Emily and the Mermaid: a novelized fairy tale

     Here we learn more of Beauteous Kingdom, Prince Arthur, and the prince's upbringing.      Arthur's father, King Zanidiate, is a compassionate king who cares for his subjects as if they were his children.  He constantly has his finger on the public pulse and makes many decisions for his subjects.      All this compassion costs a great deal of money, but twelve powerful magicians have that matter in hand.  They create gold and silver by putting magic words on slips of paper.  As long as no one has the temerity to actually look into the royal treasury, the gold and silver keeps piling up.  Only the magicians are allowed to see all this gold and silver.      Beauteous Kingdom is also blessed by lesser magicians called happiness counters.  By means of magic words such as kurtosis and regression analysis, these magicians are able to count things that no one else can count, such as happiness. Pe...

     In 1844, it was Serena's turn to rise to the surface.  Being the timid sort of mermaid, Serena stayed in the midst of the sea, watching ships and sporting with dolphins.      On warm days, Emily, Amelia, and Emily's dog Hero spent time with each other at Garner's Millpond.  Gradually learning each other's language, Emily and Amelia also learned of each other's culture as Hero watched for intruders. Emily often brought a copy of an illustrated book called  Peter Parley's Universal History, on the Basis of Geography , which aided them in their discussions of many places and things of dry land.   In August 1846, the next mermaid sister, Ayon rose to the surface.  She swam toward the setting sun, without reaching it, of course. While at the surface, Ayon felt the first windfleers of the Great Hurricane of 1846.  As the hurricane was still a few days away, Ayon could relax and enjoy the landscape, seascape, and mammals o...

     I mentioned in the previous chapter that Ayon rose to the surface in August 1846.  Two other notable events happened that year: the Great Hurricane of 1846 and the subsequent Yellow Fever Epidemic.      Before the Great Hurricane of 1846, North Carolina's Outer Banks were part of the North American mainland.  Since the hurricane, and even to this day, the Outer Banks have been islands.      This chapter gives a vivid description of what sea dwellers do to survive during a hurricane and how a great hurricane impacts the world beneath the sea.       Although the super hurricane made landfall in present-day North Carolina, it also wreaked havoc on the City of Royalton and on Sawyer Island, more than a hundred miles to the south. Amelia was unable to visit Emily because trees that had fallen across Sunrise Creek blocked her path.      By the time Amelia was able to visit Emily, the Yellow...

   On the third Saturday of each September, Sawyer Island held its annual harvest festival.  It differed from the harvest festivals of today only in that it also features coming-of-age competitions.  Young people who would turn fifteen years of age at any time from that date through the following year were invited to participate.  In 1847, Emily McAllister was the right age to participate.      The harvest festival was held near Moultrieville, at the other end of Sawyer Island.     The coming-of-age competitions included a pentathlon for boys, a pentathlon for girls, and a sack race for pairs of boys and girls.   The five events in the boys’ pentathlon included chewing tobacco spitting, arm wrestling and jaw punching, undershirt sniffing, hog calling, and telling tall tales (otherwise known as lying). The pentathlon for girls included cooking (both fresh and leftovers), a clabber hauling race, cat bathing, handicraft making,...

     One day,  the two oldest mermaid  princesses, N'Shal and Eeba,  visited N'Shal's undine friend Cachina.  Cachina invited them to meet some naiads in a group called Aquatic Watch.      Aquatic Watch is a neighborhood watch group consisting of undines, melusines, naiads, and woodland fairies.  They hope to complete their group by recruiting some mermaids.  Aquatic Watch is headed by a naiad known as Sunshine.        Unofficially a human couple named Dale and Hazel Hill are associate members. Dale is a craftsman.  Hazel and Sunshine had been friends since they were little girls.      The naiad language is more comprehensible when you read it out loud.  For example, " Cummin seddas bel," translates as, "Welcome to our home;" and,  “ Gotsum forners.  Tooavum. Airyuls buds," translates as, " We have two visitors who have come a long way to be here.   T...

      Finally Amelia came of age and rose to the surface.  She was very late returning home and would speak to no one about her journey.  She clearly carried some unspoken sorrow.      A friendly singing crab that called herself Lolita  Detritivore tried to cheer her up by singing a song about singing your troubles away.   A seagull swooped down and snatched up the crab and took her away to feed her young.  No amount of singing would save poor Lolita  Detritivore.      Eventually, she broke down and told everything to her oldest sister N'Shal.     The remainder of the chapter describes a party taking place aboard the royal yacht, a three-masted schooner called The Eidolon.    A storm is coming up.

     As the storm gets worse, all passengers move below decks, where Prince Arthur gets seasick.  In an attempt to overcome Arthur's seasickness, Prince Brian helps Arthur toward the wheelhouse.  On the way, a wave sweeps Arthur overboard.        The storm pulls the ship farther and farther away from Arthur.  As Amelia lifts Arthur's head above water, she and Brian see each other's face.  Amelia points toward the shore, and Brian waves at her.      Early next morning, Amelia reaches Sawyer Island with Arthur in tow.  She can't just leave him on the beach, so she tows him to Garner's Millpond.  Emily's terrier Hero hears Amelia's mermaid song and barks for Emily to follow her.       Prince Arthur awakens in the rustic McAllister farmhouse.  The family serve him breakfast, and the pampered Prince Arthur gets a quick education in 1840's farm life.      Emi...