Chapter 2 - Missed the concert
Perched in a large birds nest atop a small rocky island, lay the incredibly stupid but loveable seagull, Sienna. She lay in the sun, using a telescope as a hat, pressing it up and down on her head as she hummed a tune to herself. All was very lazy as usual until the bird heard the call of her friend.
"Sienna!" Cried the mer-prince from a distance away. Sienna looked into the wrong side of the telescope and yelled after the seemingly far away prince.
"Wow! Merman over yonder! Arron, how ya doin' kid?" She took the telescope away from her eye only to realise that Arron was right in front of her. "Boy what a swim…" Said the idiotic bird to herself.
"Sienna" started Arron "Look what we found!" Said the prince as he displayed the contents of his bag to the seagull. Sienna picked up the fork and gazed at it in wonder.
"Wow. Now this, this is something special!" She said.
"What? What is it?" Arron asked with curiosity and admiration. "It's a dingle-hopper!" Replied the bird. Arron would always bring his new found wonders to Sienna the seagull, and he believed every word she said. After all, she was closer to the human world than he would ever be.
"Humans use these babies to straighten their hair out" explained the bird as she used the fork to make a spaghetti swirl with her head feathers. "Just one try from the dingle-hopper and you got yourself a brand new hairdo that humans go nuts over!" Arron and Flora turned to each other and mouthed a 'whoa' in unison.
"What about that one?" Asked Flora, gesturing to what was actually a pipe. Sienna picked up the pipe and examined it carefully.
"Now this.." She started "This, I haven't seen in years! An amazing, stupendous, snarffblatt" Said the bird. Sienna now started speaking as if she were a historian, explaining the 'snarffblatt' to the merman and his friend.
"Now, the snarffblatt dates back to prehistorical times, were humans would sit around and just stare at each other all day." She pressed her face up to Arron's, clearly having no knowledge that the information she was giving was completely and utterly wrong. "That's very boring. So, they invented the snarffblatt to make fine music, let me see here…" The bird said as she blew into the mouth of the pipe and a bunch of plants and water came bubbling out, clearly mistaking the pipe for a tuba of some sorts.
At the mention of music, Arron's face turned white.
"Music!" He said in shock as his friends turned to look at him. "Mom's concert, oh god, my mom is gonna kill me!" He said, taking the 'dingle-hopper' and the 'snarffblatt' back from the bird and quickly placing them back into the bag.
"The concert was today!" Exclaimed Flora.
"Sorry, I gotta go, thanks Sienna!" Arron said to his bird friend.
"Anytime, sweetie!" The bird called back. "Any time."
Little did Arron know that as he swam at full speed back to the castle, he was being watched by two slimy eels with glowing yellow eyes, working as spies for a much greater evil. Deep in the depths of the ocean in a hidden lair just outside the borders of Atlantica, lay the home of the sorcerer of the sea, Ursulis.
Ursulis was a freak of mer-nature. He had the purple-tinted head and torso of a man but the lower body of an enormous octopus. He was extremely muscular, with spiky white hair and an evil grin slowly growing across his face. His most prized possession was a nautilus shell that always stayed draped around his neck. He never took it off, and was currently saving it for a very specific purpose. He closely monitored his crystal ball to observe the little merman.
"Yes, hurry home, you stupid prince." Came a cold and maniacal voice from the octopus.
"Wouldn't want to miss mommy dearest's celebration, now, would we? Hm hm hm." He laughed to himself as his eel minions came slithering back into the lair, graciously awaiting their masters praise. "Celebration indeed, ba. Back in my day, we partied right into the night! When I lived in the palace." He said as he popped a cowering shrimp into his mouth. "Tritannia's headstrong, naive little boy, would make a charming addition to my little garden." He floated over to his so called 'garden'. A large patch full of gross little polyp creatures, all shivering in fear of their captor.
"FLOTTSA! JEENA!" He yelled to his slippery workers, and they immediately straightened up as if in salute. "I want you to keep a very, very close eye on this little son of Tritannia's." A small smile crept onto the sorcerers face. "He may just be the key to Tritannia's undoing…"
Back at the palace, Arron stood before his mother as Stella the crab paced back and forth, scolding the young prince endlessly. Arron just crossed his arms and maintained a smug expression.
"So unprofessional, so unorganised! Why, thanks to you I am now the laughing stock of the entire kingdom!" Stella rambled on endlessly.
"Stella…" said the queen, trying to shut up the crab, as she too was getting annoyed with the crabs endless monologue.
"So sorry, your majesty…" Said Stella taking a step back. Tritannia looked at her sons expression and Arron looked like he was almost asleep.
"Arron!" Said the queen, banging her trident against her throne. Arron's head quickly turned back to face his mother. "What Stella is trying to say, is that you should have been more careful today. I was so disappointed when my youngest boy wasn't there to wish me a happy birthday." Arron felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He hadn't meant to upset his mother, his mind had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I just forgot, I-" He was quickly interrupted by his mother. "As a result of your careless behaviour-" The queen was quickly interrupted too,
"Reckless and careless behaviour-"
"Thank you Stella. Anyway, Arron, as a result of your behaviour my concert really was ruined." Arron sighed.
"Mom, I'm really sorry, but-" He was quickly cut off by Flora swimming up to the Queen. "But it wasn't his fault!" The queen looked down at the tiny fish. "First, a shark chased us, and we tried to-but we couldn't-and-ahhh…" The fish stuttered. "And then we were safe." Now the queen was the one looking like she was half asleep.
"And then the seagull came," continued Flora, Tritannia's ears pricking up at the mention of the word 'seagull'. "And she was all this is this, and this is that, and-" said Flora in a mocking tone.
"Seagull?" Tritannia asked with concern. Flora then dashed behind Arron as his mer-friend sent a chilling death stare at the tiny fish. "Arron, you went up to the surface agin didn't you? Didn't you!"
Tritannia's powerful voice echoed throughout the throne room.
"Nothing happened!" Arron snapped back in the way that only teenagers like himself would find civilised.
"Oh Arron, for Poseidon's sake, how many times must I tell you to stay away from there!" The queen started rambling, concerned for her sons safety but also out of sheer annoyance. "You could have been seen by one of those barbarians, by, one of those…" She practically spat out the last word "humans."
"Mom, they're not barbarians!" Arron argued back.
"They're dangerous!" Boomed Tritannia. "Do you think I want to se my youngest boy speared by some fishermen's hook?!" Arron was tired of the same manipulating speech his mother gave him every time he broke the number one rule of the kingdom, 'No contact with the human world of any kind'.
"Mom, I'm fifteen years old, I'm not a child!" Tritannia raised her voice even more at her son.
"Don't you talk back to me like that, young man!" She scolded as her anger rose and rose. "As long you live under my ocean, you'll obey my rules!"
"But if you would just listen!" Cried Arron, but his efforts were interrupted
"Not another word! And I never, ever want to hear of you going to the surface again, is that clear! Contact between the human world and ours is punishable by death! But since you're my son, I'm taking it easy on you. One more mistake and you're grounded for a year!" She said as there seemed to be steam coming from her ears.
"You are so unfair!" Arron spat back as he swam out of the throne room and out of the palace.
Tritannia swam back to her throne and placed her head on her hand. Stella came scuttling up to the queen to give her re-assurance.
"Teenagers" She scoffed. "Day dink day know everything. Ya give dem an inch, day swim all over ya." Tritannia sighed.
"Do you think I was too hard on him?" She asked her right hand crab.
"Not a bit your majesty. Why, if Arron was my son, I'd show him who was boss!" Said Stella as she puffed out her chest. Stella's words gave the queen an idea. "You're absolutely right Stella!" The crab grinned at the queens approval. "Arron needs constant supervision."
"Constant" replied the crab.
"Someone to watch over him" said the queen
"His every move." Stella Replied.
"And you are just the crab to do it!"
Stella smiled at these words, as at first she thought the queen had said something praising her, but when the queen's words dawned on the crab, her face turned white. Stella gulped. "ME?"