Escaping the Cave

Photo by Annette Batista Day on Unsplash

Amatheia flipped her emerald tail and plunged through the salt water. Grinning in anticipation, she flew beyond her parents’ objections. The cave was too small; she’d get trapped, especially with the storm coming. The cave wasn’t always full of water. The extra rain water would fill up areas Amatheia normally couldn’t reach. If she was still in one of those spots when the storm stopped and the water drained, no one would be able to rescue her. And of course, it was much too close to the human city. Humans were unpredictable; capable of great friendship, but more often they were terrible enemies,

Amatheia found all of these worries laughable. She was the best cave swimmer in Atlantis (Junior Deep Brine Division, Poseidon Medalist). There wasn’t a cave she couldn’t get in or out of. And going there during a storm was the whole point. If she wanted to see the top most chambers of the cave, this was her only chance. Besides, humans weren’t out much during storms. Even if they were about, she could easily out swim them. With the intoxication of potential danger, she hurried on.

The cave was close to the beach that was normally covered in humans. On days with clear weather, she had to sneak cautiously past them. Today, with the storm on the way, the beach was nearly empty. Perfect. The entrance to the cave was narrow and so shallow she had to drag herself through the water. Once inside she swam swiftly  through the long twisting tunnel. Here the roof wasn’t very far from the water; she had seen it to her heart’s content. The chambers she was interested in were deeper. If she was lucky, the water wouldn’t start rising until she got to there. It was always thrilling to rise up with the water as it filled the cave. When she swam into the first camber, all thoughts of her expedition vanished and she gasped in shock. Sitting on a rocky shelf, illuminated by a shaft of fading light that poured in through a hole in the top of the cave, was a human.

The human jumped up at the sound of her gasp and stared wide-eyed at Amatheia. For a moment they both froze and gaped at each other. Amatheia had never seen a human so close before. She knew their skin was a washed out sandy color, but she hadn’t realized they had no scales. Perhaps the human was wearing that strange pink fabric to make up for the lack of scales. Her own scales ranged from vibrant green to marine blue. Where her hair was thick and kelp-like, the human’s was thiner than seagrass and a dead brown color. Then there were the legs, which were nothing like Amatheia’s sleek tail. They were stocky, ending in soft protrusions with short stubby, finger-like things on the end. All in all, the human was ugly, but strangely fascinating.

The human broke the silence, “I’m Jessica,” she said. “Are you real?”

“Are you?” asked Amatheia. Not even when sneaking past humans had she ever thought she might one day actually talk to one.

Jessica glanced down at herself as if to make sure she was really there, “I’m real. Unless I’m dreaming.”

Amatheia nodded, “Me too.”

Jessica suddenly laughed, “I’m so glad I came. I almost didn’t. But Bobbie dared me too, and I just couldn’t stand the smug look on his face when he said I was too much of a scaredy-cat. And now I’m talking to a real live mermaid!”

Smiling, Amatheia swam right up to the shelf. She was liking this Jessica-human. It sounded like something she would do. “Is it true that humans can swim? How can you manage it without a tail?”

For an answer Jessica jumped into the water with a splash. Amatheia watched intrigued as Jessica kicked her arms and legs and swam in a circle.  “Wow! So you could go all the way to the end of the cave!”

“Well yeah. In theory. But I have to get back before my mom notices I’m gone. Do mermaids really -” She was cut off by a deafening crack of thunder. A moment later torrential rain poured through the hole in the roof.

Amatheia laughed as the thunder died, “My mom always told me those dark heavy storm clouds come from two brothers who leaped so high  that the spray from the splash reached all the way to the sky and fell back into the sea with a crash!” She did a flip to demenstrate. Jessica’s eyes widened in awe. “That’s so cool! 

With very little urging Amatheia happily went through a series of dives and spins. The rain made a makeshift waterfall that she flipped in and out of to show off some of her fancier tricks. Jessica joined in by showing a bunch of different human swimming strokes. Amatheia was amazed at all the different ways legs could move. They were both fascinated by the other and kept asking every question they thought of. Jessica finally got back to her questions the thunder had interrupted: Did they really sing to lure sailors into crashing their ships? Amatheia thought this was hilarious. She couldn’t sing to save her life. Caving on the other hand - well if her life depended on it she’d live forever. Neither of them noticed the rising water. Their attention was wholly detained by the surreal experience of meeting the other.

“Oh, I’m tried. I need a break,” gasped Jessica after trying to copy one of Amatheia’s jumps (she couldn’t do it; but the only consequence was laughter and getting more wet, so that was alright.) She looked around, “Where’s the shelf I was sitting on?”

Amatheia glanced over, “The water’s rising!” she cried in delight. “I forgot about that. Ooh, now we can get into the parts of the cave we normally can’t reach.”

“Rising? How high will it go?” Jessica exclaimed in alarm. “Where’s the entrance? Is that underwater too? How can we get out?”

“The entrance is still there silly. We’ll just swim underwater -”

“I can’t hold my breath that long! I’m going to die. My mom’s going to kill me and then I’m going to drown.”

Tears started trailing down Jessica’s checks and her wavered. Amatheia struggled to understand why. The rising water was one of the best features of the cave. Riding the water was a little like riding a wave. Fun. Nothing to be scared of. But Jessica was clearly terrified. Drown. What did it mean? It sounded somewhat familiar. Suddenly she remembered. Her history teacher had mentioned it once in a class on menfolk-human relations. Drowning was something humans did because they couldn’t breathe in water. 

“Don’t panic, we’ll think of something.” Amatheia said uselessly. She knew very well this entire chamber could flood all the way to the top. How long had the storm been going on? How long would it continue? “Maybe it will stop soon,” she said. “Then the water will go back down. We just have to wait.”

“You think so?” Jessica whispered.

“Yeah.” Amatheia hoped she wasn’t lying.

They waited.  Jessica alternated between treading water and floating. The rain did not stop. It kept coming down in sheets, accompanied by crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning. It was cold too. Somehow they hadn’t noticed before, but now Jessica struggled not to shiver. Though the temperature didn’t bother Amatheia much, she didn’t like the effect it was having on her new friend. The stories she’d heard about humans hadn’t made them seem so fragile. It was hard to imagine that so soon after meeting a human for the first time she might also  watch her die. The water climbed steadily up the sides of the cave, creeping ever closer to the roof of the cave. They tried to talk, but only managed a few sentences before falling back into a nervous silence. Mostly they stared at each other, as they had a short time ago. This time there were no questions about what was real. The pouring rain, mounting water and the increasingly panicked look in Jessica’s eyes proclaimed that this was no dream. 

“Take my body back,” Jessica said suddenly breaking the painful silence.

“What?”

“Please. Take me back to the beach when I die. At least my parents will know what happened.”

Amatheia shook her head, “No! It’s going to be okay. It’ll go down…”

“Don’t you see the rain coming from the hole? It’s pouring!” Jessica wailed. “There’s no clear skies on the other side. Not for me. The least you can do…”

Amatheia stared at the hole and didn’t listen. Who could have known it would be such a harbinger of doom? The last time she had come to the cave in a storm she’d had great fun leaping back and forth through it. “That’s  it!”

Jessica just stared at her in dejection.

Amatheia pointed up to the hole, “You can get out that way. Once the water’s high enough you’ll be right there.”

“I just have last that long,” said Jessica hesitantly, but there was hope in her eyes. Again they waited. Jessica  swam next to the rainy waterfall, so as to be as close as possible to the hole. They still didn’t say much, but the silence was no longer menacing. Instead, it was impatient. Before the water rose too fast. Now it was too slow. “I don’t know if I can make it,” Jessica said at last. “I’m too tired. Even if I get through the hole, there’s still the swim back to the beach.”

“I’ll help you,” Amatheia promised.  She swam over to support Jessica, feeling guilty that she hadn’t thought of it before. But how could she have known humans couldn’t swim forever? The cave wasn’t too far from the beach. It would be easy for her, even with story waves. Even so, helping Jessica would take its toll. If it got to a point where Jessica was simply too tired, what then? Water sloshed against the walls, gaining height. At long last, they reached the top of the cave. Jessica gasped as the rain hit her with full force as she scrambled for the rim of the hole. Several times her hands slipped. Amatheia saw blood in the water and winced, but there was nothing they could do about it now. It took a combination of pulling from Jessica, pushing from Amatheia and the continual rise of the water to get her out. Well, that was one obstacle down. Amatheia leaped out after her, landing with a splash in the choppy ocean.

“We did it!” she shouted above the sound of the raging wind. But there was no answering shout. With alarm Amatheia looked around, but didn’t see Jessica. Dread struck her as she searched franticly. Ducking under the water, she finally spotted Jessica, struggling to get her head above the waves. With a flick of her tail, Amatheia sped to her aide and pulled Jessica up. They broke above the waves and Jessica gasped for breath. “Come on,” yelled Amatheia. “This is the easy part!” Jessica didn’t answer. Her eyes were panicked. Amatheia gulped. Apparently getting out of the cave had taken the last of her strength. She’d thought Jessica would at least be able to swim a little, but now she realized there was only one option. Hooking her arms under Jessica’s, she towed the human girl along.

They were buffeted by the waves and the wind. Very soon, Amatheia’s arms burned. How long could she keep this up? Would she have enough strength to get them both to the beach? Or would she eventually be forced to let go and watch Jessica sink? Gritting her teeth, she kept going, straining every muscle she had. Normally when she swam through storm waves, she threw herself heedlessly through them or dove under. But with Jessica in tow, she couldn’t do that unless she wanted Jessica to drown. Several times she caught herself about to dive and had to pull up suddenly. With waves crashing over them, Jessica kept swallowing water and coughing. Amatheia did her best to keep her head above water, but couldn’t always manage it. Every cough sent worry surging through her tail, but there was little she could do about it. Instead she focused on her task and strove to banish any other thoughts. She just had to hold on to Jessica and swim. Hold on to Jessica and swim. Hold on - 

Her scales brushed against sand. With a start she realized they’d reached the beach. “We made it!” she yelled. “Go, go!”

Unsteadily Jessica managed to scramble to her feet and stumble away from the waves. Amatheia watched until she saw a stray human running towards her. Good, she’d be alright then. With a tired but relieved smile, she pushed herself back into the water and disappeared into the ocean. Above her, the skies cleared as the storm finally dissipated.

Prompt: When I was a kid my mom always told me those dark, heavy storm clouds come from…