Mermaids of Midge-shka

During the summer, when the sea is warm and dolphins laugh as they swim through the kelp forests, the mer-folk of Midge-shka Cove would celebrate the changing of the seasons by having a festival of summer. In preparation for the festival, the mermaids were assigned different booths to par-take in setting up. A range of booths, lined up in rows with frilly banners, crowded the grounds in front of the under-sea castle. The food court in the center of the festival was filled with the fragrant perfumes of home cooking. Mer-maidens baked tasty delights for the festival guests. There was starfish stew, sponge cake, sea cucumber jello, and crab pudding. Some of the booths had posted funny phrases on their signs to catch the mer-peoples attention such as “Got an urge! Get sea urchin pie” or “pay a sea-dollar for a batch of sea dollar cookies.” Other venders relied on their notoriety.
The three princesses of the kingdom attended the festival of summer every year. They greeted mer-folk who lived in their father’s kingdom and those who traveled from far away. Each princess had two guards protecting her while she patrolled the festival grounds. It was known through out the sea that the three princesses of Midge-shka had the most beautiful hair in all the waters of the world. Geneva was the eldest of the three princesses at 22 years of age. She had gorgeous pink hair which flowed down to the length of her tail fin. Kelby was twenty years old with braded blue hair the color of the ocean and sky. The youngest princess was a year younger than Kelby and was her father’s favorite. Styx had bright sun lit hair with streaks of gold which reminded her father of his treasury which lay beneath the castle. Usually the princesses would swim the grounds giving good fortune to whoever they touched, at least that is what the mer-folk believed, but this year something was different.
“The wealthy king of Duxon is bringing his son, Prince Adaro,” the king told his daughters, who all screamed for joy. “I am expecting you to look your best and to set a good example for our kingdom. Remember, my daughters, you are not only representing yourselves but the kingdom, too.”
A meeting was held between the princesses that night before the grand festival. “I have a suggestion” told Geneva to her sisters “Why don’t we set up our own booth in the festival.”          
“That is a fabulous idea.” Kelby laughed with excitement “What should it be? It should be something that will entice the prince to know more about us. Am I not correct?”
Geneva arched an eyebrow “I had come up with the idea as to better represent our kingdom, but the prince is also something to consider. Perhaps we should have a baking booth to show off our cooking skills. Every man loves a girl who knows her way around in the kitchen.”          
“…if we knew our way around the kitchen,” sighed Kelby “We have cooks that fix our meals and servants that deliver it.”          
“I forgot,” Geneva replied.          
“What about a hair salon, girls,” Styx said as she combed her gold-lace hair. The comb she used had a wooden handle which resembled a sea horse with two pearl eyes.          
Geneva and Kelby groaned at the idea “We need something new. Our booth needs to be the best it can be. It needs to draw in costumers like a school of fish.”          
“You’re right Geneva. We need to be different. All we are known for is the softness of our hair.”          
“I know!” snapped Geneva with a smile “A kissing booth. The prince will be sure to get to know one of us a little better than the other two if we set up a kissing booth in the festival.”          
Styx dropped her comb “What if we don’t want to kiss. I haven’t even had my first kiss yet.”          
“If you don’t want to join in on the fun Styx, then you miss out on the chance of a life time. At least until he marries,” said Kelby slyly through her teeth.          

All the kingdom was in a joyous mood the next morning. Moray eels flew over the festival grounds like wind socks as giant manta-rays acted like trams, taking guests from one side of the festival to another.          
On the outside skirts of the food court was where Geneva placed the kissing booth. She figured that even though they couldn’t cook, being next mer-folk who did know how to cook was just as good.          
Styx had decided not to join her sisters in the kissing booth. There was too much of a chance that some ugly fish monger would give her a kiss. Worse than that, it would be her first. She staid up in the tower where her bedroom overlooked the festival, and she combed her hair and washed it as if treating it like some sort of pet. “I will be there,” Styx told herself out loud “but I will do the regular routine of greeting guests who swim across the grounds and buy cute jelly fish on strings for their kids.”
Geneva paddled her way up the spiraling tower stairs to see if Styx had changed her mind about puckering her lips. Styx was the most popular of the three and the youngest. If she came, more mer-folk might gather around the booth and the prince would be more enticed to drift their way with the crowd.
“Oh dear, I just realized,” thought Geneva “one of us will kiss the prince if he decides to participate in/at the kissing booth. Whoever prince Adaro kisses he might fall in love with. And love usually leads to… huh.” Geneva remembered her sister’s comment about marriage.
In the mirror, Styx could see Geneva beginning to turn around to swim back down the stairway “What is it, sister?”
“Oh…I just wanted to warn you not to comb your hair too much. It might fall out if you’re not careful” It may have seemed silly to say, but Geneva didn’t want Styx to be at the booth any more. Kelby would be enough to deal with.
Styx thanked her sister for the advice. Geneva then went straight to the kissing booth where guests were already starting to line up.
“There you are Kelby. Did you hear that kelp knots are the new trend in hair.”
“Really?” said Kelby curiously “Why don’t you have any kelp in your hair?”
Geneva knew exactly how to fool her sister “I do not have the right kind of hair to put kelp in. Kelp would not do for my hair as it is not used to being braided. And green is not exactly my color.”
Geneva told her sister where there was a nice garden of kelp. It was at the bottom of the mountain the kingdom was set upon. Trusting her sister, Kelby swam out of the kingdom with two guards as to pick kelp from the garden below. She would tie it into her hair and come back to the festival “…and then I shall get my prince.” Kelby chuckled to herself as she hurried down the mountain. “It’s not my fault her hair is not the right type for braiding. I’m sorry that my sister won’t hold any light towards my radiance with my gorgeous braids of blue.”
At last, Kelby reached what she thought was the kelp garden. She plucked kelp blades off the vines and wove them into her hair. Kelby searched for the healthiest kelp bushes for those held the greenest blades amongst their vines. Upon her scavenging, she discovered little balls attached to the blades. They reminded her of the pearl necklace Geneva had been flaunting around all morning.
“I bet these would do nicely if I tied them all together and there inexpensive, too.” She grinned.
Quickly, she reached out for a sea urchin and broke of a needle from its small purple body and tied a string of sea weed to it. Taking the kelp beads, she sewed them together. “This is perfect.” said Kelby, after setting the beads around her neck. “Perhaps I could find more to braid into my hair.” She swam above the garden for an aerial view as to see where more kelp beads could be found. “This isn’t a garden at all. This is an immense forest.”          
In a burst of bubbles, a sea creature, much like that of a shark, swooped down with it’s over sized mouth and hacked off Kelby’s hair. Patting her head with her hands, Kelby could feel that her hair was reduced to stubble. “Geneva!!” She cried out as she turned to the castle with eyes ablaze.          
The kissing booth was flooded with mer-folk who had come from all over the festival grounds. Geneva knew that food was the way to a man’s heart, but she hadn’t thought about what type of mer-men would be at the festival. There were several elderly mer-folk who smelt of fish and whose scales were pealing because of their age. Geneva had kissed a couple construction workers who were as fat as whales, along with farmers who thought their sea beds would grow better with a royal blessing. Being sick to her stomach after the first 20 or 30 mer-folk, she began to give the rest of the costumers a peck on the cheek. “Kelby!” she exclaimed. “Your hair it’s…”
Thousands of kelp leaves drifted over Kelby’s face. Using a long vine from the kelp forest, she had made a fancy turban for herself. Her sister was none the wiser about her sudden hair loss for with the turban on, no one could tell.
“I know what my hair looks like. It looks wonderful doesn’t it,” replied Kelby with a glare, “But I do think yours needs a little tending to. Why don’t I take over the kissing booth for awhile and you glide up to castle to spruce up.”
Geneva scowled for her plans hadn’t worked. In the mirror, in her bedroom, she could see that her hair looked as though a water spout had gone through it. “My hair needs more than sprucing. It needs a full body make over to catch Prince Adaro’s eye.” Geneva saw that her bottles of hair tonic and lotion were empty and soon found herself in Kelby’s bedroom. “If you can’t beat them, beat them harder with their own stick is what daddy always said. I suppose he was referring to the good old days when he was in battle, but this is practically a war as far as I am concerned.”
Geneva grabbed a bottle marked with hearts and star fish from Kelby’s desk of hair tonics and poured it on her hair. “When it’s Kelby, a star fish symbol always means it’s the best to put on when in a hurry.”
The tonic was rubbed in thoroughly and she brushed her hair until it felt like moss. She swam to the mirror in her bedroom to see what it looked like and then panicked. The hair tonic Kelby had knowingly set out on the desk for Geneva had turned her hair green. “That shrimp!” shouted Geneva. In a tsunami of rage Geneva raced down to the festival where everyone laughed at her hair. They pointed at the green muck on her head and chuckled while covering their mouths with their fins.
         
From a far, Prince Adaro stuck his head out of the carriage and could tell that Migde-shka must be a wondrous place. The castle shimmered in the summer’s light as the last of the white starfish glimmered into a spectacular shade of red.
“Outside the kingdom, the star fish cover the sea floor like those humans on the beach. Isn’t that right father?” said Adaro.
“What was that?” the king had half fallen asleep for the ride to Midge-shka cove was far from their kingdom in the abyss. He poked his crown out the side of the carriage’s window and licked his lips. Millions of red crabs crawled along the star fish. Warmth had arrived in the deeper parts of the ocean since winter was over and the red crabs were returning. “Yes, yes, my son. We are almost there. I can taste it in my beard.”
“Taste father?”
“Feel, boy! I meant feel. Though now that you mention it. I am hungry.”
“Alright father, we shall stop at the court to eat some food before starting our journey to any other booths at festival.”
The king rubbed his fingers through his son’s faded blue hair and smiled gladly. “I bet you can’t wait to meet the daughters of the kingdom.”
“I have heard so much about them, yet more about their hair than anything. I haven’t a clue to what any of them are like emotionally, physically, or what I should expect personality wise.” He laughed “For all we know, they could be angry narwhals; using their crowns like the tooth of the narwhal. Jabbing it at each other like swords.”
“Hmm?” The queen had fallen asleep like her husband and sat opposite the two mer-men. “Oh, the daughters of Midge-shka I hear are very gentle creatures. They are not animals at all. They are more like cuttlefish who are gentle and kind.”
“…and quite unpredictable!” stated the king as he pointed at his wife’s pet cuttlefish named Ruffly. The spotted cuttler blew bubbles at the king and turned towards the queen.
The carriage stopped at several gates leading into the kingdom. When at the festival grounds, the driver of the carriage pulled back on the reins of the six grey dolphins that bobbed their heads wildly. Prince Adaro helped his mother glide smoothly from the carriage which hovered a foot off the ground. The king grabbed the side of carriage and shifted his belly as to push himself out the doorway. “Let’s head over to the food court. I am starved from that long journey.”
Once the royal family had made it to the entry way of the food court, they saw Geneva and Kelby slapping each other red in the face.
“What is the meaning of this!” bellowed Adaro’s father. The two sisters stopped slapping each other and both appeared to be shocked as if by electric eels. Neither spoke. Geneva bit her lip and became tongue tied while Kelby was left open mouthed like a trout out of water.
The silence did not last very long. A manatee from the mer-children’s animal petting area had bitten free of its leash and shrouded the waters in two as it plunged on top of Geneva eating what it thought was food. “Get it off me! Help!” Geneva wished she hadn’t been saved for in front of her stood the king, her father.
Geneva helped Kelby from the floor as the manatee had knocked them both to the ground. “My turban!” It lay on the ground revealing that she had lost almost all her hair.
Both their father and Adaro’s family looked at the two hairless princesses and nodded at them with disgrace.
“Am I late?” asked Styx who was finished fiddling with her hair. Her hair shimmered with gold and waved gently from the curling she had done.
Adaro looked at the booth that Geneva stood under “Aw, I see. This is a kissing booth.”
“Yes, it is,” replied Styx. Before she had time to tell Adaro that she had not planned on participating with her sisters at the kissing booth, he rounded his arm at her waist and kissed her.
“I see that you are the most beautiful princes here at the festival.”
“That is kind of you to say. I do not agree though, for I know you are only speaking to the curse of which I call my hair.” She turned her head away from the prince.
“It is not the hair I have fallen in love with, but you.”
Adaro swam arm-in-arm with Styx telling her that she was the only princess that could be seen in his eyes.