Hali's initial reaction, was to shoot an annoyed look at her clueless father, but then she remembered, that nobody besides her really knew what was going on. Still, Sebastian could have filled her family in on the tiny details. Sometimes that crab could make a bad situation even worse, yet Seby would always hold a special place in her princess sized heart. On top of the humongous task of bringing her saviors up to speed, she had the added bonus of fixing Xavier before he died on her. A girl who had just regained her consciousness just a few moments ago, couldn't ask for more!

'I can't believe stupid Melody kissed them both,' Hali thought to herself, 'some sister she is. But I'll get her back. Just wait when we're all out of this mess, Lance...'

"Hali," Ariel's voice interrupted the girl's train of thought, "your father asked you about a book of some sort?"

"Oh, yeah," Hali scratched her head, "Murphy's book about the history of mermen, and their old magic. It was written in Ancient Atlantican."

"Ancient Atlantican?" Ariel questioned in surprise, "Even my sisters and I never learned that language! Daddy said it was a dead language, and we needn't bother."

"Well," explained Hali, "I didn't exactly learn the language, you see. Murphy said I simply needed to look within my heart, because I already knew the language. He was right, too."

"Darling," Ariel said soothingly, "your words aren't making any sense."

"Who is this Murphy fellow we keep hearing about?" Eric asked again.

Upon hearing the name Murphy, Hali's eyes began to tear up once again. Poor Murphy. Hali's own dear, long lost great uncle was taken from her forever. Tiamat had better watch her back, or else.

"Murphy," Hali took in a deep, calming breath, "was the Keeper of Atlantica's history, people called him the Guardian."

"The Guardian?" repeated Eric.

"Yes," Hali said confidently, "but there's more."

"How much more," Eric's tone was as impatient as ever.

Hali looked comfortingly into her mother's eyes, "Murphy was grandpa's brother."

Ariel gave a snort of disbelief, checking Hali's forehead to make sure Melody hadn't made a mistake regarding Hali's temperature.

"Hali, darling," Ariel said kindly, "I think I would know, if my father had a brother. Don't you think he would have mentioned him before. Attina never even mentioned Daddy's having a brother, and she should know."

"How is Grandpa?" Hali asked, suddenly remembering King Triton's sorry state.

"He's not doing to well, Hali," informed Ariel, "he was barely breathing when I was with him last, and the entire Kingdom was heading to Olympia..."

"Olympia?" Hali puzzled, "Why?"

"Attina took temporary command of the throne," Ariel explained, "King Augustus and Prince Thor granted our kingdom asylum. Attina said something about a dragon."

"The Dragon!" shouted Hali as she rose form the bed quickly, but soon became dizzy, and fell back down on the bed, beside the still unconscious Xavier.

"You need to rest more, darling," Ariel ordered.

"There's no time," Hali challenged, "Tiamat could be anywhere, Atlantica and the ocean is in peril, and Xavier's life is hanging by a thread!"

"Your mother's right," Eric interjected, "you're no good to anyone, if you still feel unwell."

Ignoring her father's concerns, Hali thought out loud, "If only I had Our Peoples' History, I could use it to heal Xavier like Murphy used it to mend that gash in my arm."

"What gash?" Ariel shrieked.

"Damn that Tiamat for stealing my book!"

"Hali," Eric's voice boomed, "answer your mother."

"I thought it was Murphy's book," Melody said quite amused by now.

"Well, it's mine now," clarified Hali, "I'm the new Keeper, anyway."

"What is going on?" Ariel and Eric cried in unison.

Everyone was so fixedly staring at Hali that they did not notice the figures of two large creatures slip into the still open door. The sea creatures advanced the length of the room, and swam directly towards Hali.

"Princess, your awake," Kailani said nudging her lovingly, "look, Hachi, Princess is awake."

"I see," Hachi wrapped his eight great tentacles around Hali's body in a sort of hug, "I'm glad to see you are well, Princess."

Of course, the wide eyed, open mouthed individuals who were watching the scene unfold, had no idea what was going on. Not a single one of them could hear either of the animals speak, and quite frankly, it looked as if a huge blue octopus was attacking Hali. For once, it seemed that Sam and Eric shared the same idea. Both men sprung into action, turning Murphy's humble shack into a disaster area, searching for something, anything that would pry the monster loose. Sam found it first, an ornate dagger, with pearls deep-seated into the black handle. He swam hurriedly to Hali's side, and raised the dagger's curved blade high, in order to stab the beast, multiple times if he had to.

"No!" Hali screamed, "Hachi is my friend!"

Sam stopped his arm, midway through his thrust, dagger still in hand.

"Friend?" He blinked away the confusion, "Lorelei, this is a wild animal."

"No," Hali said again, pouting this time, "these are my friends, Hachi and Kailani, and they were just expressing their joy at seeing me up and about again."

"Hali," Melody began genuinely concerned for her sister's sanity, "these creatures can't talk."

"Oh, yes they can," protested Hali.

"Darling," Ariel comforted, "we were all right here in this room, and not a single one of us heard the animals say anything, not a word."

"That's because," Hali was terrible offended at her family's display of doubt, "they only speak to a Guardian, like me."

Ultra Special Blah Blah Blah

Ha! I promised two chapter today, and I succeeded! I only had to post this about eight hours later, because my internet connection dropped again, and it was out all day. But Huzzah for me!

How did I spend my day then, you ask. I colored over my avatar with Microsoft paint. Go to my profile and check it out!

xJadeRainx