"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm full," proclaimed Martin Stovall, as he pushed his empty dessert plate away from him.
"Me too," his daughter Julie and her fiance Eric Anderson seemed to say almost in unison.
"If that dessert wasn't so rich, I'd want seconds," declared his wife Melissa. Her recently started pregnancy was the reason the four of them were at Shambala, a hidden were facility between Moon Lake and Seattle.
"Me too," Julie chimed in.
"I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, but it isn't that large, except for my craving for you my jewel," said Eric, to which Julie leaned over and kissed him.
"Well, I guess there's nothing left to do except get the check from Pierre and settle our bill," realized Martin.
"I can think of something," announced Melissa, before rising from the table.
"If it's what I think it is, I have to also," said Julie, before getting up too.
"I'll show you where it is," replied her mother, leading the way away from their table.
Sitting alone together, each man stared at the other.
Martin Stovall, the mayor of Moon Lake, looked to be a man in his late 30s. But being a were-merman, he was actually much older, since the average were lived to be somewhere between 350 to 400 years old, barring anything unforeseen.
Eric Anderson, a recently created were-mer because of the love he had for Julie, was still just a 14 year old boy, but would start benefiting from the reduction of growing older as he hit adulthood.
"Martin," began Eric, looking at his future father-in-law and using his first name, since he had permission to do so whenever they were alone, "do you mind if I ask you something?"
"No. Go ahead."
"I know I'm still new to all of this," said Eric, "but there's something that's been bothering me about being a were-mer."
"Oh?" replied Martin, hoping it wasn't something that would affect his daughter's long term happiness.
"Ever since Julie and I..." and Eric glossed over the details of how he joined were society, "became an engaged couple, I've been having these weird feelings about her."
"Like what?" asked Martin, leaning forward in his chair and resting his elbows on the table.
"I can't bear to be without her, and when I am with her, all I want to do, for lack of a better word, is... spawn," said Eric in a low voice. "And over the last couple of days, I was jealous of this other were-mer and afraid that he was going to take Julie away from me because they have classes together and a joint project they have to do for one of them, while all I have with her during the school day this semester is Freshman lunch and whatever brief moments we get in the hallways between classes."
Martin was relieved that it wasn't anything truly serious, yet could see that Eric was genuinely worried about the situation.
"Eric," he began cautiously, "when a were-mer finds their one true love and soul mate, like Julie did with you, they're usually older. I'm not saying it's wrong for you and her to be in love. Far from it. Yet it is unique for the two of you to recognize each other now, at 14. The earliest I personally have ever heard of it happening before you was between a couple of college students, and both of them were already weres." Besides, you're also the first were-mer I've ever seen with blue-green scales, he silently added.
"Really?"
"When a were-mer finds the one they're meant to spend the rest of their life with, it is a truly special event; and naturally, since it usually happens in adulthood, the couple want to enjoy each other as much as possible, as often as possible, in every way they possibly can. So, other than making sure Julie takes her were-mermaid birth control pill everyday until the two of you are destined to start having children like those prophecy dreams(*1) of yours revealed, I'd say kick back and enjoy life," Martin added with a smile, which was a far cry from his first thoughts about his daughter falling in love until he actually met and got to know Eric better.
"I try, but sometimes it's hard," admitted Eric, "and not because Julie and I would ever do anything to endanger our vision of the future. It's just that, with the way other kids back in Minnesota treated me and my parent's problems that caused us to move to Moon Lake in the first place(*2), I wasn't happy until I met Julie. Although all the other things worked out in time without Julie's involvement, it took a while for her to change my life for the better, and not just physically. But now..."
"Not everyone has a totally happy past. Melissa still regrets to this day the 10 year delay from our first meeting until realizing that we were destined to be together, despite how many times I keep telling her that our present and future are more important than our past."
"My personal present and future are more important than my past," Eric repeated, thinking it over. "Julie's both, and I intend to be the best were-mer I can to her."
"I'm sure you will be Eric," Martin Stovall said with a smile.
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*1. Prophecy dreams are a phenomenon unique to weres that reveal either a bit of the future or the solution to a specific problem a were might have when needed. The source of said dreams are unknown, but have proven to be 100% accurate. The fact that Eric and Julie had the exact same dream simultaneously, although not common knowledge, is a first in were history.
*2. As explained way back at the beginning of our Moon Lake, Andersons series.—tmw.