บท 2: Alive and Where?

Eve felt heavy. That was the first thing she noticed. She no longer felt light like she was floating in... Water! She wasn't floating in water! How? She had been sure she died. Even as an unsatisfied spirit, would she have a sense that she was constantly drowning?

She sat straight up. Where the hell was she? Why was she alive? How was she alive? And who the hell owned this bedroom! It was as big as a house! The linens were so soft to the touch they almost made one feel as if they were sleeping on a cloud. The bed was made of some sort of ancient driftwood inlayed with delicate, gold flake designs like she'd never seen before. The gold flakes stirred at something in the back of her mind, something she should remember, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

She breathed a sigh and, to her astonishment, she watched an air bubble form in front of her and float upward towards the heavens. What the actual F*** was going in here? She stood up on the floor of the... mansion? she was in. as she raised to her full height a door opened on the far end of the room. In swooped, rather... swam... a women in a old style dress. She seemed to advance through the water without movement of her own as she approached Eve.

"Madam! You are awake! We have been waiting for you to acclimate to our Kingdom's technologies!" She said in a chipper tone, "Land-walkers do not usually survive here. Acclimation is rarely accomplished. Your the first Land-walker to properly acclimate in almost a thousand years!"

"L-Land-walker?" Eve stuttered trying to make sense of this new terminology, "Acclimation? Acclimation to what?"

"Well to living in Atlantis, silly!" The women smiled at her, "Where else could you stand and breath underwater as if on the surface?"

"Atlantis!" This women was off her rocker! there was not way she was sitting in a palace in a fictional city that sank into the sea! Did she really look so nieve as to believe that she woke up alive in Atlantis? She did not think so!

As she prepared to deliver her 'what game are you trying to play?' speech, the door opened again. All thought of what she was about to say and even her ability to speak was struck from her as her gaze fell on the man who now stood in the door way. The memory the golden inlay had started suddenly leapt to the forefront of her memory. His golden eyes pierced her with a stern yet gentile gaze.

"You should not be out of bed." He said in a deep voice that raised goosebumps on Eve's skin. "You had experienced quite a trauma when I found you, barely holding on to life. The introduction of Atlantean technologies and DNA further traumatized your frail human body. In order regain your strength, no, in order to gain Atlantean strength. You must sleep."

Eve said nothing, she simply reached towards the man, confusion contorting her features as she tried to make sense of the events of the last five minutes. To her surprise he reached out and grabbed the hand she had extended towards his face with a gentle grip. The rest of the memory stirred to the front of her mind.

"You!" She exclaimed pulling her hand away. She stared at him for a moment before gently caressing her lips with her finger. "You kissed me!"

"I saved you." He corrected in a casual tone. His face adjusted to one of shock from her suddenly jerking away from him back into the stern look he carried when he had walked in. "Back in bed with you!"

"How dare you order me around like you're some sort of royalty! Do not be so braisen!" She hissed. This seemed to amuse the man in front of her. The maid cleared her throat.

"Ma'am. You should not speak to the Crown Prince in that manner!" She said in a shy tone as if not allowed to speak in his presence, "Even if you are betrothed."

The Crown Prince? The Crown Prince of Atlantis? The maid seriously didn't expect her to believe the man in front of her was the Crown Prince of Atlantis? She shouldn't speak to the Crown Prince in that manner her shiney white a**! Even if he was her... her...

"DID YOU JUST SAY BETROTHED!" The maid shrank away from Eve slightly when she began to yell.

"Y-yes ma'am. He is the one who decided to acclimate you to our technologies. To make you Antlantean. As per our foreign policy, you are to be his spouse."

The Prince did not again have to repeat for Eve to go back to bed. He swooped down and scooped her up as her eyes rolled back in her head. Silly girl, he had told her she needed to rest. Now she's stressed herself into passing out. Humans truly are more stubborn than he imagined.

"What part of 'Do not bother or overwhelm our guest' did you not understand Renitada?" He asked floating to the floor. He walked, carrying Eve back to the bed that had been prepared for her. This chambers was meant for the guests of the royal family, however since Eve had been unconscious when he arrived with her, this had been the only accommodations he was able to make for her. He laid her gently on the bed and brushed her hair back. She was beautiful, even by Atlantean standards.

"I- I didn't mean to sir, she was awake when I came to check in her." Renitada stuttered nervously as she stared down at the human, "Perhaps I should not have swam in."

"Perhaps." He agreed, "but perhaps I should have revealed myself to her sooner."

He sat down beside her on the bed lost in thought. This women in front of him was not a human he had decided to save on a whim. He had known her many years. Since she was a kid growing up in a lighthouse off the edge of New Zealand. Indeed, this was not even the first time he had saved her life. He had been helplessly in love with her from the day he met her, all those years ago, and although Atlantean law says he many not interfere with the death of a human by sea, this was his human. He took those consequences on the first time he saved her, and he would again.

He would have two permanent scars he carried with him the rest of his life, but he did not have to watch the ocean steal the women he loved. She was almost finished with Atlantean acclimation now. If she survived the final stage, no one in Atlantis could label her an outsider unworthy of their help. If she did not, he would be shunned from Atlantis forever.

"Sleep well, my love." He whispered to her as she slept calmly, "The worst is yet to come."