Max was as ultimately terrified as the guests present in the hall when he saw the intruding visitor. It was a huge, REALLY huge Great White shark, with teeth bared as if ready to have a nice great meal made of merpeople sushi. Max gulped in horror at this monstrosity. He had never seen a Great White at this range, up close and personal. He only had seen them in books.
“So, King Benedict, Your Majesty,” the Great White said sarcastically. “I see that you have taken the initiative of not inviting me to this glorious royal birthday party. What’s the matter? Afraid that I won’t get a gift worthy enough for your daughter?”
“No, Tiger,” King Benedict faced the shark boldly. “I didn’t invite you because of your irregular appetite. Think of the horror that might happen if I let you come. You would’ve eaten up my people and my friends! Probably even my daughter!”
“Oh, that’s not right to treat a guest!” the Great White whose name was Tiger had his fins on his fishy chest dramatically. “Show a little respect.”
“Respect is definitely the last thing on your list you should deserve,” Drakeb muttered grudgingly.
“Since I’m going to be treated that way, I might as well crash the whole party and see how you like it!”
Without another word, Tiger swam around the huge castle great hall and smashed everything at its path. He used the tip of his nose to butt and hit everyone around, sending them flying at all directions. He chomped down the whole orchestra and gulped down everything that was on the coral table. He bit at the merpeople’s pets and banged himself on the walls of the castle, making a huge scene. He was uncontrollable. The King’s men weren’t able to stop him—he was too strong for them to tackle. Finally, he lunged towards the birthday princess and, like a bull, butted her and sent her flying high up onto the surface. His force was really strong and soon, Princess Phoebe could be seen disappearing into the surface and didn’t come down.
Max gasped. He knew lots on merpeople’s weaknesses. They cannot be off the water more than 30 minutes or they would shrivel and die. Leaving King Benedict’s men to fend Tiger away, Max quickly swam back up to the surface and tried to look for the princess. If the people were ever to see her up on shore, she would either be put in an exhibit or being poked and prodded by curious people, or worse, being cooked and eaten, for legend has it that eating a mermaid would grant you immortality. He saw her hanging loosely from one of the fishermen’s sails of a fishing boat. Her body got tangled in the sail ropes, bruised and unconscious. He quickly rushed up to the boat, taking care not to let anyone see them both, and took off his diving gear. With nimble hands and feet, he climbed swiftly up to the sails and cut her loose with his pocket knife given by Norman who got it from one of his past voyages. He then carried her down, put on his diving gear and propped her across his shoulders before diving back into the sea.
As he dived deeper and deeper down back to the mermen territory, Tiger was gone. The Great White was chased away by a large, over-sized squid, being squirted with black goo as he went. Max hid out of sight. He didn’t want to risk being caught and be accused for kidnapping the mermaid princess. He placed her a reasonable distance away from the castle and stared at her.
She was still unconscious and quite bruised, but nevertheless she was OK and not shriveled up like an old apple as he feared. She was still the angelic, most beautiful mermaid he first saw. Her eyes were closed gracefully, covering those jade-green eyes. Her dark chocolate-brown hair spread decoratively around her head, like a magnificent royal crown. Her chest rose and fell gently. She looked so majestic and pure even when she was unconscious, as if she did not faint, but only slept and having a great dream. Max wanted so much to lay his lips on her rosy ones but he realized that this would mean drowning or die due to the sea pressure for him. The only thing he could do was to sing for her to express his love.
What if I told you it was all meant to be
Would you believe me, would you agree
It's almost that feeling that we've met before
So tell me that you don't think I'm crazy
When I tell you love has come here and now
Chorus:
A moment like this
Some people wait a lifetime
For a moment like this
Some people search forever
For that one special kiss
I can't believe it's happening to me
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this
Everything changes but beauty remains
Something’s so tender I can't explain
I may be dreaming but 'til I awake
Can't we make this dream last forever
And I'll cherish all the love we share
Chorus
Could this be the greatest love of all
I wanna know that you'll catch me when I fall
So let me tell you this...
Some people wait a life time for a moment like this…
Max’s singing did do Princess Phoebe a little good. She began to stir and open her jade-green eyes. She let out a small smile when she saw the singing Max staring back at her intently with full of love and passion. She held Max’s hand that was on her soft, silky cheek and wanted to hold out her other hand to ask about him when she suddenly saw him looking at another direction and then swam away from her. Her weak body was unable to give chase to this mysterious man that had saved her life.
“Your Highness! Your Highness! There you are!”
Princess Phoebe blinked and tried to steer herself up when she heard Drakeb’s voice calling her. She soon felt Drakeb’s strong hands picking her up and holding her close, saying, “Oh, thank the Sea Gods that you’re alright. Are you hurt? Anything broken?”
“A…A boy…he…he rescued me…” Phoebe found herself trying to search for Max absentmindedly. “He was…singing…He had the most…beautiful voice…!”
“I think you’ve taken in too much moon rays up on the surface. Off we go,” Drakeb said as he carried Phoebe into his arms. Phoebe let him; she was too weak to think clearly what had happened. Behind a huge rock, Max slowly popped his head out to stare at the disappearing royal mermaid and merman. He felt both jealous and relieved—relieved because someone had appeared just in the nick of time before he scared the mermaid princess if she saw that he was a human, yet jealous because it had to be his potential rival Drakeb to come. He also felt a little upset because his appearance had cut short his lovely time with her. He then noticed that the air in his oxygen tank was slowly going down. He had to go back to land before he drowned himself to death. Besides, he had to get back home quick and find a good excuse for not attending to the courting ceremony.
Before he left the scene to go back up the surface, he sang softly, “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this…”
No comments:
Post a Comment