Fins (Transformations: Book 2)

Eric sat in the lab the next day with his head throbbing, despite the coffee and aspirin he’d taken earlier that morning.

“You can’t seriously be hung over,” Adam told him, “You had one drink! You must be the worst lightweight I’ve ever met.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Eric didn’t care enough to argue, even if he had some defense.

“And we didn’t even find you a girl.” Adam shook his head in disappointment.

Eric paused as he thought for a minute. “There might have been a girl on the beach.”

Adam looked at him with interest. “Might have been?”

Eric nodded, making his head feel like it was going to pop off. “We talked for a while. She was nice.”

“Did you get her phone number?” Adam asked.

“I don’t think so,” Eric admitted, “She kind of…left before I could.”

“She run away or something?” Adam wondered.

“No,” Eric hesitated for a second, “I don’t know. It’s a bit foggy. It seems like she flew off.”

Adam stared at him for a moment. “Are you speaking figuratively?”

“No,” Eric replied, “I remember her sprouting wings and flying away.” He knew it wasn’t possible, but his addled mind was telling him it had happened.

Adam continued to stare at him for another minute as he considered the response. “Seriously, you had one drink!”

“Are you still worrying?” Freya asked the next morning when Aria seemed to be avoiding talking to her.

The younger girl sighed. “It’s not like it was his fault. I can’t believe Sapphira would make him do something like that, knowing the consequences.”

“That’s how she was raised,” Freya explained, “She is important because she is a blue-tailed princess. What she wants matters. Alizarin is a red-tailed servant. He was raised to obey her, regardless of his own desires. That’s the only way of life they know. You can’t judge them by your standards because the lives you have lived are too different.”

“So, basically, you’re saying that he’s property?” Aria clarified.

Freya grimaced at the word, knowing she didn’t have a very good argument against it. “He serves the royal family, the princess in particular. Many would consider it an honor to be her bodyguard. That is hardly the position of a slave.”

“Yet he follows every order given without argument,” Aria pointed out, “and he can be punished even if he follows those orders. I expect he would have been punished if he disobeyed, as well. How can you say he’s not a slave?”

“I don’t know,” Freya admitted, “I don’t get involved. They would disagree with many things humans do. Idun disagrees with much of your leaders’ decisions, but she doesn’t fight to change them and neither would the merfolk, even if they could. Every culture must be allowed to exist as it is unless the people within it change things. How many times in human history have things gone wrong because one culture thought itself superior to another and tried to fix them?”

“How many times have people been saved because of that?” Aria countered.

“And whose place is it to decide who’s right or who’s wrong?” Freya shook her head. “It’s never so simple. One person, even a nymph, simply doesn’t have that right.”

“It’s just…not right,” Aria frowned at her lack of better words for the situation.

Freya sighed and gave her a sympathetic look. “If it bothers you that much, maybe you really should avoid the merfolk. If you allow them to know your thoughts like this, it will only get you into trouble.”

“I can handle it,” Aria promised her, firmly, making it clear that there was no way she would be convinced otherwise.

“Right,” the nymph frowned, but didn’t argue further, “So how are things going on the Eric front?”

“I need to get to school,” Aria announced as she scooped up her basket, “I’ll see you later.” She rushed out the door before she could be questioned further.

Freya watched her go and shook her head, knowing that Aria was going to have to figure something out fast or she would risk losing everything.

“Aria, you still there?” Ashley asked, waving her hand in Aria’s face. They were sitting together at lunch and Aria realized she hadn’t heard anything they’d said.

“Sorry,” she told them, “I just had a lot on my mind.”

“Boy troubles?” Megan guessed.

“Mostly,” Aria admitted with a sigh, “It’s a long story.” She didn’t think it would be possible to explain that she was thinking about helping a merman on top of trying to sort out her feelings for Kai and Eric. It was all just too complicated, even if they believed her, which she knew they wouldn’t.

“Men,” Megan commented, sympathetically.

“You make me jealous,” Ashley told her, “Most girls would love to have two handsome guys after them. All this drama is exciting, after all.”

“You make it sound like a cheap romance novel,” Aria replied, “I just want to know that I’m making the right decision, whatever I decide to do. I know it’s not fair to them that I can’t make up my mind, but…” She gave a resigned shrug.

“Did you ever think of hanging out with both guys at once?” Ashley suggested.

Aria gave her a skeptical look. “I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”

Ashley held up a finger. “Ah, but you might get a better idea of your feelings if you see them both at the same time. The problems come partially from thinking about one while with the other, right? Putting them together eliminates that issue. Plus, you can see how maturely they handle such a situation.”

Aria thought about that for a minute. “In a weird way, that kind of makes sense.”

“Didn’t make much sense to me,” Megan commented.

“Well, it’s not your decision,” Ashley pointed out with a smile as she looked back at Aria, “Think about it and let me know what happens, alright?”

“I’ll do my best,” Aria promised, sounding more confident that she felt.

For the next few weeks, she thought about Ashley’s suggestion, but she couldn’t figure out a way to implement it, even if she decided she wanted to do so. During that time, she almost never talked to Eric. They generally avoided each other. Well, she avoided him, at least. She wasn’t really sure how to deal with him under their current circumstances.

Therefore, she was surprised when he made it a point to meet up with her during her break one day.

“Hey, Aria, you got a minute?” he asked.

She offered him a smile, determined not to act like a deer in the headlights. Freya had already gone to the break room, so she had no backup to help avoid being awkward. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Listen, I know things have been a little strained between us and I don’t feel like it’s helpful to be that way. I get that you need some space to sort things out and I’m trying to respect that, but, surely, that doesn’t mean we can’t spend any time together. Wouldn’t it be okay for us to hang out as friends, at least?” He said the whole thing in one breath, which Aria figured was pretty impressive.

“I guess that would be okay,” she replied, feeling that any other answer would be a little callous.

He gave a clearly-relieved smile. “Alright, well, you know the aviary, right?”

Aria nodded. “I went there on a school trip once.”

“Right, so they are getting some new birds, really beautiful species, and I was wondering if you’d like to check it out with me next week.” After a moment’s thought, he quickly added, “Just as friends, of course.”

Aria bit her lip as she thought about it. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her and she decided this might be just what she needed. “Would it be alright if I brought some friends?”

“You want to take a merman to an aviary?” Freya raised her eyebrows at Aria, wondering if the girl had actually lost her mind. “Let me rephrase that. You want to take an engaged merman with whom you are infatuated to an aviary with the boy competing against him for your affection?”

“They shouldn’t transform back until around noon, right?” Aria spoke reasonably, glossing over Freya’s arguments. “I thought he might find it interesting.”

“Does Eric have any idea what’s going on there?” Freya asked.

“Nothing is really going on, yet,” Aria insisted, “I kind of have them both on hold, at the moment.” She frowned as she realized how that sounded. “I know it’s not fair. I just thought this might help me figure things out.”

“How?” Freya wondered, “How could this possibly help anything?”

Aria paused as she tried to figure out how to explain. It had sounded logical when Ashley said it, but she couldn’t seem to find the words to make it sound like she wasn’t completely insane, so she decided not to try. “Do you want to come with us or not?”

Freya gave an exasperated sigh. “Somebody has to keep you out of trouble, I suppose. For the record, though, I think this is a terrible idea.”

“Your objections are duly-noted,” Aria promised, “Now, we need to figure out how this is going to work.”

Aria counted her blessings that the full moon fell on a Saturday, so she was able to sleep during the day in preparation of stay out all night, then going to the aviary in the morning.

“You’re sure about this?” Freya asked, anxiously, “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

“Don’t worry so much. It will be fine.” Aria silently congratulated herself on sounding way more nonchalant than she was about it. She knew there was a strong possibility of everything blowing up in her face, but she’d set her mind to this and intended to see it through, regardless of the consequences.

When they got to the party, Aria quickly found Kai and told him about the aviary. “It’s just a few friends. Freya will be coming, too. You could even invite Echo, if you wanted.”

Kai offered her a heart-flipping smile. “A place filled with birds…that sounds too exciting to miss. As you can guess, I haven’t seen many of them.”

“I figured,” Aria replied, “I guess there are some down sides to living under the ocean.”

He nodded his agreement. “So we’ll do this when the sun rises?”

“Yes. It’s not open at night,” she explained, “Also, my friend, Eric will be coming. He doesn’t know about merfolk or anything, so we’ll have to keep quiet about that.”

“Shouldn’t be an issue,” Kai assured her, taking on a thoughtful expression, “So…is Eric your boyfriend, then?”

Aria felt her cheeks flush. “Well, not really. I mean, not at the moment.” She sighed. “It’s complicated.”

“That’s good to know.” He gave her a smile that she couldn’t read and took her hand. “As we have nowhere else to be until morning, shall we dance?”

She returned the smile and nodded, following him out onto the dance floor.

“Is something wrong, princess?” Alizarin asked as he saw Sapphira leaving the party.

“Everything’s fine.” Her curt tone didn’t match the words. “My fiancé is dancing with a land girl, again, but everything’s just fine.”

“Are you jealous of her?” he wondered.

“I just don’t get why he keeps choosing her,” Sapphira explained, “Am I really so terrible that a land girl would be better?”

“I’m not sure what you would have me say, princess,” he told her.

She turned to face him. “Am I a terrible person to be around? Is my company so repulsive that my own fiancé would prefer a land girl to me?”

“I cannot speak on his feelings, princess.”

She frowned at him for a moment. “Do you wish you had better company than me?”

He paused, clearly choosing his words carefully. “I am your faithful servant, as ever, princess. Why would I seek the company of another?”

She continued to frown, clearly unsatisfied by the answer. She glanced around at the other people walking around on the beach. There weren’t many, but she felt they were probably too much. “You took the land girl to that shed you found the other day. Nobody saw you there, right?”

“The prince saw me there,” he pointed out.

“Only after I showed him where it was…” She looked back to her bodyguard. “Take me to that shed. I want to be alone for a while.”

“I hardly think a shed would suit your needs, princess.”

“Are you refusing to do as I ask?” she demanded.

He looked at her for a moment before replying, “Of course not.”

“Then take me there, now.”

He frowned, but led the way to the old shed. He opened the door to let her in, but he stayed outside.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I thought I would stand guard, so you could remain undisturbed,” he answered.

“If you stand out there, everyone will know I’m in here,” she said, “Just come in and close the door behind you.”

“I hardly think that’s appropriate, princess.”

“You’re my bodyguard, so it’s fine,” she promised, “Just hurry before someone sees you.”

He obediently stepped inside and pulled the door shut, but he remained standing in front of it, as if preparing to flee at any moment.

“Relax,” she commanded, “It’s just the two of us, now. There’s no need for you to be so stiff.”

“Someone could have seen us coming in here,” he told her, “It could be seen as inappropriate.”

“It’s dark. Nobody saw us.” She offered him a rare smile, but it could hardly be seen in the little light that shone through the bottom of the door. She sat down on the shed floor and looked up at him. “Take a seat. There’s no point in you standing there all night.”

He sat down against a wall, putting her at his side, so he wasn’t facing her.

“You can say whatever you’re thinking, now,” she told him, “No one will hear you.”

“There’s always a chance of someone hearing me,” he argued.

“You worry too much,” she said, moving a little closer as she lowered her voice, “Just speak softly and no one will be able to hear.”

“Perhaps, you do not worry enough,” he countered in a hushed tone.

“Maybe,” she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, “I’m just tired of always trying to keep up appearances, aren’t you? Every word we say, people listen to and judge us for. It’s exhausting.”

“You are the princess,” he pointed out, “I am your bodyguard. Certain expectations come with those roles.”

“You’re right, of course,” she agreed, “But what if we didn’t have to be like that? You could become a human and be free of that burden.”

“Leave my home?” He shook his head. “I could never do such a thing.”

“Even if I became human?” she asked, “You swear your loyalty to me. Would you not follow me down such a path?”

“I would follow you down any path you choose.”

“But?”

He was silent for a minute before he softly said, “I do not wish to be human.”

Sapphira opened her eyes and looked at him in the dim light. “I don’t remember the last time you actually told me what you wanted.”

“You wanted me to speak freely, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” She smiled and laid her head in his lap. “Alizarin, do you ever hate me?”

“Why would I hate you?” he wondered.

“I am selfish and childish,” she admitted, “I force you to go along with my whims, even when they put you at risk. We were given to the same people, but raised so differently. Some people might be bitter about that.”

“Even if I were bitter,” he said, “my station in life is no fault of yours and I do not hate you for your whims. I promised to do anything you asked of me, after all.”

“I suppose that’s true.” She reached out and took his hand. “If you were the Valadoran prince, would you marry me?”

He gave her a carefully blank stare. “Does it bother you that much that he enjoys the company of a land girl?”

Sapphira looked down at the hand she held. “Why didn’t you just answer?”

“It is not a question I should answer.”

She frowned. He didn’t pull his hand away, but he made no effort to hold hers. “Must you always be so vexing?”

“What do you want from me?” he asked, “Give me an order and I will obey.”

She thought about that for a second before she looked back up at him. “Kiss me.”

“Am I a substitute for your prince, then?”

“You said you would obey,” she reminded him.

He frowned, but slowly leaned forward and place a kiss on her head.

The door to the shed swung open, filling the room with moonlight. Alexander stood in the doorway, along with his sister and a few other Glemorans. Alyssa raised her eyebrows at the pair as Sapphira rushed to sit up.

“You were right, Alexander,” Alyssa commented, “They did come in here.” She looked at Sapphira. “Are you alright, your highness? My brother thought he saw you being taken in here, so we came to make sure everything was okay. It seems we got here just in time.”

“I’m fine,” Sapphira promised, rising to her feet, “I am perfectly safe with my bodyguard.”

“It looked as if your bodyguard was about to harm you,” Alexander told her.

“It was nothing like that,” Sapphira argued, desperately trying to come up with a reasonable explanation, “I felt faint and he caught me is all.”

“It looked like he was about to do something more,” Alyssa remarked, “Your highness, you do not need to defend someone like him and you can’t let such behaviors go unpunished.”

Before Sapphira could argue further, Alexander and a few other boys stepped in, grabbing Alizarin. He tried to fight them off, but was outnumbered. One of them managed to punch him in the stomach while the others grabbed his arms and dragged him out.

“You don’t need to do that,” Sapphira yelled, “Unhand him!”

Alyssa grabbed her shoulders, gently. A few other girls gathered around her as Alizarin was taken away. Alyssa spoke in a soft tone. “Your highness, I know you have a soft heart, but you can’t let him get away with such behaviors. He must be made to remember his place or he will ruin your reputation.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Sapphira insisted, but she couldn’t seem to get away from the girls, “They have to let him go.”

“They will,” Alyssa promised, “They just need to teach him a lesson, first. Don’t worry, they won’t do anything to disable him. He’ll be returned to you, soon enough and, hopefully, he’ll be better behaved from now on.”

“He didn’t do anything,” Sapphira watched as the boys drew farther away.

“And after they’re done,” Alyssa said, “he won’t try to do anything, again.”