Chapter 1a
It wasn’t the first time Jensen had come close to dry land. It wasn’t even the hundredth time. He liked the view of the beach, so, every so often he would surface to watch the salt water meet the sand. If he could catch the sunset, even better.
But he usually came with Chris, who liked the beach just as much as him. Even if their reasons weren’t the same. And, more important, Chris was allowed to stay as long as he wanted. Minding, of course, that no human ever spotted him.
If Jensen didn’t know Chris, he’d never say he had such a prestigious job. With his long hair, blue eyes, and dark tail that could throw a merman twice Jensen’s weight far away, Jensen would have said Chris was all muscle and no patience for thought. But, contrary to what his appearance suggested, Chris was a watcher/guard. His job was to make sure that the human world never came in touch with the underwater world. He was assigned to watch the East Beach, where there were an enormous number of humans but very few of them went more than two miles off shore.
Chris always said that it could have been worse. At least his beach didn’t have many boats. He had once told Jensen that the West Beach had more boats than humans. Jensen thought it was impossible. There’s no way the boats could outnumber the humans.
Chris only laughed and told him he still had much to learn about humans and their way of life. He usually said, with a sardonic smile plastered on his face, that with humans there were never enough of anything. They always wanted more and more. The disgusting tone he used to describe them never escaped Jensen.
Jensen never understood why Chris didn’t like the humans. Intimately he thought that anyone who had to see humans every day should at least tolerate their existence. If it were him, he wouldn’t mind so much. Sure, they were messy and loud and could care a little more about their beach, but Jensen liked them. If nothing else, at least they were funny.
Jensen was fascinated by their laughs, by their playfulness, by their happiness. It seemed each and every human that came to the beach was happy to just be there. And he really loved that. Because even though he liked the beach, he didn’t have that same urge to just smile that seem to infect them.
“I knew you would be here” Jensen heard Chris’ voice say behind him. Jensen couldn’t help smiling.
“Well, where else would I be, if I wasn’t with the king?” he asked.
Chris swam to Jensen’s side and watched him watch the beach. “What is it with you and those two-legged people?” he asked, one hand scratching his long brown hair. “They can’t be that fascinating.”
Jensen shook his head in incredulity “You know they can be. You watch them all day!”
Chris snorted. “You are insane, swordboy.”
Jensen sighed. “Chris, would mind stop calling me that?” he asked annoyed. “It really isn’t that funny anymore.”
Chris laughed. “It really is.”
Jensen was a royal guard. The king and its family were always accompanied by four or five or them. Each royal guard had an animal companion to assist their job. Jensen’s was a swordfish.
One day, when Jensen was still at the academy, this little fish came by him and never let go. Jensen really tried to push him away, but with no success. By the time Jensen had finished his course, the blue fish had been given a name, a house and a family of two.
Jensen regretted the day he introduced the new member of his family to Chris. His friend never stopped making fun of him or the swordfish.
“I still can’t believe you called him Blue.” Chris said after a while. “It isn’t that original, you know?”
“What is wrong with the name?” Jensen asked protectively “He is blue! And I am not creative!” Chris raised one eyebrow “It was the best I could do at the time” Jensen exclaimed.
Chris laughed. “Sure it was. Where’s the little devil, anyway?”
Jensen eyed him. “Little?” he asked. “He’s larger than the two of us combined, Chris.” Chris shrugged, not even a little bit impressed. It wasn’t as if he had never seen Blue before. “He’s still a child.”
Jensen gave up and answered. “I let him loose. He wanted to go to The Deep.” The Deep was a great depression not far from their city. Jensen didn’t like the place. It was too dark. The younger ones used it as a courage test. They bet with each other to see who could swim deeper. Until that day, the farthest anyone had ever gotten was three miles. Blue could swim at least twenty miles, effortlessly.
He seemed to think it was a great place to hunt, and Jensen wouldn’t deprive him of his fun. “He likes to chase other fishes,” Jensen said in a fond voice. “I already told him he is too big to keep playing like that, but he doesn’t listen.”
“You know, if I didn’t know you, I would say you were his mother.” Chris said.
“For the love of-”
“Shh!” Chris cut him suddenly. “Someone’s approaching.”
Immediately Jensen sank a little, letting only his head remain above the water, and swam to behind a rock. Chris’ eyes were focused on a small boat that was coming towards them. He waited to see if it would keep coming.
When it was obvious the boat wasn’t stopping, Chris sighed. “They should have learned by now.” He waved his hand under the surface.
It started quietly. The waves Chris was creating were too small to present a threat to the boat. But they kept growing until the boat couldn’t advance further and had to stop. “Turn around,” Chris said to the vessel. “Go back.”
Little by little, the boat turned and went back to the beach.
Chris smiled smugly and swam closer do Jensen “Piece of cake.”
Jensen rolled his eyes. “You enjoy doing this too much.”
“What can I do? I like my job.”
“You like playing with the humans,” Jensen corrected.
“That too.”
“One of these days you are going to realize they aren’t that bad.” Jensen said casually. “And I really want to be there when that day comes.”
“Sure, swordboy” Chris swan further away from Jensen. “It will be the same day you and Blue get married.”
“That’s sick.”
Chris laughed, his tail making an appearance over the surface and squashing back down.
“Be careful!” Jensen exclaimed “Some of them might see you!”
Chris dismissed the concerned advice. “Please. I’ve been watching them for more than three years. They never even suspected of me.”
Blue decided that was a was a good time to surface and, without any warning his fourteen feet of body jumped out of the water, almost giving the two friends a heart attack and nearly hitting Chris in the chest.
“Blue!!” Jensen exclaimed startled “What did I tell you about jumping on Chris?”
The swordfish eyed Jensen sheepishly, as if asking for forgiveness. Chris sighed.
“You better hear Jen, Blue, otherwise I’m gonna put a leash on you.”
Blue gave Chris a dirty look and swam closer to his owner, splashing water all over Chris.
Jensen chuckled. He really liked his swordfish. It had attitude and he gave as good as he got. Especially with Chris.
“He is just kidding, Blue. I’d never let Chris put a leash on you. It wouldn’t be good for my reputation.”
Blue rolled his eyes. Jensen felt incredibly proud of the movement. He had spent weeks teaching it to the swordfish. The face Chris did when he had first seen it would be forever imprinted in Jensen’s mind. To that day, Chris swears his eyes didn’t widen. Jensen knew it for the lie it was.
“Sure, Jen,” Chris voice cut trough Jensen’s thoughts. “Blue’s first concern is your reputation,” Chris commented.
“You are just jealous I have a swordfish.” Blue looked suspiciously at Chris, as if evaluating if what Jensen said were possible.
Chris snorted. “That’s exactly it. You figured me out.” He said deadpanned.
“I always knew,” Jensen said with a chuckle, his hand caressing Blue’s beautiful body.
Jensen’s eyes drifted to the sun and a warm smile appeared in his face. “Look.” He pointed to the horizon. “The sun is setting. Come on, let’s see if we can get closer to it!” he started pulling Chris further away from the beach ready to chase after the beautiful orange globe that started touching the water. Blue was at his side at once, his face set on swimming the farthest he could get.
Chris pushed Jensen and Blue back. “Oh, no, you don’t,” he said. Blue pointed his long nose to Chris in a threatening manner. Chris ignored him. “Last time you tried a stunt like that you only appeared the next day, I’m not up for hunting you down! I’m on duty until tomorrow morning!”
Jensen sighed. “I can’t believe you didn’t take the day off. You said you would.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t. Everyone else was on duty today so nobody could replace me.”
Jensen frowned. “Why? What happened?”
“That dammed song started again. The king instructed every watcher to keep an eye out. We still can’t identify its owner or where it comes from.”
“Still?” Jensen asked.
‘The song’, as the watchers have come to call it came from the surface. Whoever sang it, had an amazing voice and most certainly had merblood in their veins. No other creature could reach that octave. And no other creature could hide its source as efficiently.
“The problem is that, if it is really a human, they wouldn’t know how to hide the origin of the sound. But the song owner clearly does.” Chris explained. “How I wish we could find them! I bet it is a man! And I would so like to beat the shit out of him.”
“I have no doubt of that.” Jensen said, deadpanning. “I wonder if its owner knows how to fight,” Jensen continued innocently “If they did, you would be screwed.”
Chris snorted. “I’d drown them.”
“Sure you would.”
“I’m serious.” Chris tried again and swam closer to the beach. Jensen followed him.
“So we are gonna stay here all night?” Jensen asked.
“I am.” Chris answered. “You could go back to the city. I’m sure there are a thousand things for you to do down there.”
Jensen measured the two options. Blue was beside him waiting for his owner to give the command.
“I’d rather stay up here. Who knows? Maybe we can find the mysterious singer.” He said. Chris shot him a disbelieving look “And I can see the sunrise.” Jensen completed.
“I knew there was an ulterior motive. My presence alone is not enough,” Chris said resigned.
In the end, Jensen spent two hours with Chris and was called back. Apparently, the king had a mission for him. As he entered the castle and swam through its corridors, Blue just behind him, Jensen could still see in his mind Chris sitting on the rock, carefully watching the human lives.
The King received him with a fond smile. He was older than Jensen, but his appearance would never betray his age. He still looked as though he was fifty and Jensen hoped he could come to four hundreds and look as fit as him. The king knew Jensen since he was little. And Jensen couldn’t remember a time the king didn’t trust him.
Beside him, with his dark blond hair, serene face, green-brown tail and sad clear blue eyes, was Steve. He was one of the most wonderful men Jensen knew and didn’t deserve what life had given him. Jensen shook his head, not letting himself dwell on Steve’s problems. Now was not the time.
“Your highnesses summoned?” Jensen asked the king. Blue waited to see if Jensen would stay in the hall, than circled his master two times to let him know he was going outside.
“Yes I did, guard Ackles,” The king answered him. Jensen stiffed. It was rare that the king would address him in such formal manners. “As you know, we are still looking for the source of the mysterious song.”
Jensen nodded. “Yes, sire. I understand it was heard again a few hours ago.”
“That is correct.” the king answered. “But this time we could identify its course.”
Jensen’s eyes widened. “We finally could catch the person?” he asked hopefully. The king shook his head in denial.
“No we couldn’t, Jensen. But we know from where it has been coming. In fact, it is not far away from Kane’s spot.”
Jensen gave the king an alarmed look. “It was near Chris all this time?” he asked surprised. “Impossible! Chris would have noticed something.” Jensen knew Chris was extremely good at his job. There is no way he wouldn’t have realized the song’s source was on his part of the beach.
The king agreed with him. “Steve also thinks Kane would have noticed.” The king said. Jensen’s eyes drifted to Steve and he wondered what had cost him to talk about Christian.
“We think the source is moving from location to location. That’s why we couldn’t pinpoint it,” Steve said.
“Our best plan is to investigate it by ourselves.” The king continued. “I want to send you to the surface, to dry land.”
If Jensen thought he could die from a heart attack, he would have died at that moment. “What, sir?” he asked instead.
“We estimated that we could be ready in one week. We need this time to reschedule all the guards and you need it to prepare for this trip.”
Jensen wondered if he were dreaming. His dreams always took a surreal lead. This conversation seemed to be going that way.
“You want me to go to dry land find this singer?” Jensen asked just to make sure he had understood.
The king sighed. “Jensen you are one of my best guards. You know how to defend others and how to defend yourself. You are extremely resourceful and capable. And, more important to this mission, you seem to genuinely like the humans.”
“But, sire, I don’t know anything of the human ways. The only things I learned were from afar while I watched them with Christian,” Jensen said. “I would gladly go, but I don’t think I’m the right merman for the job.”
Jensen saw Steve roll his eyes. “I told you he was going to react this way.”
“That’s because you know I’m right, Steve!” Jensen exclaimed. “Your highness, I wouldn’t know what to do there. I wouldn’t be able to find the song’s owner,” Jensen tried again. He couldn’t really believe Steve had agreed to such a plan. He was supposed to be the King’s counselor and give intelligent advice, not suggest ludicrous ideas.
“With all due respect, sire, Chris would be a much better choice. He knows that beach better than anyone. He’s the one that spends more time watching it.”
The king’s head nodded in agreement. “And that’s exactly why he’s going with you.”
Jensen gasped.
“What?” he managed.
“Kane is going with you to the surface,” Steve repeated and Jensen had to force himself not to cringe with the icy tone when Steve mentioned Chris’ surname. “You are right. He knows that beach better than anyone.”
“Steve -” Jensen started.
“But,” Steve cut him “As the king have already mentioned, when it comes to humans, he’s not as enthusiastic as you.”
In that moment, Chris entered the hall, Jensen saw his eyes meet Steve’s for a fraction of seconds and than stop on the king. Steve had become considerably paler. Jensen wondered when those would overcome their little disagreement.
“Yes, sire.” Chris said to the king. “How can I be of service?” he asked.
“Christian,” the King said. “I didn’t expect you here so soon.”
Christian shrugged. “Gabe found me. He said your highness wanted to speak with me and offered to take my place while I came here.”
Steve nodded. “I told Gabe to go look for you, but I miscalculated how fast he could do it.”
Chris snorted, his face not giving anything away. “We all make mistakes, Carlson. Don’t fret,” Chris said in a hard voice. “Just tell me why I’m here.”
Jensen saw Steve’s eyes shine rebelliously with the will to respond and fought the urge to hit Chris for the comment. Chris could be a hell of an asshole when he wanted. Steve closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Why don’t you let me tell you why you are here, Christian?” the king asked, rescuing Steve. Jensen quietly thanked their king for the intervention. Chris must have realized he had crossed some invisible line, and immediately looked down.
“Yes, sire. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
The room became silent. The king sighed. “Whatever happened between the two of you, I don’t want to know. But I would appreciate if you could keep it between yourselves.”
Both Steve and Chris nodded. “Now”, the king said, “Let’s start again.”