17 Nov Mermaid of the Sand dragon clan
One summer day, a female mountain lion climbed down from her den in the costal hills of Northern California to walk along the seashore. Foraging in the wet sand at low tide, she ate her fill of crab and jellyfish. With a full belly she felt her heat – the hunger of loneliness – in her womb. More than anything, more than her own will to live, she wanted to create new life and have a kitten of her own. Her last babe had been stillborn and became food for the pack she ran with. A hawk flew overhead, and the wildcat stared in awe at its graceful, circular movements in the air currents above. She felt moved by something supernatural and she made a silent prayer to the gods of land, sea, and sky that they would make her a mother. Suddenly, she was overcome by a trans-species instinct to spawn. With her front paws, she dug into the sand beside a large rock, squatted, and laid an unfertilized egg, then trotted away back up to the hills.
Hawk had been watching from the sky, waiting for the lioness to leave so that he could take a turn at scavenging on the beach. But as he saw the lion praying and spawning, he felt compelled by generosity. He swooped down to the lustrous, wild, feline egg lying in the sand and, instead of eating it, he fertilized it, making his own offering to Life. Feeling morally satisfied, he flew off to satisfy his hunger for food.
As the day wore on and the sun began to descend below the watery horizon, the tide came in. Waves – broad arms of water – stretched and reached toward land, eventually clasping the egg in its embrace, and pulling it down into the sea. The egg glided down and down and down into the dark oceanic depths and landed softly in a nest of seaweed.
A mother mermaid found the egg when she was gathering seagrass for weaving. She took the anonymous egg, placed it gently in the pocket of her apron, and brought it to her sea cave where she diligently kept an eye on it while caring for her own kids.
In spring the creature in the egg awoke to sonorous whale songs as pods of humpbacks migrated north. The egg began to tremble. Mer-mother cupped it lovingly in her thin, pale hands and spoke soft words of welcome to the mysterious being within. “Little one, little one, welcome to the sea. Little one, little one, welcome to your mer-family.” The shell split open in the mer-mother’s hand and dark fluid from within dispersed into the ambient water. There in the mother’s palm appeared a strange thing with big eyes, sharp teeth, feathered fins, and razor-sharp talons. The mother named the baby Mira, a beautiful name for an ugly little beast.
Conceived from the mating of a lion and a hawk, gestated in the brine of the ocean’s womb, and fostered by a kindly mer-mother, the child knew nothing of her terrestrial or biological origins. She only knew the sea. Her mer-family loved her like blood kin. They taught her how to swim, fed her the best scallops and oysters, and the mer-children included her in their underwater games.
Each evening when the black ink of night spilled into the sea cave, the mer-father would narrate the classic tales of the mer-people to his children. The oldest myths told that their people came from the great silver egg that floats in the sea of the cosmos.
“Once upon a time, before time was colonized by the linear conceptual order of the land people, all time and space were fluid. All that was, was barren water, until Earth captured the cosmic egg, and the moon began to seed the planet with life. Fertilized by sunlight, the moon’s belly grows from sliver to circle and on full moon nights she spills forth her nourishing milk – moonbeams – into the watery gardens below. This is how the kingdoms of animal, vegetable, and mineral were established on Earth. And this is also how the many clans of sea people came to occupy the world’s oceans. The Creatrix seeded their clan in the ocean called Pacifica and she called them her ‘Sand Dragons’ because of their broad scalloped fins and their long fingernails, which they use to dig networks of tunnels and caves in the sandy ocean floor. It was a fearsome name for a group as gentle as dragonflies.”
Although the small, strange child was different in appearance from the other members of her clan, she never questioned her identity and assumed she belonged among the Sand Dragons. Until the unfortunate day that a messenger came to collect her. A waterfowl dove to the bottom of the sea to find the ugly mermaid. He informed her that Hawk and Lion had sent him to retrieve her and bring her back on land. She resisted the summons, but her foster parents insisted that she must heed the call of her true parents and return to her homeland.
Reluctantly she let her buoyant body slowly float to the surface of the water and she surrendered to the force of waves as they pushed her to shore. There she met the glaring eyes of two predators waiting for her. She rose to her hind legs, smoothed her wing feathers, and introduced herself as Mira, mermaid of the Sand Dragon clan. The lioness replied sharply, “Nonsense. You came from my egg, and you will be called Cat.” Hawk jumped in with gusto and announced that he and the mountain lion had come for their child because the solar god of the sky had commanded that the three of them migrate to the southern deserts to live at the Temple of the Sun, with other worthy followers.
The mermaid acquiesced. Hawk ascended above to lead the way. Lion ran below, swiftly chasing his shadow. Cat tried to copy her father and swim in the blue sea of air above, but each leap and flap was followed by a hard fall to the ground. The child tried to run as quickly as her mother, following her tracks, but she couldn’t keep up. So, she found a strid of her own, hybrid aquatic, avian ambulation.
When they reached the southern country, the little mermaid choked back tears. She wouldn’t let one more drop of saltwater leave her body. With heartache and homesickness, she scanned the dry desert valley, taking in the skeleton – the ghost – of an inland sea.
On the peak of the tallest mountain was perched the Temple of the Sun. The family climbed higher and higher until they were breathless, and it seemed they might reach the Sun itself. There they settled into their modest quarters. Daily life at the temple revolved, firstly, around daily devotion to the solar sky god, secondly around performing acts of purification, and thirdly around policing others who did not adhere to the orthodoxy. Everyday Hawk and Lion made offerings to icons, genuflected to the leadership, meditated, and chanted. In the evenings, after the scorching Sun finally took it leave, Hawk would narrate to the child the first myths of the desert.
“There once was a great body of water filled with abundant fish and flora. It wrapped around the whole world, connecting all the waters. All landforms were islands. Long ago, the people of the earth were people of the water, who had chosen to lose their fins for legs so that they could attempt to ascend to the sun and attain enlightenment. As time went on, and as the sea people became fewer in number, the waters also became smaller and land surfaces grew. And, as time went on the land people forgot that they came from the sea and believed that they had been planted on Earth by the Sun. A tradition began that every summer solstice the land people would pilgrimage toward the Temple of the Sun on the highest mountain peak, but it was impossible for the disciples of the solar god to circumvent or traverse the sea to reach the temple and they would leave their gifts for him at the seashore. The solar god was furious and brought his complaint to the water. “You must recede and make was for my devotees.” Trying to appeal to his vanity, she responded, “But, my Lord, if I recede, how will you see your own radiance?” The Sun momentarily stopped his complaining then realized he was being made a fool. Enraged, the Sun got hotter. His girth expended and the heat rose until the sea that surrounded his mountain had evaporated entirely. Through the power of destruction, he proved to humanity that he was supreme and deserving of devotion.”
After every telling of the story, the little mermaid would ask what happened to the sea gardens and the sea people after the sea went dry. Her father, Hawk, would explain that the flora of the sea became dehydrated and evolved into cholla, prickly pear, and saguaro cacti. And what of the sea people? There was a legend that they retreated into desert caverns to hide from the wrath of the Sun. The derogatory name for this clan of landlocked aquatic refugees was the ‘Sand Dragons.’
As Cat grew, she forgot the origin story of the sea people. She forgot the faces of her loving mer-family. She forgot the smell and taste of the sea. She only knew the world of the desert and life at the Temple of the Sun. Despite her diligence and service to the community, the desert people never let Cat forget that she didn’t belong. Their judgement and fear of her could not be concealed by timid pleasantries. When they spoke about Cat behind her back, they called her the ‘Dragon’ because of her freakish appearance. She began to believe she was a dragon.
When Cat reached estrus, her first heat, she felt the fire of rage in her guts. She was filled with anger and filled with questions. Why had she been taken so far away to a remote desert to worship a remote deity? Who was the uncomely child of two ill-suited strangers who looked back at her from the mirror? Everyone feared her. She had no friends. Where were other dragons liker her?
After school, each afternoon, Cat began to wander desert trails alone. She got curious about geology and collected specimens for her rock collection. She particularly loved mica which shone like shards of mirror in the dull desert sand. When she picked up pieces, she would tilt them back and forth to catch the sun and cause it to flicker, like sunlight on water. When she held them still, they reflected the blue sky overhead. For her, these shiny minerals were relics of a long-gone sea.
One day, out on her desert wander, she heard footsteps in the sand up ahead. She hadn’t seen anyone else on the path. Fearless in that moment, she followed her curiosity and stepped off-trail. She walked along a dry arroyo that led into a canyon. After an hour of tracking the rhythmic steps ahead, she found herself flanked by steep rock walls pocked with cliff dwellings. All was silent. She stared all around astonished by the craftmanship of the carving.
Her voice cracked as she called out “Hello?” She only her own voice echo the same question in reply. Nothing. Stillness. She introduced herself aloud to the vacant settlement. “My name is Cat, daughter of Hawk and Lion, I come from the Temple of the Sun.” Silence. She continued speaking to the canyon simply to hear her voice amplified by its rock walls. “I was born in the ocean and fostered by a mer-family. They called me Mira, mermaid of the Sea Dragon clan.” She broke down and began to weep. The dusty ground swallowed every teardrop. She didn’t care. She couldn’t bare the loneliness any longer. Silent weeping turned to sobbing, turned to wailing. The cliffs wailed with her. When she was through crying the sound of sobbing continued. Moans of grief spilled from the windows of every dwelling.
The Sand Dragons began to show themselves. Their blue-toned skin glowed like pearl and abalone in the dark recesses of the cliffs. She waited as the clan members descended one by one. Cautiously, they inspected her at a distance. She was not afraid. Then one brave elder came forward. She looked closely at the youth’s physique, her wild feline face, her useless wings, and her sharp claws. She saw through her tough appearance and came closer. The elder could smell the brine of the sea in the tears running down the girl’s cheeks and he knew she was like them, a mermaid stranded in the desert.
Each of the Sand Dragons embraced the mermaid and took her in as trusted kin. They told her their people’s, her people’s, story.
“After the solar god’s rage, the sea evaporated, and the vegetation dehydrated. The sea people were deserted. Many died along with the fish. A few learned to walk and carve and hunt and subsist. The legends of ancestors say that the sea was never destroyed but that she took her lifegiving waters elsewhere. The Sand Dragons have sent many scouts to find the sea, but none have returned.”
Cat spoke up, “It’s true.” I come from the sea called Pacifica. It is vast and deep and full of life. I know the way. Who will join me?” The sea people leadership spoke softly among themselves until the canyon was pitch dark. The chief elder came forward. She asked the mermaid to describe the way to Pacifica and she drew her words into a mural on the rock walls. When the girl finished describing the features of the way, the elder told her that she and a dozen more would accompany her to the water. If the ocean was found, two would return to guide the rest of the Sand Dragons to the sea.
In the morning the travelers said good-bye to those who would remain in place. The band made their journey northwestward, across deserts and plains, over mountains and rivers, until they came to Land’s End. They entered a cloud of fog. The air smelled like salt and like life. They followed the obscured orb of the setting sun into the sea, and dove in.
The End
Catherine Brooks, 2022
Griffin etching, Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)