XY's POV
Getting used to being human was very odd. Ursula hated the moments I would wiggle my 'hips' out of habit, and it did feel fucking odd enough for myself, but as she put it, it was an 'unconscious habit' for when I felt off-center. She was teaching me several useful things though, and one of the lessons she specifically gave me was: "humans did not do that". I would apparently 'hump' the air, and then catch myself doing it. It made any mood awkward, and interaction with any human slow and alien. Another lesson Ursula had been teaching me is not all foods go down easily, and I cannot just bite as hard as I have been doing, I have to chew it finely, and my teeth are no longer meat-shredding. She also taught me about doors, and, my new worst nightmare: the stairs. I would climb up them on all fours behind her back most of the time. They were a hellish creation, and I fucking hated them.
Eventually, I got used to walking, and eating, and only did the hip motion as something Ursula called music played. It was loud, rolling music, nothing like sweet siren melodies that lured humans to their deaths. Ursula explained what drums were to me, and I could not help moving my hips slightly to a 'funky beat'. To dance and make friends isn't why I am human however. I'm human to save Charley. I begged to whoever would listen that Charley was okay, and the man might make religion out of me.
After three weeks, I could do most of what a human could. Ursula started explaining the layout of the place we were going to save Charley from. She said no, we couldn't just go over the fences, and no, we could not just fight our way through, though I had asked for the latter. She shook her head and consistently called me 'stabby boy".
"It's like teaching a man maneuvering from 3D to 2D...." Ursula rubbed her head and tried to explain her plan again. "You are going to be here. You cannot just go over anything you want." She pointed to a doll. "This is you."
"That isn't, but... go on...." I prodded.
"You are going to go to this gate and wait for a person to come out, understand?" She prodded. I nodded as she continued, lifting the doll and moving it across a grey rectangle. "I'm going to be on this side of the building." She moved a pink-haired figure on the other side of the table. "I will cause a big distraction, and either make everyone leave or come to me." She explained. I nodded again. "Then you will run in this door, go through the building, find where Charley is, and give him this." She held out a pearl. "Get it?"
"Why can I not just go this way?" I traced a line to where a big blue spot was on the map. The entire map was a sky-picture and showed even the trees.
"We don't know if he is in those... inhumane... pools." Ursula said with a shudder, leaning on her arms, giving up on convincing me on any other route. "I am sure that at the time the invisibility I give you wears off, you'll have found him."
"What if I don't?" I questioned.
"Then I'll have to find a way to get you from the police, and Charley from the crazy man." She explains, getting off her arms and leaving the room. "I'll give you two human-making orbs in case you break them."
"I wouldn't break them." I object.
Ursula looked to me. "Then you'll return my second orb to me." She hmphs, finally walking off.
I studied the map. It was flat and taken of the half-oval compound, and the big doll called Ken was laying on the blue spots in the center. There was a big patch of green under the doll's hand in a pool. I had a feeling my lover was there and I was intent to get to him. Ursula forbid killing, and denied me any weapons. She said I couldn't have a knife, even if I promised to stab the evil scum-eaters only in the knees.
I leaned on my arms like Ursula had, finding the position comfortable. Then I put my head in my hands, closing my eyes to think. I can't lose Charley. I lost AB, I can't lose him. AB was so gentle and beautiful, but so self-depreciating, yet he cared for every life over his own. I could sense that selflessness in Charley. The more I knew Charley, or the more I thought about him, I knew I couldn't compare him to AB completely.
AB's real name was Sunny. Sunny Andrea, an orange-tailed merman with the most gorgeous smile that could light up even a dark night. He had orange eyes with light blue specks mixed in, like the sky fell off into them from all the times he stared into the blue expanse above his head. Unfortunately, he was born into an 'owned life,' and was always easy going, never brave, never courageous, but always hoping he could convince his captors through kindness to let him go. It was eel shit, everything the people that believed they owned him did to him, from birth to death. My hands still clench at the memory of the cruel torture that I had witnessed.
I had been hired to kill a man in the officials' lodging, and was told that would ensure safety of everyone else. They sent an assassin in to kill an assassin, in other words. I walked in, and there he was, ready to serve. Sunny held out a tray, and gave me a shy smile that he showed me since the moment we met. I took a liking to him immediately, despite never having known much about orange-tail males. I had him explain everything about the orange, and he was very open and sharing, like Charley.
During the first week there, his owner Pristio had tied him up to where his wrists were bruised, and forced himself on Sunny. It got worse, as he even lent Sunny out for money too, and even offered me 'a round'. Sunny suddenly didn't want to talk, he didn't want to hear his name either. Yet I still talked to him, low and quiet. That's how I just decided to call him "Ab", and then A.B., like "a bee". He liked it, and hid in my arms often when they came looking for him after they had all drank.
I threatened to kill the officials from the beginning. I should have. Yet AB begged me not to, I would be hurt or worse, and he wanted to convince Pristo that he was a person. He wanted to make Pristo know that he had life and love like anyone else. AB tried just that too, possibly pitying the man, possibly too stubborn believing he could change Pristo.
Fuck, Sunny lost his gorgeous gold-orange color too fast in the end. On my last night, I begged him to come with me after wiping his tears and whispering promises that still rake my heart, that will never be fucking filled. It was so damn wrong how it all went down, nightmares still bubble in my mind as if it was only a minute ago.
One moment, I was leading AB gently out to pearl kelp gardens to make an escape. The gardens were thick, suffocating, but the perfect cover for us. I finally had gotten AB to say yes to escaping with me, and we were eloping together. I lead so confidently, and his hand was in mine the whole way. He stayed close, and I could feel the weight of his soft hand resting in my own, reassuring and making my heart happily do shit.
The next moment, the hand went limp. I stopped and whispered in the kelp. "AB?"
No response, and I pulled his hand towards me- and his arm was the only piece of him I was holding. Shock set in for a split second before action. "AB!" I yelled with all my might, damn concerned, yanking apart the kelp, rushing back to the lodging. There he was.
AB stared at the sky he loved so much, his arms removed, his face stuck in a state of forever-horror as orange blood rose from him and was staining the waters above us. I rushed to him and started shaking. "AB? AB?" I shook him, trying to stop the bleeding, anything- but it was too late! I was too damn late! I was so fucking happy to elope with such a gem... and then he was chopped apart.
"AB you called him?" Pristio sneered, holding a sword with bright blood splattered across its blade. "What does that make you, XY?"
Rage swelled up in me, and I lunged at him, lackeys appearing to detain me suddenly. I yelled insults and threats at him, and swore that moment that he would die for this! Sunny started floating to the surface behind me, becoming light grey, as all the blood left his body. I had a view of him as they dragged me away.
"You are nothing. You are the last useless sea slug that anyone would want, but certainly not special enough to be even the grand finisher. You're just XY. Maybe one day you'll die, after watching every person you love die before you." Pristo taunted, right before his execution. I made sure he received no mercy.
It took five swings to silence Pristo's screaming with a dull axe, years later. Precisely what he deserved.
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.
