Melody watched her parents further along the beach, walking hand in hand, through the shallows. Ariel held up the hem of her dress, Eric swung her hand in his; Ariel was only thirty four, Eric two years older. They still looked youthful, although Eric had a few grey hairs coming, and Ariel had slight creases by her eyes. But they were still the same, still in love, still smiling, eighteen years after their marriage. They'd left her and Zafrina here, to baby sit while they had time to themselves. Of course, Melody and her cousin were delighted to oblige.
Melody held Florian's face close to hers, still not quite believing. Her mother had been a few months along when Melody had been told, refraining from telling her from when she'd first known. Ariel thought it was better to let Melody get settled into life in the ocean; she didn't want Melody to feel guilty, for leaving home when Ariel was about to have a baby. Making up for not living in the castle, Melody visited her baby brother whenever she could.
Florian was very strong - Melody sometimes had to wrestle her locket out of his grip. He had a light smattering of freckles, with Eric's icy blue eyes; lighter than Melody's, who had the sea-blue eyes of her mother. He had, to the delight of all her aunts and her grandfather, Ariel's red hair, with baby kiss curls. He had a round, sweet face, eyes framed by long, curly eyelashes as babies often did. Now almost five months old, Florian rarely cried and was the happiest baby Melody had ever seen. She'd never known a baby to smile so much, and the way he smiled when he saw her made her heart glow.
Florian kept looking at her red scales from where she held him on her lap, lightly prodding them. He was getting used to them at last, at first he'd been uncertain. "He's gorgeous." Zafrina cooed, from where she was, a few feet away. She lay on her belly, gazing at Florian. "Just so cute, for a human!"
"You saying humans can't be cute?" Melody asked playfully, and Zafrina laughed. Zafrina picked up a shell, dusting off the sand, and offered it to Florian. His little hands took hold of the shell and he lifted it in front of him, staring at it with his enormous blue eyes. He broke into a toothless smile and he bounced the shell, and Melody kissed him on the side of his temple, nuzzling her cheek against his hair.
"Hey, you gals! Help!" They looked to the right, and Florian's big blue eyes wandered with them, a third of the shell in his mouth. A few metres away, Scuttle was pinned to the sand by a fluffy black and white Spaniel, which was excitedly snuffling him all over. Now growing out of the puppy stage, he had been sent as a congratulatory gift to Ariel and Eric after the birth of Florian, and also as a comfort when Max had passed away.
"He's alright!" Zafrina laughed. "Hey, Marco! Come here, come on!" The Spaniel immediately abandoned Scuttle, leaping excitedly into Zafrina'a arms. Eventually he grew bored and bounded away, chasing Sebastian over the rocks. The crab shrieked for Flounder to help, but a large splash showed that he'd taken cover. Sebastian leapt from stone to stone, but Marco was harmless, so the mermaids simply looked on in amusement.
Florian seemed quite content with the shell, and with Sebastian and Scuttle having fled Marco, Melody and Zafrina resumed their conversation. With the seagull and the crab vanished, Marco went flying down the beach, spraying sand with his paws, racing down to catch up with Ariel and Eric.
Zafrina was the daughter of Alana and the dark-skinned Adonis, who came from a far away, tropical kingdom. Zafrina, as a result, had a skin shade that was like Alana and Adonis's mixed, golden brown, with gold-tipped brown hair and golden eyes, with a mint-green tail and seashells. She wore several gold bangles on her wrists, and her figure was curvy and slightly muscular.
She'd recently cut her hair to her collarbone; she'd left a small strand of hair that fell to her bust, which she kept braided. The rest of her hair, loose and now drying in the sun, was going rather curly, as it did when she wasn't underwater. It was difficult to believe that she and Melody were cousins, who, with her ivory skin, black hair and blue eyes, was her polar opposite.
"So, what were you saying about Finn?" Zafrina asked, picking up a stick embedded in the sand, absent mindedly drawing lines in the beach.
"Well... don't tell Bay about this, you know how secretive Finn is. He's been having nightmares, Zafrina... about Nia, and all that." Melody heard the stick snap. But when she looked at Zafrina, her look surprised her. It was naturally surprised, but... relieved? Zafrina, clocking that Melody had spotted this, awkwardly looked away, not wanting to say it out loud. Melody had known her cousin since the ban between human and merfolk contact had been lifted, and in the six years they'd become like sisters - closer than Zafrina and any of her three sisters, in some ways. She knew something was wrong.
"Glad to know I'm not the only one, then." Zafrina tried to sound chirpy, but it quickly faded.
"You have nightmares?" Melody asked, in shock.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"Well - Zafrina, you're, well... Zafrina." She was tough-as-nails. She had been ruthless last year, not hesitating to brutally attack Nia and her minions. She'd seized the trident when they'd found it, when they'd been ambushed by Nia. She'd wrecked havoc with it, without a single moment's hesitation. Merfolk had been blackened, sent flying, burned, she'd even left several merpeople with teethmarks and nail scratches in their arms when they'd attempted to restrain her. Zafrina had little fear, right?
"I don't know. I think... I keep remembering..." Zafrina had an odd look in her fiery golden eyes; less terrified than Finn's last night, more... haunted.
She had been a different person over a year ago. She'd been excitable, quick to make her own assumptions, and difficult. Sometimes she was that same mermaid again, but something had changed. She kept rethinking her actions. "They're not scary, they don't chase me, or anything, and as far as I know, I don't talk - Bay's a light sleeper and he tells me everything, so if I did, he'd let me know. They're more like flashbacks. I keep seeing..." She hesitated; she hated every syllable, every curve of the letters that formed it. She resisted spitting the word out. "Otan." Melody shivered at the memory.
"Oh, Zafrina..." Melody's following words blurred out, as Zafrina grew lost in thought, a sickly feeling in her chest.
Zafrina had utterly ruined his face. Most of his hair burned off, his face scarlet and infected... an image she couldn't forget, even if Triton had turned him to no more than ash and dust moments before Otan had tried to kill Zafrina and Bay. Bay comforted her that he deserved it, that anyone else in her situation would do the same thing. If she hadn't, Finn wouldn't be able to use the distraction to get both him and a drowning Melody to safety. It wasn't like he didn't have it coming - he'd strangled her, and had Bay not been there... but still. She wished she hadn't mutilated his face. That was what it was. Mutilation.
"This feeling, I don't know what it is. The pain, the scarring I inflicted... It makes me feel cold." Regret. She knew it was regret. The guilt, of what she'd done to him, even if he'd been vile and she despised him.
"But Zafrina, he was a creep. He deserved it. He was mildly - well, more than that - obsessed with you." Otan had always had an obsession with mermaids, but the way he'd looked at Zafrina was beyond disturbing. It made them uncomfortable thinking about it. "It's not just that, is it? Is it... what happened, when you were under her control?" Zafrina's teeth snagged on her lip.
"Its that, as well. I almost killed you... several times. All I remember is what I did to you and Finn. All the rest is a blur, because I can't remember. I was under their control - what if I hurt someone, or worse..." Otan had ordered her to kill Finn and Melody, when she had been under Nia's magic. "Under that spell, I couldn't resist, and nearly stuck a knife into Finn's neck as a result. If it wasn't for you, what would I have done?"
Melody had never thought of the possible things Nia had ordered Zafrina to do. While Finn had escaped with a drowning Melody, Zafrina had caused devastation with the trident until it had been wrestled off her. Nia had put her under a powerful mind-control spell, and she wasn't alone - many merfolk who had gone missing ended up being found under the same spell so Nia had more fighters to her cause. The spell turned them into mindless soldiers who would only move if they were instructed. The effects were disturbing - without orders they'd stand there, every muscle slack, eyes glassy and staring straight ahead. Even Alex, the first merboy Melody had met when she was twelve, had been a victim.
"It wasn't you, Zafrina. It was that seawitch's twisted magic..." Melody placed a hand on her arm in an attempt to comfort her cousin, but Zafrina felt the guilt, heavy again, as she got flashes of blurred memory, of everything she'd done. She pulled her arm away from Melody, quickly.
"Can we not talk about me?" Zafrina interrupted, and her face said it all. Melody was taken aback by the sudden anger in Zafrina's voice, and her eyes flashed - but she clamped her lips shut, sensing the danger if she snapped back. Florian's eyes dilated slightly at her harsh tone of voice, he rarely heard anger, and he fidgeted on Melody's tail. Zafrina looked at him, seeing his discomfort. Her eyes moved from Florian to Melody, suddenly anxious. Guilt, again. "Bye, Florian." She stroked his hair, before rolling across the sand and into the sea.
"Zafrina!" Melody tried calling her back, but with a flick of her mint-green tail fins, Zafrina was gone. She went to go after her, but remembered Florian, and gave up. She fell backwards onto the sand. She lifted Florian above her face, throwing him gently and catching him, as people often did to babies. He smiled again, forgetting Zafrina's harsh tone of voice. "Wish I could be as care free as you." She murmured, was both frustrated and confused.
Had their experiences really changed them so much?
Zafrina swam down, determined not to head back and apologize. She'll understand... I'm not going back. That'll be so embarrassing... She didn't tell anyone anything, she was too proud to show her feelings, except around Bay, who made her melt. It was hard to believe they'd started off so badly; Zafrina had caused him to be imprisoned - twice - and she had loved throwing insults and snarky quips. But when he'd saved her from strangulation at the hands of Otan, she'd realized they were on the same side. There was something there. She'd stopped insulting him, and more.
She'd grown to trust, like, and finally, love him. Unlike other merboys, who only seemed to talk to her because she - quoting one particular one she disliked - "had a pretty face", Bay liked her for her personality. He admired her fierce spirit and caring warmth. She was shocked her initial behaviour hadn't swayed him. But that was the sort of person he was; Bay didn't judge. Maybe that had rubbed off on Zafrina, making her less judgemental. But she was still very much like her old self.
Zafrina swam on, until she found herself in her and Bay's cave. Sealed at night with a slab of stone, the inside tunnel lead to a chamber curtained by pink seaweed. Both she and Bay were very artistic, so the carved and painted walls were normal. Zafrina ran her fingertips along it, feeling the rough crevices, before collapsing on the bed, curling up to think.
It's all in the past now... there's nothing I can do. I mean... I could've done much worse. I'm just being stupid, aren't I? Finn killed Nia and he doesn't seem to feel this way. But then she was a barbaric old witch. She had to die. All I did was hurt some people... badly.
"Are you okay?" Zafrina jumped up, interrupted from her thought.
"Oh, Bay... I'm fine." She smiled at the sight of him; he was well built, tall, with long, silvery blonde hair he sometimes tied back with a simple black band. His skin tone was cooler and lighter than Finn's, but not as pale as Melody's, and his face had a cherubic quality with a mildness about his mouth. But then something else caught her eye. "What's that?" Bay tried to siddle out of view, but the speed at which he did it resulted in him hitting a table. Several objects fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Zafrina jumped up to help him, gathering up the displaced paints and sketchbooks she and Bay used, and putting them back. Bay leaned against the wall, lips pressed against his fist, embarrassed.
"I'm experimenting." He admitted, silver eyes casted down. A piece of green fabric of similar colour to his tail had been tied off at the side of his waist, so the rest of it draped down to hide what lay underneath. Zafrina gave him a part comforting, part sombre smile, as she moved the fabric aside.
"You don't have to embarrassed." She placed a hand over the scar, and Bay flinched slightly. She turned his face towards her. "I don't care. I still adore you."
"I still hate it." He admitted.
It was a foot in width, the result of a venomous sea serpent's jaws. It could have been her who'd been bitten, but Bay had distracted the beast before it could strike her. My fault again... Zafrina shook herself for selfishly thinking about herself. Four thick, ragged gouges running diagonally into his green scales, one of the serpent's teeth had shredded a clean tear through the fleshy frill separating his tail from his skin, narrowly missing his belly. Her hand stayed there, tracing the scars, and she looked into his eyes, hers determined. "It doesn't bother me, and it shouldn't bother you."
Bay smiled, briefly lifted out of his self consciousness. He untied the fabric and dropped it on the table, although that meant he would wear it again when he next left the cave. Zafrina acknowledged this, but decided it was up to him. "Well, if it makes you feel less self conscious, wear it. But know that I love you without it."
In some way, each of them were held back. Bay's scars, Finn's nightmares, Zafrina's guilt; even Melody didn't like going into deep, dark places, remembering the three times she'd been forced back into her human form at the bottom of the ocean. Zafrina looked out of what her cousin fondly referred to as a window, feeling Bay wrapping his arms around her. She leaned back against him, weaving her hands through his long, silvery blonde hair, before her mind blurred and she forgot her worries for a time, as he kissed her.
Little did she know, this tranquil time would soon be ending.
