If You Love Something
His portion of the ocean wasn't traversed much by mankind. On occasion, there were the massive boats and frigates that carried fleets of humans at a time; sometimes there were smaller ones with strange, blinking equipment attached to the bottom of the hull. But it had been many a year since such a small, more primitive boat passed over his waters. Of course he was instantly curious, as merfolk tended to be, and this arrival broke the mundane ins-and-outs of everyday life – but it had been very, very long since he had seen a human up close.
Following his curious nature, Alfred followed the small vessel over the course of a day. He swam close enough to the hull to touch the bottom as it skimmed along the waves. Where were they going? He wondered to himself; who was on this tiny boat in the middle of the ocean? It would take days to cross his waters at this meandering pace, and Alfred fully intended on finding out as much as he could to stave off his boredom for weeks to come.
On the second day Alfred was sure that there was but one person on the boat. He had spotted their shadow cast in the glimmering sunlight on the water's surface. He had caught sight of the bumbling form as it fought for balance on deck in the choppy waters.
Sometimes the women joined him in his stalking, splashing about the water near the boat in play, and humming gentle melodies that carried softly though the water. At one point their fun was quickly put to an end when one mermaid, whose tail was the color of the velvet evening sky, splashed too close and garnered the attention of the human on board. They all dived down, deep enough to remain unseen, but close enough to see the images distorted in the watery ocean surface. The merfolk grouped together in anticipation, a few of the women swimming in hapless, agitated circles.
It was then that Alfred saw the human's face for the first time, lively and beautiful as it stared into the depths – and he vowed it would not be the last.
Constantly the human's image would plague his idle mind. The long face and squared jaw, golden hair that seemed to sparkle and dance on the water's surface; but most of all, he thought about the wide, curious green eyes. The color was as simple as the kelp all around him, but there was something different about the human's color, something intelligent, something new.
And Alfred decided he must have it.
The following days were spent scheming and fantasizing, pulling mischief on the human and daydreaming about his ends and means. The women, at his bidding, began to push large rocks from the ocean's bottom into the motor of the boat, hooking old, tired chains and ropes from ships sunk long ago to the small emergency ladder and pulled the craft off course slowly.
In the meantime Alfred kept to himself, weaving the currents and undercurrents between his fingers, gathering his strength and wit and power from the ocean that he governed. And as he waited, he thought. He would obtain this human, make it his, and do as he pleased. But what? There was something so exotic about humans, and it had been nearly a half century since he had seen one, but they were strange. It was something about their legs and the shapes of their feet, how their hands lacked webbing and enjoyed lacing their fingers together. He wanted to remember what that dry skin felt like, to see how well those human's legs worked, he wanted to hear the crisp voice that had been in air all its life.
And it had been even longer since he had courted. The women here bored him, he knew it, they knew it, and they all went about their days. Sometimes the women left him to trick sailors from their ships, sometimes they came back, and sometimes new ones replaced them. Women had the freedom and he the power.
But he could make the human stay, make the human love him and become his mate as the women did as they pleased.
On the fifth day Alfred began his enchantment.
The ocean itself was a mystical, powerful place. He took the threaded currents, the feeling of life and power of water, into his hands and bound it together. All he needed was the human's name and its acknowledgement of his existence – as a part of the ocean, as something greater, as its mate and ruler, and the human would be bound to him, by magic of the ocean and by the will of his own.
With the enchantment's terms set firmly in his mind, he made his way to the lost boat, pulling himself up the side and peering discreetly onto the deck. The human was as gorgeous and strange as his memory served, if not more so. Alfred watched patiently, waiting until the human went into the hull, fumbling over navigational charts. He seized the moment of absence to haul himself further up, grasping the boats' railings, and snatched the human's forgotten journal.
He was lucky, somehow, that the ink didn't bleed, or that the pages didn't tear as he fumbled through them beneath the waves. Humans had come a long way since he last remembered, but his thoughts were derailed when he finally found what he was looking for amongst all the unfamiliar terms and scientific notes:
"Researcher Arthur Kirkland"
Alfred couldn't wait to his his name ghosted wantonly from the human's pink lips.
Unimportant Notes: Hi guys! It's day three, and I hope you're starting to see the trend. :) (Also sorry for the short chapters, but this is what I write in a day while out on vacation to keep myself occupied while road tripping. x.x)