A year later............

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Eric

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The sky was streaked with purple, pink, and orange clouds. The calm, azure ocean brushed up against the sand, bringing in shells, and taking them out. The sea breeze ruffled my hair, whistling it's soft, eerie song. Leaning on the balcony, I gazed out at the ocean, taking in the miles of vast, blue space. The sun rose hesitantly over the horizon. Even as the Prince's most trusted adviser, I was still a fisherman at heart.

It had been a year since I had found myself ashore, with the prince lying next to me. A deadly fever had taken hold of both of us, but like we had survived the sea, the prince and I also survived the fever. Soon afterwards, I had become a lord and the Prince's most trusted advisor as a reward for saving his life. I lived in the palace now, and my new wealth kept my family well cared for at home. Catherine lived at the palace with her ladies as well, since she had been the one who found the prince and I. I had proposed to her only a month ago, and she had giddily accepted. The Prince and I became close companions, drawn together by being favored by the sea. I had the woman I loved, the money I had dreamed of, and fame beyond belief. I should of been satisfied with my life.

But I wasn't. I was haunted by a dream. A dream that was so beautiful, I couldn't call it a nightmare. The salty sea air rose into my nostrils, and I inhaled deeply as I closed my eyes.

It was always the same. It started out as a nightmare, in fact. I would be drowning, and my lungs would be screaming for air. I would relive the moment when I lost consciousness, as I realized that I was about to die.

But then, suddenly, I could breathe again. Because there would be this ethereal, intoxicating angel in front of me. Her hair was a long, silky red, interwoven with pearls. Her skin was soft and smooth, and her features fine and delicate. She had a wit of her own, and contradicted me as if she were a man. Her melodious voice rang like an angel's, if it wasn't more beautiful. But it was her eyes that stayed with me the longest. They were a wild, swirling purple, filled with intelligence, beauty, and laughter. In her eyes, there was an unexplainable bond that tied us together.

But I would always turn around for a moment. And when I turned back, the angel was replaced by Catherine. As soon as I saw Catherine's face, I would hear, in the back of my head, a melodious voice whispering, " Good luck Eric."

Immediately after that, I would wake up with the sea calling to me.

It wasn't a bad ending to a dream, many would think. Catherine was the love of my life. Many men had and still did fawn over her, showering her with gifts and promises, even though they knew that I courted her.

I did not remember the time from where the black wave had washed me overboard to the time I had been found on the beach. I was seventy miles off shore; how had I managed to get myself on shore without drowning? As a fisherman, I knew that the sea had reasons of her own for sparing the lives of men. But still, one thing would never leave me with an explanation; the prince and I had been found high up on the dunes, too far for the sea to have washed us in.

" This is perhaps my favorite place in all of the land," the Prince told me quietly, his voice startling my thoughts.

Prince Christian only several months older then myself. Even in the early morning, he had attired himself in a pale blue, with sapphire rings on his fingers to match. His pale, wavy hair was tied back, and his deep brown eyes were the only evidence to show how he had aged. The shipwreck had changed him, as it had changed me.

He too, came out on the balcony in the morning. How he went past his hordes of guards and servants was a marvel that I both laughed at and admired.

" It is calming, my Prince," I replied with ease. Christian felt the same bond with the sea as I did. After all, for some unknown reason, it had spared us from a watery grave.

Christian took a glance at me, his brown eyes meeting my blue ones. He held my gaze for a moment before looking back out at the sea.

" You see her too, don't you," he said quietly, tugging on his ebony leather glove.

I glanced at him surprised, but the Prince continued to stare out into the sea.

" I'm afraid I don't understand the question," I replied.

The Prince let out a soft laugh. " You know who I mean. Her. I see her at night sometimes too. I'm always drowning, but when I open my eyes, the goddess Venus is before me. She saves me from the sea. As soon as I awaken after I dream of her, the sea calls to me."

I took one last glance at the ocean before I turned to walk back inside. At the entrance, I stopped, and called out to the prince. " I know who you're talking about, Christian."

Books took up a great deal of my time. As I could no longer spend time with the sea as I had as a fisherman, I was forced to find other things to occupy my time. Books were indeed one of those things. Anything I could get my hands on, I read. My education had been limited, but within the year, I was considered a scholar around the palace. But it wasn't just books that captured my attention. I also began the art of fencing, and learned how to ride a horse and hunt properly. I was a fast learner, and picked this all up within a year. I began to draw and paint again. But I had nearly every day to do this, so I suppose it wasn't completely fair. But all the same, it was more then most nobility did.

" Eric!," Catherine, my bride to be, called out to me later that day.

She caught me by surprise; I hadn't expected to see Catherine enter the library. Though she adored music, dancing, and other fine arts, Catherine detested reading. But for me it was perhaps the one indoor activity that I relished, and was yet another reason the Prince and I got along well. The tiny blonde ran up to me and threw her arms around my neck. I took a step back in surprise, but caught her with ease. She was a light thing, all bone and no skin. She looked particularly happy at the moment, so I knew she had something up her sleeve.

" What's going on in your mind now, Cat," I asked her.

A frown immediately appeared on her face as she realized that I knew she was keeping something from me. She gave a small sigh before giving in.

" Merchants from every land out there are arrived in town last night! And this year's ball is coming up, so I desperately want to get some material for a new dress."

The ball that we had planned attending last year. The ball that had never happened because of the Prince's near death. I suppressed a sigh of my own. In the year I had been at the palace, I had learned to hate social and political gatherings. In court, everyone had two faces, and they showed the one that appealed most to the person they were trying to please. But for a reason unknown to me, Catherine thrived on them. I stayed the minimum time.

She gazed around at the massive palace library, the largest in the land. Thousands of books lined the walls, tucked in polished chestnut bookcases. Exotic paintings with hunting and feast scenes lined the walls, and animal skin rugs covered the glistening wood floors. The most magnificent feature, however, were the humongous windows that touched the floor and the roof. They let light stream inward, and gave a view of the Baltic up close.

" You read far too much, Eric. It tisn't healthy," Catherine told me teasingly. She brushed back a wisp of dark blonde hair that had escaped from her bun, and leaned down close to me, awaiting my answer.

" Would I ever pass the chance to go someplace with you," I asked her. She gave a small, unladylike shrug that brought a grin to my face.

" Don't lie to yourself. Do you have a carriage prepared?," I asked her.

Catherine nodded, and grabbed for my hand. I abruptly dropped the book and let her lead me to the carriage. When Catherine was around, everything else waited.

I knew I was lucky that I had proposed a month ago. Catherine's father had lost patience with me long ago, as my family had. But Catherine remained utterly devoted, despite my lack of an offer. As soon as I had the ring, I had asked her. After all, I had an estate, I had her love, I had people supporting me; it was odd why I couldn't force the words. At times I wanted to kick myself; I loved her, she loved me. It was insane that I had doubts about our marriage.

" Eric, come on! If you keep on walking like this, the ball will be three months past by the time we get there," Catherine exclaimed, still teasing. I smiled, and offered her my hand as she stepped into the carriage.





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Pearl

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The Sunset was one of the only wrecks my Father had never discovered. It was well hidden, sandwiched in a crevasse that was hidden by an underwater cliff. The overgrowth of plants covered it so well, I myself might of missed it if I hadn't dropped my comb down in it. The Sunset was so sacred to me, I had never even shared the place with Merla. In fact, I was certain that I was the only merfolk who knew of it.

After glancing around, I was satisfied that I was alone. I dived down and glided through a broken window.

It was biggest amount of human items I had ever seen in one place. As soon as I entered the ship, I felt almost as if I were walking on land myself. The floorboards were rotting, and I was careful not to rest my weight on it for long.

The Sunset was what humans would call a 'merchant' ship. Swords lay strewn on the floor, along with other weapons. and other wonders were all over the place. Gold coins had lost their shine to the murky waters long ago, but the jewels had not. There were even pearls, although they were not as fine as the pearls of the sea that my attendants wove in my hair.

I swam downward, eyeing all of my treasures. I never took them from the ship, for fear my father might discover them. I shuddered at the thought of the punishment that I would get. Pushing my mind from the subject, I flicked my tail and swam to one of my favorite things.

The 'mirror' fascinated me, and had confused me for a long time. I had grown up to hearing people talk of the 'seventh sister's beauty', and how I was my mother reborn. But as nearly everyone, I had never actually seen my reflection. When I had first discovered the ship and looked into the mirror, I had screamed in fright. I had actually began pleading with mirror not to tell my father that I was down here. It had taken me several moments to realize that the girl in the mirror....well, was me.

And at that moment, I had felt a tug of my mother. She and I had been the only ones in the kingdom with purple eyes. " Alia loved all her girls, I know that for sure. But you, little Pearl, you were different. Perhaps it was the eyes, perhaps it was the voice. But whatever it was, you were the one girl she insisted on naming, and the one she doted on," my grandmother had told me once. Her death was something children whispered about occasionally, but I ignored them. My mother had been out for a swim, and had never come back. They found her dead outside the Kelp Forest, the hideous forest that held the Sea Witch's lair.

Thinking about my mother confused me. I couldn't cry over someone I had never known but it still made me sad that I had never known who she was.

I pushed my mind away from my mother. There was only one thing left to look at. The only thing that I treasured, and valued with my life. With a strong kick, I swam over to the almost empty corner in the ship's hull. Leaning down, I clicked open the small chest, lifted out Eric's dagger.

I loved holding it, just running my finger up and down the smooth blade. It had been a year, but I could remember him as clearly as if it were yesterday. If only my father could of met him, he would of realized that not all humans were bad. The beautiful dagger had not shown signs of rusting, for a reason unknown to me. I ran my finger over it's wooden hilt, pausing at the single, flourished letter E. The dagger was perhaps the only connection I would ever have with him.

I had thought of him more often as my departure to the Baltic Sea neared. The marriage agreement had been made many months ago, and I was to become a Queen.

I hadn't seen Kalius in a year. I was relying on the faint hope that he would somehow straighten himself out and become a decent merman, but that seemed just as likely as my personality going from stubborn and impatient to feminine and docile.

I sighed, and gazed out the ship's window. There was no way out of my life. If only I could of been born a merman, so that I wouldn't be married off. Or better yet, a human. From what wonders Eric had described to me, I envisioned a land filled with so much more beauty then the sea could hold.

" Pearl, my little mermaid, love is a strange thing that governs both people of the sea and of the land. There are those who never have it, and those who will have it in time. But very few, will ever have it at first sight. Unless there is a magic so strong, that even the tide or the Sea witch herself could govern it," my grandmother had told me when I was very young.

She was considered the wisest among the living merfolk right now, and when she told me something, I took it to my heart. Which was why I wondered if Eric remembered me. Did he believe I was real? Or did he think that I was some sort of mirage?

The ship suddenly creaked. I snapped my head around, scanning the area for sharks or worse, orcas. But no other noise occurred, and I decided that it must be merely the age of the ship.

How wrong I would turn out to be.