On the outskirts of Aquaria, unaware of the chaos that she had unintentionally caused, the little mermaid named Lily, who was supposed to have been singing at the concert, was instead swimming towards an ancient shipwreck, carrying a bulging coral pink bag of treasures and a strange paddle-like object, which was a cricket bat, on top as it was too big to fit inside, that she had found bobbing on the surface earlier.

Her long blonde hair flowed behind her like a veil as she flicked her pink tail while she kept swimming, which was impressive since she was carrying a full bag and a bulky but not heavy object until she reached the shipwreck, smiling as she saw it, thinking about the wonderful treasures that it might contain.

Out of all of Daisy's daughters, Lily was the most beautiful, free-spirited and adventurous and a bit of a risk taker, preferring to go out on adventures, exploring and discovering new and exciting places and things instead of sitting around in the palace all day like her sisters did and the more risky the adventure was, the more exciting it was for her.

Everyone had said that she was so like her father, the late king of Aquaria, Hollis and it was certainly true, which was one of the reasons why she was her mother's favourite daughter and was overprotective of her.

She was also curious about humans and their world that was forbidden to her, but that only made her want to find about it more, as shown by her treasure bag filled with human things that would send her mother into fifty fits if she were to see them.

'Lily, wait for me!' a small voice said behind her which belonged to a little pink fish with dark pink stripes and fins and wore a flower in her hair, who was struggling to keep up with the mermaid who was her best friend.

'Hurry up, Aurora, there's still much more to explore and discover today!' Lily laughed, as Aurora finally managed to catch up with her.

Once known as 'Girl Guppy #3', Lily had found the fish when she was separated from her school and the two became instant best friends since they were both lonely and needed a friend and Lily had named her after a princess in a book that she had read and loved.

Aurora was always by Lily's side even if she didn't always like the adventures they went on, particularly if they were dangerous, since she was easily scared and nervous, but brave when she needed to be and would do anything for her friend.

'You know I can't swim as fast as you,' Aurora said, as she tried to catch her breath.

'That's because you eat too many seaweed donuts, Aurora!' Lily chuckled, 'They're not doing your waistline any good and are making you into a chubby guppy!' as she poked Aurora's tummy, which made the fish giggle.

'But I love them so much, Lily, especially the pink frosted ones!' Aurora said, 'and I sure would love to have one right now!'

'You can, once we've explored this shipwreck,' Lily said, 'I bet there are more wonderful treasures in there, some which may be as old as me or maybe even older and what better way to learn about a time before yours than to find the objects they used, as well as the present?

Come on, Aurora, the treasures aren't going to discover themselves, you know!' Lily said, as she swam towards the shipwreck, eager to explore it, only for Aurora not to follow her, clearly showing reluctance, for to her, it looked eerie-looking and damp.

'I don't know, Lily,' Aurora said, 'sure it looks neat to you, but it's just that..I care about you and I don't want something bad happening and that shipwreck looks kinda creepy and damp and it's getting late, so we should be heading back home before we get in trouble.

Not to mention that you have already collected treasures today and there may be sharks around.'

'Oh, Aurora, you're not getting cold fins, are you?' Lily said, 'it's nice that you care about me but everything will be fine, we've still got plenty of time and you never know what's in there until you find it. Besides, you can never have too many treasures!'

Seeing the reluctant look on Aurora's face, Lily then thought of an idea to get her to change her mind.

'Tell you what, you don't have to go in, if you don't want to,' she then said, hoping to trick the guppy.

'Really?' Aurora said.

'No, you don't. You can stay out here and watch out for sharks while I go exploring. Too bad you'll miss out on the fun,' Lily said, trying to hide a snicker, as she swam into the shipwreck.

Aurora pondered for a moment before her eyes grew as wide as plates when she heard the word 'sharks' and her fins shivered, for that was the thing that she was most afraid of.

She was deeply afraid of sharks, amongst other things, scary monsters that would no doubt be looking for a timid, vulnerable guppy for dinner and the idea of watching out for them while her best friend was in that creepy shipwreck was more terrifying than that.

Surely exploring an old shipwreck must be better than being shark food, Aurora thought as she pondered her choice, while watching Lily swim around in the shipwreck, in her own world, oblivious to any potential dangers..unprotected.

'Shipwreck or shark food,' Aurora said, 'shipwreck or shark food,' then she made up her mind.

'Wait for me, Lily!' she said, swimming into a narrow hole that used to be one of the windows of the ship before getting stuck in it as her unhealthy obsession with seaweed donuts was catching up to her, unaware of a shark-shaped shadow that was looming nearby.

Lily was still swimming around the whole of the ship, looking for any treasures that may still be lying around and was slightly disappointed that she hadn't found any yet, thinking that they had long been collected when she saw Aurora struggling to get through the hole and laughed at her friend.

'Oh, Aurora,' she said.

'Little help?' Aurora said. Lily swam over to the hapless fish and tried to pull her out, as the little fish wriggled with all her might but still stayed stuck.

'Aurora, you really need to lay off the seaweed donuts!' Lily said.

'I know, but they're so good!' Aurora whined, as she kept wriggling with neither mermaid nor fish making much progress.

'Hey, Lily,' she then said nervously, 'are there really sharks around here or were you trying to trick me into coming into the ship?'

'Of course not, Aurora,' Lily said, 'and nothing bad is going to happen, so stop being such a guppy,' not noticing the huge and menacing grey shark that was swimming past the ship's windows.

'I'm not a guppy!' Aurora protested.

Finally, after a few grunts from the fish and the determined pulls from Lily, Aurora was free and nervously followed the young mermaid as she kept swimming around the ship, but she pretended to be excited about the whole thing, so that Lily wouldn't be suspicious.

'Okay, everything's fine around here,' she said, trying to convince herself, 'I'm just swimming around a shipwreck, that just happens to be creepy and damp, on one of our adventures, with my best friend, who is always by my side and nothing bad is going to happen.

This is really great, I'm enjoying this and nothing can go…AHHHHHHH!'

Aurora screamed when she saw a human skull and swam as fast as she could to get away from it, only in her haste and not looking where she was going, hit a plank of wood that was jutting out on the deck, which made Lily quickly swim over to her and gather the poor fish up in her arms.

Aurora was dazed and dizzy but was otherwise unhurt, as she rubbed her head with her fin, feeling for any bumps.

'Aurora, are you okay?' Lily said.

'Yeah, sure, I'm fine,' Aurora answered her, shaking like seaweed before swimming out of Lily's arms and the mermaid continued exploring the shipwreck when all of a sudden, a shiny silver object caught her eye and she gasped in excitement at finally seeing a hidden treasure.

'Oh my gosh!' she said, picking up the strange object, which had some sort of handle with four pointed ends on top.

To anyone, it looked like an ordinary fork, but from the way Lily was looking at it, they would think that she discovered the Holy Grail.

'Aurora, come over here, I've found something!' Lily cried out, as Aurora hurried over to see the fork in Lily's hands, staring at it in amazement but didn't know what it was.

'Isn't this the most wonderful thing you have ever seen in your life?' Lily said.

'It's really neat, Lily, but what is it?' Aurora said.

'I don't know, but I bet Sandy does!' Lily said, 'She knows everything about humans, so I bet she can tell me what this shiny object is and the other things I found of the surface when we go and see her.'

While Lily was still staring at the strange silver object before putting in her bag carefully so the points wouldn't pierce an oval-shaped object that was already inside, the distinctive rumbling of the shark was getting closer to the ship, having spotted its dinner as it started hungrily at the frightened fish who was looking at it through the window and the oblivious mermaid who had discovered another human object.

'L-L-Lily?' Aurora stammered nervously, tugging at her tail to get her attention, while Lily was looking interestingly at the thin brown pipe she was holding, trying to figure out what it was.

'Not now, Aurora,' Lily said, distracted by the pipe, 'I wonder what this thing is. Maybe Sandy might know about it as well.'

'Lily!' Aurora yelped as she frantically pointed at the window, the shark now dangerously close, growling and baring its sharp teeth, 'there's a s..s..sh..sh..'

'There's a what?' Lily said.

'SHARK!' Aurora screamed, just as the shark smashed through the window, growling furiously and gnashing its teeth, ready to feast on its hapless victims.

Lily turned and saw that Aurora was right as her eyes grew wide in fear, while Aurora was shaking beyond belief, her worst fears coming true, as she desperately tried to avoid the shark.

Lily quickly stuffed the pipe in her bag and put a protective arm around Aurora as they swam like their lives depended on it, as the terrible creature chased them, devouring everything in its path.

SHARK, SHARK, WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE!' Aurora shrieked, 'WE'RE GONNA BE SHARK FOOD! SHARK FOOD!'

'Aurora, be quiet and swim!' Lily said, but Aurora kept screaming as the shark kept chasing them, while chomping on the wood. The two managed to make it to the hole that they came in only for Lily to realise that she had dropped her bag and the bat which were right in the shark's path.

Urging Aurora to go up on the deck so that she would be safe and out of harm's way, with the fish still screaming, Lily bravely swam towards her treasures, as she tried to fight back a repressed memory that had been in her mind but she shook it off and managed to collect both her bag and the bat, narrowing avoiding the shark as it lunged at her but only got a mouthful of wood for its efforts.

Holding the cricket bat in her hand, Lily suddenly had a bright idea and when the shark tried to attack her a second time, she used it to whack it in the head which stunned the shark, as it swayed confusedly, unsure about what had happened and Lily was able to make her escape up to the deck with both her treasures and her life.

'Lily!' Aurora said, 'I thought that shark was going to eat you for sure! How did you manage to get away?'

'With this,' Lily said, holding up the cricket bat, 'I used it to stun the shark, just as it was about to get me. It won't be able to chase us now.'

However, just as she said it, the shark soon recovered from being hit and broke through the deck; completely destroying what little remained of the ship and chased Lily and Aurora to where a discarded anchor was lying in the sand.

'Aurora, come over here!' Lily said, as the little fish swam towards her, desperate to get away from the shark that was getting dangerous close to them.

Her quick thinking shone through again and Lily passed through the loop effortlessly, with Aurora following behind only for her to get stuck again but Lily was able to get her out without any trouble this time just before the shark was about to bite.

But due to being so large and the loop being narrow, the shark did not get the dinner it wanted but its head stuck in the loop, as it struggled furiously to free itself to no avail.

Lily swooped down to where her treasures were and was relieved to find them still intact and the bat luckily didn't have a single dent in spite of being used to whack the shark on the head.

Aurora, who was now calm since she wasn't going to be shark food, turned to the pathetic-looking creature and took advantage of the fact that it was stuck in the loop by taunting it.

'You big meanie!' she said and unwisely blew a raspberry which enraged the shark who opened its jaws but were quickly snapped shut due to the loop restricting it, barely missing Aurora's tongue.

With a yelp, Aurora quickly swam up to Lily, who was making her way towards the surface and she chuckled at her best friend.

'Aurora, you really are a guppy,' Lily said fondly as the two got closer to the surface.

'I am not!' Aurora protested for the second time.

'Guppy says what?'

'What?'

'I told you!'

Up on the surface, a seagull was sitting on a flattish rock, fluffing the feathers on her head, which were styled up in a messy ponytail, the bottom ones ruffled out like a skirt and her beak was covered with smudged lipstick, which was an indicator of her scatter-brained and clueless personality as she was singing a song to herself, one that she had heard humans singing on her travels.

'Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,' she sang, or rather caterwauled for her singing voice was atrocious and would send many birds and animals scurrying if they were to hear it, but the seagull was oblivious to this.

'Humans sure sing the weirdest songs!' she said to no one in particular, 'what's a swagman, what is he jolly about and why is he camping by a billabong?'

She kept singing,

'Under the shade of the coolibah treeee,' stressing out the last word, then she frowned and said,

'I thought humans loved being in the sun! This guy, whoever he is, wants to be under the shade of this so-called coolibah tree! And then who's this Matilda he wants to waltz with?'

'Who am I even talking to?' she said.

'Sandy!' Lily's voice rang out, as she and Aurora rose from the water and Sandy's face lit up, as she grabbed her telescope and looked out the wrong end as she saw Lily waving at her, which made the mermaid seem far away.

'That's who!' Sandy said, yelling to Lily, 'Mermaid and fish off the port bow! Lily, how are you doing, sweetie?'

She then lowered the telescope to see that Lily was actually right in front of her, as opposed to being in the distance as Sandy believed her to be.

'Wow, you got here fast,' she said, 'either you're a fast swimmer or my viewabob isn't working properly!'

'Sandy, what was that song you were singing?' Lily said, 'It sounded so lovely,'

'Oh, it's a silly song that humans like to sing,' Sandy said, 'it's about a guy who's a swaggy man who's camping by some place he calls a billybong and it's under the shade of a cooliebob tree and later on, he's gonna waltz with some woman called Matilda.'

'That's so sweet,' Lily said, 'where did you hear it?'

'I heard some humans singing it when I was travelling around this place they call Melly Burn. They were all gathered together and their voices were ringing around in the sky so loud that yours truly picked up on the words! And what a strange song it was but humans seem to love it.' Sandy said.

'You sure do get around a lot, Sandy,' Lily said, enviously.

'Sure do, sweetie, with these little babies here,' Sandy said, flapping her wings, 'I've been to many places with very strange names and are full of humans! Lots and lots of them!

Blissbane, Seednay, Melly Burn, Addieglade, Plurth, Darrwinnie, Canberry, Hobbittbarty- you name it, I've been there and done that! Just last week, I went to this place called Rocky Clampton, which sadly does not have rocks or clams, which I found out the hard way.

And every one of them had humans,' Sandy said and Lily giggled at the silly names that she heard.

'Speaking of humans,' Lily said, when the talk of humans reminded her of why she came up here in the first place and put her bag on the rock,

'I found these treasures today and I was wondering if you knew anything about them,' as she took the objects out of the bag as Sandy was looking at them eagerly, like all her birthdays had come at once.

'You've come to the right seagull, Lily,' Sandy said, 'If there's anything that I know a lot about, is humans and the many weird and wonderful things that they use!

There isn't anything I don't know about them and it looks like you've got quite a collection here!

Let's take a looksee,' she said, as Lily first handed her the fork and Sandy inspected it thoroughly, making 'hhmmm,' and 'mmmm' noises as she did so.

'Oh, I haven't seen one of these babies in years! That's how rare and special it is,' she said.

'What is it, Sandy?' Lily said, her sapphire blue eyes twinkling curiously.

Seeing the eager look in the curious little mermaid's eyes, Sandy then explained its 'use' rather cluelessly,

'Now, Lily, what you see before you now is called a dinglehopper. Humans use this little thing to…um, style and straighten their hair!

Allow me to demonstrate,' Sandy then said, running the so-called 'dinglehopper' through her ponytail of feathers, humming to herself until she yanked it out, revealing a huge fuzz of feathers.

Sandy looked like she had zapped by a powerline, but it made Lily and Aurora laugh before the fuzz turned back into her ponytail.

'You see a fabulous, pleasing, fluffy fuzz of hair that humans go ga-ga over!' Sandy said, grinning, while passing the fork back to Lily, who looked at it in awe.

'A dinglehopper,' she said to herself.

'What's next on the list, sweetie?' Sandy then said, 'what else have you got to show me?'

'I have these things that I found earlier bobbing around on the surface,' Lily said, putting the cricket bat, a cricket ball and a rugby league ball on the rock and Sandy looked at them with more interest that she did with the fork, like she had never seen them before.

'That's a first,' she said, 'these are incredibly rare, much rarer than the dinglehopper, but very interesting indeed. That's a sign of the times we live in..'

'Sandy,' Lily said,

'Oh, sorry, sweetie, got lost in my thoughts there,' Sandy said, picking up the oval ball which was decorated with blue and yellow stripes, had a picture of a warrior on it and some wording that Sandy didn't understand and looked at it for a long time, trying to determine what it was and find a way to explain it.

'Eureeky, I've got it!' Sandy exclaimed triumphantly,

'This oval thing is called a passamawhatchit. It's a funny oval shape because it has been passed around so much by humans since they love to show if off to their fellow humans about how great and valuable it is, that it has been squashed by their hands by holding it too much.'

'A passamawhatchit,' Lily said, fascinated, 'how amazing,'

'Of course they do so at their own risk because the passamawhatchit is so valuable to them that other humans want to steal it. Like this one here,' Sandy said, as she struggled to read the wording on it,

'Gold-Coa-st-Tit-tan-s,' she said, 'Woah, you better be careful with this one, sweetie, these coastal titans may want their gold passamawhatchit back someday. I just don't understand why they would throw it away; it must be worth a fortune!

Oh well, their loss, your gain,' Sandy said, as she handed the ball back to Lily, who was hanging on the clueless seagull's every word, as she explained what her treasures were.

'Now these things here are called a paddlelapper,' Sandy then explained, holding the cricket bat in one wing, 'and a bounceabobble,' and the cricket ball in the other.

'The paddlelapper is used mainly for balancing and bouncing the bounceabobble and humans make a game of it by seeing how many bounces they can make with it before it falls off. However, the paddlelapper can also be used for paddling in the ocean..'

'And for whacking sharks on the head!' Aurora said, 'we were being chased by a shark when we were exploring a shipwreck and Lily used the paddlelapper to whack it on the head!'

'Did she now?' Sandy said, as Aurora imitated Lily's whacks with the bat, making silly noises while Lily giggled, 'that was pretty brave of you, sweetie, I've would have been flapping my feathers if I were you!'

'Thanks, Sandy,' Lily said, slightly embarrassed, 'now can you please show me how to play with the bouncabobble and paddlelapper? I'd love to try it!'

'Sorry, sweetie, I'd love to but I've only got wings and they're no good for holding them,' Sandy said ruefully, 'as useful and practical as they are, they're just not capable of balancing any object. Why don't you try it instead since you are the only one here who has hands?'

'Well, okay,' Lily said, as she held the 'paddlelapper' in one hand and carefully balanced the 'bouncabobble' on it, gently lifting it up, as the ball rose into the air…and into the water where it bobbed up and down.

It took a few tries for Lily to get the hang of it, but eventually she was able to bounce the ball up and down on the bat, while Aurora and Sandy counted the number of bounces she made.

Lily got up to ten bounces before her arm grew tired and the ball fell off the bat for the second time.

'Ten bounces, that's a new record, Lily!' Sandy said, 'you're a real natural! Keep practicing and you'll soon be the world champion!'

'Thanks, Sandy, that was really fun,' Lily said, putting the ball and bat back on the rock, 'Aurora and I should play it more often,' only to realise that Aurora didn't have any hands and wouldn't be able to hold them.

'Or maybe not,' she said sheepishly.

Then she picked up the last thing that she had gotten from the shipwreck and the last thing she wanted to show Sandy, before the shark chased them which was the brown pipe and gave it to Sandy.

'Sandy, this is the thing I also found in the shipwreck before the shark came and chased us and I was wondering what it could be,' she said, as the seagull looked at it and a huge smile appeared on her face as she held it in her wing.

'Ah, the snarfblatt,' she said, saying it like it was the most rarest and valuable treasure in the world, 'The granddaddy of all human items,' as Lily and Aurora leaned in to listen to her lecture, as she said,

'You see, the snarfblatt dates back to prehistoric times, where humans used to pass the time in their everyday lives by sitting around all day and staring at each other.

It got very boring and was a huge strain on their eyes and sometimes the face that they were looking into would be very unpleasant!'

Lily and Aurora laughed out loud, while Sandy rolled her eyes and continued talking,

'To ease the boredom and to save their eyesight, humans invented the snarfblatt to make wonderful music!' she said and attempted to give a demonstration by blowing into it, but all she did was blow raspberries and send sprays of water and seaweed, which had been stuck in the pipe, flying all over the place as Aurora giggled.

At the mention of the word 'music', Lily stood frozen as Sandy continued her ridiculous performance with the pipe, as she remembered something. It wasn't the repressed memory that fought with her mind when she fetched her bag before the shark lunged at her, it was something else.

It was something that she was supposed to have done today and it wasn't her treasure hunting expedition.

It was something that involved music and the celebration of her kingdom.

It was something that the entire kingdom had been talking about for weeks.

It all dawned on her, as she slapped her hand to her head and groaned.

'Music,' she said, 'Oh, no, no, no!'

'Aw don't worry, sweetie,' said Sandy, noticing Lily's expression on her face, 'once I get rid of this gunk, the snarfblatt will be working in no time!'

'No, I don't mean that!' said Lily, dismayed, 'Today is Aquarian National Day and I was supposed to be making my singing debut at the concert, which everyone in the kingdom was talking about for weeks and I totally forgot about it!

Oh, my mum's going to kill me!' she groaned.

'The Aquarian National Day concert was today?' Aurora said.

'Maybe you could put some kelp and tiny flowers in it to make a nice planter for your garden,' Sandy said, giving the pipe back to Lily, who frantically stuffed it into her bag, along with her other treasures.

'I'm so sorry, Sandy, but I've got to go! Thank you so much!' Lily said, gathering up her bag and made a hasty dive back into the ocean, with Aurora following behind.

'See you later, sweetie!' Sandy called back as she watched the two swim deep into the ocean.

'What a nice girl she is,' she then said, as she sat back on the rock and fluffed up her feathers as she sang to herself.

Swimming faster than they did when they were being chased by the shark, Lily and Aurora hurriedly headed back to the palace in Aquaria, well aware of the huge trouble that they were in.

They were also worried about facing the wrath of Queen Daisy about missing an important concert, not realising that at this very moment, they were being watched by a sinister figure from the dark depths of the ocean…

Looks like trouble's on the horizon! And Lily, your mum is NOT going to be very happy with you!

Thanks to all of those who have read, reviewed, followed and favourite this fanfic so far! And Sandy, well she's not the sharpest tool in the shed!

Here's a list of the city names in Australia she mispronounces, in case you were confused:

Blissbane: Brisbane

Seednay: Sydney

Melly Burn: Melbourne

Addieglade: Adelaide

Plurth: Perth

Darwinnie: Darwin

Canberry: Canberra

Hobbittbarty: Hobart

Rocky Clampton: Rockhampton

Hope I haven't offended anyone from those places (or any Gold Coast Titans fans!)

NB: I changed the seagull's name from Gilly to Sandy, as one reviewer told me that it rhymed with Lily, so don't panic, she's still the same goofy seagull but with a different name!