Mutante: Chapter 2
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
The next morning, Rosie slipped out of the house the moment she managed to escape her mother’s admonitions and made her way to the forest, a carefree smile making its home on her face. The water was beautiful this early in the morning and her burden was light. In the distance, off to her left, the morning sun glinted off the very tops of the Sunrise Mountains and the reef lay to her right, providing plenty of interest as the reef-dwellers began their morning routines.
Passing the time with fantasies of what the various fish and other sea creatures might be saying to each other, Rosie found herself at the forest just before midday. The kelp forest swayed in the unpredictable currents, sunlight creeping in around the edges and a vast shadow of absolute darkness above it. Before Grandma Essie had spelled the forest, it had been magical in a different way: greens that glowed nearly as brightly as the fairest mermaid scales and sunlight filtering through the water, throwing out pennants of gold. The seahorses that had lived there had been tiny and beautiful, and Rosie had loved coaxing them into curling around her fingers. A host of other creatures had lived there—most of whom had been harmless to merfolk—and the wildlife had been one of the major draws for family picnics in the forest. Before the curse, children swam freely through the kelp, knowing that if they ever got lost, they could simply swim above it and use the mountains to get their bearings.
Now though . . . . Grandma Essie had moved to the kelp forest to get away from everyone, and she did not wish to be disturbed. After the first few brave souls had sought her out, looking for magical solutions to their problems—the way she had helped others before the curse—and various children had wandered across her house, she had spelled the entire forest. Both the kelp itself and the creatures that lived within had been changed, magicked into obstacles to prevent anyone from reaching Grandma Essie’s house, which was located on a mountain in the exact center of the forest. Even those beautiful seahorses that used to be Rosie’s tiny playmates had grown larger than a merman and were often mad—more than willing to attack anyone who entered their territory. Fish that would eat whatever you carried with you, giant crabs that could rip off a merman’s arm, and squid the size of a house were other lovely inhabitants of the enchanted forest. Not to mention the cloud of absolute blackness that hovered over all but the edges of the forest, preventing anyone from trying to swim over the forest or to gain their bearings from the mountains. Merfolk who went in didn’t always come back out.
Not that the danger stopped everyone. Where the creatures had been the primary lure before, now certain adventurous sorts visited the forest to harvest magical kelp.
Magical kelp could be used for all sorts of things: made into a tea, it healed (or poisoned—depending on how much one used), a paste rubbed into wounds ensured one didn’t scar and that the healing happened quickly, even with large wounds. Merpeople also used the kelp fibers in ropes and clothing.
Really, Rosie couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to take such a risk—especially not for magical kelp. Didn’t they know that magic almost always made things worse?
Fortunately, this was one of the rare occasions when magic came in handy. Rosie swam around the edge of the forest, looking for the large sea anemone covered rock that marked the start of her grandmother’s magical path. It wasn’t safe to enter anywhere else, nor would she have been able to find Grandma’s house without the path.
As she drew closer to the forest, a thin current of cold water swirled about her, leaving her shivering with a chill of foreboding. Something seemed off. Even the water seemed dimmer than usual. Rosie took out her glow lantern, turning it so that the chemicals mixed. Now, where was that path?
Peering into the deepening gloom, she finally found the right rock and counted off ten lengths to its left. Quieting her mind and imagining that she could see Grandma’s path, she recited the rhyme that acted as the password to enter it.
“Grant us passage that is safe
through this dark and gloomy place
to Grandma’s house we want to go
through all the currents, high or low
take us on the way that’s true
through the realm that’s deep and blue
allow no dangers, vast or small,
to reach us on this path at all.”
Immediately, the path shimmered into existence some five tail-lengths above the ocean floor, seemingly pushing kelp and creatures to either side of it. Usually, light penetrated the water above the path, allowing one to see as one swam along it. Today, though, the same gloom remained. Rose swallowed hard. Perhaps her mother’s words about Aunt Rina and Grandma Essie weren’t as far-fetched as they had seemed yesterday. If either of them had gained the upper hand in the feud, going into the forest could be far more dangerous than usual.
She imagined returning to her mother and confessing that she had failed to reach Grandma, hadn’t even tried to take the path. No. She would rather brave the forest than brave another round of her mother’s disapproval today.
With a gulp, Rose swam onto the path.
For a moment, the path split, one side appearing faint and fuzzy and the other as clear as it always had been before. She frowned. Nothing like this had ever happened to the path. Rosie took a deep breath and tried to decide which path to take. The fuzzy one looked as though it went nowhere, so she followed the solid one. Between one breath and the next, the faint path disappeared. Hopefully, she had made the right choice.
A/N: Thanks for reading and engaging! You guys remind me of why I spend so much of my life writing 😉
I really need a beta, so if that’s something you’re interested in, PM me! If the rest of you notice something that can be strengthened, pass that along; I’m always looking for ways to improve both my writing and the story!
See you on Saturday!
