The Mer-Prince

Once upon a time, a long time ago, the brother of a king killed his brother and took his throne and his wife as his queen and then, fearing that the infant son of the dead king would grow up to avenge his father, had the baby locked in a box and thrown into the ocean.

 

But then, coincidentally, a mer-maid who had recently lost her own child was swimming past the box when she heard the baby crying from inside and, picking up the box she carried it to a cave and, using a rock broke the lock and prized it open.

 

Now because she had lost her own child she immediately formed a bond with the infant boy inspite of the fact that, unlike a mer-man, it had no tail and she nursed it and cared for it just as she would have her own baby, suckling it upon her breast.

 

Then because it had been suckled upon a mermaids milk the infant started to breath underwater just like a mer-man.

 

Now the boy grew up and, though he swam under the ocean beside his mother, none of the other mer-people accepted him as one of them and he was constantly being bullied by young mer-men

and often told his mother that he dreamed of returning to the surface and living with his own kind.

 

She showed him the box that he had been found in and he looked at the seal upon it that bore the emblem of a crown.

 

“What is that seal, mother?”, he asked.

 

“That is the seal of the King of the land above”, she told him, “If you were thrown into the water in that box then it must have been by his order”.

 

“Then that is who I must see, so that I can at least know who I am”, he said.

 

But then, from outside their cave, they heard a messenger blowing through a conch shell. He was announcing that the daughter of King Neptune had been caught in a fishing net and captured by sailors and that the king was looking for brave young mer-men to rescue her and, hearing this, the young man swam to the Kings coral palace and volunteered to help.

 

But the king refused to take the young mans help and instead had him thrown out of the palace,

 

“You’re not one of us”, said the king, angrily, “How can I trust you to save my daughter when it is your kind who have abducted her”.

 

However, the young man was determined to earn Neptunes trust and, swimming after the fishing boat of the sailors he crept on board and grabbed hold of the captain of the fishing boat before pulling him overboard and into the water with him and threatened to drown him if the other fishermen did not throw Neptunes daughter back into the water.

 

And then, when he had rescued the princess, he took her back to Neptunes Coral palace where the king was so overjoyed to see her returned safely that he offered to grant any wish that the young man asked.

 

“Only one”, he said, “I intend to travel to the land above and meet their king but I feel I may not be welcome there, in fact that I may endanger my life going there and so I ask, humbly, if I might borrow your trident”.

 

King Neptune had never given his trident to anyone, for it possessed enormous magical powers over wind and wave and storm and yet, because the man had saved his daughter who he loved as deeply as the depths of the ocean, Neptune agreed to lend him the trident as well as a suit of armour covered in silver fish-scales.

 

Then, saying goodbye to his mother, he swam to the nearby shore and, putting on the suit of armour he walked to the palace of his wicked uncle.

 

Unfortunately when he got to the palace, the guards refused to let him enter and so he dived into the moat and, because he could breathe under water, stayed under for so long that the guards were certain he must have drowned; in fact he stayed under water until it got dark and the moon came out and then he climbed up a palace wall and in through a window.

 

But then inside the palace he met an old woman dressed lavishly like a queen and, frightened by his appearance, she was going to scream out when he placed his hand upon her mouth and then told her his story about how he had been locked inside a box and thrown into the ocean when just a baby.

 

“I only want to know who I am”, he said, uncovering her mouth, “That is all”.

 

“Then I’ll tell you”, said the old woman, smiling joyfully, “You’re my son”.

 

Then she threw her arms around him and embraced him, weeping and told him about how his father had been killed by his uncle.

 

“And I would not have married him, I swear to you, except that I was so frightened of him”, she said.

 

“I don’t blame you, Mother”, he assured her, “But I should avenge my father for the wrong that has been done to him”

 

Then, using the trident of Neptune, the man made himself and the trident invisible and then, taking hold of his mother’s hand whispered to her, “Lead me to my uncle and I will do the rest”.

 

And so his mother lead him by the hand through the palace to the throne room where his uncle was seated upon a throne and, raising his trident, the young man was going to throw it at the king but then the King, looking down at the floor noticed that beside his wife there was a trail of wet foot prints.

 

“How is it that a trail of footprints appears beside you, my dear”, he asked his wife, “Unless they are made by a person walking beside you; a person perhaps that I cannot see because they are invisible and if they are invisible their intentions cannot surely be good ones”.

 

Then waving his hand the King conjured a sword and shield.

 

“Show yourself, intruder”, he said, “I am both a king and a wizard and not afraid of you”.

 

Then the young man appeared before him holding Neptune’s trident aloft.

“You killed my father and stole his throne and his wife and I will avenge him”, said the man.

 

But then the king lunged towards him with his sword and, in spite of being much older than him, he was a much better swordsman, having fought and killed in many a battle and though the man used the power of Neptune’s trident to strike at the king with thunderbolts that rained from the ceiling, the kings own shield was a magical one and easily seemed to deflect them.

 

Then suddenly the young man tripped and fell upon his back and, standing over him, his wicked uncle was about to drive his sword into the young man’s heart when, suddenly, pulling out a dagger, his mother, the queen, stabbed her husband several times in the back.

 

“You will not kill my son a second time”, she cried out as she stabbed him and then, bleeding profusely, the king fell to the floor, dead.

 

Joyously, the young man leapt to his feet and then, his mother dropping her bloodied dagger, she threw her arms around her son and embraced him.

 

After that, the young man was crowned the new king and then, returning in a royal yacht, with his mother, to the ocean he dived overboard and then, returning to Neptune’s coral palace gave him back his trident.

 

Then, because he was now king of the upper land and had the authority to do so, he offered to make a treaty of friendship between the people of the land and the ocean and, to seal the treaty, he married Neptune’s daughter and their children became princes of land and sea; the two kingdoms living together happily ever after.