Beyond the Sea

The day after the concert mishap proved to be extremely boring for Alex. He floated around the castle all day, constantly aware of Sebastian’s watchful eye being kept on him. Wanting to escape the man’s sight for just a little while, Alex made a beeline towards where his sister’s and his rooms were, locating the one that the mermaids were all gathered in. Closing the door behind him, Alex could practically feel Sebastian roll his eyes at the younger boy. Nevertheless, he carried on towards his sisters, face an accurate portrayal of his boredom as he curled up beside Alana.

“You've got nothing to do?” Adella spoke, frowning at her moping brother.

“Dad’s got Sebastian following me around everywhere, I can’t possibly have any fun.” Alex sighed, resting his chin is his hands.

“It’s for a good cause, and you know it,” Andrina chimed in.

“I know I do, I just hate being babied.” Alex admitted, watching as his sisters all shared glances between themselves.

“Why don’t you go for a swim with Felicity?” Arista suggested, curious as to why her little brother wasn’t already doing so.

“She’s busy today. Besides, we wouldn't be able to do anything worth doing with Sebastian following us around.” Alex grumbled, swearing he could hear a huff of annoyance coming from outside of the room.

“Speaking of other mermaids,” Attina brought up, “Have you met anyone lately?”

Sitting up with a roll of his eyes, Alex informed his sisters, “That’s my first priority, and it won’t be for a while.”

“Well,” Alana piped up, “Dad’s going to need you to start considering it soon. You’re going to be King one day, after all.”

Alex’s eyes flicked from Alana to Aquata as his eldest sister voiced her opinion. “That’s completely unfair,” Aquata remarked, “Just because you were the first born boy, you get to rule the entire sea. I’m six years older than you!”

Flashing the mermaid an apologetic smile, Alex shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just not that important to me right now,” he confessed, swimming over to the door once more. throwing the thin piece of stone open carelessly, Alex was surprised when his action resulted out in a sharp cry. Stepping into the hallway, the young merman caught side of Sebastian, hands glued to his nose as he glared at Alex.

“Uh, sorry?” Alex mumbled cautiously, offering to go get his father’s assistant a towel. He surely did feel bad for the accident he had caused, but Alex would not have been lying if he had said he had left mainly to escape another one of Sebastian’s lectures.

Later that night, Alex couldn’t help but listen in on a conversation between his sisters, a loud one albeit.

“It’s so beautiful up there tonight,” Attina gushed, as Adella nodded in agreement, quite enthusiastic about the subject herself.

Wondering what the girls were talking about in particular, Alex inched closer to the pair, trying to make as little noise as possible.

“Just make sure Alex doesn’t find out where we went, or we might get in trouble for his curiosity, as well.” Adella rolled her eyes fondly, causing Alex to huff softly from behind the pillar where he hid. Deciding to just figure out what the girls were referring to himself, Alex sped off in the opposite direction, heading for the surface.

Along the way, he ran into Felicity. “Alex!” The girl had cried, trying her hardest to catch up with him. Once he had noticed her presence, though, he slowed down, smiling at his close friend.

“I’m glad I was able to find you,” Felicity breathed, “My parents don’t need me to stick around at home any longer. Where’re you headed?”

“I’m not really sure,” Alex lied, then inviting the mermaid to join him. Since it was quite dark out, Felicity did not notice how close the two of them were gliding to the surface. Once she could easily see the light of the moon being shone down from above, though, she voiced her concerns.

“Are you positive this is a good idea?” Felicity urged an answer from Alex, stopping to float in place.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Alex shrugged nonchalantly, grabbing the mermaid’s hand and tugging her up to where the water met the air. Once they surfaced, Alex smiled triumphantly, his eyes glued to a particular sight behind Felicity. The girl spun around to see the sight herself, and gasped at what was before her. Quite a large ship stood afloat only about one hundred metres away, alive with lights and the cheers of many people. Before Felicity could get a word out, Alex was ducking under the waves again and swimming towards the ship.

Somewhere along the way, Sebastian had located the two teens, and was calling out various threats as he followed the pair to the human-inhabited ship.

“Get back here, you two!” Sebastian shrilled, speeding after the merman and mermaid as fast as he could. While Alex was unaware of the other man’s presence, Felicity noticed Sebastian, and threw him an apologetic glance over her shoulder as she continued to swim after Alex.

Eventually, after Alex was mere centimetres away from the ship, he surfaced and paused in the dark waves. Surely, Felicity and Sebastian rose from the water a small ways away, Felicity sending her friend a pleading look while Sebastian flung more warnings at the young prince. Turning around with a small smile, Alex put his finger up to his lips, motioning for his friends to keep it down. With that, he turned away, and was soon met with the wooden edge of the ship. Lifting himself up a bit to peek through a small hole, Alex was astonished at what he saw. Sailors and maidens danced around the floor of the ship, drinks being passed around light-heartedly as humans accepted them with kind smiles. Alex looked on in awe at the twinkling lights, and watched as the people moved gracefully along the deck. One person, in particular, caught his attention.

A young woman, a princess, from what Alex could tell by her extravagant dress, sat along the edge of the ship. She completely captivated Alex, with her dark hair and graceful movements, and not a second later, he began dreaming of living on land with the princess.

A cold, wet feeling on his nose snapped Alex out of his reverie, and he tried his best not to giggle too loudly at the four-legged animal that had licked his face. Looking past the fluffy creature, Alex could see the crew members getting into a sudden commotion. Looking up, he became aware of the storm that had been brewing, and looked back to the princess with worry.

By now, Felicity and Sebastian had disappeared, and Alex watched helplessly as the ship began to rock around frantically. He backed a small distance away as one of the masts became lose, plunging down into the water on the opposite side of him. He could see the passengers quickly transferring into smaller, yellow boats as the ship began to light up with flames.

Alex let out a breath as he noticed the princess was being led to safety. His relief did not last long, though, for when the entire crew had finally been helped off of the boat he heard a cry of, “Max!” A commotion was seen from where the princess was settled, and not long after, Alex could see her jump into the water.

“Evelina!” An older man cried, presumably the princess’s father or uncle. The princess did not respond, and continued to rush towards the burning ship where her dog stood frighteningly. Evelina was able to coax Max into jumping into her arms, the dog paddling to the safety of one of the rafts. Evelina was nowhere to be found after the episode, though, and the passengers of the now-sinking ship struggled to locate the girl in the dark.

Alex, who had been watching the entire scene unfold, decided to take matters into his own hands. Plunging into the water, he sped as fast as he could to locate the girl. Once he found her, Alex latched an arm around her waist, and swam as fast as he could towards the shore.

The shore had been a long ways away. The sea-prince had reached the land by morning, dragging the limp girl into the sand the best he could. He could definitely tell she was breathing, but other than that, the poor princess showed no other signs of life. Figuring all he could do was what he was best at, Alex began to sing a melody in hopes of waking the girl up. He sang for many minutes, until Evelina’s eyes finally blinked open. Alex grinned at the girl, glad she was okay, before he had realized what he had done. Panic ran through his system at how well he had been able to expose himself, and he decided that it was time to leave. With that, he dove back into the sea and flitted away, his voice and a small image of his face the girl’s only proof of his existence.

Unsure of where to go, Alex made a beeline to his grotto. He found Felicity on the way, and invited her into the place where he kept all of his findings. Felicity questioned Alex endlessly about where he had gone the night prior, and he answered as minimalistically as he could for the time being. What he was more interested in, however, was why Felicity had such a smug look on her face.

Entering the grotto with surprise, Alex soon realized what had Felicity so giddy. In the centre of his room, stood a tall statue, identical to the beautiful princess he had seen the night before.

“It fell from the ship,” Felicity explained, shrugging her shoulders as Alex looked at her with the widest possible smile plastered on his face.

“It’s amazing! Thank you,” Alex gushed wrapping Felicity into a warm hug. Maybe that morning would not be the last time he would see the young woman, after all.