The Life of Philip & Syrena - Ch 2
Author's Note: This is chapter 2 of my Philip and Syrena fanfic. It is from Syrena's POV; Let me know if you like it or hate it. I will not be abandoning this story even if it takes me a decade to finish. So don't forget to review/comment/favourite/follow and all those things.
Enjoy!
Philip, her Philip. The man who was unlike other men. He protected, while others of his kind delighted only in hurting and killing. He had tried to protect her and keep her safe. Finally at the end when she'd told him he need only ask, she had expected him to ask for life, or for her kiss. Instead, he'd asked only for her forgiveness.
She had kissed him anyway, bestowing the gift so many men had tried killing for, in times past. He would be able to breath underwater with her now, with no issues. The wound he had suffered across his stomach however was killing him. He'd lost consciousness while they swam and she now dragged him along, her hands wrapped around his chest.
She needed to heal him and quickly, before it was to late. Her sisters wouldn't hurt him, now that he had been kissed. Mermaid tradition and law decreed that any man who received the kiss of a mermaid, given freely was safe forever after. None of her sisters would dare break the law; He was safe from them now but not his own body.
She continued swimming straight down until she reached the ocean floor which she followed it until she came to a cave. There were hundreds of such caves scattered around whitecap bay. She dragged him inside and hefted him onto the rocks within, they were out the water which would make it easier for the healing.
The healing would be easy. Men came searching for the fountain of youth, thinking it gave them eternal life. Men were fools. The fountain did no such thing, they never stopped to wonder why a mermaid's tear was required for the process. It was the tear not the fountain which granted eternal life, as mermaids were immortal unless killed in battle or by disease or some other unfortunate circumstance. The fountain however did serve a purpose, it stopped humans from figuring out the truth; If they did mermaids would be hunted to extinction for their tears. It also stopped the side effects of a mermaid's tear.
Normally a tear given freely would grant eternal life but would cause the man who drank it to turn into a merman. It was a bond of soul and heart that was created between the mermaid and the man who drank her tear, it shared her immortality with him but also changed him to make him like her. It was meant as a gift for those they chose to take as mates; a gift for both of them, so that a human mate would not expire young and the mermaid would have a mate able to live both on land and in the sea, just as she was able to. Though both would need to return to the sea at least once every 3 days or they would die. A mermaid mated for life and loved only once; Many a mermaid who lost her soul mate would rather die then continue to live without him. It was like losing half of yourself, you would never be whole again.
The waters of the fountain however, stopped a bond being formed between the mermaid and the man who drank her tear. If a bond was formed between a man and mermaid whose tear had been taken by force; it would drive the man mad, until he killed himself, while the mermaid who was bound to him would be broken as well, in body and mind. The fountain still enabled a poor imitation of the immortality enjoyed by the mermaids. They would receive all the years of life that another had left, but nothing more. No bond would be formed between the pair and therefore the ritual was considered a twisting of the purity of the mating ritual. It was no longer an act of pure love, there was no purity in the ritual anymore. It was a vile and twisted thing.
Syrena however wished more then anything that she had the waters of the fountain of youth, there with her at that moment. It was not that she didn't love Philip, she did. When she had first seen him on the beach, she was planning on killing him and eating him; He would have been her first kill. That was when it had happened. She had realized he was her soul mate, her one true love. Even though the ritual hadn't happened her instincts told her that he was the only one she would ever love. If he died she would wander the oceans forever alone, never able to truly love another, until she died. So, she had pulled him out the way of the falling debris.
She wasn't sure what to do now. The man she loved, the one who her heart would forever belong to was dying. She could save him easily enough but it would bond them to one another forever. She wanted nothing more than that, but would he? She knew he loved her as well, but would he want to become a merman to be with her. Would he want to become bonded to her for eternity? What about his surface life?
She hoped so. If she had the waters of the fountain of youth here at her disposal, she could have simply healed him without the bond being formed between them. She could then let him make the choice himself, later when he was ready to do so. She had no choice now.
She pulled herself out the water so that she was sitting on the cold rocks next to him, tail still in the water. She lifted his head in her arms and held him. She leaned down and placed a gentle, loving kiss on his lips.
"I love you, Philip Swift. I am yours forever."
With that she began to cry. Her tears rolled down her face, gathering speed until they splashed against Philips's face. She had gathered some of her tears on her lips and she now leaned down and kissed him once again. Making sure her tears slipped between his lips and that he swallowed.
There was nothing to do now but wait.
She ripped his shirt off and peered at his stomach. The cut he had suffered was closing up as if by magic. Sealing itself and leaving not a trace behind to suggest it had ever been there. Within just a few minutes he was left with no evidence that his body had ever suffered a cut anywhere. His breathing had slowed and was no longer laboured, as it had been before. He was sleeping now, his body recovering from the healing.
That's when she felt it, their connection was strong and would only continue to grow in strength. The bond they now shared for all eternity. He was hers and she was his. Bound to one another by the magic of a mermaid's tear, in a ritual meant to bind two soulmates to one another. She could instinctively tell now that he was alive and healthy. She even had a slight sense of his feelings and his dreams. He was dreaming of her; she could feel the love he felt for her shine through their new bond. She smiled; she knew she had made the right choice now.
"Rest my love, I will be back."
With one last look at him, she slipped into the water. She needed to eat and he would be hungry when he woke up.
As she swam away, she still felt as if he was right there with her. It was the bond. Their souls, their hearts, their thoughts, and feelings; everything was entwined with one another. She now understood the power of the bond between them. They were as close and connected to one another as possible now. Not even that man, God, that her mate prayed to could form a stronger connection between them now. But with the understanding of how beautiful their bond was, also came the fear of losing him. If anything happened to him, she knew she would not long outlive him. There was no way she would survive his death, not with half her heart and soul no longer with her.