This chapter has a cat in the water. Wait, what?

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.

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It was ten in the morning when Arthur woke up, groggy and hungover, to find Francis lying on top of him fast asleep. He looked at the man in shocked silence before shoving him off and quickly getting to his feet. That was when the full force of his hangover hit him. Clutching his aching head he looked around to see if anyone else was awake. The centaurs were fast asleep on one side of the room with empty bottles scattered around them. Antonio was asleep in the corner with the dwarves curled up in his arms. Even Kiku had fallen asleep on the table, a half-empty bottle of beer by his mouth.

"Bloody hell," Arthur cursed. "Can't anyone hold their liquor?"

"Oh, you're awake!" Came Elizaveta's voice. She stood by the kitchen doorway, smiling and with a camera in her hand. "About time, we're way behind schedule."

"Didn't you drink at all last night?" Arthur asked her.

The fawn shook her head. "I had enough sense not to touch the stuff."

"I knew I made you my general for a reason." Looking at his soldiers on the ground, he said to her, "Well, we better wake them up."

Although waking everyone up proved difficult (that elf could sleep through an earthquake) soon they were all awake and shrugging off the remnants of last night's events. It was at breakfast that Arthur announced that they would be continuing on their journey.

"Ve, I was hoping you'd stay longer!" Feliciano said when they were all by the door. "But you'll come back and visit, right?" He looked at Ludwig hopefully.

"Er, yes, we'll be back to visit." Ludwig replied and he blushed profusely when the dwarf hugged him tightly.

After telling Elizaveta to put her camera away, Arthur turned to Antonio. "Thank you for allowing us to stay in your home for the night. Er, sorry about drinking all your of beer, too."

"It's no problem." The elf replied with a sunny smile on his face. "And…I wish you all the best of luck on your journey. If you ever need an extra hand, the elves of Europia are always here to help. "

Arthur smiled back at him. "Thanks."

"Remember to visit~!" Feliciano waved to them as they rode away.

"Just don't bring that pervert with you!" Lovino called out.

"Lovi, don't be rude!" Antonio scolded and tugged on his curl. Lovino let out a screech and head-butted the elf the stomach.

Francis laughed at the sight and whispered into Arthur's ear, "Talking unicorns, cowardly centaurs, and head-butting dwarves? What next, do the vampires here sparkle?"

"Good God, no!" Arthur replied. "Why the hell would they do that?"

After two hours of walking the troop finally reached the edge of the forest. The bright sun greeted them as they stepped out of the forest floor. "Good work, lads! We're that much closer to our goal!"

"Could we take a short break then? Those training exercises Ludwig put me through were exhausting." Francis asked and sat on a nearby rock.

"Now's not the time to stop!" Elizaveta said. "We're not far from the next checkpoint."

Francis groaned. "But I am so tired. Si'l vous plait, Arthur?"

"No." Arthur replied. "Now get up off your lazy French ass and get moving."

"Maybe you could help me move my sexy French ass, hmm? Ouch! I was only kidding, mon ami! You didn't have to hit so hard!"

Francis got up and gingerly touched the new lump on his head. "What's this next checkpoint, anyway?"

"Shut your bloody mouth for a second and you'll hear it." Arthur told him. Francis scowled but kept quiet. He heard the familiar sloshing and splashing of water coming from beyond the bushes.

"Water?"

Ludwig nodded. "The Great Medlantic Lake, said to be the largest lake in the world."

"The largest? I've seen some pretty large ones before." Francis said.

Arthur grinned. "Not one as large as this." He and Kiku led them down the narrow path through the bushes towards the sound of the lake. A few branches in the face later, Francis was looking at the largest lake he had ever seen.

"Sacre bleu!" He said, staring at the blue waters of the Great Medlantic Lake. "Is this even a lake? It looks as big as an ocean!"

"No, the oceans are definitely bigger." Elizaveta replied.

"But I can't even see any land on the other side!" Francis paused. "Wait a minute, how are we going to cross this thing?"

Arthur hopped off of Kiku. "We're going to swim, of course."

"Swim?" Francis gaped. "You mean the whole way? Mon dieu, I don't think I can keep my head up for that long."

Elizaveta laughed. "Oh no, we won't be swimming above the water."

Francis gave her a curious look, but before he could ask any questions Arthur had pulled his magic wand out. He chanted words Francis didn't understand and waved his wand around himself. With one final wave a large bubble emitted from the end of his wand and placed itself around his head.

"This," England said, tapping the bubble around his head lightly, "is how we're going to breathe underwater. It's a magical air bubble."

"That's amazing." Francis replied, staring at the bubble in awe. "But I think I saw a spell like that in Harry Potter."

Arthur smirked. "Where do you think Rowling got the idea? Now get your arse over here so I can do you."

"Ohoho~" Francis grinned and received a sharp blow to the head for it.

Ten minutes later the team found themselves in the warm waters of the Great Medlantic Lake. Each had a bubble around their head giving them an ample supply of air. Elizaveta swam ahead of the group, leading the way. "Stick close together. Strange creatures live in these waters."

"I'm in the biggest lake I've ever seen with a fawn, talking unicorn, a group of centaurs, and Arthur." Francis scoffed. "How can it get any weirder than that?"

"You could be facing a giant lion underwater." Kiku said.

"Kiku, don't frighten the idiot. He might piss his pants and we all don't want to swim in that." Arthur chided.

"But your majesty, there's one right over there." Kiku pointed his horn to the left. Francis turned and sure enough, resting on the lake bed, was a real live giant lion.

Francis froze on the spot. Arthur signaled for them to stop swimming. The lion didn't move. Elizaveta gave Ludwig a nod and the centaur swam closer to it. The lion gave no response. After close examination he declared it asleep. The troop breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, men." Arthur whispered. "We got lucky this time, but we still have to get past him. Now don't make any loud noises that could wake him up –"

"MON DIEU! IT'S A GIANT UNDERWATER LION! SWIM FOR YOUR LIVESSSS!"

The nearest centaur quickly grabbed hold of the panicking Frenchman and Arthur clamped a hand to his mouth. But it was too late, the lion had woken.

"Uhn, who woke me up? I was having a nice dream about cats." The lion yawned and stretched its large body. It looked around and saw the group before him frozen in terror. "Hmm? What are you guys doing here? No one ever comes down here."

At that moment Ludwig swam forward and took out his sword. He pointed it towards the great beast and said, "Let us pass and we won't hurt you."

The lion blinked at the sword before replying. "I'm guess I should fight you." It raised a giant paw, ready to swipe at them, but it lazily dropped back to its side. "But I'm really sleepy."

Francis looked at the lion carefully. The way it spoke, how sleepy it sounded, it all reminded him of someone back home. He just couldn't place his finger on whom exactly. "W-what are you?"

"I'm the SeaLion of the lake." It replied. "I'm supposed to attack any trespassers to stop them from entering. There haven't been many lately, so all I've done is sleep and play with my CatFish."

"Greece!" Francis exclaimed. That's who the SeaLion reminded him of. The brown mane, green eyes, and tanned coloured fur. There was even that funny cowlick at the back of his head that looked like the one the cat-loving country back home had.

Ignoring the sudden exclamation, Arthur asked the SeaLion, "So you aren't going to attack us?" The SeaLion nodded. "You're going to letting us go?"

"I never said that." The SeaLion raised his head and roared at the blue waters of the lake. The sound sent shockwaves towards them, and the troop covered their ears until he lowered his head again.

There was silence. No one moved. No one spoke. Suddenly, an arrow whizzed past Arthur's ear, missing him by inches. The centaurs moved in around their king, swords at the ready. They looked around for the source of the arrow and saw figures swimming towards them seemingly from no where. When they got closer they saw hundreds of creatures with human torsos and tails of fish with weapons pointed directly at them. They were surrounded. A voice spoke from somewhere within the circle.

"Invade their vital regions."

[End Chapter 12]

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Why yes, that is an army of mermen. And who just happens to be their leader? Some of you may need to rethink your guesses for who the Evil Warlock is.

A quick note on the name "Medlantic". Since mermen were to live in the lake, I thought that I'd search up where Atlantis is supposed to be and play around with the name like I did with Europia. Apparently Atlantis could be in the Atlantic ocean or the Mediterranean, so I combined their names to create the Great Medlantic Lake, as big as an ocean and just as deep.

Review the chapter and tell me your thoughts!