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From a Dusty Attic

By Corvus no Genmu


An Old Friend

"Ouch, that's rather harsh isn't it? If it is not too bold of me to say." Gasping in shock, Melody turned to look down below her to see something that took her breath away.

What Melody saw staring up at her was best described as neither man nor beast but a strange fusion of the two. Overall, the beast was reptilian, with a turtle's skin and shell but a human's gentle face upon scales of green, with dreadlocks of hair, which looked more like tightly coiled seaweed than actual strands, falling beneath a buccaneer's cap and privateer's crimson bandanna. Eyes like sparkling coals blinked upwards at her and a fingered hand waved a kind greeting as the sea-creature spoke in a voice similar to the sound of shifting sands. "Ahoy."

"Um… hi?" Melody blinked in surprise and leaned forward slightly, a bit wary of the turtle-man but not too much so having already met and spoken with several sea turtles and found them to be a rather pleasant, if a bit too easy-going, lot. "What are you? I've never seen anything like you before…"

The turtle-man chuckled and shook his head, muttering a quiet word of déjà vu before smiling and stretching his neck further out of the gently waving waters. "It is good to finally meet you but you mustn't be out here. The ocean is not a safe place for you."

Melody, though knee deep in a mixture of wonder and slightness of fright about the strange creature floating before her, couldn't help but frown from the all-too-familiar words of her mother reflecting in the creature's own. Frustration born of several unanswered questions and years of denial pushed down her curiosity and made her forget the fact that this sea-creature whom she had never met knew of playful nickname her mother gave her.

"Oh not you too! It's bad enough with that stupid wall is there," Melody waved towards the massive wall that hid the palace from the ocean's sight where gentle waves gently slapped the stone walls as though begging for entry upon the sands behind, "but now I've got sea-creatures telling me it's dangerous to be out in the ocean!"

The turtle-man blinked in surprise before grabbing a hold of the rock and leaning up towards Melody. "Child, it's not the sea that you must be wary of but who lies within it. Has your mother not told you?"

"My mother?" Melody glared and crossed her arms in a huff. "My mom is the one who keeps telling me the sea is dangerous in the first place!"

The turtle-man's eyes widened in shock before he sighed and shook his head sadly, his dreadlocks dripping water onto the rock. "Oh Ariel… I thought you would know better than to make the same mistakes…"

Melody blinked and stared at the turtle-man. "How do you know my mother's name?"

The turtle-man sighed and slowly eased himself up onto the rock and sat down beside the raven-haired girl. Melody blinked in surprise at how much taller he was even when sitting down as well as the strange assortments decorating his shell. Were those tattoos adorning his arms? Was that a scar made from sea serpent's fang or man's sword?

"To begin with, let us first introduce ourselves properly." The turtle-man took off his tricorne and bowed his head. "My real name is hard to pronounce in the human-tongues so you may call me Gwappa of the Aquarius Clan."

Melody curtsied slightly, feeling slightly ridiculous since she was wearing her nightclothes. "I am Princess Melody Anderson of the Royal Crown of Denmark."

Gwappa smiled and nodded. "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I shall answer your first question. No doubt you are aware of a vast array of life that, for the better part, remains unseen in the deep waters of the sea?"

"You mean like mermaids, giant squids, and sea monsters?"

"Ah yes there are those but there are many more my dear and not just in the Atlantic." Gwappa smiled and waved a hand at himself. "My own kind resides in the Pacific Ocean. I am what the natives of the country Nippon would call a kappa though I do not possess the indentation upon my head like the Makai Clan."

"Indentation?" Melody leaned up to try and see but even if Gwappa's hat and bandanna weren't adorning his head, she could not see past the many hair-like dreadlocks that fell to the end of his long neck.

"Yes, the spell casters of my race, a relatively unpleasant lot let me tell you, have a large indentation upon the top of their heads where water must always be kept whenever they're on land, otherwise they become no different than a turtle. Of course, a turtle that can speak the human tongues but a turtle nonetheless."

"Why is that?" asked Melody, despite wanting to learn how this kappa knew her mother, he was the first of any 'mythical' sea-life she had ever seen and, like her first time speaking to Sebastian, wasn't eager to stop asking as many questions as she could. Maybe he would be more forthcoming with the answers than Sebastian who always found an excuse to not answer.

Gwappa shrugged. "We thought it best to not look a gift seahorse in the mouth." Gwappa held up a hand to stall Melody's next question. "Though I do want to answer all of your questions Melody I fear that we must put this conversation on hold for the time being."

"Huh? Why?" Melody pouted slightly, he still hadn't told her how he knew her mother!

"If I'm not mistaken…" Gwappa looked towards the castle's seawall where the sounds of large crowds and music could be heard easily. "Your birthday party shall be starting soon."

"What! Oh no!" Melody stood and saw that many of the colored lights of the season were being lit with the sun just touching the horizon. "I'm going to be late! Oh my mother's going to kill me!" Melody dived forward into the water and started to swim as fast as she could towards the palace but stopped suddenly and turned about to see Gwappa merely watching her atop 'her' rock. "Can I talk to you again? You still haven't answered my question!"

Gwappa waved her on. "We shall, Little Melody. Away with you, lest you be even later than you intended."

Melody waved goodbye and hurriedly swam back towards the palace as the kappa watched her shrink away into the waves before shaking his head sadly. "Ariel, Ariel, Ariel…. One would think you would have learned from your father's mistakes instead of repeating them…"

"D'at kinda talk can get ya into trouble, mon." Gwappa glanced down and smiled at the sight of a familiar red crab.

"Sebastian, how do you fare in these recent years?" asked the kappa, reaching down with an open palm to the little crustacean, who tiredly climbed aboard.

"Still babysitting teenagers," sighed Sebastian as Gwappa raised him up to talk face-to-face. "Generations aside, how you doin', Gwappa? It's been years."

Gwappa frowned slightly. "Thirteen years, six months, and seven days… if you're counting that is…" He sighed, looking over towards the castle wall. "I did not think it would hurt so much…"

"Going or coming back?" asked Sebastian.

"Both. Neither. I don't know…" Gwappa shook his head. "What has happened Sebastian? I can tell she's Ariel's daughter but it's obvious she knows nothing of her mother's past…" Or of me… he thought silently to himself.

Sebastian heard nonetheless and sat back on Gwappa's palm with his claws crossed under his shell. "Dat is a long story."

"Sebastian," Gwappa chided, chuckling softly. "If there's one thing my kind has plenty of it is patience." He glanced back at the castle with its high walls and iron bars, frowning in thought. "But perhaps I shall take the abridged version, if you'd be so kind…"