A Merman's Tail

Chapter 11

Damn that boy looked fine...

I wasn't surprised he'd only gotten better with age.  He was the one human encounter I hadn't been able to shake.  I supposed it was because I'd actually been able to talk to him and not just find him floating in the water once the air had left his lungs.  Dad had gone totally sharky when he'd found out I'd rescued Scott.  He'd forbidden me to see him again, but I hadn't been able to help myself.  It helped that my brothers and sisters were extremely fond of me, being the baby of the family but they were only willing to disobey Father and cover for me for so long. 

Being the ruler of our little community, the merpeople tended to obey him without question.  I on the other hand, having a rather contrary nature tended to be the one exploring where I shouldn't, collecting things I should leave well enough alone and generally letting my curiosity get the better of me. 

The first time Scott and I met, I was already disobeying, in that I was farther outside our territory than I should have been.  Having already broken one rule I didn't think twice before assisting the helpless human.  It wasn't a conscious decision, I just saw him and knew I had to help. 

The whole helping him breathe thing was just a bonus.  Pressing my lips to his soft and receptive ones...  That was one of my best memories.  He was so cute and gangly, like a baby cephalopod that hadn't figured out how to get all its tentacles working together yet.  Definitely the long streamlined squid variety, not the short octopus ones.  He was going to be a tall one when he finished growing.  I liked that he made me feel protected when he swam next to me.  If only he had a tail...  Also, it would be nice if he liked boys.  I certainly did.  He hadn't seemed shocked or uncomfortable when I'd had to press my mouth to his in order to help him breathe.  I wasn't upset about that at all. 

It was quite unusual for same sex pairings in my Father's Kingdom.  I knew he wouldn't approve, but my elder brothers were more than capable of furthering the hereditary line and I was never going to have to worry about wearing a crown so it didn't really matter.  Maybe he didn't know yet?  Humans seemed to discover things so very slowly some times.  I knew I definitely liked him, but spying on him from a distance was slowly getting old.

There were times I got really close, while I watched him and his friend swimming and surfing.  Times I admired him from afar when he was swimming with his family.  Their visits got fewer, but Scott always seemed to linger.  Whether staying over at his friend's house or as he got older at his family's beach house alone.  I snuck away as often as I could when I knew he was around.  Word passed quickly when certain things happened on the coastline.  We knew exactly when the humans were out in large numbers for their Summer Vacation and tended to stay away from the heavily populated shallows.  We avoided their speed boats and towing ropes with the laughing humans attached.  The small, fast craft that held one human or two that raced on the surface of our world and sometimes left behind interesting objects along with the oil slicks that took longer to vanish.

As Scott got older I found myself drawn again and again to the coves around his home and I found a few comfortable observation points from which to keep my eye on him when I was around.  I wanted no further accidents to befall him if I could help it.  I got my dolphin friends to keep the sharks away when he was swimming.  When the deep rip tide was too strong and he should stay in close, I got my stingray friends to stir up the water so that the poor visibility deterred anyone from going out too far.  I couldn't do anything about boating accidents, however in the early days Scott tended to avoid them.  Memories I guess.

He did get his confidence back later on which was a good thing considering his chosen vocation.  I knew where his studies would take him as my friends kept me informed.  There were messages passed around the bays on claw code and gull cry.  When he was accepted into college I knew which one he was attending when a gull flew past as he was telling his mother.  I found out his friend Drew was going to be a lawyer when they were discussing it on their boards one day.  The biggest news... his new friend Darcy was helping him find himself.  I was interested to discover the results of those experiments, but whatever happened all I could do for the time being was observe.

I knew when he was accepted to the Science Centre and that the project he would be working on involved species discovery and better methods of protecting natural resources like the ocean.  It seemed really ambitious to me, but then I always thought he'd be great at whatever he put his energy into. 

Seeing him back here in the cove was both exciting and scary.  My feelings for him had increased in the time he had been absent, I guess that expression did apply in real life.  But for him?  Had he missed me?  Did he ever think about me as I did him?  My year of discovery was about to start.  Father was going to show me the other secret our family kept.  Then I was free to discover my potential, what I wanted to dedicate my life to.  I was excited for many reasons but mostly that Scott was back.  I was eager to see him working at the Centre.  Mostly because it was so close to our realm.  If he went out in the boat maybe alone... I could maybe say hello again. 

It was later than I thought.  I pushed myself as fast as I could go and found my brother Rip waiting for me.  "Father's waiting in the cavern for you.  Off you go."