Marker; 7572 reads and 516 votes
(Published 12-31-18 Happy New Years!)

An; So a couple of things.
1. Official new favorite chapter to write for is Arthur.
2. So my dream is to have some good music to go along with each chapter. So, can someone suggest me some spooky, mermaid like songs?
3. I accidentally published this like 3 times.
4. currently writing this from my death bed. The leftover chines food did me dirty last night.

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Summer Present

I walked to the spot where the Athame had been standing. There was a small dent in the sand where she had rested her driftwood staff, but other then that, there was no trace that she had ever been there.

Ray still stood in the same place she had, when she had sealed her fate.  She was staring at the ground with a troubled expression on her face.

"Ray," I said softly.

Her head jerked up.  "I'm fine," she said, but her words rang false in my ears.

I reached out and hugged her. She hesitated for just an instant before she hugged me back so fiercely that I could barely breathe.

"Marina, I never understood all this time why you wouldn't just take a pearl.  Even after falling in love with Arthur and...Arthur!"

She let go of me and ran towards the still kneeling figure of the man she loved. She stopped a foot away from him, like there was an invisible barrier between the two of them. And I supposed now there was.

"Are you alright?" she called.

Arthur was still on his hands and knees. He coughed uncontrollably, but held up his thumb to her, a human hand motion that let people know that they were alright.

"I forget what that hand symbol means?" Ray said, "Does that mean you're alright?"

"Yeah," he managed to say between coughs. "I know this may be the last thing I should want in the world right now, considering what just transpired, but I just need a tall glass of water."

This made Ray let out a small laugh, but that laugh devolved into a serious of sobs.

" We can't be together anymore Arthur," she groaned.

"What!?" Arthur raises his head to look at her. He had stopped coughing. "I just almost drowned today, after being drowned for real. You made a deal with a witch that might end in you becoming her slave. So, it's safe to say we now finally have an appropriate level of couple dysfunction.  We were far too perfect before. Why give up now?"

"Arthur I need you to stop being funny for just a moment, and listen to me."

"But I thought my humor is what you love most about me?" He gave her a weak smile.

"Arthur...."

"Right, right."

"How much of my bargain with the witch did you hear?" Ray asked.

"I heard it all," Arthur said and struggled to his feet. "But why are you so upset? All you have to do is stop taking souls, which honestly darling, I was going to insist that you gave up anyways. That and break off your arranged marriage to prince-what's-his-face at some point."

"Arthur I can't take a pearl whether it be by accident or on purpose?"

"Yes and so?"

"I can't count the times I accidentally took your pearl when we were together.
Well...I took it on purpose the first time...but I enjoyed being with you so much, that I put it back, and lied to myself and said I returned it in order to let your feelings deepen for me, and for the quality of the pearl to improve."

"What!?" Arthur said, his eyebrows knitting in the center. " I don't believe you! I think I would realize if I had my soul sucked out of my body! It isn't exactly like losing a sock."

"That's where you're wrong, some humans can barely even feel it, but I've put it back so many times, that I've lost count.  Do you remember how you told me that sometimes you felt, for a second at least, that you felt like you were losing yourself when you were with me?"

A flash of clarity crossed his face, and she nodded.

"Dear god."

"A mermaid can't steal a pearl of a human with true love for someone in their heart unless that true love is for that mermaid. The last time I saw your pearl if was so beautiful, the most beautiful pearl I've ever seen, because you truly love me." Tears were streaming heavily down her face and rolling off her cheeks. They crystallized the second they hit the sand.

"I can't let myself belong to that sea witch, and I was kidding myself that we could've ever made this work.  I love you more than anything, but this is goodbye. It's for the best in the end."

Ray's head suddenly jerked towards the ocean, "Father is calling me, I have to go now in order to keep up this lie." She looked back at me. "Take care of Arthur, and please make sure he's safe. I was so selfish," Ray turned and ran towards the ocean and right past Arthur.

"Oi!" he yelled after her and tried to grab her arm, but she dodged him easily, and dove head first into the waves and disappeared.

"Ray!" he howled and rushed towards where Ray had just vanished.

"Wait!" I called after him and gave chase.

I caught up to him when he was ankle deep in the water, and grabbed him around the waist, and held him back from going in any further. This took a good deal of effort since he was a good foot taller than me, and a good deal stronger. But, I was very practiced at being deadweight.

"Let go of me!" he growled, while he tried to pry me off.

"You won't be able to catch up to her, and she is probably a mile out to sea by now. Come back to the beach!" I pleaded.

Arthur ripped himself out of my grasp and turned to face me. His eyes were wild. He placed his hands on my shoulder. "You don't understand. I can't lose her! I need her!"

I reached out and cupped his face in my hands. "You're wrong, I do understand. I'm not sure how much Ray told you about me, but I was separated from the woman that I loved in an identical fashion. And I felt like my life and my happiness was over."

"How did you survive?"

"Many ways, all of which involved finding other ways to live for me. But I don't think you have lost Ray, at least not yet. She's scared right now, and that's why she's surrendered. But Ray is the most stubborn mermaid I know. She'll look for a way, and if she can find a way around this she will! In the meantime, while she searches, you need to stay alive. And the best way to assure that don't live past today is to be in the ocean. My father has many eyes and ear in the waves."

Arthur removed his hands from my shoulder, and I copied his motion by removing my hands from his face. He turned and slowly made his way back towards the land.

I followed behind him closely.

He kept walking when he reached it and didn't stop until he was almost at the trees. It was only then that he finally paused. I came to a stop right beside him. I watched while his head slowly turned to scan the tree line before he turned to me.

"Where are we?  I need to get back to town Arthur said in a measured voice, and spared a glance in my direction, before his eyes returned to the tree line. "If I want to live to be with Ray again, I need some dry clothes I can change into, so I don't freeze to death," he explained.

He paused and turned his entire body towards me. " I apologize, given the circumstances we met under, I don't think we had a moment to be introduced properly. Marina, was it? I'm Arthur Barnes. Thank you for attempting to save me back in the cave. I felt you trying to pull me up."

He held out his hand. " Of course," I replied and wrapped my fingers around it and shook it. But I must not have done the handshake correctly, because he gave me a sideways look when he retracted his hand. But I didn't care. I was just happy that he had seemed to have calmed down, although he understandably looked very solemn.

" Nice to meet you," I said.  "We're actually not that far away from town, I recognize this forest, I think. If I'm right, it is the one that borders some houses.  We should be able to find you dry clothes in no time at all."

"You're positive we have to walk through it?" Arthur asked, and he took a moment to glance down and his own bare feet, and then at mine, and finally back up at the sky. The sky still held a little light, but it was quickly fading behind the clouds.

I knew what he was thinking. It was by no means going to be fun stepping on sticks and rocks for the next hour with no shoes to protect us.

"I'm sure. Ray would never bring and  leave us somewhere remote where you would be completely stranded." But I want to be clear about something first before we head back, you can't be seen, at least for a while. My family needs to think that you are dead.  Merpeople keep track of human news regarding our victims. It helps us cover our tracks, in case we've left evidence of our existence by mistake. They will become suspicious if nothing about you is reported."

Arthur tore his eyes away from the tree to look at me. " So what you're saying is I should go into hiding, so it looks I'm like I really am buried on a beach somewhere."

"Yes."

"Fantastic," Arthur muttered. "Well after you, since you know more about where we are going than I do."  He gestured to the woods.

I nodded and took the first step in what I knew was going to be a grueling journey.

After an hour of stumbling our way through the darkening, damp woods, full on wet leaves that trip us every two minutes in silence,. Arthur finally spoke. So, if I'm not mistaken, you said you were once in love with a human woman. So were you also engaged to a prince of the oceans when that happened? You are princess of the North Pacific or something like that?"

" I wasn't, until recently. I'm arranged to marry a prince of the North Atlantic.  Ray is to marry the prince of the South Atlantic. Three of my sisters are arranged to mary noble women and princesses of the Indian, Southern, and  South Pacific oceans.  Another one is to marry noblemen of the Arctic.  My father wants to strengthen our friendship with the other oceans to our kingdom.

"The only sister not engaged is Delphine. She will be the queen of the North Pacific after my father's demise, and it is customary that the future ruler of the North Pacific does not marry until they become king or queen officially. Ray told you at least a little about this, right?"

"Well to tell you the truth. She preferred not to talk about her family or other merpeople. Heck, I didn't know that she had that many sisters until you know... And hence, why I didn't know about your peoples messed up version of jewelry making. You are the only other mermaid that I've ever met."

"But," he continued, "You said that she would try and find a way to repair this, but what if there isn't a way?" he lifted his leg to climb over a branch. "It doesn't sound like you found a way to be with your woman and you were in the same boat as us."

"The sea witch's deal wasn't the only reason I let her go, and even if I was engaged of the time, we were doomed from the beginning, way more doomed than you and Ray," I added.

"Why were you so much more doomed?" Arthur asked.

It's a very, very long story, and it appears we're finally out of the woods. I said, even in the scarce light, I could see that the thicket of trees was finally at an end.