Chapter 1 I'm sorry Daddy
An ocean. Birds are flying and porpoises are swimming happily. From the fog a ship appears crashing through the waves. You can hear the sailors singing "I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho Look out, lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you In mysterious fathoms below." On board the ship is a young prince by the name of Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John. The prince sighs. "Isn't this great? The salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face . . . it's a perfect day to be at sea!"Matt Donovan the prince's royal advisor leans over the edge to hurl. "Oh yes . . . delightful."
One of the saliors decides to join the conversation. "A fine strong wind and a following sea. King Hopkins must be in a friendly-type mood." The prince raises an intrigued brow. "King Hopkins?" Another sailor pipes in, "Why, ruler of the merpeople, lad. Thought every good sailor knew about him." The prince glares. "I'm hardly a sailor, mate." Donovan laughs. "Merpeople! Enzo, pay no attention to this nautical nonsense." The sailor shakes his head. "But it ain't nonsense, it's the truth! I'm tellin' you, down in the depths o' the ocean they live." He gestures to all the water around them.
The sailors start singing again. Heave. ho. Heave, ho. In mysterious fathoms below. Meanwhile under the sea all the merpeople were swimming toward Atlantica for their celebration of King Hopkins and his daughters. Damon the seahorse blows a horn bigger than himself. "Ahem . . . His royal highness, King Triton!" Merpeople and others all applaud and cheer wildly. "And presenting the distinguished court composer, Horatio Saltzman Ignatius Crustaceous Alaric!" Enters soon after. "I'm really looking forward to this performance, Alaric." King Hopkins says.
Alaric smiles proudly, "Oh, Your Majesty, this will be the finest concert I have ever conducted. Your daughters - they will be spectacular!" King Hopkins nods his head in agreement. "Yes, and especially my little Bonnie." Alaric's smile falters. "Yes, yes, she has the most beautiful voice. . . . If only she'd show up for rehearsals once in a while." He pulls his sheet music out of his small carriage. Then he taps his conductor stick against the stand the orchestra waits for his signal. Soon after the soft music starts followed by King Hopkins daughters who start singing." (A/N: Bonnie's sisters are 20-22. Bonnie is 18.)
Ah, we are the daughters of Hopkins. Great father who loves us and named us well: Sarah, Ivy, Lucy, Emily, Gail, Anna. Their bras match their tails. And then there is the youngest in her musical debut,
Our seventh little sister, we're presenting her to you, To sing a song Alaric wrote, her voice is rather lovely, She's our sister, Bo n . . . As the sister sing this they dance and all come to a complete stop in front of a big blue close shell they all gasp when it opens. Bonnie Is not inside it causes King Hopkins trident to glow he yells enraged. "BONNIE!"
More than halfway across the ocean Bonnie with her luscious dark brown hair that goes pass her shoulders her light brown skin and her tail was a pine green her shell bra is a pretty baby blue. As she heads toward the sunken ship she hears the voice of her best friend. "Bonnie, wait for me . . ." She stops for a second turning around. "Caroline, hurry up!" The little fish with shiny white scales and pink fins complaints, "You know I can't swim that fast." Bonnie does not hear her she keeps swimming towards the ship. "There it is. Isn't it fantastic?"
Caroline looks around nervously, "Yes . . . sure . .it - it's great. Now let's get out here." Bonnie's green eyes stare at her she smirks, "You're not getting cold fins now, are you?" Caroline's shakes her head. "Who, me? No way. It's just, it, err . . it looks - damp in there. Yes. And I think coming down with something. Yeah, I got this cough." Bonnie rolls her eyes. "Alright. I'm going inside. You can just stay here and - watch for sharks." She goes inside through the porthole leaving Caroline behind. "Okay. Yeah - you go. I'll stay and - what? Sharks! Bonnie!" Caroline struggles to fit through the porthole.
"Bonnie . . . I can't . . . I mean-Bonnie help!" Bonnie laughs and turns around. "Oh, Caroline." She starts pulling to help her through. "Bon, do you really think there might be sharks around here?" The pair is oblivious to the large shadow that passes outside. "Care, don't be such a guppy." Finally Caroline get through. "I'm not a guppy. This is great - I mean, I really love this. Excitement, adventure, danger lurking around every corn- AAAAHHHHHHHH! BONNIE!" Caroline swim away from what she just saw crashing straight into Bonnie. "You okay?" Caroline catches her breath. "Yeah sure, no problem, I'm okay . ." Bonnie nods then her eyes land on and object that looks like a mini trident.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Have you ever seen anything so wonderful in your entire life?" Caroline looks at it curiously. "Wow, cool! But, what is it?" Bonnie shrugs. "I don't know. But I bet Kai will." She places the object in her bag. Still oblivious the shark swims around outside. Caroline stops. "What was that? Did you hear something?" Bonnie who was now distracted by an object with a hole in it asks. "Hmm, I wonder what this one is?" She puts it in her bag. "Bonnie . . " She turn around sighing. "Caroline, will you relax. Nothing is going to happen." A crash comes from behind them, a large shark appears jaw open.
"AAHHHH! Run! Run! We're gonna die!" Caroline and Bonnie swim around avoiding the shark as best they can her bag gets hung up and she turns back to get it. She she's that Care is stuck in their only escape she quickly pushes her through. They go round and round. Them Bonnie gets an idea she swims in front of a hook hole and waits for the shark. It gets stuck and tries to break free. "That's what you get. You big bully." The shark snaps at Caroline and she swim away. Bonnie laughs as they head for the surface. "Caroline, you really are a guppy." She glares at her. "Am not."
When they reach the surface Kai is on his little island humming a happy tune while looking through his telescope. "Kai!" Kai turns his scope the wrong way. "Whoa! Mermaid off the port bow! Bonnie, how you doin' kid?" He lowers it only to see Bonnie and Caroline hands length away. "Whoa, that was fast!" Bonnie can't wait any longer, "Kai - look what we found." She dumps what she had in her bag on the island. "Yeah - we were in this sunken ship - it was really creepy." Kai pays no attention to Caroline. "Human stuff, huh? Hey, lemme see. Look at this. Wow - this is special - this is very, very unusual."
"What? What is it?" Bonnie asks as she watches him examine the mini trident. "It's a dinglehopper! Humans use these little babies . . . to straighten their hair out. See - just a little twirl here an' a yank there and - voiolay! You got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over!" He hands it back to Bonnie. "A dinglehopper!" She places it back in her bag. "What about this one?" Caroline point her fin at the other object. Kai picks it up smiling widely. "Ah - this I haven't seen in years. This is wonderful! A banded, bulbous - snarfblat. Now, the snarfblat dates back to prehistoric times, when humans used to sit around, and stare at each other all day. Got very boring. So, they invented the snarfblat to make fine music. Allow me."
As soon as he blows into it something snaps inside Bonnie. "Music? Oh shit, the concert! Oh my gosh, my father's gonna kill me!" Caroline looks at her wide-eyed. "That was today?" Kai still admiring the snarfblat. "Maybe you could make a little planter out of it or somethin'." Bonnie takes it and places it in her bag. "Uh, I'm sorry, I've gotta go. Thank you Kai." She waves then she and Caroline dive back into the water. As they swim back towards Atlantica they are unaware of two eels watching her as well as a another who could not be seen.
"Yeeeeeees, hurry home, little princess. We wouldn't want to miss old daddy's celebration, now, would we? Huh! Celebration indeed. Bah! In MY day, we had fantastical feasts when I lived in the palace. And now, look at me - wasted away to practically nothing - banished and exiled and practically starving, while he and his flimsy fish-folk celebrate. Well, I'll give 'em something to celebrate soon enough. Klaus! Elijah! I want you to keep an extra close watch on this pretty little daughter of his. She may be the key to Triton's undoing. . ." The voice of Katherine says.
Meanwhile in the throne room Bonnie is getting scolded yet again by her father. "I just don't know what we're going to do with you, young lady." King Hopkins says as he stare down at her. "Daddy, I'm sorry, I just forgot, I -" Bonnie is cut off. "As a result of your careless behavior -" He is cut off by Alaric. "Careless and reckless behavior!" King Hopkin nods. "The entire celebration was, er -" He fumbles to find the right words. "Well, it was ruined! That's all. Completely destroyed! This concert was to be the pinnacle of my distinguished career. Now thanks to you I am the laughing stock of the entire kingdom!" Alaric says.
"But it wasn't her fault! Ah - well - first, ahh, this shark chased us - yeah - yeah! And we tried to - but we couldn't - and - grrrrrrrrr - and - and we - whoooaaaaaa - oh, and then we were safe. But then this seagull came, and it was this is this, and that is that, and -" Caroline tries to help but she is cut off. "Seagull? What? Oh - you went up to the surface again, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?" King Hopkins asks Bonnie. She down. "Nothing - happened. . ." King Hopkins shakes his head. "Oh, Bonnie, How many times must we go through this? You could've been seen by one of those barbarians - by - by one of those humans!"
Bonnie challenges him by saying. "Daddy, they're not barbarians!" The King won't listen. "They're dangerous. Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared by some fish-eater's hook?" Bonnie just won't quit. "I'm eighteen years old - I'm not a child anymore- " King Hopkins raises his voice. "Don't you take that tone of voice with me young lady. As long as you live under my ocean, you'll obey my rules!" Bonnie's eyes start to water. "But if you'd just listen -" King Hopkins waves her off. "Not another word - and I am never, NEVER to hear of you going to the surface again. Is that clear?" Bonnie swims away crying Caroline right behind her.
Hey guys wo what do you think of this new story? Let me know with a comment. So how do you like the placement of characters? Do you think that Kai is good as the character he is? What about Caroline and Katherine? I promise that I have not given up on my other Bonenzo stories the next chapter for When in Paris and Blind Date are in the making!