The Call Of Thalassa

“If peace flows like a river, may it flow into the ocean of our souls.”

-J. Autherine

“Here you go, honey!”

Aileen took a deep breath of the delicious smell of baked apples and cinnamon floating everywhere around the warm living room. Nana Alexandra gave her a plate with a huge piece of her infamous apple pie. Smiling at her gratefully, the young girl put a spoonful of the delightful goodness in her mouth, moaning at the heavenly taste of the desert.

“Perfect as always, nana”, she complimented the old lady that smiled back at her in happiness and patted her back softly for her sweet words.

“Yes, you are the best cook in the whole world, grandma! What would we do without you?“., Aide kissed her nana’s cheek and devoured her slice quickly as if she was afraid that someone would take it away from her.

“You’d probably starve yourselves to death...or perhaps you’d get yourselves into more troubles than you usually do”, Alexandra sent a pointed look to a blushing Petra before making her way back in the kitchen.

“I am not going looking for trouble...“, Petra whispered yelled when nana left the living room, but not before making sure she would not be able to hear her speak.

Aileen and Aide looked at her flushed form with raised eyebrows. They all knew that Petra was the wild teenager of their group and that she found herself into huge problems more often than them. She had never denied it before like she just did, making them almost shocked at the revelation. She was actually really proud of her partying ways and troublesome antics.

“...Trouble usually finds me”, she corrected nana’s words throwing her arms into the air as if it would give a better explanation to her friends.

Old, good Petra was back and they obviously didn’t need to worry about her. She almost got them for a minute. They all burst out laughing at her words while holding their belies and crying from laughter.

Petra had even somehow managed to fall off her comfortable armchair onto the wooden floor of the room, hitting her leg on the table in the process and letting out a few profanities at the pain. That only results in more giggles as the girls laughed among themselves.

Aileen shook her head at her friend’s silly behavior, her flaming curls falling into her pale face. It was the first time in a long while that she had laughed so hard and had such a great time. It made her smile sadly, remembering that when she was younger she had more reasons to laugh than she did now.

“...Now Ariel could no longer live underwater. Sebastian and Flounder helped her to the surface so that she could breathe. Ariel stared with wonder at her new legs.

Since the storm, prince Eric had searched every day for the girl that had rescued him.

“That voice, I can’t get it out of my mind”, He said to his dog, Max.

When Eric saw Ariel, he thought he had finally found his rescuer. But because she couldn’t speak, he said, “You can’t be who I think you are...”

The little girl stood up quickly on her bed and hugged her mother tightly, effectively cutting her off. Her mother laughed as her small form cuddle into her and pinched her cute chubby cheeks lovingly.

“What is it, my love? I thought that “The Little Mermaid” was your favorite...“, her mother’s voice was soothing and calming as she ran her fingers through her long fiery locks.

“Mommy, why didn’t the prince accept Ariel from the beginning? Was it because she was a mermaid or because she couldn’t speak?“, the young girl mumbled to her mother as her emerald eyes were filled with tears.

“Of course not, my love! He just didn’t know, if she was the one he was looking for! He was already in love with the girl who rescued him and he wanted to find her. He didn’t know that Ariel was the person he was looking for!“, her mother explained to her.

“But she was different than him! She was a mermaid and he was a man!“, young Aileen asked curiously as she sat on her mother’s lap.

“So what, my love? You have to understand that being different isn’t a bad thing, but a blessing! It makes you unique from all the other people...“, her mother answered softly to her before kissing her forehead.

“But how could he love someone completely different than him?“, the girl scrunched her eyebrows.

“Oh, my darling, love means to accept the other person for what he really is. His flaws aren’t disadvantages that need to be changed, but things that make him even more lovable and unique! Remember that my love.”

Her mother kissed her hairline and hugged her tightly.

“Besides...who wouldn’t want the love of a beautiful mermaid princess? He would have to be a mad man to do so!“, her mother’s tone changed to a happier one as she gave repeatedly kisses to the small child making her giggle.

“Mommy! I want to become a mermaid when I grow up!“, Aileen exclaimed through her giggles.

“Is that so?“, her mother raised an eyebrow as she saw her daughter nodding her head vigorously.

“You can’t, baby girl,“, the mother said to her daughter making her instantly frown and pout her lips.

“Why not, mommy?“, she asked saddened at her mother’s words.

“Because... mermaids are not ticklish!”

Aileen’s emerald orbs widened as she registered her mother’s words, but it was too late. Her mother had already begun tickling her belly and neck, making her let out uncontrollable laughs.

“No...No! Mooommy!! Stoop...It tickles...Noo...Stop iitt...”

Her whines went unanswered as she laughed so hard that tears of happiness appeared in the corners of her eyes before they fell down her cheeks. Her neck begun to burn slightly from all the screaming and laughing she was making as she jumped around trying to get away from her mother.

“Well, it seems like my girls are having fun without me!“, a male’s voice sounded across the room.

Her father’s broad figure was sitting against the doorway as he watched the women of his life fooling around and having fun. Their laughter and giggles were like music to his ears as he returned back home from a hard day of work.

“Daddy!!“, the little girl screamed, jumping off her bed and running towards his form.

“Hello, my princess”, her father kissed her cheek as he took her in a huge teddy bear hug.

She treasured the happy memory like a precious chest full of gems as it was one of the few she had to remember from her family’s happy life. They were the perfect three-membered family that loved and supported each other through thick and thin, no matter what.

That was until her mother had suddenly fallen terribly ill. In the beginning, she was just coughing as if she had caught a simple cold and had a slight fever. Then came the unexpected dizziness and sudden faints. She began to shiver in the warmth of her bedroom and her body started trembling at unexpected periods of times.

After a while, she started vomiting everything she possibly ate, nothing sitting well with her stomach. Because of this, she slowly started to become extremely thin and her fevers became impossibly higher. She coughed out blood and purple bruises begun to cover various parts of her frail body. It wasn’t long until she couldn’t breathe properly and started complaining about her body hurting in different places. Fortunately, the illness didn’t torture her for too long.

When she took her last breath in this world, she took a part of her father’s soul with her to the other. Not that she was feeling any better than her father, but he was the one who took her death worse. She left a black hole in both of their hearts, an empty void that could not be filled in any other way no matter how much they tried to heal their mental wounds.

Her death didn’t bring Aileen closer to her father, the only family she had left. It actually made things even worse as her passing put more distance between them. Her father didn’t want to see her and stayed away from her for as long as he could, hurting her immensely with his actions.

As the villagers used to say, Aileen was the spitting image of her mother just in a younger version. She had inherited her fiery red hair, sparkling emerald eyes, and porcelain pale complexion. She had even the same freckles that she had on her pale skin decorating her with small dots like a beautiful minimalistic painting.

Her father could not bear to look at her any longer, not after the death of his beloved wife. This is why he decided to leave her behind and travel in the ocean since he was a skilled captain and sailor. Explaining to her that he needed to work, so that they could have all of the much-needed necessities and a chance for a better life, he went on with his sea travels.

Growing up and maturing, she never complained about it as she was aware of his reasons and was content to just see him a few times every three months when he returned back home from his long trips. But as the years passed by, the three months became six, then nine. This meant that she only got to see him just a handful of times in a year until he eventually disappeared completely and she never saw him again.

No one really learned what happened to him and the opinions surrounding his disappearance were many. Others say that his ship found a civilized port and he had decided to stay permanently in a big city and start a new life there without her. Others argue that his ship sank when a terrible storm caught them while they traveled the open sea.

Others swear that for his disappearance were responsible the creatures that the local myths and legends were full of. Of all the versions, Aileen hoped the latter was completely wrong because that would mean that he had an excruciating and vile ending.

The myths of this region were full of dramatic stories of brave sailors who died at sea and never returned back thanks to the sea creatures that swam under the water’s surface. Of course, most of the villagers don’t believe them anymore and use them just as bedtime tales for their young children in order to keep them away from the steep cliffs and dangerous beaches below them.

They consider them old imaginative stories that the older people transferred to the younger generation for many centuries now, the origins of the stories were long forgotten and there wasn’t a single proof that they were real.

However, Aileen’s thoughts were different from the beliefs of her fellow villagers as she had read quite a few things by working at the local library after the disappearance of her father. It was during the years that she was still searching for him and tried to find out anything that could possibly have happened to him, no matter how mad it sounded.

“Myths and legends do not appear out of nowhere.

They have deep roots that go far behind in time.

So far behind that our memory had forgotten what it shouldn’t. ”

“Aileen Smith!”

She was shaken out of her thoughts as Petra shouted her name at the top of her lungs and pushed her off the coach forcefully. She fell upon her figure that still hadn’t stood up from her previous fall, and hit her forehead on her friend’s knee.

“What was that for?!“, she shouted at her friend as she rubbed the red spot on her forehead with her right palm, soothing the pain away.

“We were trying to get your attention for a while now, Ail, but you seemed completely out of it...“, Aide explained using the nickname she had given to her when they were younger.

“So, what? You’ve decided that pushing me off the coach would be a better idea to get my attention rather than shaking my shoulder or something?“, Aileen said feigning to be angry, but she let a playful smile grace her lips.

“Well...”

Petra stood up, wiping her sweaty hands on her jeans, before giving a hand to Aileen in order to help her stand up. She accepted it and was pulled up from the floor, standing in front of her best friend.

“...Aren’t that what friends are for?”

And she pushed her yet again onto the coach, sending her body straight on Aide’s. They all began giggled and laughing again as their silliness took over every part of their logic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of chapter 3!!

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