Rope

Snag 1: The Loser from Necromancy High

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There is a place where magic is nonchalant, where mermaids are sought after by desperate teenage boys, and where the Silver Crane of the East is barely a reality. A very desired barely a reality, for it is said that to catch one is to bring about wealth and power beyond belief.

This place is where Will, the biggest loser to cross the town of Menia, lived. He and his friends regularly pulled on their cloaks of invisibility and chased unsuspecting mermaids. They had yet to catch one. They all attended the least respectable school in the region: Necromancy High. Will had never been good at the art, but had tried his best to learn on his own while attending grammar school.

One fateful evening, he was practicing his makeshift Living Dead spell in the alley behind his house when it misdirected and caught Gibby, Mrs. Nill's cat, full-on. The spell worked, and transformed Gibby into one of the living dead. Mrs. Nill never noticed that her cat had stopped eating, sleeping, and using the litter box. She did notice the smell and the slight twitch that Gibby had developed. She took him to the vet, who told her that Gibby had been turned by a Necromancer. Furious and knowing that Will was the perpetrator, she marched back home and dumped the twitching Gibby on his doorstep.

"Gibby's been my cat ever since," Will noted to himself, still scribbling all over his Controlling Your Zombie notes.

"What?" his friend, Justin, asked from beside him.

"Nuthin. Just a narrative interlude."

"Oh. You wanna go catch mermaids after school?" Justin whispered. Will shrugged.

"Yeah sure. I think my dad has a net we can use."

"Sweet!" Justin cheered quietly. "Oh, wait. Why's your dad back in town? Didn't he bewitch a bunch of people and split?" Will shrugged again.

"Yeah. But he has some unfinished business."

"Whores?"

"Most likely."

"What's so important that you insist on discussing it during my class?" Mr. Lin demanded from the front of the room. Both boys looked to the ceiling, acting as if they'd never even thought of conversing with each other.

"They were talking about whores and catching mermaids," a small, pale girl chirped from behind Will.

"Man, Shina!" he exclaimed, turning to face her. "What's your problem? Can't you just stay out of people's business?" He flicked her in the nose. She poked his eye.

"Dead eye, out!" she cried. His right eye plopped onto her desk obediently.

"AUGH! What have you done to my eye?!" Will screamed, grabbing it from the desk.

"That was a very good spell, Shina," Mr. Lin told her proudly. She grinned.

"Thanks, Mr. Lin. It was nothing."

"Will, go to the nurse and get that taken care of before it dries out too much." Mr. Lin waved his hand in a form of dismissal, and Will clumbered from the room, holding his eye.

After school, Will had Gibby distract his dad while he stole the most perfect mermaid catching net ever. Then he and his friends ran to the craggy beach for some good hunting.

"Are you sure that net will work?" Lem, the youngest of the group (and also the smartest), asked skeptically as he prodded at it. "I mean, it seems pretty thin, like it was made to catch small fish."

"It'll work," Will said.

"I'll go first!" Justin announced, grabbing up the net and rushing into the waves.

"Wait!" Gregg, the best Necromancer of the group, called out. "Where's your cloak of invisibility?" But it was too late. Justin was underwater. All three shrugged and sat on the rock. About ten minutes later, Justin surfaced, bobbing in the waves.

"I-one!" he yelled.

"What?" the other three shouted, standing. He swam closer, and they moved into the shallows.

"I caught one!" he repeated.

"What?!" They waded quickly into deeper waters and swam out to meet Justin.

"Help me pull her in," he said, and they all grabbed a handful of net and dragged it up into the shallows where they could see the mermaid. Her skin was sandy and freckled like the bottom of the ocean, her eyes were large and black, she had no ears, and her tail (the same color as her skin) was long and unsplit, like a snake's. Her hair was bright red and pink.

"Woah." they all noted in unison, except for Justin, who was beaming. She looked from one to the other, her mouth open slightly, her webbed fingers gripping the netting loosely.

"You know what this means!" Justin crowed. They all looked at him agape. Will did not know. All he knew was that catching mermaids was cool.

"It means that within forty-eight hours she will become human and be bound to you forever," Lem said mechanically.

"Ha HA!" Justin replied. The mermaid said something in a weird, sharp language. Suddenly, Gibby came tearing onto the beach, yowling like all hell was after him, which was possible.

"Come back here, you smelly little bastard!" a burly voice called from farther up the beach. Will raced out of the water to intercept Gibby, who leaped into his arms, panting.

"Is that dad?" Will wondered, watching the blob come closer. Slowly, it took a familiar, dad-ish form. "Dad? What are you doing chasing Gibby?" Will demanded as his dad trotted up, panting.

"I was only asking him where you went, but the dumb thing wouldn't tell me." He glared at the cat, and the cat hissed back. Meanwhile, Justin, Lem, and Gregg were hauling the mermaid closer to shore.

"So what are you doing back in town, anyway?" Will asked his dad, who turned his attention from the cat to answer.

"I came to get you."

"What?"

"You're comin with me, boy. We're going on a quest."

"Why?" He patted Gibby a little.

"I have debts, and I can't go alone. We leave tonight."

"I can't just drop out of school!" Will protested.

"Sure you can. I did, and look where I am." Will only rewarded him with a deadpan stare. "Seriously," his dad continued, "either you come with me, or they kill you."

"Who are they?"

"Can't tell."

"Fine, whatever, I'll come."

"Good boy."

"Hey, Will, guess what?" Justin called. Will turned. "I'm dropping out so I can marry her!"

"Great, man! I'm dropping out, too!" he replied. "To go on a quest!"

"Cool! For what?"

"A unicorn's heart!" Will's dad announced. Will paled.

"B-but, that's impossible, and unicorns live in the End!" he protested.

"Not impossible." The sun was beginning to set.

"Boys, I need my net back!" Will's dad called. They started removing the net from around the mermaid. It snagged her tail, and she screamed something and slapped Justin.

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Hey, I'm writing a new story. I'm terribly sorry to the people who are waiting on updates to my other stories. I've hit writers' block, and am trying to get over it. I figured what better way than to put one of my ideas into action? Tell me if it's good or not. This is my first try at anything like this! ^_^