"Great work, my boy! Keep it up! When you're done with that stall just take the wheelbarrow to the garden, over that way. You'll see it. The lads will take it off your hands and give you another one to bring back."

"Thanks... I will!"

Gil couldn't believe his luck. Well, to be fair it was both bad and good luck... He was stuck shoveling horse shit from the stable floors, but there was a very good chance he would get to see Eli. He was surprised when he saw that the horses were not land seahorses but in fact creatures he had vague memories of, from seeing pictures of them in a human book once. According to Ro, Eli enjoyed riding horses every day, weather and health permitting. As it was a sunny day and the princess was not sick (as far he was aware of), it was practically a guarantee that she would show up at the stables sometime that day.

And so Gil would endure. Compared to his long and exhausting swim to land, a little animal shit was nothing. He actually felt sorry for the old man as he shoveled. Did he really have that much trouble finding help to clean up after the horses? If so, the other servants had already lost his respect. Cowards...

He finished the row of stalls and wheeled the barrow outside. Just as Ro had said, he could see the garden was not far from the stables. It was a short walk that took only a few minutes, and when he returned he set to work on the next row of stables.

It didn't take long for him to notice three of the horses were missing, along with the old man. Barely a few seconds went by once he realized this before Ro returned, an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, my boy... I shouldn't have sent you off. The princess just came by. I tried to stall but the king and prince were impatient..."

"What?!" Gil raced to the entrance to see three figures riding away. He wanted to shout after them, but knew it would only draw the king's attention to him, along with his ire. "Damn it..." he muttered, his heart sinking.

"I'm so sorry, lad. I wasn't expecting her this early. I imagine her meeting with the prince has her on a rushed schedule..."

Gil turned to the old man. "Don't worry about it, Ro. You couldn't have known. Just bad timing, that's all..." He really couldn't be angry with him. Just more shit luck on his part. "...Well, she has to come back after riding. I'll catch her then." Hopefully...

"Just stay put until she returns, then. I'll make sure you get to thank her," Ro replied with a crinkly smile. "I have to keep my end of the bargain now, after all."

Returning his smile, Gil nodded. "Thanks."


Time passed very slowly as Gil continued to work, his ears and eyes trained on the entrance to the stables as he did so. How long had it been since Eli and her company rode off? It felt like eons had passed, with each second stretching into years and every minute stretching into centuries. He could only keep busy, his anxiety growing as he moved from stall to stall.

Ro was just finishing grooming one of the horses when he gave a heavy sigh. "Oh my... My joints just don't have it in them to work for very long today. Mind if I take a quick break?"

Gil shook his head. "You're the one in charge, go for it."

"Much obliged."

A few minutes went by, and Gil heard voices. A familiar voice in particular. He ran to the entrance of the stable to get a look.

The three riders were still quite far away, but their raised voices were easily being carried over the small hill. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but it had to be a heated argument between Eli and her father.

She was gesturing wildly, snapping her hand back and forth between her and the prince. The prince began to argue as well, drawing his horse closer to Eli's. Gil could only watch with outrage as the prince pulled Eli to him, kissing her. That fucking bastard! He could feel his nails digging into his palm as he clenched his fist, shaking with anger.

He had to laugh though, upon seeing Eli stretch her leg out and kick the prince from his horse. As her father shouted and dismounted to help the man, she took the opportunity to race straight for the stables.

Gil's eyes widened at her speed. She was furiously stunning as the wind whipped her hair behind her, and in a small panic he hid behind the stable door as she closed the distance between them. As much as he had hoped and planned on finding her, what was he going to say now that it was actually happening? He needed a moment to think!

His heart was pounding against his chest as he heard her dismount. She stomped into the stable, blind with rage as she walked right past him. "They can both die in the firy pits of hell and may the devil himself roast them up like little sausages!" she seethed, huffing. "How dare that twat even think to kiss me like that! I only want Gil to... to..." Her back still turned to him, she started crying and mumbling to herself. "...Pull yourself together, Eli! He's safe now. Let him go..."

Gil blinked. "How about no?" The words were out before he knew what he was saying. It was probably the dumbest reply he could have given, but it was enough to make Eli swiftly turn in shock to face him. Her eyes became round with awe as he nervously grinned at her. "Eli-"

She was instantly kissing him, making him stumble back against the stable door. Her hands shook as she framed his cheeks, and he wrapped his hands over hers.

When she pulled back, she was still dazed, looking him over as though he might be an illusion. "Gil! Wh-What are you doing here?! How did you find me?! You have legs?! What-?!"

He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders. "Listen, we don't have much time. I'm getting you out of here. We need a way to escape. Where can I find you later so we can talk?"

She gaped at him for a second before her mind returned to functioning. "Uh... My room! It's guarded at both the door and window, but I can ask the door guard to escort me to the library for a book tonight! That should give you about ten minutes to get in the room!"

"What time?"

"Eleven?"

"That'll work! Wait. Where's your room?"

"You're pretending to be a servant, right? From the servants' quarters go left until you find a staircase. Ignore the next floor, keep going up. The floor with the statue by the staircase is the one you want. Go straight down the hall to your left again, then a right, then another left. My room is the one in between two large flower vases."

They could hear horses approaching the stable, and Eli gave him one last kiss before dragging him behind a hay bale. "Hide! I don't want Father to see you! The ship crew agreed to keep you secret, but if anyone caves and tells, well, you're easy to recognize!"

He opened his mouth to tell her he already met the king but quickly shut it as footsteps grew louder. He ducked to hide as Eli stepped out to meet her company. "Leave me be!" she demanded firmly. "I already told you, I won't be marrying him! Just send him home!"

Gil cringed as he heard a loud slap. He bit his lip as hard as he could to keep himself focused. Focused on later, when he and Eli could meet and discuss their plan... For now, all he could do was listen and not bring attention to himself.

"I didn't raise you this way, you good-for-nothing excuse for a daughter!" Another slap. "You're going to wed Prince Avron regardless of what you want, you hear? Your bitch of a mother couldn't give me a successor, so you'll have to do!"

"You're right, you didn't raise me! You're a miserable bastard who only cares for himself!" Eli fiercely spat back.

Another slap. "You want another one?! I can go all day, Elizabeta!"

"So can I!"

A new voice intervened, that of the prince. "If I may interrupt, I would prefer my bride's face to not be bruised for the ceremony. Let us return to the palace for some tea. Perhaps it will help settle our nerves. We can discuss the wedding later."

"You two go ahead, then! I'm going to ride some-! Let go!"

"You've done enough riding today! Where's that damn stable hand?"

"Right here, Your Majesty!"

Gil jumped at the sound of Ro's voice. When the hell did he come back from his break? Lucky for him the timing couldn't have been better. He peeked out the window to see Ro bringing in the horses as Eli was dragged away by her father, the prince ahead of them. As the clarity of their voices faded, he shakily stood. His body was so tense... It had taken every fiber in his being to resist running out of the stable and ripping into the king like a wild beast.

"Phew... Sorry you had to see that, Gil," Ro apologized, entering the stable. "Seems I returned at the right moment. Scenes like that tend to scare new servants, with good reason." He glanced at Gil's face. "You do seem quite shaken... You alright?"

Giving a strained smile, Gil hid his left hand behind him. He'd dug his nails so deep into his skin he'd started to bleed... No need to concern the old man further. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Just need some fresh air, I think."

"Well, I've had my break. Why don't you take yours now? I'd say you earned it. Ten minutes. Oh! Did you get to speak with Princess Elizabeta?"

"Yeah, I did. Thank you so much! You have no idea how much I appreciate what you did for me today!" Gil gave a quick bow before turning to leave.

The old man chuckled behind him. "What are you bowing to me for? I'm no king!"

"In my eyes, you are today!" Gil called over his shoulder with a grin.

He walked to the water station, his stomach still in knots from watching Eli argue with her father. How could the king treat his own daughter like that? Didn't he have any love for her? Of course he had believed Eli when she told him stories about her father when they were stranded, but seeing it up close made it all the harder to comprehend. Perhaps some humans really were cruel just to be cruel. He knew merfolk probably had some bad eggs like him too, but in general the community in his kingdom watched out for each other. Then again, humans lived in a more complicated society, he was quickly learning.

As he washed his hands and face, he thought about all the fancy things he'd seen in the palace. Did the king really need more of that? That was his reason for trying to marry Eli off, right? Wasn't what he had already good enough? What good was power and riches if you hoarded it all for yourself? As he had been taken to the palace by the mother and child that found him washed ashore, he'd noticed things. The kingdom's people wore simple clothes, patched and frayed. Everyone but the children seemed to be working, and there were even some kids helping the adults with chores. Sure, nobody seemed to be complaining as they walked by, but all it took was a few minutes of observation for Gil to see there was a large difference in the way the humans lived and the way the merfolk lived.

There was always singing and laughter in his own kingdom. Hard work was given to those that volunteered, and those that didn't want to or couldn't were given other ways to contribute. They were tasked with keeping the elder or injured merfolk company, singing for them and reading them stories. They composed new songs and poured over human artifacts, studying them and sharing their research with the others. There were words and pictures in human books that often needed traced over with squid ink to preserve them. They crafted new things from the wreckage materials they found, or took turns teaching the young ones many things. There was something for everyone to do.

And despite Gil and his father being royalty, among the merfolk titles like 'king' and 'prince' were just that, titles. They had leadership roles in the community, made the final call on decisions brought to them, but there was nothing special about them. They had treasure, but it all belonged to the kingdom, not them. Anyone was welcome to see what their kingdom had gathered over the years from the humans and sea. Children marveled over the shiny coins and books. A wedding meant that jewelry was put to good use, and a gift could be selected for the taking upon request. No one was ever denied these things. It was all simply for the merfolk community.

But Eli's father was not a king for his community. He was a king for himself, and only for himself. He relished power. He had the means to provide so much to his kingdom, yet he did absolutely nothing. Nothing but yearn for more riches, even at the cost of his own daughter. Eli was simply a pawn to the king... Her life was shackled by his greed, as were the other countless lives under his rule.

Gil narrowed his eyes at the thought. It was disgusting.

And that was saying something, considering he had just spent a few hours cleaning up shit.


As the time to meet Eli drew closer that night, Gil anxiously waited for time to pass in his room. Unable to relax, he decided to try taking a bath. It was the closest he could get at the moment to swimming. The water was where he felt most comfortable, so maybe it would calm his nerves. He tried to draw the water as close as possible to the temperature he was used to, as full as he could get it. He cursed when some water spilled out as he crawled in, but settling into the water felt too good for him to be too bothered by it.

After washing up he soaked a little, marveling at how strange the water felt against his legs. It was hard to describe, but it just felt different, somehow. He was rather cramped in the bathtub, but he curled up and submerged his head. And immediately brought his head back up, after instinctively breathing only to get water up his nose, causing him to choke.

"That's right, d-damn it..." he sputtered. He grabbed his drying cloth and ran it over his face. "So stupid! How do humans live like this?"

The bath did help in easing his tension, however, and by the time he had to leave he was feeling less anxious and more determined than anything. "Right, let's do this!" He opened his door a crack, didn't hear anyone, and slipped out, gingerly shutting it behind him. His senses were alert as he quietly walked through the quarters, and he breathed in relief when he made it into the hall without a hitch.

He wasted no time in following Eli's directions. Left, staircase, floor with a statue, left, right, left again. The halls were bare with it being late, and luckily he didn't run into anybody even as he reached her room. He admired the flowers by her door briefly before sneaking in.

The room was enticing him to explore it, but he figured he better find a place to hide, in case the guard escorting Eli glanced inside. He saw her bed had sheets hanging down to the floor and he quickly slid underneath, bumping his head as he did so.

Not long after he heard Eli's voice outside the door.

"Thank you very much."

"My pleasure, My Lady."

The door opened and closed, and he heard Eli take a few steps. "...Gil?" she whispered. "Are you in here?"

He wriggled out from under the bed, bumping his head again. Damn thing... "I'm here!" he whispered back, standing and walking over to her.

They embraced each other tightly, both beaming brightly. "I can't believe this! You must tell me everything!" she murmured, pulling back to get a good look at him. "How...? You're human now...?"

"Kind of..." His smile faded as he placed a hand gingerly to her cheek. There was light bruising upon it, and he knew very well what had caused it... "Oh, Eli... I'm sorry I couldn't do anything earlier. It killed me to hear him treating you like that."

She dropped her gaze, suddenly shy as she smoothed her nightgown. "I-It's fine, Gil. If you had done something, you wouldn't be here now. ...I'm used to it." She lifted her eyes to his. "It'll fade by tomorrow morning, anyway. If it doesn't, I'll be dolled up, regardless." She didn't sound pleased as she said this, but before Gil could ask about it she continued with an excited whisper, "But enough about me! You must tell me how you even got here! How you got legs! Everything!"

He smirked and looked to the other end of the room. It was far enough away from the door and window that they could talk there without being overheard. He took her hand and led her to the largely empty sitting area. "Might want to sit. It's kind of a long story."

"Good! I love a long story!" She smirked back as she guided him away from the chairs and instead to the soft rug. "But those chairs are deceiving, horridly hard things my father picked out. The rug is much better for sitting."

Gil gave a small laugh as they sat. "Heh, if you say so!"

And so he proceeded to tell her everything. He told her how his father caught him when she pushed him off the ship.

"I'm so sorry for that, Gil! It was the only way I could think of to save you!"

"It's fine, Eli! Really!"

He told her about the Deep Sea, the sea witches, and his friend.

"He's alive?! And he married one of them?!"

"Yeah! You should have seen my face. The last thing I was expecting to find down there was him!"

Here he skipped over a couple details, deciding they would be better suited for the end of his story. He was enjoying catching up with Eli too much. Even if they had only been apart for a short time, so much had happened.

"And so here I am," he concluded, grinning ear to ear. "Pretty impressive, right?"

She smiled back. "I can't believe this is really real! I can't believe you did all that for me, Gil! I... I honestly thought I would never see you again..." Her smile wobbled as tears formed in her eyes. "It hurt so much to push you off the ship. Watching you fall back into the water..." She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly, her fingers clinging to his shirt. "I didn't want to do it. I wanted to stay with you. For you to stay with me... But I was so afraid of what my father might do to you. He... You saw what he's like. And I'm his daughter. To him, you'd be nothing more than a rare specimen to sell off to the highest bidder."

"You did what you had to, Eli. I'm grateful you did set me free." He broke the hug to dry her tears. "If you hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to make it all this way to save you. You saved me. Now it's my turn to save you, okay?"

She sniffed. "You already saved me, that night of the shipwreck! You could have just called it even and forgotten about me."

He gave her an amused look. "I could never forget you! You're my one and only Eli!"

She giggled and shifted so she could sit back against him. He wrapped his arms around her. "And you're Gil, my knight in shining armor. ...Who's also a merman," she added, making them both laugh.

His laughter faded now that it was time to reveal the full extent of the deal. "So... Eli... About the gift I received from the coven..."

"Somehow I knew there was more than what you told me." She patted his arm. "You told me you were given a black pearl that changed you into a human..."

"Right." He paused, searching for the words. How was she going to react? "It changed me into a human. For three days."

"What?" She pulled his arms from her so she could turn to look at him. She was frowning, confused. "But... How long do you have left then?"

"Just tomorrow. The transformation will wear off at sunset." He searched her eyes, and was alarmed at the sudden fear in them. "What is it?" he asked.

She began to twirl a strand of hair anxiously. "It's just... That doesn't give us much time. We were already going to be pressed for time, but now..."

"What do you mean?"

She looked to him. "Father is making me get married tomorrow. As in, tomorrow... tomorrow."

Gil felt his stomach flip at the news. "So... soon? Weren't you just meeting that guy today?"

"Yes, it was my first time meeting him. But both Father and him agreed to it. I can't do anything to prolong it. I tried everything to make the prince back off but..." She shook her head. "He's convinced I'll warm up to him after the marriage. And he's obsessed with my looks. He wouldn't stop complimenting my beauty the whole time we rode," she remarked, visibly upset. She shivered. "I didn't like the way he looked at me. Every time I caught him staring, I just... Oh, and the bastard kissed me even though I made it perfectly clear I despised him! Ugh!" She twirled her hair faster.

"I saw you kick him off his horse," Gil offered, unsure of what to say. It was one thing for him to think of Eli as beautiful, but they loved each other. For a stranger to make Eli so uncomfortable for thinking the same thing, well, it made him uncomfortable too. Angry, even. "Good for you. Not gonna lie, it made me happy!"

She laughed. "Glad to hear it! But anyway... So about tomorrow. We'll have to either try to escape before or during the ceremony. It might be better to do it during, actually."

"Why's that?"

"The church is where we'll be wed, on the prince's request. He wants a large audience, so to make up for the short notice preventing him from inviting his family and advisors, he's inviting everyone in our kingdom, rich and poor alike. For show, of course. But the church is in the middle of the town. Outside the palace gates and halfway to the docks. It might be the best place for us to escape from." She thought a moment before continuing. "The problem is that we're supposed to be marrying at sunset. And if your transformation comes undone at sunset..."

Gil scratched his head. "Yeah, that's definitely a problem... But another problem is going to be getting close to you during the ceremony. You'll probably be surrounded by guards, won't you?"

Eli nodded. "Definitely. I imagine they'll be posted all throughout the church."

"You said the town will be there? A lot of people might be to our advantage."

"That's true... If we made a run for it in the crowd it'd be harder for the guards or my father to chase us."

"...We'll think of something," Gil assured her. "But there's more to the gift the sea witches gave me. Or should I say gifts?"

"Gifts...?" Eli stared at him. "Just how many surprises do you have left to tell me?"

"Last one, promise!" He straightened his back, his worries about her reaction flooding back to him. "The other gift they gave me... is for you. But only if you want it."

"If I want it? What are you talking about?" She placed her hands on his shoulders. "Just tell me, Gil."

He gazed into her eyes as he found the courage to speak. "The gift they gave you is a white pearl. If you swallow it... You'll become a mermaid. But... The transformation will be permanent."

Eli stared, her mouth opening. She opened and closed it several times, struggling to process his words. "I... I can become a... mermaid...? But it's for the rest of my life...?"

Her reaction scared Gil, as he couldn't read what was going through her mind. But he wanted to make sure she understood the full extent of the transformation. "Yeah... You won't be able to walk ever again. Only swim. You'll get gills so you can breathe underwater. And back fins, and a tail, of course. You won't be able to eat the foods you're used to, either. It'll be what we eat. ...And you'll get the powers a mermaid has, the siren's call. It's... It's a lot to think about, I know-"

He glanced at her.

She was grinning ear to ear.

"It's not a lot to think about, Gil. I love you." She reached a hand to his cheek. "We may have only just met a few days ago, but it feels like we've known each other for years! I feel at peace with you, safe... I'm happy with you! You've truly given me the best moments of my life in such a short time! My heart belongs with you, Gil. Wherever you go, I want you to take me with you. I'll happily leave this caged life behind to be free with you!"

His eyes began to tear up as hers did. "Y-You mean it? You'll become a mermaid? To be with me?"

She nodded happily, her smile only growing. "Of course I will! I love you, Gil!"

"Oh, Eli! I love you!" He kissed her, hugging her closer to him. "I love you, I love you, I love you!"

Their kiss became passionate as they were swept up in joy. She caressed his cheek, then ran her hand down to his chest. He could feel her hand over his heart. She could feel his heartbeat against his chest. As their bodies drew closer and their breathing became warmer, Gil suddenly felt an odd sensation in his pants. He paused to look down.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Why's it doing that?"

Eli laughed, a twinkle in her eye. "You'll see~!" She gave him a playful kiss and gently lowered him to the floor. "It is our last night as humans. We might as well have some fun!"