Seaweed, Aquarius, and My New Tail: The Tale of a Tail

We spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting and talking. Lingard watched from the main doors and didn’t disturb us, or eavesdrop, which was pretty considerate of him. Apparently, he was a friend of Seth’s, too.

“Closest person to my age around here, before you arrived,”

“Arrived? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, er…” Seth ran his hand through his hair, looking flustered “I hadn’t seen you very much before now. We met so suddenly, it’s like you’d just arrived…um, in my life, I mean…”

“Uh-huh.”

His totally relaxed posture convinced me of the validity of his words. Seth was obviously a bad liar – that’s useful…and quite cute, actually.

“I’d better get back,” I glanced at Lingard “You too – Finn’ll be wondering where you are,”

“Yeah…Hey, would you like to come to my house tomorrow?”

“I’d probably have to ask my parents first…” I was thinking of Marina – I really wanted those new clothes. I couldn’t have Seth keep seeing me in these stupid flouncy ones! Especially as he usually didn’t wear any…I quickly looked away from his chest.

“It’s OK, we live inside the grounds,”

“Cool, I’ll come after breakfast,”

I waved as he swam off, wondering what he was hiding.


There was no way she bought that, I mean the way she looked at me, with one eyebrow raised, and her arms folded, clearly saying ‘you are the worst liar in history’. I’m dead. Her parents will probably come over and fillet me themselves.

Lingard had a very serious look on his face.

“Imagine my surprise on returning to your room with Pacifica, only to find it empty. You’re just lucky one of the other guards saw you going into Squalis&Son’s – your mother would’ve had a heart attack!”

“Good thing she didn’t find out then,” or was it…? “And I don’t even see what the big deal is – I left my room. Big whoop,”

“You’re still fragile after your accident –”

“I am NOT fragile!”

“-and you need plenty of rest. Your mother ordered it,” Lingard carried on as if I hadn’t said anything

“Well, my mother needs to realise that she can’t control everything in my life! I have a mind of my own!”

“Maybe so,” Lingard sighed “But it’s my job to enforce your mother’s decisions, and to make sure nothing happens to you,”

I sighed. It was impossible to stay mad at Lingard – he has puppy-dog eyes, damn it! Even when he’s mad. Besides, it wasn’t his fault.

“I know. I just feel like…I’m not in control of my own life. Everything’s been mapped out since before I was born,”

“What’s brought this on?” His eyes were wide with concern “What’s happened? Did Seth say something to upset you?”

“No…but he said that princesses have to marry princes from other towns. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, Marina grew back my hair – I think that shows a certain lack of personal choice on my behalf, don’t you?”

“Ohh, well I don’t really know anything about that, but if you’re really worried, you should tell your parents how you feel. Besides, Seth might’ve got his wires crossed. And, hey – you can always cut your hair again can’t you?” he winked at me conspiratorially “Oops, don’t tell Marina I said that!”

“You read my mind!” I laughed. We stopped by my room “Thanks, Lingard,”

“Don’t mention it,” he grinned widely “Oh, by the way, you have dinner in an hour,”

I rolled my eyes as I shut the door.

*

I was the last one to sit down, but I wasn’t next to Pearl, so I was happy. Although sitting next to her meant the opportunity of elbowing her and suchlike and pretending it was an accident…

“What happened to your hair? I thought you’d hacked it off,” Pearl had possibly heard my thoughts and was now launching an offensive.

“I did, but I let Marina re-grow it-”

“Marina? Don’t you mean mum?”

“Last time I checked, they were the same person. Anyway, I let her re-grow it in exchange for some new clothes,”

Dylan muttered “Wily, this one,” as Pearl rounded furiously on Marina

“She gets new clothes?!”

“Only because I hate the ones I have now,” I chipped in. I bet Pearl loved the frilly outfits, so I didn’t get why she was being so narky. Oh yeah, she hates me.

“Yes, Pearl. You haven’t complained about yours,” See? “And I think Azura deserves a treat after all that’s happened,”

“Oh yes, her accident,” she said scathingly

“Pearl,” Marina appeared to be warning her

“Wait, are you saying I didn’t have an accident? What, you think I’m faking it?”

“Of course not,” said Marina soothingly, but her tone did little to calm me down “So what did you do today, Azura?”

Yet more subject changing. Ugh. And why was she asking me, did I miss out on all the formalities by being late?

“I hung out with Seth,” I said, still glaring at Pearl

Marina frowned “Who’s that?”

“I believe he’s the handyman’s son,” dad said slowly “I happen to be friendly with Finn. Unless it’s another Seth?”

“No, that’s him,” I smiled at dad, of course he’d be friends with Finn!

“The handyman!” shrieked Pearl “You’re friends with the handyman’s son?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“But he’s so…working class,” she wrinkled her nose.

“And you’re so…snobbish,” I wrinkled my nose in the exact same way. She started to reply, but Marina interrupted

“So what did you and this Seth get up to?” I saw dad throw her an incredulous glace, as if he thought she was going to tell Pearl off and was horrified that she merely changed the subject. I felt exactly the same and rolled my eyes at him sympathetically.

“We went outside and talked,” I usually would have left it there, but I couldn’t seem to shut up about Seth for some reason “He’s a really good listener and he’s really funny. He’s good with animals too. He can hold seahorses,” dad looked pretty impressed but I think I heard Pearl snort

“So you just talked?”

“Yep, that’s about it,” I didn’t mention the swings, in case I let something slip “I’m going round his house tomorrow-” I saw Marina open her mouth “But you don’t have to worry, cause he lives in the grounds,”

“We know,” smiled dad “he sounds like really nice lad. I hope you have a good time,”

I was conscious that the conversation so far had been about me.

“So…what’s been happening with everyone else?”

Pearl snorted, as if she were too superior to answer but Hermit simply said “I found a real big rock!”

“That’s great!” I smiled “How big is it?”

“Um, well it’s…just really, really big!”

“Really?” asked dad “You have to show me straight after dinner, okay?”

“’kay,” he grinned

“So what about you, Dylan?” dad turned to him

“I haven’t really done much,” he shrugged, and I saw dad roll his eyes. Dylan never did seem to actually do anything. He of course couldn’t really being doing nothing, he’d have gone insane by now with boredom. But it made me wonder what exactly it was he was up to all day…

“You, Treasure?”

“Same,” she said, shrugging like Dylan (and making it very hard to keep a straight face). She was obviously practising being nonchalant and completely unbothered for when she was fully-fledged teenager.

“Pearl?” Dad seemed faintly amused by Treasure, as well.

“I had my nails done and practised my singing,” I snorted but resisted the urge to make gagging noises, too.

“At least someone’s been practising,” said Marina sharply “Apparently you’re magic’s retracted from lack of use!”

“Well, it could always be disease…” I offered

Marina sighed despairingly “You’re going to have to start taking this seriously, Azura. That’s why we’ve hired a tutor for you,”

My jaw dropped. A tutor?!

“A TUTOR?!?!” I was horrified (Pearl wasn’t, though. I could see her smirking)

“Yes, you were behind in school last term as well. You start in a few days,”

“But – but…it’s the holidays!”

“You can have it back when your grades improve. Until then, you only have weekends off, but with homework,”

I glared at Marina “That is so unfair!”

“That’s life,”

I might as well just kill myself, then. God.

“So…when do I get to pick my new clothes?” I asked, trying to focus on the positive so I didn’t stab Marina in the eye with my fork.

“Tomorrow evening, maybe. Or the day after that,”

“Cool,” I went back to my dinner, listening to dad and Dylan discussing the adjacent town’s problems, Treasure and Hermit comparing shells and Marina and Pearl talking about clothes and hair. This suited me just fine, as I’d rather have dinner in my room anyway.

“The king’s on his last fins,” Dad was saying

“Not surprising after what happened to his wife,” Dylan replied, looking grave

“What?” (Ok, maybe not the best thing, to break up the whole man-talk thing, but I was curious…) “What happened to her?”

“Shark attack. They were on holiday, and she swam out too far. Looks like she scratched herself on some coral.”

I must’ve looked pretty horrified, because Dylan leaned over and whispered “Don’t worry, there’s no sharks anywhere near here,”

It was nice to know, but was hardly going to help the woman. I shuddered, imagining a shark ripping into my tail.

“Are you alright?” Marina looked up from her conversation with Pearl to study me anxiously

“I’m fine, I just feel a little sick. May I be excused?”

“Yes, I’ll just call Lingard for you,”

“No need, I haven’t forgotten the way to my room,” I don’t need a sitter. Although Lingard is pretty good company.

Well at least I got out of dinner. It seemed quite sick that I managed to benefit from someone’s death.

*

Pacifica brought the remainder of my dinner in for me.

“Anything else, love?” (She could be so lovely sometimes…)

“Yeah, maybe some dessert,”

Well, I might as well make the most of having a maid. Although I doubt I’d even be allowed in the kitchen to make myself anything.

I sat on my window seat, gazing out of the window. I wondered what was out there, and what was above the surface. One day, when I was older, when I was free, I’d find out. One day.