"Have you ever wondered what's it like... up on land?" Yuzu pondered out loud, too distracted by the luxurious feeling of Harumin brushing her hair with her oculina coral to worry about the severity of her daydreaming.
"Yuzucchi, you mustn't say such things, even if you are joking! You know more than anyone such talk and action is forbidden." Harumin dismissed, stopping her brush from untangling her bestfriend's golden hair.
Yuzu, no longer spellbound by her friend's grooming, turned to confront Harumin. Her friend was beautiful; with cycloid scales of yellow and blue reflections up to her hips, ample breasts covered with venerid shells and eyes of flaxen gold. But underneath all that beauty it was Harumin's heart that Yuzu loved most of all.
"I know… and believe me, it's only to you I talk these thoughts with," Yuzu grabbed Harumin's hand sullenly, "so I am truly sorry that you must keep my secrets so."
Harumin regarded her with her typical humorous forgiveness. She pulled the other mermaid into her voluptuous bosom, "And I would not trade your secrets for anything, not ever! Even if your Queen Mother offered me all the sunken treasures across the Oceania!"
Yuzu wailed within her friend's embrace until Harumin eventually released her, knowing she had achieved at getting her royal heiress out of her funk with her magical chest orbs.
"Now, can you cheer up and enjoy your birthday tonight? Your mother has been planning it since forever! And for Poseidon's sake, she even invited the fangtooth fish to come up from their abyssal depths!"
Yuzu laughed and whipped her caudal fin playfully towards her best friend, gaining momentum at the same time to descend through the underwater castle, "Well if the fangtooth fish are here to party, then it seems I must!"
And indeed, the party was glorious. As all royal functions go that celebrate Princess Yuzuko's birthday, it was a sight to behold. Her mother, the beloved Queen Ume, did not blunder on the extravagance and invited all the elite aquatic life across the Mediterranean that responded to the grace of Poseidon's trident.
And during the climatic celebration, everyone gathered within the grand, underwater amphitheatre to witness Yuzu's gift of song, as was custom to thank her guests for coming. Her siren's voice enchanted and seduced even the strongest of tiger sharks to mere guppies.
It was a wondrous occasion to be sure, with laughter and dance, but even the brightest of spectacles must have its share of shadows and gossip lurking in its depths.
And that is where Yuzu first heard the whispers of a recently sunken ship, along the Fourni archipelago, boasting of the grandest and most beautiful of treasures the human world had now lost.
Curious, Yuzu took Harumin to the side, away from the prying guests, "I want to see this treasure, Harumin."
"What? Now? But your birthday is not over yet!"
"Which makes it a perfect opportunity to escape. I have sung my song, the guests are happy, and my mother has gotten gleefully drunk with the ambassador hammerheads of Gibraltar," Yuzu urged on, "...please I must see this grand treasure for myself before it gets plundered by lesser fish."
Harumin narrowed her eyes; knowing full well that Yuzu would go, even without her, if Harumin refused, "Alright, fine... but do not take anything like last time!"
As the two were leaving in haste, they were dutifully stopped by one royal, pesky guard. Himeko, born with an upper body of a mermaid and and the lower legs and arms of a crab, was always the one to catch the two mermaids up to no good mischief, somehow.
"And where do you think you two are going, this time? Oh let me guess, your royal highness has decided to explore the grounds beyond the party, take in the local underwater scenery… and then go hunting for newly sunken ships? How predictable! Wait until your Queen Mother hears about this again!" Himeko threatened, her tiny crustacean legs already in motion for the grand ballroom.
"Sorry Himeko, not tonight," as Harumin, in one swift tail flick, caused a rush of water to go under the crabs' legs, upturning her, "but please do tell the Queen Mother not to worry and that we'll be back on tomorrow's currents."
Himeko, unable to right herself properly with such limbs, could only bark out threats at their retreating tail fins.
The Fourni archipelago was over 80 nautical leagues away from the castle. A far, laborious distance for a species with weaker propulsive swimming fins but for Yuzu and Harumin the distance was easily reached by early morning. Searching along the seafloor, and asking passerby mantras, they were able to locate the shipwreck along the farthest depth of the isle in no time.
"Yuzucchi, don't you think we're too close to the surface for mere shipwreck gallivanting?" Harumin eyed the underwater crepuscular rays of sunlight that illuminated the shipwreck in a surreal morning glow. Overhead, less than one nautical league, the top surface of sea water danced enticingly. "I do not like this. We are not in the middle of the sea for it to be safe to surface so rebelliously. We are too close to these human… 'settlements'. It's giving me the creeps."
"Harumin! We've travelled all this way and you want to turn back now after seeing some forbidden surface water? We'll be in and out in mere moments! I just want to see this grand and beautiful treasure that everyone was gossiping about, then we'll be back on the bottom sea current going home in no time." Yuzu reassured her disbelieving best friend.
After a grievous ponder, and after a group of sea turtles sauntered by, Harumin reiterated, "Only a moment."
"Only a moment."
"Did I mention this is utterly forbidden?"
"You did… and I did as well, actually." Yuzu grinned, ready to flip her tail towards the destroyed boat.
"Why do I let you drag me into these things…," Harumin huffed, watching Yuzu swim away.
"Because you love meee!" Yuzu's ever increasing distant voice called out, leaving Harumin nothing else to say except to roll her eyes and swim after her.
The ship was large and imposing, or at least it probably used to be. The ship's hull had been split, its boards damaged creating small jagged edges but allowing small entrances into its inner chambers. Yuzu had to squeeze past numerous cervasses, big enough to allow her through. She made her way down to the base of the ship, thinking that whatever treasure she was hoping to find had enough weight to sink to its very bottom. Usually that's where she found the more interesting human things, anyway.
Going through a rather large opening, where wood and seafloor sand met, Yuzu came upon the most remarkable structure she'd ever laid eyes on. Scattered amongst it were colorful and vibrant gems and stones, seeming to easily reflect the little light they found. But they all paled in comparison to the statue of the woman in the center of it. The artistry had captured the human woman in a regal sitting position. Her features and hair were detailed in a youthful and desirable attractive composition. But it was the eyes! The eyes that were the most compelling to Yuzu as she dared to near closer to its realness, its exquisiteness. The human girl had eyes that held a beautiful mixture of regal discipline, maturity and… loneliness, was it?
Two sapphire gems filled the area within her stone eyelids. Yuzu just needed to reach out and touch her, if only so she could imagine that she had some sort of ability to change the statue's frozen gaze into one of happiness, maybe.
The sapphire she had touched dislodged and Yuzu shrieked in fear, catching its descent with flailing hands. Trying to fit it back in place but to no avail, Yuzu sighed, scratching the back of her head sheepishly as she held the magnificent stone in her palm.
"Sorry… you really did have amazing eyes though," Yuzu apologized.
"Why thank you, my dear." A voice slithered dangerously behind her.
Yuzu gulped, too terrified to turn around but she naively turned around anyway.
At the opposite end of the room, a horrendous looking creature stared back, maleficent red eyes shining like some of the rubies that littered the sand beneath them. The creature had the head, arms, and torso of a very dead, decomposing human but its hips and lower extremities were fused with that of a many tentacled octopus. Its octopus legs splayed themselves out to cover the wide entrance that Yuzu had just come through, stopping her from escaping.
The hybrid monster barred its serrated teeth in a gruesome smile, "Princess Yuzuko, no need to fear. I've only come to do the bidding of my most humble master." Using its snake-like appendages to inch closer, Yuzu shook in fright, wildly scanning the room for another exit. Seeing that some of the light rays that shone from the cracked openings above her were large, possibly large enough for her to squeeze through, Yuzu fled.
Taking the chance, Yuzu propelled herself in one forceful undulatory motion. Reaching the boards, and pushing past, she managed to get half of herself out of the room before a slimy tentacle wrapped itself around her tail fin and pulled her back in. The monster had its arms outstretched, and its mouth wide open, ready to bite, until Yuzu saw a flash of yellow and blue scales swim past.
"Yuzucchiii!" Harumin screamed, with a broken ship board in grasp, harpooning herself at the creatures torso. Stabbing it, the monster instinctively let go of Yuzu's fin.
"Swim!" Harumin ordered. But before the two of them could escape, the wounded octopus thing had grabbed Harumin with a dozen of its tentacles, tightening.
"Go!" Harumin gritted her teeth through the pressure.
The absolute dread at seeing her best friend like that changed something inside of Yuzu to act. Yuzu didn't know what came over her but in the next instance her mouth had opened and the most melodic and hypnotic sound had sprung from her vocal chords. Her voice, her singing had put the monster in a trance-like state like a mother soothes a child, immobilizing it. It gave Harumin enough time to squirm her way out of its grasp and wrench the impaled board from its body only to shove it through its head in one fluid motion. Its body became lifeless and it folded itself on the seabed floor, dead.
Between large inhales of water, Harumin said, "Can we...go back home now?"