Chapter One Scales

I glide along the ocean floor, my hands touching the scales of multicolored fish. I’m glad I live in Australia where there are such beautiful sceneries under the water to view. The other fish swim along side me, attracted by my shining scales where my legs had been. I’m half mermaid, half human, or at least that’s what I thought I was.
I still remember that day; I was six at the time and my parents planned on teaching me how to swim in the ocean. The ocean was flat and peaceful; it was as if it was pulling me in inviting me to swim in it. I looked around to see what my parents were doing. They weren’t paying attention to me as they were unloading the car. I don’t think they expected me to run in the ocean without knowing how to swim. Wrong. I jumped in and this weird surge of energy went through my whole body. I thought I was drowning at first, but then I realized I was swimming so fast I didn’t think it was possible. I had this funny feeling in my legs and that’s when I noticed I didn’t have any. I think I screamed loud enough to scare all the oceans creatures back into their homes. I started to swim back to shore and expected to see my parents still unpacking, but instead I see them pacing down the beach to find me. They were far down the beach calling my name; it was my only chance to get out of the water. Would my tail change back into legs? What if they didn’t and I was just like a fish trapped on land? All these questions popped up into my brain, but I had to go back I would most likely die in the ocean. I ran out of the water when I eyed a shower by the bathrooms. Quickly I saw my legs as they formed out of the tail I once had. My legs were covered in slime, gross. When my parents found me playing in the showers they were furious yelling at me never to run of like that and from that day on nothing was the same.
As I think about that memory I let the current take me and drift me further out to sea. Sometimes I thought about letting myself go all the way out to sea and never return to land, but I could never do that cause of my parents. I loved them too much. They told me that I was adopted when I was eight, but I didn’t care. I consider them my real parents. Other than that though I could care less about leaving school and my friends. I was pretty popular in my school but to be honest all my friends are fake. That’s just the way it is at my school everyone pretended to like everyone and then behind their backs they would talk shit. Of course I didn’t stoop so low and talk shit about my so-called “friends,” but I wouldn’t doubt that they talked shit about me. I was always the energetic, crazy, and funny friend that pretty much everyone could get along with anyone and all the girls would talk behind my back how I just wanted attention. But no one, I repeat no one knew my secret. They would think I’m joking and when they realized I wasn’t they would think I was crazy. I hated being different, but at the same time I loved it.
I looked down at my tail thinking about how things would be different if I just had legs in water. My scales were an assortment of colors: blues, greens, purples, and the thing I loved the most was the shiny gold. Whenever my mood changed so did my colors of the scales. When I was mad they would turn into a shiny red, if I was happy it would change to gold and white, if I was sad it would turn into a dull soft blue, and when I wasn’t really in a certain mood it was like how it was right now. The one mood I haven’t seen what color it would change into is love. I’ve never been in love before, but it wasn’t something I was really sad about. I never paid that much attention to boys, and I didn’t really see them paying attention to me so whatever.
I arrived to the shore of my private beach that I had found no one ever went to because of the deadly box jellyfish that were abundant in the water. Luckily they didn’t have any effect on me so ever since I was ten I’ve been coming to this beach. I looked around just in case and seeing that if the coast was clear, and I ran out and dried off my body. Then I ran to my black jeep and looked at the clock.
“It’s seven-o-Clock already! Oh no, Mom’s going to be so pissed at me.” My mom had been planning this big party for my seventieth birthday even though I told her I didn’t want her to. But I heard girls talking about it in school and realized my mom had somehow sneakily invited all my friends. I’m soaking wet still, and the party starts in an hour. My mom is a makeup artist/hairdresser and insisted she would make me look like I was a supermodel. God, I hate being a girl sometimes. Being a guy would make things so much easier.
As I walked into my house I tried to quietly close the door, but then I hear my mom yell, “Melody Madison, get your little butt over here right now.” Yeah my parents named me Melody, my dad was a recording artist and was set on making my name related to music. I always thought it was appropriate since Ariel, from the Little Mermaid; daughter’s name was Melody. I looked up to see my mom’s furious face. I’m scared to walk over to her. She was a short woman who is very petit and only came up to my chin, but I was still intimidated by this small woman.
“Why are you all wet? Please tell me you didn’t think it was a good night to go out for a late surf sesh?” She asked already knowing the answer.

“Heh…What can I say? The waves were of the hook!” I had been surfing ever since I was six for an excuse to go in the ocean. I discovered that wearing a wetsuit concealed my skin from the water; therefore, I didn’t turn into a mermaid.
“What am I going to do with you? Go up stairs and wash up and come straight to me after. I’ll just have to work at a fast pace,” my mom scolded me.
When my mom was finished I looked at me in the mirror. I barely recognized myself. I mean I looked like me, but the makeup was done with so much more detailed than I usually wore it. My mother framed my dark green eyes with a dark brown and gold eye shadow, but the top eyeliner highlighted my big shaped eyes. My light golden brown hair was waved perfectly and landed at my waist. The dress my mother had picked out for me was a peach color skintight dress that contrasted with my naturally tan skin. It hugged my curves perfectly and emphasized my long legs paired with 4inch simple black heels that made me 5’10’’. Ok, so my mom went all out. I rarely wore dresses; I was more of a jean and shorts kind of girl. I wore fashionable things to school, but I have never worn something that showed off my body shape. I felt so exposed.
I looked over to my mom and thanked her, and she responded, “Its easy to make someone look good when they’re already gorgeous without all the glam.” I love my mom.

Chapter Two Bottoms Up

~Christian~
It was weird walking on my feet for the first time and especially wearing swim trunks. I think that’s what they call them at least. I had to walk up and down the beach to get use to my land legs before I continued my mission. The counsel told me that her house was the only two-story beach house along the seaside. I could already spot it from where I was putting on my clothes I didn’t want to freak anyone out if I walked in there half naked.
I walked into this huge two-story house and looked up at the walls, which were covered with pictures of this beautiful girl. Her olive-tanned skin was flawless without an imperfection and her piercing green eyes grabbing my attention. This must be her. It has to be. I was sent here to find one of the most powerful Merman’s, Neptune, daughters. I was told her name was Melody.
I’ve heard the story several times when I was a child. Everyone thought it had been just some folk tale everyone told to his or her children, but now being Neptune’s right hand man I knew it was true.
It all started when Neptune had fallen in love with a beautiful human named Nelly. She had been an athletic swimmer and took the challenge to swim all along the coast. However, she did not know that Neptune had been in a terrible mood that day due to his unrequited love with another mermaid. Nelly doing her best to fight the current was taken far out into the sea and was nearly drowning. She had thought she had died, but when she awoke she saw Neptune carrying her back to land. It was forbidden for any contact with humans, and even if he had come into contact it would cause a riot in the kingdom. He decided to use his powers to give him legs and watched over Nelly to make sure she recovered. They fell in love like any happily ever after story, but Neptune failed to tell Nelly that his love for her was forbidden. He was about to leave her for her own protection until he found out that she was pregnant with his child. His absence in the kingdom made his parents question his activities, and they had his evil brother John follow him one day.
When Neptune arrived to Nelly’s she was going into labor. After Melody was born John knew that this child would automatically make Neptune next in line to rule the kingdom. To make sure no one knew about this child he killed Nelly and attempted to murder Melody, but Neptune vanished with him back to the sea. Neptune’s trident contained a great amount of power and because of his fury he trapped his brother in the deepest darkest, depths of the oceans caves.
Neptune returned home and his brother’s disappearance merely looked like he had left the kingdom because of his jealousy of his younger brother Neptune. They had searched for him, but there was no sign of him. As expected, Neptune was given the throne when his parents passed away, but he never forgot about his little girl. He kept an eye on her secretly never telling anyone about her, but several people caught him watching over her when he was in his office. They all talked about how beautiful and talented she was at singing, but no one believed that Neptune could have a half human child. I was a non-believer until he showed me her and told me I had to bring her back to him. I always had thought she was just a fairytale. She sure looks like she could be a princess from a fairytale.
I entered the living room where there seemed to be a hundred people were holding red cups. In the cup there was some liquid substance they were drinking, and I wondered what it was. Some pretty blonde girl came up to me and passed me a cup.
“Oh my goodness! You don’t go to our school, you’re way to hot to go to our school. Take a picture with me?” She slurred slash screamed at me because the music was so loud. Obviously this drink made people go crazy. Before I could even respond to her question something flashed in my face. What the hell, my eyes start to see black spots and go back to normal. What is this device? We had pictures, but they were painted with crushed coral.
I just want to get the hell out of here so I decided to be productive and asked, “Do you know where Melody is?”
“Ugh, why does ALLLLL the boyzz like her? I mean she’s gorgeous, but she doesn’t even pay attention to them. If your looking for a hook up she is not your gal…me on the other hand. I’m your girl.”
“I actually have a girlfriend back home.” Ok I lied, but this girl was starting to get on my nerves not answering my question. So I asked more commanding this time, “Where is Melody?”
I hear a smooth silky voice behind me say, “Who’s asking?” without turning I say over my shoulder, “Does it really involve you?” God I was so annoyed with these humans.
“Haha, well I would say yes since I’m Melody.” I turn knowing my eyes show how horrified I was. I just snapped at the kings daughter whom I’ve heard is quite powerful, but she couldn’t possibly know her powers yet. Hopefully.
“No need to look so scared. I don’t recognize you, have we met?” She was giggling at me with her white as pearls and completely straight teeth. My eyes just scanned over her. She was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures didn’t even due her justice. Her legs look like they went for miles and those tall spikey things on her feet looked quite uncomfortable. Her hair is so soft and wavy I just wanted to touch it. I’ve never seen hair completely dry before since I was always in the water, but it was pretty. The clothing she has on accentuated her curves and her cleavage is revealing, although not looking trampy. But all that didn’t matter when I saw her face. She has a well-structured face that made her look tough, but yet not harsh. Her forest green eyes were framed with luscious long eyelashes that could draw in any man. I was mesmerized.

Chapter Three Mystery Man

~Melody~
Who the hell is this and why was he asking for me? I could only see his back but decide to respond with, “Who’s asking?” Without turning he say’s over his shoulder, “Does it really involve you?” I almost busted out in laughter; oh he is so going to regret saying that.
“Haha, well I would say yes since I’m Melody.” He turns around and I can see the embarrassment in his eyes, and I let out a giggle. Then that’s when I realized how hot he was. His shirt couldn’t even contain his defined muscles, and you could even see his hard washboard abs against his shirt. He is tall too, probably 6’2’’ just tall enough where my lips could reach his lips and kiss him. His lips are full and they cover his perfect smile. Melody! Stop! Stop undressing him with your eyes! So I decided to move my eyes to his face, which made me want to make out with him even more. His tanned face flawless face has ocean blue eyes that look like they sparkle. Oh and what long eyelashes for a boy! His hair was medium length and blonde. He is gorgeous, and I must look like a freak for staring at him like a creep.
“Umm, well I’m going to get another drink. Since you guys seem so hooked on checking each other out,” Sadie says clearly tipsy. I hadn’t even realized she was there. Did she say checking each other out? Yeah right, more like me checking him out. He was way too sexy to think I’m his type.
“Sorry, where are my manners. I’m Christian,” he tells me as he puts out his hand for me to shake.
“Well Christian do you want something to drink?” I offer him to break the awkward silence between us.
“Oh, sure. As long as I don’t end up like that girl.” I laughed, hot and funny. My parents had left and people took that as an opportunity to bring alcohol, of course. I wasn’t too much of a drinker, but I would for an occasional party to have fun. I passed him a cup, and watched him down it fast until his face got this look of disgust.
“This stuff tastes like toxic waste. Why do you guys drink it?” he asks surprised.
“Eh, well we’re all underage. I mean I just turned seventeen so we can’t exactly get the good stuff. Most people do it to get drunk,” his faced looked confused; did he not know what it meant? “You know the feeling that makes you feel all warm and giggly. Makes you really talkative and most times makes you do stupid things,” I explain. He got this expression on his face looking amused.
“Oh we call it getting flipped where I come from except we don’t drink this stuff…” He stops himself from saying anything else.
“Where are you from?”
“Its pretty close to here…I’ll show you sometime,” he tells me smiling like he knew something I didn’t. He adds, “I feel a little funny, lets go outside to the beach!” And that’s when I knew he was getting plastered. I started to feel a little nervous being around someone this cute so I downed my cup and that feeling disappeared.
“Let’s,” I agree grabbing his hand ushering him out to my backyard. I loved having the beach as my backyard, my own playground. I was thankful we didn’t have a swimming pool because then I would really look like a freak wearing a wetsuit while swimming in there.
“Thank god you don’t have a pool…if someone pushed me in they would freak out! Like pee their pants! Hah, pee their pants…we don’t wear pants,” he cracks up at himself speaking. What does he mean by “we don’t wear pants,” is he crazy? What a waste of an attractive man.
“Opps, I’ve said too much too soon!” he adds laughing his ass off. I just look at him like he’s crazy. No he seemed normal when I first met him, it’s probably just the alcohol messing with his head…hopefully.
“Maybe we shouldn’t get to close to the water, don’t want you to drown,” I lie smoothly.
“Oh don’t worry, I have no problem not going in the water right now. Don’t want people to see do we?” he gives me a look like he thinks I’m stupid. What did he think we would do in the water? He doesn’t know about my secret so what stuff did he think we were going to do in the water?
“You’re really gorgeous you know that?” I think it’s the first time I’ve blushed this hard.
“Really?”
“Really, really!”
“Well…thank you.” We just sat on the sand looking at the ocean’s smooth waves crash on the shore. I want to go swim out there and be free. I looked over at his eyes, and he was watching me curiously.
“What?” I asked kind of snapping at him. Don’t be a bitch Melody, I remind myself.
“Nothing, you just look like you want to go out in the ocean and live there or something…”
I look for a good lie and finally explain, “I surf all the time and just riding the waves makes me feel like being a fish or something…would be amazing” His eyes pop out amazed.
“You can go in the water without anything happening?”
My heart starts to thump in my chest, does he know?! He couldn’t possibly. “W-what,” I stuttered.
“I…I was just kidding. You should have seen your face. It looked like you thought I thought you were a mermaid or something.” I almost had a heart attack; he doesn’t know I reassured myself.

Chapter Four Doubt

~Christian~
I’m confused…is she not a mermaid? No, she has to be. Neptune himself showed me her while he was spying on her in his pond that showed anything anyone was doing. It has to be her. How is it possible for her to go in the water without her transforming a tail? It must be some crafty lie she came up with, clever girl.
I don’t know why, but I don’t want to tell her that I’m a mermaid also. I didn’t want to take her back to her father who would definitely not want any merman near her. I wanted to stay here and keep her all for myself. Selfish I know, but I couldn’t imagine all the guys all over her in the kingdom because she would definitely be the most gorgeous mermaid.
I could feel her staring at me and I turn to her and ask, “What?”
“Hmm, nothing. There just seems like there’s something you’re hiding. You don’t seem like the average guy.”
“I’m way above average baby,” my flirty side says with a wink. She nudges me with her elbow and whispers, “Cocky.”
“No, just hoping you think that I am…” She looks at me with her perfect smile framed on her perfect face.
“Well, you’re definitely not just a random fish out of the sea,” she joked, but I couldn’t help to feel like I was a random fish she reeled in.
“Do you like fish?” asking curiously.
~Melody~
Did he just ask me if I like fish? That’s the most ridiculous question I’ve ever been asked.
“Um I guess you could say that.”
“Do you want to take a swim in the ocean?” I shook my head immediately.
“It’s too cold and dark!” he retorts with, “Scared?”
“No!” but then I realized I just gave him a reason to pick me up and bring me to the water. Shit! We were almost by the water when I think of something to distract him. He was carrying me in his arms like I was his bride as I gently grabbed his neck and gingerly brought his head down towards mine. Our lips brush each other’s, and I swipe my tongue across his bottom lip. He tightens his grip on me and crushes me into his chest. Our kiss starts off gentle and then he starts to kiss me hungrily, and I respond with the same craving. Then he pulls away from me and looks down at me.
“I need to tell you something,” he says in a serious voice. His voice was even sexy, low and husky. He continues and tells me, “I’m…I’m like you.”
“Wh-what?”
“I am a mermaid, I mean a merman…” My first reaction is to push myself out of his grasp; which was very difficult because he has an incredibly strong grip. Then I look at him wide eyed and start running away from him. I was so scared I couldn’t face him I didn’t even know what I would say to him. What if he saw me in the ocean swimming, and he wasn’t actually a mermaid and was just trying to make me confess? I couldn’t risk that. If he went around telling people, people would start to question me and my parents wouldn’t want me anymore because I was a freak. Just imagining what could happen made me cry. I knew my parents weren’t actually my biological parents, and I’ve always wondered why my real parents didn’t want me. Was it because I was a freak? I was on the other side of the beach when arms picked me up and held me in a big embrace.
“I’m not trying to hurt you…I know your father and he wants to see you. If you want proof meet me here tomorrow at 6 in the morning,” he comforts me and then walks away. I wonder where he lived, in the ocean or was he like me and lived with a human family. That’s when I decided to meet him at the beach tomorrow morning. I needed answers.
~Christian~
I walked away from Melody hoping with my whole heart that she would show up tomorrow morning. Trying to think of something I focused on where I was going to sleep for the night. I came upon a little shack that looked like little kids created for a little hideout. After making sure no one was in there I lied down and fell asleep.
I woke up to someone softly shaking me to wake up. I opened my eyes and saw Melody.
“You came,” I said with so much happiness she couldn’t help but smile.
“Yeah you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Well I have all the time in the world. You might want to tell your parent’s you’re going somewhere because you might not return for a while.” I could tell she was scared by the thought of leaving her home for a long time, but then she responded with, “I assumed that, so I told them I was going on a senior road trip with my friends for a couple of weeks. My parents are pretty chill so they didn’t mind it was last minute.”
“Perfect. Then we should find you something to wear when we get in the water.” Her cheeks started to blush in embarrassment.
“I brought a swimsuit, but I’m guessing you don’t know what that is.” She grabbed a piece of cloth that looked like it was suppose to cover her chest and I nod my head.
“When we get to the kingdom we will get you some normal mermaid apparel, don’t want you to look like an outsider especially since you’re…I’ll just let him explain.” She gives me a weird look but doesn’t push on the topic more. She starts to strip of her clothes as I stare at her legs. They look so strange to me since I’m so use to seeing a tail. As she shrugs of her shirt I can’t help but stare. Her body curved in all the right places. Her chest exposed in the little garment, and even though I was use to seeing girls like this I blush. Her waste was small and slowly widening, as it got closer to her hips. Her legs were skinny and muscular, and her butt was bubbly making it obvious that she worked out often.
“You can stop staring at me you know. I know my body isn’t the most beautiful thing to stare at, but you don’t have to gawk at it. Plus, you see girls practically naked all the time,” I looked up to see if she was being sarcastic, but her face was completely serious. How could she not see what I was seeing? I saw a goddess-like body while she saw just an ordinary girl.
“Come on mate, let’s see how fast you can swim,” I challenged her. Instead of responding she runs towards the ocean and does a graceful swan dive under an incoming wave. I see her pop up and she does one of those seductive hair flips like she knows how well of a dive that was. To mock her I run towards the water pretending that I’m about to dive, but quickly grab my legs and cannon ball into the water splashing her right in her face.
I could feel my legs disappear as my familiar comfortable tail appears. When I pop back out of the water Melody is already pushing me down hard under the water laughing with pure evilness.
“Wow, and I thought you liked me!” I tried to grab her, but she dogged me still laughing nonstop.
“You’re the one who splashed me!” she accused me.
“Oh no, Melody you’re going to die from a splash. You could have drowned me!” from this we both start cracking up because we both know mermaids don’t need oxygen.
“Ok, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” she raises an eyebrow at me to lead the way.

Chapter Five Deep Depths

~Christian~
Melody and I ended up racing, and I knew that I could’ve won if I wanted but being the gentlemen I am I let her win. Don’t get me wrong she was an amazing swimmer, fantastic, but I was raised in the water and I was always getting in trouble. Meaning I always had to swim fast in order not to get caught.
She was glaring at me as she yelled, “You let me win! You didn’t even try!!”
“I thought I was being ni—
“A sexist!” she cuts me off.
“Fine we’ll race again to that coral there, do you see….” Before I could finish she is already off like a bullet. “NOT fair!” I panted when I reached the coral where she waited for me what seemed like a minute.
“Who said there were rules against not playing fair,” she smirked. Her tail, which was a sundry of blues, greens, and purples was now white and gold. She looked like an angel.
“How come your tail changes color?” I ask.
“Cool, huh? It’s been like that ever since I found out I was a mermaid. It changes accordingly to my mood.”
“Let me guess what your mood is right now…hmm jealously?”
“HAH! Why would I be jealous? I won!”
“Of me of course! My sexiness is just too much for you to tolerate and you cheated,” I say slyly. Then I observe her tail turn to a shiny yellow. “What’s yellow for?”
“Annoyance. Just kidding, it turns yellow when I think something’s funny and it was gold and white because I was happy NOT jealous! I bet its hot pink when I’m jealous. It’s never turned that color before.”
“Because you have no one to be jealous of…you’re perfect,” I mumbled.
“What was that, sorry?”
“Nothing! We better get going, your dad already knows we’re on the way and I bet he’s getting anxious.”

~Melody~
My father. To me my father was the funny old man I had back home, and not the one who left me. I didn’t know what I was going to say to him when I first see him. What would I say…Oh hey there dad, I’m your daughter you didn’t want.
“Stop thinking badly of him, he had a good reason for leaving you. It was for your own protection, and I think you need to hear him out without any judgment,” what the hell can he read minds? “And to answer you I can’t read your mind.”
“CAN YOU?!” I ask terrified.
“No, but I can read your tail…” I stared down at my now dark red tail. Oh. I guess red was a very generic color to yell out danger or angry. For the rest of the way to the kingdom our conversation was pretty dull. My mind was elsewhere thinking about how it would be like there and what would I do with the parents back home if I wanted to stay out here?
At the end of my own battle I was having with myself in my head I started to observe my surroundings. I couldn’t believe I was being so oblivious to all this beauty that was now surrounding us; I had never been out this far in the ocean. The water had turned from a medium blue into a translucent turquoise color that made you feel like you were swimming in Windex. There was fish of all sizes and colors brushing past me, stingrays roaming the bottom of the Sandy Ocean, and sharks that dangerously lurked by the fish. I moved a little closer to Christian and I could hear him hold back a laugh.
“You haven’t been out this far have you?”
“No, I never wanted to be so far out that I couldn’t find my way back home but just far enough so no one would visibly see me.”
“That’s what I was guessing. I’m sure if you had been out here one of the other mermaids probably would have seen you. Some of them get bored of staying in the kingdom, like me, and they go out to discover new things,” as he said this you could see the mischievous smile that told you he got into trouble all the time.
“So why exactly did my father pick you to find me? And why couldn’t he find me himself?” I questioned him.
“I’m his right hand man. Whatever he orders me to do, I simply obey. If he could he would have came himself and retrieved you but being the ruler of the sea has a lot of responsibility.”
“Ruler of the sea…. I’m the daughter of…Neptune?” I couldn’t believe it, I had only heard folktale stories and watched movies about him, but I had never been a believer.
“You know of him?” he exclaims. It was obvious that he looked up to him because his eyes lit up like a little child when he sees candy.
“I merely only know about little tales from my child hood.”
His face drops as he says, “Oh, I was hoping you had remembered a little from your childhood. I’ll leave it for him to explain it though.” A little in the distance I could see big golden gates, and I knew we were approaching the kingdom. Behind the gates I could see tall beautiful coral reef that had a shape of a castle. There are crops of luscious green seaweed and various colors of ocean flowers. As we swam our way closer to the kingdom I could hear angelic music vibrate through the oceans water. Voices that sounded unworldly flooded my ears luring me to go into the kingdom. Sooner than I realized we are at the gold gates where there is big muscular guards demanding us for our names.
“Come on fin, you know me. You couldn’t forget me if you tried,” Christian retorts. The hulky blonde guard lets a laugh out and then puts back on his serious face looking over at me. I smile timidly back at him and then shot Christian a panicked look. These guys were scary.
“She’s Neptune’s lost daughter,” Christian explained and with that the both of the guys eyes widen.
“I—I’m so sorry, your majesty. Please forgive our rudeness, I am Fin Reefer and this is Jonathan Current,” Fin apologizes immensely.
I let out a laugh and respond, “Don’t worry about it, I’m Melody Madison,” They seemed to relax a little, and I give my hand out to gesture him, but he doesn’t shake it in return, “Umm…you’re suppose to shake it.” They both give each other a confused look and figured it couldn’t hurt and gave an awkward handshake. If they don’t even know what a handshake was I bet there was a bunch of things I would have to get use to.
“Here’s our way of saying hello and goodbye is by kissing each other on the cheeks,” Jonathan says smiling. I thought I saw him wink at Fin and Christian but before I knew it he gave me a kiss on my cheek and Fin follows after. Christian just gives me a look that says your not getting a kiss from me. Jerk.
“You don’t actually do that, do you?” They both blush and shake their heads. I just crack up, and Christian just gives me an annoyed look, which makes me laugh even harder.
“Anyways, let us through. Neptune has been waiting for her presence,” Christian demands, and they turn to the gate and start moving it. The gate seemed like it was thousands of pounds I couldn’t believe they were lifting it so easily.
“Don’t be so impressed. Neptune gave them extra strength insuring that they would be the only ones capable of moving the gates open,” Christian laughs at me. What happened to the nice-ish Christian? Ever since we got closer to the kingdom he started acting like a bastard, maybe he’s just a nicer human than merman. I started to laugh at that thought and he glares at me. Oh! If looks could kill.
~Christian~
She is laughing at me! Could she tell I was extremely jealous of the flirty smiles she was giving the guys? Or maybe she just didn’t know the effects of her smile on guys. I could tell Fin and Jonathan are developing a little crush for her, ugh telling her that they kissed cheeks to say hello? Who does that? I mean besides French people…I guess there are a lot people who do that.
~Melody~
“Don’t look so mad! I’m sure you’re stronger than these guys.” I meant it, his body was covered in hard thick muscle. Definitely not a guy you wanted to get into a fight with.
“Hey!” both Fin and Jonathan yell out when they have finished moving the gates fully open.
“Well you guys are kind of cheating by having magical powers,” I joked. They started flexing their arms and asked, “Does that look like something magic could give us?” Christian just grabbed my hand and urged me forward to the big coral castle. These gorgeous mermaids escorted us towards Neptune’s throne giving Christian flirty stares.
“Hey Christian, we thought you would never would return. We missed you,” one of them purred. Wow this guy must get a lot of tail, haha if you know what I mean.
The others practically claw at Christian’s arm and add, “You have to hangout with us after…” that’s when they finally noticed I was right by his side. They threw evil daggers at me thinking I was Christian’s girlfriend or something.
Pissed I reassured them, “I’m Neptune’s daughter, so don’t worry once he’s done giving me back like a lost puppy I’m sure he would love to hangout with you guys.” I gave a sarcastic smile. Why was I so jealous? I looked down at my tail and it was hot pink. God. Hopefully Christian won’t notice, but when I turned to him he is smirking looking down at my tail. I hate him; before he came along I’ve never been so jealous and self-cautious about the things I say and do. He waves goodbye to them with a flirty smile and ushers me to big golden doors.
“This is as far as I go, hope to see you around,” he says bored sounding and turns around without saying anything else. Wow, I wonder if it was an all act when he came to my birthday party. He had been so nice to me. I gulped looking at the doorknob and told myself, “You can do this Melody. I don’t even know the man, who cares what he thinks?” But deep down I knew I wanted to still give him a good first impression. This is my dad, my blood, how could I not? With some confidence that suddenly surged through me I quickly opened the door. There was a golden rug that leads to a throne, which had the most intricate chair I have ever seen. It seemed to be made out of pure gold and embedded with all sorts of jewels. From what I could tell looked like pearls, diamonds, rubies, and sapphires created shapes of shells.
“Hello Melody. My name is Neptune… and I’m your biological father,” he informed me a bit nervously, but you could tell he was a leader from his deep serious voice. My eyes had been so focused on the throne I hadn’t had the chance to look up at my father. To my surprise he looked quite young, probably in his late thirties. He had a well-trimmed, clean shaved beard that was a dirty blonde. His eyes were a piercing green like my eyes, and he had to be at least 6’5’’. I could see the resemblance between us, but the only thing I hadn’t inherited from him was his golden tan skin. Instead my sin had been naturally tan, almost a caramel brown, which I figured my mom had.
“Hello, sir.”
“Please, call me Neptune. I know haven’t earned the title dad but hopefully once I earn it I would wish you would call me that instead. For the mean time call me Neptune. You must have so many question I assume,” his eyes appraise my face as if to see if he could read it. I’m not an open book; I kept my emotions hidden from my face well. I didn’t like to show my weakness.
My eyes turn cold as I reply, “Only one actually, why didn’t you take me with you?”
His friendly smile dropped and he looked puzzle looking for the right explanation. He slowly started saying, “Well…there’s one thing you have to understand Melody when your mother was murdered I knew if I brought you with me my brother would do anything in his might to kill you also. Now I have him trapped, and I can assure you he will never lay a hand on you.”
“I just don’t understand why you couldn’t me back after you had him secured.” I was not letting him off that easy.
“That was only part of it, see at the time my parents were still alive and if they knew I came into contact with humans let alone had a child with one they would banish me from the kingdom. If I had brought you with me we would both be on our own out in the ocean left to fend for ourselves. I wanted you to have a better life.”
“No, I think you wanted to have a better life. You didn’t want to give up the chance to become the next king and you didn’t want your brother to have it. You didn’t want me,” I say almost a whisper, but I know he heard me. Tears welled up into my eyes, and I commanded myself to stop. I will not let this man I barely know see me cry. So I turned around and stomped out of the room leaving his pleads behind me.

Chapter Six Forgiveness

~Christian~
I saw Melody storm out of the two doors ignoring the two guys that told her that the king still wanted to talk to her. Her eyes were red and irritated looking, and that’s when I knew she was crying. Since you couldn’t really tell if there were tears rolling down her face. I swam after he and gripped my hand around her arm, spinning her around so she was facing me.
“Let go of me! I just want to go home. Why did you have to bring me here? I was perfectly content not knowing my father!” she practically shouts at me.
“I’m sorry, I thought it would help you knowing where you came from and who your father is. Just stay one night, and I’ll convince you its not so bad here. Please.” I pleaded her. I’ve only known her for the past 12 hours, and I couldn’t imagine her leaving. There was so much I wanted to show her. Looking into her eyes I could tell she felt bad for yelling at me, but I could see that she didn’t want to stay.
“Fine. But I refuse to play nice daughter and father act with Neptune. So it would be better if we didn’t cross paths with him,” she finally agrees. I guess forgiveness is hard to receive.

Impressum

Lektorat: To my best friend in the world Veronica :)
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 31.08.2012

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