The Cursed Mermaid

Chapter 3: the Queen's castle | Nam

Teaching a mermaid how to walk was, arguably, harder than escaping the castle with Princess (well, Queen, really) Jennifer on our tail ready to slaughter whoever she saw.

The girl, Arya, stumbled at every second step. Just when I thought she had her balance, she would trip and would have injured herself in the worst way possible if I hadn't caught her.

Kim was teaching the mermaid - she wasn't really a mermaid now, not with her legs and all, but still - with a lot more patience than I could have managed. I'd always thought I was an understanding person until I realised how long it actually took just for Arya to walk off the beach and into the forest.

Her face was matted with sweat, her ginger hair sticking to her face, but her emerald eyes glowed with determination as she refused to stop and take a break. She would only accept a small sip of water from my drink bottle before motioning for us to continue.

I wondered what made her so desperate to get to Queen Kameron.

It was easier to accept her now, since she didn't have that fish like tail that made my insides recoil at the sight. I felt guilty for feeling that way, since she didn't seem to mind our horns or the weird colours of our eyes.

When I'd first spotted her, I'd been scared of her.

She'd been scared of us too, I could tell, but she'd decided to trust us because she simply didn't have another alternative.

I'd trusted her because I could see that through her bravery and confidence, she was desperate. Her expression was hard, but her eyes...they'd shown something different. I knew that look. I saw it every time I stared in the mirror.

Arya wheezed as she hobbled, but silently, since she couldn't make a sound. She'd gained some strength in her right leg, which seemed to be her good side, so Kim had let go of her, and she was now only relying on me to support her.

Kim glanced at the tall trees surrounding us. The canopy was so thick that any trace of the sun was gone. I estimated that it was almost midday by now. "Once we clear this forest, there is a path that will lead us directly to the castle. At this speed, we should get there before nightfall." What my sister cleverly avoided to mention was that we would probably be walking for the next six hours.

The forest had uneven ground and was littered with fallen logs and random shrubs, so it took much longer to exit the forest than I had anticipated. In fact, upon seeing a tree branch on the ground, I'd simply just carried Arya across because waiting for her to climb it herself would've been torture.

"We'd be faster if someone like you carried her, Nam," Kim pointed out, seeing how much quicker we were then.

Arya frowned and opened her mouth to speak, before remembering that she couldn't. Instead, she just pointed at me and shrugged, as if to ask: What do you think?

"Well, we would move faster that way," I said eventually, walking in front of Arya and bending down in front of her so she could clamber onto my back. However, I'd forgotten that Arya was a mermaid and had no idea what I was doing, so she had to be guided by Kim (this took about five minutes) before she finally found a comfortable position on my back. I straightened, wrapping my arms under her legs to keep her aloft. I felt her stiffen. "Is this okay? Am I hurting you?"

She shook her head, instead jutting her chin forward. Go.

As the day wore on, Kim and I walked. I was grateful that the surface of the road was smooth, because it was already hard enough carrying Arya halfway across the land. After a few hours of walking, my arms began to shake.

"Should we take a break?" Kim enquired, not at all sounding like she was asking a question. When Arya shook her head, Kim ignored her and announced, "We're taking a break."