Stranded: A Lovestruck Merman's Tale (BL)

The goddess was one of the powerful entities who once ruled over the waters of the human world. She maintained the balance of ocean beings with the sirens directly under her command.

She led titans to topple ships and summoned storms to sink cities into the deepest depths of the sea. She was benevolent and cruel, caring and fierce.

Only the oldest of sirens and merfolk personally met her. Anyone else fortunate enough to laid their eyes on her considered the experience as a curse.

After all, the only time such instance could happen was if they begged for her aid - an intervention that would require making the impossible possible and entailed a hefty price.

The goddess was respected but not worshipped. She was recognized, revered, but more often feared.

Geale heard the only instance when the goddess appeared to a merfolk was during a time of dire need. There was no song or known ritual to summon her.

No one other than the elders who met her knew what she looked like so visualizing her to see her also wouldn't work.

If the goddess met Lapiz, then she must have been quite desperate.

"And she granted Lapiz' wish," Geale muttered.

"She did."

"In exchange for what? Didn't the goddess require something of equal or greater value in return for granting a wish?"

"A commitment. She would serve the goddess here on the island."

"That's why she stayed here! But did she have to be with him?"

"No, she didn't. In exchange for protecting Lapiz, the goddess rewrote the memories of the people on the island. It granted Pierre a chance to leave and finish his studies in the mainland. After seeing how helpless Lapiz was on her own, he stayed to teach her about the ways of humans. Lapiz eventually encouraged him to complete his education and fulfill his dreams. They stayed in touch by sending letters to each other. He returned years later, asking Lapiz for a chance to devote the rest of his life to her."

"Are you saying they actually fell in love?" Geale uneasily asked.

How would a merfolk fall in love with a human who wouldn't live as long as them? Sure, he had seen tales about it but that was all they were - fictitious stories that made no sense.

"That's the story," Marnthe answered, smiling at the wedding photo. "I have their letters in another photo album."

"I just don't get it. Didn't he age faster than her?"

"He did. That was why she eventually pretended to be his daughter, and later his granddaughter. She didn't really want to deceive people, but she realized Pierre was being called a pervert for being married to a woman who appeared decades younger than him."

"She casted that mind haze?!" The mind haze should have faded away after her death.

Why was it still on the island? Was she actually alive somewhere?

"It was cast by the goddess, a gift for their union and devotion to her."

"Devotion?"

"Pierre and Lapiz served sober merfolk during the Crescent Moon Festival. They offered lost ones a safe haven away from the intoxicated crowd. They made sure everyone returned home by sunrise."

"The bartender and his partner."

"Pterie and Amrin. They are Lapiz' friends. The two of them met at the beach house bar during one of the festivals when Lapiz and Pierre served them. Out of gratitude for helping them find each other, they pledged to serve festival diners here every year."

"That's why they said they were there for a friend," Geale muttered, remembering Pterie's explanation for his presence there. "So where are they now? Are they really gone?"

"Pierre and Lapiz?"

Geale nodded.

"They're at sea."

"I thought you said they weren't lost at sea."

"They aren't lost. They're right where they should be."

"What do you mean?"

"Pierre was already an old man when I met him," Marnthe said, remembering how a bald and wrinkled Pierre smiled warmly at him when he woke up in the beach house.

"His soul was as energetic as Lapiz' youth, but his body continued to age."

Marnthe felt his chest ache at the memory of Pierre's sickly form. "He eventually succumbed to an illness that rapidly deteriorated his physical and mental abilities.

He began to forget everyone in the beach house and behaved like a lost child. He had moments of clarity, but those moments dwindled over time until one day…he just didn't wake up from his sleep."

"I envy you," Pierre whispered, smiling sadly at Marnthe one evening as they sat on the shore. "When you perish, you turn into foam. You become part of the sea that embraces your love ones until they turn into foam with you. Humans aren't like that. We turn into corpses that need to be buried or turned into ash."

Tears spilled over his wrinkled cheeks.

"I can't imagine how much pain I give Lapiz when I'm in one of my episodes. I don't want to put her in anymore pain by burying me. If I can talk to the goddess like you, I will ask her to turn me into foam right now before I hurt Lapiz more tomorrow."

Geale noticed Marnthe's hands tremble and clench into fists.

"Lapiz couldn't imagine an existence without him," Marnthe continued. "I know it's difficult to understand, especially when they had only been with each other for a short while compared to the existence merfolk have. But the love they had…It was as real as any love shared between merfolks who vowed to share an eternal companionship with one another. I volunteered to take over their duties here."

He remembered how Lapiz walked on the shore, clad in her white wedding dress and cradling a pouch containing Pierre's ashes close to her chest.

The waves had been calm; the breeze brushing her long, curly tresses as if helping her look even more beautiful than she already was in the face of the setting sun.

She glanced back at Marnthe one last time with a grateful smile on her lips.

"She turned into foam while scattering Pierre's ashes into the sea."

"I'm sorry," Geale whispered, seeing the pain in Marnthe's eyes as the older man stared fondly at the wedding photo.

"They're together. It's not something you should feel sorry for."

Geale looked uneasily away. Pierre and Lapiz' story explained a lot of things about the restaurant bar, but it didn't hint any explanation about Marnthe's presence on the island other than he took over their duties. Lapiz seemed to retain her merfolk heritage despite being stuck on the island. She remained a mermaid.

So why did Marnthe seem different? Did he have a different agreement with the goddess?

"Can I ask you another question?" Geale finally said.

"Yes?"

"Why are you not like me?"

Marnthe stared at him for a moment before turning away. He rose to his feet with the album in his hand.

"I traded my tail for legs."