Merlin wiggled his body into the rotting shipwreck and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Following behind him were his best friend Will and his baby dolphin, Aithusa.

Aithusa squeaked and bumped Merlin's hip with his snout. Will, however looked more nervous. "Are you sure we should be in here?"

"C'mon Will it's an adventure!". He burrowed further into the ruins with a powerful flick of his tail.

"At least give us one of your were-lights?"

Merlin muttered a word and his eyes burned gold for a moment.

Suddenly a merry bobbling blue light winked into existence. It illuminated a pair of large, yellow eyes.

"Mer, what is that?"

Merlin directed the glowing sphere closer so they could discern eight slimy tentacles and a giant, oblong head.

"Kraken! Swim away!"

The trio turned and hurtled out of the sunken cargo deck. The Kraken gave a bellow and surged after them.

"Merlin, do something. You're a sorcerer and the bloody prince! Doesn't your father have a rule against eating his son and friends?"

Merlin froze. "My father-"

Aithusa chirped in alarm and nudged Merlin's back.

"No, the ceremony tonight! I forgot! My father's gonna kill me."

"Merlin, a little help here?"

Merlin spun around and said something in a harsh, garbled language. The water around the Kraken turned into ice, the encasing the monster in a giant ice cube.

Will whirled around. "And why didn't you do that earlier?" He looked around. "Merls?"

He was already swimming away towards Atlantica with Aithusa struggling to keep up.

"Announcing, His Royal Highness Balinor, King of the Merpeople, Lord of Magic Folk, and Keeper of Sea Serpents; the Queen Hunith, and their children, Lancelot, Guinevere, Elyan, Freya, Gwaine, Percival, and Merlin."

Balinor looked over his children. The oldest was Lance at 24, dark haired, tan, and handsome, born of his first wife, Princess Elaine. He was a good leader, noble and honest. Lance would make a good king one day. He took after his mother, who sacrificed herself to the Cailleach to save the kingdom.

After Elaine's death, the King married Lady Anna. Together they had Freya, 20; Gwaine, 19; and Percival, 17. Freya was quiet and kept to herself after being cursed as a child. She was thin and pale but still very pretty. Gwaine was loud, flirtatious, and easy-going but also very devoted. He kept his brunet hair long and his face scruffy. Their brother Percival was a strong, robust young man that belied his soft heart. He had the lightest hair of all, which was short and close-cropped. Just after Percy was born, Anna was abducted by mercenaries and executed for her magic at Camelot.

At this time, Claire, the wife of Balinor's good friend Tom, who had been executed, died in childbirth. They had two children, Guinevere who was now 22, and Elyan now 18. They were both compassionate souls with warm caramel skin and dark curly hair. The King adopted them as his wards and raised them as his own children.

Finally Balinor took his third wife and found that his love for her was nothing like what he felt for his other wives. Hunith was his soul mate and his magic reacted to her in strange and wonderful ways. They had a son, Merlin who was 16 years old. He resembled Freya but he had sharper cheekbones and stormy blue eyes. Balinor knew the moment his youngest son had been born that he was the one. He was the only one out of the five, except for Freya, who had any magical abilities. Merlin would inherit the dragonlord line when Balinor died and continue protecting the kingdom. Currently all of his children were present except for Merlin, the boy was always late.

"Thank you Beck." The page bowed and swam to his place near the door.

Balinor stood up, trident in hand. His powerful chest and long fish tail made him an intimidating presence. Next to him, Hunith smiled encouragingly then turned to search the crowd for son. Balinor saw Merlin dash in without his coronet and slip in between Gwaine and Freya. Hunith narrowed her eyes at him and Merlin made innocent eyes at her while flashing a brilliant smile. Balinor bit back a chuckle and faced the full hall.

"Welcome all to our celebration of magic."

Merlin sighed and resigned himself to a boring night full of speeches and stupid magical fireworks.

Gwaine elbowed him from the side. "Where were you Merlin?"

"Exploring. With Will and Aithusa. We found a Kraken."

Gwaine gave a low whistle. "A Kraken? Why do you always get to see the cool stuff? Where was it anyways?"

"In that shipwreck just beyond the ridge-"

"Where father has forbidden you to go past?"

Merlin grinned sheepishly. "Perhaps. Anyways when have I ever done what I've been told?"

His half-brother smirked. "Touché."

Gwen leaned around Lance and Freya to scowl at them. "Hush and listen."

Gwaine stuck his tongue out and Merlin gave her a petulant pout.

Elyan snorted. "Real mature guys."

Freya touched Merlin's elbow. "The fireworks will be starting soon."

Merlin sneered, "If you could call them that." The weak fireworks that the silly magicians made were only streaks of colored light. If Merlin were in charge, he would have made magnificent, exploding things that actually burned underwater. One of the perks of being the strongest warlock of all time, making stuff explode. But his parents wouldn't let him do magic in public, nobody was to know how powerful he really was. With the exception of Lancelot, and maybe Gwaine because he spied and eavesdropped a lot, not even his half siblings knew the extent of his skill.

"That's when we'll make our getaway, when everyone is distracted."

Merlin looked up, curious. "And where are we going?"

Gwaine pointed up. Merlin could see a dark spot moving slowly across the water.

"A boat!"

Why does Triton need such a huge ass family? Seven's a lot of kids even for royalty! But I liked giving all of them a big happy family because some of them were clearly missing out on a childhood.

Review please!