Chapter 2 - Missed the concert
Perched in a large bird's nest atop a small, rocky island, lay the incredibly stupid but loveable seagull; Sienna. She lay in the sun happily, 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 to see her favourite merman (well, the only merman she knew) just a distance away, and jumped up in delight, flapping her wings.
"Wow! Merman over yonder! Arron, how ya doin', sweetie?"
"Pretty good, considering we just escaped a shark." he replied as he swam up to finally meet her.
"A shark ya say? Boy, that is something. Glad you're okay. Why, I oughta find that shark and just..." she pounded a closed fist into the palm of her wing, demonstrating how she would avenge her friend if the opportunity arose.
Arron had met Sienna when he was 10, and had ventured to the surface for the first time since the passing of the law. He had known he was breaking the rules, but something inside him told him that the world above would be kind and welcoming despite what his mother had said about humans. Luckily, he had managed to pop out of the water right next to Sienna's self-made habitat, and the two had talked about human life for hours. Since then, Sienna had become a sort of Auntie figure to the little prince.
Arron chuckled at his friend's humorous loyalty, but was deeply grateful for it deep down. "Would you mind deciphering?" he said 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, this is something I haven't seen in years!" she said.
"What? What is it?" Arron asked with feverish curiosity and admiration.
"It's a dingle-hopper!" replied the bird. Arron always brought 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, and his eyes widened in astonishment as Sienna explained the artefact in all its glory. "You see, 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, although it looked more like it pained her to use it more than anything. "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 it up and examined it carefully. "Now this," she started, "This, my friends, is 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, when 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…" said the bird as she blew into the mouth of the pipe and a bunch of plants and ocean muck came bubbling out, clearly mistaking it for a tuba of some sorts.
At the mention of music, Arron's face turned white. "Music!" he exclaimed in horror as a wave of dread washed over, and his friends turned to look at him. "Averil's coming-of-age ceremony, oh god, my mom is gonna kill me!" he exclaimed, taking the 'dingle-hopper' and the 'snarffblatt' back from the bird and quickly placing them back into his bag. "She nearly electrified a passing servant with her trident last time I missed a practice!" he cried in anxiety.
"I thought it was next week!" Flora exclaimed.
"You don't exactly turn 16 a week after you turn 16, Flora!" said Arron. "Sorry Sienna, I gotta go. Thanks!" Arron waved to his bird friend as he dove back under the waves.
"Anytime, sweetie!" the bird called back. "Any time."
Little did Arron know, however, 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 far away from Atlantica, lay the home of the sea sorcerer; Ursulis.
Ursulis was a freak of mer-nature. He had the purple-tinted head and bare torso of a man but the lower body of an enormous octopus, the tips stained in dark, purple ink that faded from violet to mauve. He was extremely muscular, with spiky white hair and an evil grin slowly growing across his face. He coiled his fingers around his most prized possession; 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 Arron and that pesky little fish he was always with.
"Yes, hurry home, you stupid Prince." came a cold and maniacal voice from the octopus, "We wouldn't want to miss the big celebration, now, would we? Hm hm hm." He laughed to himself as his eel minions came slithering back into the lair, graciously awaiting their master's praise. "Celebration indeed. Oh, gimme a break. Back in my day, we partied right into the night! When I lived in the palace..."
Ursulis had once been right-hand-man to the King Athenean himself, but was banished for eternity after trying to overthrow his majesty through use of black magic. Only Ursulis could wield the power of dark sorcery, no other wizard in the sea could come close to the twisted nature of his talents. He had seemed to be born a sorcerer, magic being a talent he had always possessed, and he practiced it dutifully.
But living in the wastelands of Atlantica where the hot steam vents and deceased ships littered the floor reminded him of the shame he was forced to adapt to, the scraps he had to live on while the oh-so-perfect royals stayed in their comfy little home. For the past few weeks however, a plan to regain the life that was taken from him began to form in his mind, and his attention had been fully focused on the queen's little boy.
He gazed closer into the vision swimming in the crystal orb, at the worried look on the boy's face. So estranged from his family, yet so determined not to let them down.
An empathetic soul... Ursulis thought. More like a pathetic soul...
"Arron... what a character. Not long until adulthood, but still very much a child. Tritannia's headstrong, naive little son would make a charming addition to the family..." he floated over to his so called 'family'; a large patch full of gross, shrivelled-up polyp creatures lining the entrance way to the lair, all shivering in fear of their captor. "FLOTTSA! JEENA!" Ursulis yelled at his slippery workers, and they immediately straightened up as if in salute. "I want you to keep a very, very close eye on that kid!" he said as a small smile crept onto his face. "He may just be the key to Tritannia's undoing…"
Back at the palace, Arron stood before his mother as Stella paced back and forth on the arm of the throne, scolding the young prince endlessly, to which Arron just crossed his arms in annoyance. It hadn't taken long for two of the royal guards to spot him as he came swimming back to the palace in shame, and it was straight to his mother's throne room for him.
"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 the crab up, as she too was getting annoyed with her endless monologue. Today hadn't even been about her.
"So sorry, your majesty…" said Stella, taking a step back. Tritannia looked at her son's uninterested expression and was shocked at his lack of respect.
"Arron!" she exclaimed, banging her trident against her throne. The boy's head quickly turned back to face his mother. "What Stella is trying to say, is that you let your brothers down big-time today, especially Averil. Thanks to your complete disinterest in every opportunity we've tried to give you, the concert was a disaster!" Arron felt a wave of guilt threaten to drown him; ironically, of course. He hadn't meant to upset anyone, his mind had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I just forgot, I-" his mother quickly interrupted him.
"As a result of your careless behaviour-"
"Reckless and careless behaviour-"
"Thank you, Stella. Anyway, Arron, as a result of your behaviour, the concert really was ruined. Your brothers just stood there, they didn't know what to do! Everyone left early, and Averil was so disappointed that he didn't get a full ceremony like the rest of his brothers. Why does he owe you his full participation when you come-of-age next year? Think about that!" Arron sighed, but his mother carried on. "What were you even doing, anyway?" she questioned, and the red-head froze.
How could he tell her the truth? She'd never understand him in a million years. If she found out he missed a royal ceremony, she'd lock him up and throw away the key! He wanted to flee the throne-room that very minute, but was very much trapped beneath his mother's gaze.
"I- uh- was..." he trailed off, begging his mind for any kind of excuse it could fathom. But Tritannia was impatient, and after raising seven boys had become an expert on when someone was hiding something. Without letting him finish, she then noticed the draw-string bag Arron had strapped across his shoulder, and had a growing suspicion of what might be in it.
"Arron, what's in there?" she asked with a sudden change of tone, her anger evident, but her demeanour much more calm and chilling... which was even scarier.
Arron placed his hands over the bag strap and ever so slightly backed away. "W-what's in where?" He stuttered.
"Don't play dumb with me, Arron, I raised you! I know your little tricks. Empty it." she demanded. Arron felt his chest go stiff and he scoffed, knowing he had to give in. Once his mother had commanded something, whoever was at her mercy had no choice but to oblige. Slowly opening the bag, he handed over the dinglehopper and the snarffblatt from that day's hunt with a heavy heart. Tritannia sighed as she picked them up.
"Where did you get these?" she questioned.
"I-I found them..." Arron replied sheepishly, purposely leaving out the detail of exploring forbidden areas such as the sunken-ship graveyard. "They're actually kind of coo-" but before he could finish his sentence, the familiar sound of the trident's magic powering up buzzed in his ears, and the objects were immediately obliterated. Arron, Flora and Stella shielded their faces from the blow. "Mom, what?! Those were mine, I found them, they're-"
"Do you have any idea of what we wnet through to get those?!" a sudden outburst from Flora erupted from behind the merman. everyone looked over to the tiny fish who seemed to be fuming with anger. "First, a shark chased us, and we were almost turned into chum! Then we tried to... but we couldn't... and... ahhh… and then, woah..." stammered the fish. "And then we were safe." Tritannia just blinked. "And then we had to deal with this insufferable seagull," continued Flora, but Tritannia's ears pricked up at the mention of the land creature. "And she was all this is this, and, that is that, and-"
"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 again, 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.
"Do you mean to tell me you missed your brother's ceremony because you were hunting for this garbage and breaking our laws?!"
"If you would just listen!-"
"Arron, for Poseidon's sake, how many times must I tell you to stay away from there?!" the Queen started rambling, concerned for her son's safety but also out of sheer annoyance. They had had this conversation so many times! "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 son 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. If only she would just let him explain himself. "Mom, I'm fifteen years old, I'm not a child anymore!"
"Oh, and you've proven that so well today! Don't you talk back to me like that, young man!" she exclaimed as her anger rose and rose. "As long as you live under my ocean, you'll obey my rules!"
"But-"
"ENOUGH!" she exclaimed. The whole room fell silent. "That's enough from you. Leave at once, and I'll talk to you later tonight. Going to the surface is one thing, but possessing human items?! Just one is too many, let alone two!"
"If you could let me speak for one second!" Arron cried, but his efforts were in vain.
"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 life imprisonment! But since you're my son, I'm taking it easy on you. But you better behave in choir practice tomorrow. Believe me, I'll know. But one more mistake like this, and you're grounded for a year!"
Arron felt his chest tighten in anger. Of course his mother wouldn't understand. "You are so unfair!" he spat back as he swam out of the throne room and out of the palace.
Tritannia sank back into her throne and placed her head in her hand. Stella came scuttling up to the Queen to give her re-assurance as soon as she noticed her sunken face.
"Teenagers..." the little crab scoffed. "They think they know everything. Ya give em' an inch, they swim all over ya." said the crustacean. 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!" Stella said as she puffed out her chest.
Tritannia sighed.
"If only he could just see things the way I do. I can keep an entire kingdom in check, but, not my son. It doesn't help that I've known him for fifteen years but hardly know anything about him." Stella placed a claw on the Queen's hand.
"If it makes any difference, my parents forgot my birthday three times in a row. They thought I was fourteen for three years. So believe me, you could be doing far worse." Tritannia chuckled, but her face remained saddened.
"Why doesn't he see that he's swimming right into a death trap by doing what he does?" she questioned.
"I don't know, your majesty." Stella replied. "But I do know that if Arron was my son, I'd keep him under tight control. None a 'dis flipping to the surface and other such nonsense."
Her words gave the Queen an idea. "You're absolutely right, Stella!" the crab grinned at the Queen's approval. "Arron needs constant supervision!"
"Constant." replied the crab.
"Someone to watch over him."
"His every move."
"To keep him out of trouble."
"Monitor his every dive."
"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 Tritannia's statement finally dawned on the crab, her face turned white. Stella gulped.
"ME?"
That night, as six of the seven mer-prince's lay asleep in their bedroom, one prince was still wide awake. Arron stayed staring up at the ceiling, his mind too frustrated to fade into the sweet release of sleep. He couldn't believe the unfairness of his mother's words. He could never go to the surface again? As if he would let that one little remark stop him. He was old enough to make his own decisions now, adulthood was only three years away. Making up his mind, he threw back the covers on his sea-shell bed, and swam from his bedroom out towards the castle grounds for a change of scenery.
This wasn't fair. Why did his family never even attempt to listen to him when he tried to share his opinions on humans? After all, he was undeniably the most hurt by his father's passing, being the youngest and lacking the proper skills to emotionally deal with death, and his father had been killed by humans! So if he of all mer-people could find some good in them, why didn't his family care? Coming to a halt near the palace gardens, Arron sunk down the castle wall, bringing his tail into his chest. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, the weight of the day pulling him down.
A part of him had been looking forward to his brother's concert, and he just had to go and forget all about it. What would his brothers think of him now? They had given him a hard time when he had shown up hours after he had missed the show, but his brothers knew that getting into trouble was just a part of Arron himself. He was the biggest and cleverest smart-mouth out of all of them, and they knew that another lecture wouldn't accomplish any behavioural change. So, that night, he had been subject to the silent treatment. His heart ached when Averil had shot him a side-glance worthy of a mighty foe.
Arron's eyes suddenly flew open as he heard someone sit down right beside him, fearing a guard had found him and would force him back to his room. But he calmed when he saw that it was only his mother.
"Can't sleep?" she questioned with a knowing look.
Arron blushed and nodded. At least she's not mad anymore, he thought. "Yeah. Sorry, I'll... I'll go..." he said, but Tritannia put a hand on his fin.
"No need, come on, stay." she said. Arron narrowed a brow.
"How'd you know I was here?" he asked.
Tritannia only smirked. "I raised you, I know everything." she laughed. "What's troubling you?" Arron sat back down and let his head fall back against the wall with a thump. He decided to not bring up the whole human thing, as it would only upset her again after what had happened today.
"I'm just..." he began, "I'm just so sorry I missed the concert." he felt tears prick his eyes, and the Queen put a tender arm around her son's shoulder.
"It's alright, Arron." she said in a voice full of motherly love. "We all make mistakes. I was only so hard on you today because... you remind me so much of your father. And I'm just worried that... that you inherited too much of his rebellious side."
Arron looked up at his mother. She had never said anything like that before. He reminded her of Athenean? Maybe now he could finally begin to understand his mother's point of view. But still. There was something about the human world that he just couldn't stop loving.
"Was his rebellious side really that bad?" Arron questioned.
"Well, no, it's what made me fall in love with him." the two laughed. "Well. Raising all seven of you guys was no easy feat. But I'm still so proud of you." she looked into her son's blue eyes. "You astonish me every day with how well you can sing, and how brave you are, facing each day with a smile. I just wish you'd learn to control yourself more." she smiled.
Arron felt a wave of guilt wash over him again, and an unfamiliar warmth sparked in his chest. His mother had been through so much, and he had selfishly ignored her feelings and snapped back at her today. "I'm... I'm sorry..." he croaked.
Despite being fifteen years of age, and not being particularly close to his mother since he was at least nine, Arron found himself burying his face in Tritannia's shoulder. The Queen ran a hand through her youngest son's vibrant red hair that looked so much like her late husband's, and felt a powerful love and sympathy swell inside her. He was still so young, still so hurt by his father's death. While she wished he acted more his age, especially for a Prince of Atlantica, Tritannia wouldn't trade her youngest son for anything. It was rare that she got to have these personal moments with her children, as being the Queen of Atlantica didn't exactly give her much spare time. So the fact that Arron had snuck out tonight made her thankful for the coincidence.
She began to sing him a song that she hadn't sung to him since he was four, but as she did, Arron remembered every word.
"Oh, the waves roll low,
And the waves roll high,
And so it goes,
Under a bright blue endless sky,
Waves try to measure,
Days that we treasure,
Wave hello, and wave goodbye."
Arron felt himself smile and his cheeks warmed, taking on that rosy hue. He had never really been that close with his mother his whole life. He loved her, but he knew that their opinions on humans kept them apart. But for now, he was glad that he could simply sit there in her arms, her forgiveness warming him like a blanket.
"Thanks, mom." he said, finally opening his eyes again.
Tritannia smiled. "Come on. Off to bed with you."
Author's note: Tritannia's song is Endless Sky from the movie Ariel's Beginning, owned by Disney, not me. Hey, I'm just sayin', copyright is the most sincere form of flattery, Mister Mouse ;)