Tallahassee, FL – January 23, 2013

The Mercrone’s Necklace, Part 1 of 4

The dolphins told me a story one day when I was wandering along the beach looking for pretty seashells.

“You are looking for the wrong ones,” the dolphins said.

“What?” I said.

“Listen to the story of the mercrone’s necklace,” they said, “and you will understand.”

So I sat down and listened while the dolphins began to speak.

———-

Many long years ago a great merking had a daughter who everyone in the merkingdom agreed was perfect and beautiful from the very first moment. That is what the merfolk said to her.

“You are so beautiful and so perfect,” they said.

The princess took the praise to heart and thought herself quite beautiful and perfect.

When the kind had a son, the merpeople thought him to be the most handsome and perfect prince in the world.

“You are so handsome and so perfect,” they said.

The prince took the praise to heart and thought himself quite handsome and perfect.

Then the king had a third child, another daughter, who was also beautiful and perfect, but who had a penchant for running off and getting herself into trouble. This made the king very nervous because the ocean can be a dangerous place. No matter what anyone did or said, the young princess would always run off to find some hidden coral bed or a sunken ship. One day, she heard of a far away reef with a haunted wreck on it and asked her older sister if she wanted to go exploring.

“No,” her older sister said. “Wrecks are always falling apart and they are filled with rusted nails and splintered wood. I might scrape a scale and then I would not be beautiful anymore. I’m going to stay right here in the palace.”

The youngest daughter sighed and swam off to find her brother.

“Surely he will go with me,” she thought.

“No,” he said. “There are too many sharks in that reef and I would hate to get bitten. Come swim in the seaweed gardens with me instead. There are no sharks and everything is safe.”

The youngest daughter frowned and went to her father.

“Father,” she said. “Will you come with me to the distant reef to explore the haunted wreck.”

“No,” he said. “I am very busy with matters of state and you will not go either. I have been to that reef once when I was young, before I was king and it is too dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt. I command you to stay here in the palace where I know you’ll be safe.”

The merking ordered two of his guards to make sure the princess would not leave the palace and dismissed her to her room. She sighed and swam back to her bed of coral and soft sponges. She pretended to sleep for a moment, waited for the guards to turn their head, then promptly slipped out a window and disappeared over the palace walls.

“Then I will go alone,” she said.

———-

To Be Continued….