Silence returned to the room as Nate nervously turned to face his friends again. From their faces alone, he knew that this situation had gotten much more severe, and Sam’s expression looked especially bitter.
Nate scratched the back of his head and he tried to think of something to say, especially now that there were guards present in the room. “So… About that plan…”
“Forget it.” Sam hissed. “Listen, man, I’m getting sick of this. All I wanted to do was to spend some time with friends and now we’re stuck as fish forever because of you.”
“He did nothing. You invited him in the first place.” Rose snapped back. “Besides...” She turned to look at Nate’s engagement ring and gently took it out of the box before setting it on her ring finger.
“I’m not leaving Nate here. If I have to stay, then so be it. I’m going to remain with my fiance.” Rose said, holding her merman close to her.
Sam paused at that. He briefly looked at Taylor and then everyone else before looking down at his tail. “I’m sorry, Nate. It’s just… I didn’t have the best family either.” He said, sniffing. Taylor swam up to Sam and hugged him as he continued talking.
“Now look at you. You have everything you could ask for. You have loving parents, a sister, a roundtable of knights, and even an entire kingdom! I mean, what’s next? You’re going to own some aquatic Excalibur or something?” Sam said. Admittedly, he felt shameful saying this out loud but he just couldn’t bottle up his feelings anymore.
“Pardon me.” A medieval-armored mermaid guard said as everyone turned to look at her. “I know this might not be the right time to say this but there have been Arthurian legends that say this island may have ties to Avalon - An island of fae that disappears and then reappears at the will of Morgan le Fay. Just something I wanted to add.”
At hearing that, Sam slumped his shoulders. The long-held contest for Nate and Sam to outdo each other has been pretty much skewed to the merprince's favor. “I’m tired of this. Let me know when you think of something, Mike.”
“Wait!” Nate said, swimming over to Sam’s side. “Listen. It doesn’t need to be this way. If you want, I could put you in a high position in my kingdom.”
“Really? You can?” Sam said, regaining his composure.
Nate nodded. “I’ll try my best to help you guys out. If I can’t send you guys back home, I’ll give Taylor, Amanda, just about everyone here something to benefit from my status.”
Sam turned to the mermaid guard again, “Can Nate do that?”
The mermaid giggled. “Well, last I checked. There isn’t a law against friends helping each other out. As long as you don’t threaten the royals, Prince Caine could give you ex-humans some positions of power.”
“Oh wow. I never thought of that. Thank you!” Sam said.
“You’re welcome. My name is Thetis if you need further assistance.” She said as she returned to her working position as a guard.
From Thetis’ words, the mood of the room began to lighten up a bit.
“Honestly, maybe being in the kingdom for a while won’t be so bad. It’s no use trying to escape from a kingdom if we don’t even know what it’s like.” Kenny said.
Kelly nodded. “Plus, Nate’s help could maybe help us get back home without being caught by other humans along the way.”
“But how will we explain Rose and Nate being missing?” Stacy questioned.
Kenny sighed. “That’s the main issue, other than the magic blast thing. Whatever the case, escaping from this place is off the table. No way we can sneak past 160 guards.”
“He’s right, you know.” Thetis quipped, causing a few of the other seven guards to chuckle.
“Look on the bright side,” Kelly said. “Nate is back with his family now. We should be happy for him, regardless of everything. Being a merperson will only feel worse from here if you let your attitude hurt everything.”
Rose turned to Emiko, who still looked a bit uneasy. She has been living alone for 15 months and the only thing to comfort her was her boyfriend, who has long since abandoned his human life to embrace being a merman.
“Emiko…”
“Yes, Rose?” Emiko said, her voice filled with guilt. If she hadn't fought against Denji, Nate wouldn’t have been angered to reveal his princely power to the mermaid doctor.
“Please, don’t push Denji away any further than you need to. He missed you for so long. At least be with him during the dinner, alright?”
Emiko nodded silently.
Feeling tired for the day, Nate decided to swim back to his stone slab bed, holding Rose by his side. The doctor was right, he needed rest to process everything that’s happened.
As he laid down, his fiance cuddling up against his chest, he let his thoughts wander, waiting until it was time for dinner.