A Merman's Tale

Fates: Chapter Forty-Three

Seirra

I woke up long before dawn.

Thinking back on everything that had happened in the past week, I still couldn't believe that I was going back to Aquania with Margaret.

I got off the bed and walked over to the window. Marina's old apartment had no curtains and no view. The narrow street was still as ugly as it was before. The walls were dirty and garbage was scattered carelessly by the dumpster. Near the corner, a pair of drunkards swayed towards the sidewalk and finally gave up walking. I imagined them moaning from their hangover and I averted my gaze as I thought how hopeless some humans could be.

The gloomy darkness slowly gave way to light. The sunrise could never look beautiful with nothing but walls to see, and yet I couldn't help but feel elated about what was going to happen today.

Problems continued to lay ahead of Marge and me. However, I knew that Margaret must leave without feeling burdened--not of what was to come and definitely not of what she was leaving behind. I resolved to make her departure as easy as possible.

I dressed in a blue collared shirt and jeans. If we were going to reminisce and recreate Margaret's lost memories, we might as well dress casually, just as we always did those twenty-nine days I stayed on land.

A blue velvet box lay on the small table beside my bed. I walked over and lifted its lid. Inside was a gold ring with a small diamond on it. It was simple and yet, it was the most valuable jewel that I had ever held.

At first I had thought that there was no need to do something like this but as each day passed, I realized that Margaret will always be a human at heart and to ask her to marry me by giving her a ring will be a precious memory that she could hold onto.

We, merfolk, probably had no reason to propose using a jewel but Margaret would greatly appreciate this. Not because she wanted something extravagant but because I knew that she would know that doing this meant that I truly loved and accepted her.

And there was no better day to offer this to her than today. I took the ring out of the box and placed it in the chain that held the Crystal Key of Saol.

I originally bought the ring from a jewelry store but the diamond now possessed magic from the Key. It was a risk that nobody had ever thought of doing but when I resolved to propose to Margaret, I had decided to ask the Key to protect her mind from insanity.

At first, I thought that nothing had happened but when I accidentally placed the two jewelries on the bedside table, the diamond on the ring reacted. When the Key and the diamond touched, they emitted a small green light, indicating that the diamond had acquired a small amount of power.

Somehow, I felt sure that as long as Margaret was wearing the ring, the effects of her transformation as a mermaid will lessen.

I smiled as I placed the chain back around my neck and went out of the room.

We were supposed to meet at the beach at eight in the morning. It was not the right time of day, considering how we first met early in the afternoon, but since I only had today to give Marge everything she could not remember, I figured the time of day was no longer as important.

I ate a piece of sliced bread and left early. Mornings on land are actually quite beautiful. There weren't many people roaming the streets and the morning sun did not feel as if you were being cooked in a furnace. It was more like feeling the warmth of freshly baked bread against your skin. The surroundings seemed even more alive and colors tended to shine brighter.

I took my time going to our meeting place, savoring my last day on land, but still managed to arrive twenty minutes earlier than we had planned.

What came as a surprise was that Marge was already there. What was even more astounding was that she was wearing the same blouse she was wearing when we first met. Turquoise matched her blue eyes well and complemented her hair beautifully. She was wearing a cream-colored skirt this time, instead of the black slacks she wore that fateful day.