"Come on everyone! A celebration is in order! It is time for the Summer festival of births!" Morgan cried out in joy. Others cheered readying their celebration. Given birthdays were only on paper and it was difficult to keep track of days, they celebrated for three or so days in honor of their births. Each season had one, and each was grand and full of life.

Children were dressed in what could be argued as their best clothes, wearing greens and purples and blacks, girls adjourning themselves in pearls collected over the years from the shellfish. Boys painting themselves with squid ink in patterns of the sun, thunder clouds, and, when the girls could catch them, small fish.

Being summer, Jay, Ursa and Iden were the oldest of the season. So they had to lead the younger ones around near the water for the festivities.

"That looks like fun," a girl only a few months younger than Jay commented. She was an Autmn girl with a striking resemblance. One of the few children who were a cousin. Being a daughter of Narisa the necromancer and Jafar's sister led to her life on the island. Not that she minded. Island life, like the rest of the children, was all she had ever known.

And she couldn't imagine herself happier.

"Everyone! Clams and mussels and bread and, for the piece de resistance, we have a small vat of butter!" Jay called out. There was a cry of approval. Dairy was rare on the island. Even more so something so worked as butter. But sitting there on a table, was a small container of butter. Maybe a pound at that. Just a little touch of something different on the bread. A special occasion item.

All the summer children gathered around Jay and the two Octo-boys in their mobile tubs. Jay used the paddle to give them the buttered bread first, along with their mussels and clams.

"How'd Captain Morgan swing butter?" Carlos muttered to himself. Jade shrugged her shoulders and joined the crowd to get shellfish and buttered bread.

There were guards and various undercover soldiers to the king who hid aboard the prison barge. New criminals to be sent to the Ilse for various crimes against the common good. Only the fiercest of criminals.

Even if a few looked positively sick to their stomachs. One was near tears and looked about twenty one. Guards wondered his crime. Perhaps he was a murderer.

The under cover agents were baffled when an older gentleman gave a saddened look and placed a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. Calm and weary.

"So um... What are you in for?" One of the under covert agents asked.

"I um uh... I had broken into a museum. It was a joke. But I broke a vase. Apparently it was really expensive. I-I couldn't pay for it."

"No really, what did you do?"

"He broke a vase. It doesn't take much to get sent to the Ilse from Prestanville," the man commented. The undercover man furrowed his brow.

"Prestanville? I heard they have the lowest crime rate-"

"Lowest crime rate. Feh. They only got that because the only people they document are the "minor crimes". No one ever has to document Ilse criminals. They're the nation's problems. Not the city's," the man growled in anger.

"Hitting land you scum. Get your asses out," one of the guards yelled with a sadistic grin. One by one, the prisoners and agents of the king were "escorted" out. Okay, more like shoved. Each were tossed onto the island with practically nothing before the boat left. The undercover agents, while displeased, focused their minds on the mission. They could deal with what they were seeing later. If any of it were acutually true.

"Everybody dance!" Jay yelled into cavern. Everyone laughed and yelled, as Carlos turned on the music. The natural lights seemed to shimmer as bodies moved chaotically in the cool confined quarters. Dances and partners changed quickly between the fickle children.

Songs played from high energy to more melodic pieces as the younger ones fell into piles of scavenged fabrics placed into makeshift beds. Older children were swaying in pairs, as if hugging one another. Jade with her cousin Jay in a familial dance, Mal had been swept into a dance by Jerrard for the fun of it, Evie had been grabbed by Samuel to avoid being swept in by Morgan... And Morgan had grabbed Carlos who hid behind the speakers, pulling him onto his feet and making him dance half hazardly across the cavern.

The energy was dwindling as more and more children cuddled up to one another ending the evening with Ursa and Iden dancing with one another in the water with the music off, and only the soft waves and rythmic snoring could be heard.

"Another good festival start," Ursa said softly as he and his brother went under the water to their own sleeping quarters.

"It was fun. Everyone seemed happy. Even if the Hun kids got a little rambunctious," Iden chuckled. He grabbed a clam from their watery floor and stroked the shell. He frowned and placed it back. His brother smirked at him.

"Enough with the pearl hunting. We have plenty for now."

"Never enough. The above ground still covets them. They still hold value."

"Put that aside for a few days. We still have two days of festivities. We should enjoy them while they last."

Iden was silent for a moment before conceding and slipping into his little alcove in the stone and coral. Ursa rolled his eyes and then slipped into his own alcove. He watched the glass shimmer below among the shellfish, reflecting what little moonlight they could aquire. He had no trouble seeing though, darkness suited him and his brother just fine. The others though, the legged ones, just couldn't. Just another truth of the children.

King Eric frowned as he read the letter from King Adam.

"Eric," his wife Ariel interrupted his reading, "What is it?"

"It seems as though Melody has been accepted to Audaron Prep."

"Oh. In Adam and Belle's kingdom?" Ariel asked warily. It was foreign for most to hear the once mermaid princess speak in such a tone, but when it came to Belle... It was all too common.

"Yes. The same."

Ariel bit her lip. They were close to the sea, the villain's Isle, and had no wall to keep their daughter from wandering into the sea. But it would be further away from Morgana...

"I don't think it could hurt. She hasn't made too many friends in the court," Ariel sighed. Eric gently grabbed her hand.

"I know you don't like Queen Belle, but I do think we're making the right choice."

"It's not that I don't like her Eric, but she knows everything I ever wanted to know. And she makes me feel like an idiot for not knowing-"

"You aren't an idiot Ariel. You've lived in the sea until we met..." Eric gently cupped her cheek, "And you are still the brightest, and most curious woman I have ever met."

"Oh Eric."

"Yuck! Get a room!" A girl's voice cried out. The two adults turned to see a slightly tanned, dark haired girl with vibrantly expressive eyes.

"Melody, come here for a moment. There is something your father and I want to discuss with you."

More... Just more...