by Walleye
“Good morning, Richards.” He said as the portly chamberlain slipped through the opening bedroom door.
Richards hid his surprise well. “Good morning, young master. You are certainly up early today. Is there something I should know about?”
“No. No. There isn’t.” ‘At least not yet.’ He thought.
“Good morning, master.” Phillips declared as he also came through the door and went to the wardrobe. He turned to face Johnathan by the wardrobe. “Are we swimming again today?” He opened the left side of the wardrobe to display the familiar robes.
“Yes. I’ll take the blue this time.” Red was a violent color and wearing it might scare the mermaid off. That was the last thing he wanted.
He wondered if he should take some breakfast to offer her but decided against it. If she was still there, he needed to build some trust first. Besides the books only mentioned fresh fish as a mermaid’s preferred food. He picked up the slate and a piece of chalk he’d laid out on a table by his bed last night and headed out to see if she had agreed to see him.
As he approached the river he found himself hurrying up, almost into a jogging trot. He forced himself to calm down and slow down to a more leisurely pace. If she was here at the pool, he didn’t want to scare her away.
Before he had gone more than half way there something growled ferociously at him from the brush. “I don’t have time for this. Rrrrr.” He growled. He stood and faced the bush. “Either attack or go away.”
An ogre shambled out. It was nearly as tall and muscled and carried a great big club. It raised the club and roared at him. It was naked and hairy and its breath was more horrible than its disgusting body looked.
Fully the beast for the moment he stepped forward and unleashed an uppercut that cut off its roar as its head snapped backwards. He snatched the heavy wooden club out of its lax hand as it staggered back shaking its head and with both his paw-like hands gripping the handle he broke the monster’s skull with one swing.
The ogre fell backwards and slumped onto the ground with blood pouring from its cracked skull. It quivered once and then laid still.
With a look of disgust at the mess he’d created he grabbed the dead ogre by its arm, spun it around him three times and threw it out of his sight. Even as the crash of its distant landing came to him, he was brushing off his paws.
“Let that be a warning to the rest of you.” He growled to any unseen watchers.
The nearest bushes shook and gave the impression of other creatures fleeing as fast as they could. He nodded his head. “Now you’re being smart.” He turned, picked up the slate and chalk and continued on his way, feeling much better. He paid no attention to the sounds of active feeding off the ogre’s carcass.
He was glad that his wizard Garland had put protective spells on the people who farmed his land and lived in the villages that he protected and it was good that most of the monsters were confined by magic to within a mile of the river. Otherwise no one could have lived here in his kingdom and farmed successfully.
When he got to the pool he put the slate and chalk in the pavilion and went to the beach. As he leaned over and looked he could see the ring was gone, but did that mean she would talk with him or had something else taken it?
He took a breath and called out. “I see you took my ring. Does that mean you want to talk?” Silence was the only response. He asked hopefully. “Is there anyone there?”
There was more silence in answer. Maybe a bird or something had taken the ring. “Please.” He pleaded. “I’m lonely and I just want to talk. Is there anyone there?”
More silence. She was probably gone. “I thought you were beautiful and I just wanted to hear you sing again.” Enough. He was starting to sound as desperate as he felt. He sadly began to turn around.
“You actually find me beautiful?” Her voice asked tentatively from the river pool just behind him.
He swung around, causing the blue robe to swirl around his kneecaps, and gasped. She was rising out of the water almost twenty feet in front of him. She stopped when the water reached her waist and they looked each other over.
She saw the contorted muscular yellow-haired body beneath the blue robe, the bear clawed feet, the biting jaws, the curly horns and the four fangs. He was definitely a monster but there was something about him that said to her. ‘I’m much more than you can see.’
This was confirmed by the way he held himself and the feelings reaching her from his deep blue eyes. Her grandmother had once said. “Child, through the eyes you can see into a person’s heart.” His eyes were telling her he wanted to be a friend.
He himself saw one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. ‘Well, at least her upper half.’ He amended. ‘If you don’t look at her lower half.’
He chided himself. ‘You, a beast, are finding fault with someone who still looks mostly human? Get a grip.’ He looked closer at her glossy blond hair, high cheekbones, soft red lips and deep green eyes that seemed to tell a story of the ocean depths. He looked down and saw her chest bound up with a soft red cloth. She was most definitely a woman and quite beautiful.
Where had anyone gotten the idea that mermaids wore seashells on the fronts of their bodies? That would never work as hard shells would cut the mermaid’s sensitive flesh. He suspected that the pictures of mermaids with seashell bras had come from male artists who had wanted to emphasize their female attributes.
Like all those men he was male and he couldn’t help noticing breasts on women and hers seemed to fit her very well. He didn’t let his gaze linger but drifted it down to her lower body. From what he could see of her body below the surface of the clear water that she had a strong blue-green fish tail which was fanning back and forth to keep her upright.
He heard her start to awkwardly clear her throat and realized that he had never answered her original question and he’d better do it quickly. “Yes, you are beautiful.” He declared fervently. “In fact you are one of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
She blushed and like all women he’d ever met her skin flushed red. “Thank you.” She declared softly. “But I think that you’re trying to flatter me. Back at my father King Proteus the Third’s palace whenever someone says things like that to me, then I know they want something from me or from my immediate family”
My God. She was royalty. She was a princess. He needed to apologize. He sketched a bow. “I’m sorry. If I seem to be flattering you, Princess, it’s because I do want your company. But it’s not just flattery alone. I can only tell you what I feel and that I enjoyed your singing out there on the rock in the river.”
She smiled. “I accept your apology and I will admit to being lonely too. But I can’t believe you find my singing something that you would want to hear. My sisters say my singing is so bad that I could only charm a toadfish and they croak something terribly.”
“Oh yes. I do want to hear your singing.” He hastened to reassure her. “Ever since I was cursed I’ve heard only the screams of women and not their songs or kind words.”
She frowned. “You say you were cursed. Pray tell me what or who you were before you were cursed.”
It was time and he had to go carefully so as to not frighten her. He made her another bow. “My name is Johnathan Harkins. I am a duke and a prince and heir of the Harkins Kingdom as well and now I am as you see me.” He spread his paws. “Cursed to have the likeness of a monster or what some have called a beast.”
“What should I call you then? You have so many titles.” She asked with a frown.
He chuckled. “You can just call me Johnathan or John if you desire. Let’s not stand on formality here. But my rudeness is showing. You are obviously a princess but what is your name?”
“I’m sorry.” She said. “I should’ve told you. My name is Maryellen Oceanide and I am the third Princess in line to the throne of the Mermaid Kingdom, but you may call me just Maryellen.”
“I will.” He said with a nod. “But I have to know. What was the name of
the song I heard you singing earlier?”
She smiled as she remembered. “It has no formal name. It’s a lullaby that my mother used to sing to me. To me it is Mother’s Song. I sing it in remembrance of her.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” He said. There didn’t seem to be anymore that he could say without sounding inane.
“You couldn’t have known so don’t feel bad.” She reassured him.
She swam closer and he could see how beautiful she truly was with her shiny blond hair and her deep green eyes which seemed to peer deeply beneath his beastly form to see the gentle soul that resided there.
She continued. “My mother died when I was eight and my father says there was dark magic involved. She’s been gone over ten years, but I still miss her very much.”
She frowned. “Speaking of magic, I will admit to being curious as to why you were cursed to be a beast.”
Here it came and he couldn’t distract her from it. He leaned forward and confided. “By the rules of the enchantment I can only tell you so much. Part of my punishment is for me to find someone to help me break the curse but I can never tell anyone who was not there in my castle the day it happened what must be done. As to why I was cursed, I can only tell you that I did a very cruel, arrogant and stupid thing.”
“But who would curse you so?” She asked with a frown.
He sighed. “I ran afoul of one of the Sidhe. With my luck it was one of the most powerful of them all, a daughter of their queen Elphame. The daughter’s name is Princess Elrith and she has a terrible temper as she would not accept my apologies. She made it such that I can never be human again until the curse is lifted. That was three years ago and when I awake I pray every day to be human once more.”
The mermaid looked sad. “I will pray that you will find what you’re seeking.”
She came even closer and now he could see her lower fish body clearer. It was green colored and very muscular but in a sexy way. He realized that she was beautiful in her own way and that in her the woman and fish parts blended perfectly. He found that he needed desperately to know more about her.
“Now maybe you’ll answer some questions I have.” He said.
“If I can.” She replied, wondering how much the magic controlling this tale would let her say to him.
He decided to ask her one question that had come up in his earlier research. “With a last name of Oceanide am I right that you were born in the ocean? From what I’ve read it seems there are both fresh water and oceanic mermaids.”
She frowned. “The women who live in freshwater that you called mermaids are actually called naiads. They are minor goddesses who are bound magically to their parent body of water and can never leave them.”
“The women with fishtails that you would encounter in the Mediterranean are called Nereids. I on the other hand was born in the Atlantic Ocean as an Oceanide and the correct term for me is indeed a mermaid.” She declared proudly.
He frowned. “Now I’m puzzled. If you were born in the Atlantic what are you doing here in the Shane River?”
She paused, wondering how much she should tell him. But then she decided to tell him what she could as he had gifted her with his story.
She began. “To understand why I’m here you have to know something about my family. My Father, King Proteus the Third, does not dislike humans like some have claimed. He wanted his daughters when we turned fifteen to go to the surface and study humans and learn about them. He did this because the numbers of humans venturing on the sea has greatly increased and he wanted us to understand humans and their ways to reduce conflicts with them.”
“Now I have five sisters, two of which are older than me. My two older sisters went to the surface and were very cautious. Both of them just watched from a distance and avoided contact. But when I went I wanted to see and do more than they had.”
“As a result I ventured up the big river that empties into the Atlantic many miles south of here. I got to see some children at play in a stream flowing into the river and I met something the children called a dog. He even gave me a lick of his tongue when I ventured close.”
He laughed. “That sounds like most dogs. It meant he liked you.” He leaned forward to confide to her. “I, myself, have dogs. In fact I have a whole pack of them. I’d love to show them to you.” He told her. “If you want I could bring some of them sometime. I think you’d have fun playing with them in the water.
“I’d love that.” She replied with a smile. “I liked the little black dog. In fact I liked him so much that when I came of age and could make my own decisions, I swam back up the river, wanting to see more of humans and their dogs.”
“It was during these explorations that I encountered the magic river and I, I, met, met…”She frowned in confusion. “Something won’t let me tell you what happened.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s got to be due to the darn magic of the fairytale. I bet you are cursed just like me.”
“I guess you could call it a curse.” She said with a frown. “The curse forced me up the river and into this pool and, and…” She gave him a look of frustration. “I can’t say why but I am stuck here until I do something.”
He nodded. “It’s the curse all right. It won’t let you leave until you do what it wants and it won’t let you tell anyone much about it.”
“But I don’t know what it wants me to do.” She complained. “That just doesn’t seem right. It would be so much easier if it told me everything.”
He sighed. “I fully understand and appreciate your frustrations as they are very similar to mine own. “Your curse in some ways is as bad as mine.”
“In what way?….” She started to say but she was interrupted by three blasts of a horn from the castle. “What’s that?” She asked as she looked in the direction of the castle in puzzlement.
He looked back in irritation towards the distant castle. “It means they want me to come back to take care of my duties as Duke or Prince. Unfortunately those duties are going to consume the rest of my day when I’d rather spend the time with you.”
With a sigh he got to his feet. “It was very nice talking to you, Maryellen. Let’s continue this tomorrow morning.”
I’m looking forward to it.” She said with a smile.
“I’ll see you then.” He replied with a grin. Then he remembered the slate and chalk. “Just a moment. I have something for you.”
He went back to the pavilion and from inside he retrieved the slate and the chalk. He returned and handed it to her.
She turned it over in her hands and looked up with a puzzled expression on her face. “What is this?”
He took the slate and the chalk and demonstrated for her. “You write on the slate using the chalk. You can leave me a message by leaving the slate on the river bank if you need to.” He said, but wondered if she could write. If she couldn’t, then this wouldn’t work at all.
She answered that by taking the slate and writing something on it. She turned it to face him. She had written. This is fun. “Like this?” She said with a grin.
“Perfect.” He said with a smile.
She looked down at the ring on her thumb. She plucked it off and held it out to him. “I assume you want your ring back.”
He shook his head. “Keep it as a symbol of trust. I can see though that it doesn’t even fit your thumb. I’ll bring a chain so you can wear it about your neck.”
Thank you.” She replied with a bow and a smile that sent his heart fluttering. It had been too long since he’d had a friendly conversation with such a beautiful woman.
Just then the trumpet sounded again. He waved to her. “Again it was nice meeting you, Maryellen.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, John.” She said with a smile and a return wave.
As she watched him walk away she thought that it was nice to have someone to talk to who had an understanding of the problems and responsibilities of a member of the royalty. She was looking forward to continuing thi
s conversation as there were so many things she wanted to ask him about being human.
She was pleasantly surprised when he returned the next morning with the chain and after he had strung the ring on the chain and had put the chain about her neck, they spent an enjoyable two hours discussing the differences between human and mermaid societies. They both discovered that their societies were not all that different as both were feudal and based on hereditary monarchies.
The next morning he returned with one of his hunting dogs named Ivory but this meeting did not go as well as he hoped. Ivory kept growling at the stranger in the water and trying to defend his master and when tied to the tent poles he kept up a constant barking.
Finally in disgust Johnathan gathered up the dog’s leash and told her. “I’m sorry this did not work out like I thought it would. I’ll check with the kennel master to see if there is a friendlier dog I could bring.”
“Thank you for trying.” She replied with a sad shrug. It was too bad that he didn’t have a dog like that little black one.
As soon as he got back to the castle Johnathan went to Kenneth his kennel master. “I need a people friendly dog to introduce a young woman to. Do you have one?”
The thin man scratched his balding head. “I have one. I’d trust Queenie with anyone. She’s so darn friendly that my kids play with her all the time.”
“Good. I’ll take her next morning.” Johnathan replied.
“I’m sorry, Master, but Queenie is raising her puppies and when separated from them her only thought is to get back to them. She needs another three weeks.” The kennel master replied.
Johnathan sighed. “All right. Bring her to me when she’s ready.”
The next day he returned to the pool and told Maryellen his plan, that he would bring the little black and white dog, Queenie, to meet her after Queenie had weaned her puppies.
She replied. “I can’t wait.” She hoped Queenie would be like the little black dog that she’d met on her first trip up the river.
On his continuing trips to see her he found that he needed to get wet before he returned to the castle so that they wouldn’t get suspicious about what he had been doing and at first he just splashed water on himself as he hesitated to get in the water with her not sure how she would react but finally when he felt they were building a connection he asked. “Do you mind if I take a swim with you here in the river?”
