"My mother?" Brennan repeated what I had said. I had gone to talk to him, directly, when I came back to the inn.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I'm just telling you what happened!"

"Well, I believe you, I just think the woman's deluded."

"But she knew our names."

"Well, maybe she heard us talking to each other. Anyways, Darya, you've been up all night. You should try to get some sleep."

I reluctantly agreed and went to my own room. Surprisingly, I fell asleep quite fast, and was soon gone in the dream world.

"Korell, what do you know about water nymphs?"

"Water nymphs? Not much, Lass, no one knows much about them. They live in the sea, and they love it more than anything."

"Does the sea love them back?" I ask.

"Indeed, it does. In fact, I think that if they ever loved anything else more than the see, it might be quite jealous. It loves them so much, though, that I don't think it could ever be entirely cruel to them."

The memory played over and over again in my sleeping mind. I couldn't understand why. It was just a short, meaningless conversation, and while all conversations with Korell were now dear to me, I didn't see why I was dreaming about it. None of it had much to do with my life now. Except, of course, the water nymphs.

The next day, I was not in very good spirits. I didn't understand what was going on, and I didn't like it. Mostly, it was just Brennan's "mother" that upset me. I didn't like the idea of having everyone's hope on me. Brennan, however, seemed to deem it his purpose to cheer me up.

"Darya, I'm going to take you to a jewelry store and buy you anything you want. Then, I'm going to buy you some chocolate, and afterwards concede to do whatever you want to do."

I smiled. "If you say so."

"Which I do."

We walked the short distance to the jewelry store. I was lost in thought and didn't say much. We went inside and wandered about, just looking at everything. My eye caught on a necklace. It was a silver chain, with just one bead. The bead was blue and green and the colors waved about, giving one the distinct feeling of tossing on the waves at sea.

I was immediately entranced by it. Brennan, seeing that I had obviously picked it, took it to the front desk. I was semi-aware of it being a rather large sum of money, but Brennan paid the man quickly, and handed me the necklace.

Then we got the chocolate. I shared some of it with Brennan, but ate most of it myself. It was delicious.

"So what do you want to do now?" Brennan asked me.

"I really don't know," I answered truthfully.

In the end, we decided to do nothing very different, but go to the sea-side again. We walked on the shore, talking of books, music, life. We knew each other so well, and were so alike.

I felt his hand gently touch mine, then clasp it in his own. I looked up at him, slightly startled.

"Darya," he whispered.

I smiled.

He kissed me on the cheek. It was fast; we had only known each other for a month or so, and yet he already felt so familiar to me.

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Am I handling the love story horribly? I kind of feel like I am, but I can't seem to think of anything for them to do or talk about. If anyone has any good ideas for romantic moments, please include them in your review! And I suppose I might as well put this up even though I haven't really used the story much yet.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Little Mermaid