Stranded

Hey guys! So I know, it's been waaaaaaaay too long (over two years!), but summer is upon us and I've found some time to write again! I went back and reread the first three chapters (something I recommend you doing before you read this chapter), so I am nice and refreshed and ready to go!

Also, I wrote before that when Christine transformed, she was already wearing a skirt/short thing. Scratch that. She's nude when she transforms (save for the shells, of course). Makes things more interesting! It won't seem like that has changed in this chapter, but I'll elaborate more next chapter, trust me!

Chapter 4

Pain was the first thought that crossed through Christine's mind as it roused her from her slumber. A throbbing pain coming from her fin, at the bottom of her tail. Groaning from both being tired and being in pain, Christine pushed open her clam shell and swam up.

Bad idea. The pain that had before only been a light throbbing seemed to erupt throughout her entire tail, and she stilled immediately. As her eyes fell upon the source of the pain, another groan left her lips. Great. A large cut made its way from the center of her fin and up a bit onto her tail. At first, all Christine could do was stare at it. What had she grazed that had made this cut, too shallow to be considered a gash but too deep to be considered a scratch?

Of course. The bucket. Scavenging the village for supplies, she had tripped and cut her foot on a bucket. A rusty, old bucket. But that cut had transferred to her mermaid body? Upon closer examination of the cut, she realized it was perhaps worse than she had initially thought. The edges were puffy and curled out, oozing a light yellow liquid very slowly into the surrounding water that Christine had not noticed at first because of the lighting in the room. Her mind immediately went into excuse mode. What could she tell her father? She cut it passing by a rough coral edge? A shark nearly got her? Whatever it was, it had to be believable. King Gustav was going to be very suspicious of his daughter's activities, what with the passing of the boat and her uncanny interest in humans.

That worry, however, was short lived when she realized that it was proving difficult to swim. Moving her tail even slowly was painful, so moving it at a pace fast enough for her to swim would be almost unbearable. She could attempt swimming with just her arms, but that could take all day! Sighing, she maneuvered her way back inside her bed in her clam, but left the lid open. "Father! Papa!" Yet the figure that appeared at her doorway moments later was not her father. In fact, it was possibly the last person she wanted to see at that moment.

"Christine? What are you still doing in bed at this hour? Up all night? Doing what, may I ask?" Raoul let himself in, crossing his muscular arms and staring down at her with a look of disapproval, as if he knew where she had been. He was right, of course - he knew Christine too well. "You were gone all day, and I looked everywhere you usually go. The sunken ship. The coral your mother used to take you to see. The jellyfish grounds. All empty."

"Raoul, save me the lecture, please. There are plenty of places I could have gone where you would never find me if I really desired to get away from you." She smiled slowly at this, then grimaced at turned her face towards her tail. "As it so happens, I have a reason for being stuck in bed."

With that, she motioned down towards her tail, which she lifted so Raoul could see it easier. His reaction was exactly what she had expected - a gasp, a mumbled curse, and then he was down by her side. "What happened? Christine! What did you do!"

Attempting to not get increasingly frustrated with him, Christine simply let out a controlled sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. "I... I was swimming fast and it drug across some of the sharp corals in the coral fields. Could you please not yell so loud? I've got a headache."

"That's a lie and you know it, Christine, you just admitted you weren't at the coral fields. Where were you? Did you go to the surface again? Did the humans do this to you?" Despite his anger and concern, Raoul tried to tone down his voice. It did seem like Christine looked a bit paler than usual.

"No matter what I tell you, it's not going to be what you want to hear." She would have elaborated more if her father had not arrived at that moment.

Gustav was a lively man, almost always wearing a smile and laughing a deep, hearty laugh, so long as nothing was amiss in the kingdom. "Still asleep, are you Christine? Goodness gracious girl, up you go, you've got things to do today you know!" It was only then that his eyes landed upon her cut. His eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open slightly, concern creasing his face. "What happened! Sebastian, get a doctor immediately!" He was by Christine's side then, and Raoul moved out of the way quickly, but his eyes never left Christine's face, which seemed to be growing paler by the minute.

"She was in the coral fields. That's where she was all day yesterday. She told me she cut it but it didn't seem like a big issue until she woke up and saw it. I was just telling her she needs to lay down and get some rest... maybe drink something..." His eyes met with hers then, and she gave him a silent look of thanks.

"Papa, I'm fine. Just a little nick, really. Get the doctor to patch me up and I'll be good as new!" The doctor arrived then, shooed Raoul and the King off to the side, and set to work with a grimace on his face.

"'S been a while since I seem somethin' like this. There's nothing much I can do except apply a serum and bandage it and hope that an infection doesn't set in - or hasn't already," he added with a look to Christine's white face. "And you'll need rest. Bed, all day."

Christine huffed and crossed her arms while the doctor bandaged her up. It's not like she could complain that she had to leave so she could go see a human she had saved, could she? Besides, her head was starting to feel a little dizzy. When her room was finally empty, she laid her head back on her pillow and almost immediately fell asleep.

Her dreams were filled with bright, vivid, dancing colors. One minute she was standing in a room filled with pink and blue flames, lapping at her skin, burning her up, and the next she was surrounded by green and white ice, so cold that it felt as if she were laying naked and covered with ice. Back and forth, these dreams went, sometimes burning, sometimes freezing, always painful...

He should have gone with her. He should have followed her yesterday. He knew her better than anyone, and he knew that she went after the humans. And he knew that they were responsible for this, somehow.

It was the middle of the night and Christine was still asleep in her bed, a fever raging through her body. An infection had, in fact, set in, and it was fairly rare amongst the merpeople that the doctor was at a bit of a loss for what to do. He did his best, giving her a pain medication and as much protective medicine as he dare dose her with. Now, all they could do was wait while the girl tossed and turned in her bed all night long, and hope that the fever would break. Christine's father had waited with her most of the night, too, and only recently had he gone to get some sleep. He couldn't handle seeing his little girl like this anymore.

But Raoul had to stay with her. He felt fully responsible for Christine's condition, even though he still had no idea how it had happened. Cut by one of the humans, perhaps? Speared? Thanks goodness she hadn't been killed. Losing a wife to humans was bad enough; the king would die of heartbreak if he lost his one and only child to them as well. And Raoul would have died, too. He couldn't even begin to think of a life without Christine in it.

He missed the days when they were best friends, where she would look at him and smile and it would brighten his entire day. She had been increasingly distant for the past few months, not wanting to play as much, never smiling as much as she had. He cherished the smiles he could get now - they lit up her face and seemed to make all of his worries seem insignificant.

Her distance could possibly have something to do with the fact that he was in love with her and was pretty poor at hiding it. Sure, he had never said anything and he had definitely never tried to act upon his feelings, knowing Christine didn't feel the same way, but sometimes the things he would do, and how he would say things... well, he was never any good at hiding his feelings. But if swallowing his love for her meant he could continue that carefree friendship they had shared before, he could do that. Being friends with Christine and never being together with her was better than not even being friends with her. But it was so difficult to disguise his love when she looked the way she did, acted the way she did..

Raoul was there all throughout the night and for the majority of the next day, watching over Christine, trying to calm her father, all the while reassuring himself she would be okay. She didn't show many signs of improvement, but then again there wasn't any reason to suggest she was getting worse. They just had to... wait. By now the entire kingdom knew, and merpeople would stop by every now and again to check on Christine and offer their condolences. The people loved Christine - she was kind, fair, and a gracious princess. It was as if she forgot her status in the kingdom sometimes because she talked and laughed with everyone, shared stories, and always did her best to make sure everyone was happy. The people wanted to return this favor, and they offered prayers that she would get better quickly.

She was the same all through the next night, tossing, turning, mumbling, crying out sometimes. The doctor came periodically to check her condition and switch out the bandages on her tail, reapplying the serum and dosing Christine up with more and more medicine.

It was around five in the morning when the fever finally broke. Raoul had been almost asleep, placed in the chair by Christine's bedside, bent over her bed, resting his head on his arms to get some rest. Christine's slowed tossing had made him lift his head, and when he felt her forehead, he could have swam laps for joy. He quickly called upon the doctor and King Gustav to let them know.

Within an hour, Christine's eyes fluttered open. She was greeted by the sight of the doctor, her father, and her best friend leaning over her with worry etched into their eyes, but a smile plastered on their faces. "My God," she muttered, "what a sight to wake up to."

Everyone chuckled, relieved that she seemed okay and still had her blatant sense of humor. "Princess, you were out for two days with a fever. An infection had set into your wound, but it seems to be healing up okay now, but I'm afraid it will leave a scar." Christine shrugged at the doctor's words. So what, she would have a mark there. Maybe it would make her look cooler, more dangerous. That could be a plus. "I've never seen coral cuts do such damage... must have been a mighty old piece of coral," he added as he began to pack his things, shooting a knowing look towards Christine. He wouldn't question her story, and even if he did, he had no other plausible explanation... but he did know that she was probably not explaining everything she could. "I recommend you stay in bed today and tonight to let the scarring set and the medicine do its work. You'll be very weak, no doubt, and probably very tired as well. Tomorrow morning we'll see how your swimming is. Should be able to manage fairly well, especially thanks to our accelerated healing rate. If you were a human, you would be stuck in bed for a week at least." Merpeople injuries tended to heal at a much faster rate than that of humans, thanks in part to the saltwater surrounding them as well as their genome.

The day passed without much excitement, as did the night. The pain ebbed the longer she lay in bed, and she could feel strength slowly returning to her weakened limbs. The next morning, when the doctor came to help her swim around the room, she found she could easily move about with minimal pain. She was approved by the doctor to go about her normal activities, but just keeping care not to snag her tail on anything. And, thought he didn't say it, Christine knew it was probably best to keep her tail, for now; the thought of the man on her island intrigued her and she wasn't sure if she would be able to stay away.

Damn cut. Damn rocks, damn shipwreck, damn island, damn everything! It had been three days since he had woken up on this island. The girl that had sung to him had yet to reappear like he had assumed she would. He wished he could leave this tiny scrap of beach, but he didn't dare venture in the woods and get lost; besides, he wasn't sure how far he could get with the cut in his side that he was still taking care of. Any hope of any other survivors dimmed with each day, and now he doubted there were any at all. If there had been, they would have washed up near enough that he would be able to see them. He had seen that boat crash into the rocks - violently. There was very little hope for any of them. Still, once he was better, it would be helpful to swim out to the wreck site and see if he could salvage anything.

If it weren't for the appearance of the mysterious girl, Erik would have assumed this island deserted. But the woman that had bandaged him and provided him with food had to live somewhere, and surely she lived with at least a few others. So where were they? Once he was completely healed he would go on a trek through the woods; for now, he was content to stay on the beach, especially since it seemed like the girl had gathered enough food to last him quite some time.

Why, though? Why go through all this trouble to ensure his survival and then stay away? True, he had been a bit... forward, last time he saw her, but she caught him off-guard. Of course he was going to act defensively. If he ever did see her again, though, he made a note to apologize to her.

He had managed to gather a bit of wood, too, and start a fire so that he could boil some seawater to drink, and eventually to cook some fish once he found a way to catch them. Oh, this would all be so much easier if that blasted woman could just take him back to her home and provide him with some necessities that she surely had to spare.

The snap of a twig caught his attention and he stood, perhaps to quickly, and spun to face the sound. His side protested the sudden movement but his interest quickly caused the pain to become forgotten. There was a tiny, scared gasp that was barely audible.. but he had heard it. And he had also seen a few curls disappear behind a nearby palm tree. He stood completely still for a few moments, just staring, waiting. And then her face appeared.

When she saw that he was watching her, she turned and took off. Forgetting his earlier vow, he dashed after her, but like last time the chase didn't last long. The girl tumbled to the sand after only two or three strides, landing with a soft 'oomph' and then a frightened gasp as she turned and faced the man slowly approaching her. Erik didn't like the look of fear in a woman's eyes - especially not one clad only in shells and some torn cloth that only reached mid-thigh - so he stopped advancing and held his hands up. He needed her to trust him. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you. I owe you my life." It was true. The last thing he remembered was blacking out as he fell into the sea... and then he woke up to a singing angel with a nursed cut and plenty of food. When she said nothing, he continued. "What's your name?"

Still nothing. "I'm Erik. Erik Destler." He could have added Duke of Ravenwood, his official title, if he wanted, but somehow he knew that would fail to impress her. She continued to just stare at him for a few more moments, before the tiny beginnings of a smile began to blossom on her face.

"Christine."