ᴘᴏsᴇɪᴅᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ ʜɪs ʟᴏᴠᴇʀ

The Past

The very first time I saw her was when I was visiting another part of my kingdom. Father had wanted me to come along. I was very little 5, at the time. So I snuck away to see the humans. Strange two-leggers who walked the surface. I had legs, but most of the time I used my tail. 

There was a little girl on the beach. Her black curls crowning her face, her olive skin glowing in the sunlight. She looked up, and her eyes locked on mine. 

Sharp hazel eyes. 

She stood up and ran toward the water, closer to me, I climbed on top of the boulder to get a better look at her and fell down the side. I sprang up to face her. "Poseidon," I said and held out my hand to her. "Denara." She said and shook it. "Will you play with me?" She asked. "Yes," I said.  

We built a sandcastle and swam in the water together. She stayed for two weeks, and not for a moment we were not apart. We would have sleepovers on the beach or on her parent's beachfront deck. 

Every summer she came to the beach, and every summer until she was 16 I would tell her the same thing. My father had left me with my grandmother. 

When she was 12, she convinced her parents to let her stay at the beach all summer, and that was the summer I introduced her to Father. "She's the daughter your mother always wanted!" He would say. 

Then, when she was 16, I told her the truth. About how I was prince of the Ocean's and Seas. She took it calmly. "Wow. I knew there was something special about you when I first met you." She said with a smile, and then she kissed me. 

That summer there were thousands more kisses, and I introduced her to my mother. Just as Father predicted, Mother loved her. "Marry her." She would tell me when we were alone. 

When I was 18 Mother died. That summer Denara never left my side. She would stay with me at night, and when I cried she would hug me and tell me I was so brave. 

That year she went on to college. The summer when I was 19, she told me all about Marine Biology. And so I told her as much as I knew about it so that she would get her degree easily. 

The next summer she was barely there. She was off with her college friends partying. For the last two weeks of her summer, she stayed with me. 

The next few summers flew by, and she graduated with her degree. I asked her to marry me after she graduated, and she said, "I'm 22 Poseidon! I just graduated. I want to see the world, travel, go to Paris or Greece." She sighed and a wistful look appeared in her eyes. 

"Let's do it," I said. "Let us travel to Greece, Paris, wherever you want to go!" I exclaimed. "It costs money." She said. "Not if it's close to the sea," I said with a smile. I pulled her into the water and when the water reached up to our waist's, I jumped. We swam out to sea, and I called for my carriage to get us. The dolphins raced through the water. I threw open the door and we swam into the carriage, leaving the beach behind. 

We visited everywhere she wanted to go. Paris, Greece, the Maldives, Russia, the Bahamas. Our last stop was Paris, and that's where I asked her to marry me. 

The engagement ring had a sapphire to represent the sea, surrounded by gold. She said yes, right in front on the Eiffel Tower.