219 Unwanted Mission

Deep in the water, two figures, one a merman and the other a mermaid, arrived at a cove, with another mermaid seated on a high pedestal-like throne with both hands on the handle as she listened to the words of two other mermaids.

"Your highness, he is here," Doris said, swimming closer.

"Excuse us," Marin said with a calm voice, her gaze leaving the two mermaids and landing on the merman that swam in with Doris.

"Yes, princess." Both mermaids chorused and swam away, whispering to themselves as their gazes fell on the handsome merman.

"Your highness," he greeted her politely while bowing his head as soon as the other two mermaids left.

"Rise, come forward." Her serene voice called out with each words that left her lips.

The young merman obeyed and swam forward, leaving Doris' side and stopping just a few feet from where she sat.

What Marin did next surprised him beyond words. Within a blink of an eye, she was already by his side, her sharp eyes checking out from tail to head.

After doing her assessment of him, she came to his front.

For normal folks, they would be scared with such assessment they were getting from the princess, but this merman, he stayed still with his eyes lowered, avoiding eye contact out of respect for her

"Look at me."

He obeyed and did as he was told, with his blue green eyes staring straight into her purplish blue ones, exuding confidence in them.

"He would do." Those were the only words she uttered before swimming back to her seat and sat down, her beautiful fin, moving on its own below her.

"What is your name?"

"Cari, Cari Kyle, your highness."

"Hmm, Cari, I presume Doris has briefed you about the necessary details of your mission?" Marin paused, waiting to get a confirmatory answer from him before she proceeded with what she was going to say next.

"Yes, princess."

"Good. Go as a rogue merman, earn her pity and trust, then you are to win her heart and lure her away from the elf and into the water. Do that and we would proceed from there, attacking her in her unguarded moments."

"Yes princess."

"Any objections?" Princess Marin asked, her chin slight raised and her eyes became a darker shade of purple.

Cari shook his head at her signifying he had no objections whatsoever.

"Good. Your mission starts now. Go and do not fail me."

"As you wish, your highness." Cari took a quick bow and swam away without looking back.

By the time he was far gone, Marin turned her gaze back to Doris, her eyes now their normal shade of purplish blue.

"You would be watching from afar. Aid him whenever there is need and report back to me. For now, I need to return back to Alacia and inform Marceline of the recent events."

:Yes, your highness."

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~THE ROAD AFTER THE VALLEY OF LOST SOULS~

She was no longer the young girl he met that could barely control her powers and knew nothing about the sword. 

And the more he trained her, the more his heart opened up to her. 

Day in, day out, he battled with his thoughts and heart. He needed to keep is head focused on the task at hand, but her cute and charming self kept on drawing him in. 

Although he battled with such thoughts, he tried his best to keep away, so as not to give her that feeling and impression, after all, he did tell her they couldn't be together, but he ended up doing a lousy job at that.

He couldn't help himself showing care towards her and making sure she was alright, especially times after their training, thus ending up getting glares from Snow who wasn't particular about Jareth taking all of his master's attention and keeping it to himself.

She really changed him a lot, more than she could ever know and as much as he disliked the idea of changing, he didn't mind being this way just for her.

On this particular day, they had just finished training but the day was already dark and decided to take a rest near some rocks. 

As usual, Jareth went hunting for whatever animal he could find and caught a small grasscutter then brought it with him back for their meal. 

Unknown to them, somewhere far off, someone was watching them closely.

'How do I infiltrate them and get her? My mission was clear, win her heart from him and get her, but that is going to be a difficult job. I might as well just go grab her and runaway.' The young man who was watching them, Cari thought to himself.

'Besides, why didn't I raise the objection before? Why is it now that my brain is recalling what should have been said and done? This feels like an unwanted mission.' He complained to himself in his mind and finally shook his head when no answer came into play in his mind.

Rather than bug his mind, he focused his attention on them, watching their every move, especially how Jareth stole side glances at Astrid and her response as well as how she did the same on few occasions.

'Are you kidding me right now? It is obvious you two like each other. What else are they waiting for?' Cari mentally screamed, feeling as though he was watching a movie right at that moment.

"Wait, what am thinking? It is good that they are not acting on their feelings, I may just be lucky today."

By the time the meat was cooked and ready for eating, Astrid handed each person their potion of the meat and watched Jareth through her eyes lashes as he ate his food.

From the corners of his eyes he could watch her peep at him, making his lips curved up into a smile on the meat.

When they were done eating and had a brief talk, Astrid got ready to go to sleep. She was already tired and in need of ample amount of rest to recover her lost energy.

"Night, night."