Mourning at Sea

Nothing would ever bring him back from the sea. Roland was lost to her... forever. The tragic thing about it all, was that she wasn’t entirely sure if she was saddened or angered by the fact. Such a waste of a young life! Roland thoughtlessly cast his life away, as if he were casting out his nets for a day’s work.

She tried to warn him, but he was too stubborn to listen to reason. She pleaded with him to stay - to stay with her. But sadly, to no avail, Roland left her high and dry with a small child to raise on her own. Why? To pursue that unholy mermaid that had been haunting the harbor.

The creature enchanted him! Thrall. At least that’s what the elder seamen called it. Thrall. All it took was a single song, a few mesmerizing notes, and the mermaid had Roland tightly in her clutches. That monster, though impossibly beautiful, promised to love him. Promised to take him to a castle far beneath the waves. Promised to shower him with pearls. All lies and trickery!

The morning after Roland left her behind, coldly, without even giving her the dignity of a goodbye, his lifeless body was discovered floating in the harbor. A group of early morning fishermen returned the man’s bloated body to the heartbroken widow. The fishermen pledged to hunt the mermaid down and kill her. By the gods, she prayed they would succeed. To leave a rogue mermaid free to swim the waters of their humble fishing village, would only put the lives of other young men like her Roland at risk. For now, all she could do was look out over the harbor with bleary, tear filled eyes. Her husband was granted the traditional fisherman’s burial, with a funeral pyre set out to sea. Salty tears relentlessly streamed down her cheeks, as she came to accept that nothing would ever again bring Roland back from the sea.