XY's POV
"Yo ho, yo ho, it's a pirate's life for me...." Sang a prisoner in the dark. "We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho...."
"Oh, would you do me a favor and SHUT UP ALREADY?" Yelled another prisoner, the sound of a cup hitting the hollow metal bars sounding from close by.
"Relax you shallow dogfish, let the man sing. Such lifting human vocals is better than just starring into this grave dark, moping as execution day draws ever nearer." Says the poet I now shared a cell with, dully waving his tail to stir the stagnant waters of the dungeon.
"Do you ever stop talking so.... fancy, Tuna?" Sourly asks a rebel man, Moirer.
"My eloquent words are the despair of which I am imprisoned now for, so I shall remain speaking 'fancy' until I am deceased." Tuna says stiffly, laying across his slab you could call a bed.
"New guy, could you flick that guy in the head for us all?" Moirer asked me, tapping my shoulder through the cell bars.
I shrugged off his hand, keeping my eyes closed since I was deep in thought. My mind was still on Charley, though it felt like hours or days since I last saw him.
"You can't just call the number one assassin in the ocean new guy." Exclaims Moirer's cell mate, Cooper.
"Assassin or not, he's new and he can reach that poet." Moirer says, the singing starting back up further down. "Can we please have some silence to talk here?" He barks.
Some grumbles stared up and Cooper moved towards where I sat, in the corner of Tuna's and my cell, the pesky little brown tail leaning against the bars that separated Tuna and I from Moirer and Cooper. I opened my eyes and looked at him.
Cooper opened his mouth hesitantly, like I was going to lash at him for disturbing my thoughts. "So, what are you here for? The last I heard you were the king's favorite problem solver." He says, leaning against the bars.
I hardly wanted to talk about the eel shit I got into, turning my back to him. "The king's favorite? The king doesn't have favorites." I say stiffly, loud enough for the other cells to hear. "All he has is power and likes it that way."
"That's true." Calls the baker from three cells down. "May the monarchy drown!"
"May the monarchy drown!" Called several others.
I was tempted to add my voice to that echo, but I knew the one heir to the throne who I would never condemn- Charley, the orange tailed beauty, with his soft hair and adorable everything. I couldn't seem to stop thinking about him! I couldn't stop replaying his tears in my mind either. Maybe it was better that I was here in this shitty cell and he was in the polished palace above, because he is so fragile and gentle, and I am sturdy and rough. I may have kissed his head, but now my mind was turned to how much I should have tried his soft, shy lips against mine. My head was swirling with the same thoughts.
I don't think I will ever forget how tears graced his face, and how much he started to freak out at the king's decision. I can't forget how he would have tried to convince the kiss was nothing, just to keep me there, just to save me and keep me close to contradict the words. And I will never forget the king's collected voice, as he knew he was tearing his son away from me. His face didn't even change from its stoic grandeur. Cod, I hated the man.
Now I am left to question, did the king do the right thing in his view? Charley clung to me clearly, and I never pushed him away and told him to swim on his own. I protected him by clearly keeping him close, but in the king's view, obviously too close. I was not to be trusted in his view.
The king was a cruel man, and I hope the whole fucking war gets to him, but I also pray to Poseidon that Charley won't have to see his own father's fall. I know exactly how to my tail out of this stagnant place, but I definitely won't without knowing he is safe! If there were any reports about my Charley, my angelfish, being in danger, I would let myself out in an instant and I would protect him until the end of the earth.
"Meal time, you scuttling bottom feeders!" Yelled a guard, as the prisoners rushed forwards to collect food with their shell plates and cups. I opened my eyes annoyedly, and turned my attention to who the guard was. Usually, the right one would give the news, or so I was told.
"What is going on out there?" Asked the pirate-song singer eagerly, the red-tailed guard pausing his slop distribution to smirk.
"You would never guess- the king announced his son's return, and his betrothal to the first noble to woo him!" The guard says, tossing some sludge onto a open tray as I got up. "Apparently the prince is a male breeder."
"Do you know how the prince took this news?" I asked, leaning against the bars and putting my forehead against them. My angelfish could not be taking this well, with how shy he was with me and just the kiss on the head, the so called 'wooing' of horny bastardous nobles was going to be hell in a shell-cart for him. Especially, since these so-called suitors are all taught that he is more like an object than person because of his gender with his tail color. The thoughts of them trying to use him made my stomach churn and my fists clench around the bars.
"Oh, he seemed surprised, or so I was told. The king had it all planned out for him, a suitor each day, until he realizes which one he wants." The guard shrugs. "The whole matter is none of your concern though, you bottom-feeders here are going to rot and die here."
"Wouldn't you like it if that was so?" Tuna laughs, a few laughing with him.
"You are right, it's not so. The king doesn't keep you forever, he needs corpses to bed the kelp reefs doesn't he?" Another cod-awful guard says, swimming into the room with a thick black rope. The laughing ceased as he passed through, right over to my cell. "You, my friend," he pointed at me with the rope, "have a specially requested way to die, ordered by the King himself. I haven't had to use a quiet execution in a while, so I'm glad I can talk you you now. I have to ask though, how did you get the king so royally pissed at you?"
The other guard answered for me, laughing. "You don't know? This idiot kissed the prince!"
The previously quiet cells now went completely mad, the prisoners talking. Scorn, laughter, and jeers were aimed my way as everyone suddenly knew the 'crime' I held. The food serving guard took out his whip and hit amongst the cells to get them to quiet again and behave.
The executioner looked at me with a evil glint in his eye. "Tell me, was it worth it?" He chuckled.
"Of course." I said in a heartbeat.
YOU ARE READING
The Mer Prince
Romance(ManxMan Content) When a curious sea-drawn marine biologist takes his leisurely sea trip by himself in his ship, he happens upon his strange origins... and a new love.
