Mermaids, mystical, mythical creatures only discovered in fables and other stories. They were said to be beautiful half fish half human beings that live under the ocean. Often picturized with a beautiful long tail with shiny scaled and long flowing hair with sea shells and pearls decorating their body, these never before seen creatures were said to be the biggest mystery of the ocean. And, Jacob believed it. So did Victor.

It was another early morning and Victor on his another morning walk when the news first reached his ears. As expected, the cause was none other than Jacob Fischer, the fishy boy of Hargeon. He had been going around the beach, telling everyone of how he had seen mermaids, or at least somehow spotted them while he was out and about on his boat. Again, as expected, no one believed him. Hargeon had a large population of experienced fishers and seafarers. It was unbelievable that a mere boy had spotted something that they have never had. Now the boy seemed stubborn to shut everyone up.

He approached Victor as he stood clueless to a side, his ears ringing with the sound of mermaids. He wanted to see them, too. He wanted to satisfy his curious nature and see if it was real. “You are coming with me,” was all the warning Victor got before he was dragged over to Jacob’s very familiar boat. The boy thrust a camera at him, instructing him very clearly that he should take pictures of anything that may seem like mermaids. He agreed.

Half an hour later, they both stood on the small boat, cameras in hand, in the middle of the sea, their eyes searching for something along the water surface. Victor spotted some fishes swimming about but no sign of the famous golden tail of a mermaid. “This is where I saw them,” he kept saying, moving his head in all directions as to not miss anything. They saw several things that could never be associated with a mermaid but not even a speck of shimmery light or even a bit of golden tail was spotted. The sun light hitting the water surface did make it glow, turning it into a beautiful sight to behold but there was still no trace of anything that could be identified as a mermaid. Victor sighed.

They spent a sickeningly long time at it, long enough for even the mystery enthusiast to get tired of all the time they wasted doing nothing on top of a boat. He tried to persuade Jacob to go back, getting instantly rejected as the boy once again took his camera and snapped at something that was obviously not a mermaid. Keeping his camera to a side, Victor had almost given up, his eyes only roaming across the ocean in a bored sluggish fashion. He wanted to go back and read some mystery novels.

“Maybe it wasn’t a mermaid that you saw, Jacob,” he tried to tell the boy, getting shot down aggressively. “Look, there is no point in being angry. Mermaids don’t exist! Not even in this twisted up world,” Victor was straightforward, finally managing to get through to the boy when Jacob put his camera down as well.

He was visibly depressed and sat with his head between his legs for the reminder of the time that Victor tried to row them back to shore. As he turned the boat around, something golden flashed around the corner of his eyes and his head snapped up, witnessing a golden, pearl covered tail disappear down the surface of the water. “It couldn’t be,” he breathed.

Once they got back on land, Victor purposefully kept the information from Jacob since it was obvious that the boy would once again undertake this expedition in hopes to find the mermaid again and Victor will most likely draw the short end of the stick again. He did drop a hint on not giving up at the end when Jacob gave him his rewards but knew that the boy probably didn’t catch on to the drift. Well, however that may end, Victor was once again resolved to solve the mysteries of the world he lived in.

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