The Shark

Yes, mermaids were real.

So were mermen, but that fact didn't seem to be as satisfying. Jacob had come to that assumption rather young. That people just did not care about mermen. He’d seen paintings of his sisters, even heard the stories about them, but never any about himself, or his brothers.

His aunt, Juliet, had simply said it was due to the male-dominated world only finding breasts and bar fights appealing. He took that as the truth. After all, his only real experience with human men was limited to the pirates and fishermen he ran across. Even then, the encounters were brief, as he was usually trying to free himself from the rather unlucky mishaps with their nets, or just trying to avoid the ones who thought he would make a good meal. Despite how cute of a ten year old Jacob was, he was still half fish, and men stuck at sea too long didn’t seem too picky about the circumstances when it came to food.

He still found it strange to not make the cut for what qualified as human lore. Especially when men had seen him and his sisters before. His family was the same — fins and gills in the water. Their deep, dark eyes out of the water was the only clue of what they truly were. It seemed unjust and cruel to the young merman. He was just as beautiful as his siblings; His mother and aunt wouldn’t reassure him of his beauty if he wasn’t.

He liked his aunt. She was fiercely intelligent and often spent nights teaching him of the human world. And who better to teach him of the mathematics, science, and languages of the world above than the witch that had integrated so well into his family?

He loved speaking with her, getting to know the little intricacies that laid underneath the cold, quiet, calculating exterior. Her patience and willingness to listen was his favorite part of her. The image of her intently listening to every story of the deep he told, every animal, every encounter he had beneath the waves, filled him with joy.

Jacob liked the language lessons the most. He enjoyed bridging the gap between his and the human language. Learning to talk to each other, pronounce each other’s names. His aunt’s name was easy — Juliet, the third human word he learned. Of course, she couldn’t pronounce his name; It was unpronounceable to the human tongue. The rolling and clicking of the tongue that was involved in his language was completely foreign to her. So they settled with the name Jacob, a name he liked very much.

Juliet took the most joy in teaching him how to sail. He found it silly. His tail would propel him faster and easier in the water than any boat, but she insisted that it was good for him to learn, and he believed her. He always believed her, and that’s why he loved her.

She spoke with a clarity of the world and how it changed like the tides. She carried herself as if she’d seen thousands of years go by, and she spoke as if she knew all the world’s secrets. In comparison, the information of the animals that he shared the sea with didn’t seem as important. He saw whales and sharks often and he didn’t see how anyone could find them all that interesting.

But no matter how inconsequential of a detail he gave, it always excited her. It reminded him of a sea lion pup, her eyes large and blown, sparkling with mischief and excitement. He liked that expression a lot, especially when he was the cause. He thought it was silly, how excited she got over what seemed like common knowledge to him. He didn’t understand that even with piracy being at its peak, and there being more ships in the water than ever before, very little was known about the creatures that called the ocean home.

Jacob acted as a looking glass into a world Juliet was intrigued with. He himself was enamored with any and all the lessons Juliet and her pirate crew could give him. Of course his mother taught him things as well, but his mother was the elder of their pod and, as such, had to watch over everyone, not just her son. It filled him with loneliness sometimes, a feeling he tried to pretend didn’t exist in his heart as their pod migrated around the globe. Luckily, they always managed to find Juliet’s ship again, whether it was months or weeks; they always crossed paths.

This time was no different. They had just moved from an area with too many predators (great white sharks tended to be a bit too aggressive), and they didn’t want to end up as lunch. He saw the bright red ship cutting through the waves like a burning scar — the color easily identifiable by the magic that kept it bold and bright. He looked towards his pod.

His mother was busy showing the younger ones what would eventually be known as a whale shark. The large animal wasn’t giving them a glance.

He giggled as an idea popped into his head. He swam right up towards the surface, putting all his force into it so he’d bolt out of the water. His hands gripped the railing of the ship, and he slammed against the side with a thunk before pulling himself up. If he was human, the impact might have hurt, but his skin was tougher. Now, out of water, his fins transformed into legs, and he hauled himself over the railing. He fell against the deck and a large red jacket was placed over him. Jacob giggled, a toothy smile splitting his face, and he turned, his dark eyes meeting the pretty purple ones of his aunt.

A sigh escaped as she brushed her black hair back. The feathers that adorned her red hat bounced with the movement. Her soft, patient voice relaxed Jacob as she began to talk.

“Jacob, it has been awhile. Where is your mother?” She looked over the railing, as if she would see the others waiting.

Jacob stood, not bothering with the jacket that was covering himself. He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the railing, intending to jump down. “Come with me.”

Juliet braced her feet firmly into the deck to root herself to the ship. “Whatever for?”

“To see the shark!”

“Jacob—” She protested.

“Can’t you swim?”

She raised an eyebrow at him, her lips set in a disapproving manner.

Jacob grinned wider. “Come on, I’ll protect you.”

She snorted. “You’ll protect me….” She said carefully as if tasting the words as they rolled off her tongue. “Topaz,” she called out, “keep her steady.” She let go of the boy's hand before pulling herself up and over the railing, tossing her hat off as she dove into the water.

Jacob was ecstatic as he followed her in, watching as she scrambled before mumbling out a spell and exhaling the air from her lungs. Juliet looked towards him as he smirked and pulled her toward the large animal.

“Jacob,” she said in mild concern as they got closer. Her voice was muffled and distorted by the water. Jacob didn’t like that.

“It’s okay. They don’t hurt anyone,” he reassured. “They’re friendly. Touch it.”

She looked at the animal, slowly petting it before grabbing its dorsal fin. Her eyes wide with mischief and excitement. “What’s it called?” she asked.

The guttural and butchered name in the merefolk language rolled off his tongue. “They don’t eat big things. They eat really little things. Things you can’t see on your own, and fish, and plant stuff.”

“But this animal is huge,” she said in quiet astonishment. “Practically a whale.”

Jacob grinned and nodded. “They’re food is super small. He needs a lot of them. That’s why he’s got a big mouth.”

As if on command the animal opened its mouth, causing the witch to giggle wildly. Jacob grinned more, then tugged at her arm. “We need to get you back.”

She nodded, but did not seem at all like she wanted to go. Once back on the ship, they wrote in their shared book. Well, Juliet wrote. Jacob simply told her all he knew about the animal. Juliet and him only briefly argued over whether it was a whale or a shark. Juliet was so certain an animal that large, and a seemingly silly appetite like that, could only be a whale or dolphin. Jacob assured her it was a shark. She just could not understand how, but she wrote what he said down.

Juliet never showed their book to anyone else. It was theirs and theirs alone. Humans weren’t ready for the information they were collecting. She didn’t really know if they’d ever be ready to see the world Jacob saw. But she loved to learn about it, and she loved Jacob dearly. So that was their routine. Just the two of them.