teamBLAZE: Alicia's getting desperate, don't you think, calling Reine's an auntie and all :P

Bunnies4ever2: yeah, I played RF4 and RF3 (the one with Micah) ^^ I like Dylas a lot! ^^

After Reine, Neil and Viv were out from sight, Gwen turned back and glided towards the palace without uttering any word, accompanied by her faithful companion, Viserys, who was equally emotionless. Allen watched the whole scene rolled with disbelief, almost disgust towards the Seeress' detachment towards her own—and only—younger sister.

"Actually, they're twins."

Allen turned his head abruptly and found a purple-tailed mermaid. "Oh, hey, call me Leighlee since you're going to stay for a while," she flashed a brief smile at the prince before continuing. "Like I was saying, Gwen and Reine are twins—they were born one-hour apart from each other."

"That's all the more reason her cold attitude is…"

"but she is a Seeress, and Reine is not." Leighlee interjected softly.

"What do you mean by that?"

Leighlee gazed darkly towards the palace's direction, where Gwen had disappeared into moments ago. "Sometimes, the easiest way to accept things is to force yourself to do it." She murmured before trying to smile again in front of Allen, "I believe you have not been shown to your rooms?"

"Why did you help me?" Neil asked when they were already some distance away from the palace. "It's not like you'll be affected if anything were to happen to me anyway."

"Oh, I get to skip classes." Reine replied simply while humming a cheerful tone.

"Skip classes? Are you serious?!"

"You don't know how boring they are, shut up."

"What if there are sharks?" Neil asked in a challenging tone, "You really don't think sharks are worth skipping class for?!"

Just like that, a shark appeared before them and glared at them, making it obvious that it saw them at the best to be obstacle to its path and at worst its prey. Viv tensed at the sight of the greyish shark and moved closer towards Reine.

"You should really watch your mouth," Reine remarked, but with no hint of fear in her voice.

Following his instinct, Neil tried to swim away, but his movements attracted the shark that it locked on him as its target. Reine tried to grab him, but it was too late.

"Damn! Viv, the gills!"

"Okay!"

Just before the shark reached Neil, Viv smashed herself to the shark's side, blocking its gills and momentarily stunned the predator. Reine used this interval to slide below the shark's body, her head directly below its' half-opened jaws and wrapped her arms around its streamlined body, trying to reach as far as she could. In a breath, Reine flipped over their position, inverting the shark, and held it for about twenty seconds before letting go, and the shark stayed inverted, floating along with the current.

Neil looked at Reine in disbelief. Within the short time span they had spent together, she had done two things most girls (or even mermaids) wouldn't do in their lifetime:

Venturing into deep sea with fanged fishes without being unfazed, checked.

Wrestling a shark and won, checked.

"…is it dead?" Neil asked in disbelief, his eyes still following the shark that almost ate him.

"No." Reine said while swimming towards him, "I forced him to play dead."

"Huh?"

"Let me teach you a trick: most shark will be stunned like that—" she pointed at the shark that floated away from them, "—if you invert their bodies. Some types have special methods, but body inverting works for most. They will come back to their senses in fifteen minutes, but if you keep holding them inverted then, you'll probably kill them."

Viv sneaked into the space between the two of them. "This's why having Reine in your quest increases your survival rate by one hundred, or even two hundred percent!"

"That's too much." Reine retorted, pinching Viv's flipper softly.

"Aw!"

"Any case, don't be too afraid of sharks. Some of them are even shy." Reine said, "but don't be dumb enough to go one-on-one with a shark unless it's do or die."

"Who taught you that?"

"Mama Orca." Reine replied, grinning ear to ear, "and we're going to her now."

"She knows everything you can possibly know in Atlantica!" Viv joined in.

They swam for what seemed to be eternity for Neil if he hadn't ingested the haleweed before they finally found a pod of orcas with varying sizes. Viv let out a whistling-like voice and the orcas turned to the small party.

"Oh, look! It's Reine and Viv!" one of the orcas exclaimed.

They immediately swam towards them and encircling them. "Hi! Hi! Long time no see!"

"Hi!" Reine greeted back, swimming between them while caressing their skin. The orcas obviously loved the gesture as they swam closer to Reine, letting her to move her hand lightly over their bodies.

One of the female orcas noticed Neil and poked at his blonde hair. Neil, unsure how to react after the shark episode, stayed as still as a rock. "What happened to this boy?"

"Shorked." Reine quipped.

"But he has quite a lung power to swim alongside you." The orca said, still playing around with Neil (now she was sniffing his clothes, tickling him all over his body).

"We gave him haleweed."

"Eh? That's unusual." The orca remarked, "What happened this time?"

"Long story. To put it simply, three humans somehow wandered into Atlantica." She continued, "That's why I need to see Mama Orca now."

"She's there!" one of the orcas replied, pointing at a certain direction.

Neil followed the direction and he saw another orca, considerably larger than the other. That particular orca swam slowly towards them, and Neil could feel the current she created due to her movement even from where he was. The other orcas immediately made way to their matriarch.

"Mama Orca!" Reine called with a girlish excitement.

"You've grown so much since the last summer." Mama Orca replied with a smile, "What brings you here, my dear?"

"I need to know about Flower of Illusions."

"Flower of Illusions?" Mama Orca replied hesitantly. "Why so?"

"It's a ransom for this human's friends."

"The king held them captive?"

"Not exactly captive—I'm sure he treats them well." Reine remarked, "but… you get what I'm trying to say."

Mama Orca turned to look closer at Neil, who had been pushed towards her by another orca. "Poor thing… you must be very confused."

With the wall separating the castle from the sea, Neil often wondered the day where he could go back playing in the water: diving, looking at the beautiful corals, or even playing with schools of small fishes that often appeared on the shallow waters. Now, he had gotten more than he had hoped for: fanged fish, sharks, and orcas. Plus, he could breathe underwater now… and he could actually listen to what fishes were saying.

"Am I… supposed to be able to know what you're saying?"

All the orcas were stunned in surprise when Neil talked to them, even Mama Orca herself. The younger orcas immediately buzzed among themselves while Mama Orca stared silently at Reine. "That's another thing I thought you might have an idea about." She finally said.

So… I'm not supposed to? Neil concluded inwardly.

Mama Orca stared at Neil again, this time more intently. She seemed to be studying the details of his being: his forehead, his nose bridge, his cheekbones, his jawline, as well as his complexion. She began to understand a possible reason for the King's interest in that group of humans, assuming that his human companions were the same as him, but the wise orca decided not to tell Reine about it since it was still a premature thought.

"Flower of Illusions will only appear on a full moon night, on the sea ground lighted by the moon." Mama Orca explained, "If you don't pluck it when the moon was still shining on it, it will be gone. That's why people call it Flower of Illusions."

"Full moon will appear in five days, right?" Reine pondered aloud. "But… how do I know where it will shine on?"

"You know the deep flower field north to this waters?" Mama Orca asked, "I saw the flower bloomed there on a full moon night some sixty years ago. There's a good chance."

Reine nodded. "I know the place." She then smiled at the orca, "Thanks, Mama Orca!"

After thanking the pod, Reine, Neil and Viv dashed off to their destination with Reine acting as the lead. There was no road in the waters, so an efficient navigator was a must for their quest, especially when they had to reach the place within a period of time just like this.

Neil remembered that when he asked her earlier, she told him she was just skipping classes. But, looking at her determination as if the quest was her own, Neil began to wonder whether she was being totally honest with him back then.

"Will they be alright?" Allen sighed heavily.

"You can't ask for better partner than Princess Renaissance in a survival game!" Rod, who had accompanied Allen as per Leighlee's request, said. "Trust me on that!"

"She's still a girl."

"She can kill a great white shark if she wants to."

Allen gasped, and a horde of bubbles came out from his mouth. "Really?!"

"Yeah. She's a pro at incapacitating sharks, especially with Vivienne around." Rod grinned, "As long as there's her, you don't need to worry about your brother!"

Allen nodded, not bothering to tell Rod that Neil wasn't actually his brother since he often considered him as one himself. How else should he describe their strong love-hate relationship if not brotherly, anyway?

The door to his room was opened, and much to the surprise of everyone in the room, the Princess-Seeress stood at the other side of the door. Rod immediately swam to her side, bowing respectfully, "Your Highness."

Gwen nodded at Rod, acknowledging him, before moving towards Allen in a slow, but graceful movement. Allen looked up and saw her deep blue eyes—the only visible part of his face due to the veil. He was still rather bothered by her cold attitude towards her own twin earlier, so he dropped all form of courtesy he would usually show towards women. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.

Gwen said nothing but she moved her hand to touch Allen's cheek lightly. Her touch was cold, even colder than the water around them, and Allen felt a slight chill ran down his spine as she did so. He unconsciously held his breath as her cold gaze pierced him.

"If you want to stay alive, stay close," the seeress said, "if you want to go back, don't stay close."

What is the meaning of Gwen's words?

Will Neil get the Flower of Illusions?

Stay tuned for the next update!

Thanks for reading!

Please rate and review! ^^

A/N: the method Reine used to incapacitate the shark does exist. Basically, Reine was inducing tonic immobility to the shark, you can just google it if you're interested! ^^