Mara of Middlearth
Copyright 2011
Edited by James Friedman
Chapter 1
“You have the biggest, ugliest feet in the whole world!” Mara’s younger brother sneered. “You’re ugly. And you’ve got huge ugly feet. I wish you would die!”
As usual, Mara could not stop the tears. Her mother always told her to ignore her younger brother’s taunts, he was just jealous of her being the next Queen; but his carefully aimed vicious barbs seemed to sting and hurt no matter what she did. She knew she had to learn to deal with such meanness; after all, she would be Queen of Mykonos when her Father, the King, died.
It might have been easier for her to ignore her brother if her feet were smaller. They were large, not small and shapely like the other girls. In fact, the soles of her feet and her toes were very wide. But she had slim heels, as if that counted for anything.
Mara decided to walk up to the cliffs that capped the end of the long thin peninsula that extended past where their beautiful Palace sat. It was a long enough walk that her lazy, mean brother never followed her. For Mara, it had become a place of refuge; a place where she could think, and dream. She loved to watch the sun set as it dipped below the far off edge of the sea. The vivid colors in the after-light of a bright sunny day were often breathtaking. Mara knew that the moon would be full this night; therefore she could walk home after dark. Over the past year, Mara had begun to make the trek out to the tip of the peninsula on every night when there was a full moon.
She liked to leave the palace so that she arrived shortly before sunset.
Once she was at the very end of the long narrow piece of land, Mara settled into her favorite rocky perch to gaze at the beauty of the two islands that were visible across the gap of sparkling, azure blue water. She knew that the near island was called Dilos, her mother had told her a little about it. The other island she could see, the one beyond Dilos, was called Rineia.
Mara very much wanted to travel to see those islands. She begged her Father, the King, to allow her to travel there when his fisherman ventured out to fish the bountiful waters. But Father always said no. He always said no to everything she asked for.
Mara had to be content knowing that when she was Queen she could travel there and enjoy the islands to her heart’s content.
Mara knew better than to swim in the sea, especially the churning waters below the cliff at the end of the peninsula. She had watched the waters swirling about at the base of the cliffs. There were obviously swift, strong tides, and currents that could catch a person and sweep them out to sea where a person would most likely die.
Watching the sinking sun, her chin on her wrists, her wrists across her knees, Mara felt her heart responding to the peaceful beauty before her.
Peace. Yes, this was the best place in the world to relax, and to enjoy Goddess Nature.
“HERE YOU ARE, YOU UGLY FISH!” screamed her brother, jumping in front of her, his face full of malice.
Mara yelped in fright. Then she became angry. “How dare you come here and disturb me!” she screamed back. She stood up, knowing that the beauty of this day’s sunset was ruined for her.
Then her brother shoved her! Hard!
Caught by surprise, Mara tripped and lost her footing as she fell over the edge of the cliff. She tumbled over and over as she fell through the air toward the waves below.
She panicked. She thought fleetingly of the people she was leaving behind, her mother, her father, even her hateful brother.
SPLASH! She hit the surface of the water so hard that it crushed the air out of her lungs.
Mara plunged far below the surface of the sea.
Fighting her panic, she tried to think as she struggled to rise back up toward the surface, but she had very little air, and did not know how to swim. The only water she had been in before now was the royal bathing pool. That pool was shallow enough that she could easily walk about on the bottom of the pool while she bathed.
But the sea was deep, and the currents were strong. She struggled desperately against its fearsome grip. A few times, when she did manage to get her head above water, she could see that the cliffs from which she had fallen were getting farther and farther away.
After a while, Mara was too tired to continue her struggle. Her movements became less and less fruitful. Finally she could not hold her breath any longer. Without meaning to, she opened her mouth and tried to breath. Water filled her lungs. Her body instinctively tried to cough the water out. But instead, water rushed back in. Each time she coughed, more water came in through her mouth and nose.
After a short while the water seemed to grow darker.
Her hair swirled around her face.
Things grew darker and darker.
Mara’s movements slowed, then finally stopped all together.
Her eyes lost their focus.
Mara’s body no longer moved; her unfocused eyes saw nothing.
Her body sank deeper as the strong current washed her lifeless body out to sea.
A light shone in the distance. It seemed to get brighter and brighter as she drifted toward it. After a short while the light seemed to surround her. Voices murmured all around. Mara began to feel deeply content. No . . . not content . . . she felt . . . what was the word she was searching for? LOVE! She had never felt love from her family in the last several years. But now she felt Love, an all encompassing, warm, caring Love that seemed to cradle her gently in its arms. Vaguely Mara thought she remembered her mother holding her in much the same way before her brother had been born.
This warm, comforting sense of being Loved without reserve was the sweetest feeling she had ever felt.
She felt complete.
She felt as if she was, at last, good enough. She looked down at her big feet, but there was nothing there to see. In fact there was nothing to see at all, anywhere, just a blindingly bright, warm, Loving glow. There was only the sense of being deeply and completely Loved without reserve.
Mara felt herself smiling for the first time in a long time. For the first time in a very, very long time, Mara felt completely, entirely happy.
“Child?” a deep rich voice said. The voice was full of Love.
She could see no one around her.
“Child, We must send you back. You have much left to do, back in your life in Middlearth.”
Chapter 2
Mara was dreaming. It was a nice warm cuddly dream in which she had lots of friends, and no brother. Someone was talking to her, but not in a language she understood. All she could hear were clicks and screeches. And the sound of water. Someone was tickling her tummy and her rib cage. She was laughing as she tried to push whomever it was away from her. She could still feel the comforting warm glow of Love that she had felt.
Feeling content and happy, Mara stretched and yawned.
There was water in her mouth! It tasted very, very salty.
She tried to spit the water out, but it did no good. As soon as she tried to breathe, more water came into her mouth. She tried to scream for help, her eyes flying open, her whole body reacting to the panicky feelings of drowning.
She squirmed and kicked trying to get out of the water.
She was completely under water. The clicks and screeches continued as she struggled. Something slick rubbed against her side. She tried to see what it was only to see what must have been a Dolphin swimming near her! As she looked around her, trying to rise to the top of the water, she could see that there were about ten dolphins! They were all around her. They were all looking at her. They seemed to be making clicks and screeches to each other, as though they were talking amongst themselves.
Mara realized that she was breathing. Then she realized that the water was going into her mouth, but did not seem to be coming back out of her mouth. Something rippled along her back. She squirmed forward, trying to get away from whatever it was behind her. She gasped as she moved forward. At the same time, a larger ripple moved behind her.
As she slowly became aware of what was all around her, Mara realized that even though she was below water, she was still breathing. She noticed that every time she breathed in, the ripple moved behind her. She put her hand behind her back and felt the rippling water as she breathed. It was true; it was her breathing that made the tickly ripple behind her. The ripple was the water she was breathing in as it sent water out some long slits across her back. There seemed to be a slit between each of her ribs that allowed the water she breathed to leave her body.
As she calmed down, she turned her attention to the Dolphins. They were all still swimming around and around her, watching her, making clicks and screeches as they did so.
One of the Dolphins swam up to her, its head moving up and down as though it were saying hello to her. It clicked a few times as its eyes seemed to watch her face.
After a few moments Mara reached her hand out to the obviously friendly creature. It stopped moving and waited for her to touch it. When she did, it uttered some soft clicks.
It isn’t afraid of me, Mara realized.
Another Dolphin came forward, and also allowed her to pet it. After that several more swam to her and allowed her to stroke them as well.
The first Dolphin swam nearer the girl, then made some more of the soft clicks as it moved its head up and down. It then backed away. Mara noticed that that Dolphin had a small black spot behind one eye.
The second Dolphin moved in close to her and made some clicks as it moved its head and down. Mara could tell that the second Dolphin had made different clicks than the first one. ‘Maybe they are telling me their name?’ she wondered. She noticed that the second Dolphin had a white stripe across its nose.
Mara tried hard to see a way to tell each Dolphin from the others. Once she started looking, each Dolphin was different from the others in some way. As they swam around her and over her, Mara began to think that they might be there to protect her, or at least to make sure she was all right.
Mara smiled. Breathing water seemed to be somewhat natural to her now. And she was quickly growing fond of her Dolphin friends.
The girls looked upward when the light surrounding her seemed to be grow dimmer. The surface of the water above was not shimmering like it had been only moments before.
Two of the dolphins swam under her arms and seemed to want her to hold on to them. Mara did, and they carried her to the surface. When her head broke the water’s surface, Mara looked around her. There was no land to be seen anywhere. When she looked toward the brightness on the water, she could see that the sun had gone down. The night was fast approaching, as it did every evening on Mykonos.
Mara wondered if she would ever see her beloved homeland again.