12 years later, a wall had been built around the kingdom. The wall had been built by King Lance and King Keith to protect their daughter Princess Sofia from the evil witch Haggar's younger sister Cyrenna. The wall let in the ships and boats but kept sea creatures out.
At the moment Keith was looking for his daughter. "Sofia?" Keith called as he walked to the ballroom. It was there that he ran into Colleen who had a pile of fresh towels in her arms "Colleen have you seen Sofia?" Colleen shook her head softly "not since this morning Your Majesty" Colleen commented as she headed off to put the towels away.
Keith sighed and headed to the kitchen, Lance was also busy searching the castle for their missing daughter. Keith knew that Sofia liked to hang out with the chef on some occasions and hoped she would be in there. "Chef, Sofia's not in here is she?" Keith asked as he entered the kitchen, the chef turned and shook his head. Currently, he was on top of a ladder placing candles on top of the six-layer white and purple cake.
"No, Your Highness, but her birthday cake is. Twelve petite candles" Keith smiled and closed the door as the chef almost fell off the ladder. Keith continued on with his search for his missing daughter.
Keith eventually ran into Lance who had also been searching for their daughter. "Any sign of her?" Keith asked but Lance shook his head with a sigh "no, you?" Keith shook his head as well. Lance wrapped an arm around his husband's shoulders "well I have the guards and servants searching for her as well" Keith nodded. "We should go get ready before Coran finds us and yells at us" Keith cracked a smile and followed Lance to their bedroom to get ready for the party.
Meanwhile, outside the wall, Slav was climbing a rock that stood above the ocean surface. ""Sebastian, you watch over her," he said" Slav commented as he jumped from rock to rock. "I'm too old for this! A crab my age should be retired, getting a tan, playing sea golf, sipping a tuna colada!" Slav throughout his yelling hadn't noticed that Matt had landed beside him on the rock.
Slav jumped into the water and sunk to the ocean floor. "Not baby-sitting another teenager" he said with a sigh. Slav walked along the ocean floor in search of the princess. He finally found her, swimming with a dolphin. Her brown hair tied in a ponytail with a purple bow, her bangs loose as she swam, the sun from above reflecting off her lightly tanned skin. She was dressed in a pair of white billowy pants, a white tank top, and no shoes on. Over her shoulder was her brown bag.
"Sofia!" Slav called out towards the princess. Of course, Sofia had already started swimming towards the surface and didn't hear the crab. Slav sighed and followed the princess up to the surface.
Sofia breached the surface and climbed up onto a rock, water dripping off her clothes, bag, and hair. She sat on the rock and noticed Matt and waved to the bird. Of course, Matt being a mermaid, had to stay in his bird form around the young princess. Slav at this point, had climbed the rock and panted in exhaustion. He really was getting to old for this. "Hey, Matt. Hey, Slav, what's kickin'?" Sofia asked as she wrung the water out of her hair.
"Uh, what's kickin'? Hmm. L-Let me see" Matt bonked his head three times causing the princess to giggle. "Don't rush me" Matt said as he continued to think. Slav turned to the princess angrily and glared at her "you know perfectly well what's kicking!" Sofia rolled her eyes at the crab's reprimanding. She stood up as Slav continued to talk.
"Now, come along. You gonna be late for the…" before Slav could finish his sentence, Sofia jumped into the water and caused a huge wave to crash onto Slav. The crab coughed up water as Sofia giggled and moved her bangs out of her face. "Sorry, Slav" Sofia commented with a smile on her face and swam up to the crab on the rock.
"Sofia, child, how many times do I have to tell you?" Sofia rolled her eyes as Slav repeated what he says every time. Only this time, Sofia spoke at the same time he did, a finger in the air and a serious look on her face. "It is expressly forbidden for you to be swimming beyond the safety of the sea wall" Slav noticed and slowly trailed off. "Beyond the safety of the sea wall.." Sofia however continued with the lecture. "Any such swimmin' is a reckless disregard of the rules don't ya know?" Sofia smiled at Slav who did not look impressed.
"Stop that" Sofia giggled and backed up a little bit. "Oh Slav, I can't help it I just love the sea!" Sofia then dove down and caused another wave to hit Slav. "Hey!" Slav yelled as the princess dove out of sight. "Come back here!" Slav yelled as he jumped in after her. "You're just like…" Slav trailed off as he recognized this behaviour. Keith acted the same way with the human world when he was younger. "Like your mother" Slav finished with a soft smile.
Sofia continued to swim down, passing many schools of fish. She noticed a light purple shell and picked it up to analyze it. She placed it in her bag and continued on. A dolphin swam by with a pink shell in it's mouth, he showed it to Sofia who gave a thumbs up and opened her bag for the shell to be placed in.
Sofia swam off and passed a hole in the seafloor that went deeper. A sparkle caught her eye and she quickly swam back and poked her head over the edge to see what it was. Whatever it was, continued to sparkle in the sun. Sofia kicked off the edge and dove down to collect what was sparkling.
She picked it up in her hands and examined the piece. It was a golden seashell, however, the shell had a rope around it. The shell was covered in ocean grime and was hard to see. Sofia put in her bag and swam up the surface to get a better look at it.
Elsewhere, in a frozen part of the ocean, flashes of green magic could be seen outside of a frozen lair. "Trust me! This time I'm sure I've got it right" Cyrenna commented as she finished the spell. Myzak rolled his eyes as he swam from behind her into the position "Yeah, that's what you said last time, and I was sore for a week" Cyrenna rolled her eyes and lined up her hands to where Myzak was."Oh, stop your carping and stand still."
The shark whimpered as he readied himself for what was to come. "Oh, this is gonna hurt" the shark commented as he curled himself up as best he could. Cyrenna raised her arms and pointed to Myzak, a single green lightning strike came from the cauldron and hit Myzak directly. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Cyrenna yelled as Myzak started to turn into his huge shark form from before Shiro changed him into a baby shark.
"Uh-oh" Myzak groaned as the spell backfired and instead he shrunk into a purple and grey shrimp. Cyrenna growled and grabbed a potion bottle with her tentacle and threw it into the cauldron. This time the spell changed Myzak into a sea slug. Cyrenna slapped her forehead and threw multiple potions into the cauldron. The spells changed Myzak into a bunch of mutated creatures before changing him back into his small shark form.
Her rays laughed at her failed attempts, but also at the shark's predicament. "Oh, it's just no use" Cyrenna moaned as she collapsed on her seat. "The power of the trident is just too strong for me to overcome" Myzak rolled his eyes "I bet Haggar could've done it" he grumbled under his breath.
Cyrenna turned at her sister's name and anger filled her. "What was that you said?" she growled as he grabbed a potion bottle in one of her tentacles. "Nothin'. I'm just sayin'..." Myzak started to say but before he could finish, Cyrenna threw the potion bottle at him. The bottle broke behind him against the wall, Myzak had ducked just in time and glared at the woman.
"Stop criticizing me!" she yelled angrily at the shark. "That's all my mother ever did was criticize me!" Cyreena growled as she picked up a sea star. "It was always "Haggar this" or "Haggar that" or, "Cyrenna, why can't you be more like your sister Haggar!"" Cyrenna yelled as she threw the sea star in anger to a post of her sister. "Well, it isn't Haggar's fault I got miniaturized. It's yours!" Myzak snapped at the witch. "Is not!" Cyrenna snapped back at Myzak swam closer "Your fault that we had to hide out here for twelve frostbitten years" Myzak snapped again.
"Is not!" Cyrenna yelled in denial again. "Your fault that we can never show our faces in polite society again!""you're really pushing it, small fry" Cyrenna growled as they went nose to nose to each other.
Suddenly the cauldron lit up and caught both of their attentions. Green smoke lifted from the cauldron and created a floating orb image. The two swam over, argument forgotten, and watched the orb create an image of Sofia sitting on the rock with Slav and Matt. In her hands, sat the golden seashell locket.
"It's the locket!" the two exclaimed in unison. "This is just the kind of break in the ice we've been waiting for" Cyrenna said as a plan started to form in her head. "When Keith's innocent little daughter uncovers the secret of that locket she's going to have lots of questions. And who'll be right there with all the answers?" Cyrenna asked waiting for Myzak to answer. "We will" Myzak chuckled out as he caught on to the plan.
"Exactly!" Cyrenna cried out with a huge smile "she'll be the perfect tool for Shiro's undoing". "And I'll get to be big again" Myzak commented with a smile "Finally I'll succeed at the one thing my sister never could" Cyrenna said as both her and Myzak tuned each other out. "Really, really big again!" Myzak repeated as he got really happy. "Total domination of the seas!" Cyrenna commented as she grabbed Myzak' fins and started to do an underwater waltz. "I'll be huge!" Myzak yelled again, still happy on being back to his original size once the plan succeeded.
It was now sunset and Sofia was still sitting on the rock, entranced by the golden seashell she had found. "Sofia, please. If your parents ever found out you'd been swimming out here, especially your mother…" Sofia sighed and interrupted Slav's sentence. "I know, I know. They'd flip" Sofia tossed the shell into her bag and dove into the water once more. This time, no wave hit Slav.
Matt walked around in search of something. "I had a thought here. Now, where'd it go?" Slav rolled his eyes as the shifter looked under a rock for his "thought". Sofia floated on her back and stared up at the sky. "Hey, Slav" she asked getting the crab's attention "what's my mom got against the ocean anyway?" she moved herself off her back and laid against a rock and watched as two dolphins jumped out of the water in the distance.
"I mean, how could there be anything wrong with something so...wonderful?" Sofia turned back to Slav, the crab shrugged his shoulders. Sofia giggled and swam back over to the rock he was sitting on. "You know what? Sometimes I even pretend I have fins" Sofia whispered and giggled after. Slav's eyes widened and he ended up falling over in shock.
Sofia swam to another rock and faced the wall, the palace peeking over the wall. "I wish I could tell my mom how I feel" she said with a sigh and laid her head on her arms. "But she'd never understand" she turned back to Slav who had sat back up "I can talk to crabs, but not to him".
Matt picked up another small rock and then his thought came back to him. "Wait a minute" he tossed the rock in the air and turned to the pair who was watching him "It just hit me" the rock he tossed fell down and hit him on the head. "How 'bout you tell Keith how you really feel?" Slav groaned and slapped himself in the face with a claw. Sometimes, he wondered how him and Pidge were related.
"Just waltz right in and tell him you been out here swimming in the ocean!" Slav yelled making Matt wince. The shifter realized how bad of an idea that was, but chose to say nothing. "We could all just have a big party" Slav groaned, Sofia's eyes widened and she gasped. Realization hit her and she swam off towards the wall, Slav following in suit.
Keith and Lance had just finished getting ready. Lance was dressed in black pants, brown knee length boots, a white blouse, a light blue jacket with gold epaulets on his shoulders, and his crown on his head. Keith was dressed in black pants, brown boots, a light grey blouse, dark purple jacket with gold epaulets on his shoulder, and his crown on hs head. Both Lance and Keith's crowns were matching gold with re and blue jewels.
'
"Still no sign of her" Keith sighed as he fiddled with his jacket sleeves. Lance sat next to him on their bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, there's still time, maybe go and take Blue for a walk?" Lance suggested, Blue's head popped up at the mention of her name. "That always calms you down" Keith sighed but nodded "fine".
Underneath the wall, Sofia and Slav made their way back through the gates and to the palace. When she was younger, Sofia had found a faulty pole and used it to get in and out without going over and being seen.
The two popped out of the water and Sofia smiled. Though, her smile faded when she heard the familiar barking of the family dog Blue. She ducked her head as Keith came into view, though Keith was supposed to be calming himself down, he couldn't help but still search for his daughter.
Sofia and Slav ran over to the wall, overtop of them was an open window. Sofia tossed her bag up and climbed up onto the ledge. Slav climbed the vines that were growing against the wall and met Sofia on the window ledge. Sofia hid behind a storage cupboard as a servant with a tray walked by, though he didn't notice the princess.
Sofia let out the breath she had been holding and opened her bag for Slav to jump into. She peeked into the ballroom, and seeing that nobody was paying attention, ran past. Thinking the coast was clear, Sofia backed up, but ended up bumping into a girl.
The girl had lightly tanned skin, light brown hair, and purple eyes with pink eyeshadow on the lids. She was dressed in a red and orange ball gown. With her was another girl with black hair, pale skin, and teal eyes. She was dressed in a pink and magenta ball gown. With them was a boy with pale skin, light brown hair, and brown eyes. He was dressed in black pants, a white blouse, dark teal jacket, and dark brown knee length boots.
The girl with brown hair turned and Sofia felt her cheeks grown hot. "Oh, Your-Your Highness" the girl said as Sofia back away from her. "sorry. My fault". The girl looked down as she saw a strand of seaweed was on her dress, the three shared a similar smile as Sofia slowly walked around them to get to the staircase. "I gotta go. Can't go to the party without shoes" as Sofia vanished the three went into a conversation.
It was as if they knew Sofia was still on the staircase listening. "If you ask me, she's a little strange" the first girl commented, the second girl nodded "I agree". "I heard she actually talks to fish" the boy commented and the group burst into laughter at his comment. Sofia glanced down to Slav sadly and headed up the stairs to her room.
Keith and Blue walked to the small pond that formed from where the gate let in salt water from the ocean. Blue jumped fight in and started splashing around. Keith approached the shore and smiled at the dogs happiness. Keith's hand grazed the wall and his gaze lifted up to the sky where seagulls were flying above it.
"I miss you, Dad, I wish you could be here with us" Keith sighed and lowered his head. He then popped it up to see if anyone was around. Seeing no one, Keith slid out of his boots and rolled his pants legs up to his knees. Blue watched as he stepped into the water and sighed as he felt the salt water roll over his feet. He closed his eyes as he remembered what it was like to swim in the ocean, and how much he missed it.
"Mother?" Sofia's voice called from her balcony. Keith jumped and turned around to find his confused daughter tilting her head "What are you doing?" Keith chuckled nervously and walked out of the water. "Uh, nothing" Sofia walked back into her room and sighed "I'll be right up!" Keith called as he fixed his pants and pulled his boots back on.
Sofia's eyes widened. She was already dressed in the purple and white ruffle dress that had made for her, her hair was wrapped in a towel still a little wet from her bath. She quickly pulled the towel off her hair and brushed through it quickly. Sofia opened her shoe wardrobe and grabbed the matching white Mary Jane heels for her dress. Slav jumped onto her vanity and pulled down the purple belt that went around her waist and held it up for her.
Sofia was bouncing up and down as she struggled to get her other shoe on. "Sofie?" Keith called from behind her closed door, Sofia backed up and grabbed the belt from Slav, though the crab forgot to let go and ended up being tied with the belt in a bow around the princess's waist. Sofia tied her hair a ponytail quickly and then slid on her crown. Her door started opening and Sofia, upon seeing her bag out in the open, kicked it under the vanity.
Her door opened and in walked Keith, followed by Blue. "I'm ready" Sofia said as she bowed slightly, her crown slipped forwards and her bangs fell in front of her eyes. Keith smiled and headed over behind the chair, which Sofia know sat down in. "Here. Let me help" Keith said as he grabbed her hairbrush and untied her ponytail, Sofia placed her crown down on her vanity and sighed.
"So, we're having a bad hair day" Lance commented from the open door. Keith had found him on the way up and told him that their daughter was in her room. Keith gave a playful glare to his husband who had a cheeky smile on his face. "If we were, you wouldn't be helping, would you?" Keith teased back, Lance chuckled "well, I'm just here to let you know there are a lot of people downstairs" Keith rolled his eyes. He waved his free hand to shoo Lance away "Oh, we'll be right down. Give us two minutes".
"Right, two…" Lance chuckled as he closed the door. "Now where have I heard that before?" Lance said as he rolled his eyes and waited for the two to finish.
Sofia was quiet as Keith brush through her hair. Her hair wasn't thick, but after being washed, it was being difficult. "Mom" Sofia said with a sigh, her shoulders slumping "it's hopeless" though Keith continued to brush it. "Oh. You look beautiful" Keith commented as he tied Sofia's hair into a ponytail.
"Do I have to do this?" Sofia asked as Keith tied a white ribbon into a bow overtop of the ponytail, then placed her crown on her head. "Everybody thinks I'm weird" she commented on remembering the comments by the group she ran into on her way to her bedroom. "Oh, honey, everyone has trouble fitting in at your age" Keith said trying to comfort his daughter. "I know I did" Keith commented remembering being her age in Altea.
"I was a regular fish out of water" Keith mumbled as a joke. "You? No way" Sofia commented as she got out of the chair and walked towards her balcony, her heels clicking against the tile. "I'm just so afraid I'm gonna make a total fool of myself" Sofia said as she leaned against the railing and watched a dolphin jump out of the ocean and then splash back in. "Sofie, this isn't just about the party is it?" Keith asked as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Is there something you want to talk about?" he asked softly "you know you can always tell me anything". Keith gave his daughter a look and Sofia sighed. "Well, okay. I mean, it's kind of crazy and sort of impossible. Now, don't freak, but what I dream about more than anything in the whole world-" before she could finish a knock on the balcony windows interrupted her. "How's it coming?" Lance asked, Keith moved out the way and Lance's eyes widened seeing his daughter.
"Oh, Sofie, Is that you? You look beautiful" Sofia's cheeks turned red and Keith nodded in agreement. "He's right" Keith said with a chuckle as him and Lance led Sofia out of her bedroom. "Now, we'll talk later" Keith said as they walked downstairs "You're going to have a wonderful time tonight. Trust me".
Music played from the ballroom as Keith, Lance, and Sofia found Colleen and Coran. "There you are" Coran said as the song soon ended. Colleen was dressed in a red off the shoulder gown with sheer sleeves, and a red bow in her hair. "Ready?" Coran asked the royal couple, Lance nodded and the music stopped.
"Their Royal Highnesses, King Lance and King Keith" the guests clapped as Keith and Lance entered the ballroom and headed to their spot at the side of the stairs. Colleen smiled and rubbed Sofia's back as she sensed the girl was nervous. "And her Royal Highness, Princess Sofia" the crowd clapped as Sofia walked down the stairs towards the crowd. She held up her dress so she wouldn't trip, the heels were hard enough.
"Oh, yeah. Mom's right. I can do this" Sofia mumbled to herself, making sure to keep the smile on her face. Slav was still trapped in her belt and struggled to free himself. The trio from earlier caught each others attention and smiled seeing the princess walking down the stairs. The crowd still clapped as Sofia got off the stairs and curtsied to a girl who curtsied before her. A boy approached her and bowed before her.
The boy had tanned skin, brown hair tied in a ponytail, and green eyes. He was dressed in black pants, a dark grey blouse, dark green jacket with dark grey lace at the end of the sleeves and brown knee length boots."Um, hi. Would you like to dance?" the boy asked nervously and held a hand out before him. Sofia turned to her parents who seemed to be urging her on "go on" Keith mouthed with a smile.
Sofia turned back to the boy with a smile and took his hand gently "Sure. Okay" the boy walked them to the middle of the dance floor and they took positions of a waltz. Keith turned to the musician and nodded, the musician bowed and began playing a song.
Sofia and the boy began to dance, the crowd watching with smiles as they did. Sofia looked down to her shoes as they danced, she never really payed attention to her dance lessons. So she was quite nervous about dancing in front of the huge crowd. Sofia looked up into the boys eyes and soon became lost in the dance, she was dancing without even thinking about it. And she knew what she was doing.
Slav felt himself grow dizzy from the spinning and as the dance slowly began to end, grabbed one of the end of the bow to untie himself. But before he could, the boys hand covered him as his hand wrapped around sofia's waist. Sofia smiled as the dance stopped, the boy shared a similar smile. Though that smile, turned into a pained look as Slav pinched his finger.
Sofia bit her lip as the boy pulled his hand away to reveal Slav attached to his finger. Sofia's eyes widened the boy started panicking and waving his hand to get Slav off. Keith and Lance looked on in shock, neither expected to see Slav. The boy tossed his hand up and Slav was tossed off his finger and into the air. The boy ended up crashing into the punch table while Slav went flying into the cake that the chef had been rolling out.
Cake exploded and Sofia found herself and her dress covered in the cake as a result. Colleen ran forward the help the chef up, who had fallen down from the impact and cake explosion. Sofia bent down in front of the cart as Slav undug himself from the cake "That's it. I'm booking myself on a cruise" Slav said as he blew out the candle on his head. "I'm so sorry" Sofia said to Slav.
The boy stood up and turned to Sofia "Well, I should say!" he said, only as he turned he realized that she wasn't talking to him. "Are you okay, Slav?" Sofia asked, it was then the boy realized that the rumors about the princess were true. "So" he said as he glared at the princess. "Who is she talking to?" the girl Sofia bumped into earlier asked getting everyone's attention. The boy beside her laughed "She's talking to a crab!" he exclaimed. It was that comment that got the crowd laughing at the princess. Sofia stood up and watched the crowd in horror as they continued to laugh at her.
Sofia broke. She couldn't take the laughing anymore. She picked her dress up and ran up the stairs. Keith stepped forwards to try and gather his daughter in his arms, though she ran past. Keith caught sight of the tears running down her face and felt his heart break. "Sofie!" he called out over the laughing crowd Though his cry fell over deaf ears as Sofia ran to her room.