Soar

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His eyes were dead set on the world in front of him. With each mile, his eyes raked over the landscaping, never focusing on his surroundings. He wore a smile-one that held satisfaction laced in bliss. He could soar the skies for days and never tire, for the sky signifies freedom. It always had. In the sky, all his problems vanished, as did memories. She loved watching him. On multiple occasions she wondered what it was like to take off into the clouds and look at everything from such an outstanding distance.

The thought sent tingles along her skin. She dreamed of touching the clouds and reaching for the stars with only miles in between her and the fiery rock. Sometimes Jim lost himself in tales of his adventures among the galaxy. Ariel always listened intently, allowing her imagination to take in the details and create their own scene.

A loud call of triumph sounded from above her. With a grin and a laugh she gave him a wave as he flew ahead.

She lifted her feet out of the ocean, and drew them upon the pier, pulling her knees to her chest. Her eyes followed him until he accelerated into the clouds and disappeared from view.

The mid-day ocean breeze wrapped around her, twisting and knotting her fiery auburn hair; pulling her attention to the darkening ocean ahead of her. The familiar scene drew a sigh out of her. Even with her fins gone and her human form permanent, sometimes she still felt trapped. She wished to distance herself from the ocean as well as its view. Perhaps that would chase away her ocean blues, or maybe the feeling rooted deeper than she thought.

As of late, the former mermaid felt a hidden eye's watchful gaze upon her. Her instincts felt it to be her father, and she believed it was. The thought infuriated her. Countless times he had promised her privacy, yet she always found in some way he was there. She may have never caught her father watching over her, but she knew he was out there.

Her father didn't care for Jim, although he had grown to tolerate him for her sake. He branded him reckless, and also hated the young man's yearn for adventure. Her father wanted her with a man set in his ways, a man with a watchful eye--the keep your wife at home type of man. Of course, not just any man, a merman.

She rolled her eyes at the thought of the men her sisters drooled over. Most were overly confident, raising their heads in pride of their riches, or assets. Many focused on their looks more than a mermaid ever could. Ariel wanted a man deeper than that, someone who cherished the small things, like she in her human treasures. When she came across Jim, that's what she found. He had a rough surface, yet beneath it, he held a heart of love. He found joy in assisting those around him. He longed for freedom, like herself and took pride in creating mechanisms larger than himself. She liked to admire him lost in his work, she found an attractiveness in it, and a subtle calm.

The familiar sound of a motor cutting out drew her attention out of herself and toward her reality. Jim was descending quickly, his arms sprawled out on either side of him as he spun and twisted, gravity pulling him faster and faster. Her feet pushed herself up quickly; her hands joining as she brought them towards her chest.

She was very familiar with this move, he preformed it before every landing, always. Having seen it many times, it still made her blood run cold. "What if's" slammed against her skull as he closed in on the ocean. Only twenty feet above the water, he opened the sails of his Solar Surfer and cranked the engine back to life.

She let out a sigh she hadn't realized she was holding in and dropped her hands to her sides weakly. Jim wore a grin as he headed for the pier. She shook her head as a smile found her lips. He sped past her and leapt off his Solar Surfer, his boots tossing the white sand of the beach up in his wake. He held onto his surfer before powering it down and laying it upon the sand.