Chapter 2: Hidden Treasures

(Authors note: I was originally going to have the king be Aquaman and the kingdom his Atlantis. However, I don't know that much about him, having only seen the Jason Momoa film. So we'll just stick with King Triton as their father. Now, on with the story!)

"I am absolutely disgusted," Sebastian jumped with each word he shouted. "Why must you make everything difficult?"

"Why must he make lessons boring?" Briel muttered to Leila."What was that?" Sebastian snapped at Briel.

"Nothing," Briel said, "I'm just surprised you aren't used to us after all this time." Maisy giggled while Leila and Vanna rolled their eyes.

Sebastian was not in a joking mood, "No, I'm not used to your antics because there shouldn't be any! Every time you go to the surface…"

"THEY WENT TO THE SURFACE AGAIN?" King Triton shouted from the doorway. Sebastian gasped. He hadn't meant for the king to find out; he was just going to lecture the girls.

"We've been through this," King Triton shouted as he swam closer. "I don't want you going to the surface you could be seen by one of those barbarians; by one of those," he sneered, "humans!"

"But Daddy," Maisy pleaded, trying to use her charm as the youngest. "Humans are so fascinating!"

"They aren't very different from us," added Vanna. "After all," she touched the Pearls of Wisdom around her neck, "our special objects are the same as some human objects."

King Triton opened his mouth and closed it once more. He couldn't argue with that logic. He knew deep down that he should have taught his daughters about humans long ago. After all, part of their mission involved them secretly interacting with the human world. He had told himself many times over the years, 'They're too young; next year.' This happened every year, and one day he blinked, and his little girls were beautiful young ladies. He still wasn't ready for them to begin their special mission – even though he had started his mission at fifteen. He couldn't let them go just yet. This was another opportunity to postpone it - grounding them!

"Yes, humans and ourselves may have influenced one another years ago, but now they are too dangerous to trust - which is why you aren't allowed on the surface! Plus, you missed a lesson with Sebastian. Therefore, you are grounded for the rest of the week!" The four sisters yelled out protests in unison. King Triton held his hand up and said, "This is not debatable! You are to do nothing but eat, sleep, study, and help in the fields. Sebastian, you are to stay with them every moment!"

"Yes, Sire," Sebastian said while thinking, 'Is this punishment for them or for me?'

"The first half of the week went by rather uneventfully. The girls protested a bit in the beginning, but they were finally cooperating. Little did Sebastian know, the girls were trying desperately to sneak away from him and visit their cavern with all their human things. Finally, an opportune moment came when Sebastian got tangled up in rainbow seaweed. Others had come to his aid; they wouldn't have just left him like that! So they took the distraction as a blessing and raced to the cavern.

When Sebastian was freed, he angrily realized that the girls had escaped once again. Luckily he'd gotten used to them escaping and had begun to figure out the general whereabouts of their hiding place. He asked a dolphin friend to swim him over to the vicinity. This was much quicker than if he'd swam after them himself. Sebastian began searching the many caverns when suddenly a light appeared at the top of one of them. A boulder was in front of the entrance - this was where they were! He squeezed in the small gap between the boulder and cavern wall. He looked up and gasped! The girls were surrounded by hundreds of human objects!

Maisy took the CD out of the Valise of Vastness and hung it up with the others. Briel was playing ping pong; the ball floated slowly underwater, but it was still fun. Leila was over at a mirror and had chosen a dress to put on. Vanna was working on their replica of Manhattan. It had taken forever to build, but some empty containers, Lego pieces, and other random objects brought this magical city to life!

Leila brushed her blue hair in front of the mirror and sighed. She loved their special cavern! It was the only place she and her sisters could truly enjoy. They had found many objects over the years. Luckily, they had found a spot close to the shipping docks. Humans could be careless when unloading boats. Packages would occasionally fall, and anything under the water was theirs! Still, she hated having to hide here. She watched her sisters enjoying themselves. Leila looked back at the mirror, noticed the key around her neck, and remembered something.

Leila swam over to where Maisy and Vanna were working on the New York City replica. "Hey, Vanna," Leila interrupted politely.

"Hmm," Vanna replied, still deep in concentration.

"Did you see how Father paused the other day when you mentioned how similar our objects are to human items?"

"You saw that too?" Briel swam over.

"Yes," then Vanna replied, "It looked like he was about to say something else. I wonder if he was going to tell us more about our special mission."

"Do you think our mission is human-related?" asked Leila. "Maybe that's why he doesn't want to tell us?"

"I'm not sure," Vanna replied.

"Ugh!" Briel moaned in exasperation. "I'm tired of not knowing anything about our 'super special secret mission'! I wish we could just go to the surface and stay there!"

"I know what you mean," Vanna said, "Humans our age are in high school and figuring out what job they want or what college they'll go to. Meanwhile, we have a job assigned to us, but we aren't allowed to know what it is! It's frustrating!"

"After all this waiting, it better be good," Briel said as she used a human hair clip to pull her blonde hair into a ponytail.

Maisy picked up the Statue of Liberty figure and held it lovingly. "I wonder if humans want to be under the sea as much as we want to be above on land?"

Leila laughed, "That'd be great! Imagine if we could just switch places with four humans!"

"I wonder if the humans would pay more attention to their Mer-Studies," Sebastian spoke up.

"How did you find us?" Briel asked.

"I've been following you for a while and finally figured out where you swim off to," Sebastian replied.

"Please don't tell Father about this, Sebastian," Leila pleaded, "He would never understand!"

"He understands more than you think," answered Sebastian. "He's just very protective of you girls."

"Yeah, too protective," Briel muttered, crossing her arms.

Sebastian thought for a moment, "How about I talk to your father? I could ask him to give you more information about your mission! Then you'll have something to look forward to!"

"Can't you just tell us what it is, Sebastian?" pleaded Maisy.

"Nice try, Maisy," Sebastian said, then sheepishly added, "Besides, I don't know what it is either!"

Leila looked at her sisters, "It would be nice to have some answers finally."

Sebastian took that as his cue, "Great! Let's head back to the castle, and I'll request an audience with the King!" He headed toward the door, and shockingly, the sisters started to follow him.

Vanna then turned to Leila and Briel, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Leila realized she was still wearing a dress. "Oh right," she laughed, "I'd better put this back." She swam over to her collection and took off the dress while Briel removed her human hair clip and replaced it with seaweed (as mermaids wore in their hair.) Sebastian was shocked they were going with him so easily! Little did he realize, they were about to encounter a situation that would make convincing the sisters to stay underwater much more difficult.

Meanwhile, there were some interesting events occurring not too far above the surface. The shipping docks were also near the popular Dockshore Club. A typical night turned wild when six people, dressed up as turtles and a wolf, broke through the wall. They got in a fight, and two of the costumers were knocked out. An assistant went over to the manager to tell him the emergency operator was on the phone.

"The police! What are you doing?" the club manager shouted at his assistant. "They like it, they like it!" He then shooed his assistant away.

Befuddled, the assistant responded to the 911 operator, "It's okay. They like it." He walked back to his office in confusion.

The manager grabbed two stagehands' arms, "You, go set off some fireworks!"

"Fireworks?" one shouted over the noise, "What for?"

The manager rolled his eyes and replied, "I don't know who these guys are or what's going on, but this means big business! Set up some fireworks, damn it! And you," he said to the other stagehand, "go get a camera and take pictures! I want lots of pictures for the press!"