Molphins. For Aria Conley, who taught me all there is to know about Molphins.

When he asked his mom why the ocean was blue, she told him it was because of the sky. She got confused, but they were on the beach and she was little distracted because of the cookie she bought from a guy walking around with a satchel.

The sky was blue because of the ocean, not the other way around. The ocean was blue for some other reason, and he didn't know what it was.

Go play, is what she told him to go do afterwards. She wanted to be alone because of her cookie. She said she needed to think and be alone.

It doesn't matter why the ocean is blue, that's what he was thinking to himself when he went to the edge of the water, the point is, that it is blue. Sometimes things just are the way they are, and knowing why doesn't help with a gosh darned thing.

He was thinking all of this while throwing handfuls of sand into the ocean and watching it splash in sprinkles into a blue abyss.

He got bored of that and walked out along the sea wall, he had a bucket that was full of sand, the was going to throw sand to a deeper part of the ocean. Joking to himself, “Someone's got to clean up this mess!”

When he got to the edge of the wall, there was no one around him. And from a distance, you would not know that he was there. He might has well been at the edge of the world. All by himself.

There are magical creatures in this world. And for reason's beyond any explanation, they love to talk to children.

“Hello.”

“Hi? Did you just come out of the ocean?”

“Yup.”

“What are you?”

“I'm a molphin.”

“It's when you're half one thing and half another. And then you blend those two words to describe yourself.”

“I'm just a boy.”

“Yes you are.”

“You're amazing.”

The molphin was amazing, a huge creature that span about thirteen feet long. Half man and half dolphin. So unlike a mermaid, he couldn't just breath underwater, but he could hold his breath for hours at a time. His fin way grey, and so was his skin, so he looked like a clay statue of a man.

And the boy and the molphin sat talking for what seemed like hours. The molphin was quite the conversationalist. He seemed more than happy to answer all of the boys questions. As it happens, molphins have very little in common with mermaids. In fact, the molphin told the boy. The reason that no one sees or talks about molphins in our world that much, is because of a great war that occurred between molphins and mermaids.

It was atrocious, and it lasted well over a thousand years. It was actually still going on to this day, but things had calmed down since humans started poisoning the ocean. Now the molphins and mermaids had a truce to melt icecaps until the humans were wiped out, so that's how the molphin was able to talk to the boy now.

He was the first little boy to see a molphin in over a hundred years, and first one to talk to one in over a thousand years!

They mostly live off the coast of Greece and English was not his first language, but he spoke it fluently. Apparently the mermaids also lived off the coast of Greece. Right now special sea creature lived there, because of the truce. Usually that's where they fought. That and the Bermuda Triangle. Which is sacred ground for the molphins and mermaids.

When the boy asked the molphin why the mermaids and molphins fought. The molphin told him that a long time ago, there was a little girl who walked on this exact sea wall. She had a wooden bucket, it was painted blue like the ocean, and a molphin and mermaid were swimming by.

All three of them chatted for what seemed like hours. When finally after they had answered all of the questions of the little girl, they were allowed to ask her one question. The question was.

Which one of us do you like more?

And this is where the war started. Because the molphin went back to his city off the coast in greece, and the mermaid went back to hers. They had been arguing over what the little girl had said the whole long swim back to the Mediterranean. And when they got back home, the mermaid said the girl had liked mermaids better. And the molphin said that she like molphins better.

It was impossible to ask the little girl again, as the odds of finding her again were slim. But they tried, fleets of mermaids and molphins scoured the globe. They could not find the little girl. And after a hundred years. They gave up. And that's when the war started. Because the little girl must have grown old and died. And neither knew who was better.

Finally, when the molphin was done his story. The boy thought he heard his mom calling for him, or at least figured that she would be worried about him by now.

The molphin didn't like this, didn't like this at all. He started slapping his fin against the sea wall and started to cry out at the boy that he had the right to at least one question before he leave.

The boy, not wanting to start a war, said that it was fine, as long as the molphin didn't ask any questions about mermaids or molphins, because he didn't want to choose.

The molphin was upset that the boy had seen through him like this, and refused. But after a long argument, where the boy finally said that he would choose selkies(Half Seal-Half Man) if he was asked who he liked better. And at that the molphin, finally agreed not to ask a question about mermaids or molphins.

He gripped and climbed up to the boy and looked deeply into his eyes.

And then he asked his question.

“Do you know why the ocean is blue?”