Wow… It's been a very long time! I doubt very many people who read our original works are still here, but if you are… Thanks for giving me another chance! For newcomers, hello. I'm Lady Tsuru, and I'm a very strange person.
So, my obsession with Meta Knight and Marth has recently reemerged. After moaning and groaning about it for a while, and regretting how I'd allowed these fanfics to just languish, I decided to come back to them. Rather, my husband decided I should. "Why don't you just go back and start writing them again?" It was such an easy suggestion, so… why not?
Anyway, this story is based mostly on the Kirby anime, Hoshi no Kaabii; however, there will be many characters from other Nintendo properties here as well. If you're not familiar with the anime, go watch it! Or not. It's a cute show (surprisingly competent, considering all the other shows based on Nintendo games), but I'll try to explain the setting enough for those who haven't seen it. Also, Marth's personality in this fic (and in most of my fics) is based almost entirely on the one presented in the OVA. His relationship with his father is not a happy one – let's just leave it at that. I am taking creative liberties with Marth here, because frankly I've only played a little of the Fire Emblem games (and even fewer with him in them), and personality is one thing that isn't very well developed in the Smash Bros universe. The same goes for Meta Knight. While there are many more representations of his character available, there are some differences between the anime and the games. I tend to imagine him as somewhere in between, so I may make a mistake or two. Hopefully it's nothing too bad.
This is obviously a rewrite of The Little Mermaid, with my own twists and turns thrown in. It's been my favorite story since I can remember. The fairy tale itself, the Disney movie, and even the lesser-known anime, Anderson Douwa Ningyou-Hime, have all had a huge impact on my life. In short, I'm obsessed! The anime adaptation was the first movie I ever saw, and I've been absolutely in love with mermaids and mermaid lore since.
Well, then, without further ado… Enjoy! (And yes, I know it's a weird pairing. I thought it was bizarre at first, too, but it… kinda grows on you.)
Chapter 1: A Glimpse Through the Water
The morning dawned fair and bright. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the pale rays of sunlight shimmered on the surface of the sea. However, far beneath the sparkling waves, very little sunlight shone on the seafloor. Flowing shadows created by the movement of the surface formed and reformed like clouds, while submarine flora contributed to a scene of constant motion. A dense grove of kelp reached for every ray of sunshine it could, while brightly-colored coral formed the rim of a sheer drop-off.
This cliff dropped several hundred feet below the kelp beds. As the water got deeper, so did the shadows, until all one could see was the faint gray of the rocky bottom. The slope that led up from the dull and seemingly barren landscape of the seafloor curved in a way that encircled the area entirely. The cliff formed a sort of bowl with steep sides, and it was within this bowl that the palace of the Mer nation of Altea stood.
The palace itself was as bright and beautiful as the area around it was dull. Mother-of-pearl shimmered on its walls, glistening in the light of hundreds of blue and pink luminescent jellyfish that bobbed like lanterns in the current. The palace's towers and walls were broken by many windows that remained open at all times, so that fish could swim in and out of them as they pleased.
As the sun rose above the horizon, its rays began to light up the water around the palace. Although it wouldn't make a significant difference until midday, the water around the palace was beginning to brighten. It shone dimly into one of the windows, a pale blue light that fell across the sleeping figure of a merman.
His form was rather feminine. Some of the others would sometimes call him "Mermaid" just to get a rise out of him. However, Prince Marth was far from bullied. Most people respected him, though he would not be the one to inherit the kingdom. That duty would fall to his older sister, Princess Elice.
The slight change in atmosphere was enough to alert the prince to morning's arrival, and he began to stir. Opening his cerulean eyes, he yawned and sat up on his woven seaweed mat. A few fish swam into his room, circling lazily alongside the rounded walls before darting back out of the window again.
Marth rose from his sleeping mat and went to the window, putting on his golden circlet as he swam – the only kind of apparel he ever wore on a day-to-day basis. Outside, people were already swimming past the palace. Some had large baskets made of seaweed, and many were out hunting for fish. Marth sighed as he watched them. It reminded him of how much he hated the taste of fish lately…
He was startled out of his reverie by his sister. "Good morning," she chirped, popping in through the window and causing him to fall back a little.
"Oh! Um, good morning, Elice," he said, readjusting his tiara.
"Hm…" she looked at him for a minute before shrugging. "You've just gotten up, haven't you? Father would not be pleased to hear this…"
"Well, does he really have to know?" Marth said in annoyance. "I'm eighteen now. Must he monitor everything about me?"
"You know that father prefers us to be early risers and diligent workers," she said. "In fact, he sent me to get you. He has a job for you."
Marth sighed again as he followed his sister out the window and towards their father's throne room. He loved the Mer King like any son would love a father, but he tired of his incessant pushing. He was always forcing Marth to do things that he thought would "prove his manliness." When Marth had turned seven, the king had started dragging him out on hunting expeditions. When he was ten, he had been tasked with killing a marlin. At sixteen, he was expected to take down a shark. It never ended.
When they reached the throne room, the king seemed to be in a bad mood. He sat with the tip of his tailfin twitching back and forth, rustling the flowing blue cloth around his shoulders with the current he created. "You summoned me, Father?" Marth bowed before him, waiting for the lecture that seemed imminent.
"Marth, I want you to do something very important," the king said. "On the land, not far from the shore, there is a castle."
"Yes…" Marth nodded vaguely.
"Before, we paid little attention to them. They seemed to mind their own business. However, they have recently begun to fish in our waters."
"Father, many villagers fish from this sea," Marth said. "Why do we have to worry about those who live in the castle?"
"Because they are doing it on a massive scale!" the king slammed his fist on the arm of his polished coral throne, his gold arm bands clanking loudly. "A large dock has been built. They are sending ships to gather huge nets of our fish, and I want it stopped! I want you to go and see if there is a way to sabotage them. You are eighteen now, so you should be old enough to handle a simple mission like this. Go now, spy on them, see what their weaknesses are… then gather a contingent of warriors and strike."
Marth sighed. "Yes, Father…" he nodded and swam away, sharing a glance with his sister. "Good luck," she mouthed to him, and he nodded to her as he left the palace.
At first, Marth swam with a heavy heart. He hated it when his father tried to shape him into something he wasn't. In his opinion, sabotaging a couple of ships was a stupid move. He didn't want to do it, but he had no choice in the matter. However, as he neared the surface, he began to forget all about his father. It had been some time since he'd been up there, and he could almost feel the wind on his face.
Finally, he broke the surface, and for a long while he floated on the waves and enjoyed the breeze. The sun's rays warmed him, and he felt revitalized by the combination of sunlight and cool air. He had almost forgotten what air felt like.
Spotting the shore in the distance, he swam towards it at a leisurely pace. He was in no hurry to carry out his father's orders, and was even less inclined to leave this place so soon. As he neared the shore, he decided that he would stay for a long while… and then he stopped suddenly.
Walking along the sand was something he'd never seen before. Marth couldn't quite decide if it was a person or an animal. It looked nothing like the cappies that often visited the shore, but it wore a cape wrapped securely around it. As he drifted closer, Marth could see the silver gleam of metal in the sunlight. Was it a mask of some kind, or its natural face? Curious, Marth swam even closer.
Suddenly the puffball – for lack of a better word – turned towards him. Round, yellow eyes widened as they spotted him, and Marth suddenly felt very vulnerable. Thinking quickly, he dove deep and hid in a thicket of weeds. He had done so just in time. He soon saw the outline of the round thing hovering above the water. Marth could discern the shapes of two large wings like fins protruding from either side of its shadow. He hadn't noticed them before Perhaps they had been beneath the cape, he wondered as the thing circled and finally disappeared.
Marth waited a long time before he came back to the surface. Looking around warily, he swam to the shore and pulled himself onto a rock. As he began to relax, he suddenly picked up the sound of voices. Back into the water he went, sighing in annoyance, and peered at the shore from behind the rocks. Near the road that led to the beach, he saw the round thing again.
He couldn't hear what the thing was saying, but he heard the sound of its voice. Even at this distance, his sensitive ears could detect a low voice that sent a pleasantly warm feeling from his ears all the way down to the tip of his tail. Apparently, it was male. He was talking to three other people. Marth recognized two of them as children who often swam here. The third was the pink puffball that he usually saw with them. The two cappy children were talking excitedly, and Marth swam just a bit closer to hear what they were discussing.
"… villagers have seen creatures like that!" the boy was saying. "In fact, Kawasaki came here not long ago to fish, and he swore that he saw two of them!"
"It could be another monster," the girl said gravely. "What if King Dedede summoned it?"
"It didn't seem like a demon…" the caped one said, and Marth strained to hear him better. He liked the sound of his voice. "Besides, aren't there legends of fish-like people who live in the sea?"
"Yeah, but you can't believe…" the girl began, but was interrupted by the boy.
"Wow, do you really think that's what you saw?" he asked in awe. "I heard that they're called Merfolk. Did you really see one of them?"
"Perhaps… I just wondered if any of the others had seen them. My main interest in informing you was to warn you, should it turn out to be dangerous."
Marth realized that they were talking about him. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad news. Beside the two children, the pink one glanced in Marth's direction and smiled. "Poyo!" he said, waving. Marth smiled and waved back, but dove beneath the water when the other three looked his way.
"I suppose I should leave…" Marth said to himself, and swam deeper. Reluctantly, he turned towards his home and followed the path that was marked with piles of coral and shells. He really hadn't wanted to go. He loved being on the surface. Besides, that round thing had piqued his interest. He wanted to know more about him. Perhaps he was related to that pink puffball?
When he returned to the palace, he gave a brief report to his father that further observation of the fishermen would be required. Though the king had been pleased, Marth wasn't concerned with that. He swam back to his room and began to daydream as he often did.
Sound was important to the merfolk. In the murky water of the seafloor, sight wasn't the best sense to rely on. The merfolk had developed keen hearing that could detect the slightest sounds in the water, and their culture placed great importance on music and other audio compositions to communicate information. Life was a song to them. Some even said that the quality of a person's soul could be heard in the voice, and Marth was now more a believer than ever.
The swordsman's voice had done something to Marth's heart. The low, deep, sonorous tones spoke to him on a frequency previously untapped. The prince closed his eyes, trying to recall that voice and the feeling it incited in him. When his sister came into the room, she was completely ignored. "Well, that's a fine hello!" she said, snapping him out of his ruminations.
"Oh, Elice… Sorry…" Marth sat up on the rock that he used as a chair. "What is it?"
"I was just wondering the real reason why you want to go back there," she said. "Surely a simple sabotage mission can't take that much of your time. All you really have to do is whip up a quick storm."
"Well… You see, I saw something odd today…" he began to tell her all that had happened, and when he was done she seemed troubled.
"Oh, Marth…" she sighed. "You should know better than to get interested in a land-dweller. Don't you remember the story of the mermaid who gave up everything to be with that prince? What happened to her?"
"First of all, she didn't do it mainly for the prince," he countered, crossing his arms. "She did it so she could go to Heaven. You know that it was just a story made up by our religious leaders. Second, she chose to give everything up. I wouldn't do anything like that." He turned from her to look out the window. "Besides, he was so… Well, it was just a feeling I got from him, but…"
"Let me guess. You like him."
"I don't know." Marth huffed. Rumors had abounded for years about his sexual orientation, but he had never been inclined to seek that kind of companionship from anyone. Besides, the puffball, though apparently male, probably wasn't anything like him in terms of sexual function. Why would he bother cultivating a crush on something like that? "He wears a sword. I've never seen a land-dweller who could wield one before. I bet there is a lot we could learn from each other."
"No good will come of it," she said, shaking her head. "For your own sake, Marth, try to avoid seeing him again."
"…Very well. I'll try to forget about him," Marth said, and Elice left him to his thoughts.
