Hi guys! (Yes, I am still alive, though I haven't been on here in MONTHS! Yikes!)

Still fighting my old computer to try to recover everything I had for this archive and my other stories, but no success so far... T_T

Buuuuuuuut I did have this on my new computer, and I've already started chapter 3, so I decided that this was a must upload the next time I was in Wifi range.

So here you go! I hope you guys enjoy and are reassured that this isn't completely abandoned... :'-) (Alsoooooo our favorite smirking prince!)


Samanthalassa took a deep breath. She was diagonally under the ship, staring up at the offending and occasionally creaky contraption with a complicated mix of emotions.

Should she or should she not take the chance to see the ship's inhabitants up close?

Heptarus seemed to think so, to her surprise.

"Think of it this way, Princess. By getting your curiousity out of the way, you can get rid of the fascination and intrigue for these slobs now. Then, you'll never have need to visit the surface and threaten your livelihood ever again."

She couldn't seem to explain to him the bubbling feelings in her chest that made her believe that once she did this there would be no going back, no reversal, no forgetting of whatever she saw.

And yet, she found herself breaking the surface again anyways.

A deep breath of air chilled her, and yet motivated her to take hold of something resembling brown seaweed hanging off the ship, and pull herself to a strange little hole somewhat high on the ship's side.

There was just enough space for her to completely hide her body below the little ledge looking up and into the action.

She felt Heptarus' grip tighten on her shoulder, and took it as a silent reprimand/encouragement to 'suck up!'.

Sam slowly lifted her head, trying not to attract any attention as she only raised her head high enough for her eyes to peek onto the deck.

There was a large circular thing nearby casting her spot in just enough shadow to hide her and her bright hair almost completely.

The music alone was enough to cover up her little gasp as her wide eyes raised higher to take in the rich sight before her.

Humans were a lot like merpeople.

From the waist up, she could almost imagine all these people were merpeople, wearing fancy covers on their torsos.

They had eyes, and noses, and ears, and hair. Their arms weren't discolored or putrid, or like the ogres she'd seen in human books.

And they danced around easily in this air, on their leegs.

Her eyes jumped to each new human she saw, fascinated by their similarities and their differences, somewhat shocked that they seemed so... friendly.

Their voices held a timber in them that no merperson had, and yet it was still beautiful, but in a less transcendant way.

At least, until she heard his.

The music became jaunty, somewhat mocking.

"Prince Timothy, I challenge you to a duel!" She could see the strong man in front of her, large muscles tracing up his arms. He wasn't one of the prettier men on this ship, and his coverings were a little less fancy than some of the others she'd seen.

"Do you really?" A rich chuckle accompanied this melodic voice. She strained her head, but she couldn't see who this wonderful voice belonged to. She sighed, disappointed. Her disappointment didn't last long though.

"Yes Your Highness! We want proof of your prowess." Two boots stepped just barely into her view, and she saw some sort of fabric fall behind him as he pulled a sword from his belt.

"Then proof you shall have." He was too close to her hiding spot for her to see anything but his legs in black slacks.

The other man took out a less ornate sword, and spread his stance, narrowing his eyes. She almost laughed at how comical he seemed. But Sam was more worried about the melodic voice in black slacks and boots.

She shouldn't have been, in the end.

He and his opponent side-stepped each other in a fascinating dance, occasionally jabbing at each other and then retreating. As they turned farther and farther around in their circle, Sam saw more and more of the mystery man revealed to her eyes.

First, a billowing white chest covering that seemed more beautiful to her than any of the ornate costumes she'd seen thus far.

Next, the rippling movement of his back muscles, and his wide shoulders. Rich dark hair in a short style.

But when finally she caught sight of his face, Samanthalassa couldn't stop the gasp that left her lips.

His skin was sunkissed, his cheekbones were high, he seemed to be even more beautiful than the statue of adonis in the palace.

But the most striking feature of this man was the jewels he had instead of eyes. All these other humans had greys, and blues, and greens, and browns. But the owner of the melodic voice had eyes the color of sea foam.

Her eyes didn't even dart to the ocean behind her, so certain in the hue of his eyes that she couldn't tear her gaze away.

His opponent, the comical man, was dripping (Sam wondered where the water was coming from) and starting to look tired, his movements slower and more sluggish.

But the handsome man, the beautiful man, only smirked. He wasn't tired, and his movements held a grace as opposed to the clunky movements of his companions.

He exuded a danger that the mermaid could only compare to sharks. The shiver down one's spine when pursued by the fearless predators coupled with a warm blooming in her chest.

How could a human be so... filling?

Something about him seemed to fill her to the brim, captivate her in a way that absolutely nothing had ever done before.

Heptarus would tell her later that she had had the dreamiest look on her face he had ever seen in his life.

The black-clad man had sent his prey sprawling onto the deck, bringing his sword only a short distance from his neck. Sam could feel her stomach roil with anxiety, and a smidge of fear seeing the darkness on the beautiful man's face.

"Surrender?"

"Y-Y-Yes, Your Highness. I surrender!" The prince remained in his position a moment longer, before withdrawing his sword, sheathing it once more.

The deck was silent for a moment, the other people on it seeming to realize that they were this man's potential prey.

But then the music resumed, and little by little, the ice seeming to grip the people thawed, and the laughter and chatter came back.

It was only when the shiny black boots (the shiniest) left her vision that Sam seemed to snap out of her trance. For a moment, she'd almost craned her head into the ship to find him, but a hard jab from Heptarus into the small of her back returned her sensabilities.

Samanthalassa saw a man approaching her hiding spot, and quickly let go of the ledge, falling into the sea and under the surface with only a moment to spare before the intruder was looking over the railing.

The ship had left her in its wake before she started to move again, quickly examining her surroundings and propelling herself into deeper waters and towards home.

Neither she nor Heptarus said a single word in all of this.

But one thing remained on her mind long past finding her bed once more.

And his name was Prince Timothy.

0oOo0

She went to the surface again.

Despite telling Heptarus that her curiousity was satisfied, Samanthalassa couldn't help herself.

She needed more. More than what she'd seen in one night.

So she went up again. And again. And again.

Each time she was absolutely unyielding in not being seen or suspected, but each time it was like a drug pulling her back.

The second time, the ship was a different shape, and he wasn't on it.

The third time, it was a smaller boat with men using nets to trap fish and take them away. (She may or may not have sabotaged their efforts).

She realized that maybe the beautiful man wouldn't come back again. And that left her with a query more terrifying than any she'd come across before.

Where had he gone?

Heptarus seemed to know things, but she couldn't ask him. She couldn't make him suspicious of her, just like she had to keep her newfound fascination from Cloversa and Alexandrana. (Which kept getting harder).

In her desperation to see this man again, Samanthalassa considered doing something she'd never done before.

Tempting the surface during the day.

It wasn't new for her to sneak off. She did so every once and a while, and the guards always lost her, and they allowed her this because she was WOOMP's best agent, and they feared her father.

But this was different from exploring a shipwreck.

This was even more dangerous.

Maybe she was tempting fate by doing something this stupid. But Sam found she didn't care, something even more frightening.

So she went even farther away from her home than she'd ever tempted before, before making her way to the surface behind the cover of a tall rock protruding the surface.

Her head pierced the surface easily, this dangerous game she was playing second nature by now.

Guilt flooded her chest as she rememebered all the lies she told by omission. All the fancy parties she stood as princess at that meant nothing to her now.

Her eyes roamed the calm waters and their quiet boundaries quietly, taking in the sky's beauty, and the endless birds above her, flying in the air.

"Haven't seen one of your kind in a while." A voice chirped besides her. Sam jumped, diving almost completely back under the surface, only her eyes peeking out.

"No worries." The same voice chirped, and Sam realized that it was coming from a bird perched on the taller outcropping of the rock. She let her torso emerge from the water once more.

"Oh... Hello!. . . . What do you mean 'my kind'?" Sam questioned, genuinely curious. She thought she was the only one to venture up, but on second thought, that was ridiculous considering that her father had only declared the rule after her mother's death so long ago.

"Merpeople used to be up here all the time, but that was ages ago. Suddenly, they just weren't around anymore, and most of the humans forgot about them, or thought they were only a myth."

"You mean, humans and merpeople used to... talk to each other?"

Her newfound companion seemed to laugh. "No, it was more a quiet coexistance thing. What brings you up here?"

Samathalassa paused. Then again, this bird couldn't really tell anyone she knew what she was up to, so what was the point in holding back? She decided to still be prudent.

"I'm studying the humans. Well, I mean, I guess I'm trying to figure out where they go on their ships... Do they just float around forever?"

"Noooooo," The bird cocked its head at her. "Eventually, most humans take their ships back to land, and that's where they all build their homes."

"Land?" What was this new thing?

"Land. It's where the bottom surface of the water inclines up to form a surface that's huge and heavy, but surviving above the water, like this rock."

"So you mean humans live on big rocks like this?"

The bird seemed to laugh at her again. "A really, really, really big rock. One of them is that way." It cocked it's beak to her right.

Samanthalassa turned her gaze in that direction and squinted.

It strangely enough did seem that a thick black line smudged on top of the line seperating sea and sky, a new word she'd learned, was over there.

"Thanks!" And with that said, she sped off, only about a meter under the surface, towards the steadily larger line ahead of her.

Of course, Sam kept an eye out for boats, but she was really too excited to hold back or wonder if this was dangerous.

It took a long while, but eventually, the large smudge became so big that she couldn't see past it anymore.

It looked like a sandy covered cliff like underwater, but with thinner seaweed.

There was a large palace standing farther away, and Sam watched the pretty building curiously.

Did all humans live in there, or only the royal ones like her family? What did it look like inside? What kinds of interesting trinkets did they have?

She stayed watching the beach from behind a rock 20 yards in the water for a while, watching the sun move along the sky.

And then she became one with the water once again.

-/-|^|-\-

Gladis was helpful. Gladis was the bird that had helped her find land, and who was quite advanced compared to some of the other birds Sam met.

She also taught Sam words like telescope, rosary, and gear to explain some of the human gadgets Sam brought up to ask about.

Gladis couldn't always explain why it existed or what it did, but she could generally tell her the name of the thing.

When Sam asked why she was so different compared to the other birds, Gladis shrugged and said her master had made her that way.

One day, Gladis brought her back a beautiful surprise.

Sam had been at her usual post near the beach, studying the humans on the shore and trying to find the beautiful one with no success. Maybe he never left his palace?

If so, she'd never see him again, and that generally made her too sad to stay above the surface.

Gladis had soared into a landing, a couple of trinkets tangled in mesh in her beak. When Sam had untangled the mesh, two small trinkets appeared before her.

One was an image.

A small, oval frame with a cutout in the black interior that revealed a mirror image of the handsome sea foam man.

Sam had never seen anything of such a beautiful likeness before.

It was colorless, with a slightly rosy hue, so she couldn't appreciate the rich color of his hair or eyes, but she was able to trace along his sharp cheekbones and appreciate the fancy torso covering he wore in the image.

"Gladis, this is perfect! Where did you get it?" Sam hugged the image to her chest, grateful beyond anything she could express of this gift, this captured moment.

She could see his face again, even if it wasn't the same.

Gladis shrugged. "It was on one of the tables near a window, was going to get knocked over at some point eventually. The picture should survive underwater as long as you don't open the frame."

Her eyes glistened, and for a moment, Sam worried that she was melting or leaking. The feeling soon passed however, and she let her shoulders relax again.

Gladis tapped her beak on the other item, something cylindrical.

"What's this?"

"Open it, Princess. This might be even better."

"I doubt anything could surpass this treasure you've given me." Sam obeyed though, unrolling the item to reveal a flat sheet with squiggly characters on it that were very dissmilar to Atlantian characters, but similar enough to tell her this was a human language.

Squinting, Sam tried to decipher the words, not having much practice with them in the few surviving tomes she'd deciphered in her grotto.

Prince Timothy takes his ship tonight.

Be quick about it.

There weren't many words, and she couldn't understand all of it, but somehow the redhead knew Prince Timothy was the man she was looking for.

She'd have to be extra vigilant around the surface to hope to see him!

By the time she looked up from the loopy characters, Gladis was gone, likely to pursue some fish or something.

But Samanthalassa barely noticed as she took the beautiful gilded frame into her hands and dove back below the surface with it, heart soaring on air.


Hehehe... It was a pretty long chapter, so I hope you guys liked it and the context I set up. (As in, I gave Sammie time to obsess about Prince Smirking before any big choices.)

Big stuff starts happening next chapter, and I'll try not to be too crappy about when it comes out! Again, I hope you all enjoyed this, and review. I'd love to hear your thoughts! ;-)