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He deeply regretted teaching Alfred how to tie a knot. No that wasn’t quite true, he deeply regretted teaching him how to untie them. Last week it had been the jib flying from the ship, the week before that the now lost ship’s anchor and now it was his one way out of this hellhole.
Captain Arthur Kirkland and his crew, were stranded onshore, their jolly boat carried out to sea by the current. He looked at the limp rope left dragging in the foaming waves. There was no question on who was to blame.
He had known Alfred for years and although he was the best thing to happen in his life, he was both a blessing and a curse. Because Alfred was not human – he was a merman and sometimes odd behaviour and misunderstanding led to trouble.
He had been adjusting some of the rigging onboard, when Alfred had come to visit. The merman lay on deck, tail casually swishing back and forth as he observed quietly what Arthur was doing.
“It’s the bowline knot” He answered the unspoken question.
Alfred’s face brightened at that, “Oh? Can you teach me to tie the knot?”
And so he had. Smiling at Alfred’s enthusiasm and suppressing a chuckle at his frustration with manipulating rope with webbed fingers. The merman's delicate eyebrows furrowing as the captain time and again expertly manipulated the coarse rope.
It was a pleasant memory, but it was a skill the merman had put to bad use. Arthur sighed as he scanned the blue horizon. The boat was long gone and they would either have to wait for the ship to send the other or build a raft. He slapped a mosquito that had landed on his neck. Either way he would have to suffer this accursed island for days rather than hours. He hated being onshore.
At an impasse, the captain dropped to the sandy soil beneath. He roughly worked at untying his neckerchief, his frustration increasing with the rising humidity. Even sitting in the shade with his coat discarded he could feel his cheeks reddening from the heat, the neckerchief doing little to relieve his hot sweaty brow.
With a slight growl he threw it away, the sticky conditions bringing his annoyance to an angry simmer. He leaned back against a nearby palm and began to repeatedly butt his head against the tree. Each action punctuated by a muttered “idiot!” accompanied by the occasional swear.
A splash in the lagoon behind alerted him to the cause of his recent discontent. Speak of the devil.
“Alfred” he greeted through gritted teeth.
The merman as usual took no notice of his sour mood and gave him a dazzling smile and wave in return.
With another flick of his silvery-blue tail he had propped himself up on a nearby rock and given him a kiss on the cheek. His cool lips refreshing on his burnt skin. Arthur melted as some of the tension left his shoulders. He could never stay angry at Alfred for long.
“Artie?”
“Yes?” He sighed wearily, the heat making him drowsy now the fight had gone out of him.
Alfred looked thoughtful, “I know how to tie the knot, I know how to untie it, but how do I tie it with you?”
Arthur blinked, “me?”
“Yeah, is that not what two human’s do when they love each other?”
He stared at Alfred as his mind processed what he had said. Captain Arthur Kirkland, feared pirate of the seas, stranded sailor on a backwater island had just been proposed to by a merman.