And now for something a little different...
Chapter 1
Misty looked closely at her reflection, making sure she didn't leave a single hair on her head unaccounted for. Although focused on her hair, she could see Dawn floating behind her out of the corner of her eye.
"Almost done?" she asked.
"Just one more pearl," Misty said as she fastened the last of her pearls onto her head. "There! How do I look?"
"Beautiful, as always," Dawn replied with a smile.
"Aw, Dawn," Misty blushed as she swam to the side, allowing Dawn to swim over and do her hair next. As she fastened the first of her signature yellow shells into her hair, their youngest sister swam out to them, dreamily humming a happy tune.
"Well, someone's in a good mood," Misty smirked.
"Slept well, Serena?" Dawn said as she started working on her other shell.
"Sure did!" Serena replied, floating upright as she turned to them. "I'm so excited for tomorrow, I can barely think of anything else!"
"Can't blame you for that," Dawn giggled as she finished fastening her shell into her hair. "All of us could barely stay still when it was time for our rites of passage." She swam away from the mirror, and Serena came over to take her place.
"Oh, just think about it!" she sighed dreamily as she began the long and arduous task of getting her hair done. "In less than 24 hours, I'll finally be able to see the surface with my own eyes! Oh, I know that I will love that world, and all the beautiful humans who live up there!"
"Easy there, sister," Misty smirked as she floated over to her. "It's not all fun and games up there, remember. Humans aren't always gonna marvel at you when they see you; some of them are actually quite dangerous."
"You're not kidding," Dawn shuddered, remembering a nearly fatal encounter with a particularly cruel band of pirates. "I just hope our baby sister doesn't have to worry that she'll run into one of those monsters."
"Dawn!" Serena protested, whipping her head around to glare at her sister. Unfortunately, she didn't think this through, as her golden hair whipped with her and proceeded to smack her in the face. Despite their efforts, Misty and Dawn couldn't help but burst out laughing, while Serena gently pushed her hair back to give a deadpan glare. "You know I don't like being called a baby," she grumbled.
"Oh, get over yourself," Misty chuckled. "We're never gonna drop that nickname, and you know it." Serena rolled her eyes and continued to work on her hair. "And speaking of sisters, I think someone's oversleeping again," she smirked, glancing at a large shelldoor that had yet to be touched that evening.
"I'll take care of her," Dawn said, swimming over and pushing the shelldoor open. In the corner of the room, a large, Clamperl-esque shell was shut tight. She swam over to it and started flicking it with her tailfin. "Come on, May! Up and at 'em!"
"Mmph," came a voice from inside the shell, muffled slightly due to being closed in. "Five more minutes."
"No, May," Dawn replied, bending down so that her face was right next to the crack in the shell. "We have a big night tonight, remember? If we wanna make the most of it, we need to get ready now. So come on out!"
"Ugh," the voice moaned. "Fine. I'll be out in five."
"Atta girl!" Dawn giggled, and she swam away out the seashell door. A moment later, the shellbed opened, and May floated up, stretching her arms before flicking her tail around.
"What am I gonna do with them?" she mumbled, smirking to herself as she started to swim over to the side of her room, where a small mirror lay. She picked it up and checked her hair, using a handmade seashell comb to get rid of her bedhead. Unlike the other mermaids, who had long, beautiful hair that cascaded down to their waist, May's hair was short, only reaching down to her shoulders, and stylized so that it hung down on both sides. While it wasn't conventional for a mermaid, she liked the way it looked on her, not to mention it made it easier to get it out of her face if the need arose. In addition, while her sisters wore seashells over their chests, May opted instead to wear seascales, which she always found to be much more comfortable.
Once her hair was in place, she started to swim over to the door, only to hear a small whine from behind her. She turned around and noticed a small, blue sea lion Pokemon looking at her tiredly.
"Oh, Popplio!" she exclaimed, swimming over to the little Pokemon. "I'm so sorry, I almost forgot about you!" She scratched Popplio behind the ears before swimming over to a contraption and pulling a small lever. The contraption whirred a moment before pushing small, oyster-like food out. The food floated in the water a moment before sinking down into a small bowl. When the bowl was full, May pulled the lever back up, and the whirring stopped.
"There you go!" she said as Popplio swam over and started eagerly eating. "All right. I'm gonna be out with my sisters for the day, so I need you to behave while I'm gone. Understood?" Popplio looked up at her, a slightly sad expression in its eyes as she munched on her food. May sighed and floated down, kneeling in front of the Pokemon. "I know, I know," she said, gently stroking her back. "Don't worry. After tomorrow, we'll get right back to work on getting you back home, all right?" Popplio barked happily and darted into May, snuggling into her chest. May giggled as she hugged the little Pokemon. "All right," she said, pulling her away. "I gotta go now. Remember to behave yourself while I'm gone."
"May! Get your sorry little tailfin out here right now!"
May sighed when she heard Dawn's voice from outside the shelldoor. "Coming," she said half-heartedly. She was about to swim for the door, but then something above her caught her eye: a hole in the ceiling big enough for a mermaid to swim through. She smirked mischievously and swam up through the hole, swimming through a short corridor that led directly outside her room, where her sisters were. Sure enough, when she peeked out from above, she saw them all floating right outside her shelldoor, glaring.
"What could possibly be keeping her busy?!" Serena grumbled.
"Probably decorating her tail again," Dawn muttered.
"I will never understand why she does that," Misty muttered. "No one else I know decorates their tails the way she does." Unseen by her sisters, May swam down behind them and positioned herself upright.
"Hey girls!" she said cheerily. Their reaction was exactly what she was hoping for: they whipped around, yelping in surprise, while May keeled over laughing her tailfin off.
"May!" Dawn exclaimed. "Don't scare us like that!"
"Oh, come off it, Dawn," Misty chuckled, getting over her shock fairly quickly. "That was pretty good, May."
"How did you slip out without us noticing?" Serena asked. At this, May rolled her eyes.
"Serena, we've been over this a dozen times," May said, pointing up. "I just swam through the old corridor."
"Oh, that," Serena mumbled. "Honestly, why do you like that so much? It's just an old secret passage."
"It is not!" May protested, putting her hands on her hips. "Mermaids used to use it all the time to get from one room to another! We only stopped in the last hundred or so years because we decided we wanted doors like humans!"
"And that was a great decision!" Serena grinned. "It makes navigating the palace so much easier!"
"It also makes it boring," May muttered.
"Boring?" Serena blinked. "You mean just like everything else down here?"
"I'm sorry, what?" May blinked, confused and slightly annoyed.
"Okay, that's enough, you two," Misty said, floating between them. "Today's a special day for us, so I don't want you two getting into another big fight."
"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "We don't wanna repeat the whole anchor-to-shark incident, right?"
"No," May and Serena groaned at the same time, clearly uncomfortable about her even mentioning that.
"All right, let's head out to sea!" Misty grinned. "We've got a lot to do, and only so much time before the sun rises!" With that, she swam out the large shelldoor leading to the main hall of the palace. Dawn and Serena followed swiftly, and May was right behind them. They swam through the halls of the palace, passing by various royal officials, along with visitors from the settlements outside the palace. As they glided through the hall, May smiled as she felt the ocean water flowing across her skin. Losing herself in the moment, she twirled around as she swam, the scales on her tail shimmering as she did so. It wasn't long before they arrived in the main hall. There, floating in the middle of the room, was the Mertriarch, their mother Cynthia. She smiled as she watched her daughters swim through, knowing what they had planned for the day. As Misty, Dawn, and Serena came and greeted her, May floated behind as she looked out the hall leading out to the front of the palace, where the ocean awaited them.
I wonder if we'll see a school of Luvdisc today she thought as she floated there. They're pretty rare down this deep. If we can get a good view of them and see where they come from, maybe I can finish calibrating my map and finally get Popplio home!
"Hurry up, May!"
She shook her head as she saw Dawn yelling back at her, realizing she'd fallen slightly behind as she got lost in thought. She quickly swam after them, going so fast that when she caught up to them, she had to push her fins out in front of her and flick them quickly to slow herself down until she was floating right next to her sisters, who sweatdropped at her antics.
"Ready?" Misty asked.
"Ready," the other three nodded, and they swam out into the open ocean, ready for a fun-filled night under the light of the nearly-full moon.