Jim's feelings and Melody's story

Mermaids are very strong in their arms, they can swim faster than any human, mammal or fish and can lift their own weight as they climb onboard of a ship.
Jim stood a bit restless on the dock. He saw a small figure with a fishtail grabbing the wooden balks of the ship and lift herself up. With her head first, she crammed herself into one of the small openings in the ship between the bottom and the wooden side. Jim wished he was there to help her or that he at least had some binoculars to see everything closer. He saw two pairs of arms reach out to pull Melody onto the ship. Jim guessed those arms belonged to Milo and Audrey. It seemed like a thing for them to do and he also didn't see Audrey in the crow's nest. Jim just hoped they would listen to their visitor. After all, everyone knew of the tricks of a mermaid. But luckily they had Anya and Audrey onboard, the both of them wouldn't be affected by a mermaid's charm, not to mention Captain Amelia, they could easily believe what they saw. Also it was not in Captain Amelia's nature to ignore a messenger.
Jim was right. Melody got pulled onboard and a few minutes later an anchor began to lower down into the water to brace the ship against the strong wind. Slowly the ship began to turn around and sail back to Terschelling.

It took a while before the ship reached the shore, the wind was still very strong and pushed the ship right back to open sea. Had Eris somehow control over that wind? Wondered Jim, but when the ship finally lay still against the shore he had other things to worry about.

"Anya."Jim hadn't expected Eris to actually attack someone to cause her chaos. Anya lay on an emergency stretcher, carried by two sailors. She didn't move at all. Quickly Jim turned on his heels and followed the whole crew to the castle. Jim spotted Dimitri's back. He was walking right next to the stretcher with his eyes fixed upon his fiancée's face, not daring to look away as if she would disappear if he did. Jim looked away and kept his place at the end of the line. His friends had the chance to be free of this place. All because he had to challenge the goddess of chaos, she had endangered someone close to him. Anya. Jim wouldn't know what to say to his brother when he came to face him again. What if Anya didn't recover? It would be his fault. Again! He couldn't do anything right, he couldn't even save one friend. Should he just give up on helping Melody too? What good had he done for her so far? Nothing, he had only caused her to worry about people she barely knew. She already had enough worries, she even went through the trouble of swimming to the ship in a form which probably had been a secret for many years. Jim sighed and groaned miserably, not to loud of course, he didn't want to alarm his companions. How stupid had he been. Melody, he'd completely forgotten her! They had reached the gates of the castle and Jim looked back to the road from the dock to the castle. No sign of her. Maybe she had changed her body into fog again. Thought Jim and he raised an eyebrow. Was she able to get out of the water by herself? What had happened to her after the ship reached the shore? Without another word to his mates, he ran back towards the dock. He had been so blown away by Anya's condition that he had left Anya's savior behind. How stupid could he get? Just as Jim jumped on the wooden construction of the same dock he had been standing on before, he spotted her. A little head with black hair and stunning blue eyes appeared a few times into his view at the end of the dock before she fell back into the water again. Jim ran to her and crouched down and reached out his hand to her. He gave her an regretful smile but said nothing. What could he say? He felt terrible and ashamed. Melody gripped his hand, but the dock was too high for her and even if Jim were to pull her up with both hands, she would hit her head against the bottom of it. He thought of another approach. He went to sit on his knees on the very edge and bend down.

"Spread out your arms." He instructed and Melody did so without asking questions. Jim placed his hands in her armpits and lifted her up out of the water. She was not at all heavy and she left the water with ease, but now came the point of getting her on the dock. Jim hadn't thought about that and suddenly he found himself looking her straight in her eyes, while her nose hit his. Without legs Melody couldn't stand and Jim could not move backwards on his knees. The only option he had was to get slowly up on his feet and move one arm under her fishtail where usually her knees would be. As he wobbled a little to keep his balance, Melody closed her arms around his neck to hold on. Jim felt his face burning and tried very hard not to make contact with her face. When he held her in his arms and looked at her, he lost his knowledge to speak. She is so beautiful! He thought to himself. Jim just wanted to stay like this and say nothing. But.. idiot, just thank her, you can do that! he yelled to himself inside his head. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, so he closed it again. If he said something and talked to her casually, the situation would become awkward and she would ask him to let her down. Maybe Melody had some power over him. He shouldn't worry about that, what about the wellbeing of Anya? He would check on her as soon as possible. Jim promised himself, then he moved closer and kissed his mermaid..
Some sort of power came over him, a feeling he never had before and he kissed her as long as he wanted. When her finally released Melody's lips he saw a deep blush upon her face and her eyes were wide and unbelieving. Jim thought this strange and raised an eyebrow for she had kissed him two times already. Jim had regained his ability to speak and started a conversation at last.

"Thank you Melody. I didn't mean to leave you here. It's just that I was extremely shocked when I saw Anya. She is my brother's bride to be, you see? She is very close to family to me."

Melody blinked three times with her eyes to wake herself into reality again and smiled, followed by her usual girly giggle. "Of course Jim, don't worry about it." She then looked away. "I dragged you and your friends into this." She whispered and her voice shook heavily. "All of it is my fault."

"No, it was Eris."Jim had to control himself not to yell. "It is not fair for you to take responsibility for this. You never wanted to make a contract with Eris, she forced you. I choose to challenge her and brought this to my friends, but I'm going to fix that." Melody looked at him again and she had hope in her eyes. Jim brought his face even closer before he spoke again. "And I want to save you. I don't know how yet, but I will try."

"You do not know how much that means to me." Melody replied softly. "I was always alone. After my parents died, every year noblemen and princes came to take my away from here, but as soon as I told them that I wanted to stay here, close to the sea they turned away. They never said they wanted to protect me. My feelings towards them were cold so it never caused me pain, but I do love you and to hear those words from you brings me more joy than you can imagine."

Silently Jim sat her down on the edge of the dock. Her tail began to glisten and after that she was wearing her pink dress again, with her bare feet swinging playfully under it.

"Thank you for your help. I forgot that the dock was so high and the ship blocks the rest of the quay." Said Melody gratefully.

"Don't mention it."Replied Jim nonchalantly. His heart was still beating fast, did she just say that she loved him? But he ignored that. "So are you really a mermaid or a human?"

"Well both, did Kida tell you where she came from?"

"Yeah, according to Milo she said she came from Atlantis where your mother grew up."

"Atlantis is a city under the sea, the kingdom of King Triton, the sea king. My mother was the youngest of the seven mermaid princesses. King Triton, my grandfather was one of the sons of the ocean god Poseidon."Melody explained.

"But then if you are thirty present god, my is a goddess after you?" Asked Jim surprised.

"Gods, especially powerful ones, like to bully each other. Me being a descendant from Poseidon gives Eris a perfect reason to torment me." Melody sounded angry and disgusted, the swim had restored her pride as a child of the sea. "Thanks to Eris I can't go near my grandfather. That's why he sends Kida sometimes, but I still have my own power. I will do what I can." She suddenly touched Jim's hand and looked at him, her face a mixer of compassion and determination. "I will do whatever I can for your friend Jim, I promise." She said and Jim believed her.

AN: So that didn't take as long as I feared, luckily the thing I'm so busy with is the musical of the Little mermaid, so I got plenty inspiration! I hope you will review, because this is my best chapter yet. PLEASE REVIEW!