Talia's Storm
An original fantasy horror short story
Tears glistened on Talia’s reddening cheeks and her whole body shook with rage. Her hazel eyes hardened and trailed the long white boat as it kicked up foamy waves while speeding from the lagoon. The trespassers did much worse than steal a few fish. They committed a cruel, unforgivable crime.
Those land parasites ripped her mate from her life.
Talia unleashed an anguished scream after the boat passed through the inlet leading back to the ocean. Her tail slapped the water, sending out expansive ripples, as she plunged beneath the surface. Talia clenched her teeth and pinched her eyelids shut. She swam in a wave-like motion away from the lagoon. Her entire soul ached as though a violent wave crashed upon it.
Kano tried to convince her that he could reason with the fishermen. His plan sounded simple and logical. Swim to their boat. Explain how the lagoon was a sacred space reserved for their merfolk colony. Persuade the fishermen to journey to a different island. Other humans chose to leave in peace upon learning the truth about the lagoon. Kano believed these would do the same.
Doubts swarmed Talia’s mind once she laid eyes on the two trespassers and their boat. These were not curious humans who took a wrong turn while sailing. Their boat resembled many fishing vessels Talia saw in her journeys. A hard shell with windows enclosed the helm. Unshaded chairs sat near the stern. Long poles lined each side of the boat behind the helm. These humans journeyed here harboring an obvious intent to raid the sacred lagoon and deplete the fish raised by the merfolk colony.
“Humans who fish are unpredictable and selfish creatures,” she said, turning back and facing Kano. “Our legends share this truth. You can’t approach fishing vessels like you’re engaging other merfolk. It’s too dangerous.”
“Salacia will protect me.” A reassuring smile graced his lips. “She blesses her children who do her will in watching over the sea.”
Talia frowned and trailed her hand down his arm.
“Stay here at my side,” she said. “Let the council decide what to do with these trespassers.”
He drew closer and brushed his fingers through Talia’s flowing black hair. Kano pressed his lips against hers with a warm gentleness.
“I’ll be fine.” His smile deepened as he drew back again. “I promise. You can stay and watch from here in the cove if you’re worried.”
Kano’s words convinced her. His words failed to convince those vile humans.
Every muscle in Talia’s upper body tightened as her mate swam out to the fishing vessel. Talia concealed herself behind a rock outcropping, peeking around the jagged rocks at the lagoon. Kano called out to the humans aboard the vessel with a booming voice. The nearest human snapped his head toward the water and flinched as Kano drew closer. He turned away, shouted at the second human, and pointed back at the water. A panicked tone threaded through his words. The second human stepped out from the helm enclosure and approached the boat’s starboard side.
Their conversation did not reach Talia from her spot in the cove. Her eyes discerned what remained hidden from her ears. The second human’s body language grew increasingly troubling. His blue eyes hardened into a stony stare. He jabbed a finger at the lagoon and made other wild gestures with his hands. Kano tossed up his hands and his expression grew more animated.
The first human drew out a weapon concealed near his waist and pointed it at Kano. A high-pitched pop followed. Kano flopped backward, arms flailing. A red cloud spread out from underneath his back as his blood gushed into the once pristine water and the light faded from his sky-blue eyes.
Talia pressed her hand to her lips to stifle a scream. The two fishermen cast a massive net over him. They dragged his body aboard their vessel before Kano sank into the lagoon’s depths. Their eyes widened when they fell upon Kano’s tail. The first human studied the lagoon end to end while the second human dashed to the helm and started the boat’s outboard motor.
Every moment surrounding Kano’s murder burned into Talia’s memory. She swam with ferocity back to the sunken pirate ship they turned into their home. Talia entered through a port side hole in the hull and swam into her bedroom. She threw herself on the bed she and Kano once shared and sobbed.
Why did Salacia let such an awful tragedy happen to her children? Her mate did nothing to deserve this horrific fate. A gentle soul had been ripped from this world through the unforgivable actions of two land parasites.
The entire colony dwelt in peace with humans populating the nearest island for a century. Talia recalled how she and Kano rescued a human family many years earlier after their boat wrecked on the reef during a violent storm. They worked together tirelessly to drag the whole family — two parents and two children — through choppy waters to the barrier island above their underwater home.
Strangers not from the island were a different story. They acted uncouth, reckless, and threatening. Now that same band of humans revealed themselves as murderers and thieves. Their actions stung when weighed against every favorable thing the merfolk had done for their kind. Talia refused to let the trespassers escape justice. She vowed to call upon Salacia with her entire soul.
Let these land parasites experience the sea’s full wrath.
Talia rose from her bed and ran her hands across her pale cheeks. Determination and anger dried the tears lingering in her hazel eyes. She snatched up a crescent moon pendant draped over the mirror on her vanity and strung the silver chain around her neck.
A token of Salacia’s power.
Talia clasped the pendant inside her palm. When moonlight spread across the ocean again, she would summon Salacia to execute justice on the fishermen.
Shadows cast long fingers across the lagoon’s waves when Talia swam to the exact spot where her love had been slain. She rose from the water until it became level with her waist. Water dripped from her black tresses cascading down her back. Talia brushed a few locks forward to cover her breasts before she addressed the goddess. She unlatched the pendant from her neck.
“Hear me, Salacia.” Talia pinched her eyes shut as she prayed. “Flood the waters with your wrath. Let winds howl and waves consume. Avenge your child. Destroy the hands stained with his blood.”
Talia opened her eyes again and plunged her pendant into the lagoon. Bubbles formed around the crescent moon emblem. It cast a silvery glow and a mist rose skyward from the water. The mist formed small clumps that billowed out into ashen clouds.
Talia flung her other hand toward the darkened ocean waves beyond the barrier island. A fire smoldered within her hazel eyes as the clouds launched in the same direction. Salacia would feed the nascent clouds and imbue each one with unparalleled strength. The storm she conjured would become a perfect weapon for exacting her vengeance against Kano’s murderers.
Darkness swallowed the lagoon and island as Talia’s storm clouds veiled the full moon. Lightning crackled across the sky, stretching out like spindly fingers. Mountain waves climbed in the distance.
Rising and falling with a chaotic rhythm.
Talia gazed upon the menacing clouds. A slight smile crossed her lips as she visualized the fishing vessel tossed from wave to wave. Sea water pouring over the sides and immersing everything in its path. Winds beating and grinding the rain-soaked faces of the fishermen as they battled to prevent their boat from capsizing. They would suffer as much as they made her, and Kano, suffer.
Rain pelted Talia while she sat unmoving, like a rocky outcropping, in the lagoon. She did not draw out the pendant again until the glow ceased, offering a witness that the moon retreated from the sky. When Talia strung the chain around her neck again, the rain stopped. The clouds dissipated as though they never existed.
“Heal my grieving heart, Salacia.” She cast her hazel eyes skyward. “Let your fury deliver the bodies of those who slew my mate into my hands.”
Fresh rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon as Talia’s gaze returned to the ocean. Broken remnants of a long white boat drifted toward the barrier island. Wood and metal pieces washed ashore along the expansive beach.
The waves spat two bodies on the sand amid the wreckage. Talia climbed out of the lagoon. Her tail shimmered and shifted into an emerald-green dress wrapped around a pair of smooth legs. She bit her lower lip as she took a couple of wobbly steps forward in the sand. So much time passed since Talia last walked like a human. Legs and feet were so clumsy and awkward compared to graceful movements of tails and fins.
She approached the two bodies sprawled face-first in the sand. Both wore padded orange vests. Their partially exposed faces confirmed their identities. They were the same fishermen who slew Kano before her eyes. The one nearest to her feet clawed at the sand with a sudden jerking movement. A groan greeted her ears.
His eyelids popped open.
Rage boiled within Talia’s eyes. She pressed her lips together. Salacia destroyed their vessel, but these stubborn fishermen clung to life.
“Where am I?”
The fisherman nearest to her lifted his chin. He smacked his lips and drew heavy breaths. Talia crouched down before him.
“You washed ashore on my island.” Talia disguised her intentions with a soothing tone. “The storm destroyed your vessel.”
He raised himself off the sand. The fisherman stumbled forward again and fell on his elbows. He winced. His left hand clutched his ribs.
“I think I cracked some ribs when I fell overboard.” The fisherman coughed and winced again. “I need a doctor.”
She peered at him, saying nothing.
“My name is Jonah,” he said. “Please help me. My family needs to know I survived the storm.”
“I’m afraid no one can help you,” Talia said.
Jonah’s eyes widened. The fisherman grimaced as he stared back at her.
“Wait, what are you talking about?”
Talia’s eyes hardened and her fake smile vanished.
“You will never leave my island alive.”
Jonah scrambled to his feet. She rose from her crouching position and thrust out an arm, trying to block him from fleeing. A violent cough escaped his lips when Jonah tried to run. The fisherman stumbled forward. Talia doubled a fist as she caught up to him again and struck his injured ribs. He let out a wheezing gasp and a pained shout. Blood dribbled over his lower lip.
Jonah dropped to his knees.
Talia circled in front of him.
“Do you have a mate? Children?”
“I have a wife and two young daughters.” He stared up at her with clenched teeth. “Please don’t hurt me. For their sake.”
She shook her head.
“You stole my mate’s life,” Talia said. “No one can restore what I lost. Now your loved ones shall share the pain afflicting my soul.”
Jonah’s lips trembled. Talia shoved him down and tore away his orange vest. She punched his exposed ribs repeatedly until her hand grew sore. He coughed and spat out more blood into the sand.
“I’m sorry,” Jonah’s voice had grown raspy from the beating. “Please let me go. I’m begging you.”
Talia rolled him over and laid him on his back. She stood over Jonah, forcing him to stare into her face.
“You will share the fate you brought upon Kano.”
She clutched her pendant and called upon Salacia to let the sands devour both fishermen. Talia unhooked the pendant chain from around her neck and backed up a few feet from Jonah. She dropped to one knee, unleashed a high-pitched scream, and plunged her pendant into the sand before her.
Sand climbed skyward in every direction around Jonah. He unleashed a raspy shout and brought on a fresh coughing spell. White flowing walls soon encircled both fishermen and stood high enough to block out the emerging morning sun. Talia wrenched her pendant free from the sand.
The sand walls crashed over Jonah and the other fisherman like towering waves. No visible trace of their bodies remained when the final grains settled.
The beach had become their tomb.
Talia returned her pendant to its former place around her neck and strolled toward the foamy surf. Rays from the rising sun cast a yellow glow over rolling waves on the horizon. Her legs and dress morphed back into a tail as Talia plunged into the water and swam toward the reef. Her heart still ached but Salacia listened to her anguished cries. She delivered justice for Kano.
Now Talia could obtain peace.
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