Chapter 2: Prince

Ethan stood shocked. One moment he was under attack by pirates, and the next they were gone. The gigantic mermaid who had saved him now looked right at him. The smile on her gigantic face beamed much the same as it did when she turned those tough guys to a meal.

He feared that’d be his fate too, and the fear near-paralyzed him.

She drew closer, steadily lowering her body into the water, her head growing more and more level with his gaze--at least as much as something large as that could be.

His training in regal composure failed him; his body started to shake. She beared down on him. Her head, poking out of the water, was close enough he could feel the breath of her nostrils. Her face loomed, and her lips stirred.

He raised his arms up.

“N-no!”

“Hello!”, she said.

--==--==--==--

Alurel’s senses were far keener than a human’s, so she took in much of the man’s features as she swam over. Still, he was quite small by comparison, and it’s only once close that she fully made out his form.

Short brown hair covered the fair-skinned man’s head. The hair was carefully cut thinner towards the edges of the side and back. Her had on a light-blue, thin-fabric top. It was wet from the sea, and its sleeves were rolled up high. White trousers clung to his legs, tight and wet enough enough to highlight the curves of musculature there. Presently, he was shaking in a pair of brown boots.

Once really close, she took special note of his blue-eyes: blue as the waters. They were the most stark feature of his handsome face, and they alight with fear.

“Ah, sorry I hope I didn’t scare you there.”, she said.

He kept shivering.

“Are you cold? You do look a bit soaked. I must’ve splashed you during that, did I? I’m sorry. Maybe I can help you warm you up though!”

She opened her mouth wide and started blowing on him; hot-fish scented breath assailed him. He let out a yelp and took a couple steps back. Showing off the inside of a man-eating mouth had a tendency to do that to some, it’d seem.

“P-please, don’t eat me.”

Alurel leaned in closer. She wanted to say the words, “don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you.”

Unfortunately, something stirred within her body. One especially thorough churn reverberated in her gut. It knocked all those fidgeting pirates over, and displaced oodles of the digesting eels atop them. With the pile of dissolving fish and humans disturbed, gases from the digestive process surged out from the disruption. It traveled up from her stomach and then up her throat fast as a current.

So, when Alurel went to talk to the man to calm him down, all that came out was.

“Do-Urp”

It wasn’t a fierce belch; in fact it was a gentle, dainty burp. But, at her size, the terms ‘gentle’ and ‘dainty’ had different meanings to a human.

A torrid gust of breath ripped by Ethan. He fell onto his butt from the force and shock of it, taking the brunt of the aromatic assault. It carried the scent of acid, mixed in with the odors of dissolving flesh from fish and man.

His brown locks stuck straight up, eyes wide. Alurel gasped.

“Ah, I’m sorry. That just came up so fast. They are a bit feisty in there I suppose.”

“D-don’t eat me. Please-”

“Relax, I’m not gonna eat you silly.”

She gently reached her hand out of the water, rocking his vessel. Her finger moved towards him and, with the very tip of her index finger, she patted his hair back down.

“Y-you’re not?”, he said. He slowly climbed back onto his feet.

“No.”, she said. “Now why don’t you tell me your name.”

“Ethan.”, he said. “Prince Ethan of the Afflelands”

“A prince?!?”

The mermaid’s green eyes widened. Her body jostled a bit up in surprise, splashing the poor man.

“Y-yes. It’s true I’m a prince. I’m not sure why I told you to be honest but-”

“Royalty is rare on these waters. I’m surprised.”

The man relaxed his shoulders. His body felt limber. He was calming down a bit, despite the cool water which drenched him and his vessel.

“Well,” continued Alurel. “It’s nice to meet you, Prince Ethan.” She bowed her head slightly, giggling. “My name is Alurel, Ah-lur-el.”

She laughed again, then spoke.

“What brings you all the way out here?”

The man was quick to bow back, though awkwardly. This was still all a bit odd to him.

“Well, I had a bit of an argument with the king.”

She frowned.

“I see, what about?”

“Oh it’s... it’s nothing really. I wouldn’t want to bore you.”

“Bore me?”, said Alurel. “I love humans and their culture. Whatever is going on atop land, I think I’d like to know about it.”

“Well I’m not sure you’d understand.”

Alurel frowned. She eyed him a moment, then looked to the sail of his little boat.

“Hmmm, you’re sail is torn isn’t it? The pirates must’ve hit it.”

“Ah yes.”, he said. “B-but not as much as they hit you with their volleys, my lady. Are you alright by the way, from all that?”

“Oh!”, she giggled. “Yes of course. A mortal cannot easily harm a mermaid. Hmmm, say, I know an island not far from here. It’s got plenty of tall trees with broad leaves. You could probably borrow from those to fix your sail. There’s also a nice tall cliff I can lean against there. You could tell me what’s going on there. We could have a nice chat, just the two of us.”

Ethan cocked his eyebrows.

“I, uh, I suppose that’d be alright. Thank you-whoa!”

Once again, the man was on his butt. The entire sailboat of his lurched upwards and out of the water. Alurel had moved her right palm beneath the craft. Her fingers curled upwards and around it, each digit well over a dozen feet long and near half as much thick.

Ethan was once again humbled. More of her upper-body broached the surface.

“Hold onto the mast.”, she said. “I usually swim far faster than you might be used to.”