Marina's Story

Mark and Marina the mermaid - Part 5 (Story so far: Recently widowed Mark has found a Mermaid on a deserted beach that needs help. Now they are dreaming an impossible dream).

The sun was out again and the little rock pool we were sitting in seemed to warm up. We were telling each other our life stories and now that I had finished my account Marina wriggled a bit before starting hers. The wriggle was not one of getting more comfy it was one of exactly how much she should tell me. Already just by being with her a few days I was picking up the rudiments of telepathy. She was an expert in knowing what I was thinking and somehow getting so close to her I was getting to know how she felt without her saying a word.

She finally relaxed and insisted that one of my hands was placed over her tummy and her own hand was on top of that one. Satisfied that all was well she started to talk.

“I am not from here,” she started, motioning with her free hand , “But from a great distance to the north where it is much warmer but also much more dangerous. In the ocean there is always someone who is hungry. The warmer it is the faster species breed and there is more competition for food. I suppose it is the same here on land but in the depths there really is no law and order; it is never peaceful. I was born twenty or thirty years ago where there are few of your settlements close by. In the winter great whales from the icy regions came and had their calves, but safe though it is for some there are always predators such as the sharks and rays and other fish that bully lesser creatures. So it was with us and the sea lions and the dolphins. The sea lions and fur seals spent much of their time on land when not fishing or playing and the dolphins like us are wise but they are very much faster in the water. So the dangers of the deep did not affect them so much as us. But worse still were your people and the boats that pulled so much fish from the sea. With so many creatures sending distress messages the sea there was always full of predators taking advantage of easy pickings.”

Marina paused here, and reached up to touch my face.

“Mer-people are few by all accounts and whereas we females were not that aggressive our menfolk were and would fight the predators. And so our numbers have dwindled. Ours has always been a matriarchic society like the bees on land and spiders too so our women did not really notice that the mermen numbers were diminishing rapidly. I am sad to say that I do not remember my own father. In all my life I only remember a few males. You were only the second male to mate with me. My first and only calf, a boy was not yet fully grown when he was taken by a shark, so I have no one now. I do not know where my mother is and of my siblings I know nothing either. I met another female a year or so back but she was wary of me as I was younger and thought that if we ever did find a merman he would choose me instead of her.”

She breathed out a deep sigh and continued.

“So now I travel far by myself and try to keep out of trouble but still I meet no one to care for and mate with; that is until I met you. You did not rush to get others to gawp at me or hurt me in any way but saw that I was in trouble and tenderly took me in your arms and returned me to the sea.”

This time as she paused, she took my hand and examined it. “What do you do with all your fingers? Three are quite sufficient you know.” Then she placed each of my fingers in her mouth and sucked it in turn. So with my other hand I traced a pattern on her tummy and made little forays around her plump body and finished up just where her body went from hips to tail and patted her strong tail muscles gently.

“Mmm. I like that,” She murmured contentedly then continued her story.

“I remembered my mother telling me stories about the world and how to be safe and of old mer legends where man and mer people helped each other. So with that vision in my mind a few years ago I would occasionally observe your people from the sea; sometimes I was hidden behind a rocky outcrop or watched when they were fishing on the water. But nothing I saw of man or his women or even their children indicated that I would be safe if I made myself know to them. They fished without reason, they polluted the ocean, killed more than they needed; they scoured the sea bed and killed the mangroves and sea grasses and other living things they did not want. So in short I avoided you as best I could…until now.”

“But each time I came into oestrus I would have that urge to mate, and sadly or happily I don’t know which yet, when I met you the other day I just wanted you as soon as I read your mind. So I lied to you.”

I nodded and said “You said that your rosy tummy just meant you felt sexy but it was a sign that you were ready to mate and if my seed was viable you might have a child.”

She shook her head “No, not a child, Mark…a merchild. That is what I want. You have your children now I want mine.”

And now after hearing her story about her people dying out and her obvious love for me I wanted that too…Marina, my beautiful Marina with a baby merchild of her own, and mine too.

As I continued to stroke her, I wondered whether to tell her about the difficulties in compatibility; of my sperm wanting to make legs and her egg wanting a tail, let alone the problem of fingers and placement of organs and hair and lung capacity and nasal flaps and salt water conversion techniques and temperature control.

So there was I crying too, because I realised that I wanted exactly what she wanted as well! Oh, how I wanted her to have a baby; our baby.