Eric was late again for her training. Bernard looked at the clock again and back to the trainers. "I'm sure he'll be here in no time at all. You should see him, he's always raving about how much fun this is." The trainers glared at him, all sporting the same menacing glare. "Ok then" Bernard said as he gave up on trying to butter them up.

Finally Eric ran in, out of breath and puffing. The trainers didn't acknowledge this and threw him a sword. "Warm up with the runt" one said as he jerked his head at Bernard.

"Runt?" he questioned, feeling very hurt. But he quickly turned to the task at hand. "So what do you say?" Bernard said as he prepared to fight, "will today be the day that I finally beat you?"

Eric puffed as he drew his sword. "If it is, it's only because I am exhausted."

"Not when I tell the story."

Bernard quickly lunged forward, hoping to take his friend by surprise but Eric had been waiting for this and blocked easily. He tried again but still got the same blocking response.

"So where have you been?" Bernard asked, hoping to distract him. Before Eric had time to answer, Bernard was attacking again. Still Eric was far too skilled.

"Out" he simply said the other tried to recover himself.

"I've heard rumours," Bernard said before once again lunging forward. The talking had to cease as they went into hard combat. No words could be heard over the clanking of swords and both men were to busy concentrating to think of what else to say. This play went on for quite a while until a strong blow from Eric sent Bernard back and they allowed each other a few minutes breathing time.

"The people seem rather smitten with the idea of you and this silver haired girl that you've been seen with. The people were already in love with you but the idea that you could fall in love with one of them makes you so much more relatable. Good tactic my friend."

"I barley know her" Eric said "and why does it matter to the people who I marry."

"I never said marry. You came up with that all on your own. But the people think of you as an actual human being. Unlike your brothers who are these distant creatures. Your father is supposed to listen to the opinion of his people in choosing his heir and the people are definitely in your favour at the moment."

Eric sighed "not everything is a political trick Bernard."

Bernard faked a look of mock shock. "Are you sure?" he asked.

It seemed that warm up time was over as Eric was summoned away.

"Fine" Bernard said to himself. "I'll just have to get my information from a different source."

So the next day he made it his mission to find the girl. Finally asking around town had it's benefits and someone told him where she was staying. The owner mumbled something about her rising at some god-forsaken hour to run off and see Sibra. He then went back to sleep. This caused a halt in Bernard's search. He feared approaching Sibra. Still, it was for the good of his friend, which would ultimately be for the good of Bernard himself.

He knew instantly who the girl was when he entered. She matched the description perfectly. Not only with the silver hair and bright blue eyes, but she was strikingly beautiful.

"Sibra has just gone out for new thread," she told him.

"Actually" he said as he strode in "I'm here to see you."

She looked confused. "I'm a friend of Eric's and was just wondering why you think that it is acceptable to steal my friend for the past two days so that he has been late for every other appointment."

She still looked confused. "I-" she began to say but he cut her off. "Now I know the presence of a royal can excite people and once you've been inside the royal palace you never want to leave-"

"I've never been inside the palace," she said, interrupting him this time.

"Never been inside the palace!" he said with fake surprise. "Well my dear it must be my duty to show you where my friend has obviously lacked hospitality."

"If I'm not back when Sibra returns-" she said looking concerned. "Well you know how she can be."

He shivered at the thought. "Pretend you died" he suggested. She raised an eyebrow and he accepted that his suggestion was a bad one. They had no more planning time as Sibra returned early and narrowed her eyes upon seeing Bernard.

"Now Miss Sibra? Mam? Your scariness?" Bernard said as he attempted to find the right phrase and Ariana held back laughter. "I'm afraid that I must borrow this young lady-"

"Ariana" she whispered.

"Ariana" he quickly recovered his lie "for official royal courtly business that must be taken care of urgently and cannot wait another second so we must be gone immediately. Thank you." And without waiting for her reply he grabbed Ariana's arm and ran off.

"You do realise the conclusions that she'll be jumping too?" Ariana asked as they walked off.

"What's she going to do? Hex me?" he stopped, suddenly afraid. "She can't can she?"

Ariana gave him and unsure look and walked on.

"Today is grading day so at least you'll have some entertainment" he informed her as they reached the palace." In response to her puzzled look he explained. "Grading day is the day where the King observes everything his sons have been learning since the last grading day. He sees them fight each other and learns of any quests or any other interesting things they may have done."

He was beginning to grow bored of her confused stare. Not wishing to explain politics to her he quickly pressed on.

"We even have front row seats" he said happily as they reached the arena. They arrived just in the middle of Eric fighting Edlyn.

"Edlyn is easily the best fighter of all the of them" Bernard whispered to her. This was made obvious as Eric fought as hard as he could but was still taking blows. Someone called for a breather and they were allowed a few minutes break. "Go Eric!" Bernard said, standing up and waving to get his friends attention. Eric stopped to wave back and almost did a double take when he saw Ariana there as well. The fight was called back and Bernard sat back, happily waiting for his plan to unfold.

Sure enough, when they began again, Eric fought harder then Bernard had seen in a long time. Edlyn was clearly weakening fast. "The things men do to impress woman" he mumbled to himself as he watched Edlyn go down and become to exhausted to get back up.

The crowd roared with delight as their favourite was champion. Ezra mouth fell open at how quickly and easily Eric had defeated him. Edlyn refused his brothers help with getting up and walked off, humiliated.

The King looked surprised. Bernard couldn't work out if this was a good surprised or a bad one but either way, at least the King was seeing a different side of Eric. Bernard hoped that the new side the King was seeing would be one of leadership.

As soon as the fight was over Eric did not acknowledge the crowd as his brothers would have to rub in his victory. Nor did he run up to his brothers and tease the over their failure. He was over to the stands in a second and it certainly wasn't to see Bernard.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, surprised, but happy.

"Your friend kidnapped me," she told him.

"I prefer forcefully took someone who wanted to come anyway" he interjected. "Are you all done now? This one needs a tour."

Eric looked at himself. "Give me a second to clean myself up and I'll be right back."

It took more than a second and Bernard quickly grew bored. "We'll start without him. Shall we go?"

So the tour began. Ariana had the same look of wonder in each elaborate room she entered which amused both men every time. All the while, Bernard spoke highly of his friend in every possible manner before he finally graced them with his presence. Bernard tried to hide his look of amusement over how much effort his friend had obviously gone to. Eventually Bernard realised that he must be ruining the mood slightly and excused himself to go "make up excuses to excuse myself in the future."

The previous looks of adoration all paled in comparison to her look when she entered the music room. Merfolk have always loved music but have never been exposed to instruments. She bounded around the room, demanding an explanation of what each instrument was and a demonstration. He couldn't play most of them but she still grew excited by his attempts. The piano was easily her favourite as she bounced up to it and tenderly stroked the keys. Here was an instrument he could play and at her demand played Bach's Arioso. She watched transfixed and found that she was fighting back tears.

"Are you crying," he asked.

"No my eyes are leaking. There's dust in them."

He grew secretive over lunch and asked Bernard to entertain her as he had to do something.

"Trust me," he said as he left.

She looked worried. "I don't think I do," she said.

The time had finally come for Eliza to meet Ariana and Eliza thoroughly enjoyed pulling out the big sister act that she had always wanted to do but had never received the chance. She stood as tall as she could, which admittedly was rather high to appear slightly more intimidating. Ariana feared the cascade of questions that she sensed were coming.

"It is my duty" she began "to ensure that anyone spending time with my little brother is worthy and not some strange sea dweller."

This made Ariana do a double take. "Excuse me" as she panicked at the thought that she knew.

"Well apparently you match the description of his mystery girl who saved him from drowning."

Ariana breathed out in relief. "Well as I explained to him, I don't often swim around the ocean saving drowning Princes. Unless it's a very special occasion. I don't count his drowning as one."

Bernard tried to stifle his laughter as he waited for Eliza's reaction. She thought about this and eventually smiled and let out a little laugh. "I like you" she finally decided.

Eric came back at this point. "Follow me," he told Ariana which naturally meant for Eliza and Bernard to sneak along behind. When they got deeper into the castle and obviously to their destination he told her "close your eyes."

She hated surprises but knew if she didn't do it then someone else would try and cover them for her and that person could die. So unwillingly she closed them and let him lead her in.

"You can open them now."

She gasped as she found herself in a large hall with what appeared to be all of the instruments from the music room and more. Each instrument was accompanied by a musician with plenty of sheet music. "I don't think that I did many of theses instruments justice," he explained. "So I asked around so you can have a decent listen to them.

She ignored her common sense and hugged him. She still took special care to make sure that she wasn't directly touching him and pulled away quickly. Eliza and Bernard were exchanging little smirks on the side which Eric and Ariana ignored.

So for one of the best afternoons she could remember, Ariana experienced a wider range of music then she had experienced in her whole life. She found herself beginning to doubt certain aspects of human life. From all she had seen they were kinder than most merfolk, excluding Florence. They were also nt as stupid as merfolk made out. After all they had created all these instruments whereas merfolk were restricted to their voices. Humans had these too obviously but they had such a wider range. Where merfolk sang with the same beautiful, clear tone, human's voices had so many different aspects while still sounding amazing.

Eric played last. His fingers danced over the keys as he played a beautiful melody. She couldn't take her eyes away. Never before had she felt so happy and safe. Upon realising this, these feeling were instantly replaced with that of fear and dread.

She was in love with a human.

The second he finished she quickly rose. "That was so beautiful but I have to get back now. Charlene has a strict curfew at the inn and it's raining and I just have to go now."

She knew that she was being horribly rude but she had to get out of there. Running as fast as she could, she made it out of the castle. It was here she realised that she didn't know the way and aimlessly searched for a long time as she tried to find her way back.

Finally a familiar building gave her a sign of direction and she made her way back.

Her next problem was that Eric was waiting for her. He didn't have the problem of getting lost like she did. Despite already being sopping wet, she considered running off. Instead she hovered, unsure of her next move. Braving the rain, he ran out to see her. "What's wrong?" he asked "why did you just run off?" Excuses ran through her mind but nothing was even half way decent. "I have literally tried everything I can think of but it's pretty obvious that you are not interested. Or it could be to do with whatever you're not to subtly hiding. But I ignored t because I wanted to be around you. But I guess you don't even want to do that anymore."

"I-" she began as she tried to think of the words. "Maybe we should get out of the rain and this discuss this."

"No I'll lose my nerve," he said, trying to stay angry. "I'm just sick of the secrets and I think it's time you decide what it is you want because-"

She didn't let him finish. Ignoring the pelting rain and the blistering wind, she kissed him. Catching herself early, Ariana quickly pulled away. He had clearly lost his train of thought and didn't know what to say.

"Are you feeling ok?" she asked quickly, scanning for signs of weakness. He shrugged, very confused. He seemed absolutely fine. Ariana stood back, puzzled. Then she looked around her, at the rain. 'Could the water be saving him?' she thought. Thinking back, it was the only logical explanation to how he survived her rescue. What if water could protect him? She stopped thinking and took advantage of the rain, kissing him again. He didn't seem to mind and kissed her back, just as passionately.

Of course they lost track of time. Charlene hadn't as she stood awkwardly on the side, trying to find the right moment to intervene. "I'm sorry to interrupt" she finally called "but you're both going to catch your death of cold." They didn't look like they cared but she was scary when disobeyed so reluctantly they headed inside. It was there they realised how long they had been out there as they saw how saturated the other was and realised that it must be mutual. Charlene fussed around them ordering Ariana to go up and change and wondering what she was going to do about Eric. She yelled for Dale who finally emerged, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and complaining over the late hour. "Get a fire going," she yelled at him "Or get the Prince some clothes."

Dale didn't know what to do. Quickly deciding, he bowed and said "I'm so sorry your highness but I regret that you would not fit my clothes." Charlene sighed and turned to Clay who all the while had been watching the scene fold out with great amusement.

"I'll see what I can rustle up" he said "but I can't guarantee that it won't be gin soaked."

While Eric was drying himself by the fire Dale approached him. "I'm not sure what the situation is with Ariana and her Father but he's definitely not here so I think the task falls to me on making sure that your intentions are good. I've grown rather fond of the girl actually." This really surprised Dale as he realised that he was speaking the truth. He was used to serving drunken fools who would be horrifically rude and, with the exception of Clay, be gone the next morning. For the past days Ariana had always made him smile as she came bounding down the stairs. Her manners were a refreshing shock for him and both he and Charlene had expressed their wish to each other that she stay longer. Not that they would say this to her face. Both liked to keep up an image of not liking anyone.

"It makes it so much sadder when they leave" Charlene would say.

"It gets all disgusting and emotional," Dale would say.

But despite past claims, Dale found he was playing the fatherly figure for Ariana and wondering why he had to do this to a Prince who could easily have him beheaded.

Eric didn't seem to mind but was rather amused instead. "I assure you sir that my intentions are noble" he said.

Clay ran back in but stopped disappointedly when he saw them talking. "Did you start the grilling without me" he whined but quickly snapped into action. Drawing himself up to his full height, which was not very tall and sauntered up to Eric. "Official unofficial brother, reporting for duty" he announced. "I have not known Ariana long but in the brief period we have been friends I have taught her some very important life skills and protected her from countless dangers. Now the current danger is you." Clay tried to look intimidating but the fact that he barley reached Eric's shoulders threw off his element of fear.

It didn't matter that the life lessons he had taught her were gambling and how to remain upright when drunk. He still thought he had the right to interrogate anyone who dared think they could take his precious official unofficial sister away.

"Well then I guess I should tell you both that I too, in the short space of a few days have gained strong feelings for Ariana and also never want to see her hurt. I promise to never do anything that would cause her harm and if I go back on this promise I give you permission to rearrange my face."

Clay seemed happy with this arrangement. The thought of punching a Prince excited him. The thought of punching any one excited him. He had problems.

"I'm still not convinced" Dale decided. "How do I know that this whole thing isn't just some silly rouse so that you can be King?"

Eric was shocked. "Why would I do something like that?"

"Your brothers have done worse."

"Well that's my brothers, not me. And I would never do something like that to anyone, least of all someone I love-"

He stopped as he realised what he said. Clay was trying his best not to burst out laughing at the awkwardness of the conversation. "Well I guess I'm convinced. Are you Ariana?"

Eric slowly turned to see her at the top of the staircase. "Just to confirm" Clay said to her "you can hear everything we say from up there cant you?"

"Sure can," she said, keeping the same shocked expression the whole time.

Dale grabbed Clay's arm. "Come help me with something upstairs." It took some dragging to get Clay away. "You two get warm by the fireplace."

Eric was internally punching himself for proclaiming his love like that. Now she'll get scared off and he would hate himself forever. Cautiously she walked forward as both tried to figure out what to say.

He decided that a change of subject would be the way to approach her. "How about I ask you something about yourself and you answer the best you can without giving anything about your precious secret?" Hesitantly she agreed and he thought of what to ask. It had to be something not too personal or she would once again get scared off.

"Tell me about your family" he finally decided.

"Well I have a really big one. I lose track of my siblings but most of them are only half siblings anyway. My father gets bored quickly. I am the youngest for now but you never know with him. Don't ask who my mother is, I couldn't tell you. Because I honestly don't know. I never thought to ask. I kind of raised myself with the help of some older siblings."

"So I guess you don't like your Father?"

"Hate is a better word" she said bluntly. "I have Florence, who is like a father, brother and friend. Except he says he can't stand me. He lies, I think."

And so they talked all night. She told him as much as she dared and felt a lot better without the lies. Occasionally she would have to leave him with no answer at all but these times were rare. Eventually she figured she would answer him with her eyes closed, just to give them a break. Charlene's footsteps awoke her as she tried to silently tiptoe around them.

"Good you're up" she said, disregarding all attempt at silence.

"When did that happen?" Ariana said, rubbing her eyes.

Eric stretched "I lost track. You stopped replying and I let you sleep."

Charlene was quickly tugging Ariana up. "Well since you're awake you should go get some actually sleep in actual bed. You too Sire, I prepared a room for you. And if there is anything sneaky going on, remember, the floors creak, and I have a frying pan."