So I had this idea while in my history class, as we were going through all the times and periods in world history, that it would be interesting to live in all these times and then I started thinking about stories of ancient Rome and medieval knights...yes, I have an overactive imagination. XD
And THEN I was going to update my other story of this couple (who i adore, as can be observed) and couldn't help but use this theme of different lives through the ages, and maybe even through out different worlds...it's just too interesting to pass up! I will update my other one-shots as well. ;)
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prompt:In which the many lives of one couple share a common factor: they always end up together.
song for chapter: Theme From The Mermaid Chair by Secret Garden
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o'er the ocean far
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It was decided many years ago, and many sailors and seamen had agreed upon this, that The Dolphin was a stout, beautiful ship among her kind. As she docked in many foreign ports and sailed the deadliest seas, her crew would admire the steadfastness of her sails and the gleam her paint would cast upon their eyes after a deck hand would polish her worn sides. Indeed, Captain Eaton was proud of The Dolphin just as he was his own men. Of all his men however, the most loyal to The Dolphin and captain was his own son, Nathanial.
No sailor was ever as lithe or agile on a ship as young Nat, as his mother had often called him. Every pair of eyes on deck would observe the sandy haired seaman as he swung from the rigging or trotted to perform some task or other. And more often than not, his actions were followed by a roguish remark thrown towards his comrades, soon followed by a knowing smirk. When The Dolphin was docked, and the sailors made their uneasy feet rest on land, the local barmaids and town's girls watched the tan youth with calculating eyes and lowered glances. It was his eyes that drew them in, as blue as the sea and forever promising to be just as stormy. But as they passed him on the streets and sent him shy smiles and meaningful giggles, his lean form would stride completely by without a second glance, leaving the young women slightly confused.
For in truth, Nat Eaton cared little for the ways of the opposite gender besides a pretty face every now and then. Most days he did not feel compelled to approach any of these girls and when he did it was far rarer than his fellow sailors. It was not simply the fact that he'd rather be on The Dolphin or away at sea, for indeed land felt like a second home after the ocean, but he often found himself thinking that girls were rather silly creatures. Of course he mused that women in general were all very different, and women like his mother could pull their own weight next to a man and sometimes even more. But in all the towns and villages and even larger cities like Portsmouth that he'd ever been, the young women had chattered and giggled and went on incessantly about marriage matches, ribbons and various other frivolity. Sometimes it gave him quite a headache.
Sometimes he longed for that particular voice.
The one he'd thought long gone.
To distract himself, he kept to his preferred living conditions, which consisted of a small cabin on The Dolphin somewhere that gently swayed and provided only the sounds of the wind and often a quiet reprieve from life on land. During hot summer nights when they docked at the islands in the Caribbean, Nat would find a secluded beach or cove and simply watch the stars make reflections in the water. He liked to imagine she was there, watching him. Most days the water was empty.
With a heavy heart, he assumed she must have decided her path and left.
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The night he had celebrated the purchase of his own ship, a celebration which consisted of drinking too much ale at the local tavern with his father's men, he had decided to return once more to the cove that had become his haven so many years ago. It was where as a child, he had found solace and understanding in the little old local woman who had settled there. Settled, he had believed but in fact she had been escaping. She was gone now; off to a place where she could be free and never fear the chains of the English masters. As he made his way silently down the pathway, the small cottage came into view. It was half-hidden in shadows and he suddenly longed for the sounds of her tinkling talismans and charms. The smell of various herbs was still fresh in his memory and he could almost imagine seeing her sitting on the porch, her small form bent over some needlework.
Now the porch was empty and he sat alone on the banks of the water, letting the cool breeze caress his fevered skin. The summer nights on the island were sticky and humid, but the ocean provided a soothing presence. His one comfort in the world.
There was a gentle ripple in the water and Nat turned his gaze from the moonlight on the horizon to watch the spot of water become a small wave. A dark shadow passed from below the surface and the sailor had to hold the breathe threatening to escape his lungs.
Gliding slowly, ever so slowly under the dark waters, she came. He knew her figure; the way her tail would roll in motion with the sea she lived in.
And when she emerged, not but a foot away from where he sat on the sand, he could finally breath.
She had not forgotten.
Those dark eyes took him in, ever observant and shining in the night as if she were trying to find a change in him she had missed over the years. Her russet hair was slick against her bare chest, barely hiding the view he had once shied away from. And on her pale lips was a small smile, a token for the time they had been away from each other. The green scales on her forearms gleamed in the glow of the full moon, but he was not frightened.
"Nat."
Her voice was still that same light echo in the wind, and he watched as she began her slow approach in the shallow waters, sliding as if on air until she could go no further. She gazed at him with a hint of sadness, the same sadness he had seen when they first met that sunny day she dared approach The Dolphin. He had been quite surprised by her appearance to say the least. Now, as he looked at her with all those old emotions returning, he knew she had finally made her choice. He could see it in her eyes, the answer she had been seeking.
Without speaking, he moved closer to her, uncaring as the cool water soaked his uniform. Water was a second skin to him it seemed, just as it was for her and as he reached out to stroke her cheek, the smooth slickness sent a shiver down his spine. Waters near the island were warm, but her skin felt burning compared to how he remembered it.
"I missed you." She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand, her own clinging to his damp shirt. Her small fingers brushed against his collarbone.
He smiled as his hand trailed to her slender waist, pulling her against him in the embrace that had once been in danger of never occurring. "I told you I would see you again."
"The waters seemed so cold and empty when you were gone," she opened her dark eyes, looking up at him with a clarity he had not noticed before. "Though you said you would return, I believed by some fate you would not."
And as if ashamed, she buried her face in his chest. "But you are here."
"And so are you." He lifted her chin, knowing the words to come next, but wanting to hold them off until he was prepared to live with her choice, whatever it would be. "You have been well?"
The faraway look in her eyes caused his heart to speed up, and he unconsciously traced circles on her spine. She looked away, her eyes downcast. "They took me to my birthplace for the spawning, but I told them my mate was not present. Nat," she pulled herself away, glancing at the shore. "Please take me on shore, I am weary from travelling."
Nat gathered her small frame in his arms, her glittering tail hanging dully from his elbows. She leaned into him and sighed, her eyes closing. He took her ashore, but the unease he felt only grew when he gazed down at the tail he had grown accustomed to. Where usually it would flex and stretch, it now remained limp and lifeless. As he set her near some seaweed, her body seemed not only weak, but different.
"Kit, something is wrong."
She opened her eyes to find him staring intently at her fin, the part of her that she had once been forced to hide. His use of her land name caused her to smile. How she had missed being called by that name. "There is nothing wrong, Nat. I have only begun the process."
Those blue eyes widened and he started to speak but she shook her head, her smile tinged with melancholy. "When they knew of my choice, what I was prepared to do, they bade me change my mind before the full moon. But as you know, I am stubborn and listen to only my own heart."
"Kit-"
"Let me finish, Nat, for you must know that I regret it not."
The sailor dropped to his knees, gazing at the sea maiden before him with unbelieving eyes. For yes, he had come to accept his love for her probably long before she acknowledged her love for him, but he could not deny the guilt he felt for making her choose. Her world was not something he wished to take from her.
"I love you." Her smile grew, and the sadness diminished. She propped herself on her one arm daintily, the other reaching out to him. He grasped her hand in his own, and stared with shock as the scales once so prevalent around her small forearms began to change. The green paled, the hardness melted, growing skin where there had once been scales. The wince she tried to suppress broke across her face and she fell against him. Nat had the wiry muscle of a sailor, and his arms were quick as he caught her. His eyes were very quick as well, and he could see the consequence of her decision.
The vibrant greens of her tail were dimmed, the scales had begun to recede and where a fin had been shaped befitting all creatures of the sea, now transformed slowly into split halves of what she would now possess.
The legs of a human began to take form.
Realizing what she had chosen was finally to be permanent and lasting; a whole new life for the former sea maiden, Nat cradled her gently as she gripped his shoulders in pain. The pants she released as her skin took form pained him, and he rubbed her arms in hopes of giving some comfort.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He repeated, holding her close.
"No," she choked, shutting her eyes tightly. "I want this; it was my choice to make."
Of the times she had changed her fin for a few hours in a day, the transformation was never this painful. Her body trembled and convulsed slightly, her tail fully split and shedding scales in the warm sand. She gasped, jumping at the loss of the protection she had carried with her since she was a sea babe, swimming clumsily by her grandfather's side. For the first time since they had last seen each other, she felt sand on smooth, separate limbs.
The pain had sub-sided; Nat could tell by the way she relaxed against him, her eyes drooping slightly as she smiled at him through her dampening eyes. He maneuvered himself to look upon her newly changed body, the body she would keep for all the days to come.
As he did so, she looked towards the sea, a final goodbye to the home that had nourished, carried and comforted her for eighteen years. The waters were as beautiful as ever, the blues and greens meshed together in a color that was mirrored in Nat's eyes when he looked at her. The eyes that carried hope and love and all the human things she had longed for as she gazed upon his father's ship from her watery home. The sea would not be part of her physically, but she would always be near it.
"I have my own waters, Mother Ocean." she whispered as a warm, solid hand was placed firmly on her new limbs. "Do not worry, for I shall never forget you."
Nat glanced up at her, still ghosting his fingers on the now permanent legs she had once donned to visit him on land. The longing in her eyes was only a murmur against the exuberance of her joy. "I wish you could return someday…I'm sorry."
"It is my home and I will miss it all the days I live," A shining tear appeared from her dark eyes and she smiled gently at him. "But I do not belong there anymore."
The moon cast a glow over her tanned skin as that one single tear slid down her smooth cheek, and she raised her hand slowly to catch it with her finger, eyes wide with wonder. She studied the drop of water in awe, her hand trembling. The tears she had been denied all her life, that one monumental function all humans shared and experienced that her kind could not, was now a fragment of her soul. And like a broken dam holding back the waters of a river, her eyes filled with the salty liquid and she took a deep, shuddering breathe at the onslaught of feelings.
"I am human." She gasped, clutching her chest. "I am like you."
Only if she chooses...until midnight...
The thought that passed through Nat's mind seemed a whispered reminder in the wind at his shoulders, causing him to wipe the tears that were now flowing down her cheeks. When midnight approached, she could enter the water once more and regain her life as a sea maiden. It was the last chance she would have to return to the ocean and forever remain, but he would not push her one way or the other. It was her life to live and he would wait patiently for her until the day was through.
A soft, gentle hand traced the line of his jaw and he grinned at her to hide the tumult of emotions coursing through his body. Her eyes were twinkling and he knew she saw right through this.
"I am staying, Nat. My choice is already made." She moved to stretch her legs, uncaring as always of her nudity. The society on land was far more uneasy about such things, despite the naturalness of a living body.
He knew she meant it, for the sea maiden they called Katherine had long ago proven the determination of her heart and when her eyes shone brightly with the tears she couldn't hold back, Nat knew he could only hold onto her as she entered this new world she would soon call home.
"I have loved you for many years, Kit." Nat held her close, smiling as she slowly traced the exposed skin of his collarbone. "I won't stop, you know? Even if you do grow scales again."
The laugh that escaped Kit's mouth was soon replaced by sobs, the tears she longed for now poured from her small body in great heaves and she smiled through them, for that was what it meant to be human. There were so many things she had yet to learn, and many things to experience. Nat would teach her, show her and most of all love her. She would join him in these endeavors, imparting unto him the ways of nature and Mother Ocean.
And so they began their trek up to the coast, smiling and crying and wondering about their future. Nat had found some rags from Hannah's old cottage to fasten around the Kit and they went over the story to tell his father and mother about the sudden appearance of the girl. Kit giggled when a few towns' people sent the two shocked glances, unused to a young women wearing such little attire. With her long hair flowing in rivulets around her bare shoulders, she looked like some sea goddess of old.
"I believe you will cause a great deal of surprise to the people of the land, Kit." Nat smirked down at her, his blue eyes as lively as her beloved ocean. "But I shall strive to make you a decent human."
"This coming from a sailor," Kit playfully smacked his shoulder. "Hannah said sailors are the worst when it comes to land manners!"
Nat pretended at a wounded look. "That was too cruel, Kit. But I forgive you. Hannah is always right at most things, and soon you'll see her again so she can once more teach you the ways of the world."
Kit rolled her eyes, a habit she learned from the people of the shore. Then she caught the meaning of his last words and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Nat!"
He laughed, twirling her around. "She lives in the new American colonies now, setting up a new life."
"And so shall we."
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so that was the first life of our witch (should I say mermaid *wink wink*) and her sailor. =)