The Servant Girl and The Sea Prince

Chapter Ten: POSEIDON

The Crown Prince of Pacifica vowed to never tell Tempest about Melinda. Not only did the dark-haired mermaid dislike humans, viewing them as inferior creatures to merfolk on account of the supposed lack of magic in their dry world, Poseidon knew that she would be jealous of him being attracted to a female who wasn't her.

Against his better judgment, Poseidon slinked away to the surface of the ocean during nighttide again. Melinda was waiting for him on the shore.

Somewhat tongue-tied in her presence, he spat out "Do you...do your...your parents know...that you're out...on the beach...at this hour...?"

There was suddenly a deep sorrow in Melinda's green eyes. "No...I...I don't have parents...I mean, I'm an orphan...".

Poseidon's heart overflowed with sympathy for the human girl. Growing up without a mother had been difficult at times for him and his five sisters, and their father, King Neptune, was expected to pass away within a year, due to the Rare Aquatic Virus. Knowing this about Melinda's background only made the strange connection he felt to the landlubber stronger.

"Oh...I'm sorry" uttered Poseidon. "My mother foamed too...". Prof. Yellowtail would be horrified that he had shared personal information with a leg-walker, but he was starting to feel oddly at ease around Melinda, almost like he had known her for a lot longer than just a few days.

Melinda surprised Crown Prince Poseidon by spontaneously jumping into the ocean beside him. One would think that a girl who almost drowned in the sea less than a week ago wouldn't be so eager to go swimming. Most merfolk had a hard time understanding why many human beings enjoyed swimming, considering that water was in fact toxic to them, and their ungainly legs were really not designed for it.

"Swim with me..." she requested, a playful smile on her pretty face.

Poseidon was unable to resist her unique charms. Was the girl an enchanting Siren in disguise or something...? "Just for a little while..."

He couldn't help but be impressed by Melinda's swimming skills. She had very little trouble keeping up with the swift yet graceful strokes of his blue-green fishtail. It helped that the seawater was quite still that night. Something about the way the currents cooperated with her made Melinda seem more like a mermaid, who just happened to be born with two legs instead of a tail, than an ordinary human maiden.

The Crown Prince of Pacifica began to fantasize about Melinda having a lovely mermaid tail of her own. What color of tail would suit her best? Green, maybe, to match those gorgeous eyes of hers?

Melinda pointed to Poseidon's beautiful tail. "May I...touch it...?" she asked him.

Laying a hand on someone else's tail without their consent was considered to be a gross violation of personal space in Pacifica. Melinda could not have possibly known that, yet she nevertheless respected him enough to ask before touching it.

"Okay..." Poseidon permitted.

"Not slimy at all..." she commented, as her long, waterlogged fingers gently traced some of his turquoise scales. "I like it..."

Poseidon eyed Melinda's large feet. "You're not wearing shoes..." he observed. "Or do humans not usually swim in their shoes?"

Melinda looked sad, all of a sudden. "I lost my only halfway decent pair of shoes...the night you saved me..." she explained.

"Oh...is that so?". For some reason, Poseidon chose not to tell her that he had found one of her shoes and given it to his younger sister Oceana for her collection of human objects.

"I've had to...work in my old shoes...that are now...too small for me. It's horrible...they hurt my feet..."

"Is there not...a way for you to acquire new ones?" inquired Poseidon.

"I can't afford new shoes right now..." Melinda replied with a shrug, as she got out of the water.

"Meet me...again here...tomorrow night..." said Poseidon. He had an idea, to help her obtain new shoes. His father had always encouraged him and his sisters to use their privilege as royals to help those less fortunate than them.

Before he dove into the depths of the Western Ocean, he couldn't suppress the urge to give Melinda a quick, gentlemanly kiss on the cheek.

Melinda's cheeks flushed a rosy pink, and she looked down at her bare feet on the sand. "See you tomorrow night..." she whispered.

When Poseidon's 15-year-old sister Thalassa mentioned she wanted to go to the marketplace, the Crown Prince of Pacifica asked if he could tag along on her shopping excursion. "I need to...buy some pearls or something...as a sort of gift for someone..."

The golden-haired teenage mermaid with a shiny, sapphire blue tail smirked knowingly at her older brother, as they swam to the bustling marketplace in the heart of the kingdom. "So, who's the lucky mermaid...or merman...?". Roughly a year and a half ago, Thalassa had confided in Poseidon that she preferred the company of other mermaids to that of mermen. Her romantic orientation was rather uncommon in Pacifica, but not completely unheard of, by any means. "It's Tempest, isn't it? I've seen the way that mermaid looks at you, Po!"

Poseidon shook his head. "No...it's no one who you would know..."