Beauty and the Merman

Chapter 6

We went inside the castle and I noticed the emptiness of it. It looked like the fish didn't even come in. But apart from that, it was beautiful. In front of me, the hallway sloped upward like a grand staircase would. But why would you need a staircase underwater when you could just swim up? It ended up looking like a giant slide but it was made of a mosaic of colored tiles.
There were so many places to go, I could easily see myself getting lost in the place. Just as I was feeling overwhelmed, Sorelen began to move again "I will show you to your room." We went through endless hallways before he stopped in front of a door that said Beauty's Room.
I was confused. "What's this?"
"This is your room."
"But it says Beauty's Room."
"And you are a Beauty. In my haste, I forgot to ask your father for your name. But I was right to assume you would be a sight to behold."
"Can you see correctly? I am no Beauty." I have never considered myself ugly, but I have never pretended to be anything other than what I am. I am a plain Jane and there is no arguing with it. I have boring straight brown hair. I have a boring shade of brown eyes. I'm not pale, but I don't have a rich color skin. My teeth are fine and I wish I was taller, but I am not beautiful.
Sorelen looked at me like I was blind. "You are beautiful and this is your room."
"Fine. I'm not beautiful but this is my room." I am nothing if not stubborn. Sorelen rolled his eyes and opened the door. He looked at me, waiting for me to go in, but I didn't know how to move underwater. "I can't swim, remember."
"Oh. Well, cup your hands and sort of move the water."
I tried it and moved towards the inside of the room. I wasn't swimming nearly as fast as Sorelen, but I was getting somewhere. I went inside and it was perfect. The bed looked big and soft, as if it was made out of a giant sea sponge. There were pictures of roses on the walls, my favorite flower. There was a window looking out at a spectacular view of the ocean, and underneath, a garden of multi-colored corals and anemones. The room was just the perfect shade of blue, my favorite color. I was speechless and when I turned to look back at the doorway, I saw Sorelen standing just outside my room, watching me. "What's wrong? Why are you staying there?"
"I know you still have not forgiven me, although you treat me kinder than you need to. So I thought you would feel safer knowing that I will never invade your privacy and come into your room. This is your room and you may stay here undisturbed. But you don't need to stay in there either. You can explore my home as much as you want...I just thought you might like a private place that is just yours."
"Okay." I nodded and was surprised that he knew I hadn't forgiven him.
"Dinner is in an hour. You can prepare yourself in here before I'll come to get you. I hope you will be happy here." He left before I could even respond. I shut the door and went to the bed to lay down. This was all just so weird. But now that Sorelen mentioned dinner, I was feeling hungry. So I went to what looked like a wardrobe and opened it up. There were blouses, pants, dresses, skirts, all in my size. He must have spied on me before I came here. Weird, but effective. But I wouldn't dress up for him. So I stayed in my clothes and decided to explore my room some more. There wasn't much more to see, but it kept my mind occupied for the hour I had wait.
Before I knew it, Sorelen was knocking at my door. I opened it up and if he was surprised that I hadn't changed clothes, he didn't show it. I didn't care. He led me to the dining room and I saw a surprisingly small table for two set with food.
I recognized most of the food as fish, which was fine, I had eaten lots of fish growing up. But some of it looked like seaweed, anemones, slugs, and fish eggs. I would probably stick to the fish, that was safe. Then I noticed he was watching me look at the food, almost expectantly. I spoke up, "It looks good."
"Really? I know you are probably used to human food, not merfood. We can't really cook in the water. No fire. But most of the stuff in the ocean you don't have to cook anyway."
"No, it's fine." I swam to my seat but Sorelen swam ahead of me and pulled out a chair for me, like a gentleman. I sat down and he sat across from me. As I began to eat some fish, I began to wonder where dinner came from. He said it would be just us, but then who prepared the food. I hadn't seen any servants or cooks. I had to ask, "Who made dinner?"
He looked at me bashfully and responded, "I did."
"Really? You cook? Or, um, prepare dinner?"
"Yes. I have to if we are going to eat."
"Right. I'm just surprised. I usually made food at my house, since Dad really only cooks with a microwave and Mom died so long ago. But you probably don't even know what a microwave is."
"No, I do. I have spent some time on land." He paused momentarily before continuing. "When did your Mom die? If I can ask."
"Oh, when I was six."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah." I really wanted to change the subject, but I couldn't think how. It didn't matter, because he changed it for me. "I really am sorry."
"For what?"
"You being here."
"You don't want me here."
"I do. Just...never mind. How's the food?"
"Good. But I'm getting tired." I began to leave, when Sorelen swam next to me and offered me his arm. "Can I take you to your room?"
I wasn't entirely sure how to respond, but I agreed "Sure" and we swam to my room. Once there, he said good night and left me alone. I don't remember getting into bed but I do remember crying myself to sleep and I tried to cover the sound of my sobs with my face in the pillow.