Just as her mother had repetitively stated, a big and eventful day truly did await her. Right from the minute she woke up, all of Judith's current energy was being used on the preparations that the kingdom was making for events yet to come. It all seemed so very hectic to the young mer-bunny, without any unoccupied period of time to have a small conversation with someone or just simply catch her breath.

For a good bit of used time, Judith underwent the rigmarole of meeting with some of the palace's providers of attire and making the decisions of what she would be wearing when the great ceremony would take place. After trying on quite a few dresses, some decisions regarding the attire were made (specifically by her mother). As much she didn't exactly enjoy being forced into a certain type of dress without any unique touch to it, there was no use making a fuss over things when there was other things that needed to be accomplished.

After she was finished with the outfit selection, she swam out of nearby door and now found herself in the decorative main hall of the palace she called her home. The area she currently occupied had architecture to it unlike anything else that ordinary eyes could ever see. The hall was quite spacious in size, an auxiliary amount of doorways on just about every corner that lead to rooms that served their own individual purposes. The walls shone in a dazzling assortment of colors, courtesy of the array of exquisite gems that complemented the overall atmosphere.

Judith peaked her head up, releasing the tension that was previously building up in her body as she gazed upward. Above the main hall, the ceiling was enclosed but seemed to be almost transparent. Thanks to the way that it was constructed, the light came through in its unbreakable luminescence. The mer-bunny broke out in a wide smile. Her stomach starting to unknot, she cotinued to idly stare upward at the shining light that came bursting through the outside's turquoise waters.

Her attention went back to the very middle of the grand hall, where a large and gorgeous portrait could be seen. The painting had been a depiction of a male mer-bunny, cloaked in an outfit decked with lines of both complimentary blue topaz and crystal quartz. Seated in a red chair beside the mammal in the portrait was none other than Judith's own mother, the two of them holding paws as they both delicately smiled.

Judith knew quite well that the male figure that the gigantic picture depicted was none other than her father, who, by her mother's poetic words, was considerably called "a mermammal that was more beguiling than the ocean itself."

Judith was only a small child upon her father's unfortunate disappearance, too small to possibly comprehend what had actually happened. For further information on what her father had been like, she just had to simply rely upon her mother's words or the entertaining stories that were occasionally told around the palace.

For a quick moment, before heading off to what was next on her itinerary, Judith thought about her father and what he might have been thinking about her at the current moment. What advise would he have had for me? Would he be proud of me and what I'm about to become? Is he pleased with how the kingdom and the provinces surrounding it are currently operating? I guess all I can really do is just pray that he is...

When her trail of thoughts left her mind, Judith briskly swam her way over to an open door in the far right corner of the hall. Where she was currently swimming off to would make a nice and secluded space for what she now had on her mind. What was next on her agenda was practicing some of the spells that she would have to cast on the night yet to come.

Judith sighed in frustration, more than confused by the fact that her attempts at practicing her spell all failed. It wasn't making any sense in her mind as to how she couldn't seem to get such a simple magical practice wrong. She researched the techniques from the books from the royal library long and hard, making mental notes of all of the important details until her brain wasn't capable of studying anymore. She followed the instructions perfectly, making sure that she was performing the procedure and uttering the words to the spell correctly. And yet, somehow it just wasn't working the way she wanted to.

Performing a spell as simplistic as the one she was designated to cast shouldn't be as complicated as it currently was, but the overall pressure that settled in regarding when she would have to perform it weren't making things any easier.

Judith didn't exactly enjoy the concept of performing the magic she had been compelled to practice from a young age, nor did she fully comprehend why such spells would even be an important to ruling the underwater territories. But, as with everything else she could possibly think of, her mother had an explanation for its importance. After all, the act of casting would unveil how well she could use the timeless concepts of sorcery when it was needed for the protection of the province her mother protected.

Judith's mother, Bonnie, delicately swam over. Placing a paw on her daughter's shoulder, she pleasently tried to calm the tense nerves that seemed to be filling the room.

"Judith," Bonnie breathed, "why the frustration? This isn't like you at all."

"It's not working at all!" Judith bursted with vexation. "I don't get it, I studied the technique word for word. I-"

"There's no need to fret so much. It's just a simple energy spell."

Judith huffed in discontent."Okay. Yeah, sure it's just a little spell. Perhaps you're forgetting that my magic is what you have told me a million times keeps this whole kingdom in balance?"

Bonnie saw the flustered expression of her daughter, sympathetically deciding that it was probably best if she gave her some solitude. "It's probably best if I leave you alone to practice some," she said, swimming away and slowly shutting the door behind her.

Judith took a deep breath, letting out it slowly as she tried to calm herself down. Okay, she thought. Take a deep breath now. Mother said it herself, your probably just letting your nerves get to you. Just relax. Now let's try this again, shall we?

The mer-bunny closed her eyes, taking another deep breath in and out. Judith let all the previously rushing thoughts exit her subconscious mind, trying quite hard to make herself focus on nothing but practicing the spell. Her eyes still closed, she started moving and flaying her paws around in a specific circular motion. Judith began to chant in a sing-songy tone under her breath, muttering some of the words that she had previously memorized from the texts she had studied.

"Ut forma," she said out loud, completing one of the steps to the spell.

Judith soon after noticed that she started to sense a ball of energy gradually forming in between both of her paws. The mer-bunny gently opened her eyes, primarily gazing upon the transparent, energetic orb that she had just conjured up. A smile started to take form on Judith's muzzle, and her bright amethyst eyes started to beam with pure excitement. After going through a few failed attempts at making this spell work, she happily managed to perform it perfectly.

All that was left to practice was making the orb of energy move away from in between her paws and float away from her grasp. Most of what she had to do now was entirely dependent on her conscience and how focused she was on performing this very routine. If she somehow managed to get distracted from what she was doing, the orb would dissipate and she would have to start from the beginning again.

"Discedite," the mer-bunny murmured, feeling equal parts of both enthusiasm and nervousness.

The luminously gleaming ball of energy left from in between Judith's paws, floating away a few inches away from her just as she had assumed it would. The mer-bunny couldn't get much happier than she was right now; she would be whooping joyously with glee if she could, but decided to contain her enthusiasm as she had been taught to formally do. Silently but excitedly, she personally celebrated completing this small feat.

Judith simply stared at the orb, now unsure of what to do with it. According to the texts she had studied, these particular forms of kinetic energy could be given "commands" once casted, which could be used for healing or hurtful purposes depending on the wishes of the spell-caster.

Judith knew that she would have to give herself some additional practice on using the energy for such purposes, as she would more than likely need it if disaster were to strike the underwater territories. However, the mer-bunny decided to save that practice for another time and simply erase the existence of the energetic orb for the time being. There was no doubt in her mind that there would always be time to repeat this process again.

The mer-bunny clapped her paws together, cupping them, and slowly moved them away from each other in a separating motion, looking like she was pulling some invisible thing that was in her grasp apart.

"Decrusto," she said imperatively.

The orb did as her chanting statements commanded, losing both its glow and spherical shape before it dissipated away. Judith stood there idly, blinking her eyes a few times just to clarify that everything she had just done was real.

"I can't believe it," she murmured to herself, awestruck. "I seriously can't believe that I just did that."

From behind the opposite side of the door that had been gently cracked open, although Judith was entirely unaware, Bonnie nodded her head and watched the spell's completion with a slowly widening smile. I knew that she could do it, she thought.

Meanwhile, in another distant place in the sea...

"Gah!"

Deeply gasping for breath, the figure widely opened up his eyes and lifted his body up in a state of utter panic. Steadily breathing in and out, he placed a large russet paw over his racing heart before stretching the pain that coursed through his neck. Getting a quick survey of his surroundings, he finally calmed himself back down to how he originally was.

Trying to get comfortable once again, the figure laid on his back again and stared up at the stalactites that grew down from the roof of the underwater cave he currently occupied. While it was mostly dark around where he laid in, the thin amount of shining turquoise coming from his right confirmed that it was definitely daylight.

The russet-furred figure looked around for any signs of something out of the ordinary, only to realize that there was no danger to be seen. He then looked at the unadulterated sand that was scattered abroad the ocean floor, additionally glimpsing down at his russet torso and his emerald tail that delicately glimmered within the dim lighting.

Realizing that the coast was clear, the mer-fox rubbed his eyes and swam to another corner of the cave. He was more than grateful for the light to be shining in from the exit to the space he was in, because right now he really needed to just swim around and try to get over the horror he endured in his sleep.

He couldn't quite remember everything, but the bits and pieces he could recollect were quite spooky in nature. All he could remember from the fresh nightmare was that he was minding his own business, but suddenly he heard his name being called before he ended up being swallowed up into dark waters. That part of the night terror still made him shudder; the darkness was far from anything than he could have possibly imagined.

Get a grip, Nicholas, he told himself. Don't let those dreams get into your head!

A grunt that came from a familiar voice rang in his ears, reverberating from behind him.

"Nicholas," the voice said, sounding annoyed. "You better have an explanation for your outbursts last night. I barely got a wink of sleep because of you, you know that?"

A sudden swooshing sound stirred within the water, being a single sound that almost seemed to echo against the area of the cave. The source of the irritated voice now became fully visible within the light. The figure had large, pointy ears on the top of his head, with a coat of cream-colored fur from his leading down to his torso. From the waist down, the bottom half of his figure consisted of eight tentacles, reminiscent to that of an octopus.

"Fin," Nicholas apologized, frowning. "I am so, so sorry."

The fennec cecaelia swam forward, rubbing his paws over his sleep-deprived eyes. "All I heard last night was you screamin' to something. You were yelling something like, 'Who are you? How do you know my name?'"

"Look," the mer-fox said, "I'm sorry but I was havin' some pretty bad dreams. Something was, like, chasing me down and then I just- I don't even know how to explain it. But if you would've had the same dreams that I was having, you'd probably be doin' the same thing, I'll tell ya that much."

"Alright, let's get out of here," the fennec replied, looking out into the vast water that awaited them outside of the space they occupied.

"Amen to that," Nicholas murmured.

The mer-fox swam over to a corner to find a bag he had stored within the cave. The jingling sound of coins clinking together came from inside of the bag as Nicholas securely clenched it in his paw and swam off into the turquoise expanse. The cave that the two occupied as their considerable living quarters gradually faded away from view as they propelled themselves forward within the cerulean waters. Schools of various colorful fish could be seen going in all directions. Looking downward, Nicholas caught a glimpse of some of the deep sea rocks that seemed to serve as additional decorations to the sand below him. Way out in the distance, he could faintly see what looked like assemblage of buildings.

After a few minutes of continuously swimming forward, Nicholas found himself pleasantly coming through an area that was familiar to most. An array of elegant eateries and decorative shops selling their selections of exorbitantly-priced items surrounded both sides of the area the mer-fox had just entered. Various mermammals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes swam left and right, going about with their usual day-to-day business.

The dream popped up again in the mer-fox's brain, the part in which some unseeable forcefully pulled him into the dark replayed in back of his brain. Maybe that dream was trying to let me in on something. But if so, then what in the deep blue is it trying to tell me? If that would be case, the dark was obviously something bad...

Stopping at the very end of one corner in the district, where some luxuriously designed townhouses could be spotted, Nicholas caught sight of another restaurant opening its doors for the day. With the turning of the sign to indicate the restaurant was now open for another day of business, Nicholas sensed his stomach beginning to growl. It had been a fair amount of time since he had something to eat, and now was more than likely a good time to treat himself to something palatable.

The aromas of what was served within the restaurant hit his nostrils upon someone exiting the establishment, the scents seemed to be a wordless beckon to the mer-fox to go inside. The mer-fox gently put on a smile for the moment

"Come on, Fin," Nicholas said, swimming over to the restaurant's main entrance. "We probably got just enough currency on us to grab a bite, and the food here's not gonna eat itself."

"I'm right behind you," Fin called from behind him.

Author's Note: Hey there, everyone! First off, I want to say "thanks" to everyone who's been giving my stories a read. I also hope that you'll enjoy what else I have in store for this ridiculous little story I'm conjuring up.

Now that we have the mer-fox version of Nicholas incorporated into the storyline, pretty sure things we'll get interesting from there. :)

Hope I did a decent job with his introduction, as well as the introduction of the underwater twist on Finnick. For Finnick, I decided to depict him in this underwater world as a cecaelia, another type of undersea creature from mythology, instead of a mer-fox like Nick. For an idea of how Finnick would look, I'd think of something similar to the appearance of Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed this chapter. And as always, don't be afraid to let me know your thoughts. Feedback, good and bad, is gladly appreciated.

'Til next time! :D