This is chapter 2 of Angry Mermaid. So far no transgendered elements have been necessary for these early chapters. If I do move into a TG theme It will be on or about the 5th chapter, - I think!

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Beverly.

---

The Angry Mermaid 2

Or.

Y Morforwyn Dicllon.

Mabina. The youngest daughter and Twin to
Drustan Her twin brother.
Grandpa Erin The twins grandfather.
Giana The twins grandmother
Caderyn The twins father.
Morgaran The Twins oldest brother.
Aiofe The twins oldest sister. Famous for her beauty.
Tara The twins second oldest sister. Famous for her grace.
Feidlim Twins aunt (Caderyns’ beautiful sister.)
Mogantu Twins uncle (Married to Feidlim.) Chief of the Gangani tribe.
Brun. Twins 2nd cousin and the Acaman clans’ blacksmith.
“Feorin. Twins second brother.

While Caderyn and the older brothers played their desperate ‘Cat-and-mouse’ tactics with the Viking long ships, Duran was forced to stay kicking his heels at the fortified village of Lleyn where the remaining male members of the family were desperately building more boats whilst simultaneously struggling to find a reliable source of tall pine timber to make the long planks. Then they had to bring the logs to the village to build another long ship resembling the lines of the captured Viking warship. Once the older craftsmen had the lines and shape in their eye they started building. At the same time Duran and Mabina worked like Trojans doing the fetching and carrying of assorted materials. It was all hands to the pumps for the whole community as they slowly built a second ship resembling the Viking warship. At the end of that terrible summer, the remains of the Celtic fleet returned to their scattered bases so that the crews could help to gather in what harvest they could. Despite fighting for their very survival the Celts still had to feed themselves through the winter. Fortunately, it had been a good harvest in the Erin lands and by dint of honest brotherly co-operation; there was just about food enough to go around the tribes. Every Celt on the Celtic sea had cause to be thankful.

Yes towns had been burned and women stolen, but the efforts of the little fleet had not gone unappreciated. The ravages on the Celtic Sea were as nothing compared with the disaters coming from the sea on the Eastern side of Britain. Nevertheless, the inroads onto their resources had cost them dear. It was going to be a long hungry winter for many hours labour in the fields had been lost to necessary ship patrols. For though there was food enough, it was just enough; just!

In the winter months the whole of the Acaman clan devoted effort to completing the copy of the Viking long ship and they invited the other tribes to visit them and study the ship for military flaws. There were few. The Norsemen had learned their lessons well and the design had been battle tested. Other tribes also sent men to help and learn the shipbuilding skills for it was quickly realised that the only way the sea raiders could be stopped was meeting them on the sea. Their tactic was foolproof when dealing with land armies. A whole army of thousands of men could be easily transported by ships and delivered to a select point anywhere on the coast and then set up a defensible base that could be supplied by sea. Meanwhile the land armies of the Celtic tribes would have to march over miles of difficult country to meet with them in battle, and the Vikings were formidable foes.
As winter closed in the work on the ship building slowed down. Short hours and cold wet weather demoralised men and left materials wet and unusable. The tribes returned to their own bases for the Acaman clan could not hope to feed the gangs of men if they were idle.

The only place where boatbuilding continued was in Grandfather Erin’s own private boat house. Here he used spare time and recycled materials teaching Duran and Mabina essential skills and crafts as they built a small replica of the long ship for the children to practice with in the sheltered waters of Madogs’ channel. In the warmth and the dry of the small covered building hall the min-long-ship grew apace.

The fortified Gangani village of Lleyn was not idle however. Throughout the winter shipping patrols came and went as the wild winter storms vented their fury on the boats and they had to constantly return for repair and maintenance. However the second hard winter of such patrols brought forth more hardened experienced seamen to man the battle stations during the summer.
Meanwhile in the little boat house, Duran and Mabina’s little long ship was finally ready. The Children were already skilled sailors so Grandfather Erin was happy to let them take the boat out after one trial voyage with him at the helm. The boat proved to be a splendid sea keeper. The decks remained dry in all but the worst storms.

The little boat was a revelation to all. It’s short length coupled with its unusual lines made it unbelievably fast. Many times Erin, Caderyn and Morgaran stared in wonder as Duran and Mabina put the little craft through its paces and careened across the bay.

“I do believe that thing could beat a long ship with the whole crew pulling on its oars.” Gasped Morgaran, as he shook his head in wonder.

“Are you serious son?” Asked Caderyn as his mind ticked thoughtfully.

“Yes father, what do you think grand-dad?”

“You may be right lad, (Like all grandparents he still considered his full grown grandson to be a ‘lad’.)

“We will have to test it,” Persisted Morgaran. As soon as we have enough men to man the long ship we can try it. You might have hit upon something new grand-dad.”

“It wasn’t me lad, it was your younger brother and sister, the twins. They fashioned the hull. It was built that way because those were the only planks we could use. Off-cuts and waste wood. I only did it as a lesson to train the twins quickly while the building slips were idle.”

“Well whatever it is dad,” Caderyn added, “it’s doing something special, just look at that.”

The three generations gazed at the little craft and wondered. With Duran holding onto the steering oar for grim death and Mabina tightening up the footing of the Flaxen sail as tight as her little hands could tun the windlas; the craft was gathering pace even as they watched.

Then they had to slacken off the sail as Drustan called Mabina.

“I can’t hold her up to wind anymore. We’ll have to gybe her and bring the wind through her stern.”

Reluctantly Mabina slackened off the windlass pole she had twisted through the main sheet and prepared to turn the sail to collect the wind as soon as the wind was available from the other beam. It was a heavy spar and despite the light flaxen sail, she struggled with it.

Finally the children reached their objective of weathering the little craft around the dangerous reef that marked one edge of the channel and they had the little boat heading comfortably out to sea. Both of them now had a chance to take it easy as the boat beat up to windward. The children were excited for they knew they had a winner in the little craft. Drustan handed the helm to his sister as he went forward to study the sail and estimate the leeway the shallow-draughted craft was making.

“She makes a lot of leeway sis.”

Mabina looked aft and nodded. She wondered if the boat might not fare better with some sort of lee board like their trading ships to hold her up to wind. The trouble was, leeboards tended to hamper the manoeuvrability and were a devil of a job to raise and lower. The two twins acting together would have trouble slipping a heavy leeboard over the side.

‘Why do they have to be so heavy?’ She asked herself. “Anyway, warships didn’t have them because they got in the way of the oars and they were vulnerable when the ships ran up the beach.

She was musing on the conundrum when Drustan caught her eye.

“Whatch’a thinking.”

“Why does the leeboard have to be rigged over the side?”

“Cos it’s the only place it’ll go, why?”

Mabinas’ eyes drifted absently to the mast footing where the large oaken ‘chair’ spread the weight and force of the mast along the keel. Their boat was light and Mabina wondered if the top of the footing chair was above the water line outside their little boat. When they got back to the village, she would check.

For an hour or so the twins took it in turns to put the boat through its paces. They sailed up and down the bay and lost track of time. As they appeared to play, Grandfather Erin became concerned and he turned to his grandson.

“If those two don’t return soon they’ll not be able to stem the tide. We have the full moon now.”

Morgaran studied the bay but the fresh breeze destroyed any telltale of the tide turning. However Morgaran knew his grandfather was right. Another hour passed and still the twins appeared to play and by now the tide was definitely turning. Already the rip was showing over the channel reef and the Swilly was beginning to call. Morgaran studied the whirl that would soon turn to a sucking vortex that was danger to larger ships and death to small boats. He cursed silently as he turned to his concerned grandfather.

“They won’t be able to get back until after nightfall now. The Swilly is calling.”

“Well they know the dangers perfectly well. They’ll be going to bed without supper, - both of them.” Snapped the old man as nervousness took hold of his mood.

Another hour passed and Morgaran had stepped onto the now drying rock that had earlier been covered by the tide. He watched the outgoing tide sucking and gurgling past before it ripped into the whirlpool that was now beginning to growl. Everybody in the village knew of its danger and everybody knew to avoid the ebb tide after a quarter of the tide had dropped. That was when it was at its strongest and most dangerous. The village had rigid rules about playing on the Swilly reef while the Swilly whirl was angry. Morgaran had arrived there with a rope in case the twins had forgotten about the vicious vortex.
Then his worst fears were compounded. He looked up and saw the little boat creaming over the waves as the onshore wind bore it along like a falcon in it's final screaming stoop.

‘The little bloody fools! Haven't they bloody learned?’ He cursed as he called out to his other brothers to join on the rock in case they could do something when the boat was caught in the rip as it was assuredly bound to do. Everybody knew the danger and the rescue plan that had occasionally worked before. Morgaran thought it the only hope for the children and he prayed to Nodens the Sea God to be kind.

‘ Noden oh Noden! They are but children oh lord of the sea. Please spare them!’

Onwards the little boat sped until Morgaran concluded they were in ear-shot.

‘There’s still time, the ebb will take them out again if I can just warn them.’ Morgaran fretted.

But the twins seemed to ignore Morgarans' desperate calls. As Drustan appeared to be straining at the steering oar, Mabinas’ knuckles showed white on the bar-tight mainsheet.

Morgaran stared fascinated by the sheer speed of the approach. Despite the ebb racing against them, the twins had the little boat racing towards the harbour mouth like a galloping horse. It met each breaking wave of the rip then reared upwards like a horse jumping before plunging again wildly into the following trough. Even yet with the short, tide-ripped, following sea, the boat was holding its course steady for the north side of the channel while on the Southern Side the Swilly was now beginning to roar its malcious anger.

Morgaran stopped shouting for his voice was hoarse with calling and his throat was sore. Now he stood transfixed as did his brothers on the other side each with their rescue ropes hanging loose and useless at their sides. Morgaran heard the footfall behind him as his father and grandfather rushed to join him. He was too mesmerised by the boats speed to turn and acknowledge his elders. It was his father who broke the fearful silence.

“I believe they have enough speed to defeat the beast.”

Morgarans’ shoulders fell with relief. He had been thinking the same desperate thought but too afraid to temp Nordens' wrath by voicing it. He turned almost with tears of relief as his father and grandfather joined his side.

“I think your right dad, - grandpa; what do you think?”

“It’s looking better with every wave they cover. Just look at that thing, she’s flying like a stooping falcon!”

“It’s fast grand-pa; I’ve never seen anything so fast.”

With that the little boat screamed past the three men with a bone in her teeth and a regular ‘thump, - thump, - thump, as the hull literally ‘bounced’ over each short steep wave of the break in the harbour mouth. As the twins squeals of fearless laughter echoed across both sides of the harbour mouth, the other brothers stared disbelievingly while Caderyn and Erin shook their heads in wonder.

“Did she actually leave the water altogether just then?” Morgaran gasped to his elders.

“I think she might, I’m sure I saw daylight twixt hull and sea.” Replied Caderyn disbelievingly.

“Well she was very light,” Erin muttered as they all turned to run to the harbour wall that the moor had taught them to build.

They arrived at the stone wall long after the twins, and Durant was already tying the boat up as Mabina was lowering the yard.

Caderyn, their worried father was the first to release his fear.

“You stupid little buggers! You could have been killed!!”

“But daddy,” Mabina squeaked beguilingly, “you see how fast she is; she dances in the Swillys’ jaws. The beast couldn’t lay a hand to us.”

“I’ll give you dancing! You’ll be dancing across the floor in a minute you stupid girl, and it won’t be the Swillys' hand you’ll be feeling.”

Caderyn turned to his youngest son.

“And as for you, you silly little fool! What in Nodens name where you trying to prove?”

Drustan looked up boldly.

“That she’s fast dad. She’s the fastest thing on the water.”

Drustan’s answer took all argument from the gathering and the tensions broke as the older men were all forced to concede. The boat that Mabina and Drustan had fashioned from odd cuts and loose ends had proven to be just that; the fastest thing that had ever left the Acaman familys’ slips; - and that made it one of the fastest things on the water, on the whole of Nodens’ Ocean!

Caderyn cursed with frustration and ordered the twins to bed without any supper. Drustan and Mabina slouched off angrily, two figures of frustrated dejection. Once out of earshot Mabina immediately spoke to Drustan.

“They’re stupid, the lot of them! You know how fast she is.”

“Yeah Sis, we neither of us would have tried that stunt if we had doubts. She’s fast.”

The twins stomped through the hall to their beds and lay facing each other across the glowing embers of the fire. Then Mabina, as she often did. Dragged her bed across the boundary line and lay it down next to her brother. The older children were now prohibited from this close proximity of male to female but the twins were still young. Drustan opened the gap in his skins and invited his sister to join him. She seized her chance and squeezed her fur-skin up to his as they chatted about the boat.

“We need a leeboard or something to hold her up to wind. We nearly lost it gybing around the headland.” Mabina whispered.

“I know, but leeboards are heavy and she moves so fast. There isn’t time to fuss about with just the two of us.”

“But it wouldn’t have to be as big and heavy as the ones on the other ships; she’s only a small light thing.”

Mabinas’ mind ticked away and Drustan waited expectantly.

“What we need is some sort of thing that can be slipped into position quickly.”

“Yeah, but you still have to secure it to the rail. Some sort of bracket or ring-bolt.”

They gave up for the time being and fell asleep in each others’ arms. When their oldest sister Aiofe came to bed she found the twins embraced and she checked the skins. They were well separated by the furs despite the sibling embrace and there was no intimacy. Aiofe smiled indulgently. She placed her bed beside them so as to prevent any of the others disturbing the twins then she carefully added two thick oak logs to the fire and turned in beside her youngest siblings. Caderyn found them later and grinned indulgently. It was hard to be angry for long with the twins. They had such lively minds and they were beautiful kids. How he missed his wife after she had provided him with such a bounteous harvest of life; five daughters and four sons. Then to have died but months after the twin’s arrival was such a terrible loss for whole clan. Bronwen had been so loved by all, she had been a beautiful and intelligent woman and Caderyn missed the pillow talk where she quietly helped him reach the wise decisions for which he become famous. He missed her so much that he would not take another wife; he was older now and too set in his ways.

His eyes fell upon his oldest and youngest daughters and a tear escaped.

‘Bronwen was in both of them,’ he sighed, before settling into his own, now lonely bed.

In the morning the twins wolfed their breakfasts and went immediately to their exciting new toy. To their dismay they discovered that the boat was already being put through its paces by their older brother and their grandfather. The watched with frustration as the craft showed its paces until finally, their brother and grandfather repeated the same trick with the Swilly whirlpool that the twins had initiated the previous evening. When the boat finally came alongside again Caderyn was frowning at his father and his son.

“You’re setting a bad example to the twins. I scolded them for doing that last night.”

Grandpa Erin smiled at his son as they cast a line to the twins who snatched it possessively and secured their boat.

“Well son, I think both you and I owe the children an apology. I’ve never ridden a faster water-horse.”

“You had no right to take it grandpa; you said yesterday that it was our boat! After all, Drustan and I built it!” Mabina complained loudly and vociferously.

“Yes darling, it is your boat. I was only trying to determine its secrets with your older brother. This little craft has lots to tell us.”

“It’s not fair, we can’t take it now.” Drustan protested. “The Swilly is really angry now. Look at it! She’d suck us down like rats in a trap. We can’t sail into the wind, for we’d set abeam and fetch right into the jaws of the beast.”

Caderyn and Morgaran studied the rumbling whirlpool as the tidal currents swirled around the reef. They knew the twins were right, the Swilly was in full throat now. It was an awful thing both feared and worshiped by the Acaman clan. The swirling vortex encircling the new moon was their mark, their totem on the clan heraldry of the Gangani tribe. When other tribes asked of the strange symbol, the family only had to show the visitors the roaring, sucking, monster that appeared like clockwork twice a day. The clan’s goddess was Ancamnan the goddess of water.

For generations it had been their protector and their gaoler. Few could enter the little bay without a guide past the Swilly but conversely, nobody could escape the bay if there was need for flight and the Swilly was feeding. The clan’s burials had always included the committal of the corpse to the Swilly whence it was sucked down then swept away on the ebbing tide, never to be found again. There, somewhere in the hidden depths, the torn and battered corpse would release the spirit and it would join the forefathers in the bosom of the sea. The last to be offered to the Swilly's wild spirit was Bronwen, Caderyns’ beloved wife. Her untimely death had been a grievous loss to the tribe. Even now, ten years after her descent into sickness, the twins still went to stare at the whirlpool and wonder what their mother had been like. Aiofe their oldest sister, had done well with the twins to make a substitute mother but the twins still grieved their never having known their mother, a woman who the whole tribe still spoke of with affection and reverence. After all she had been a kings’ daughter and Caderyn had gained a splendid prize by winning her hand.

With little else to do, the twins went to watch Brun, the clans’ blacksmith and their second cousin. The white hot iron that he forged and hammered never ceased to fascinate them.

Brun was making a block for the falls of the lifting yard for the new ship and he was heating an iron then using it to burn a line of smooth holes in an oak block to fashion a primitive block and tackle. If the holes were burned smooth then polished and greased, the rope could be hauled through it to gain an advantage. Mabina was fingering the other finished block while Brun worked quickly with white hot iron and tongs to burn the individual holes.

It was then that the girl had an idea and she quickly dragged her brother away to their little boat.

“You see how Brun burns the holes through the block.”

“Yes.”

“Could we burn a line of holes close together behind the mast footing where the chair still sits high?”

“What. You mean burn holes right through to the water?”

“Yes.”

“It might sink the boat. Is the chair above the water line abaft the mast?”

“Let's see.”

The twins knew full well how to find out. Drustan took a long straight stick while Mabina slipped away to the women’s hall and stole two short skeins of wool; the twins were of such sharp like minds that they knew exactly how to gauge the water line.
The stick was laid right across the gunwales and the wool dropped down to the chair while the other was suspended over the side. After the boat had settled calmly on an even keel the outboard skein was marked off at the water then compared with the inboard skein. There was a good two hand widths to spare.

“Am I thinking what you’re thinking?” Wondered Drustan.

“A lee board, but down through the mast foot.” Smiled Mabina.

“Won’t that weaken the chair? It might cause the back end to split.”

“It’s oak, it’s strong and the boat is only made out of scrap pieces anyway. Besides, Bruns' got several pieces of Copper spare. He gets then from uncle Mogantu at the mine.”

“Copper?”

“Yes. We could shrink a band of copper around the crown of the chair to bind it tight and stop it splitting.”

“What will granp’s say if we damage the boat?”

“You heard him this morning. It’s our boat; we can do what we want.”

Drustan shrugged. He could see where Mabina was going but he was loath to incur the wrath of their grandfather Erin.

“I’d better go and ask him.”

“Well don’t tell him what we’re thinking of, just ask if we can try out some ideas. I’m sure your idea for the planks to have that sharp edge at the turn of the chine is why she dances on the waves like our sister Tara at the festivals.”

“It wasn’t so much an idea, it was because we had to use those crooked frames." drustan confessed. "Grandpa wouldn’t let us waste good curved frames after I deformed the first one. I tried to rush the steaming and I bent it too soon and too far. Ash is much easier to work with than this pine stuff they got for the Viking copy. I'm not used to working with this pine.”

"Neither is anybody else in the village brother." Mabina replied sympathetically. "It's okay for masts and spars but it's the very devil to steam and form.

"Yes, so I suppose it was a happy accident. Noden must have arranged it that way to teach us about boats.

“Well you saw the way she dances, even Daddy saw it. He and Morgaran both said they saw her leave the water.”

“D’you believe them?”

“Dunno’” Mabina replied. “Morgaran tend's to elaborate though he’s nice but if daddy said it then it's probably true. There’s no doubting she’s fast though. Come on let’s speak to Brun about burning.”