Author's note: Not much to say except enjoy! Ps, I'm taking next week off to work more on the chapters. I'm finally getting some more time to myself and I want to take full advantage of it.
"I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I have looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life."- Leni Riefenstahl
Chapter 4: The Mission.
The doors to Gajeel's bedroom opened and revealed a grand bedroom. Levy swam into the room and was surprised at what she saw; at one side there was a grand bed with large pillars and a canopy covering the bed and giving the Prince of the Seas the privacy he desires at moments. On the other side, another bed was found and was built similarly to Gajeel's, but the only difference was it was more feminite in appearance. The room was a dark color and seemed to have been made from a combonation of ground coral, sand and a hard cement like substance used to keep it all together. There was a desk on both sides of the room, each meant for the person who's side of the room that was, a large vanity mirror on Levy's side, a set of swords on Gajeel's and a closet which now had tops and accessories for both the Prince and his guest.
"Amazing." said an awe inspired Levy "But, how is it you were able to get everything to stay on the seafloor? Water is supposed to be anti-gravity. Everything here should be floating to the ceiling?" Gajeel stiffled a laugh at her question.
"You humans don't know shit about us don't ya?" Gajeel asked.
"No." Levy jeered "In fact, I didn't even believe your kind existed until earlier today."
"As you're aware of minnow, we use magic in this world. After years and years of our crap floating up, we decided to use magic to solve the issue by placing an enchantment on the whole damn kingdom. Why none of this garbage ain't floating and why we're having this conversation. Gihi."
"So you mean to tell me that everything here is magic and no science?"
"The fuck's science?" that told Levy everything she needed to know. A knock was heard on the door and it caused the two Merpeople to look at the door.
"Enter." Gajeel called out. A Merman swam into the room, wearing armor with an odd emblem on it that seemed oddly familliar to Levy. She knew that symbol but where she's seen it, she couldn't remember "The hell you want?" the prince snapped at the Merman.
"Sire," explained "Your father had requested me to retrieve you and your "guest". Dinner has been prepared."
"Ugh finally. Thought that damn chef was gonna make me starve. Come on land-dweller, we got dinner waiting." he then took her by the wrist firmly and waded through the waters to the dining hall.
The Dining hall was a large, aquamarine colored room that could fit up to fifty people-err Merpeople. The room was adorned with multiple paintings of different eras that Levy knew to have been lost at sea, or were portraits of each of the Royal Family members. Levy noticed the largest portrait was that of Metalicana which showed who the current ruler was. She noticed there wasn't one for Gajeel, which she immediately deduced that it was because he hasn't taken the throne yet therefore he doesn't have a painting. There were multiple chairs that each were made from fine wood and a large chair adorned the end. Surrounding the large chair were others around it's size but not as elegant or as large. Levy theorized that this was for the Royal Family. Gajeel swam over to his normal seat and began to sit but noticed Levy still in the spot she was.
"The fuck you doing over there?" Gajeel asked her "You sitting with us." she blinked owlishly to those words.
"Y-you want me to sit with you?" she parried.
"Do I look like I bite?" he jeered "Get over here! I ain't having you all the way on the other side for this!" hesitantly, Levy swam over to the table and took the chair across Gajeel. The large set of doors opened, his highness and two guards swam into the room and stood guard as the king sat in his chair. A chef came in and began to serve the meals to the Royal family. Levy looked at her plate when it was placed in front of her. It was a gold colored plate that was garnished with seaweed, shrimp, lobster and small bits of clam. She felt hesitant to eat it since she was in front of Royalty; but after seeing how the king ate his meal, Levy decided to try and copy him. She took a bite out of the shrimp and was amazed by the flavor of the food. It bursted with a mouth watering melody of spices, the taste of the sea and spices from the Human World-wait, the Human world spices are in this?
"Excuse me." Levy suddenly said after swallowing her bite "But, I just noticed a few spices that I'm familiar with back in my world. How did you get them?"
"I expected you to recognize a few of the spices we use in our cuisine." Metalicana admitted "Indeed, we do use some human goods for our ways of life. We have a few of our people who chose to spy on the Human world for us. Every now and then we'll willingly take supplies from our world and trade it for Human source goods. We may not like the human world, but we see that a few of their goods are beneficial." she nodded in understanding before taking another bite of her dish. The doors swung open to Juvia and Pantherlily who swam into the room to join the dinner.
"Sorry we're late." Pantherlily sighed "We had to return the plans back to the War room."
"Understood. Just make sure the War room is heavily guarded."
"It was when I left it."
"Excellent."
"Ummm..." Levy hummed "Pardon me your Highness, but if you don't mind, I have a few questions to ask." The king put his fork down and looked at the "guest".
"Speak your mind girl." he spoken. She took a deep, deep breath and spoke her mind.
"What am I here for? What is this mission I have to help you with?"
"Think we should tell her now, son?" the king turned to his son.
"May as well." Gajeel shrugged "Our way of life is in deep shit. There's a factory on the shores that have been dumping into our oceans." Levy's mouth went agape at those words.
"T-that's terrible!"
"It's mainly run off that has been polluting our eco-system. We've dealt with run-off like this before; but it seems different some how."
"Different how?" pryed Levy.
"We don't know." Lily added "But it's killing our plankton at a rapid rate and our marine life is growing ill. We even have a few of our people in medical care they've grown so sick." Levy felt her gut wretch at those words, she didn't know these Merpeople; but hearing they were growing ill over something her kind was doing to them, she had to help in some way "The name of the culprit behind the pollution is a company called Tartaros." Levy's eyes reamed the moment she heard those words.
"Wait, Tartaros?! As in Tartaros Environmental Corporations?!"
"That's the one." King Metalicana confirmed.
"They're a big environmental company that's supposed to be against harm to the environment."
"Well they sure as hell ain't." Gajeel replied "They've been dumping their shit all over the fucking place."
"M-my God!" Levy jarred "I can't believe this! I seriously thought they were something good!"
"Juvia can assure you they aren't." Juvia assured "Juvia witnessed them dump strange liquids into the ocean and just see it as if it was their trash can."
"The reason I brought ya here shrimp," elucidated Gajeel "You'd know more than us about the human world. You'd know what the fucking crap they're throwing into the ocean is." Levy felt hesitant at first but she sighed and gave her answer.
"I'll do it." Gajeel smiled at her words.
"What I hoped to hear." the five finished their meals before the king let out a yawn.
"I think it's time for me to retire." Metalicana admitted "Good night all." he looked at his son and then said "Good night you Posiden-saken brat."
"G'Night ya old sea dog." Gajeel grumbled back. Metalicana looked as if he wanted to say something more but he held his tongue and returned to his room. Eventually, Juvia and Pantherlily decided it was best to retire for the night, leaving Gajeel and Levy alone.
"Come on," Gajeel sighed "better hit the sack." he swam over to Levy and surprisingly pulled the chair back for her, causing her cheeks to turn a bright, bright, red. She got up from the chair and joined Gajeel in their swim back into their shared room. The two of them entered the room and made their ways to their separate beds. She opened the curtains to reveal gold colored fabrics that was a matching set of pillows and blankets. She tucked herself into the set and immediately felt like she was at home in those fabrics.
"Good night minnow!" Gajeel called out from his bed.
"I have a name you know!" Levy shot back.
"Well as long as your here, I'm calling you whatever the hell I want." Levy gritted her teeth to those words and was pretty startled when she heard snores rip through the water. Damn, did he fall asleep that fast?! As she tried to get comfortable enough to sleep, Levy began to remember something important; her friends. She's been gone for more than five hours and her friends were probably looking for her! Oh God, they were probably going nuts by now! What made it worse was that she didn't even reconcile with her friends. Their fight earlier today was probably the worst one she ever got into with them. If only she could tell them she was ok, if only she could tell them what she was involved in, if only she could show them her situation. Tears streamed down Levy's cheeks and she held back each and every sob that her body let out, she had someone sleeping in the room with her and she didn't want him to hear her cries. As she continued to try and breathe, her calming breaths eventually lulled her to sleep.
"LEVY!" Lucy hollered across the ocean "LEVY! WHERE ARE YOU?!" She was on her family boat with Jet, Droy, Erza, Gray and Natsu. They were steering the boat all over the area, calling Levy's name every few seconds.
"Lucy," Jet worriedly said "we've been at this for hours. Don't you think it's time we called the police?"
"No! She's out there! And Akane's police won't do anything unless she's been missing for over fourty-eight hours!"
"She's right." Erza sighed "For all we know, Levy could've wandered off somewhere or could be back at the house." as the boat continued to sail through the sea at night, something caught Gray's attention.
"Wait," he called out "the hell is that?!" he pointed out something on the starboard of the boat and everyone pulled out their cellphones. A flashlight feature on their phones were turned on and they shined the lights in the direction Gray was pointing in. There, they found a surfboard lying in the still water.
"Let's get in closer!" Lucy ordered. Natsu pressed a few buttons on the boat and soon, they made their way over to the surfboard. Gray pulled the board out of the water and they shined their phones on it.
"T-that's Levy's board!" Droy baffled "I recognize it anywhere!" Erza studied the board in a forensic scientist like manner and noticed something right away.
"The safety harness on this had been cut off by something." Erza announced "With a knife of some sort. This was no accident. Levy's out there and we have to find her." now knowing that their friend could be in some kind of danger, they made their way back to the surface while Lucy had two thoughts in her mind: Where was Levy and what if her friend was right all along?