COMING SOON
Her Dragon’s Treasure
Sitting on the rocks, sunning herself under the waterfall, Talullah, or Lulu as her sisters had called her since she was a little girl, waited for a ship or whale or anything to pass by and break up the monotony of just another day of the same old crapola. She’d left the house before dawn, needing to be anywhere but in the vicinity of her six sisters and her parents. The last few sleepless nights had left her restless and cranky and basically unwilling to deal with the everyday hassles of being the youngest.
The only place she felt like herself anymore was in the water. She knew it was something all the females of their kind went through, however, during all the endless lectures about maturity and mating, no one had ever warned her about the crazy dreams she’d experience. It would’ve been nice to have a heads up that she could expect nightly visions of a man with long, scraggly, auburn hair and gorgeous violet eyes begging for her help. The man, whether he be real or a figment of her imagination, had Lulu tossing and turning like baby sea turtles in the undertow. Every morning she would awaken, more tired than the night before, more irritable than the day before, and needing the comfort of the water to soothe her frazzled psyche.
“Did you really think the Falls was a good hiding place, Lulu?” Nessa, the middle daughter of the O’Halloran pod asked as she made her way down the side of the cliff. “You always come here. It’s no secret.”
“Wasn’t hiding?” Talullah rolled her eyes and harrumphed.
“Then what are you doing here, not in the water but with your tail on, looking out at the sea?”
Nessa was the least offensive of Lulu’s sisters and usually easy to get along with…well, usually. On this occasion, however, it appeared she was going to do her impression of a reporter and ask endless questions.
“I’m thinking. Okay? Just thinking,” Lulu sighed, running her hands through her long platinum hair and wondering what it was going to take to actually get some alone time.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Nessa asked before adding, “Those dreams you’ve been havin’?”
Turning on her sister, Lulu asked through gritted teeth, “Have you been pokin’ around in my mind again?”
“No!” Nessa quickly replied, rubbing her arm. “I still have the mark from where you hit the last time.”
“You better not be.” The youngest mermaid threw a scowl with a narrowing of her eyes at her sister to make sure there was no mistake that she meant business.
Reading minds was just one of the many talents that came naturally to mermaids. It helped them talk to the undersea life in their daily interactions and kept them apprised of danger in the deep dark waters they frequented, but using it on one another was a huge no-no. Not that it stopped any of the O’Halloran sisters from taking advantage of their gifts. A gift that for Lulu was a double-edged sword since she’d been born with what her mother called ‘an extra dose of mind power’. It allowed the youngest of the O’Halloran pod to hear anyone’s thoughts, at any time, with about a thousand-mile range, without even thinking about it.
She’d embarrassed her oldest sister just before her first real date by saying, “You’re right, Ailbe, he does have a nice butt.” She’d caused her mother to find a new butcher by repeating, “Your pork chops look like pig slop,” just after her mother had thought it. But the kicker had come while they were attending a picnic with the humans her parents insisted they get to know. The afternoon had been going pretty well, except for a group of teenage boys who kept harassing Ciara and Daireann, sisters two and three. It seemed the girls’ long yellow-blonde hair and bright Kelly green eyes were too much of a lure for the pubescent buttheads to resist, so they had begun chanting, “Freak! Freak! Freak!”
Hearing her sisters’ distressed thoughts, Talullah had screamed. “Do it, Ciara, just do it. Turn them into sea slugs!” And to make matters worse, when her sisters only reacted with a gasp and a shake of their heads, Lulu dipped her hand into the fountain, tapped into the magic of the water, and did it herself.
Needless to say, the O’Hallorans gave up their attempts to appear normal, moved to the cliffs overlooking the sea, and that had been their home for almost two hundred years. It was safer. They didn’t have to hide their abilities or their tails and it meant no more swimming in the bathtub.
Yeah, moving to the shore had been great but it hadn’t stopped Talullah’s abilities from growing stronger with each passing year. Not only could she read anyone or anything’s mind at any time, if she was asleep or distracted or let her mental blocks slip just the tiniest bit, her sisters could listen to hers, too.
Luckily, she led a boring life and the worst thing that had happened had been when she fell asleep watching Terminator and Nessa heard her thinking about the caves under the reef where they were forbidden to go. Of course, her sister had shouted, “Lulu’s been to the caves.” Which had resulted in three weeks of being grounded and two additional weeks tending the nets for her father’s seaweed business. From that night forward, she only dared to sleep in her room with the wards her grandpop had taught her to put in place.
Hoping that ignoring Nessa would get her to leave, Lulu soon groaned in frustration when her sister quietly asked, “I promise I haven’t been snooping but I still gotta ask. Who is that guy and why does he look so creepy?”
“He doesn’t look creepy,” Lulu unintentionally spat, staring at Nessa for daring to say the man who haunted her dreams was anything less than perfect. “He’s been hurt or something. I think he’s trapped.” She looked back at the sea. “I can feel his pain.” The mermaid rubbed the spot on her chest just over her heart and added with a whisper, “And his anger.”
Shaking her head, she decided to tell Nessa more. Turning back to her sister, she grabbed Nessa’s hands and looked her in the eye. “He keeps begging for my help. He calls my name like he knows me, like I’m the only one who can help him.” She let go and turned toward the water again. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. My heart hurts. It’s just a bunch of emotions all tangled in a ball making me crazier by the minute.”
Finally saying it out loud, Tallulah immediately knew what she had to do. Without a second thought or a glance back at her sister, the mermaid jumped off the ledge into the cool water of the falls, diving straight for the bottom of the pool and the underground cavern that led to the open waters of the sea.
“What the hell are you doing, Lulu? Where are you going?” Nessa’s scream sounded in her mind.
“To save the man from my dreams. You coming?”