Marie stood at the water’s edge, gazing across the ocean at the setting sun. She loved the ocean and the feel of the water rushing up over her bare feet only to fall away again. To hear it was as though the ocean was happy to see her there. “Hello Marie! Welcome back! We have missed you!” the water droplets would splash.

She took in a deep breath of salty air and held it for a bit before letting it escape. Everything about the sea amazed her. It took on a beauty all of its own. Unmatched by the mountains, valleys and other breath taking sceneries, the ocean was special. Sitting down silently, she let the water lick her toes and continued to watch the sunset in the horizon.

In the silence there was an interruption; something that sounded like a groan. Looking up, Marie wondered if she heard something or imagined the whole thing. Another one broke the silence that seemed to travel with the waves. Marie stood and searched about. “Hello?” she beckoned. “Is someone out there?”

A groan, once more, replied. Marie walked along the beach, going towards a small area where rocks circled around, creating a small lagoon. She hadn’t gone there for there had been an earthquake the day before. The lagoon was probably ruined from it. Yet, the groaning led her to it for some reason. Climbing up on some of the larger rocks to get to it, she soon found the source of the groaning.

There, caught between two large rocks, was a young man. His hair was grown long and fell around, hiding his face. Ebony black locks resembled seaweed in the way it clung to his bare back. Skin was highlighted by the setting sun and gave off how pale he was. A rock had him pinned to the other at the waist, so only his naked torso was visible while the rest must have been in the water.

“Oh No! Sir, are you all right?” Marie cried as she slid down to him.

Raising his head, he looked upon her with a mixture of fear and relief. Fear, she did not understand.

Reaching his side, she inquired, “Can you still move? Try kicking your legs.”

He looked up at her in confusion, but then attempted to move. “I can still move, but I am in a considerable amount pain. In my back where the rock is,” he replied with a smooth, yet distressed voice. It was haunting.

Marie nodded, “All right, I don’t think anything is broken. Try to relax while I free you.”

The young man nodded and watched her climb up to the side of the rock that held him. Planting her feet against it, she began to push. It wouldn’t budge right away, but the longer she pushed, the less it held and soon it slid off and splashed back into the water.

He let out a relieved sigh and sank back more into the water. However, when he did so, he cried out in pain and pulled himself back up again to reveal a wound on his back where the rock had been. The salt in the water had caused it to sting violently.

With much concern, Marie went into the water behind him so she could get a look at it. The wound was not severe, but was bleeding lightly. It was a bad scrape like she had as a child after falling off her bike. “Its not too bad. I have some stuff back at my house. You can come with me inside,” Marie assured.

The young man looked at her and shook his head. “I cannot… I am unable to walk on land.”

“That’s all right, I’ll help you.”

“No, you cannot… you will have to bring your medicine here,” he objected gently.

“I don’t understand. Why can you not…” She was about to retort when a glimmer caught her eye. Looking downward, she found scales at the man’s hip that spread downward. “You… you’re a…” she gasped.

The man grew saddened that she had figured it out and nodded.

Shock froze her in place momentarily. Yet, when she found herself held captive by his pleading stare for aid, she forgot herself and ran home to fetch the medicine.

To her mother’s annoyance, she frantically dug through the medicine cabinet; dropping a number of things with bangs and crashes. Finding the gauze, bandage, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls and Neosporin, she gathered the supplies and ran back out to the beach. Arriving back to the spot where she had left him, she was relieved to find that he was still there.

He raised his head when he heard her splashing in the water towards him, fighting the urge to flee. His silver violet eyes watched her with child like curiosity and the desire for her to make his pain go away. Still, he did not move from the stone where she had found him.

As Marie waded through the water, there arose another problem. “It’s getting too deep.” She searched about and found a large, flat rock that stuck out of the water. “I need you to lay upon that rock there,” she pointed. “There I’ll be able to treat your wound better.”

Considering his options, it was obvious that he did not wish to move, but desiring to be healed won over. Slipping back into the salty water, he grimaced and swam to the rock without complaint. He lifted himself out and onto the rock; giving Marie a full view of his fish half. The scales were colored like pearls with silver tints that made it glitter when the sun touched. His fin was shaped like a large fan and resembled wet paper. Tiny veins could be seen in the fin’s membrane, pulsing the blood through out.

Marie had to shake her head to clear her mind from the awe. He was expecting her to help him and she was delaying the aid. Climbing up upon the rock herself, she scattered out the supplies before her. She had him lay upon his front so she could examine the wound again. Knowing, first, that she needed to clean it, she poured some rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball and applied it to the wound.

The merman gasped in pain and clenched his hands into tight fists.

“Sorry,” Marie responded. “I should have warned you that this stuff stings. It’s cleaning the wound don’t worry. The sting just means it’s working.”

“Ignore my discomfort. Just do what needs to be done,” he winced.

Marie did just that; cleaning the wound with the alcohol to prevent infection. She then folded some gauze to place on top of it and applied Neosporin to the cloth before placing it on the injury. “I’m going to need you to sit up now uh… Mr. Merman,” Marie requested.

He did as he was told while Marie held the gauze in place. She then began wrapping a bandage around his waist several times and then clasped it on. “There,” she smiled, pleased with herself. “You’re all fixed up now.”

The merman examined the work performed on him and was surprised that a human could do a decent job. He glanced over at her, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t think you should do any swimming any time soon though. Your blood will attract sharks.” Marie pointed at the bandage.

He stared at her in horror. “But I must return to the ocean. If I were to remain on land; I would surely perish.”

“If you return to the sea then the sharks will kill you,” she retorted. “But you do make a good point. You can’t stay here. Someone might see you.”

Her eyes searched about their surroundings for a possible idea. Meanwhile the merman wrapped his tail around himself; rested his arms and head upon it and despaired. Seeing him in such a miserable position made her even more so determined to help him. It wasn’t too long until she spotted something. A small opening in the rocks that remained stable for centuries. Without a word of warning, she jumped down into the water.

The splash startled the merman and he looked up to find Marie swimming towards the hole. He watched her, thinking how strange the human girl was behaving. Before he could say anything, she had disappeared into the hole. Eventually, she made her appearance again. “Come on. I think I may have solved our problem,” she called.

The Merman swallowed, dreading the oncoming pain, but slid into the water anyways. With short gasps, he made his way to the hole. He lifted himself into the hole, but there wasn’t enough water for him to swim through. With his tail curled around and fin hanging out the edge, he looked at her in doubt and discomfort.

“Come on. Its only a couple of feet you’ll have to pull yourself,” Marie assured. “Then there will be plenty of water for you to rest in.”

Taking another deep breath, he began to drag himself forward. Using his arms to pull himself and his tail to push, he made it to the end and let himself fall down into the water Marie mentioned. He surfaced and looked about his new surroundings. They were inside a small cave that was partially filled with water. There was only two holes; the one they entered through and a small one that allowed light in and air to circulate.

Marie sat at the entrance, watching the merman. “What do you think? The tide comes in and out in here so the water will get refreshed. You won’t dry out in here and no one will be able to find you. Here you can just rest until you’re well,” she inquired.

“It will do nicely. I’m safe here.” He faced her, capturing her image in his metallic eyes. “Thank you.”

She smiled down at him. “You’re welcome. Well, it’s late and we both could use some sleep. I’m going to head home now but I’ll check on you in the morning; all right?”

The merman gave her a nod. Without another word, she watched him submerge and drift down to the bottom where he rested upon a garden of kelp. His hair camouflaged with the seaweed and the rest of him disappeared in the garden.

Marie sighed, “Good night Merman.” Crawling away and out of the small tunnel, she headed home.

After a lecture from her mother about her soaked to the bone return, she changed for bed. Lying upon her bed, she thought about the merman. It was like a dream. A merman, a real merman! Fearing that she would wake up to find that everything really was a dream, sleep did not come easily. Yet in the end, it came all the same.

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All right, hopefully you guys like this. I hit a writers block on Entranced but I'll still try to get to that ASAP. As for Trapped, a stupid thing happened. The disk I had it saved on would not read on this computer for some stupid reason. It worked before but now it's saying that it's not formatted! Narg! Well, I have 50 pages worth of this story in a notebook that I shall type up and try to update if I get any reviews. Hope you like! R&R please!