Mermaids eat everything literally! Herbs,worms, plants and meat. They top the food chain in Oceans and rivers but we pretend they do not exist because we can't bring ourselves to understand they are in everyway better than us! I know you want to debate this so let me dissect the fins from the gills and open up this fishy diagram! You see a typical mermaid has about six fins and three gills on each side but Nyaminyami had double everything! He spoke like any man but held his presidency like a chief of the sea. After my fainting ordeal had eventually ended l couldn't talk for two days straight! It wasn't because l had suddenly became disabled but when a human being sees a mermaid,the providence of speech and podium of authority is often determined by who can be both man and beast at the same time! So as l turned into a mute, both Chitapo and Nyaminyami took turns feeding me raw things that l am sure even modern sea divers haven't discovered yet. They both could switch between human and mermaid form although Chitapo could also turn into a gigantic African Anaconda so l thought!
On the third day when l finally regained my speech, Nyaminyami blew bubbles in the water and these bubbles grew into house sized water ballons that allowed me to not drown and stay dry as if l was on land. There was no underground community like the movies always show but there was a deep underground cave in the deep that only Nyaminyami and his wife could reach and live in. So l began my questions and asked whaf he now was and how come they didn't die but they didn't answer me. Instead they took me to shallow water and Chitapo calmed it own with her hands until it felt like wewere all kneeling on a mat. I had never thought a hot spring can be inside a river but l was shocked when Nyaminyami broke a boulder with his fist and the water was so soothingly warm and refreshing and so l bathed miraculously in a sacred place,under cold river water with a hot bath! But something didn't sit right with me or maybe l was dreaming because l could see and hear Nyaminyami and Chitapo talking and being affectionate like normal people but it felt like l was in a deep trance that made me unable to discern if l was insane or indeed my eyes were not deceiving me. However l quickly understood that indeed they did speak but in some high pitched fish dialect that needed me to have the white meat to understand! No one spoke to me or answered when l tried to speak. I only got the the periodic stares as if they were fattening me up for a long overdue diner date for two! So as time flew by they taught me how to use herbs and treat myself and other people. We always used big fish as test subjects and eventually l learn their mystical jargon! "Zuribhuk", meant morning and "Aphuriphuk"meant evening but we said these words so many times that l forgot l was literally kidnapped! My people had searched me for days and months to no avail until they gave up. Their excuse was that l had been ate by Chitapo after my grief for my dead father had led me to seek a futile revenge.
So Gebhazi my uncle's son was elected as the new king in my stead and he gof rid of all my lineage the very day they crowned him! My mother, blood sisters and young brothers,he beheaded them with a blunt sickle and threw their mutilated bodies into the water as sacrifice to Chitapo! No one had seen or knew that Nyaminyami was alive except me and his wife. Their teachings always felt like l was being prepared for a big cause but l took it like a small holiday vacation since it felt like l had been just there for a few hours. However when Chitapo brought my family's emblems l knew l had over stayed my welcome! I didn't cry or question Chitapo what had happened and this amused Nyaminyami so much that his eyes lit a burning green color and his tongue slithered in and out like that of a snake testing the air for prey.Chitapo wove my lineage's hides and emblems into a sophisticated,weird but frightening robe whilst Nyaminyami gave me various bones of different species.Who knows maybe some of the bones belonged to my kin but the reality was that l would never know.
"Fikutbhudhi"(it's time brother)saidNyaminyami as he turned into a giant snake for the first fime and let me tell you that Chitapo was only half of what Nyaminyami was in his reptilian form! He was so big that l only saw his mouth as he swallowed me whole! He didn't eat me as you might assume but like Jonah of Niniveh,l was in some pitch dark insides of an animal that didn't want to digest or ingest me. It was a simple elevator moment from bottom of the river depths to the world that had picture framed me with my ancestors. So when Nyaminyami spewed me on the river bank l didn't look back to really see him in detail,l took in the slow motion l made and the shock that was on the women who were washing downstream. I don't know if it was because of my back from the dead aurora or the mortifying sight of an even bigger and meaner rived god behind me! Whatever it was, the women bowed down afraid as Nyaminyami submerged back into the deep and they ullulated and ran away crying for forgiveness. Everyone was a pale picture of lifeless and motionless disbelief but an old man called Sankara knew exactly what l was. He understood completely what was going to happen so he began clapping and give praises saying ,"hail the Nyangaking,hail"!