Here's the end you guys! I've got some questions for you at the end of it, but that'll be at the end. Thanks for reading you guys!
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That night, Tony, James, Ethan, and Charlotte had dinner in one of the small dining rooms of the castle. But, the intimate space did not contain the laughter and excitement of the conversation.
“Think about how hard that would be, not talking for three days,” said James.
“I know,” said Charlotte. “To you, that’s a fate worse than death.”
James gave a playfully evil glare to his great love as Tony began to talk.
“It had to have been sweet how she had to try and talk to him,” she said.
“Poor Ariel,” said Ethan. “Eric can hardly hold up his side of the conversation when the girl is talking to him. It was probably just a whole lot of awkward silence.”
“Oh, I have more faith in him than that. Plus, it was Ariel. I’m sure even without her voice, he knew she was special. I can’t wait to ask him about it.”
“I can,” said James. “He is going to be beside himself when we tell him about everything we did.”
“And just who was the big proponent of this inquiry into his personal life?” asked Charlotte.
James just stared at her as he silently pointed to Ethan.
“Now James, don’t….” Then Charlotte thought for a second. “Actually…you know, you’re right. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Ethan, you were the mastermind behind all this.”
“See,” said James with a pout.
“I won’t deny it,” said Ethan. “I pulled you all into this and I’ll totally take the fall for it. I just had to find out what was going on,” he added, more to himself than to the group.
“And do you feel any better now that you know?” asked Tony, already knowing the answer.
“Maybe,” he said with a thoughtful smile. Then, he finally looked at Tony. “But I know I will after I talk to Eric.”
“Well, maybe that’s what you should have done in the first place,” she said, reaching over and touching his hand.
“I totally agree,” said a voice from the far end of the small room.
James nearly choked on his soup and Tony dropped her fork on the floor. Everyone in the room froze. They were all staring dumbly past the end of the table to the doorway where the cloaked figure stood. Before anyone could find their voice, the dark figure took two slow steps into the room. Then, in one quick movement, he took off his cloak, revealing a head of slightly mussed black hair and two clear, pale-blue eyes.
“Eric! What are you doing here?” asked James in near panic. “Ethan said you were in town.”
“I was at the beach actually,” he said matter-of-factly. “I had to pick up my dinner date.”
From the hall, Ariel walked in wearing a simple light blue dress. She went straight to Eric who proceeded to put his arm around her waist.
“Hi guys,” said Ariel with a sly smile.
“Ariel how did you get here…like this…with legs?” asked Charlotte.
“When we found out what you guys were up to I decided that I had make an appearance. I got Daddy to turn me back, but I don’t have too much time to stay.”
“So you know that we know?” asked Ethan.
“Oh yeah,” said Eric nonchalantly.
“For how long?” asked Tony.
“Since last night on the beach. I was pretty sure that I saw you behind that huge rock when I was walking to the water. You didn’t think I’d forgotten about that rock since we were little, did you Ethan?”
“Actually I was counting on the fact that you had.”
“I thought so,” he said with a smile. “Well, like I said, I thought I saw you guys behind the rocks. From where I was sitting on the rock wall, I couldn’t be sure whether or not you were there. Then the water fight started. While the girls were splashing each other, I swam over to Ariel. I told her what I thought I saw and we decided to meet around noon when I was sure. I would have said something out loud, but Ariel’s sisters were there and I couldn’t scare them with four humans they’ve never met before.”
“They’re still getting used to the idea that not all humans are evil,” said Ariel apologetically.
“By then the girls had pulled me back under the water,” Eric continued, still obviously upset by his loss. “Anyway, you saw the rest. When you all left this morning, I waited a little while then I went to
The Star. I figured it would be the first place you’d go for answers. When I got there, Capt. Sayers told me that you all had stopped by with some pretty interesting questions about mythological marine life. That sealed it. I went straight to Ariel and told her what was going on.”
“But if you knew why didn’t you just find us and tell us?” asked Charlotte.
“Because,” started Ariel matter-of-factly. “If you guys insisted upon going behind our backs to find out about all this then why would we make it easy for you?”
“Especially when it was so simple to get word to all the ships on the dock to keep quiet about mermaids,” Eric added.
“How?” asked James.
“Cabin boys. They’re young and anything that involves running as fast as they can from ship to ship with a message for the captain makes them feel important.”
“Plus, we bribed them with glowing sea shells,” added Ariel.
“Then it was just a matter of finding some place for you to actually get the story. Well, there’s no place better for hearing a sea tale than the Lone Dinghy and no body tells a sea tale better than Lieutenant Jones.”
“Wait! That was Lieutenant Jones from your ship?” asked Ethan.
“But he looked ancient in that dive!” James exclaimed. “He’s only three years older than us.”
“Yeah,” said Eric thoughtfully. “It’s great what a hat and an old cloak can do, isn’t it? He really did do a great job; I was listening to him like I hadn’t been there for the whole thing.”
“You were at the Dinghy?” asked Tony, now in total shock.
“Of course. If I couldn’t tell you the story, I had to at least see your faces when you heard it.”
“I wish I could have been there,” said Ariel.
“It was pretty good,” said Eric.
Finally Ethan stood up and walked over to Eric.
“You went through all that just…”
“To teach you a lesson? Yeah. I didn’t think it was too elaborate, was it?”
“Eric...,” said Ethan, smiling and putting his head in his hand. Then Eric hit him on the shoulder and they did the whole “man hug that starts out with a handshake which makes it more masculine” thing.
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you. I should have known that you guys would have understood. I was just….”
“No, Eric, I shouldn’t have pried into everything. It’s my fault really.”
Then Charlotte stood up, incredulous to this public display of male emotion.
“I’m glad that you’re not mad at each other and all, but I know you two couldn’t have come up with such a mature understanding on your own. I’m guessing you both talked to Jane?” she asked with her arms crossed.
The boys looked at her with guilty smiles and everyone laughed.
“When did you find time to talk to Mom while arranging all of this?” Ethan asked Eric.
“Actually, I was in her study before you came in. In fact, I was still in the study when you came in.”
“You were in there for all of that!”
“Yeah,” Eric said sheepishly. “I was kind of hiding in the closet.”
“I can’t believe you listened to all that!”
“Come on Ethan,” said Tony calmly walking up to him. “You know if you saw Eric in that study, you’d have run in the other direction. You would have never talked to your mother and you would still feel awful about all of this.”
Ethan sighed deeply. “This is why I’m marrying you,” he said giving Tony a kiss.
“But I do have to ask about a certain first edition of Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ that still has pages stuck together,” said Eric, giving Ethan a murderous stare.
Before Eric could bring down a reckoning on Ethan’s head, James jumped out of his seat, stepped between the two boys, and put his arms around both of their shoulders.
“Come on guys,” he started. “That’s all in the past. Right now, we’ve only got a little bit of time before Ariel’s got to go back to the beach, and I know that I have a lot of questions to ask.”
“I for one would like to inquire about the eighty foot octopus sea witch,” said Charlotte jumping in. “I mean, how did you even know what to do?”
“Well, all he had to do was drive a boat into a cathedral-sized target,” said James. “How hard can that be?”
“You know, that’s pretty difficult to do when you’re facing gale force winds,” said Eric defensively.
The others laughed as they all made their way to the chairs around the table.
Now for a time, there were questions about mermaids, and sea witches, and magic tridents, but then…something surprising happened. Somehow, without anyone noticing, the conversation changed from talks of the deep secrets of the ocean to the normal banter of young adults. They started laughing over stupid jokes and telling stories that never got old. Nothing had changed. Even with a mermaid in their midst, they were still the same group of friends they had been before. It just proved that life would always bring change and surprise, but their friends they could always count on.
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So that's it for this story, and I hope everyone liked it. Please, let me know what you think. I'm probably going to stay within this world of characters and events for a few more stories, so if there's something you think I should tweak or keep in mind, let me know.
I probably won't have Ethan, James, Charlotte, and Antonia in this next story (it's about Ariel and Eric's first Christmas). But I was wondering if there's a desire for a story about Eric proposing to Ariel. Is it implied that they're engaged or does it need to be addressed in a story (maybe not the main plot of it, but addressed)? Just wondering.
Finally, I just wanted to really say thanks for reading you guys. I really like these characters and I'm so glad to share them with others! Anyway, like I said, please let me know what you think; I love hearing from you guys!
- Aquisha