Ambrose & Delfino

I remember the first time I set eyes on him. He was aboard a ship, far out into our very large ocean. Humans, such funny things! You don't see us trying to roam their lands, yet they are determined to explore ours! Silly things, and how do they expect to explore anything when all they see is the boring surface? They should come deep under the water, see all the marvels we posess! Anyways, this story is not about my opinion of humans, it's about me, and my darling human, Ambrose! Oh yes, I forgot, I'm Delfino! Pleased to meet you! Sorry, sometimes I forget how to obey the rules of human's silly social regulations.

Anyways, back to the beginning of my story. Ambrose was a sailor on a ship. No, he wasn't the captian, he was an old and wrinkled man who smelt of sunbaked salmon. I know, because he fell in the water the evening after I first saw Ambrose. There was a big storm that evening. Father must have been bored, and decided to play with the humans. Oh yeah, my father is Poseidon. Surprised? Don't be. Most merfolk are direct descendants of Neptune. Or, at least, only the beautiful ones. Oh no, I'm getting off tract again! Alright, I will try to stick to the story from now on.

Ambrose was leaning against the railing of his very big ship when I first saw him. I had been playing with dolphins, a wonderful passtime, and one of my favorites, when they found a ship and decided to ride it's waves. I had to admit, it was a little fun. Not so much as chasing dolphins, but it was ok. I looked up to the side of the ship, when Ambrose caught my eye. He was very beautiful, the sun had painted his hair golden, and painted his skin bronze. The ocean reflected in the color of his eyes, and I caught myself falling behind the dolphins as I stared. Sadly, my Ambrose was called away to duty shortly there-after, but I followed the ship all day, hoping to catch another glance of the beautiful blonde haired man. That's when the storm struck, shortly after Apollo had left the sky. I have to admit, Poseidon's storms frighten me! And so I took to the shelter of the waters of the ocean. Still, I followed Ambrose's ship. When driftwood began to fall into the water, I got a very bad feeling and surfaced. Right away, I noticed the fire. It stung my eyes and nose. And then the men of the ship began to jump off, I was almost crushed by a big man with a curly beard! Stupid humans, what chance did they think they had in the ocean? They lacked fins to swim and gills to breath! I was sure the beautiful Ambrose was doomed.

When Apollo rose to meet the morning, several sailors had survived the night, clinging to pieces of floating wood. I watched from a distance as slowly, one by one, they each drowned. Neptune doesn't like the land-walkers, they shouldn't have left their territory anyways! Besides, I was too busy watching the beautiful blonde haired man, as he slowly began to shrivel without food. Finally, he was the only one left. He had out-survived all his shipmates! He certainly must have been gifted, to survive out in the open as long as he had.

I swam to the ocean floor and retrieved edible plants for him. When I rose to the surface again, I scared him. Silly human, he didn't know I was coming to help him. At first, he thought I was an illusion, then he thought I was a demon, then he thought I was an angel! The heat of the sun and starvation was affecting his mind, I think. Finally he realized what I am, a merboy, and I offered my gifts to him. Timidly, he took them. He must have still been scared of me, but after he ate, he felt much better, and began thinking with much more sence.

I'll skip the next few days in my story, because they are pretty boring. See how nice I am, saving you from the boring parts? I had to live through the boring parts. I'm a martyr. Anyways, we spent them trying to get Amrbose to shore. He certainly was heavy! I had to enlist the dolphins help, but you know how playful they are. They get so bored so quickly, and we would have to trade off dolphins. Oh yes, I made routine trips to the ocean floor to retrieve food for Ambrose and my self. See? I told you they were boring, but you just had to hear. I guess I'm not a martyr after all.

A few days of this went on, and we landed on a sandy beach. There were more humans there, playing by the edge of the water, which was good, because my poor Ambrose was too weak to carry himself very far upshore, but it was also bad, because I couldn't go near the shore for fear of being seen. Humans on their own territory scare me as well, because they have the advantage. There they have their awful spears and nets with which to catch us, so I stayed a distance away from the shore, but close enough to watch as the new humans carried my sweet Ambrose up toward their city. I waited down by the beach for Ambrose's return, but he never did. The sun set, and I grew tired, and still no Amrbose. I felt incredibly sad that the beautiful man did not return. Still, I decided to wait until morning, maybe he would return then. So I found a nice little flat rock to curl up on, and went to sleep.

The next morning I awoke to quiet whispers. Afraid I had been discovered, I opened my eyes and sat up. I had been! There were several young human boys standing around me, whispering and pointing. I dashed off the rock, in hopes to find safety in the water, but the water was gone! The tide had left without me, and I was beached! I was scared, scared for my life, and cowarded against the rock, staring up at the human boys. They were pointing and snickering. One had a stick, and tried to poke me with it. Terrible little boy! I didn't know what to do, there was nothing I could do! One threw a pebble at me, and stung my shoulder. I thought I was doomed for sure. Another little boy raised a hand to throw another rock at me, but his arms was suddenly grabbed, and he was lifted from his feet.

The sun was at such an angle, I couldn't see the face of the man who was saving me, but I had hoped with all my heart it was Ambrose. All the other, nasty little boys backed away as the one squirmed like a little worm in the mans grasp. The man said "Go home," and dropped the boy. They all scattered then. I squinted up at the man, but still could not see his face. He knelt down in front of me, and my eyes met the ocean blue ones of Ambrose. How my heart rejoiced! Ambrose had come back!

"You shouldn't be here," he said, "you could get hurt." And with that, Amrbose lifted me up, and carried me down to the water. His skin was much warmer now, and he wasn't so shrunked. He had healed fast from his days out in the sea. Ambrose carried me out until he was chest deep in the water, then gently released me into the cooling ocean. It felt so wonderful to my dried and hot skin, I had to take a moment to swim around beneath the surface, let the water heal my semi-baked body. Then I resurfaced just as Ambrose was going to turn away. He blinked at me in confusion.

"Go on," he said, pointing out to the ocean. "You should go out there, you'll get hurt here."

I hesitated. "But," I said, "I waited here all day and all night, for you."

The statement caught Amrbose off gaurd, but after a moment, he said, "There's a little cove, about a mile that way." He pointed. "It's surrounded by steep cliffs, which is surrounded by a dense jungle. I'll meet you there, where you'll be safer."

My heart rejoiced even more! Secret meetings in secluded areas, what fun! The day was looking up! I nodded, and dashed back under water, swam off in the direction Ambrose had indicated.

I beat Ambrose there, such slow creatures humans are! We are so much faster than they, maybe that is why they are so fascinated by our waters? Because they want to travel faster? I'm getting off the story again! I must remind myself not to. So I waited for Amrbose, this time farther out in the ocean. I did not want to risk being trapped again. The cove he spoke of was almost an enclosed pond by the water, save for a few dolphins length where the rocks were separated to let the salty sea water in. A mercreature could easily get trapped in there. So I waited. Finally I saw my beautiful Ambrose! He was climbing straight down the rock face! How very strong and clever he is. But suddenly, my beautiful's grip slipped, and he fell with an awkward splash into the water! Fearful for my love, I dove into the cove, swam to where Ambrose was flailing for the surface near the coves floor. My poor Ambrose, he was to tired from his walk and his climb, days at sea obviously left him weaker than both he and I had thought. He calmed when he saw me, held out his arms to me, he needed air. I couldn't resist the temptation, I couldn't help myself! He was drowning, yes, but in two flicks of a fishes tail I could have had him to the surface. But instead I took his face in my hands, pressed my lips to his, and breathed from my lungs into his. My decision was well worth it, it was incredible to kiss him, but my lovely Ambrose didn't enjoy the kiss as much as I did. It must have startled him, for first he was shocked still, and then he tried to jump away. At first, I was hurt, then I remember one of my sisters told me that some humans thought merpeople ate humans, because humans ate fish. Eww! On both accounts. I prefer shellfish, myself. So that must have been what Ambrose thought I was doing, trying to eat him. Why else would he have tried to push me away?

So I wrapped my arms around his torso and pulled him to the surface. I carried him to the tiny sandy beach along the back of the rocks. He crawled farther up so he could sit down, his ankles still in the water while he caught his breath. I waited sort of impatiently farther out, and I made it known by flicking my tail this way, then that. Finally, Amrbose looked at me.

"Why did you do that?"

"I wasn't going to hurt you."

"But why that way?"

I crawled on my hands closer to him, but not to far up the beach. After being beached that morning, I was a little wariy. I lay on my belly, looking up at him. "Lets play something, this is boring."

Ambrose blinked at me. "Play?"

"Yes! We could play where I hide, and you find me, or you could try to catch me, or we could play Follow Me..."

"But I'm to tired, and you have an advantage over me."

I blinked at him, didn't understand what he meant. He pointed to my tail and I looked to it, raised it out of the water, and flipped it aside. He had a point, I could swim much faster than him with my tail. "Then what shall we do?"

"We could talk."

"Talk?" Boring! "About what?"

"About you."

I blinked. "What do you want to know?"

"I can guess what you are, but I want to hear it from someone elses mouth. What are you?"

"A child of Poseidon." A spot on my tail was beginning to itch from where it had been burnt by Apollo, and I rubbed it against the sandy bottom, but that didn't seem to help.

"Why did you save me?"

"Why not? Can you help me? I got an itchy place on my fin." I tried to reach for it, but I couldn't quite get my fingernails to it. Amrbose moved close and touched the space. "Here?" I nodded and he scratched my scaley fin. Oooohhh, it felt so good. And after the itchy place had stopped itching so much, Amrbose continued to run his finger tips along my tail, and then his palm. He seemed very fascinated. He ran his palm up my tail, stopping only when green scales gave way to pink flesh. He ran his fingers over that line several times, and I could help a tiny shiver at the feel of it. But then Ambrose looked from my glistening tail to my deeply pleased face, and drew his hand away. That made me sad. Suddenly, we heard a voice calling through the jungle above us, on the clifs.

"Ambrose!"

My heart stopped, oh no! Who was this? What did she want? What was she doing here? Why did she have to interupt my time with my darling?

"Oh, no," Ambrose said.

"Who is that?" I whispered, inching back towards the water, but what Ambrose replied made my heart die.

"My fiance. Quick, you have to go..." I barely heard what Ambrose was saying. His fiance? He was already in love with someone else? But then Ambrose voice caught my attention again, as the terrible woman looking for Ambrose called to him again. "Can I see you tomorrow?"

My heart leapt! He wanted to see me again! I nodded.

"Here? Around noon?" I nodded again, more secret meetings! What fun! Even though I was saddened to discover Ambrose engaged, my heart delighted at the games we were playing. He wasn't married yet. That meant that maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.

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