Hi! I really, really love your brilliant 'Little Merman' series, and I check every day for an update! Hope you don't mind, but I wrote a small tribute piece to the series.

~*oOo*~

Normally, this sieve deep beneath the ground is pitch black, even if it is his home. Ivan’s eyesight is phenomenal, so he never had much use for light deep beneath the surface. It was a useless commodity—the few times he murmured illumination spells, the dim glow had only accentuated the barren gray granite walls, the ugly and intimidating-looking stalagmites that protect what has been known to the other merpeople as the Devil’s Jaws, or Winter’s Steel Trap.

But to him, it’s always been home, the only security and safety he can be sure of. Darkness was loneliness, but it protected him from cruel eyes and scrabbling claws and hid bits and pieces of the truth away. The fact that he had no one to show or share with a collection of precious stones and shining, pretty bits of shells was easier to hide when they were shut up in old jars Ivan had recovered from shipwrecks, lost treasures in the darkness.

His eels—the only two companions he had—did not need the light either, or ask why Ivan chose to live much of his lonely days in darkness. When to be thought repulsive by the very swimmers he rescued from bloodthirsty sharks or the merpeople for the sake of being different, ugly, frightening—what was the point in hope?

Then, Alfred had tentatively ventured into his home, large ultramarine eyes shot with uncertainty and fear and hope, shivering as he tentatively called out and yelped when Ivan’s violet eyes opened and stared at him from the darkness.
It was as if a bright-eyed, “puppy” (Alfred had told him what that was later on) equivalent had strayed into the den of a lonesome child, a bitter-hearted man used to only playing with broken toys. Here was something dazzling and young and fresh and whole and new and beautiful.

Despite the fact that the merprince had certainly been afraid of him, he’d stayed, if only for the sake of seeking Ivan’s magical aid. For the sake of some human girl. And an immortal soul. Both excruciatingly endearing, foolish endeavors—Ivan had laughed at them both.

But the thought of some foolish human brat being the recipient of all the love in Alfred’s eyes however had made the sea witch sick to his stomach.

If playing nice wouldn’t get him the love and companionship he so desperately craved, then he would simply take it for himself.

And Ivan had to have him. This was one fish that wouldn’t be swimming away.

So he’d agreed to “help” Alfred, and the young, dear, foolish prince had accepted the ridiculous and agonizing terms: Every step and every breath he took on land would be as painful as a knife sliding into his feet, his lungs. And his voice, the bright voice Ivan knew could coerce a smile out of even the surliest of creatures and easily sway his spoiled lass into his arms, was to be Ivan’s new treasure, stored in a shell necklace he kept around his neck. He wasn’t going to give some human swine the privilege of hearing it.

But that hadn’t been the end of the contract. Not by a longshot. Ivan needed to tie the last knot in the noose in order to make his dreams a reality: If you fail to have your princess marry you, then you will belong to me.

To Ivan’s intense delight, Alfred had signed the contract. And days later, when a brokenhearted Alfred was dragging himself back to the waves, rippling green scales beginning to grow on bound legs, blue fins shining under the moonlight, Ivan’s black tentacles surged from under the churning sea foam, seized the alarmed and violently struggling merman and dragged him underwater into the witch’s waiting arms.

~*oOo*~

Now there are enchanted lanterns softly glowing in Ivan’s home—because it’s nightfall and even darker in his home than it normally is, because Alfred has terrible eyesight, because he so wants to make his new guest happy with his new environment, unhappy as the boy might be with it.

Alfred is really too adorable for his own good.

Smiling broadly, the coils of his dark tentacles carefully flex around the young merman’s body, maneuvering him up into Ivan’s scarred arms. Alfred is still stubbornly clinging to the tentacle he’d cuddled up with, sound asleep.

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Copy this to everyone who is awesome to you

Guess what! You've been kolkolkoled! Spread the DA (Russia) love around! (you can copy and paste this message on their profile!)

RULES: 1- You can kolkolkol the person who kolkolkoled you! 2- You -MUST- kolkolkol 6 other people at least! 3- You should kolkolkol them in public! Paste it on their user page! 4- Random kolkolkols are perfectly okay! 5- You should most definitely get started kolkolkoling right away!

Send This To All Your Friends And Me If I Am One On Second thought please give one back. If you get 7 back you are almost as awesome as Prussia.

nice gallery : D

Heellloooooooo!~ XD

WHAT THE HELL?! I TOTALLY POSTED THESE COMMENTS (below) ON PICTURES DA WAI YOU SCREW THIS UP?! FUREUOREU

You joined! X3