Guess who's still drowning in schoolwork?? (Me!!)
Guess who's neglecting said schoolwork and writing?? (Me!!)
So I have been reviewing the past few chapters and inwardly cringing. I'm not used to writing in present tense, so it seems as though I have relapsed to past tense every now and then. I blame it on the sleep deprivation, and I will do edits after the story is done, promise. Trust me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left it as rough as it is now. Characters are still doing what they want, but the story does have a final "finish line", if you will, that I have already planned out. How do they get there? (Frankly, I'd like to know the answer to that myself :/)
Sleeping schedule's still weird. It's like I'm tired up till midnight, then I get a shot of adrenaline, and I'm running for another few hours either working my butt off or feeling useless. IDK man.
I apologize ahead of time for any mistakes (which are basically inevitable at this time of night). I'll correct them... sometime.
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"Now the first thing to remember about mermaids is to never listen to their song," Arthur says, looking uncomfortable on the edge of the bed. He's still fiddling with his hands as though he doesn't know what to do with them. You figure he's probably still running off residual adrenaline. "I learned that the hard way about eight or nine months ago."
You raise an eyebrow. Arthur coughs.
"I know what you're going to say, and yeah, years was a bit of an exaggeration. In reality, this whole fiasco only ended...," he continues to mutter under his breath.
"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," you say, rolling your eyes.
"Maybe a couple weeks ago?" he finishes weakly. You nearly choke on air.
"A couple weeks ago? You mean to tell me you've been involved with that lunatic up until two weeks ago? I've been here for a month!"
"Let me explain, please?" he pleads. You grumble but shut up. After all, he's the knowledgeable one here.
"So we hear the mermaids' songs for the first time, right?" he continues. "Men start jumping overboard. I don't hear anything. Before you ask, I don't know why. All I know is I starting hearing scraping sounds. The kinds of sounds that make your hair stand up on end? Yeah, that kind of sound.
"By now, about seven men from my crew are overboard, and the rest of them are in a daze. I'm standing there confused, just watching my men basically commit suicide for no reason when the mermaid that attacked you appeared in front of me."
"Aleika, right?" you recall from the snatches of conversation that you had heard when you were still under her spell.
"The one and only. Her song hit me pretty hard in the beginning, of course, but I naturally snapped out of it, though not fast enough to prevent serious damage. She was understandably curious about my half resistance to her spell."
"And this is the first time you met her?" you clarify.
He nods and continues.
"The day it happened I had just received news of one of your brother's latest victories..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flaaaaaaaaashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arthur woke up in the middle of a rainstorm. Which was odd. Because he had just been in his cabin a short time ago, wide awake and watching the water twinkle beneath the bright yellow sun. He didn't have time to dwell on the oddity of the situation though as he was just realizing what was going on around him.
"Stop jumping! Get back to your posts, dammit!"
Arthur whipped around the deck frantically as lightning thundered in the distance and rain pounded the deck. Thankfully, the men were moving sluggishly, but they were moving nonetheless. What to do, what to do? What was happening? Then he saw something that made his blood run cold.
"Allistor..."
There was his brother with the same glazed look on his normally cheerful face, standing about two feet away from the edge of the ship and closing.
"Allistor! Get away from there!" Arthur yelled, running towards him only to see a shock of red hair disappear over the edge. He lunged forward and managed to grab his older brother's wrist. He grunted from the effort it took to even keep his hold. Had his brother always been this heavy?
"Dammit, you may be annoying sometimes, but I'm not letting you run that easily," Arthur growled, giving a final yank on the redhead's arm. He catapulted up and over the ship's railing, landing on the deck with an unceremonious thump. Arthur let out a strangled yell when he saw what followed after Allistor. "What-"
Without missing a beat, the creature sprung at him with a blood-curdling scream. Arthur quickly drew his sword and pointed it at the lunging creature. Its own momentum carried it onto the sword's end, and with one final shriek, it turned into seawater and splashed onto the deck.
"Well, well, well. Not many days you meet a human with the Gift," a raspy voice said from behind him. He whipped around, sword still raised. Its tip came to rest on a marble white throat which was connected to a face straight out of Arthur's books.
A mermaid.
"Quite an honor meeting the face of horror," Arthur snarled at the... thing. "As far as your reference to the Gift, I can assure you that I do not possess this ability you speak of."
She laughed. A horrible grating sound that made Arthur want to run her through right then and there.
"Release my men at once, sea witch," he commanded, trying to sound as firm as possible. After all, he was the one with the advantage, right?
Wrong.
The mermaid melted into seawater and reformed behind his back before he could react. In the same second he could feel a cold pressure across his neck.
"How about you ask nicely?" she purred. Arthur glared at her as best as he could with a knife at his throat.
"Release my men this instant."
"Or what? You'll kill me?" She let out another piercing laugh. Nevertheless, she screamed something out in her own language, and his men ceased walking, though they still wore a glazed expression on their face. Arthur breathed an inward sigh of relief.
"Now get off of my ship," Arthur growled. He could practically see the smirk on her face.
"I'm afraid not, my dear, sweet Arthur. You interest me too much for me to leave right away. But perhaps we could make a deal."
"Never trust a mermaid's words," Arthur muttered to himself.
"Oh, Arthur," the mermaid purred. "Surely there is some way I can gain your trust? I see it will be very hard won."
With that, the pressure at his neck disappeared while the mermaid reappeared in front of him again.
"Better?" she said, smiling a grisly smile.
"What do you want?" Arthur asked, a wary hand on his sword.
"Simple. I want you to get what you want," she said matter-of-factly. "And that is Captain (l/n)'s head. And you even get to learn how to use your gift! See, Arthur? Nothing to be worried about. We both have common intere-"
"What's in it for you?" he snapped.
"Me?" the mermaid gasped dramatically. "Why, I never. Can't I want to do something out of the goodness of my heart? Fine. If you must know, I only want the life of your next prisoner. The reason is unimportant, but you shouldn't really care since prisoners mean nothing to you...?"
Arthur thought it through. It was true that he wanted The Black Heron's captain gone as well, but this mermaid's plan? It seemed preposterous.
"There must be strings attached," he muttered to himself. The mermaid seemed to hear it.
"Of course, I will always know things you do not," she said in a sing-song voice. "Who knows? Maybe your next prisoner will be the king of Spain."
Arthur's head snapped up. Was a mermaid actually giving him a warning? All his textbooks said mermaids were tricky and mischievous creatures who only wanted to see the world burn, but perhaps this mermaid was different?
"Okay," he said after long deliberation. "I want him gone. Whatever I have to do."
"Then it's a deal!" she screeched in delight. The moment their hands shook, a bright white light flashed, nearly blinding Arthur. When it left, the mermaid, the storm, and the glazed looks on his crew's faces were gone. A small shell was in the palm of his hand.
This is to signify the deal made between Aleika and Arthur.
What had he done?
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"Hang on, you expect me to believe you have... what did you call it? The Gift? And it's some kind of magic doo-da?" you interrupt his story incredulously. Arthur glares at you.
"Yes, I do, actually. Don't tell me that after seeing that mermaid with your own eyes you don't think there's at least the possibility."
You almost laugh but realize there's a grain of truth to what he's saying. The Spanish ship's impossible range. The hawk. The mermaid attack. Heck, your attraction to Arthur could be considered magical.
Ahem... not attraction. Appreciation of his skills... yeah, that's it.
Maybe you would have to reevaluate everything you thought you knew.
"You know what, nevermind," you say, waving a hand lazily. "Just get on with your story."
Arthur smirks a little but continues. "We're nearly to the present. After we made that deal, she came to the ship by night, and she would teach me how to use magic. I used that magic to challenge your brother."
You frown a bit at Arthur's use of the word "challenge". It had hardly been a challenge. It had been a trap. You shrug the thought off for the moment.
"After we took the ship, you ended up a prisoner on this ship," Arthur continues, his voice becoming slightly more guilty. "And... well... I forgot about my promise to Aleika. She came back about one week after you first arrived and demanded to take you right then and there. However..."
He rubs his neck, his face turned away from you. When he looks at you again, you can still see a slight red coloring his face.
"Well, I had grown a tad attached to you, so I told her no."
You have to chuckle at that. He's rather cute when he's awkward.
Traitorous mind...
"As you can imagine, she was not happy. Not in the slightest bit. She swore she'd be back, and cue last night," he finishes with a weak smile.
You huff. "Still doesn't explain the gashes."
He shrugs. "Just some of a mermaid's magical properties. My best guess is there's some kind of sedative hidden in their nails."
You decide to go along with it. After all, who are you to determine what's possible and what's not possible?
"All right, I have one more question," you say, thinking back to... the night before, according to Arthur. "How did I manage to break free of her... spell? I mean, I don't have "the Gift"."
At this, Arthur visibly turns red. He starts stammering and studying the floor with renewed rigor. He will be able to point out every unique attribute of every floorboard in his cabin by the end of your conversation.
"Erm... well... only an intense rush of emotions is enough to break a spell cast by a mermaid..." he mutters. You have to lean forward to hear him. "The emotions have to be genuine, of course, just another little perk of magic. And reciprocated..."
"Reciprocated? You make it sound like-"
"Typically only a kiss is strong enough for a spell of that strength to be broken," he says, not meeting your eyes. You are still trying to process what he is saying.
"Well, I better go make sure Allistor is okay," Arthur says suddenly, practically bolting for the door. "Need anything, just come ask."
And with that, he's gone. The full weight of what he said crashes down on you.
"Wait, he kissed me?" you screech to the empty room. A pause. Then, "Wait... reciprocated... he feels the same way, too?"
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You were up and about and feeling just fine. The gashes on your cheek had magically (cause you believed in that mumbo-jumbo now, you guessed) disappeared the night before and were on the road to disappearing entirely. A small part of you was still jumping with your newfound realization.
He likes me back.
Of course, the majority of you rebelled, trying to write off your affections as Stockholm Syndrome. You were starting to ignore those thoughts though. After all...
He likes me back.
Oh boy, was this gonna be interesting. For instance, how were you supposed to talk with him if the huge white feather on his hat kept deliberately moving away from you. It was almost as if he didn't want to talk to you.
You sigh. Of course he wouldn't want to talk to you now. You're about to give up and head back to his cabin when a familiar voice sounds from behind you.
"Hey, (F/n)! Long time, no see!"
"Hey, Allistor," you say, turning around and grinning brightly. Maybe Allistor would know what to do. "How's it going? Haven't talked to you in at least a week."
He chuckles. "Wanted to make sure you were okay after last night's attack."
"Yeah, I'm fine," you say. "Unfortunately, I think our illustrious Captain Arthur is avoiding me again."
You sigh dejectedly. Allistor looks out over the deck and takes note of the white feather's position.
"He sure is," Allistor says with a low whistle. "Never seen him avoid someone for so long and from so far away before. What'd you do this time?"
You bristle at his assumption.
"I didn't do anything!" you say indignantly. Allistor quirks an eyebrow.
"This time..." you add sheepishly. "Okay, fine. So during the attack yesterday, Arthur said one of the mermaid's had me under her "spell", and he had to..."
Allistor's face slowly breaks into a huge grin as you trail off, blushing madly.
"Oh."
You motion to him frantically to keep his voice down as the white feather turned in your direction, no doubt suspicious about you and Allistor's long conversation.
"MY."
"Shhhhhh, keep it down! People are going to-"
"SHIIIIIII- MY LITTLE BROTHER'S GOING PLACES!" Allistor screams, waving his hands in the air. You calculate the fastest route of escape before the white feather reaches you and Allistor. The temperature seems to have shot up a couple hundred degrees.
"Allistor! Keep it down before you attract more monsters," Arthur snarls as he stomps closer to his loud brother, deliberately avoiding eye contact with you.
"Arthur, we need to talk!" Allistor declares.
You're relieved that you've been saved from an awkward conversation with the captain, but you can't help but feel sorry for the poor man as Allistor grabs his ear and drags him away.
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So this story is... a thing that exists. Haha whoops. The comment at the beginning of this chapter is actually, literally a year old. I'm definitely going to keep going with this story at the moment. I just reread everything and am hooked on my own writing :D (is that egotistical?), and I keep coming up with new directions to take this story that are different but soooo much better than what I dreamed up when I last updated.
And I rarely actually finish literary works in my life, so this could be a first!