Call of the Water

Call of the Water

There had always been something about the water that drew Pree’s curiosity.

Perhaps it was the sheer beauty of the ocean at sunrise, when the sun began to stretch and yawn itself awake bit by bit, casting a gentle glow atop the still surface; or maybe it was the way it swayed with an unnatural elegance when the wind blew against it in the early Spring months, proving to be a much better dancer than she or any in her castle.

And then, perhaps, it was because she knew that it had the sole power to whisk her away from the castle and the dreadful people that wanted to sell her off like prized livestock to the highest bidder.

She wondered if all the village girls would still dream to be a princess if they knew the costs of fancy dresses and ballrooms with handsome princes and crowns with enough jewels to feed an entire village for years. Would they trade their freedom for a decorated cage?

A prisoner with a tiara. A curse was more fitting.

Pree smiled to herself in spite of her poor fortune as the waves smoothly glided into the cliff's rocky side, as if it heard her thoughts and were doing its best to comfort her. Her feet dangled over the side, too high for the water to graze her bare toes but just close enough she could feel the chill of it. She welcomed that chill with open arms, it was nothing like the one inside.

“Preella! Get inside this instant before you catch pneumonia!” Her mother screeched from the garden entryway.

“If only you could take me away,” she said wistfully to the water, pushing to her feet. “I would be forever in your debt.” She didn’t wait for a response, for even she knew it was a silly, child-like fantasy to think she could escape this place.

“Prince Yane of Belington is handsome. Oh, and Prince Theodorn of Gainsburge has so many prized horses that kingdoms from all over travel months to acquire one. Can you imagine the wealth he must have? And… Preella, are you even listening to me?”

Pree turned from the open window at her mothers sharp tone. She met steel eyes, grayer than the sky in the winter. “Yes mother, I am sure Yane is handsome enough to draw all the girls' eyes, and Theodarn must be quite the breeder.”

“Prince Yane and Prince Theodorn. My goodness, you must get the titles right if you wish to be a good wife. The Summer Solstice ball is in a week's time and you must be at your best. I raised you for this moment.”

Raised me for this moment?

She stifled a bitter laugh. How she wished she’d raised her simply because she wanted a daughter.

“Prince Hild of Anteria has…” Her mothers voice drifted away from Pree’s ears as she turned back to the window. The sun was out, painting the water's surface a bright gold from this view, but she knew up close to the shore it was the clearest emerald.

After her mother had long finished talking of suitors and gowns and which way her hair should be styled to showcase her best features, Pree made her way back to the rocky edge and sat once more.

“Hello my companion,” she smiled to the swaying water. “Did you know I’m going to be wed soon?”

The waves crashed a little harder against the rocks than usual. To her, the water was displaying the anger she wished she could show. At least she had someone on her side, if only the ocean.

“I do not wish to get married, Ocean. I mean, I do not wish to be married to whom my mother or my father chooses. Being a princess is not something I chose for myself, and if there were a way to escape this all, I would gladly take it. Just once, I would like to decide my own fate, my own destiny. You've touched nearly the whole world, surely you can tell me there’s more to life than this.”

In the distance, a fin appeared above the water. For a moment, Pree’s heart thudded in her chest in fear, but then she quickly willed it away.

“Is that my answer, Ocean? A fin for a yes?”

A giddy sort of elation filled her when the fin cut back through the surface, closer than before. She didn't care that anyone else would think she’d gone mad. To her, in that moment, she felt less alone than she had her entire life.

“What is Antella like? I hear the summers there are brighter than most.”

Another fin, closer yet again but still not enough to make out a shape. Just a polished fin gleaming. She spent hours talking to the water and watching as the fin appeared at the end, as if it were just as eager to answer her as she was to speak.

Before long, she realized, when it would make a small splash in the water, a no was her answer. Several splashes, in her mind, seemed to be laughter.

She’d finally lost her mind, and she didn't even care. She went to bed that night with a true smile on her face. The first smile, she realized, that she had worn since she was a small girl.

Day after day, Pree made it to the water as quickly and as frequently as she could manage. And to her utmost surprise, the fin appeared in greeting every time she looked upon the water. She lost herself in words, stringing them together to give the best descriptions of things she enjoyed, things she guessed the water, or, the fish, had never seen.

As the days went by her curiosity grew until she could no longer hold back her most thought about question.

“This may sound rude of me, so I beg your pardon in advance, but what are you?”

For the first time in days, the water was still. No fin cut the surface, no splash erupted. Her heart sank and desperation hit her with more force than a punch to the stomach. She couldn’t lose this, not this one piece of happiness.

“Please don’t go, I'm sorry. I don’t need to know what you are as long as you are here with me.”

Still, silence was her greeting. Tears pricked at her eyes. “I’m not afraid, either. If you think I would be, I won’t. I promise you. Do not leave me alone here, I could not bear it.”

Just as her tears threatened to spill over, the water parted below her feet. First, a sharp nose, just as shiny as the fin, and then more came into the fading light of the evening. It was a hard effort to keep her mouth closed, to push away her fear. For she knew the rows of sharp teeth that lingered just behind the mouth of the creature at her feet. Teeth that could end her life with one bite.

“A Great White.”

It slowly moved back under the water, just the tip of its nose and the bright blue of its eyes visible. She had never seen a shark before in person, but she never would have guessed crystal blue eyes would be something she’d look into on her first encounter.

“Silly me, I know you have no way to answer that question. I wish you could talk to me in earnest, with human words, but I do enjoy your company more than anyone in my home. Will you stay awhile longer?”

Its face completely disappeared and then a fin emerged briefly once, twice, three times. She laughed out loud and then quieted herself. She didn't need her mother realizing how far her insanity had traveled.

“A yes then? I shall see how many more things I can describe until you are bored to pieces.”

Dread consumed Pree on the day of the Summer Solstice ball.

“Today my parents choose a husband for me,” she said to the shark, whose nose was dangerously close to her toes. “I find I am more terrified than I've ever been.”

She’d long since gotten rid of her fear of him. The shark was her friend, he meant her no harm. He watched her with pale, unblinking eyes. It was as if he hung on every word she spoke.

“If I could only be like you. I could travel the world, see what you see below the waves. I could be truly free.”

The shark disappeared and his fin came up twice. Yes, he wished that too?

“Preella, get in here this instant! You must be getting ready!”

“Mother calls,” she told him. “I must get ready for the ball. The princes will be arriving soon.”

His nose grazed her toe and it failed to scare her the way it would any other person. Splashes came, over and over again as she stood. Those bright, almost human-like eyes stared at her when she glanced at him one last time. “I’m afraid I have no choice. I do not have the privilege of saying no.”

She turned on her heel, her heart aching at the splashing chorus. This time, she didn't think it was laughter at all.

No! No, no, no, no!

“Prince Yane would like a chance to dance with you, Preella.” Her mother said through a false grin, shoving her into the clumsy arms of the oh so handsome prince.

Pree gave a fake smile of her own and pretended to enjoy the way he twirled around the dance floor, seemingly more worried about the way people perceived his appearance than his footwork. She was certain her toes would be bleeding once the night was over.

Theodorn and Hild were no better. Merrick, at least, was graceful in his movements. Gerald, too, though he smelled more of fish than the water she sat by daily. Her chest ached once more. How she would rather be with her watery friend.

“May I step in?” A male voice said just as her second dance with Hild was ending. He begrudgingly released her and the man that pulled her in…

His eyes…

Blue, so oddly blue it was as if they belonged to the sea. She hated to think about it, but they reminded her of the sharks. Maybe she truly was losing it.

He smiled and began to move them to the music. He danced smoothly, turning her at the right times, dipping her when it called for it. She found she didn't mind him touching her like the others. This man, this prince, felt different.

“What is your name, Prince?”

He twirled her once more and then pulled her back against him. “My name is something I have longed to tell you for a very long time. Adrious, that is my name.”

A strange feeling came over her at his words. “Longed to tell me?”

His eyes searched her face, a blush pooled along his pale skin. A debate seemed to go through his mind, as if he were carefully choosing his next words.

“And I have very much wanted to tell you how beautiful you are, inside and out. Your emerald eyes remind me of the waters in Telastan, your pink lips like the flowering trees that lose their petals in the winds of Belige, and your hair, dark as the sky on a clear summer night.”

Tears welled at his words. “But, you have never-”

“Some things, princess, are not merely a fantasy. I am a Prince of the Sea, and I have loved you since you first spoke to me from the cliffs behind us. I am here to ask you for your hand. I am here to ask you and no one else. Come with me to my home, to Atlantis, and you shall have everything you've ever wanted.”

It was crazy. She should tell her mother there was a lunatic holding her, asking her to go to a fabled world below the sea, and she… she…

His eyes watched her, unblinkingly. Could… could he be serious?

“You’re… you’re the shark? How?”

“It is the way of my people, of our magic. We take animal forms to protect our world. But I am appearing to you as I truly am. Come away with me, Pree of the shore. Come away from this place and let me show you that there is so much more to the world than this.”

He stepped away from her and held out his hand, pale fingers just within reach.

This was madness. This was insanity.

His eyes watched her earnestly, full of truth and adventure and a love she had never seen directed at her.

She took his hand and he pulled her through the room and out the doors. They ran towards the water even as she heard her name shouted behind them. She kept running, his hand cool and steady in hers.

“We must jump.” He told her. He squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“How will I breathe?” She asked as the voices closed in. “I am not like you.”

Before she could say anything more, he pressed his lips to hers. He tasted of salt and the sea and… and freedom. She felt her lungs expand, realizing what it was he was doing.

He touched her lip with his thumb gently and she pushed back his golden hair with shaking fingers. “Now, you will breathe. It is the way of our magic. You will become my queen of the sea and the land will no longer tame you.”

With his words in her heart and his hand in hers, she closed her eyes and jumped. As soon as her toes touched the water, she knew.

She was finally free.