Sea Breeze

Sailor's Splash

Marie had heard her sister listening to a song on repeat for a week once. This song wasn't nearly as energetic as everyone else's, let alone the one that Aenon was singing right now. She looked through the song charts to make sure she had the song because she didn't know all of the words for sure. She used to know all of them, but it's been a few years since she's heard this song. Luckily they had the song and she wanted and she could go along with this plan.

Trying to remember all the words and the beat of the song she focused intently and when her turn came up and Aenon handed her the mic with a wink she took a deep shaky breath and stepped out. Entering her song into the database she pulled up the lyrics and background music. This'll be interesting, she thought, I hope this works.

She waited for the beginning music to play then took a deep breath and sang, "You're not alone, together we stand," she kept singing the lyrics and noticed Aenon giving her a confused look. Turning her gaze back to the crowd she grew braver and threw her emotions into it, "keep holding on." *

She thought of Jamie as she sang and her determined emotions affected the crowd transforming the pumped up energy the previous singers had given them into a somber, loving determination. They felt the same thing that this girl who was exposing her emotions on stage was, and that was what captivated not only them but the man who'd been running this competition. Knowing how to get the crowd to feel what you're feeling is the key to winning, and this girl's got a good know how, he thought.

Her expression channeled the complete determination she had, and when Aenon recognized this he was once more reminded of how he'd have a hell of a time separating them... and that he almost didn't want to anymore. What had the mermaid society given him other than a completely new start from his old life? No, he shouldn't be second guessing his decision now. He shouldn't be second guessing his life with the merfolk, his people... but he was beginning to dearly miss the world he'd grown up in.

When she'd finished, like the first song she'd sung, there was silence, but then a roaring cheer erupted after an elderly man in a wheel chair began clapping. Marie's eyes drifted to his and began smiling sweetly at him as he returned her smile. She walked off the stage and they were given a fifteen minute break as the people all voted. Somehow drawn to this old man she made her way off the stage and down to where he was. Kneeling next to his chair she smiled, "Hey, are you enjoying yourself?"

The woman standing behind his chair was cautious about this girl who'd been singing, but she was moved by her song. Her father seemed to like this singer so she asked, "Dad are you enjoying yourself?"

The elderly man nodded with a big smile as he reached out his skinny, soft hands to take Marie's. He began singing in his old, wavering voice, "It was Friday morn when we set sail,And we were not so far from the land,When our captain, he spied a mermaid so fair,With a comb and a glass in her hand**..."

Marie listened to him sing quietly. As he sang the song she felt a connection to him somehow. His daughter behind his chair watched her father surprised, he hadn't sang in a long time let alone speak but somehow seeing this girl had brought back a spark to his eyes that had been long gone. Her father hadn't had this look in his eyes since her mother had passed away and she'd feared he'd been completely taken by dementia, but this showed that maybe a part of him was still there and this brought tears to her eyes.

Marie listened to him to the end and squeezed his hands gently with her own, "I love your song sir. Would you mind if I sang it too?"

He squeezed her hands back gingerly with what little strength he had left, "Mermaids have the loveliest voices dear."

His daughter was in tears when he'd spoken coherently for the first time in months, "Pardon my dad, he was a sailor for many years and he always insisted that my mother was half mermaid. I thought that by coming out here to the ocean and to his favorite music festival he'd be happy. He comes here every year."

Marie looked up at the woman with the same gentle smile she had looked at the woman's father with, "It's quite alright. He's not that far off, I was raised on ships just like I imagine he was."

The old man heard this and smiled delighted. He nudged her hand and reached into his pocket taking out an old pennant with a broken chain and handed it to Marie. She gingerly took it and he closed her hand around it with a big smile. Recognizing the pennant his daughter gasped, "Dad that's your treasure, are you sure you want to give it away?"

Marie looked unsure, "Sir if this is your treasure, shouldn't you keep it close to your heart?"

He shook his head and motioned for her to kiss it. She did and he clapped his hands happy. Feeling a little guilty Marie reached into he pocket and took out her own favorite pennant that she'd gotten from the captain of one of her father's ships, "Here have mine then. I got it from a family friend who taught me to sail as well."

He took the worn compass pennant and smiled happily. Putting it around his own neck he kissed it and squeezed her hand in thanks. Marie couldn't help but feel as if this old man were her own grandfather even though she knew that he was of no relation to her. Hearing Aenon call her name she kissed the old man's cheek wishing she could give him back some of his youth and let him live long enough to see the next concert.

He squeezed her hand when she'd pulled away and as Marie walked away his daughter looked at him thinking that he looked a lot more like he did two years ago before he'd gotten into the thick of his dementia. He seemed to have that strong spark back in his eyes like he did before and this made her break down into tears. Her father could be brought back.

Aenon had watched the whole exchange and overheard parts of the conversation. He watched Marie walk up to him looking closely at the pennant. Recognizing the faded picture of a ship on it he immediately thought back to his great grandmother showing him almost the exact same picture on a very similar pennant when he'd first arrived into the mermfolk city. In fact, he was almost sure he'd carried it with him... fishing in his pocket he realized that he'd probably left it back in Mercity when he'd left to go get Jamie.

On another note he'd watched Marie kiss the old man's cheek and what worried him was that she'd actually done something. She'd actually restored something to him, and that meant that she was developing the magic that came with the people of the sea. This meant that it was becoming nearly impossible to take the powers from her and transfer them into Jamie, that Jamie would never be able to go back to the water with his brother and that Marie was becoming more and more of a true mermaid.

Aenon watched them worried but decided not to say anything to her until after he'd talked with Shell about this. The smoker guy studied this girl, and the guy she was with, trying to guess where they'd come from. The boy looked a lot like most of the people here as did the girl; but somehow they both seemed different, almost untouchable in a way. It was like some invisible, un-sensible force was trying to make them different. Like an unknown sense was telling him that they weren't like him.

The man studied the two then tallied up the votes that'd been casted. Unsurprisingly the two were tied evenly and won by a landslide. He thought about this and debated on whether or not to make them compete against each other in a match to determine the winner, but they'd seemed to have come together so why didn't they just split the money? He'd have to ask them.

When the man running the show walked up to Marie and Aenon they were talking about what to do next, go home or go for a swim or ride some rides? He cleared his throat and once he got their attention he spoke, "So you two are tied, do you want to do a competition against each other or do you want to just split the reward and sing a duet?"

Marie looked at the tall seaweed green eyed man standing next to her when a rather devious little idea popped into her head, "We'll do the duet and split the reward."

Aenon eyed her unsure, that look she had in her eyes said he shouldn't trust her so he shook his head, "We can just compete against each other, it'll be less messy anyway with the reward."

Marie tsk-ed him, "The reward's easy to split, besides I know the perfect duet."

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* Keep Holding on by Avril Lavinge All copywrite things go to her and her producers, I do not own those lyrics.