Attina caught up with Anaya just outside Ares' premises. She raised her index finger to her lips and then opened the doorway. Her eyes found a sleeping Ares, as she had hoped. Calmly he breathed in and out, but still wore a pained expression.
"Is he still in pain?" the little one asked her friend's mother.
"Unfortunately, yes. It will probably be a while before he can play with you again," she answered Anaya, stroking her head comfortingly.
"May I come and visit him until then?" asked Anaya, using all her childish charm again.
Attina laughed briefly when she saw this and then nodded.
"How could I say no to that. But you must promise me not to encourage him to do anything rash. Ares has been prescribed strict bed rest by the doctor," she agreed.
"All right, I promise," the little mermaid agreed.
The voices of the two seemed to have got through to Ares, for the next moment they heard a low grumble from his direction. When she turned her gaze back to the crown prince, he was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and yawned once, long and persistently.
Anaya giggled at Ares, who then blinked a few times, puzzled, until he spotted his girlfriend in front of him and a broad grin found its way onto his face.
"Anaya!" he exclaimed happily.
"Hey, Ares," she greeted him perkily.
Ares was about to push the doctor's words into the current when he was met by his mother's admonishing gaze. He quickly thought better of it and remained calmly in place.
"Good to see you," he said instead.
"I was afraid for you, don't swim away alone again next time. Maybe if I'd been there it wouldn't have come to this," she spoke up.
"I probably won't swim anywhere at all and what could you have done?", Ares then buried himself in self-pity.
"Don't say things like that!", Attina got angry.
"Why? It's true, isn't it? Without Phobos' help, I wouldn't even have come home!" he argued defiantly.
Attina didn't know what to say in response, so she remained silent.
"Don't lose hope, Ares. If you give up before you've even tried, you can't know how it will turn out," the little girl spoke. Attina admired her words, for in her younger years she had known how to find just the right ones where she herself lacked them. She was really glad that Ares was lucky to have such a good friend. She had no regrets about bringing the little mermaid here. She watched the two of them interact with pleasure.
"Mum, where is Phobos now?", Ares suddenly wanted to know from her.
"Phobos... Well... So...", she stuttered uncertainly to herself.
"Did you scare him away?!", Ares was indignant.
"No we didn't, but I haven't seen him since he carried you here. I think he swam back home where he belongs. It's for the best, too. You shouldn't be seen with a ray anymore, Ares. It would not be good for your reputation. Only sea people of bad character surround themselves with them," his mother explained her view of things.
"Phobos is not like that. He saved me. Yet you condemn him. Who has bad character here?", Ares accused them.
Attina was struck hard by her son's words, he was right in what he said, but everything in her refused to give in. The legends and rumours about dark sea creatures, whose helpers were almost always from the same species as Phobos, were too entrenched.
"Find him and bring him to me!", Ares' command snapped her out of her torn thoughts.
"Don't take that tone with me, Ares!" she admonished him.
"Please," he subsequently softened his statement.
Not at all convinced that the word was meant seriously, Attina hesitated to comply with the request.
Attina's deliberation tried Ares' patience too much, so he let out an angry snort.
"Are you serious, mama? I just want to thank him. We should all be thanking him, mind you! But you're just going to send him away like that? Just because his family's reputation is bad. Do you think that's fair?" he asked accusingly.
Attina searched for the right words to support her view, but Ares was right, it wasn't fair to treat the ray like that. He had done nothing wrong, no more than that, he had done something she would never have expected. To ever see a ray act so unselfishly was almost incomprehensible to her. But had it really been unselfish? Wasn't he just trying to gain her trust? In the end, was he perhaps a spy for this sea witch? Attina just couldn't get rid of her mistrust. Even though she might be doing Phobos an injustice, her fear of Ares being drawn into something that would be anything but good for him was simply too great.
"You will have no further contact with each other," she stipulated and motioned Anaya to follow her out. She had to remain consistent in this matter and it was clear to her that Ares knew exactly which buttons to push with his mother in order to get his way in the end. So she couldn't give him any more opportunities in this regard and thought it best to leave him alone in his room for the time being.
"Swim home, Anaya. It's getting late, your parents will worry," she urged the little mermaid when she had regained her composure.
"Yes, all right. I'll be back first thing in the morning though," she clarified and said goodbye to Attina.
Anaya hurried through the grand entrance of the royal palace and headed for her parents' house. When she was sure that Attina could no longer see her, however, she made a break for it and swam out onto the reef.
She wanted to please Ares when she visited him again the next morning. So she swam straight towards one of the large sea grass meadows. She picked some of the most beautiful underwater plants and finally tied them together into a pretty little bouquet. She did not notice how two interested eyes followed her.
Phobos had not expected one of the inhabitants of Atlantica to stray so far from the city at this late hour. Especially not such a young girl. The little mermaid, however, did not seem to have spotted him. Warbling cheerfully to herself, she picked one plant after the other until she had put together a small bouquet. The young ray was unsure whether he should dare to draw attention to himself. In the end, however, his curiosity and the urge to know how the boy he had been carrying all these hours was doing prevailed. Maybe she could tell him something about it?
As expected, she was terrified when he rose from the sand. He must have seemed like a sea monster floating up from a deep sea trench. Enveloped by the cloud of sand that had covered him before, he must have made a terrible impression.
With a shrill scream, it fled behind a large red coral. From there she eyed him appraisingly. When the fine sand had settled again, her eyes grew wide. Slowly she moved out of her hiding place again.
"Phobos?" she asked incredulously.
Confused, he just continued to stare at her. How did she know his name?
"I am Anaya, a friend of Ares," she introduced herself from a distance, waiting for a retort.
A friend of Ares, the young ray repeated in his mind. Could he really be so lucky?
"You're the ray who brought him here, aren't you?" she asked uncertainly after he still didn't answer.
He realised that her initial trust was slowly turning into suspicion, so he struggled to finally answer her. Not getting a word out, he finally nodded gently at her.
A glow formed on the other's face as she recognised his approval.
"Oh, that's wonderful. I've found you. That's super! That's the best surprise I can give him," she gushed instantly.
Phobos didn't understand what she was talking about, but the fact that she was so happy to see him created a feeling he had never known before and he liked it. He liked it very much. He never wanted to miss it again.
"You mustn't swim home," Anaya demanded of him. Since he had not intended to do so anyway, it was not difficult for him to nod again in agreement.
Again she burst into cheers. Phobos gathered his courage and slid closer to her. As he drew his circles tighter and tighter around her, she began to spin around her own axis and clap her hands. She laughed at him continuously. The laughter was contagious and soon he heard his own echoing through the waves.
"How is Ares?" asked Phobos, coming to a stop in front of her.
The question caused her laughter to fade. Regret settled on her features before she answered him, "He's in a lot of pain and afraid he'll never be able to swim again. He wanted to see you so badly, but his mother forbade it."
It stung Phobos not one but three times in his heart to hear this. All his hopes were dashed in one fell swoop. The prince was in a bad way, it would probably never really get better and he was not tolerated here. The queen, at least Phobos assumed that Ares' mother was the queen, after all her son was the crown prince, had decided that he had no business being near her son. He would have to leave Atlantica, as he had feared.
"Don't make that face! I think we're painting things worse than they really are at the moment. We'll visit Ares tomorrow morning, then you can make up your own mind," she encouraged him.
"We?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, of course. You'll be the surprise I bring him. It's a thousand times better than these flowers, he wouldn't have liked them anyway," she laughed, leaving the bouquet to the current.
"But, the queen doesn't want me near Ares, does she?" he asked .
"The queen?" asked Anaya, before a light dawned on her. Again she laughed, but this time she laughed at him. Phobos gave an annoyed snort as he understood this. Anaya quickly regained her composure, however, and wiped a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," she regretted her tactlessness and tried to defuse the situation by explaining herself, "It's just that she's a princess, not a queen. It wasn't nice of me to laugh at you for that, after all you can't know any better. Will you forgive me?"
"Hm... I don't know yet," Phobos played the offended, but he couldn't resist Anaya's eye glare for long either. She batted her eyelashes at him and put on an adorable smile that had him bursting into laughter a little later as well.
"Fine, what's the plan? How are you going to get me near the palace? And even more so into the royal chambers?" he wanted to know from her.
"You let me worry about that. Just be right back here in the morning," she said dismissing the challenge with a dismissive hand gesture and then pointed her index finger at the seabed below.
Phobos nodded in anticipation.
"Is that all right for you to stay out here overnight?" she wanted to know from him before she could say goodbye to him in good conscience.
"Sure, I'm used to being alone. Don't worry about it," he assured her.
"Good, then it's settled. At the first ray of sunshine, I'll pick you up here and then we'll visit Ares," she instantly bubbled over again.
"Exactly," Phobos agreed with her.
"Good night, Phobos," she said goodbye.
"Good night, Anaya," he countered. Again a feeling seized him that he had never heard before. Was this what it felt like to have friends? If it was, he vowed, he would do everything in his power to strengthen and preserve this friendship.