"Stay here, please."
Those were the last words Lumina had heard from her mother before she and practically everyone else had gone up the tower to investigate Lumina's findings. Well, not everyone else, just her father, Katrena and Eos. But Lumina was the crown princess; was this not her affair too?
She would not have it. She would not.
So, with her knowledge of the secret passages she had gained almost immediately after arriving at the castle, Lumina snuck her way up to the tower.
When she found her way there, she kept hidden behind the large pots of kelp. She didn't want to get sent away.
"There's something there!" Eos was saying, her brown hand pressed against the window.
Katrena took a look to the left of the room on the other side.
"I think the blackness we saw earlier was merely the inside of this wardrobe. It was shut. The question is, who's opened it?"
"Perhaps we might be able to ask, if only we could get there," the king mused.
Just then, about six people came into view. Lumina recognized Elsa, smiling at just how beautiful she was. With her was another girl who had red hair like Cora's, a tall, buff blond man, and three men who looked like they were royal soldiers.
Everyone at the window tried at once to speak, but Elsa stopped them when she summoned ice, causing them all to stare in awe. With the ice, the human queen formed the words Where's Lumina?
"I'm right here!" Lumina said loudly, swimming up to the window.
"Lumina!" King Nereus scolded. "What did we tell you?!"
"Never mind that," Lumina replied somewhat coldly. "We need to find out how to get over there."
"Your Highness," Katrena began, "with these tridents we may be able to break –"
"Don't!" shouted Lumina. "If you do that, the ocean will come through and they'll drown!"
Katrena shrugged, her expression apologetic. Of course they would; she should've known that.
Lumina thought. Perhaps it would be better to get the humans over to her side. But how to do that without them drowning in the sea?
Then a thought struck her.
"Aunt Scylla!" Lumina cried, smiling.
"What about her?" Eos asked.
"She can make a potion so that they can breathe underwater!" Lumina continued. "I'm going to find her. And Fergis, he'll know what plants to use."
"Lumina, wait!" Lorelei called, but Lumina had sped off to the lower floors of the castle.
Lorelei sighed.
"She's going to get herself in danger if she keeps being reckless like this," she said, embracing her husband.
"She'll be fine, Lorelei," replied Nereus. But he, of course, was just as worried for his daughter.
"Um, Your Majesties?" Katrena said. "The blonde woman on the other side – she's doing something!"
They turned, and saw that Elsa had poked a sharp piece of ice through the window's border. She moved the ice, cutting half of the window from the border excepting the very top and bottom. She did the same with the other half.
"Doesn't she know –" Katrena began, but her thought was interrupted as she pressed against the window, swinging it open as if it were on a hinge in the middle, which was exactly what Elsa had done.
Katrena screamed as she fell to the other side. Eos, Nereus and Lorelei rushed to her aid, but Elsa slammed the window shut, containing the rest of the ocean.
Katrena gasped. And gasped again. There was no water here, only air! She couldn't swim in air. She had no legs and couldn't walk. She screamed again.
"Get her a chair," Elsa ordered her soldiers.
"Who are you?" Katrena asked.
"My name is Elsa," Elsa replied. "I am the queen of this land, Arendelle. What is your name?"
"Katrena, general of the guard of Seagundia."
The soldiers came back with a chair. Elsa and the red-haired girl helped Katrena sit on it.
"Do you know how this happened?" Elsa asked.
"Not exactly. All I know is that a Storm Siren – a merperson who can summon storms – attacked our kingdom today. Then, an undersea whirlpool hit the tower where that window is. And suddenly, it became a portal to another realm!"
Elsa sighed.
"This tower was hit by lightning. It couldn't have been ordinary lightning; it was purple and the storm came out of nowhere! I think a person with similar type of powers to me had something to do with it."
"Creation of ice?"
"No. I think they're a summoner of storms, like the one who attacked you."
Deep in the royal kitchen cellar of Seagundia, a young merman was eyeing various kelps and seaweeds through his magnifying glass. He handed some to an old mermaid, who put them into a cauldron right over an underwater heating vent.
"I hope this works," Fergis sighed. "I haven't heard of anyone making something like this before."
"What did you find?" Lumina asked.
"All these," Fergis said, indicating a row of blue and purple kelp, "are used by healers to heal breathing afflictions. And these" – he eyed white flowers – "are used for thinning out water pressure, you know, like if you get a merberry nectar stain on your clothes; it's thicker than water and hard to get out without the juice of these flowers."
"Our chances of being successful are better than they could be," Scylla said as she stirred the potion. "I've looked at every book in the library on this subject – well, similar subjects. As Fergis pointed out, we're the first ones to do this!"
Soon, a light blue steam rose up from the cauldron.
"I think this is as done as it can be," Scylla said. She bottled the potion and handed it to Fergis.
"How will we know if it works?" Fergis wondered out loud.
"I don't like this, Fergis," said Lumina as they swam up to the nearest shore. "I don't want to just force some land animal to drink this and then stick them in the ocean!"
"Don't worry," Fergis said. "Lumie, if it doesn't work, the animal goes back on land."
"But what if it gets poisoned?"
Fergis opened a bag on his belt.
"Relax, I brought every antidote known to merfolk."
Up on the shore, a cat pawed at a bunch of seaweed. The cat was white, with brown splotches, and its ears were bent forward. It was sniffing at the seaweed like a dog. But the merpeople, who had never before seen either a cat or a dog, thought nothing odd of it.
From underwater, Fergis opened the potion bottle and let the potion surround the seaweed.
Intrigued by the glowing blue seaweed, the cat jumped in the ocean and sniffed the seaweed. He then started to chew on it, once again like a curious dog.
Then, also unusually for a cat, he suddenly wanted to go for a swim.
The cat breathed in and dipped his head underwater. Just then, he suddenly stopped holding his breath.
What was this? The water was breathable, like air. Excited, the cat let out a sharp bark.
Fergis clapped his hands.
"It worked!"
Gently, he picked up the cat and put him back on the shore.
The cat, who was no ordinary cat, but one who favored the speech and lifestyle of a dog, decided he had to inform his best friend of what had happened. Said best friend was a human – a queen visiting a seaside land, far away from her own country of Dulcinea.
"I can't open it!" Elsa cried. "I'm sorry, Katrena. I can't get you back over there without flooding this room. I'd have to carry you over there, and the window would be open for too long – oh, Lumina's back!"
For she had turned toward the window and seen the mermaid princess reappear, with a young brown-haired merman who looked like a prince alongside her.
Elsa saw Lumina talk with another mer-soldier, a black-haired, brown-skinned mermaid with a pale red tail. After that, Lumina opened the window slightly and slid a bottle through, immediately closing it.
Elsa picked the bottle up.
"Anna, look!" she said.
Anna eyed the bottle and the note attached.
"Kristoff! Katrena!" Anna cried excitedly. "It says if we drink this we'll be able to breathe water! We can get Katrena back home if we use this!"
"Do you think it's safe?" asked Elsa cautiously.
"Princess Lumina and Prince Fergis are upstanding individuals!" Katrena snapped. "They would never ever hand you poison!"
Elsa still looked worried, but she slowly brought the bottle of potion to her lips and drank some.
"Looks like you're still alive, Elsa," Anna giggled.
Elsa handed the bottle to Anna and quickly stepped through the window. She gasped. What they had said was true. She was breathing the water as easily as air!
With her ice, she formed the words Get Katrena to the window!
Anna and Kristoff picked the mermaid up and set her down by the window. They had taken the potion, so they followed Elsa through.
"Good!" said Elsa. "Now, we have to open the window one more time and pull Katrena over here!"
Eos pushed against the window, cracking it open, at which point Anna and Fergis each grabbed one of Katrena's arms.
"Pull!" Elsa shouted.
Quickly, they pulled the mermaid through and slammed the window shut.
Anna laughed.
"We'll have to do something about the big puddle on our side."