The first two weeks of training had been more intense than Boz had imagined them to be.

He should have expected it. The trainees were expected to learn the duties of being a guard as well as all of their skills within the short time span of six months, whereas normal recruits normally took two to three years to train and graduate.

There was nobody else in the fast track course but Boz, which meant he was always under full scrutiny. His teacher saw every flaw and used it to his advantage. Most of his days were dedicated to sparring matches with varying themes; footwork, standard duels, disadvantages, and differing surroundings. Some days, he was taken to a classroom to get some theoretical lessons on the nature of being a guard, the general duties, and how to react in certain situations.

Both were equally as valuable and Boz tried to absorb as much information as he could and tried to pay attention. There was no better motivator than the Kings.

Another advantage of the fast track was the castle. His classes weren't held in the fight school, but rather on the castle grounds. In later months, most of his training would consist of following around another guard and learning from them, in some sort of internship. This close proximity also meant that Mason found a room in the castle where Boz could stay. It was a closet space in a previous life and there was barely enough space for a bed, but that was enough for now. Later, he'd find someplace where he could properly stay.

Today was a nice, warm sunny day as well as a day off. Which meant Boz was staying close to the Kings whenever he could.

Brady and Boomer decided they were going to Shredder Beach and play some ball. Boz was thrilled at first until he learned he was supposed to referee their one-on-one match. It wasn't much, but at least he was in their vicinity. At least he could chat a little.

"Hot sand!" Brady exclaimed, jumping around. "Hot sand!"

It wasn't that hot. Boz could stand perfectly still, and so did Boomer, who did not wait for Brady to stand still. He threw the football and Brady, preoccupied with the hot sand, did not catch it. A large gust of wind carried the ball away, over some rocks.

"Boz, can you get the ball?" Brady asked him.

Boz sighed. He should let the kings do this, now they weren't too lazy to have someone comb their hair for them. But he wanted to feel a little useful and thus he walked around the giant rocks to retrieve their ball. He could still banter with them when he returned the ball. He'd hold the proverbial power in his hands. How would they react?

Right around the corner lay the ball, one side buried in the sand. Boz walked to the spot and picked up the football. From aside, it sounded like some girls were giggling.

Cautiously, Boz turned his head. His mouth dropped.

Mermaids. Actual mermaids; five of them. Each with a colorful tail, sitting on another group of rocks with direct access to the ocean. How did they climb up those rocks? Either way, they were sitting now, giggling and smiling lovely smiles at Boz.

Boz closed his mouth.

"Hi," he said awkwardly. "Hi. Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"My, you are handsome!" one of the mermaids said.

"Thank you," Boz said, not feeling particularly flattered by the compliment. He might have liked it if they weren't mermaids – vicious mermaids who wanted to get some foothold on Kinkow. Then again, not all mermaids were vicious creatures. Some were quite nice and non-power hungry. But sirens – you can never trust sirens. And their smell – his sensitive nose could not stand that salty slightly-rotten smell of their tails in the baking sun.

"I should be going now."

The giggling stopped. The girls started to pout, tried to convince Boz to stay. Boz wanted to get out of there as soon as possible; the farther away, the better. The faster away, the better.

"Are ya having trouble with hot sand?" Boomer asked when they came around the corner. Boz tried to answer and have them turn around before they could spot the mermaids chilling on their rock, but it was too late for that.

"No!" Brady corrected his brother. "Hot girls!"

"Oh," Boomer said. He approached the beautiful ladies. "Hello, ladies."

The mermaids laughed at him. Boomer retreated to his brother, asking for backup. Apparently, he never got any further with any lady than the "hello". Boz looked at the rocks. From this side, it was hard to see their tails. He sighed – he wasn't even surprised. They didn't know they were flirting with mermaids.

Brady invoked a 'King Conference' – which was just a chat with Boomer a little away from the mermaids so they wouldn't hear it. Boz followed them away. Technically, this term applied to him as well, though his brothers wouldn't know why. Boz would never tell them.

"They smell wrong," Boz immediately said.

"You're not a king, you shouldn't be part of this," Brady said.

"But he's a friend," Boomer argued. That convinced Brady that Boz was allowed to stay in their little conference. Again, Boz insisted they smelled wrong.

"Stop saying that, they might hear you," Brady told him. They weren't getting it. Of course they weren't going to get it. Nor were they going to smell it from here. The wind was blowing in the direction of the mermaids and Brady and Boomer's sense of smell wasn't as developed as Boz's, so the chances of them picking up that foul smell were very slim.

Boz barely paid attention to what they were saying. His mind was on the mermaids and he wondered what was up with them. They hadn't used their siren song on them yet, so maybe they were friendly. Or they were hiding it for the future. He didn't know many mermaids with long-term plans, but maybe one of those airheads might have a plan.

After the conference, the kings turned to the mermaids again.

"C'mon, get off those rocks!" Boomer said. "Come to us."

They can't, Boz thought. And the girls pouted for a while again as they moved their tails in full view of the kings. Boomer almost audibly shrieked whereas Brady's face went a shade paler. Neither of them seemed too interested in these girls anymore now it was revealed they had tails.

"I'm in a relationship, but Brady's still single," Boomer said, almost literally pushing Brady towards the mermaids. Brady fought back against the push and scolded his brother with a 'not cool'.

Even if these mermaids had bad intentions, Boz still felt the need to address the kings' behavior. "I'm sorry about them, they're new. They've never seen mermaids before."

The mermaids took his apology while Brady and Boomer argued in the background about their preferences in ladies, especially Boomer's side of the argument. "I'm used to have my ladies have legs. Call me weird!"

Legs seemed to be the magic word of today. The mermaids almost literally veered up when they heard the word and they took their chance at a little more compassion and sympathy from the young men they had ensnared.

"We want legs more than anything in the whole world!" the orange-tailed mermaid exclaimed. "But they're impossible to get. The only way for a mermaid to get her legs is when a king carries her over the threshold of the royal castle."

Brady and Boomer looked at each other as if they struck gold.

"Ladies," Brady said, "you're not going to believe this, but… we are the kings of Kinkow."

The mermaids gasped and laughed. One of them even clapped. They must realize how incredibly lucky they were. Anyone could have come to their rock – their usual sunbathing rock - and found them, but they were just found by the kings of Kinkow. They naturally were excited beyond belief.

"I don't know about this," Boz said. "They're really beautiful tails, and they have important things to do, right?"

He glanced at the kings, hoping they'd go along with him.

"You know what they say," Boomer said. "If it's too good to be true…"

"…it doesn't get any better!" Brady finished the sentence. They nodded at each other and the mermaids were ecstatic.

Boz sighed. Already he knew that any attempts to stop them would result in failure. But in everyone's best interests, Boz should go along with what they were doing to make sure they weren't going to do anything stupid on top of the stupid they were going to attempt. At least he could curb that before it got out of hand.

This must be how Mason and Mikayla must have felt around him and Boomer.

#

Somehow all mermaids, as well as Brady, Boomer, and Boz, fit on the King Cruiser. The road to the castle was a bumpy one and they almost lost a mermaid or two on the way, but they made it all safely to the castle. On the way there, Boz determined that at least two of these mermaids were smart enough. They had learned English, or had been turned into a mermaid and learned Ocean. They used their natural charm to completely wrap the kings around their fingers and didn't even need to use their song.

Before they knew it, they parked the King Cruiser before the castle gates; today, no guards stood there and Boz frowned. Where had they gone? There should have been two guards, one on either side of the gate. If there had been, they would have definitively stopped the Kings. What was going on today?

Before the brothers could carry the mermaids in the castle and give them their legs, Boz wanted to scout ahead, to see if anyone was there – and to inform them of what was about to happen.

And there was someone. Mikayla walked towards them with an air of pride and one of the biggest smiles on her face. But with the kings next to him, Boz could not inform her of their plans. Somehow, he needed to balance gaining Mikayla's trust with not losing the trust he had been given by his brothers. Right now, the fragile trust he had was not something he wanted to lose. He could always win over Mikayla another time.

"Hey guys," Mikayla said. She truly beamed. "Do I look any different?"

Now she mentioned it, Boz did notice something – she was wearing one armband on her upper right arm – the sign of the head guard. Boz smiled and nodded proudly. Head guard already – even for a day, this was amazing.

"No," Brady said. "You look as good as you did yesterday. And the day before that. And the day you were born. Am I still talking?" Boz rolled his eyes as Mikayla shook her head.

"Can't you see my dad finally put me in charge of security?" Mikayla said. "And my first order of business: what are you three clowns up to?"

Boomer did the work for Boz and explained how they planned to bring five mermaids into the castle. Brady helpfully added they weren't acting like a clown because of this. Boz had nothing to add to this and Mikayla's mouth almost fell open.

"You're not bringing mermaids to the castle!" she shouted. "This is my first time as head of security and I'm not going to let you three mess this up."

"I won't let them," Boz said almost automatically. He was past the point of stopping the boy kings from foolishly bringing mermaids into the castle, but he still could do some damage control. He hoped to have avoided this confrontation altogether, but he shouldn't have gaped at the pretty mermaids for so long. If he'd just taken the ball and ran, this may not have happened.

This comment did not go over Mikayla's head. She turned specifically to Boz.

"Boz, you're with them a lot. Tell me you're not going to let them do this."

Despite the distrust she still felt toward Boz, he was now the responsible adult in their vicinity. Brady and Boomer snuck behind her. When Boz looked over Mikayla's shoulder, the kings were putting their hands together as if they were praying, begging Boz not to betray them and not to tell Mikayla. He glanced from Mikayla to the boys, but she was too fixated on him to notice the kings were behind her.

Boz sighed. "I'll try."

Brady and Boomer celebrated their victory silently with fists in the air and jumping. Mikayla nodded at him and interpreted his words differently.

"Thank you," she said. She turned around and the brothers smoothly transitioned to an ignorant stance, pretending they weren't doing anything. "Seriously, no mermaids! They're evil and have powers we don't even know about. It's all in the Great Book. Now, where did you see them?"

"At the beach," Boomer said, pointing to the quicker beach access that did not run past where they had parked their King Cruiser with the five mermaids on. Mikayla thanked him for that information and with her hand already on the machete's hilt, she made her way down the road Boomer had pointed to. When she was well out of earshot, Boomer turned to Brady and Boz again.

"Pretty girls never want other pretty girls around," he commented, and Brady nodded. Boz did not agree with that statement, but the kings didn't ask for his opinion nor did they care, so why should he share.

"Thanks for sticking up for us, Boz," Brady said. Boz shook his head.

"Like I can stop you from doing stupid stuff." They were always going to be naturally inclined to do stupid things. It never necessarily ended in disaster, but damn, their stupidity was unrivaled and barely anyone was going to tell them no because they were kings. They barely listened to Mason, so why would they listen to Boz?

Brady nodded and looked at his brother. "See? He's getting it."