Originally Published in 2012
Yes my fellow fans, the fourth chapter of mermaid tale is finally here!
Picture: Dakota Fanning as Breena / Song: Airplane by B.O.B ft. Hayley Williams
Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 4
Taiven
He knew that he might be overreacting by sending an entire search party for his little sister Breena; after all she was never one to arrive on time. But he sent the search party anyway; the worse case scenario would be that Breena was still on land, pretending to be human. For some reason, his sister had developed a preference for the mortals and spent more and more time on land, it drove their father nuts.
"Taiven dear" He heard his fiancée's sweet voice call him.
He swam towards her and posed once they were face to face. Adara had something in both of her hands, and a serious but amused look on her face. She held her hands up in front of her to show Taiven what she was holding.
"I can' decide if I want pink or purple seaweed as a decoration for the wedding." She said to him, waving the seaweed in front of him.
As usual, Taiven's heart clenched at the word wedding. It was in about two month, but Taiven would only feel ready in about two hundred years. He had chosen Adara has his bride, five month after his father had gave him his deadline. She was part of the richer merfolk, naturally nice and of course very beautiful. She had long dark brown hair, big round black eyes with long lashes, small nose and a round face. But what made Adara stand out the most, was her dark blue/black mermaid tail. No one in the kingdom had that color tail, and that's what drew Taiven to her, because she was unique.
For females, the scales of their tale go up to their upper body covering their breasts, but their back, neck, face and arms were nude. Males had everything covered from the waist down, but had their entire chest and arms bare. Some merfolk had marking naturally imprinted on their chest or tail. Taiven's markings were symbols of his royal status, nothing more. He had slightly long wavy sandy hair, with natural sea green and blue high lights. Blue eyes, normal size nose, a muscular figure, long arms and a square jaw.
"Pick the one you want, dear." He said to Adara, slightly more careless then he had intended.
He was about to swim off—escape was more like it—but his fiancée caught his arm and forced him to stay put. "Taiven" She said to him. "We are supposed to be planning this wedding together, why do I feel that it is only just me?" She was slightly pleading; if Taiven had given in to every pleading folk in his kingdom, they'd already be in the depth of the ocean.
But Adara wasn't one of his subjects, Taiven reminded himself, she was his bride to be and he needed to accept that. It wasn't that he didn't care about the marriage; he just didn't want it to happen. Everything was just moving to fast, and he was far from ready.
"The purple one" He responded after a while of pretending to consider the options. He was not having pink at his wedding.
Taiven lightly jerked his hand away from Adara and pretended not to notice her hurt expression, but then she revived herself and kissed his cheek. "That was what I was thinking too." She said smiling at him, even if Taiven doubted her words.
Just then, the sound of the music shells was sounded to summon his presence. Taiven quickly left his fiancée after returning her kiss, and swam to the exterior of the castle. When he arrived, he was surprised to see both of his little sisters waiting for him in front of the guards and the search party that had only left moments ago to go find Breena. For some reason, both of his sisters seemed guilty; it was at moments like these that Taiven wished that he had a brother, or two.
"What?" He asked them in an accusing but prudent tone. It was so typically obvious that his sister had done something wrong, the question was; how bad was it?
"Promise not to get mad." Breena said half begging with her big grey eyes.
She was fourteen in human years; two hundred and seventy-six, mermaid wise. Cyri was two-hundred and fifty-three, in other words twelve. Taiven was three-hundred and seven, twenty years old in human years.
"Get mad about what?" He asked his sisters slightly irritated. He hated playing games; he was one of those mermen that got straight to the point, no matter how harsh it may be.
"Do you promise?" Cyri asked in a small voice. His littlest sister had a way of batting her eyes and speaking that made any merfolk and even humans want to give into any of her desires. Taiven feared that one day his sister would use that power for evil.
"Fine" Taiven said to finally conclude the discussion and move on. "I promise; what did you two do now?" Even if he was tired and irritated; his voice still sounded full and powerful, like one of a true king.
"Danicio" Breena ordered in a sharp princess voice. She may not particularly like being under water, but his sister did assume her responsibilities, most of the time. "Swim the girl forward." Danicio was one of their most trusted guards, and respected friend. Taiven Didn't have too many friends, because in his mind there were only two very separate categories; family and subjects. There wasn't much room for friends in those categories.
He swam forward and posed along side Cyri. He was carrying something in his arms; well it was more like a someone. At the first glance, any merpeople would have thought that this girl was a normal mermaid; but when you looked closer to the marks on her tail and stomach you realise the contrary. This girl was far from a mermaid.
"Breena!" Taiven snapped to his sister, because this was all obviously her doing. "Please tell me that you did not—"
"You said that you wouldn't get mad!" Breena whined, interrupting him.
How could he not be mad? His little sister just turned a human girl into a mermaid! One merfolk was allowed to do that only once every hundred years, and there had to be a good reason why. The last human that had been turned had been during the end of world war two. The human had been violently abused and threaten to die in the ocean, until Taiven's father found him and saved his life, because he thought he could make a true warrior out of him. The next mermaid transformation wasn't supposed to be for another forty year; princess Breena had just broken the law.
Looking at the now mermaid girl, Taiven was left with one hope. "Is she dead?" He asked his sister.
"No" She responded, avoiding his gaze. "She saw her tale, said a few human swears and then fainted."
He waited a moment, absorbing the shock and disappointment. "How did you find her?" Taiven asked. He wasn't particularly interested in the story, but if he was going to explain everything to his father, he needed to know some of the facts.
"Well she was obviously on a suicide mission and she had jumped off the bridge. I was swimming by and found her drowning and she was—" Breena tried to explain quickly, but Taiven had heard enough.
"Breena, humans kill themselves off that bridge every day." He said to his sister trying to remain calm, even if his anger was boiling inside. "We can't turn every single mortal into a merpeople every time we find one that is dying!"
"Yes, I understand but—" Breena tried to continue, but Taiven was seriously tired of hearing it.
"That's enough Breena." He said in his powerful voice. Everyone dropped silent.
Breena had seriously crossed the line this time, and having put Cyri on her side was even worse. His sister should have just left the human girl die in peace. Mortals were not meant to be turn into water creatures; it was an unfortunate accident and curse that nature had set upon them.
"Can we keep her?" He heard Cyri mumble in a whisper. His sister said it as if the girl was some sort of human pet that she wanted to adopt. Well in a way, mortals were some sort of pet; his sister wasn't too far off.
Taiven sighed dramatically and looked around him. Everyone was waiting for his commend, because his father was absent. As the wedding got closer, Taiven became more and more in power, which was something that he almost despised. "Bring the girl to my chambers." He finally decided. "Explain to Adara what is happening and summon me if the girl is awake when I return." He ordered.
"Where are you going your majesty?" Danicio asked slowly swimming towards to entrance of the castle with the girl in his arms.
"Up to the surface" Taiven answered as he begun to swim away. "I must brief my father on what is going on." With one final cold glance at his sisters, Taiven left his people and swam all the way back up to the dry cold land.
....................................................................................................................................................................................
Sadly, today his father was on land, which meant that Taiven needed to turn human. He didn't particularly like mortals, but even he had to admit that life above the water was better than life under it. Everyone in the merkingdom was always so paranoid about being discovered; rare were the days that things were calm. At least on land, most people could be themselves without worrying to be found and turned into science experiments.
Merpeople were able to transform human when they reach a certain distance from the surface. The only thing that they needed to worry about once mortal was the clothing, because naturally they breached the surface naked. But lucky for them, they had a big boat always docked in the same spot containing food, clothes and money. All merfolk were about the same size, once they turned human. Of course, having a big boat docked in the middle of nowhere full of clothes and money wasn't the best idea, but so far that was the only solution that they came up with.
Taiven hoist himself onto the boat and went inside to change. It was a rather cold day, so he wore the proper clothes to support the weather. Once he was in proper clothing, he locked the boat and headed to town.
As he walked in the streets searching for the FireNight Casino; Taiven couldn't help put notice how dead the town looked. He had just been born when it was founded, so he definitely knew the place inside and out. It was strange that barely a century ago, the town was wealthy and beautiful, and now, it had simply lost all of its joy since the hurricane of 1979. Since then, the place looked abandoned, and the population's low number was not to be ignored either.
After a while of walking in the littered streets, Taiven reached the FireNight Casino. Looking at it from the outside, the place seemed like as much of a dump as the rest of the town. Taiven had for a long time wondered why his father always came here when he turned human; with the years, he finally understood that the casino was a good distraction from everything that was actually going on.
He pushed the double doors open; the inside didn't look as bad at the exterior, but it was still poorly decorated.
Taiven found his father talking with a casino worker—arguing was more like it. His father may be over a thousand years old—a little over fifty in human years— but he was like every other man when it came down to alcohol and casino money: weak. And when his father was drunk, the whole merpeople secret was hard for him to keep in, but luckily most of the time Taiven was there to save the day.
"Look, I'm sorry sir" The casino worker was saying to Taiven Senior. He could tell that the worker was trying to keep a steady calm voice, but sadly he was slightly unsuccessful "But we really are completely out of money."
"You stupid little human!" His father snapped. "Do you know who I am!? I am king T—" Taiven was able to stop his drunken dad from rambling their secrets but covering his mouth. He knew that the mortal would just consider his father as crazy, but there have been mermaid sightings in the past, and Taiven didn't want to awaken any more superstitions.
"Please accept my apologies" Taiven said in a hurry to the worker, whose named tag indicated that his name was Ridge. "I fear that my father may have taken one drink too many."
"Yeah doesn't matter anyway" Ridge said while eyeing Taiven, obviously because his choice of words. Taiven had never been fully able to speak the way humans do; he found their words sloppy offensive, careless, and sometimes even bizarre. "I've seen crazier. Just get him outta here before my boss comes, because then it's my ass on the line."
"Yes of course, I mean sure." Taiven said uncovering his father's mouth and pushing him gently out of the casino. Merfolk were slightly stronger than humans, so pulling away his father from the casino was a piece of cake.
He dragged the king until he was sure to find a safe place to talk. Taiven won't bring his father back under sea until he was sober enough and was aware of what was going on. Taiven found a restaurant practically rotting to the ground, alongside of the road; he gently pushed his father inside.
It smelled horrible; he never thought that he could smell something so disgusting. He had smelled it outside, but he simply thought it was the effect of carbon dioxide polluting the air; no, it was actually the restaurant. But Taiven needed to suck it up, because he and his dad needed to talk, and he was pretty certain that no one would disturb them in a place like this.
Once he and his father were as well seated as they could be in the decomposing booth, he finally begun to talk, and cut right to the point. "Breena turned a mortal girl into a mermaid." It had only taken that to bring his father's attention back to him.
"She did what!?" The king practically shouted.
Sadly, his father had not been quiet enough because the kitchen doors flue wide open, and a small man practically ran out of it to greet them. "Hello" The man said once at their table, he was smiling way too much. "I'm Rick the manager and I'll be your waiter tonight. I recommend our special, crab and jellyfish macaroni. Oh, and I must also add that our bathrooms are free of any rat or any other unwelcomed rodent."
Taiven just met this man, and the manager was already getting on his nerves. If he were a subject in his kingdom, he would have been cast away into the deep a long time ago. "Just coffee" Taiven coldly said to him, hoping that he would just leave.
Rick smiled even more. "Yes of course, coming right up." And he left for the kitchen.
When the manager was out of ear shot, Taiven continued his conversation with his father, who seemed to have grown as impatient as he was. "Yes" He said to the king. "Breena turned some suicidal human into one of us."
His father sighed and looked into the distance. "I really wonder what your mother would make of this." He said after a few seconds of silence.
Rick came back with their coffee; Taiven could smell the grease inside of it, not that he had planned on drinking it in the first place. When Rick was done pouring the coffee very slowly into their mugs, the manager stayed beside the table. For a while no one said anything, but Taiven's emotions were getting on edge.
Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore. "What!?" He shouted to the manager, not bothering to excuse himself for his behaviour; Rick had it coming.
"Son" His father warned him in a patient tone. After starring at him for a while, the king brought his attention to Rick. "You may depose now, kind sir."
"Okay" The man said in a high pitchy voice that simply made Taiven want to hit him even more.
When Rick was gone, Taiven slammed his fists on the table. "Father, I swear that if that mortal comes back I will sing and make him kill himself off the bridge."
Merpeople had incredible persuasion powers when they sang. A long time ago, Merfolk used to sing to sailors so they could crash their boats and eventually feed on them. Merpeople could make humans do whatever they wanted them to do; all they had to do was sing. These days, it was completely forbidden to feed on humans; and most of them lost taste in it anyway. The only folk that still ate humans were those of the deep, but they haven't been seen in over two hundred years; the rumour was that they were finally extinct.
"Taiven you must learn to remain calm." His father pointed out patiently. "Our people will not want a king with such low patience."
But what if I don't want to be king! He thought but didn't say. Instead, Taiven decided to change the subject. "What shall we do with the mortal girl?" He asked his father rather sharply.
The king sighed again; he had gotten in the habit of doing that a lot. "I will let you decide my son." His father responded. "You will be merking in less than two months; I think it is time that I give you more responsibly."
Taiven knew that he should probably feel honoured, but again he still didn't want to be king, therefore he was good with the large amount of responsibility that he already had. Again, he didn't say anything about it to his dad.
"I do not think we should punish the girl for something that she had no control over." Taiven concluded after thinking about it for a while. He looked at his father, to make sure he was saying the right thing; the king gestured him to continue. "I suppose that it is our duty to teach the mortal our ways and if she is unsuccessful in learning them, she shall be sent to live with Evereesha and the others."
Evereesha had been the first mermaid to choose to live among humans for the rest of her life, instead of in the merkingdom. She was of course now banned from the ocean, but they accepted her choice. Many other merfolk eventually decided to follow her up to the surface and stay. Now, all merpeople wishing to be human lived in the same corner of the town and were forever banned from the waters. They had all needed to give their vow never to reveal the truth of their kind to the other mortals, and had the duty of regularly supplying their transformation boat. So far, everything had worked out well.
"Very wise Son" His father commented, nodding. "You shall make a very fair king."
"What about Breena?" He quickly asked, avoiding the 'king-talk' again. "She broke the law; and Cyri sided with her. Will they be punished?" He hope they would be.
"Can't you decide that matter as well?" His father asked him, with a smile playing on his lips.
"I'm their brother" Taiven responded returning the smile. "My punishment in mind for them involves a cell and electric eels."
His father chuckled for a little bit, then sighed, again. "Well then" He said getting up and tossing a ten dollar bill on the table; he hadn't drake his greasy-coffee either. "I suppose that we must get back. It seems that I have daughters to punish."
"Will you even consider the electric eels?" Taiven asked as they headed out the door. His voice slightly amused.
"No" The king responded with a smile. Taiven was for a moment overjoyed to see his father happy; and torn because he knew that it would all probably end soon.
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- NocteLamia101
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