Once upon a time, under the Pacific Ocean, there lived a great king, Poseidon, and his four sons. They weren’t really his sons, having been adopted from different seas, but he raised them until they were as close as brothers.
Peter, the eldest, was gentle and shy. He had golden hair that flowed across his broad shoulders and a shiny green-gold tail. Mike was the second eldest, with thick, dark hair and heavy sideburns. His thin tail was midnight blue and sparkled like the moon above the warm waters of the Pacific. He often seemed gruff and grumpy, but truly loved his brothers and their music. Micky, with his tangle of chestnut-colored curls and bright smile, was the third eldest. He loved playing tricks and jokes on his brothers. His infectious laughter and vibrant red tail could be seen and heard for miles beneath the turquoise waves.
David was the youngest and smallest, as his adopted brothers frequently reminded him. His large brown eyes, glittering aquamarine tail, and sweet round face made him popular with the mermaids, who chased him all over the Pacific, to the annoyance of his siblings. He liked the attention, but preferred riding seahorses on the currents and playing music with his older brothers. The sounds of the four mermen’s songs could be heard far out to sea. Even passing ships often stopped and grooved to the delightful songs.
It was a family tradition that each son, on his eighteenth birthday, would ascend to the surface for a day to see what there was to see in the world above. Only Mike had bad things to say about the world of the animals that walked on weird stick-things called “legs” and couldn’t survive under the sea. He was caught in a net on his trip above. He managed to escape, but tore a chunk of his fin as he did, and had been sour on land-creatures ever since.
“They’re a bad lot, boys,” he warned Micky and Davy shortly after the incident. “Humans don’t care about anything, least of all fish-folk like us. They murder innocent fish and mammals for their skin and flesh and dump their dirt and trash into our homes. Stay away from them when you go up there.”
“I don’t think that’s true of all humans,” insisted Peter. “I saw some when I went above, and they didn’t seem to be so bad. There were females playing with little ones on the beach. The baby humans were so cute, the way they crawled and splashed in the water and made little castles of sand.”
Micky’s report when he went up above was even more exciting. “I saw a huge race!” he exclaimed to his brothers after his return. “Humans riding these gigantic animals with four skinny legs on the beach! They ran from one wood pole to the other, and the winner got a kiss from a female in fancy scales and a wreath of flowers for his animal.” He held up several clamshells with a smirk on his face. “I even won six-to-five on the brown animal with the white leg. Got enough clams to repair my shark-skin drums and buy new drumsticks.”
Davy couldn’t wait for his time to visit the surface. He didn’t think humans were bad, like Mike did. Of course, he never actually met one, but he was sure they wouldn’t hurt him. He figured it would be easier if he met some of the females, instead of the apparently male humans who hurt Mike. He never had problems enchanting females of any species!
His eighteenth birthday finally arrived. His brothers and adopted father gathered around him and gave him gifts. Mike’s was a set of maracas made of pearl and filled with coral beads. Micky gave him a beautiful rock crystal pendant, hung on a gold chain salvaged from a treasure chest. Peter made him Cream of Seaweed Soup for a special breakfast, which he took one bite of and dumped under a rock when his older brother wasn’t looking. Peter’s culinary experiments were well known in the Pacific, mostly for being inedible.
He blushed as his father, a small, fairly aristocratic man with a shimmering pearly gray tail, placed a crown of pearl and crystal on his head. “My little boy,” he sighed, hugging the young merman. “You’ve grown up so fast. It seems like only yesterday I rescued you from the Atlantic Ocean near England.”
“Oh, fellas,” Davy whispered in his heavy British accent, suddenly feeling shy around his family. “I don’t know what to say.” He hugged his parent back. “Papa, thank you! I don’t know how you got me all the way here from the Atlantic Ocean, but I’m very glad you did!”
Poseidon put his hands on Davy’s small shoulders. “Now, you go up there, son, and make your old dad proud!”
“Don’t talk to any strangers!” Mike warned playfully, slapping his brother on the back.
“Don’t stay out past ten o’clock, or we’ll come after you,” Peter added with a dimpled grin.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” teased Micky.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that,” Davy laughed. “I wouldn’t do anything you’d do!”
“Hey!” Micky protested as his brothers chuckled.
“Stay away from humans, especially the females,” Mike insisted. “You’ll just get in trouble.”
“Why should I?” Davy asked. “I’m not afraid of them, like you are.”
“I’m not afraid of them!” Mike snapped. “I just don’t want to see you hurt. You don’t need to come back with a piece of your fin missing, or worse.”
“I’m not a little kid anymore,” Davy reminded him hotly. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I hope you do, shotgun,” Mike murmured as he and his brothers watched the headstrong merman swim to the surface. “I hope you do.”