Present.

"Isn't this amazing? The salty sea air! The wind blowing in your face!" Erica sighed in content while Max, her Old English Sheepdog, barked in excitement. "Perfect day to be at sea."

"Extremely-" Unfortunately, Grim couldn't finish his thought. He suddenly felt an urge to puke as Erica happily took in the view and secured the loose knots.

Erica loved sailing dearly. Her father taught her how to control the sea currents at a young age. The best memories she made with her father were always on his boat. Unfortunately Erica's father passed away not too long ago. It was sudden and it hadn't sunk in yet that Erica was an orphan. Rather than mourn her losses, she promised herself to keep things light. Not everything had to be serious and gloomy if there's a brighter perceptive to follow.

Erica followed this idea she made: the more she wanders the sea, the more she felt free, and the easier it was to breathe.

Some would say she was running from her problems or tried to ignore the fact that she had no parents but who would want to go through that pain when there was a way out. And, so far, it was working out in her favor. Erica couldn't have felt any better; she felt on top of the world! At least, she appeared to be happy.

"Grim, you should enjoy this while we're here! It doesn't last forever, bean pole." Grim glared at her but couldn't say anything else without feeling the vomit sitting in his throat.

Grim had quite the opposite idea of fun compared to his little cousin, Erica. While he would admit to trudging through the most terrifying trenches just for her, he couldn't stand the feeling of being out at sea. The things he would sacrifice for her (now) rare, goofy smile. Especially, since today was Erica's 17th birthday and her first birthday without her father.

From where Grim stood, he could clearly see the change in her expression as the darkness began clouding her eyes. She stood at the rails tense and for a quick second, her wide grin settled into a slight grimace. Not many people would notice but when he heard the absence of Max's barks and the silence was too loud to bear, he realized Erica was stuck in her thoughts.

Her natural pale blue eyes reflected the storm on the dark end of the horizon and, just for a moment, she was unreadable. But, Grim knew her better than anyone else and clearly saw her gleeful persona hiding the fact that she was at her limit. He couldn't blame her. It was hard enough to accept her situation but moving across the country away from what she loved to live with extended family that she hasn't seen since she was a child was hard to handle to say the least. And, yet despite all the things she's gone through, Erica tries her best to not let it overwhelm her. Albeit, not in a way Grim would think was healthy.

She finally spoke in a quiet voice. Her light was diminishing and reality was slowly making itself known.

"Thank you, Grim. I know you hate sailing but thank you for being here. I really needed you with me."

"Yeah, of course I'd be here. You don't have to ask twice."

"But, I did." And, just like that, her light attitude came back. The heaviness in the air disappeared as a bright smile found its way back on her face.

"Yeah, well you're still going to pay for my coffee when we get back to shore."

"Of course." Something must have reminded Erica out of her thoughts, as she immediately shook the extra sadness off and hopped on her heels. "But, not before I show you what I've been practicing."

She grabbed the flute from her belt and dragged a barrel to the railings where Grim stood. Doing this caused the boat to rock and triggered Grim's weak stomach to rebel. Not noticing any of this, Erica cleared her throat once she was ready. She patiently glanced at her cousin with an excited smile that showcased her dimples while he puked overboard once again.

"Grimsley, look at me!"

"Pardon my manners. I couldn't help but not hold down my vomit."

She sheepishly glanced at him while Max ran over to Grim jumping to lick his face.

"Sorry, Grim. But, I've had this melody stuck in my head for ages. Listen to this, please?"

The tune was short but sweet and lingering. Erica felt immensely better as she fluently moved her fingers to hit the right notes. Her shoulders relaxed and the sadness in her eyes faded away as she turned around to face the sunset rather than the storm. Even, Grim couldn't deny how at peace she looked. The music's effect even reached Max as he finally reigned in his excitement and laid at her feet in content. And, most surprisingly, Grim's seasickness fluttered away as the boat slowed to a still motion.

It was like magic.

"See, Grim. Now you won't be able forget it. It's a complete and utter ear worm!"

Grim stood there in shock. He hadn't realized Erica stopped playing until she waved her flute in front of his face.

"I'm sorry, Erica. What were you saying?"

Erica gave Grim a knowing look that said 'I told you so' and walked back to her spot by the railings.

"It's... enchanting, isn't it? I heard this tune yesterday at the fish market. It was a boy that was humming. I couldn't see him since it was so crowded but his voice was clear as day."

"Sounds like your smitten." This time Erica gave Grim a disgusted look and in response, Grim held his hands up in surrender. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No need to get all death glare-y on me."

"If you were there Grim and you heard it, you would stop what you were doing." Erica turned around and placed her palms on the railing as she leaned back a little. Her eyes were back to being bright and starry as they were before. "It was magical. I wish I knew who it was."

"I'm sure you'll find him in no time." Grim sarcastically added, "You should put up flyers or send a post on social media. I'm sure he'll come running to you in no time."

"Wouldn't that be creepy, though? I mean, imagine me running around the city to find the guy? I would never do that."

"Good, I'm glad you agree. I was worried you were actually going to do that." Grim grabbed a rubber ball and threw it for Max to fetch it. "I feel like I need to emphasize it again; please, don't do that."

"I just said I wouldn't Grim and besides this is my last year before I go off to college. I can't focus on some... some siren that's going to distract me. It's a death trap, no pun intended."

"I'm just making sure you don't do anything rash. But, with that being said, I hope you're at least doing something at school. You should try to-" Erica cut him off with an exhausted sigh as she rolled her back but poked Grim's cheekd to show she wasn't mad.

"Try to get involved and join clubs and make friends, I know."

"I know you know." Grim gave her nudge before hugging her. "Just live a little this year. There's always time to work and if there's time to work, there's time to have fun."

"Hypocrite. Aren't you working at that mansion as a butler? You're always working!"

"First, that's the mayor's mansion. Second, I'm not a butler, yet. I'm starting off as a valet and then we'll see about a promotion. But, if you want blame anyone about my workaholic nature, blame my boss. I have to work twice as hard as Sebastian if I want a compliment from him. He doesn't know how to chill even if an iceberg hit him in his face."

"You're funny today. That's strange."

"Don't get used to it."

Two weeks ago.

"Don't get used to it, Guppy! I don't slow down for anybody."

"This is what you call slowing down?! Arien, wait for me!" Guppy whispered-screamed at her friend to slow down his pace. Arien was always in rush these days. It was like the world was moving too fast for him and he wanted to beat it for once to make the moment count.

"Guppy, hurry up!" Arien's exhausted friend sighed before finally catching up to him by the fence.

"You know I can't run that fast." Gracie Flounder, or better known as Guppy, was used to the red-head's curious nature and his hasty nature but couldn't stand the running. It was always the running. He could never relax and smell the roses. There was always something he was trying to reach. What that was, she didn't know. All Guppy was thinking about at the moment was how to catch her breath as Arien stared down the abandoned house.

"There it is." While Arien was in awe, Guppy was a nervous wreck to take a step in the direction of the historical house with hundreds of hazards surrounding it. "Isn't it fantastic?"

"Yeah, sure, it-it's great... Now, let's get out here!"

The dilapidated old building sat in the middle of an abandoned street. No one has gone in there for ages, let alone to think it was still valuable. Arien was told from an inside source that the city will topple the building down to make room for a beneficial addition to the city. And, since the building was about to be no more, Arien decided to rummage the house to see if there was anything valuable in there.

And, he was extremely interested in knowing what was in there.

Guppy thought it was strange why Arien would go through the troubles of digging in hazard zones for something he didn't know what he wanted to find. But her judgement lightened when she saw his collections of trinkets and well worn novelties hidden in sight. It was a breathtaking view. Guppy quickly realized that Arien had a knack to find the most beautiful pieces in the most unexpected places.

While Guppy initially thought it was crazy to blunder and raid unsafe areas (with thousands of dangers that could occur), she admired his character to stay resilient and curious. And, since then, Guppy always joined his adventures; partly for the thrill but mainly to keep Arien from doing something even more crazy. Now that isn't to say Guppy didn't enjoy finding beautiful pieces but she prioritized safety first and Arien had a habit in walking into risky situations.

"You're not getting cold feet, now, are you?" Before Guppy could think about walking away from the scene, Arien pulled her wrist to keep moving forward. Not wanting to seem like a coward, Guppy, as expected, followed her friend into what she thought was a death trap. She was not a coward.

"Who, me? No way!" Arien was quite fast to reach the boarded door while Guppy slowly made her way to the entrance. "It's just, uh, it looks like it could come down any second. On second thought, I may be coming down with something."

Guppy feigned a fever as she shut her eyes and felt her forehead as if there was a fever. It was quiet for some time before Guppy opened one eye to see Arien's reaction. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to her but trying to peak inside the house.

"Yeah, I got this cough, too." Guppy tried coughing loud in hopes for Arien to hear her but he wasn't buying it. He had a mischievous gleam in his eyes before he took the boards off the door with the tools in his backpack.

"Alright, I'm going inside. You can just stay here and watch for cops." Arien quickly ran inside the house leaving the oblivious girl in his trails.

"Okay, yeah, you go! And, I'll stay and WHAT?! COPS?!" Guppy looked in Arien's direction to see him not there before she jumped into the house in a hurry. "Arien!"

She reached for Arien's hand before he could move any faster.

"Oh, Guppy. Don't be such a kid." Arien patted her shoulder to show some comfort before moving out of her grip to investigate the house further. He redirected his attention down the hallway looking at the antiques that were placed on the shelves. Guppy had always thought Arien had the attention span of a fish and in the midst of adventure it was at its worst.

"I'm not a kid." Guppy tried to calm down by reassuring herself nothing would happen before she saw a creepy doll falling from the fireplace mantle.

She screamed and fell back into the book shelf which tipped over and broke the study desk and that in turn caused a domino effect of more breaking objects.

"Arien!" Guppy rushed towards Arien, hugging him tightly while she continued to tremble. She was scared out of her wits end and it was all Arien's fault.

"Oh, are you okay?" The bright eyed boy looked down in concern before giving a hug to calm Guppy down. She slowly moved out of his embrace, trying to compose herself and not wanting to give him the satisfaction that she was scared.

"Yeah, sure, no problem. I'm okay." Just as quickly as Guppy stopped shaking, Arien moved his attention back to the broken desk. He hushed his friend before making his way to the damaged sight she caused. Moving the boards out of the way, he had noticed something shining in the middle of the pile.

"Have you ever seen something so beautiful in your entire life?" The object was silver with gold markings engraved into it and green velvet placed on the top and bottom. It resembled an old royalty item, a jewelry box, but didn't open like one. It seemed to be stuck but when Arien turned the box over, he saw a sentence engraved at the bottom. It was too dirty to tell what it said but it was nothing too long. And, it was clear that the object was priceless.

"Wow, that's amazing! But, uh, how do you open it?"

"I'm not sure but I bet Scuttle will know how." Arien turned to grab his backpack before standing up. "We should get out of here before someone catches us."

Just as Arien said his last word, a police car pulled up to the house.

Unfortunately, Arien had the right idea when he said to watch out for cops. What they didn't know was that a police officer was making his runs on a nearby street and would arrive at the abandoned location to check for suspicious activity. If that happened, the officer would have no choice but to alert the mayor for a break-in that was caused by the mayor's youngest son and his best friend. Safe to say, the results wouldn't be happy.

Arien and Guppy looked at each other in alarm before Arien signaled to the back door. As the red-head pulled Guppy along with him, he stored the jewelry box into his bag for safe keeping.

They quickly but quietly made their way out of the abandoned house. Arien closed the back door with a slight shut but couldn't avoid the creaking noises it made when right then the officer opened the front door extremely loud.

"Let's go, Guppy."

"'Let's go on an adventure, Guppy. It'll be fun!" Guppy threw a pointed look at Arien while he blissfully tried to ignore her gaze. "We shouldn't have gone there. Your dad will kill us if he finds out!"

Guppy was still trying to recover from the close call with the officer. If they were any slower, the pair of friends would have gotten caught indefinitely and, not to mention, face the wrath of the Arien's father who was, coincidentally, the mayor.

"But, he won't find out. C'mon, Guppy, live a little!" Arien quickly changed his attention from his best friend to the objects in the closest window display. They made it to the downtown square and were on their way to the pawn shop. "We should go to talk to Scuttle."

"Are you sure he'll tell the truth about that jewelry box? He's works at a pawn shop; he knows how to haggle."

"As much as I hate playing this card, he also knows my dad. And, if he'll wrong me, it wouldn't turn out well for him. But, that's the worst case scenario. Scuttle has been a friend to us for a long time and I doubt he'll do anything to harm us."

"I agree he's harmless but does he know what he's talking about? There's a reason why his shop is always empty."

"Guppy, pawn shops are always empty but filled with antiques. And the more antiques there are, the more information there will be. His shop is filled with all sorts of stuff and I trust Scuttle like I trust you."

Guppy sighed before giving up on the conversation. There was no getting through to Arien even when she placed all the facts in front of him. He's too loyal and stubborn for his own good.

"Fine, you trust Scuttle. But Arien, I'm not sure we should go there." Arien shot her a disbelieved stare. Was she seriously going to say the same thing all over again? Guppy raised her hands in surrender. "What I mean to say, is that you need to get ready for your rehearsal. You know, for the family performance... where you're going to make your debut into society?"

"I will, don't worry! But, I also want to check out what's in today. Besides, Scuttle's shop is the best."

"That's what you think Arien but Scuttle doesn't know anything about anything."

"We'll agree to disagree, Gups."

"Don't call me that, Airhead." Arien stuck his tongue out at Guppy before they made their way to Scuttle's pawn shop.

Scuttle was in the middle of singing a random tune that was completely off pitch. He was cleaning off his glasses that kept his eye sight somewhat mediocre.

"Hey, Scuttle." As Scuttle cleaned the outside of his lenses, he shouted in excitement to hear his favorite and most loyal customer.

"Arien! How you doing, kid? Did you run all the way here?"

"Look at what we found!" Arien quickly brought out his bag and gently set the jewelry box on the counter for Scuttle to see. Guppy noticed Scuttle's admiration for it and couldn't help but agree that the object was a treasure. After the adventure they went through, she wanted someone to know about it, even if it was Scuttle.

"Yeah, we went to an abandoned house and there was a doll, and a cop, and-" Scuttle interrupted the already out-of-breath Guppy when he recognized a familiar symbol on the side of the box.

"Is that a royal seal? May I?" Scuttle looked at Arien to get permission before he excitedly nodded at him to examine the box. Guppy was briefly annoyed before eyeing Scuttle's serious expression. Arien glanced at Guppy and they exchanged a silent look. Did Scuttle recognize this thing?

"By all means, Scuttle."

With that, the pawn shop owner rushed past Guppy, accidentally bumping into her before half-apologizing in a distracted manner. He grabbed a cloth, some gloves, and his cleaning tools before turning on his counter light and setting his attention back to the awaiting jewelry box.

"You two should look around the shop. It'll take awhile before this treasure is restored to its glory." The pair looked at each other again and shrugged. All prior engagements or commitments were forgotten when they were too wrapped up in the mysterious jewelry box. It had to be important.

An hour.

An hour passed when Scuttle completely cleaned the antique to look good as brand new and pointed out the little slit in the side of the jewelry box. All three pairs of eyes settled back to the box as they silently waited for something to happen. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to happen at that moment and Scuttle was preoccupied in his thoughts to say anything.

Breaking the silence, Arien spoke first. "What is it, Scuttle?"

"It's for an opening for some sort of key. I'm guessing if you find the key, you open the box."

Guppy took the box into her hands trying to find it before asking Scuttle another question. "But, isn't it just a jewelry box?"

"It doesn't seem like it. It looks much more than that." Scuttle curiously eyed the object as Guppy handed it back to Scuttle who, in return, set it back on the counter. "Where did you find this piece?"

Guppy cleared her throat before she started talking. "As I was trying to say earlier, we found it in an abandoned house, and then a cop found us and we barely escaped for our lives." Arien shot her a disbelief look while Guppy shrugged her shoulders. That's an over exaggeration, Gups.

"Is that so? Well, that's some luck you have there. Finding a royal item in the midst of our city is... rare... practically unheard of."

It was Arien's turn to ask Scuttle a question. "A royal item? Where is it from?"

"Yes, it comes from an ancient island. A mystical city that remains hidden. The name has been through thousands of languages and cultures so it's quite hard to pinpoint the exact place it comes from." Guppy rolled her eyes. Figures Scuttle would keep the history vague. "There's a rumor that the city moves to the heart of the world, where civilization exists strongest."

"Wow, really?!" Arien seemed to eat all this stuff up but Guppy was wary of the words that came out of Scuttle's mouth. He wasn't known to have the best track record of keeping facts straight and Arien was too trusting to not believe his friend. "Well, what do you think I should do with it?"

"As a pawner, I would offer you a deal for it but I know you well enough. Keep the box and if anything happens to it, you can come back anytime and I can fix it for you. But, in the mean time, I recommend you keep it safe."

Arien gave a knowing look to Guppy as she hid behind her blonde and blue streaked hair. Maybe Scuttle wasn't a bad guy but the history of it still sounded wonky to Guppy. "Thanks, Scuttle. You're always a help."

"No problem, kiddo." Scuttle stopped in his place before shifting his attention back to the duo. "Oh, don't you have that performance you need to practice for?"

The fear was evident in their eyes before Arien and Guppy simultaneously gulped and rushed out of the door.

"I can't believe we've been here for an hour. My father's going to kill me! Thank you, Scuttle!" Arien could lightly hear Scuttle's reply but he was too busy stepping in between parked cars to get back home. Guppy was right on his tail looking equally as worried as Arien had felt.

"I told you so."

"I can still make it in time! I'm only..." Arien checked his phone for the time but instead wanted to faint when he noticed how late it was. "I'm only 30 minutes late. Yeah, my dad's going to kill me and then my sisters will maim me and Sebastian already has a lecture laid out for me." Arien could feel a headache coming on when he pictured Sebastian handwriting a couple of pages down to point out his disappointments and weaknesses. It was going to be a long night if he couldn't find some way to save himself.

"You should go home, Guppy. I don't want you to get in trouble for this." Guppy looked slightly relieved but still worried about Arien.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I got this, don't worry! You just make it home safely and text me when you get there." With that, Arien notched up his speed and ran to the mansion that sat peacefully in the distance. He really hoped that the inside of his house would resemble the calm appearance of the sunset but something was telling him that was far from reality.

Arien was in so much trouble.