As chance would have it, one night our young man met with another tougher
bully. He was smaller but meaner and stronger. He boosted about a mermaid
he had seen. But then he said more and claimed her as his. The young man,
unable to bear such things said about his friend, confronted the bully and the
rest of the men. He told them she could not be claimed and what was said
was not true.
It was stormy day when the two men met on the shore. The bully was in a
rage when he met the younger man walking down the beach. Unable to
control his rage, he came out at the young man with a rock from behind. He
smashed him with the rock and killed him.
The mermaid saw the murder of her lover and went to ask for Poseidon's
help. Poseidon liked this young woman and, being the God of the seas
and oceans, agreed to help. On the shore where the two men had been
fighting lay the body of the sailor. The murderer stood on a rock looking
extremely pleased at his victory. Poseidon, not liking such disobedience
turned the bully into a rock forever to wash up on the shore, the same way
he'd left the sailor's body. For the mermaid, he also turned the young man's
body into a rock so he could forever be close to his mermaid.