From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt: The Unicorn Challenge (04/21/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!
Moon sets as sun rises, soon disappearing behind a tiny fist of palm. Palm no longer whips, panicked in the worst thunderstorm since forever. The marina is still, taking no damage from wave and wind; the marina is well-protected. That’s why she brought him here.
She looks down at him lying half-out of the water, still handsome despite the battering and near-drowning. He breathes, begins to rouse. There’s a decision to make.
These humans are so fragile!
She’d watched him on his modern-day clipper. He’d whirled around the foredeck, barefoot, wild, drinking straight from the bottle. He’d danced with his first mate’s wife until the man objected, nearly leaving him with a blackened eye. The two, his only crew on the oversized yacht, went below deck, leaving him to grieve his unwelcome freedom from romantic entanglement.
He could’ve been hers, but he’d passed out in a puddle of vomit. That’d saved him then, but maybe better if he’d gone down with ship and crew, rather than pulled up here on the marina’s bank.
I’ve always had a soft spot for hopeless ones.
Rolling to one side, his eyes prise open, their bright aqua quickly darkened to deepest ocean. Grasping her slender forearm, he pulls himself into her lap. She slithers under his grip, slipping fully into the water.
She knew legend, knew not to lose herself and her tongue to this man. Slapping her tail against the nearest waking sailboat, she swims past, lifting her voice in a morning song.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2023)
Valley of the Trolls 
(My aplogies for not reading your story earlier, Liz – big problems with my internet connection, I hope now fixed. I should have enlisted the mermaids to help!)
What a beautifully constructed story, Liz.
Leaving a human man with a lot to reflect on…
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries. You’re reading a better, tweaked version. And we hope he’ll think…once he sobers up & heals…
LikeLike
I love mermaids and I love mermaid tales.
This is expertly done, Liz.
LikeLike
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
LikeLike
The mermaid did good! And so did you, with this story!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Ann! 🐧
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dude!
Way to drag us Readers all over the place (in an enjoyable manner)… (I resisted the phrase involving ‘waterfront’ lol you’re welcome)
Gotta try that. The twisting and whirling narrative (not the drunken deckhand thing) and with a twist at the end.
My learn-by-reading self takes note of the difficulty of the maintaining continuity while changing context (or whatever the proper term in rhetoric is), otherwise the twist at the end is lost.
good story
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the ride. 🙂
LikeLike
I like your story. She needs to slap him around a bit. Slap some sense into him. Slap him silly maybe?
(I’m not good at comments. I get slap happy.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
😂😂 Naw, she saved him from the shipwreck. He’s on his own, now…
LikeLike
A good slap never harmed anyone, dear Lady!
LikeLike
I always knew mermaids were kind-hearted!
LikeLike
So is she a mermaid or a weremaid? Intriguing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mermaid, learning from the one gone before by HC Anderson.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, that was unexpected! Nice take, Liz! 🧜🏻♀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
An opportunity lost………for who though?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good question! 😉
LikeLike