The Twelve Kingdoms

I'd Do It For You

/// Little Mermaid

Water Kingdom ///

The sky was a dark velvet curtain with a twinkle of stars peeking out, like glitter. A trickle of water was sucked into her lungs and she breathed out vapor. Floating like this in the ocean, with a gentle breeze tickling her skin and scales. A soft hypnotic melody was slipping through her lips, her voice an eerie kind of beautiful. She wasn't a mermaid technically, water manipulators could switch between tails and legs, but she loved singing and the idea that her voice had the power to send men to their deaths.

Out of all the Twelve Kingdoms, the Water Kingdom was the most peculiar one. The royalty lived in the sea while the rest of the population was settled in port cities all around it. The people themselves were different as well, almost completely stripped of a moral compass and ruled by greed and lust and vanity. It was the most stunning kingdom out of all twelve, and the most cruel one, just like the seventh daughter of the Water King. Her beauty was blinding and her soul was darker than the abyss.

Her haunting song carried across the rolling waves of the empty dark sea as she stared up at the stars and the two moons above, hoping the sound would carry far enough to reach him. She only saw him, the prince of the Aviary Kingdom, two weeks ago. He was flying over the water for hours one night, and she hid behind a rock and watched him. Now it was nearing close to dawn, and she waited every night since then to see him again. He hadn't showed up once.

But she wanted him. She wanted his wings. She wanted it so much and it had been eating at her for the last fifteen days, feeding on the darkness inside of her. She wanted to be able to drown, to lose her breathing to the salty water, to live in the air and never know what it felt like to be wet. She wanted wings.

Her low soothing voice pitched to a hair-raising screech of frustration and she dove back into the water, racing toward the shore. She reached the tropical south-eastern beaches that connected to the fey part of the Earth Kingdom. She walked out of the water on wobbly legs, her long thick locks clinging to her body.

"Princess Vivienna."

She swung around to find the source of the sudden voice, which turned out to be a boy sitting at one of the rocks. The shadows covered half of his face and she could barely make out his wide glittering eyes.

"I'm guessing you're looking for me?" he continued as he got off the rock and walked toward her. "You need something, don't you?"

She regarded him coolly as he grew a few inches to match her height. "Do I know you?"

"No, not really. But you do know of me."

"And who are you exactly?" she asked, hugging herself from the chilly wind.

"Malleville Taron, the second prince of the Earth Kingdom."

Her lip curled up in satisfaction. "How convenient. I really was looking for you."

He smiled back. "Name your price, Princess."

"What do you take? I can give you all the souls you want."

Malleville scoffed. "I don't take souls from your kingdom." He took a step closer and gently tipped her chin up with his finger. "But you do have quite the lovely voice."

"Take it. And give me the wings."

~*~*~*~

The wind whistled past her ears and it was the most exhilarating feeling to be only surrounded by air. Now all she had to do was find him.