The Blackwood Child and the Mermaid

Across this vast expanse that seperates us, hope diminishes and faith wanes with early hours of dawn. How can you cope so far from home?…

He snapped awake, coughing and sputtering through a mouthful of water. His lungs burned and his vision swam, his mind trying to comprehend what was happening. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, and slowly his breathing slowed and his heart quieted. He looked around. He was at the edge of a river in a forest. He must have fallen into the water, he decided, lacking the proper memory of what had occurred.

“Everett, you must remember.” Said a voice. He looked up to see a young girl had been sitting behind him the entire time. Except she wasn’t a girl at all; in place of legs, she had a tail like a fish, green and scaled and shiny from either the sun or water. She was, in fact, a mermaid, and as far as he knew, mermaids no longer existed. Only the flesh-eating sirens remained.

Frightened, he tried to scramble away from her, but she was faster. She reached out and grabbed his shoulder again. “Remember your name. Remember your home. Remember your friends, and your quest. Remember who you are, and you will remember what happened here.” She said with such force, he could have sworn her words were engraved into his mind.

She released him, and his memory flowed back with such force, it even brought back the pain of a certain past wound. He cried out, and the mermaid watched curiously, wondering what could have caused him so much pain before.

Once the pain had subsided, he choked out a question. “Why did you help me?” He asked, his voice hoarse.

“I was told to. A beautiful lady came to me in a dream. She told me to be here and save you, and to deliver a message.” She replied, flicking her tail against the water. The sight of it made him shudder, as he was still fearful of the mermaid.

“What was her name? What message? Who are you?” He demanded.

She made eye contact with him. “I have no name to give you, for either the lady or myself. But the message is this: A king lies dead, his heir lost to a greater purpose. This task is greater than that beforehand, and those who dream must wake.” She answered, and with a flourish she was gone, having disappeared into the water and swam away before he could protest.

He was on his own again, Everett Evenlight, one of the Blackwood Children. And he was left to wander alone and worry at the meaning of the mermaid’s message until exhaustion and sleep took him.

He was still in the forest, lying face down where he had fallen, too weak to continue. He looked up to see her standing there smiling. Her face was as he remembered, untouched by time as all of her people were. “Is this a dream?” He asked, but she said nothing.

“Sleep,” she whispered instead, kneeling and kissing his forehead. Her hand slipped down and pulled something from behind his shirt; a small, transparent stone threaded through a metal chain. “Remember that you will not die without wound so long as you keep her near.” She said with a smile before the vision melted away, and he was thrust into darkness yet again.

A/N: Grrrrr, I don’t like how this turned out. Also, I got this huge [removed] three in one book of LotR from mah English teacher. Just thought you should know, since you’re all f*cked now that I got it.