A/N: So looking back at this story I must admit I am rather embarrassed at the earlier chapters. A massive rewrite is the only solution of course! So I currently have no beta for this rewrite but if anyone would care to volunteer it would be much obliged. Due to this lack of editing I refuse to take responsibility for any and all mistakes made in this incredibly short chapter :) And so without further ado, I present you with the revised chapter one…

Marlin stared blankly out the castle window, overlooking into the stormy seas. Enormous waves churned and crashed, sending waves of shock up the castle walls. If he hadn't already seen so many storms of this same measure assault the castle he would have feared for the buildings structure, perched so precariously out on the peninsula. Lighting flashed and illuminated the dark room for an instant and he squinted his eyes against the intensity.

"Marlin?" A timid voice asked from the hallway. The merprince turned and faced the hesitant maid, silhouetted by a flickering candle in the hallway. He couldn't tell who it was, Annabel? Esmeralda? Mardia? It didn't matter much anyway, the servants tended to all blend together after a while, he told them apart more by their personalities than their faces or names.

"Yes," he answered as civilly as he could. For a long while now he had been withholding his fierce temper and arrogance, or at least trying to. Hopefully his patience would be rewarded soon enough.

"My apologies, your highness," she quickly curtsied low until he nodded, he may have been changing but the servants had yet to forget his short temper "but it's very late, is something the matter?" Her question was neither friendly nor familiar, only a servant trying to serve a superior.

"No, thank-you, just watching the storm." He turned away from her and back to the window but watched her reflection in the glass as she paused uncertainly.

"Very well Your Highness." She curtsied again and was gone.

Alone again he stared to the seas, almost hypnotized by the frenzied state of the water. Another flash of lightning and he was staring into his own reflection's wide dark eyes, half hidden by a shock of brown hair that fell into his face. Annoyed he quickly brushed it aside.

It was in his moment of vanity that he saw it; a sparkle among the furious waves. Forgetting all else he leaned close to the glass, trying to make out what it was, but it was a tedious task. Once he saw it, it was swallowed again by waves. For a few perilous moments it went as such but Marlin couldn't stop watching the thing, whatever it may be.

And then he saw the eyes; two big brown eyes, staring right back at him. It hit him fast and hard. He was rooted to the window. He couldn't move. Pain shot down his back and across his limbs, the pain of grief, of loss and of despair and the most painful of all, unfathomable hope. A dark wave curved up and covered the creature, forcing it down and out of Marlin's sight.

With a deep gasp he withdrew his hands from the glass and stumbled back a few steps, shaking and horrified at what had just happened. Shakily he drew the drapes closed and made a very hasty decision to retire for the night.