The Dominant Species

We met Caleb again. This time Alastair joined me and Giselle when we went to the meeting. Caleb asked us many questions about the animals that lived underwater and wrote everything down in a notebook. We had shared so much information with him during those meetings that the notebook was half full. He asked us about animals all the time. He also loved talking to us about the animals that lived on land. We knew a lot of the information he told us, since merpeople were able to study land animals. Still, it was nice to learn something new. Humans couldn’t study marine animals, so everything we told him was new to him. We told him about the baby shark we watched hatch the day before.

After I had talked to my parents about this we had decided we wanted the humans to learn about us, if they gave us permission to learn about them. Which they did. Just like I predicted, we weren’t going to get anywhere as long as we knew nothing about each other. I had already decided I wanted humans as our allies.

The three of us met Caleb at a pool in the ground. Somehow a jellyfish had found its way there, so we were nervous as we tried to stay away from it. Caleb wasn’t the only one looking around him in fear this time.

“This is Alastair,” I introduced my boyfriend. “He’s a prince from another city.” “Nice to meet you,” Caleb greeted Alastair.

“Nice to meet you too,” Alastair responded.

“Why are you here?”

“I thought my city should also know about humans. And I definitely wanted to learn for my own sake.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here.”

“Good to know, but why?”

“It’s nice to talk to representatives from two merpeople cities.”

“I think that’s good too,” I told Alastair. “You know, I’ve talked to my advisors about humans a few times and they’re starting to change their minds.”

“Good to know we’re making progress,” Caleb commented. “Besides, I have news.” “Yes?” I prompted.

“I found a way to turn merpeople into humans,” Caleb announced. My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets!

This was similar to something I was trying to do.

“How?” Alastair asked.

“It’s a spell I wrote, but it only lasts for twenty-four hours at a time,” Caleb continued. “Why are you telling us about it?”

“I was hoping you would let me cast it on you and as many other merpeople as necessary.” “Why?”

“The other humans and I need help tracking down those creatures and killing them. We think your magic could help us.”

“This is a lot to surprise us with,” Alastair told Caleb. “I thought so.”

“We need to think about that,” I said.

“I understand.”

“What do you think?” I asked Giselle and Alastair.

“We need to think about that for a while,” Giselle told me.

“I agree,” Alastair said. “But I think I want to help the humans.”

“Me too,” I said. “But what about the consequences to our people?”

“You mean because we could get killed?”

“Yes, but what if there are some humans who don’t accept merpeople? What if they take this as an opportunity to kill us?”

Not every human knew about us yet. Caleb’s parents, the king and queen, wanted to ease their people into the knowledge that our species exists, so they only told their advisors and a handful of people what Caleb was learning during our meetings.

“You could talk to my parents and they could tell our people that the merpeople are there to help,” Caleb suggested.

“That’s possible, but it might not work,” I argued, concerned.

“Why not?” Giselle asked.

“Because there could always be someone who isn’t convinced,” Alastair explained.

“And we could be targeted and killed.”

I was relieved, then again, Alastair always understood me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, turning to Caleb. “We don’t mean to offend your people.”

“Not many merpeople know about humans either,” Alastair added.

“I understand,” Caleb said.

“Then, let’s not tell humans what we are,” Giselle said. “They can’t all know each other, so they might believe we are humans too.”

“You think they won’t recognize us?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Of course, we don’t tell them,” Alastair agreed with Giselle. “Then, we’ll just pretend we are humans too.”

“I think that might work,” I realized. “But from what I understand we need many other merpeople to help us.”

“You do,” Caleb confirmed.

“And they might not agree to that.”

“So what do we do?” Alastair asked.

“We need to talk to our families and our advisors about this and we could announce this whole problem to our kingdoms, asking for anyone who wants to help.”

“You guys could also announce it to other kingdoms,” Giselle suggested.

“Merpeople would keep their magic in human form and you could use it to fight off the creatures,” Caleb told us.

“That’s a relief,” I said.

“Are you sure we should tell our people about the existence of humans?” Alastair asked me.

“We need time to make this decision.”

We did as I suggested. We spent several weeks thinking and talking about this problem to our families and advisors, then we announced it to my kingdom and Alastair’s. The news spread to other cities. Many merpeople went to their monarchs and told them they wanted to help humans. These monarchs contacted me. Alastair’s parents had him contact me and tell me about the merpeople from his kingdom who wanted to help. Alastair wanted to help too. He was worried about everyone who was participating, but he was glad to talk to me.