Mermaid 8





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Pearl

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I had waited in the darkness behind those rocks long after Erik had left, thinking. Despite the year that had past, despite his fevered, half crazed state I had met him in, the one thing I had never thought to happen had occurred.

He had remembered me.

I had sat there in the darkness for a long time, just staring out into the sky. Did it matter that he remembered me? We were of two different worlds, and I knew that most humans would be repulsed by my long, sleek tail that merfolk found so beautiful. I would have better luck falling in love with a shark, I thought bitterly. The moment he saw me--this time perfectly healthy--he'd be disgusted. Or worse, try to capture me for my magic.

Only mermaids are gifted with magic. Mermen lack it, for some reason or another, but it overflows with the women of our kind. Though now that I thought on it, it would be pointless for Erik to try to take my magic. It can only be transferred in a mermaid's kiss, and I had given him that the first day I'd met him.

Erik may have been drawn to the sea, but I was drawn to the land. I was curious, and went back to the palace by the sea for many nights. The day of my union with the Baltic Prince came closer with each rise of the moon, and I knew that I would never see Erik again by the next full moon.

When I went, it was always under the cover of darkness. I never chanced to sing again, but just sat there in the darkness, watching him search the sea. Though he never saw me, he knew I was there. He was lost in thought easily and sometimes would bring out a book on science to read. But the nights I truly loved were when he brought out an oddly shaped piece of wood with strings on it. I had backed away at first, worried it was some sort of lure. But then he had put a wooden stick to the strings, and the most beautiful music had floated out of it. Merfolk have only their voices to rely on, and I had never thought of anything else. But here this was, a magical, beautiful thing that made songs like I had never heard! The first night Erik had played it, he had paused before returning inside the palace.

" That was for the night you sang for me."

Then he had returned inside without another word. I didn't know if he realized how much I was enraptured with it, but he played it every other night after that. If my family had treated me with anything other than contempt, I would of told them of it. I smiled sadly as I thought of Emeralia, and her love for music. She would of loved this odd yet mystical thing. But my family loved and hated me, and I wished that I could hate them too.

I stayed in Erik's thoughts. Sometimes, he would just stare out into the sea, trying to find me in the darkness. I was torn between speaking--it was painful to remain silent and hidden when there were so many things I wanted to share with him. All the same, I learned many things about him from my quiet observations. Erik was a silent man, but intelligent. I could tell he'd grown up ignorant--not the lord he was now--- by the way he poured over dusty books with zealous passion, and his love for the ocean. We would spend several hours in each other's silent company. I would never breathe a word. But always before he left, Erik would call out to me the same thing; " I'll be here tomorrow night."

They were silent meetings, and a silent friendship grew out of it. We both had the comforting presence of another being who understood the other. And that alone was worth more then words.

Twelve days before I was to be married, I saw something that surprised me.

It was night of course, and Erik was playing that oddly shaped wood that made such beautiful music. I laid on the rock, listening to the melody that filled the sea air. It defied everything I had grown up knowing; my father had always told us of the human's hatred of music, of our alluring, magical voices. Then again, perhaps Erik defied everything I had ever heard about humans.

He played with eyes closed, and it was the way I always saw him when I imagined him. His light brown hair rippling in the wind, his tall, muscular form swaying slightly as he played the oddly shaped wood.

My gaze shifted when I noticed there was someone standing behind him, and my breath was taken away. A woman! I had never seen a human woman before, and up until this moment, I was unsure if there was even such a thing. But there she stood, at the edge of the ballroom, watching him quietly. Her long hair was the color of sand, and even from my distance, I could see her green eyes watching him thoughtfully. She was pretty, but not in the way of my people. Her skin was fair and she was petite, but who was I to judge? I regarded her with curiosity, and wondered if all human women had her perfect beauty.

She walked softly behind him and put her hands on his shoulders. Erik stopped playing abruptly, and smiled. It aluminate his handsome features, and earned a smile from her in return. He turned around to face her, and the girl's face shone with something I could not place, for a moment. Then I recognized it, and wondered how I didn't realize it immediately----it was the same look I had on my own face when I looked at him. Quietly, I sank into the water and swam directly next to the balcony. Flattening myself against it, I listened heard the girl's voice for the first time. It was pretty and sweet.

" Erik, you shouldn't stay out here so long! You'll catch a cold and freeze to death--and then where would I be?," the woman said teasingly.

I heard him laugh in his deep voice. " You'd be with Fritz for the summer's ball. That Baron has dropped so many damn hints to court you, you'd be betrothed by my funeral," Erik replied with good humor.

The girl didn't laugh, and there was a moment of silence between the two. She spoke first, and her voice was soft and frightened.

" Erik, I don't know why you continue to stay out here for so long. This horrid sea, it nearly killed you! How can you look at it, like you want to go back to that life! I worry..."

Her voice faltered for a moment, but then continued, this time stronger. " The way you're so distant, I worry that this ring on my finger doesn't mean a thing! I love you Erik, but how can I love a man whose in love with sea? Back in the village, when you were a fisherman and my parents didn't know about us, you were different. But ever since that cursed journey, you've changed! I thought it was the trauma at first, then the change of lifestyle, but now I don't know what it is....it's been a year and I don't know what to do! The first day I met you, that first day in the market place, I fell in love with you and nothing has changed in me since that day I was fourteen. But you.......Erik, what's happened to us?"

Oddly enough, I felt no jealousy or triumph in her confession. Instead, I felt embarrassed at hearing her sorrowful voice give such a heartfelt confession. For my people, we are not jealous over affairs of the heart like that. As long as love is pure, it doesn't matter if it is bestowed many times on the same person. Much how a mother loves all of her children equally.

There was silence between them once again, and I sensed that Erik had forgotten me.

" Catherine," he began quietly, and there was another pause. It wasn't a pause of silence, and I realized that they must of either been embracing or kissing. But soon, Erik spoke again.

" You're right, I'm sorry.....Don't cry, you're right....things have just been different lately. Part of it is my life now. Twenty years of a life as a fisherman can't change all at once, Cat. I'm ignorant, and this courtly life is the last thing I'm used to, even after a year. Christian ascends the throne soon, and I'm still adjusting to the idea that the village no longer sees me as the man I was, but as the prince's rich, nation known favorite from the capital. And as for my family!"

His voice was harsh and let out a sharp laugh at that last word, and I jumped. The bitter sweetness of his tone echoed the thoughts of my own relatives.

" They see me as who I am now, not as one of them. When I went there this summer, my mother addressed me as 'my lord', and my brother bowed on my entry. And I hadn't even brought any servants with me. It's enough that I sent them monthly checks now. Catherine, everything in my life has changed. The Court sees me as one of them, but I see myself as a villager. And villagers see me as one of the Court. You are the only one left who sees me as I was, but for some reason, I can't see that it hasn't changed. My god, I don't know what I see anymore. I love you more than any man alive, but there's something out there that I'm driven to find."

I saw his hand then, as he gestured out to the sea. Then he sighed, and Catherine drew breath to speak.

" Shhhh. That's all I needed to know. Forget this madness, and come inside. I love you as the sea never will, and never forget that Erik," she told him fiercely.

I heard their steps as they walked back inside, and it was the first night that Erik didn't tell me he'd be there the next.

I swam back out to sea, and watched them disappear inside. Erik paused at the doorway, and turned around, searching with his sea colored eyes. Then he followed the girl called Catherine.

The water chilled me as if I were a human, and a fierce longing for love swelled up in me. I would speak to him before I left the Baltic, and if he thought I was a mirage or thought I was a sea monster, I didn't care. You are wrong, I thought silently, as Catherine slid from my view. The sea and the merfolk were born of the same blood, and I love him like I have never loved another being before. I may be mortal and of your hated sea, but it can't change my heart.





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Catherine

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Even after I talked to Erik, he still went out to the marble balcony at night. I never went out there again after that night, although we became closer. There was a connection between him and the sea put me ill at ease, and I felt more comfortable inside the warm palace.

The Summer Ball was in a month. Our wedding was soon after that.

Still, I felt more comfortable after my talk with him, and our love resumed somewhat of what it had been before.

There were more important things at hand, and I learned of them when Prince Christian, Erik, and myself strolled along in the palace gardens. Several servants hovered in the background, ready to grant our merest wish. Christian and I thought nothing of them, but Erik was constantly glancing at them. Stop it, I wanted to scream. They are part of your life now, and you have earned them more then any man in this palace. You are the legend of Denmark, you beat the sea itself and rescued the heir of our country.

One little sentence started so much. Christian glanced at Erik and me once, then let it out.

" Someone is trying to kill me."

I laughed. There is no more beloved Prince in all of Europe then Christian the second of Denmark, and especially since the sinking of the ship last year. No other country can brag and tell tales of how the sea swallowed a galleon of men, but spared only the prince and a man to help him to shore. Christian had no enemies.

" Don't be silly, cousin. No one wishes you dead, and since you seem to be in good condition, what's led you to believe this?"

We were not actually cousins, but never the less related by blood. Christian raised his eyebrows at me, and turned his attention to Erik's thoughtful face. I held back a sigh of contempt; as a woman, my opinion would of course not be taken seriously. Especially not when I looked like such a jewel of perfection; my maids had done my hair up in blonde ringlets, and my pale rose colored gown made my appearance demure. Glancing at my engagement ring, I looked back at Erik.

" Poison?," he asked carefully.

Christian's face paled. " My bread. I hadn't eaten it last night, but thrown it down to the dog. The dog is dead."

Erik's tan face turned serious. " Who was serving you?"

The prince's face remained grave. " I don't remember. Does it matter? A mere serving boy would not of wanted me dead, it must be someone with motive for the throne. My father grows older with each passing day, and it won't be long before I need to be married and with an heir myself."

He said this with such disdain, I wondered.

" Is there no Lady in court that you do not fancy," I asked, straining politeness.

Christian smiled at that. " Ah, there is a lady I fancy. But she is not at court." He laughed. "In fact, I'm not sure where she is."

He exchanged a knowing-also frustrating-glance with Erik.

" Are you sure? There are endless possibilities, Christian. The dog is old, it could of been anything," I reasoned logically, trying to see the other side of it.

It only got me a sigh from my cousin, and a look from Erik. I ignored the look, but knew dismissal from Christian was coming soon. He and Erik contrasted so, Christian's pale skin and hair against Erik's tan and brown hair. His look warned me what I knew all too well; the prince would only take annoying opinions from Erik and his father. Occasionally, other men. But women? Even me, his kin and a trusted one, Christian would not take me seriously.

Most men at court shared his opinion. Women were sought as lovely ornaments to decorate arms with, and yet another reason Erik differed.

Sure enough, it came. Christian flipped his hand. " Catherine, you should go find Lady Gelsomina and find out more details about the summers' ball, or woman talk, that sort of thing. I need to speak with Erik privately."

I blushed--I knew a reprimand when I saw one--, but curtsied deeply none the less and excused myself. Tossing back my blonde curls, I strode about in the palace until I came to one of the breakfast halls. I had wanted to find more out about the ball anyway.





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Erik

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I worried about Christian. Unlike most of the nobility, he was strong and steady, and not prone to dramatic ideas about conspiracies. It was from his past behavior that I knew he didn't doubt. There had been other things he had told me after Catherine left, things he deemed not fit for her ears. Christian underestimated her greatly; for all of her love of social balls and banquets, Catherine had a sharp mind. They were small things, but clues none the less; a gold button(not Christian's) found on the floor, a rogue arrow from a hunting expedition the day past.

But the question I pondered that night on the marble balcony that dropped into the sea was more direct: who stood to gain power to the throne through Christian's death? There was no declared heir after him. I sat next to him at dinner and shared a plate, but even I struggled to remember the face of the serving boy. That itself annoyed me-had I grown so cocky as a Lord Erik that I ceased to see the faces of those who waited on my hand and foot?

Exhaling, I ran my hand through my hair, deep in thought. How were Christian's enemies? He himself had no suspicions. I fingered the gold button. It looked familiar, but that could very well just be my wishful thinking. Suddenly, a thought struck me and I turned it around once more to get a closer look..........

I never did look at it again, because for the third time in my life, the intoxicating, celestial voice of my dream echoed in the crisp night sea breeze. The button fell through my fingers into the water, just as the promises I had made with Catherine fell with it. I raced down the steps and stopped for a moment. I didn't want another repeat of that first night--hopeless searching to only find empty, open air. Was I going mad? But as the water lapped at the steps and my feet, the voice didn't stop, only became stronger. It came from the rocks, and I dove in the water. If it was a trap, let it be. My dreams would stop and everything would be over.

I swam quietly over to the rocks; it took me five minutes. The voice wavered for a moment, and I realized it was frightened. I stopped where I was, and swam only to keep myself upright. The massive rock prevented me from seeing her, but there was only a matter of feet that lay between us. I cleared my throat.

" I won't come closer if it frightens you. I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to see who you are. I have never met a girl who swims like a fish and has the voice of an angel," I called out, humor tinging my tones.

I didn't realize how ironic my words were.

" We've met before, Erik," the melodious voice said quietly.

There was a smile in her voice, and I shook my head, even though she couldn't see it.

" Only in my dreams," I called back over the roar of the waves, cringing. I did sound like a lovesick poet. What was next, should I start rambling on about Heaven?

" No. You've seen me there as well, but we met before that."

Her voice was sad, even more beautiful. I once again shook my head in the dark, kicking the water beneath me. It was summer, but never the less still chilly. I could only stay still in the water for so long.

She spoke again, more suddenly. " Come around the rock. If you remember me, then we'll see what turns out. If you don't......this will just be another dream."

Holding my breath, I dove underwater and rounded the rock. I came up for air when my hands touched the rock, and as I opened my eyes, she was the first thing I saw.

For several moments I couldn't speak. It was then when it all came flying back. A long forgotten fevered allusion raced up from my mind, and I couldn't speak, only stare.

Dreams and memories and what we think are illusions are never so perfect as they are in the present. Pearl and I met each other all over again as our eyes locked that moment.

Her eyes still resembled glittering and dancing amethysts, and her brilliant maroon hair hung at her waist, slightly rippling from the night's breeze. Her skin was still like porcelain, and her lips were still that perfect rouge. Even as I glanced at her long, sleek tail, I marveled at the wonder of it all. For all I had thought I had seen elsewhere--tail or no tail--Pearl in her full splendor was more beautiful than any angel or goddess could ever be.

I wondered at how full of beauty this girl could be. Beautiful things cease to be a novelty after awhile, but every time I saw her it just seemed to blossom even stronger.

She smiled, hesitantly at first, and I wondered how I could of ever marked her down as a fevered illusion.

" So. You remember."

" You saved my life. And Christian's. I've been taking credit for it for the past year."

Her smile didn't fade, and she shrugged. " What were you planning on telling them? A talking dolphin carried you to shore?"

I grinned at that. For some reason, I didn't find the situation odd. But perhaps that had all been done away with the first time we had met.

" So it has been you coming all this time. I didn't know what you were. Why did you come here?"

Her perfect face paled for a moment, and she shook her head. " I was upset, and ready to flirt with danger. I never thought you would be there."

" Well, I was."

" That's obvious."

We both laughed. There was another moment's pause; I glanced at her tail. It was long, sleek, and a deep violet. Not repulsive, but different--if I looked at it from a fisher's point of view and not a man's, it was beautiful.

" You have the perfect voice," I told her, still studying the way the scales shimmered.

Pearl let out a melodious little laugh. " That thing you made songs out of; that beautiful piece of wood; now that was perfect."

I cocked my head to the side for a moment, trying to think of what magical wood I had. Her purple eyes watched me, and it suddenly dawned on me that she had no idea of musical instruments.

" Ah, my violin? Trust me, there is no instrument in this world comparable to your voice. Do all of your kind sing like that?," I asked, gesturing out to the sea.

Pearl bit down on her lip, and lowered her face. " My sisters could. I was always good at it, but there voices were beautiful in a different way."

Her face was sad, and I knew at that moment that there was nothing in the world I would not trade to make her happy.



I wondered later in my life how our brief meetings had tied us so. In my studies, I have read a fable in Greek Mythology, of when people were half man, half woman. Zeus became angry one day, and split the people in two. For every life they are reborn into, they will look for their other half so they might become whole again. I didn't believe in mythology, but the tale made me wonder if we were something like that.

" Tell me what makes you sad," I demanded, placing my hand on hers. I felt the connection then. She looked up and her sad, lovely eyes bore into mine.

" It's nothing you can do to change."

" Well, then tell me something that will make you happy."

She opened her mouth to speak, and I listened, ready to run to the ends of the earth if it was necessary.

" Erik! Erik, where are you?"

Catherine's voice jolted the air and I whipped my head around. Throwing up her hands, she called my name out one more time, this time she seemed happier. Damn. I turned back around, ready to tell Pearl to stay right there when I went to placate her. But to my surprise, she was no longer there. All that remained was a damp spot where she had sat.

I didn't even bother searching for her. By god, had I tried to out swim a mermaid? How could I have forgotten who she was, even what I thought was a fevered dream? I sat on the rock, shivering and ironically nearly catching my death of cold. Catherine called out my name still, but I ignored it. All that I could do was remember, and fathom what wonder I had been gifted with.



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Author's note: I'm finally back!! Thanks to everyone for their reviews and for nagging me to continue--it's worked! Give me your opinion and leave a review! Thanks.