The List:
-Urcellus, Urwin
-Undersea, universe
-Until one day
-Upper, upend, uandino, unfortunate, under, underwater, ubiquitous, urban, unfair, urge, utter, ultimate, unauthorized, umbrella, ukulele, undersell, unbridled, unwise, unable, unicorn, unique
The Result:
"Unlucky Urcellus"
In all of the universe, there was perhaps no one quite as
unlucky as Urcellus Marin.
He should not have been so unfortunate, all things
considered; his Uncle Urwin had been fishing the Channel between Overcliff and
Crossway long enough to know the most under-trafficked areas, and with the
upswing in the use of large nets for trawling, they were able to bring in
enough fish to undersell the urban, single-line fishers. These ubiquitous
“small-timers” would complain about the unfairness, but Urwin would shrug and,
ultimately, they all would have to agree that it was “just business.”
In fact, Urcellus knew that if anyone could build a case for
the unfairness of fishing practices around the Channel, it would be the Marin
family, as the one thing that severely hampered their fishing efforts was the
continued existence of the mermaid kingdom, Undersea. As long as Undersea
maintained its boundaries, the fishing wardens of the Channel would block off
whole sections where fishing was not allowed. Uncle Urwin was smart enough to
realize how unwise this was, as the fish would gather in these “unauthorized”
sections, where common fishermen were unable to get to them, thereby drawing
more fish away from the sections they should have been allowed. Day after day,
Uncle Urwin would deliver the ultimatum that today would be the day he would urge the warden to unbar
these sections, even for a few hours, just long enough for him to cull from the
masses of fish and enjoy the unfettered freedom of less competition, but day
after day, he would give up, and Urcellus would accompany him to the old
trawling grounds, just bordering the unsanctioned areas, and their voluminous
nets would bring in an underwhelming number of unimpressive fish. By the time
Urcellus was old enough to begin fishing himself, he was well and truly unhappy
about the whole situation.
“Unconscionable!” He uttered, and stomped out the door. He
would show those undeserving wardens just how underhanded his family could be!
He would teach them to try and force the
hand of an unstoppable trawling business! The young man gave vent to unbridled
rebellion as he marched to the docks and unmoored his boat. Rowing straight out
to the very edge of the “unauthorized” zone, all the way to the furthest buoy
from the shores of Crossway, Urcellus made his protest known by jamming his
mother’s umbrella—a flamboyant, lacy thing whose loose ribs caused the
contraption to undulate with even the slightest breeze—in the top of the small
float. Unfettered and entirely undisturbed, Urcellus lowered the unwieldy
fishing net, and undertook the task of waiting until the small bell on the
underside of the boom began to ring, alerting him to the fact that the nets
were full, and he could leave.
Urcellus sighed and leaned back in his boat as he brought up
his father’s ukulele. He strummed a few of what he considered to be chords,
unmindful of whether they were actually in tune at all. The boat rocked gently
back and forth; Urcellus felt the unshakeable weight of relaxation settle over
him, and he soon fell under the spell of the soothing waves. Up in the sky, the
sun beat uncomfortably, so much that Urcellus had to shade his eyes from the
unrelenting brightness. He could rest his eyes; the unsuspecting fish would
swim right into his net…
The shrill clanging of a bell jolted Urcellus out of his
unconsciousness so hard that he nearly upended himself. The boat was
unbalanced, leaning heavily toward the side with the net; he had definitely
made an unwilling catch! Urcellus leaned against the winch, hauling the net
toward the boat. He grunted at the unexpected weight, but he would not be
undermined in his goal! As the net drew closer, Urcellus peered at the
contents; it wasn’t a net full of fish like he wanted, but the mesh wound
tightly around a unique creature he had never seen before. The unmarred, white
body encouraged him; the size of this fish alone was sure to produce plenty of
meat to split into small fillets and sell to unsuspecting villagers. However,
as the creature twisted, Urcellus glimpsed another feature that he was
unequipped to handle: a single, wicked-looking, twisting horn protruding from
the animal’s head.
“What’s this?” Urcellus murmured to himself, “an underwater
unicorn of some sort?”
They fought back and forth for several minutes, each one
uncompromising in their efforts. Try as he might, Urcellus was unable to get a
clear view of exactly the underwater creature he was dealing with—right up
until the moment the “unicorn” gave a mighty heave, breaking the beam holding
the net and upending the boat completely. Urcellus didn’t have time to gasp for
breath before he found himself underwater.
Down he sank, unable to draw breath, or even to gather
enough strength to propel himself back to the surface. His prize catch, unfettered
by the boat as it was now, swam swiftly away in the unmerciful current, its
speed unhindered by the presence of the tattered remains of Urcellus’ net still
wrapped around the body.
The young man felt his lungs begin to burn as he hung there
in the water. He had been utterly unsuccessful in nearly every aspect of his
ignoble mission, and now he would not even survive to give an account for his
deeds. Urcellus hung his head—and witnessed an unfamiliar shape heading toward
him from an area even deeper in the water. It glinted in the sparse shafts of
sunlight, and it moved too quickly for him to distinguish its shape. Urcellus
nearly unleashed a scream right there in the water as a cold, slippery
appendage wrapped around his shoulders, and a thick, gooey substance smeared
over his face. The appendage let go, and the new creature appeared in front of
Urcellus.
Now, he did scream, his mouth springing open unwittingly and
the sound escaping his throat. Urcellus inhaled precisely one breath before he
realized what had happened: he had screamed, and breathed, underwater, and yet
his airways remained clear of liquid.
How could this be? He raised his hands up to his face, and
felt the uneven blobs of sticky, stretchy substance. His eyes moved to regard
the apparent source of this substance: a creature far too fish-like to be
recognized as human, yet too human-like to be dismissed as a fish. In other
words, a mermaid.
“Olleyo,” the creature opened her mouth and sounds escaped,
as if speaking, “Ehm Yssandra; whettar yoo doonear?”
Urcellus could only blink in response; he could piece
together that the mermaid was trying to introduce herself, but he didn’t want
to find out what happened if she knew he could understand her!
The mermaid swam closer, her dark hair streaming back as a
solid-gold scallop shell glinted just under her chin. She smiled and might have
been friendly and welcoming to him, but Urcellus was by now thoroughly
unsettled. He flailed backward with his arms, and looked up toward his boat.
The mermaid looked as well. “Oonee taggetta these errface?”
she burbled in her strange, quasi-human language.
Urcellus didn’t even want to look at her. He flopped and
flailed in the water, trying to push himself upward through the liquid. The
mermaid with the dark hair swiftly placed her hands under his arms and bore him
toward the surface with powerful strokes of her violet-hued tail.
Urcellus felt his head break the surface, but the sticky
substance remained, and so did the mermaid. He saw her pull out a wide leaf of
some sort, and smear it over her own face, leaving the gooey coating from the
underside of the leaf behind on her mouth and gills. She saw him watching her,
and showed him the leaf.
“Uandino,” she gurgled. “Grozon thussee flor.”
Whatever it was, Urcellus couldn’t help noticing that it
enabled her to breathe the air with her gills, in much the same way it enabled
him to breathe underwater. The very idea scared him: what if the mermaids could
climb onto the land? Would they start undermining the human kingdoms?
The mermaid still waited by the side of the boat, watching
Urcellus as if she wanted something, but what could it be? A large, ungainly
shape materialized under his boat, and the young fisherman had only enough time
to recognize a large white body wrapped in fishing net, when the spear-like
horn pierced the surface of the water very close to the boat. The mermaid
looked down at the water with fear in her eyes as the “unicorn” flashed past
her, and her expression became all the more urgent when her body suddenly
disappeared under the water, tail-first. Urcellus sat in his boat, quaking in
fear as the unicorn emerged from the water, with the mermaid tangled in the net
he had cast over it.
“HELP!” the mermaid shrieked very clearly, but Urcellus had
seen quite enough of this forbidden zone. He took up the oars and rowed with
all his might back to the dock. He didn’t even mind that the family fishing
legacy had ultimately ended with him. From that day forward, Unlucky Urcellus
would remain in Crossway, and never set foot near the water again.
Did you enjoy this story? As it so happens, "Undersea" is the name of the mer-kingdom in my book, Princess of Undersea. This story was intended as somewhat of a slapdash tie-in story--those who have read the book may recognize the mermaid, Yssandra--at least her name, anyway! Hope you enjoyed it, and if you're interested in finding out more, click the hyperlinked text above, or just go to the "Princess of Undersea" page at the top of the blog!
Also in the A-to-Z Challenge Series: ( * Continuations of Suggestion Box installments)
-Letter I* ] [-Letter S*
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