The Dominant Species
8

I met Alastair again. Every time we fought, which wasn’t often, it was awkward. But we always managed to resolve things. That was great because we always learned something, once we were calm enough to be rational. Even though we hadn’t fought a lot, it had happened enough times that I knew that we would be able to resolve it. This wasn’t just hope talking this time, it was experience.

We hugged because we still loved each other.

“Is everything okay?” Alastair asked.

“Yes. And you?”

“Yes. About our fight,” Alastair began. “I am taking our problem seriously.” “Then, why don’t you want to find an answer?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to find one. It’s that I think I will. We still haven’t yet, but I have hope that we will find one in the future.”

“I understand. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The fact that he always had hope was one of the reasons I loved him. It always helped me be more hopeful too.

“Sorry I got agitated, but I’m starting to get desperate,” I admitted.

“Look, I take my problems seriously, but I always find solutions for them. Not always right away, but I do. I know you’re feeling desperate, but I know you also feel hope. So, try to remember that hope whenever you feel bad. Besides, we’re together and we won’t give up until we find something.”

That made sense.

I wrapped my arms around Alastair and brought him closer.

I kissed him.

He wrapped his arms around me.

The kiss lasted for several minutes as I felt everything we felt for each other. Our love, despair, hope and longing.

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you too.”

Alastair smiled.

I loved that smile and it made me want to kiss him again, but he spoke.

“But you were also right,” he continued.

“About what?” I asked.

“I shouldn’t keep postponing finding answers to my problems. And along with hope I should work.”

“Are you going to?”

“I will think harder from now on.”

“I will try not to get too desperate when a problem occurs in my life.”

“Even when you do you don’t give in to despair. I know you still look for solutions. And you find them.” “Thanks.”

“And I will work harder on my own problems.” He looked thoughtful for a second.

“What?” I asked.

“I just figured something out.”

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“If I work more on the problems between us, I would also work on the other problems in my life. And that is especially good for a prince.”

“I agree.”

“It would help me when I’m trying to do what’s best for my people.”

“Which is what you want.”

“Of course.”

Alastair was still more easygoing and I was still more practical, but we were accepting that. I was overwhelmed by the love I felt in my heart. Conflict was one of the things that helped us get closer. It always made our relationship stronger, once we’ve resolved it. It even made us love each other more.

And I think it usually made me a better person. Not just within my relationship with Alastair, but in general. Like right now, I learned to listen more to hope. And I will be more patient when Alastair has hope. I was a little ashamed that I had gotten angry the last time we spoke, but I will get over it.

I kissed Alastair again.

When the kiss ended Alastair looked vulnerable.

“Do you think I would make a good king?” he asked.

“What made you think about that?”

“I think about it a lot. I just don’t worry about being a good monarch as often as you do.”

“Yeah, I know, I’m a drama queen,” I said, smiling.

Alastair laughed.

“That’s not what I meant,” he explained.

“Oh, no,” I said in a mocking voice. “The sea kelp shipment was one day late this month! I think I’m going to break down and cry.”

I lay down on the ground and pretended to writhe in pain.

“Oh no!” I pretend-wailed.

Alastair was laughing his head off.

I loved making him laugh. One of the accomplishments that was the most fulfilling and made me the happiest was making Alastair happy.

I got off the ground and made sure we were standing eye to eye.

“I meant, you worry more often than I do,” Alastair explained.

“You never told me you worry about being a good king.”

“I wanted to keep this to myself so far. But now I want your opinion.”

“I already told you that you would be a great king.”

“I know, but every once in a while I fail at something and I have to ask myself that question again.”

“Everyone fails sometimes. But as time goes on, you will fail less often.”

“So you think I can do the job?”

“You can.”

“Are you sure?” he asked with hope and despair at the same time.

I held him and stroked his back because I wanted to make his doubts go away. “Yes, I’ve seen you as a prince,” I reminded him. “And I know you’re very good at your lessons that prepare you to be king.” “I want to be a good king.”

“I think you will be. And the fact that you like to learn and be better will help you.” He looked at me seriously.

“Now when I tell you you’re going to be a great queen you’ll believe me,” he said, smugly.

I did, but it was easier to put my faith in someone else than in myself.

“I understand how you feel,” I told him.

I have always understood Alastair, but now I understood him better. And I think that brought us closer.

He kissed me.

Then, we started practicing magic together. We both had a passion for it. We were talking and laughing and every once in a while we would share a high five. I was relieved that my best friend and the merman I loved shared this passion with me. I talked about my mother and Alastair talked about what he was learning about cooking while we practiced. We wanted to be the best we could be at magic.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you something?” I said, as I cast a spell. “Yeah?”

“Giselle and I met Caleb again. He’s the human.”

Alastair looked at me.

“And?” he prompted.

“He said he wanted to learn from our libraries. What do you think?”

“Well, that depends. If we plan on making humans our allies, then I don’t see the harm in them learning anything from us. What did he want to know?”

“He wanted to learn about dinosaurs and other extinct animals.”

“I don’t see why he shouldn’t.”

I thought about that. Maybe Alastair was right. I still had to know more about humans before I could make any decisions about them, but if they did become our allies, there was a good chance we would share information with each other. Merpeople from different cities did that. Hopefully, we would be able to with humans.

“When will you be crowned queen?” Alastair asked. “When I turn twenty.”

Alastair and I swam to the coral reef and watched it. We exchanged all the information we had about it from school or from doing research at a library. The corals are billions of tiny creatures. And every creature that lives in the coral has a job to do. If one of them doesn’t do its job, then there would be consequences.

I liked the fact that these creatures were connected in such an intricate way. The oceans were a complicated place and that was one of the reasons I thought they were so amazing. Also, the coral reminded me of merpeople cities. I may not know as much about the cultures of different cities as Alastair, but the people in every city were also connected. We all had important jobs that needed to be done.

“You know, Giselle and I like to watch Bottlenose dolphins hunt,” I shared. “Why?”

“Because it’s interesting.”

“How do they hunt?”

“They search for food by using echolocation,” I began.

“I thought they used their eyes.”

“Then, they herd the fish into a specific place,” I continued. I could feel my eyes shining with fascination. “One dolphin stirs up a ring of mud and the mud encircles the fish the dolphins are hunting.”

“This is more complicated than I expected.”

“Me too. That’s why I like to watch it. After that, the fish panic and they jump out of the water.”

“And the dolphins catch them in the air,” Alastair concluded.

“Yes, but most fish get away.”

Alastair smiled at the fact that he had just learned something. I remembered the first date we ever had. As we were getting to know each other, I talked a lot about my parents. Especially my mother and how we spent a lot of time together. And how I don’t like to do anything without my mother’s approval.

“Why do you talk about your Mom so much?” Alastair had asked. “We’re close.”

“Why?”

I had decided that I knew him well enough to share this, even though it will be difficult. At that time I had known him for months. We were friends.

“When I was five my mother got sick for weeks,” I explained. “And I didn’t see much of her during that time. I was too young to think about it at the time, but I remember feeling as though I wasn’t as close to Mom anymore. I didn’t like that feeling. It scared me because I loved Mom and I wanted to be close to her. Mom was also scared. She shared that feeling with me when I was older. Since Mom got better she has been doing everything she can to be close to me like teaching me things and helping me with schoolwork. Sometimes we do something fun and she always listens to me.”

“But that was a long time ago,” Alastair said. “Does she still feel like she has to work to make up for being away from you during her illness?”

“I don’t think that’s it, but whenever we spend too much time apart we feel the same way we did when she was sick.”

“And you do what you can to fix that.” “Yes.”

I felt better having told him that.

“I understand,” Alastair had said.

At that moment I started to like him and respect him more because he understood.

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