The Call Of Thalassa

“Those who live by the sea

can hardly form a single thought

of which the sea would not be part.”

– Hermann Broch

“Aide Clayton! Get your filthy hands out of the cake mix this instance!”

Aide’s chocolate eyes widened in panic and fear at her grandmother’s commanding tone as her booming voice echoed through the large kitchen. Her pointy finger was inside the large pink ball full of the cake’s mixed materials. The delicious substance stained her finger in white color as it slowly dripped back to the ball.

Honestly, she looked like a frightened deer caught in the headlights, and Aileen could barely hold her giggles from escaping her.

The three friends were gathered by nana Alexandra in her home in order to help her with the last preparations for the Festival of Honor. They had been in the kitchen for at least two hours now, preparing the usual deserts that nana always made for the celebration. The festival was tomorrow evening and everyone was trying to help with the preparations, sharing the burden with all the other villagers.

The women were responsible for the food that would be served during the celebrations. The menu was filled with different recipes of cooked fishes and other small mollusks, honoring the sailing men like the rest of the festival did.

Women were frantically cleaning fishes out of their scales and making all kinds of amazing meals, every one of them wanting to impress the other villagers with her cooking skills and to collect the best comments on her dishes.

Nana Alexandra was someone that didn’t go along with the flow and therefore, she didn’t do what all the other females did. She had taken over the preparations of the deserts and was always on the top of the list with the best cooks of the village, making all others admire and envy her both.

The men had taken over the preparations of the central square of the village, where the whole thing would take place. They had already begun to carry heavy wooden tables and multiple chairs there, as well as numerous heavy barrels filled with rich golden beer and sweet red wine. They had also taken care of the huge speakers and different musical organs that the village’s musicians needed in order to play music on the awaited evening, after all the tiring rehearsals they had done.

Even the small children helped with whatever they could. They had gone to the fields that surrounded the village –the meadows that were close to the steep cliffs- and had gathered all kinds of wildflowers that grew there. They had put them all beautifully together in colorful bouquets that would be put on the large tables as a delightful decoration. The small ones had also already hanged colorful small flags around the streets and pathways of the village, getting everyone in a festive mood.

Aileen enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the village and her mood had lightened a lot because of it, ignoring the unfortunate incident that had happened with Alastor Steel a few days ago. She felt like all the villagers were a big and happy family as they all worked together to achieve a common purpose and basked in the warm hugs and grateful smiles she was given.

She didn’t mind that she had to help with the preparations nor that she didn’t have as much time as she used to in order to read her books. She was glad that she could spend more time with her friends and the rest of the villagers.

Grandma Alexandra was also very kind and patient with her, she acted completely different to her than what she did with her other best friends. That was probably because Aileen was always the one that immediately came to help her when she asked her to and didn’t find stupid explanations in order to disappear as Aide and Petra did.

Her friends did everything they could do and came up with all kinds of excuses to get themselves out of the festival’s preparations. One time Petra had even said to nana that she was going to the library because she wanted to read a book! Needless to say that nana was well aware of Petra’s relationship with books –or to be more specific, the absence of it- and had pulled her back in the kitchen without hearing another word.

“What a sight to behold!“, Aileen thought to herself as she remembered Petra’s pleading.

Grandma Alexandra had taken a good hold of her forearm and she had pulled her steadily from the garden towards the kitchen.

Aileen didn’t mind the preparations though neither did she mind Alexandra’s presence. She enjoyed the conversations she had with the old lady and didn’t mind working in the kitchen. Her friends on the other had been eager to be left alone, away from nana’s presence, and have some peace and quiet as they had informed her.

Therefore, grandma had to pull out all of her ticks in order to get a hold of them and force them to help. Her loud screaming and angry eyes in combination with her friend’s plead and terrified expressions were something that almost had Aileen in tears of laughter every single day.

“But nana, it is so delicious”, Aide whined bringing Aileen back to reality.

“Can’t I have just a lit-”

“No! No! And No! You have already eaten half the mixture, Aide! What am I supposed to feed everyone tomorrow, if you eat everything today?“, Nana scolded Aide, who gave her the infamous puppy look to make her give in to her.

“It’s not my fault that this tastes so good. Come on, nana, pretty please?“, she tried again by complimenting her.

Nana smirked at her granddaughter’s antics, knowing her too well. She touched her left hand to her forehead like she was thinking about her answer, laughing in her mind at Aide’s hopeful expression. How stupid could her granddaughter get, when food was involved?′

“The answer is still no! Now get back to work! You ain’t gonna slack while I am in my kitchen!”

Aide’s hopeful expression instantly fell at her nana’s commands.

They all worked for hours tirelessly under Grandma Alexandra’s watchful gaze and following her direct advice. The girls had divided the jobs that had to be done in order to finish faster and relax in the garden for the rest of the evening.

Aide had taken over the chocolate brownies, while Petra was preparing the small strawberries tarts. Aileen, who was better in the kitchen than her other friends, had taken over the pavlova cakes and lemon pies by herself, while nana was busy making her infamous apple pies and cinnamon cookies.

Soon, the small room was filled with the buttery aroma of the chocolate mixtures as well as other delightful smells that wafted tantalizingly under the girls’ nose, similar to the cartoonish beckoning finger of steam you’d often see on TV.

When everything was cooked and ready, they cut them in similar pieces and put them in beautiful flowery baskets, which they would have to carry to the central square tomorrow morning. After they helped nana to clean her kitchen back to perfection and put away all the remaining things to their positions, they smiled among themselves proud of their work.

“Well done, girls! We’ve made it!“, nana Alexandra clapped happily.

“Can we now go to the garden, nana?“, Petra asked cautiously, afraid of the old lady’s reaction.

“Oh yes, nana! Pretty please?“, Aide pleaded desperately for a break.

“You act like you haven’t relaxed in days, Aide! You were sleeping until eleven o’clock this morning, for God’s shake! Anyways, you are free to do whatever you’d like, I don’t have anything else to do”, Nana rolled her eyes as Petra and Aide hugged each other.

Aileen shook her head at her friends’ reaction and followed slowly their running forms towards the garden. Petra and Aide sat down on the comfortable swinging couch as she let herself fall on the soft pillow of her favorite armchair. They drank a cup of sweet-flavored tea and enjoyed the last rays of the sun that would soon set on the horizon.

“Do you believe they’re true?“, Aide whispered to her friends in a silent tone, but they just looked at her questioningly.

“All these stories about sailors and...and mermaids”, she explained.

The three girls stayed silent for a couple of moments, deep in thought. The myths and legends of the existence of mermaids were uncountable in their small village, but no one ever had any clues to prove that they were all real.

“No, they couldn’t be possibly real”, Petra answered first.

“Why? I mean that every myth has an ounce of truth in it. They had to come from somewhere...“, Aileen furrowed her eyebrows in thought.

“Yeah, but mermaids? I mean... it’s a bit too much, don’t you think? It seems too fantastic to be real to me”, Petra shrugged and took a sip out of her cup.

“Well, just because it is out of the ordinary, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it could be true only in our fantasies”, Aileen defended her opinion.

“But...mermaids?“, Petra insisted.

“Well, humans couldn’t possibly be the only intelligent creature on the whole planet. Plus, we have only discovered a small portion of the oceans. The possibilities of their existence aren’t small...“, Aileen mumbled to herself.

“Well, I agree with you. And nana does too. She had told me a story about them when I was younger”, Aide said to them after she had taken a big sip of her tea.

“What story?“, Aileen asked curiously her best friend.

“A story about merfolk and their soul mates”, Aide whispered in a low voice.

“Soul mates?“, Petra asked as the strange word captured her attention.

“My grandma had told me that there was a time long ago that the oceans had turned red from the mermaids’ brutality and lethal ways. It was impossible for anyone to travel in the sea as they were so lethal to the point that they fought between themselves destroying their own kind.”

Aide began telling to her friends as they turned all their attention to her.

“They almost were extinct and the oceans were almost completely destroyed. At that time, the Goddess of the Sea had decided that it was time to put an end to all this fear and destruction as she couldn’t bear seeing her most precious creations killing each other without mercy. ”

“What did she do?“, Aileen whispered intrigued at the story of her friend.

“When is a beast not a beast?“, Petra asked slowly understanding where this was going.

“When it is loved”, Aide agreed and winked at Petra, who understood the whole concept.

“The Goddess Thalassa decided that the beasts would calm if they had a mate to love and cherish. It would give them a purpose in their life. To love and protect. To create a family together. To grow old together”, Aide explained to Aileen, who still hadn’t wrapped her head around the whole situation.

“So, she gave them a mate? What is it exactly?“, Aileen wondered.

“The Goddess took half of their soul and gave it to another person, therefore creating soulmates. Each soulmate would be perfect for the other part as it would have been created by the same soul. It’s a perfect match”, Aide explained as simple as she could.

“So, It’s like...meant to be lovers?“, Petra asked and Aide nodded in confirmation.

“And how are they sure that they will meet? I mean they could be miles away...“, Aileen was entranced by the story and very curious.

“Ah my dear, that’s where Thalassa comes in. They say that she created some sort of mechanism that made sure that each and every mer finds his mate when he needs her the most. There is no way that they will not meet each other at some point in their life“, Aide smiled softly.

“What happens, if they don’t meet?“, Petra suddenly asked, also curious about this story.

“Soulmates are the most treasured thing that exists for them. They feel incomplete without them and crave them like nothing else. If a merman or a mermaid stays too long without a mate, they can turn feral or depressed. Both options lead to a painful death eventually”, Aide said sadly.

“And how do you know that this specific person is your mate? How could you be so sure of it?“, Aileen asked yet again.

“You just know, my dear!”

The three girls turned around at the unexpected voice. Nana Alexandra just gave them an apologetic smile and sat in an empty chair beside them.

“It’s love at first sight. They can recognize their mate by looking into their eyes or by their smell. The smell of their mate is always the sweetest for them and when they gaze into their eyes, they feel a bond forming immediately between them and the person. There are, of course, and the enjoyable sparks that they feel every time their mate touches them as well as the feeling to protect and to treasure.”

Nana explained to Aileen, who was shocked at her knowledge.

“How do you know all these things, nana?“, Petra asked confused at the whole story.

“I’ve read a lot of books about merfolk in the library and not a single one of them had any reference to anything similar to your story”, Aileen said intrigued and in awe at nana’s marine tale.

“Some things are not written in the books, dear.”

The old lady gave her a soft smile and took her small hand in her own, giving it an encouraging squeeze.

“Some things are best to remain a secret”, she insisted.

“But why?“, Aileen asked yet again.

“Because they are just too dear to us and we don’t want to share them with anyone else.”

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

End of chapter 7!!

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Until next time!!