The Chosen Prince? By Gina

A/N: Thanks to Nezumi for reviewing.

Jayce rolled his head back as the sun beat down on him. The horse's tail slapped at its behind and its ears twitched to relieve itself of the pestering flies that insisted on landing there. They also landed on Jayce, which he found annoying to no end. The sweat oozing down his back and soaking his shirt left him feeling excessively hot and filthy.

"Would you stop muttering curses under your breath? It's getting on my nerves," shot Lady Roselyn, filing yet another nail into perfect shape. Jayce glared at her in response.

"You know, it's your fault I'm here anyway. If you and Sir Hairy hadn't dragged me along, I might be enjoying a cool yet refreshing bath in the river back in Fleece," he explained through clenched jaws.

"Oh yes, Fleece is obviously the perfect place to live," Sir Henry said over his shoulder sarcastically. Another glare from Jayce was his answer.

They rode on in silence for a few more minutes before Jayce stopped his horse.

"I'm sorry if I offend the lady with the behavior I'm about to express but I am much too hot to give a damn," he said angrily, ripping off his shirt and tucking it into the waist of his pants. The air, though it was warm and heavy, felt considerably nice against his recently revealed skin and he sighed almost happily. Lady Roselyn raised an eyebrow as she looked over his physique but returned her attention to her nails. She'd seen better before.

"Well your Highness, now that you've unclothed yourself, I hope you'll stop moaning so we can continue to the kingdom," Sir Henry said annoyed. He spurred his horse a bit, when it started to slow down. The other horses stopped and whinnied warnings to each other. Jayce patted the mane of his stallion comfortingly while Sir Henry and Lady Roselyn looked confused, but mostly annoyed at yet another inconvenience.

"I'm sure you know, but when horses act like this, it usually means there's a good reason for not continuing down the given path," Jayce said glancing at them. Lady Roselyn opened her mouth to answer but just as she did, an arrow whizzed past her face and in between her parted lips. She gave a surprised, and very unladylike, yelp which startled her horse, causing it to jump. More arrows zoomed past them, and the horses neighed and jumped, throwing their burdens from their backs. Jayce looked up from the dirt and saw Sir Henry helping Lady Roselyn up. They looked around wildly and Sir Henry motioned for Jayce to follow him, even as they heard the pounding of hoofs coming down the path. Jayce stood to go after them, but a stream of arrows flew by to meet him and he turned on his heel and ran the other direction.

I'll catch up with them later, he thought as he pushed his way through the underbrush. Sapplings slapped at his legs and branches whipped against his chest. He pushed himself through as bushes and brambles scratched his arms and chest, their burrs clinging to the little hairs. He heard the faint sound of a stream, so he ran towards it, bursting out into a clearing. He hunched over, supporting his weight with his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. After choking and wheezing for a few minutes, he became aware of that creepy feeling where you know someone's watching you. His head snapped up and his gaze landed immediately on a woman sitting on a boulder in the stream, who was staring at him like he had numerous heads with pus-filled sores all over him. And greasy hair. And fuzzy teeth. Which he had none of, of course.

In his agitated state, he was going to say some impolite choice-phrase to her, until he fully realized what he was looking at. Dark, rich brown hair fell down her back and over her shoulders, clumping wetly together at the ends. From his point of view he could only see a profile of her body, which was pleasantly bare and smooth. She had deep blue markings on her waist and an intricate design around her right arm. She frowned at him and he realized her eyes were a dark gray-blue.

"Nasch le kimitio?" she asked him. He frowned and she looked at him expectantly. Waiting for him to answer, she pursed her lips and his eyes instantly snapped to look at them. She rolled her eyes and slid off the boulder to swim towards him. Her hair fanned around her in the water and she asked again, "Nasch le kimitio?"

"I- I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying," he explained. She sighed and pulled herself onto the bank with him. His eyes traveled down her body but when they reached where her legs would be, he jumped up with a cry.

"You- you don't have legs! You have a tail! What- what. whoa, hold on," he yelled, pacing up and down the bank. She watched him with an amused expression. She grabbed his hand after a few minutes and yanked him back down next to her.

"I'm what you humans would call a mermaid," she said smirking and he gaped at her. again. She smiled at his utter lack of belief. "And 'nasch le kimitio' means 'what do you want?', but I'm not sure even you know that. Are you lost?"

He tried to say something but decided to just nod vigorously. She smiled the way you would if you were tolerating someone, but needed to be polite so they wouldn't know you wanted to wring their neck. She glanced at her fins and then back at him.

"You know," she paused and gave a weak smile, "I could help you. See, I need to get somewhere and wherever you may be going could be on the way. And if it isn't, I can still tell you how to get back to the road."

Well, that's odd, he thought. How would she know? He cocked his head to the side. "And pray tell how a mermaid, someone who I would think spends most of her days in water, would know how to get back to the road I'm headed for. which is obviously on land?"

She shrugged. "I have an impeccable sense of direction."

"Well, why do you want to help me?"

She smirked. "You're quicker than I first thought. Actually, I need your help also. See, this place that I need to be, after a certain point, you can only get there on land. And since I can't do that," she motioned to her tail, "I need legs. Human legs more specifically. You can help me get those."

"Where do you need to go?"

"Dunaley."

"Ah, so do I. Like peas in a pod."

"No, not really."

"Well, I think so."

"I know you do. But I'm disagreeing with you."

"Agree to disagree then."

She put her hands up and exhaled slowly. "Will you help me or not?"

"I suppose so. If you'd like, after you get your legs you can travel with me and my captors. They're quite awful once you get to know them."

"Wait, you were being held captive? What'd you do? Why would you want to go back?"

"They're not really my captors. They're just a pain in the ass pair that are forcing me to Dunaley to assume a royal position that I don't want."

"Oh." She sat in thought for a few moments. "So how about helping me?"

"All right. And how will I be helping you?"

"There two parts actually. One is we need to exchange saliva. The other is blood."

"We have to exchange saliva and blood?"

"Correct. Oh, and you are human, right?"

"Of course I 'm human!"

"Just checking," she said with a roll of her eyes. She faced him and smiled. He expected her to say 'This will only hurt a little' but she didn't. Instead, she put her hands on either side of his face and pulled him to her, closing her eyes. He felt her press her lips against his and he puckered his in response. She parted her mouth and tasted him with the tip of her tongue, surprised when he touched the tip of her tongue with his own so quickly. She'd actually wanted it to last a bit longer. She pulled away.

"Ok, that's it for the saliva-"

"Are you sure that was enough saliva? We could go again and make sure."

She smiled patiently. "I'm sure. Now for the blood." He looked queasy at the mention of it and shifted his legs nervously. "And how do we do that?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

She smiled broadly and tapped her tooth. "This is my fang. Come here," she said, and reached for his hand. Before he could respond by slapping her away and screaming like a girl, she had taken his finger in her mouth and bit down on the pad of it. She sucked on it lightly before giving him his hand back. She bit down on her own finger and held it up for him. He stared at the blood collecting from the cut.

"Do I have to?" he whined and she hit his arm.

"Yes. You didn't mind the saliva part."

"It wasn't so much that it was saliva but more how we went about it."

"Just shut up and suck my finger."

"That sounds considerably dirty."

She growled at him.

"Ok, ok!" He took her hand and glanced at her finger again. He put it in his mouth slowly and swirled his tongue around it, sucking softly. After a few seconds, he took her finger out and wiped it off on his shirt. He shook it out and sighed at the blood stain and missed her staring at him. She looked surprised and slightly flushed.

"Thanks," she whispered and he was about to answer when she gasped. She fell back on the grass and writhed in pain, whimpering and panting. She clawed at the grass and arched her back, crying as her stomach started to tremble. Jayce grabbed her hand, which she clenched in return. He winced slightly and was positive he heard a bone or two crack. She started to slide down the bank and into the river and he grabbed her right wrist but something seemed to be pulling her. She submerged almost completely, only her right arm remained above the water where Jayce had a death grip. Her nails dug into the back of his hand until her fingers went limp and he felt her dead weight. He jumped into the water and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against the current, which was stronger than he expected. He dragged them both back up the bank and pulled her away from it, laying her on the grass.

"Hey. Hey! Wake up!" He tapped her face a few times but didn't get a response. "Are you breathing?" he muttered to himself, and held his ear next to her mouth. Alarmed when he didn't feel any puffs of air, he sat up quickly and tilted her head back. He glanced at her chest and blushed when he realized it was bare. He mentally shrugged. He lowered his mouth to hers and puffed air into her lungs. Every three breaths, he would push on her chest for three beats. After a few minutes, he started to panic when she didn't move. He blew air into her mouth and was greeted with water and saliva being coughed into his own. He sat back and spit to the side, helping her sit up as she coughed.

"Ow," she whispered, lying back down. "I can't feel anything. Do I have legs?"

Jayce glanced down and was actually surprised to see two apparently human legs attached to her hips. Hips and legs are connected by. He flushed again and was glad to see that she had closed her eyes. Of course, she was also shuddering.

"You have legs," he answered and she smiled faintly. "Are you cold?" he asked, even as he lifted her up to put his shirt over her. It fell short of being decently long, but at least it covered all the. important parts. He gripped her elbows as he stood up with her. She leaned against him, her back to his chest, and tried to support her own weight.

"This isn't going to work. I can't even feel my legs yet. And I'm so ti-" she cut off her sentence with a yawn and slumped against him. He caught her around the waist and picked her up. She curled next into him and closed her eyes, looking like she was just taking a quick nap.

"Wait a minute, you need to stay awake for us to get out of here," Jayce complained. She sighed and said quietly, "Walk straight."

He did as she asked and went about thirty feet before she gave another command. "Go left. not so much. ok there."

"Go right. No, keep walking. Now turn a little bit more. ok, keep straight."

Jayce trudge though the woods, carrying this mysterious mermaid woman, who was giving soft commands of directions. He fell into a rhythm of walking and keeping her balanced and just when his arms started to ache, she whispered,

"And here we are. I trust you know the rest," before falling asleep. He glanced around and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were back on the path and that his horse was still there. He finished clothing her and propped them both up on the saddle. After a while of riding briskly, he realized he'd missed a key fact. He shook her shoulder gently.

"Hey, wake up for a second." She responded with a growl.

"What's your name?" he asked quietly, trying to not wake her up too much.

"Kiera," she murmured. "Yours?"

"Jayce."

"Thanks, Jayce."

"Your welcome Kiera."

A/N: How was that for a second chapter? Review and tell me!