Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you found the intro to be interesting! ^^
Chris Shino: her reason will be explained later (not in this chapter), but I can tell you it's not that she's enjoyed lying.
teamBLAZE: yeah! I think it's interesting to make Neil a servant boy sometimes :P
ToOH: Well, I have plans on doing Mulan (but wondering whether I should change the names into more Chinese-sounding or keep it as it is), but let's see how it goes first. I do think of doing stories on other fandoms, but I don't have the inspiration yet. Maybe someday ^^
Reine begrudgingly let the maids decorate her for the day. One maid put the dress around her waist and tied it securely before she fixed the ruffles on the skirt while another fastened pearl clips onto her hair.
Two pearls bracelets were placed around her tail, much to her protest, "This is the latest fashion, Princess Renaissance," Marissa the governess, who stood guard at the princess' room (since she knew that Reine would give a lot of trouble as compared to her elder sisters), "You must keep up."
"Stupid fashion!" Reine grunted as she tried to sway her tails—and it was heavier thanks to the pearls, not to mention the discomfort since the dress was poking to her tail.
Reine stared at the reflection on the mirror; it was an exaggeration, still, but she felt that she was being buried under these pearls on her body, plus her silver tiara.
Among the court officials, Reine was known to be a vivacious princess, yet they were not aware that she was not really a party-mermaid. However, Reine did love the parties her grandfather hosted… just not for the reasons one might really think.
Just like always, Reine hoped her darling dolphin would not get lost in today's party and completed her mission A.S.A.P. before she was overcome by the urge to tear the itchy dress before the guests.
Reine swam lazily out from her room and found her elder sisters, all already prepared for today's party. "As always, Reine, you're the last," the eldest princess, Therese, chided gently.
Reine shrugged, "I'm the youngest, anyway," she quipped.
Therese sighed heavily. Being the last princess, Reine surely knew how to have the last word in this kind of argument.
"Anyway~ we have to go soon!" the third princess, Celeste, reminded them, which was quickly seconded by her twin, Selene, "Yes, the guests are already waiting!"
The six mermaids then glided gracefully towards the party hall. When the guards in front of the grand door noticed Therese, who was leading the party, they immediately stood at attention and opened the door for the six princesses.
As always, Reine could hear the voice of the party's master of ceremony (whoever it was this time) boomed through the hall, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, the Six Princesses!"
The guests stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at arguably the King's most cherished treasure: his granddaughters. However, they were always short of one.
She always came with a different party, indeed, and Reine knew today she would come although it would only be a good five minutes before she retreated back to her own chamber.
True enough, the door was opened again and a line of attendants glided gracefully, and this time the master of ceremony announced, "Please welcome, The Princess-Seeress!"
The blue-tailed and blue-haired mermaid came in last, the lower half of her face covered with a thin veil. Just like her sisters, her head was adorned with a silver tiara and array of pearls, and they wore matching dresses—only differentiated by their colours that matched the colour of their individual tail. However, there was a vast difference in the way she carried herself; in addition to grace, there was always a sense of mystery that lurked about her, simply because she was the Seeress—the maid granted with the Eyes of Helenus.
It was rumoured that her family was descended from Helenus, the twin brother of the prophet Cassandra. Unlike his poor twin sister, however, his prediction was never regarded as a proof of lunacy. Helenus fell in love with a mermaid and they had an offspring together, a mermaid who inherited Helenus' ability to foresee the future and ever since then, one mermaid from each generation of this family—known as the House of Helenian among the merfolk—would be born with this ability, and in Reine's generation, it was her elder sister, Guinevere Helenian.
Reine remembered that it wasn't apparent at first. They had the closest age gap and shared their rooms when they were younger, and things had been very different then. Reine remembered it started with lucid dreams—Gwen told her about them sometimes—which turned out to be reality in a few days. Slowly, these dreams began to appear during daytimes, and shortly after their father's disappearance, the King, their grandfather, identified Gwen as the Seeress and moved her chamber to a private chamber.
Ever since then, Reine could only see Gwen briefly in occasions where the Seeress was obligated to make her appearance, usually prescribed by the King. Even then, Gwen would stay as briefly as possible, before retreating back to her chamber as if it was her sanctuary. Reine knew, however, that the King had occasionally summoned Gwen to the Throne Room and asked her the same, boring question: "Have you had any vision for our kingdom?"
It was only then Reine saw Viv peeking through the window and Reine stealthily excused herself from the party hall and met up with the pink dolphin, who carried a tied sack with her. "Mission complete!" Viv said, which was met with Reine's grin. "Great!"
Reine quickly took off her party ornaments and hid them in the nearby seaweed bush before the two friends slipped out from the palace, to the border of Atlantica. A group of merchildren noticed their coming and cheered excitedly, "Reine's coming! Reine's coming!"
Reine was quickly surrounded by the excited merchildren. "Hey, guys!"
She then noticed Mika, one of the children whom she had grown quite close to. The girl smiled shyly, "Hello, Reine…"
Reine opened the sack, and as expected, Viv managed to snatch some of the excess food from the palace's kitchen. "Share it among yourselves," Reine said, giving the sack to the merchildren. They cheered loudly as the dug into the food, "You're the best, Reine!"
The merchildren quickly enjoyed the treats that Reine brought. "How did you manage to get this?" one of them asked innocently, staring into Reine's scarlet eyes. "This looks… expensive."
The question threw Reine off-guard for a moment, but she quickly countered it by saying, "You won't enjoy the food if you're thinking about that!"
The merchild laughed heartily, "You're right!" and then the conversation was simply dropped like that.
Neil was enjoying his short break at the back of the castle, alone, when someone sneaked up on him. With trained reflexes, Neil reached for his short sword but sighed in exasperation when he saw the red-headed prince grinning at him. "Found you."
"Geez!" Neil scowled. "What's it?"
Neil and Prince Allen were about the same age, and when Prince Eric Jr was still around, Neil used to be his errand boy—which in one way or another put him in close contact with the prince. Their personalities were contrastingly different, but since Neil often spent his time in Prince Eric's quarters, which happened to be where Allen often spent his time, too, they used to play together quite often.
Although ever since the Prince's death Neil had been assigned to do other tasks and so lessened his interaction with Allen, and sometimes Allen's attitude could rub him off the wrong way, Neil knew that Allen was a good person at heart and so kept up with it.
"I know you've been going to the beach~" he said teasingly.
"Wha—no!"
"So how did you wet your pants, Neil?" Allen asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes.
"The way you asked it… urgh! Fine, yes!"
Allen laughed, but he quickly got back to the main focus. "How did you get into the water?"
Neil eyed Allen carefully. "Will you report me to Her Majesty?"
"Ha? Of course not!" Allen replied almost immediately, "What do you think I am? Friend-stabber? Even when a sexy lady is in question I would not even do that!"
"Okay, Fine. I got the idea." Neil then proceeded to tell him about the hole he had found, but not telling him anything about the boat.
"You found that last year? You slick rascal!" Allen laughed, "Take me the next time you're going there!"
Neil shrugged. One less hiding place.
But at least he still got his boat.
That thought was quickly disrupted when another servant found him, "Neil, Her Majesty is looking for you!" the servant was surprised when he saw Allen there, however, and quickly bowed, "Y-Your Highness!"
Neil shot a menacing glare at Allen. "No! Trust me, I haven't seen Granny!"
He sighed, knowing that Allen wasn't lying. Besides, the Queen could ask for him for something else, although he did wonder why.
Neil quickly made his way and found the Queen sitting alone on the bench at the castle's garden. He bowed his head respectfully. "Your Majesty,"
"I saw you coming back from the sea the other day."
Neil held his breath. How could he be seen by more than one person—and his employer among others?!
"You do know that there is an order declaring that the sea is off-limit, right?"
Neil kept his mouth shut, but the guilty look on his face didn't pass the Queen's sharp eyes. "That includes you, Neil. And I expect you to follow it."
Neil had so many things he wanted to tell the Queen. How could he follow such instruction if his job included picking up things from the market which included a walk through the beach? Surely he couldn't tell the butler that the Queen prohibited him from going near the sea! The fact that he used to be Prince Eric's errand boy had already caused several tension with the other servants, especially the more senior ones—they thought there was something more behind the reason why Neil was hand-picked to be Prince Eric's errand boy right after his mother's death. He didn't want to add this 'preferential treatment' to feed their wild speculations. However, Neil found his mouth to shut tight before the presence of the Queen, and in the end, he simply nodded when the Queen dismissed him.
However, the first thing he did was actually to head to the house where he kept the boat and pushed it to the sea where he climbed in and started rowing to the sunset. Only when he could feel the gentle waves swayed his boat lightly where he was already rather far from the beach that his rage somewhat subsided.
Talk about impossible orders.
When Reine went back to the palace, much to her horror, Marissa was already standing guard at the gate with her arms crossed. "Where have you been, princess?"
"Errands." Reine replied simply.
"Errands? What errands? No princess does errands!" Marissa shot back, "Besides, your only duty is to entertain the guests—and what have you done?! You've escaped the party! What if the King learns about this?!"
Before Reine could defend herself, Marissa raised her hand and said, "Go back to your room, princess, and think the harm and shame you would have caused if this incident is leaked out!"
Marissa turned back and walked into the palace, leaving Reine flaming with her fury. Viv glanced at her friend worriedly, and as expected, instead going in to the palace, Reine dashed out from the palace once more, this time heading to the surface.
Reine leapt out from surface and her body bent gracefully above the water. It was a habit that her father had taught her to calm her temper down—leaping out from the water—and Reine found it to be rather useful at times. Plus, it made her the best jumper in her age now (so now you could guess how often Reine used this technique).
Reine opened her eyes when she felt that her body was about to fall back to the water. However, much to her shock, instead of the aerial view of the blue sea, she saw a boat—and a golden head.
Reine screamed in panic and Neil looked up, "Move out!"
Before Neil could react, the mermaid crashed down to the boat, rocking it furiously—and only after Neil's desperate efforts to stabilise the boat by spreading out his arms and legs the boat didn't capsize. However, that made Reine ended up right between his legs and top of his body—and she successfully drenched the man in water.
Neil looked up in shock when he saw a cascade of pink hair over his face, and a pair of scarlet eyes staring back at him. His breath came in a staccato rhythm as he tried to register what had just happened.
Reine awkwardly straightened her body and Neil could see her pink tail—with almost translucent, lighter pink fins.
"W… what are you?"
"Can't you see? I'm a mermaid!" Reine replied, her cheeks flushed red before she leaped back into the water but not before her tail slapped Neil on the face.
How could there be a human there?! What happened to the wall?! Reine asked herself furiously.
Neil was still left in shock after the tail-slap moment. He blinked his eyes several times before he finally began to register everything.
A mer… what?! Pink dolphin, and now pink mermaid?! What's inside this sea, anyway?!
A brief encounter between the two rebellious spirits...
will this lead to something more?
Stay tuned to find out!
Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^
A/N: what do you think of Neil-Reine first meeting in this story? :P