Nanno
The humans had seen him. Frightened, Nanno sat in his hammock made of reeds. Why had he shown himself on the surface? Why? What should he do now?
Now that people knew sirens were around. Sirens!
Had he just spoiled his best friend's prank? Friends didn't do that! How could he explain this to William? That he had accidentally warned the humans? Now they would be extra careful!
But this one person...
Nanno hadn't been able to see much in the dark, but there had been a will-o'-the-wisp on the boy's shoulders. Familiar. As if they were friends. And through the little light, he had been able to see the face of the stranger. He looked friendly. Dark skin and red hair. A treat!
"Nanno? Are you there?" Linnea, his childhood friend, stumbled into his small apartment. Her pink hair was tangled as if she had forgotten to comb it.
Sirens had no doors in their houses and apartments made of ice.
The city under the ground was enchanted through and through. An ice cave in which colorful plants grew without sunlight.
Nanno sat up. The hammock swayed a bit. "Yes. What's up? Did something happen?"
Linnea was only a year older than him, just like William, and she was his neighbor. She lived next door. Together with her parents and the family of her best friend. Eighteen-year-old Elsa. The two shared a room and invited Nanno constantly.
Until the day Linnea agreed to sleep with him...
"Elsa and I want to take a look at the humans! William told us about them. Maybe we can lure one of them into the water?" She grinned excitedly as if she hadn't ignored him for days.
"I don't think so", Nanno murmured.
"You don't come with us, or you don't think we'll be able to attract a person?"
"Both. They already know that we are nearby..."
"How so?" Linnea sat down next to him. "And maybe Wilma will come with us. And maybe her brother, Hugo, too! He looks so good. I could stare at him all day long!"
Nanno snorted. Thank you for this excellent compliment! "He's too old for you. He's thirty and you're younger than his little sister! I don't know if they really want to play your babysitter. Wilma is twenty-five and... She has other worries right now." Wilma was pregnant. Unintentional. And she didn't know by whom. A scandal! Her parents urged her to marry the father, but Wilma did not know which of the ten young men was the father. Ten! And she didn't want to marry all of them. Therefore, she was currently living with her brother. Out of sheer frustration, her mother had suggested that Wilma should simply choose one. Wilma didn't want that either.
Her brother Hugo did not bother her with the urgency of a wedding, and he did not blame her for having overdone it with celebrating.
"But he looks so good! A girl should be allowed to look! You look at him a lot, too!", Linea teased him with a grin.
Nanno rolled his eyes. "He's my boss! By the way... I have to go to work! Have fun with the others, but I don't think you'll succeed."
"You're a real grouch, Nanno. Some fun would do you good! Think about it again. And a little optimism wouldn't hurt you either!" She winked at him and then hurried out of his apartment. "And a little more experience as an explorer!"
Nanno angrily grabbed some dried seaweed and some dried fish and devoured both in no time. Then, he set off. More experience as an explorer... Ouch! He walked the narrow paths of the city of silver and ice and greeted a few mermaids he knew. Then he stepped out of the cave, into the water of the river. The water never reached the underwater cave. It was like a wet wall separating his home from the water of the river. As soon as he was in the cold water, his thin legs gave way to a pretty, strong tail fin. Smiling, he swam off. To the algae and the seaweed.
His work was monotonous, but he enjoyed the feeling of being his own master. Freedom. Nanno had never gotten along very well with his parents. They weren't bad parents, no. They just didn't understand him. And he didn't understand them. He often had the feeling that he had been born into the wrong family. But now, here, between reeds and algae, these were problems of the past.
Would he have his own family one day? Nanno couldn't imagine it. His parents always wanted to have many children and always talked about how wonderful a big family was. Nanno just wanted to have his peace.
He had four older sisters. Much older. And when they were there, they got on his nerves a lot. It was as if they were having a talking competition! No. Nanno enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Of course, he liked to have fun with other young sirens, whether boy or girl, but he could not imagine anything solid. Unlike William, who tried to win Linnea's heart. Linnea, of all people... Nanno gladly refrained from watching his best friend swim after his former ‘beloved’ like a fool!
No. Nanno could also do without that.
And he didn't want to tell him that he had accidentally warned people. A misfortune. And at the same time... He had to think of the stranger. He didn't want William and the girls to lure him into the river to drown. No. He didn't like the idea.
The boy had been talking with a will-o'-the-wisp.
Was he nice? Otherwise, the little thing wouldn't have sat on his shoulders, would it? And what if Nanno swam to the surface again? To observe the stranger? The stranger had dark skin. Nanno had never seen anything like it. Sirens were always pale so they would not be discovered deep in the water.
Yes. Nanno wanted to go to the surface again.
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