubbly charm, she was the quickest swimmer over short distances. People often thought it charming the way she flitted about like ball lightning. With all those charming qualities—how shall I put it?

     Eeba, to put it as kindly as I know how, was the most adventurous. She was more often seen playing with merboys than with mergirls, and she often got into mischief like merboys. As often as not, Eeba was the one suspected of instigating the mischief. Instead of sporting with dolphins, which enjoyed being ridden, Eeba was sometimes caught annoying the sea turtles by hitching a ride on one of them. On one occasion, an abnormally large number of electric eels suddenly appeared in the sea hag’s house and caused her some distress. No one ever proved that Eeba had anything to do with it, but everyone suspected it.

      Sirena (that’s a popular name for mermaids) was the most well behaved of the six mermaid princes. She was a petite strawberry blond with cool green eyes. Because Sirena was a little shy and unsure of herself—which often showed in her face—she had the most winsome face and the most winsome smile to go with it.

     I must also mention that Sirena hated her name. You’ll probably agree that it’s a beautiful name, but Sirena had one problem with it: The name was too common to suit her. Almost every story about mermaids has a Sirena, which, in Sirena’s view, made the name boring. Maybe that’s why Sirena was a little too unsure of herself.

     Makki, the fifth sister, was the strongest swimmer; and she had brownish-green eyes and auburn hair. Makki was a bit overweight, but she seemed not to notice. In fact, she was so cheerful that no one else seemed to notice either. Like most mermaids, swimming a great deal gave her strong muscle tone and a fairly small waist. She also carried herself well and moved about well, so most mermen and mermaids agreed that Makki was attractive. Makki seemed not to notice her attractiveness any more than she noticed her weight. With her cheerful manner and eagerness to please others, she was easily one of the most well liked of the mermaid princesses.
     Momo, the youngest of the mermaid princesses, was by far the cutest; but it would have been unwise to tell her that. She would have been pleased to be called pretty, beautiful, winsome, or charming, but she found it distasteful to be called cute. To make matters worse, there’s a fine line between “cute” and “ugly,” and Momo knew it. Certain other girls—not her sisters, mind you—sometimes whispered that Momo was “goofy,” a “nerd,” or, still worse, a “geek.”
     Momo was the baby of the family, and her older sisters always treated her as if she were younger than her years. She enjoyed the privileges of being the youngest child—in fact, she sometimes seemed to insist on them—but she often wished she could gain the respect usually given to older children. “Cute” was somehow a reminder of her failure to gain that respect.

     Perhaps all this was why she tended to daydream. Oh, did she ever daydream! Momo often seemed to live in a world of her own. Like most young mermaids, she would look up toward the surface of the water and wonder what life was like up there. Unlike most young mermaids, she would use her imagination to daydream about it.

     Momo had wide, alert eyes as green as the sea, and she had flowing russet hair that she allowed to flow as freely as the sea plants around her. Like her older sister Ayon, Momo’s teeth had a slight overbite, but Momo’s two front teeth were more noticeable, and this sometimes embarrassed her. For that reason, she sometimes covered her mouth when she smiled.

1. The Undersea Kingdom

Chapter One: The Undersea Kingdom

     Three fifths of the earth is covered by sea. When you stand on a quiet beach and look out to sea, you see a vast area stretching all the way to the horizon. An occasional sea bird such as a gull or tern may be the only living thing you see. Somewhere in the distance a dolphin or flying fish may break the waves, leaping for a moment and vanishing beneath the waves. Besides this, you see no more than the illusion of empty expanse.

     Ah, dear reader, the emptiness you see is but an illusion. A few meters or so beneath the sea's gently undulating surface a startling new world teams with living things. 
     So many different forms of life are to be seen down there that it's often hard to tell plants from animals. Sea anemones, rounded like colorfully designed steamed buns, may easily be mistaken for plants. Corals--animals too small to be seen without a microscope--live and die in such large groups that their remains are often mistaken for large rocks or for single large animals. 

    With each motion of the water, kelp, sea fans, and other ocean plants wave and sway in willowy movements. Fishes of every imaginable shape and combination of colors look as though they were painted by a master artist. Countless fish, moving about in groups called schools glitter like brightly colored jewelry. They dart and play among the sea grasses and other swaying plants as birds of the air fly among the branches of trees on land.

     An undiscovered world of caves, grottoes, and undersea reefs lie hidden from the eyes of men. Yet, dear reader, these unseen places are where our story begins—in the Kingdom of Marbella, the home of the merfolk.

     Mermen and mermaids aren’t really (as I’m sure you’ve heard) half human and half fish. That would be quite impossible, which may be why some people don’t believe in merfolk. No, merfolk—like dolphins, whales, and seals—are mammals. 
     They have hair. Their babies are born live and not hatched from eggs. Their mothers give them milk. They’re also warm blooded; that is, they’re able to adjust to colder or warmer temperatures.  

     They differ from most mammals only in that they can breathe both in the water and above the surface of the water; and that their lower bodies have scales to help them swim better. This further shows the variety of life found beneath the sea.
      Many merfolk live in undersea grottoes; some live in caves; still others live in small dwellings built from whatever materials are available to them. 
     The palace of Merking Wayan was a splendid structure carved from a coral reef. The inner walls of the palace were tiled with mother-of-pearl: Millions of oyster shells were set with their inner surfaces facing outward to reflect even the faintest light that entered the palace through its many windows and skylights. 
     The undersea kingdom is truly a beauteous and wondrous realm. No place of this world, however, is altogether a paradise. 
     A few years before this story begins, Queen Iridescence and her two oldest daughters, N’Shal and Ayon, were a little late returning from their scallop bed. On that fateful evening, a shark moved unseen and attacked the queen. Before the shark could move in a second time to finish the kill, a pair of dolphins attacked the shark from two sides: above and below. The simultaneous strike broke the shark’s back. 

     By this time, two more sharks smelled blood in the water and began circling the three mermaids. A pod of dolphins arrived and formed a protective ring around the queen and her daughters. The dolphins escorted the mermaids back to their palace and drove the remaining sharks away. It was too late, though, to save Queen Iridescence. 

      The dolphins later apologized for having failed to notice that sharks had entered the area. The mer king forgave their failure, rewarded their bravery in protecting his daughters, and ordered them to improve security.

      From then on, the mother of Mer King Wayan II managed the royal household and cared for the king’s six daughters.