The Myth Of Elodea | Fiction

"Where do you think you are going, Lotus? I forbid you to leave underwater and swim to the shore with Kelp. Lotus! Get back here!"

Lotus swam, as fast as her fins would take her, straight into her room and banged the door shut in anger. A rush of bubbles followed the bang. She sat gently on her bed and burst into tears. The last words of her mother, the Queen, echoed in her ears. "I forbid you…." Whenever the Queen used those words, no one dared disobey her. It was the law in Atlantia.

Lotus sobbed her heart out. Kelp was her best friend. They had been friends right from birth —his mother, Adora, was the Queen's best friend. Lotus and Kelp told each other everything and went everywhere together. As they grew older, it seemed their friendship caused the Queen and Adora to drift apart.

The Queen wanted Lotus to give more attention to her royal and political lessons and participate in charitable activities so that when she retired from the throne, Lotus could become queen.

The influence of Kelp held Lotus back. Kelp was a carefree merman who enjoyed roaming the undersea, taking Lotus on adventures to all the oceans in the universe. Lotus would return back with stories of how they explored places, met other sea creatures.

Sometimes, they got trapped in some kraken's web and the only thing that saved them was the knowledge that Lotus was the Queen of Atlantia's daughter. In reverence to her mother and to avoid an undersea war, the kraken would let them go.

As children, Lotus and Kelp would harass Lotus's uncle, Madi, to tell them stories of his magical adventures around the universe. The Queen always disapproved. "Madi, stop filling their ears with those lies!" She would say and Madi would reply, "Your majesty, you know they are not lies. Allow them to enjoy their youth and explore."

"Uncle, how do you know these stories?" Lotus would ask.

"Oh, my great, great, great grandfather told them to me. He said once that there is magic everywhere and when we find it, our hearts will never stop beating." He pointed at Lotus. "I see curiosity in your eyes, my golden mermaid. Know where your heart truly belongs."

Lotus had smiled that day but those words weighed heavily in her heart. She had always felt odd among her people. Only Kelp made her feel free and now, the Queen had forbidden her from swimming ashore to discover the human world.

This happened when it came to the Queen's knowledge that Kelp had discovered elodea, a rare underwater flower that empowers the mermaids and mermen to strip off their skin and become human for a number of years.

Many years ago, the Queen's ancestors had destroyed all the flowers but hidden only one in a secret place because one of the royal children had sipped the elodea juice and stripped off her skin for the human she fell in love with. This made the Queen at the time to birth another mermaid child and extend her tenure on the throne.

One of the Queen's most trusted guard found out that Kelp had gotten a petal of the elodea from the undersea black market. He reported it to the Queen because Kelp had invited Lotus to join him so they could "explore the human world together".

The Queen was mortified and exiled Kelp and his mother out of Atlantia to the Pacific Ocean. That was the end of the friendship between the Queen and her best friend, Adora. Lotus became sad. She had always fantasized of visiting the human world because of the stories her uncle told her about them. "Humans are fragile beings. Their life span is but an inch of ours but their minds are powerful."

When it was night time, all mermaids and mermen were asleep, Lotus swam to the royal gardens. Underneath a big rock in the center of the garden, Kelp had hidden a petal of elodea for her to find.

She held it in her palm, tears falling from her eyes. "Mama, I will miss you but I know where my heart truly belongs and it's not here. The outer world calls to me and I have to heed the call," she whispered quietly before squeezing the juice into her mouth.

In a blink of an eye, millions of magical stars surrounded her as her body changed shape. Her beautiful, soft golden scales disappeared to reveal smooth, olive skin and in place of her long tail were two long legs. Lotus could not believe her eyes. The myth of elodea was true —she was now a human being.

Lotus laughed, her heart full and happy. She smoothly rose from the underwater and swam with all her strength to the shore. As her head popped out of the water, she sighted her friend, Kelp, sitting on a rock. He had turned human too. Her best friend had been waiting for her!

Kelp turned to meet her eyes and grinned happily. She emerged out of the water just as Kelp spread out a large blanket and covered her in it. They embraced each other for a long moment.

"You made it," Kelp said, looking astonished.

Lotus nodded. "Yes, I did. This human world feels magical."

"You know there is no going back now?"

Lotus nodded again. "This is where my heart truly belongs."

The two friends held hands and walked away from the seashore into the world.

The end.

^{Oliana_Gruzdeva from Pixabay
Kellepics from Pixabay
Mystic Art Design from Pixabay}

^{Also posted here}