Taylor couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the…screen? No it wasn’t a screen but a sort of holographic image but it serve as a screen as the news covered the return of crown prince Cain and the arrival of his betrothed Rose. Taylor like all their friends where only a few rooms away from where Nate was reuniting with his family along with introducing them to Rose but this was their moment not a group friend moment. She was sure they would meet the King and Queen in the morning but for this night it only for family.
The thought of family caused her to look down at her new bright yellow tail, it was really grown on her but still the thought of what her mother was going through was weighing heavily on her. She looked at her friends who where all watching the news with her. Her eyes locked on Amanda, on some levels she really wished Amanda hadn’t brought up families earlier but that was just delaying this line of thought.
“Is something wrong?” inquired Sam in a voice just above a whisper.
“Just…just thinking about my mother.” admitted Taylor as Sam nodded his head and pulled her in closer, her head resting on his chest as she pulled her new tail up a bit onto the couch.
“We have not heard much about this Rose, all we know is what follows.” Said the anchor as images of the reunion and the Queen pulling Rose into a hug followed. “She is the same age as the Crown Prince and graduated from the same human university studying the field of nursing.”
“So do you think we have another people’s Queen in the making?” inquired one of the anchors as they began to talk about the news.
“The People’s Queen?” inquired Stacy
“My mother was the 1st nonroyal or at least high noble to become Queen in the history of the Kingdom.” explained a voice as everyone looked to see, Nate’s Aunt and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom Genevieve. “She then did a whole lot to modernize the Royal Household and started a whole lot of stuff to help the people that are funded by the Royal Household.”
“The retirement home?” inquired Mike, he found having a retirement home on royal grounds strange.
“For one, but that one here is only one of dozens, turned most of the royal households into museums minus the central palace in the capital and smaller palace like this wing.” Explained Gene as Stacy felt like laughing. This Summer Northern Palace was still super large but compared to the fact that the original summer Palace complex had 4 identical buildings along with a massive amount of ground she guessed it would be a small amount. “A bunch of charities and the like.”
“So they think Rose will be the next People’s Queen?” inquired Stacy “That could be a lot of trouble for Rose.”
“It could, my sister-in-law the current Queen is beloved, but she is not worshiped like my mother even though she has done a lot to grow everything my mom started.” explained Gene before grinning. “However, I don’t think Rose will have much trouble, if she is going to go back to school and get qualified to be a nurse or maybe a doctor here the people will love it. A working Princess and then a working Queen will be a 1st in the royal history and loved.”
“How is everyone getting along?” inquired Stacy
“So far so good, it is a little weird, Cain answers quicker to Nate but that is understandable.” Explained Gene “Kaia and Rose are still feeling each other out but that is normal when a mother meets her son’s future wife for the first time. However, Marius and Rose are really hitting it off.”
It didn’t take a lot to figure out that Kaia was the current Queen, and that Marius was the King.
“You should have seen the smile on his face when she said was went to school for nursing and had originally planned to be a nurse for a few years before working toward becoming a Doctor.” Explained Gene as Stacy nodded her head, that was Rose’s plan because her dad and stepdad could not afford to put her through medical school on top of her step siblings going to college. “He is a huge funder of medical research…still trying to fix me I guess.”
Gene coughed as she whizzed a bit, she had lost a whole lung and had damage done to her other lung when the spear went through her chest.
“He really wants her to try to work toward becoming a Doctor instead of a nurse but it is her choice.” Explained Gene “They are getting royal photos done now…believe me once the press gets a hold of them, they will go over every detail.”
“I have a question which is bothering me.” Said Mike as Gene looked at him. “How did Nate…Cain become a human; how did he get to the human world?”
“For a royal, a trained royal like my traitorous brother was opening a magical portal to the human world is easy enough.” Explained Gene
“Then all he would have to do is get to the shore and put by nephew on the shore and transforming him into a human. Normally that would take a whole team of royals and magic users to pull off but my brother was very gifted and he could have done it himself.”
“A baby found on a beach…people would report him to CPS and assuming a dump job by some druggie would be the most logical conclusion but then how did he get the name Nate?” inquired Stacy
“He could have given him to a human couple?” offered Mike “And if the couple where a bunch of drugies then what law enforcement agency would believe them if they said a merman gave them the baby.”
“That is likely.” Stated Gene
“Wait…” said Amanda as Gene turned and looked at her. “If you can send people to the human world could…could you send us back so that we could say goodbye to our families and loved ones.”
Taylor thought about her mother, a goodbye letter could really help her cope with the loss even if it was highly unlikely that she would be human again.
“Sadly we don’t want humans to know that we are real.” Stated Gene as she noticed the sad looks on everyone face. “However…give the current situation maybe something can be done.”
“What?” inquired Kelly
“We can’t send messages to your families but if we get Royal approval from my brother, approval from myself as Prime Minster and the Minster of Former Human affairs we could send a team out to offer a few a chance to join us.” Said Gene as everyone looked at her.
“What?” inquired Amanda
“We don’t like to do it, we normally refuse to do it because it takes the King or Queen, the Prime Minister and the Minster of Former Human Affairs to do but we can send a team out to offer them a chance to become merfolk.” Stated Gene “Given the current situation, you would likely get my brothers approval, mine as well depending on whom you want and convincing the Minster of Former Human affairs will be hard but doable. The public will not like fully, they do not like going out searching for Humans but rather sit back and let them flow to us. Given the return of the Prince they would likely accept it.”
“So we can bring our families here?” inquired Taylor
“Maybe…” said Gene as she put up a hand. “This would be is highly irregular and I would guess you would get at most 4 or 5 people at absolute best likely 1 or 2 between all of you, Rose and Cain. So consider it and we will talk about it in the morning.”
“Thanks.” said everyone as Gene coughed.
“Don’t thank me, I haven’t done anything.” Stated Gene as she turned and swam away.
“Taylor…” said a new voice as she turned to see a mermaid wearing a white top with a red trident on the top. What threw her off for a moment was the sea green hair which was pulled back in a bun.
“Yes.” said Taylor as she swam up.
“I am the royal doctor, I heard from a guard that you wish to speak to me.” said the mermaid
“Well…not just me.” Said Taylor with a blush as she did a quick wave to Stacy, Kelly and even Meiko all three swam up, only Amanda did not. The mermaid doctor raised an eyebrow before grinning.
“I can guess where this is going. Should I also talk to Madam Rose?” inquired the Doctor
“I would, she wants to know about birth control as well.” Admitted Taylor
“Alright, come with me I’ll get you all some BC and our versions of condoms.” stated the Doctor as Taylor and the other new mermaids grinned. Maybe this would be a very fun night after all.