POV Narrator:
Saturday 26 December 2020, Colinas de Doras
Christmas passed in Doras, being that the possible last Christmas before the witches' revolution, since it could be a matter of time before they have to get their hands dirty and act to stop Holbrook from finding them and the worst happens, or else what the witch intends to do and they have no idea what is waiting for them. In the middle of the time that the main girls were training to improve, the girls that stayed in Doras were sort of organizing everything for the next mission that they were going to do, in this case finishing the Fluit An Neart and thus finding all the sounds, since there was only one missing that they said to be in the middle of the Arcturus ocean, which could take a very considerable time
POV Akko:
Our Christmas was wonderful, but soon we have to go back to training and I'm really apprehensive, I already know that it might be hard what's ahead, that's why it's good to be prepared, we are already walking back to the place where the Mechas stay, will we fly today? I don't know, anyway I am already anxious, I became very powerful as a witch and that gives me confidence.
There was my mother-in-law, Mrs. Morris, Croix and also Chariot, it will be an important meeting apparently, she made sure to call only me, Diana, Mari and Hellene, it must be a family thing too.
"You 'ave arrived, we were expecting you" said Mrs McLaren.
"We will have one more mission fae ye four, it involves Fluit An Near, ye will finish it in one go now" Ms Morris said and that is very good.
"Really? So we're finally going to finish one of the relics of Lilith's triskellion?" said Diana excitedly.
"While you were training, we worked on finding clues to the location of the possible Fluit An Near, there is not much about the immense ocean that is on this planet, but from what some books said about it is that it may be in the middle of a mermaid civilization, which will need you all to go together and prepared to interact with these people, but for the most part do not worry, They may be peaceful, anyway, it may be a way to put into practice the training you have done, we chose the four of you for this because you are not only the strongest, but also those who have more proximity' Croix explains and I was already understanding everything, it seems that now it will be a very interesting last mission, even if I have barely found out something about the last word, or at least I suspect that it is.
"I understand, so we will finish the flute at once, that will be good to complete everything, but how will we communicate in this time?" I ask them.
"Dat's de problem, it won't work, so if it takes a lettle while, one of us will go to where you are just to collect news, since Sifla can open a portal exactly where we are going to go" said my mother-in-law.
And so we agree with the head, then it's shown in a picture where they reach the conclusion about the location of the last sound, what I'm very anxious, we'll be able to finish already one of the missions, who would say that we went very far in all this, by seeing everything we can understand, who would say that in the mean time that we were training, they did this, it still surprises me all this.
After all the explanation I think it's time to start acting, but I wonder how it will be to eat or sleep under water, since everything is different and I don't even know how to deal with these different conditions.
"Look, to eat, you could only eat liquid food, but we 'ave already provided something about dat, with dese cans you can eat as much as you want, even maybe heat up some soups, you just 'ave to be careful under water, so you don't cook yourselves, with water it's easy, anything else I can come up with more resources" Laura said, giving us a bag that should be with these things.
"Now to sleep, that's another complicated thing, you have to stay in a safe place there to rest, but this issue is quite easy, since once you are safe you just have to lie down in the water and the rest of you will relax as if you were in the most comfortable mattress of all" said Croix who was giving us the mermaid necklaces and also an equipment bag for Hellene.
And so we were sort of getting everything we needed, which will be interesting on our trip, I honestly don't know how these new things will be, but I hope it will be calm, we go then going up to the outside, where Sifla was opening a portal and with that the four of us were already looking at it breathing deeply, the worst of it is that it seems we are going out into the unknown, I even took Claiomh Solais as a precaution just to have a weapon against any danger that might come in this place.
"Well come on, we already 'ave a mission to test our training" Hellene said.
"I'm just saying we're going to swim faster than we used to" I say excitedly.
"We could even race you swimming" said Marianne.
"Let's do what's important, I know the fun is good, but the mission is important, let's find the tracks of what could be the last sound, bringing home another achievement and a victory before Miranda Holbrook" Said my girlfriend.
We held hands and walked through the portal, where we were already crossing with the necklaces and with that we stopped in the middle of the immensity of the ocean, which is shocking seeing everything from afar, we're really in the middle of nowhere, which is very scary, we fell into the ocean and became mermaids, which we were looking under the water, and seeing around, it's just the immensity of the blue surface.
"Well, we stopped exactly where the point is, but this is kind of strange, where we are going to find the part that has the things, especially since we are in the middle of the ocean, here it is for sure too deep" I say looking down and seeing the immensity getting dark.
"We have tae swim, we will find something, surely there must be something, remembering that the mermaids have some place fae them, from what we have analyzed, there are islands nearby that sank a few thousand years ago and are shallow parts in the middle of the ocean, which could be where there is all this place" Diana said.
"And why didn't we go there directly?" Now I'm confused.
"Maybe they dinnae know anyway, let's go" said my girlfriend.
We took the advantage and we saw the results of the swimming training and I honestly feel like a sheet of paper in the air, so light that I am in the water, we swim easily and quickly, without feeling our weight, really the training helped a lot, what we were soon getting to that shallow part, we could even see with the lights that it was really the part where the mermaids live.
As we got closer we saw all kinds of fish swimming around, we saw corals, but the most surprising thing was the presence of mermaids that were swimming there, when we saw them up close they were a little different from us, they look human, but they have fishy things too.
"We arrived, and now how are we going to interact with these mermaids? - I ask while looking at the girls.
We swim closer to the core, to see if there is anything, the mermaids of the place are getting closer to us, now it really gave us a bit of tension, but for the most part they are very peaceful, they are just grabbing the corals that are around, filling their hands and seeming to take them somewhere.
"You're not going to get coral?" said one of them.
"What? What do you mean?" I ask her.
"The queen asked us to get corals, you are new workers by the way" said another and we started to get the corals so as not to face the consequences.
But it's strange, their ears are fins, while ours are really ears, I hope they didn't notice our difference, by the way we are going to get fast until the queen of this civilization and it can be good for us, we finished soon to fill our hands with coral, what we swam following them.
It is very strange all this, I feel as if I were an ant, anyway we are arriving at a cave, where we could notice that there are some mermaids carrying tridents at the entrance, they didn't notice our difference until then and we were passing by the gates of the cave that reveals that there is a whole complex inside, containing lights too.
"Woah, what a beautiful place" I say impressed.
We continued to follow the workers and we went to a place that looked like it was the food compartment of those mermaids and it really has a lot of coral, it's strange how there is so much of it, the lighting on the other hand is all made by these underwater crystals, I don't know it's strange, it's an exotic place, very exotic, we were going to another place and the mermaids signalled us.
"Where are you going?" asks one of them.
"It's not over yet, we have to catch more corals" said the mermaid.
"What about the queen? How do we talk to her?" I ask, already being curious.
"When we finish the job you will talk to her" said another.
"And when do we finish this?" I ask them.
"We don't know, that's what we were made for, we have to collect resources for the colony, unless you want to work mining crystals to light up our colony, you have a very strange behavior, are you sure you are workers, or are you really females? Your scales are very strange" said one of the mermaids getting closer.
Shit our whole disguise can be discovered, we stayed together to avoid being caught, they were getting closer and I signal with Hellene, we two created a water current to distract them and swam in the middle of the cave in high speed, what the hell can we be caught by the mermaids of this colony.
We were swimming at high speed until we found a hiding place, which we took cover, we saw from far away the mermaids that were with us and they swam back to their work, now we have to really make a point to find the queen.
"It looks like an ant colony here, but with mermaids, it's really weird" Diana said.
"Girls behind you..." Said Marianne and when we looked back several mermaids appeared holding tridents which we started to swallow saliva.
"And then we go upstairs?" I ask them.
"I'd love to kick some mermaids' asses underwater" Hellene said with a smile on her face.
"Mermaid enemies from another colony, let's take the queen" said one of the soldiers.
"I think we can just pretend tae surrender tae get tae queen" said my girlfriend.
And that's what we did, the mermaids were pointing their tridents at us and we went swimming until we reached a bigger part of the cave, which is full of crystals, more illuminated than other corners of the cave, and we saw the queen who was sitting on her throne, and we saw all the soldiers even bowing down to her.
"Oh what we have here" said the queen.
"Sovereign, these here are impostors from another colony who entered through here" said one of the soldiers.
"We are not impostors! We're not even mermaids" I say this revealing my human ears and this gave a whole shock to the mermaid soldiers and also to the queen.
"That explains why you have such strange scales anyway, they are not hostile, you can leave them to me, they are free" said the queen and we breathed a sigh of relief.
And with that the soldiers were leaving and now we could be alone with the queen, it surprises me that her room is so open, there is a lot of things really, I wonder how must be to live like this, a pity that the food must not be the best, coral must taste quite dull to be honest, what the queen was taking us near her throne, where we were kind of watching her.
"You are from the surface aren't you? We used to be like you, that was in the past when we chose to adapt to aquatic life thousands of years ago, we were told stories about you from the surface, things must be quite different for us, look at the kind of hierarchy we have developed here, I am surprised to have an illustrious visit from you, you can freely admire our complexes" said the queen.
"Eh queen not wanting to break your expectations or anything, but you are practically like aquatic ants, so let's not compare our advances, how do you work here and also do you know about any sound or inscription on the wall about?" I ask her.
"Ah for sure you don't want to compare, you from the surface are something else, but I don't want to say anything to not let you down, you seem like peaceful people, but I explain well, I am the queen Hayra, this is my colony, as queen my function is to reproduce in this case I lay small eggs and the males fertilize themselves carrying in their bellies the next batches, many of them don't really survive, Others can even
endure two or more pregnancies before their cloaca ruptures until they die prolapsed, but this is their only function, we females do everything, as you can see we are the ones who take care of the colony, in various functions, the strongest are the soldiers, while the weakest are the workers, this is how we work, as I can see you are four females from the surface, you look very weak, you must be workers who escaped too" said the queen.
"She wants to try 'er luck" Hellene said sending a smile to the queen and showing her muscles.
"Well I would love to, since you seem peaceful, we will promote a fight against the strongest soldier of our colony, if you win, you will be able to stay here, I think I can provide the information about what you want" said the queen.
"Just one last question, are they all your children?" I ask the queen.
"The primordial males were stolen from another colony, but the current batch are all my children, aren't you surface dwellers like that? Doesn't your queen do that? Ah well I see you are very different from each other, how strange that you don't go to war with each other, I can actually say that you are much more tolerant than us" Oh what do you know, you really are aquatic ants.
"Ye really have adapted like ants" Diana said.
"We accept such a fight, I'll try to see what comes of it" Hellene said.
"Good, enjoy the time, because soon the fight will begin" said the queen.
And so we went to a corner that they took us to, and we saw that there were some males around, and there were some improvised beds, which we took advantage of to sit and stay together, we were a bit apprehensive, I saw that these males were trying something with us.
"Oh welcome" said one of them.
"I can't wait for the queen to give me the big chance to put one of her eggs inside me" said another.
"It has been a long time since we have seen females here, are you prisoners of the queen?" asks one of them.
"We are not prisoners, we are just going to face a very strong soldier" I tell them.
"Oh yes, that's how the queen does it, you will fight to the death against the Raiu, if you lose the queen executes you and offers to feed the colony, if you win, she will let you free. We were even amazed, this was not in any contract, I don't want to fight to the death" Said him
"And did anyone beat dis Raiu?" Hellene asks.
"We've never heard of a single one of them making it in 20 years, anyway good luck, if you want we can even bring you some corals to feed yourselves before the fight" said the male and we got tense.
I knew it was too good to tell the truth, who would have thought that the males are okay, the problem really is the queen, she's going to get us into this, but I see that Hellene is just calm, I would be too, we are witches above all else, so it's a fight that we might have a condition to have a win, but let's see where it goes.
Some time later, coming up to fight time...
POV Hellene:
Dis colony is very exotic, we are really close to aquatic ants, I dedn't expect something like that, well for the pass of exploring this place I think it might be worth it, we are called by the soldiers, and I take a deep breath, it's time to break, I go swimming with the girls, we go to where is another place of the colony and it's exactly a part of the cave that looks like a kind of stadium of them.
"My loyal aquatic humans, we are here for a great fight between these surface humans, where they will fight for their freedom until death against our strongest and most invincible for 20 years, Raiu the Strong" said the queen and I was just getting warmed up.
"Hey Hellene, just dinnae kill her please" said my sister.
"Rest assured that I will make sure to show that we are not just anyone," I say confidently.
"Is that really what we're seeing? A single one of the prisoners wants to risk fighting against Raiu? A weak worker against a soldier, but this will not be a fight, it will be a massacre, never before have we seen workers so willing to be executed like these" said de queen and she really has no idea.
A whole cage falls on us, I can see dat dere's going to be something 'ere, but I'm not going to be intimidated, de Raiu falls and she's really big, she seems to be about 3 meters tall, she's twice my size at least, but dat doesn't intimidate, she's all tied up, but a worker appears to let 'er go and on de spot de soldier snaps de rope and den picks up de worker and simply breaks 'er in half with 'er arms.
"Woah! Look at our Raiu, she's our pride and joy, poor thing that human from the surface to think she has any chance against our soldier, she really thought it would be someone her size, what a pity" Said de queen and dis intimidation is scary, 'er arms are huge, but I dink I can handle it, feeling 'er strength is not so scary, I dink at least, dese mermaids do not 'ave so much magic, only de queen has.
"Oh is that all? You're so small, you can't even wet your lips with it" She's got a thick voice to intimidate you too.
"I may be the least of dem, but I'm not weak, if you want you can come" I say teasing 'er with my hands.
"I'll let you take a hit, since I know it'll be the end of you" Well I shrug, since dat's de way it is den let's go.
I use my magic reappearing with everything in front of de huge mermaid and decide to throw a punch with my right hand so as not to come out too strong, taking it right in de stomach of dis giant dat ends up hitting de grid with everything with its back to de point dat even ends up making it give a few bends.
"Hellene! Nae like that! Ye'll kill her," said my sister scolding me.
De whole colony is in shock to see dat with a single blow I caused such a damage to de Raiu, she comes out of de bars and starts roaring in front of me, which then comes up and I dodge, even with a good ease, she tries to use de fins, but I'm just dodging and ensuring de combat, she's fast even, I'm even managing to study how a water combat works, it's interesting.
She tries to use 'er tail again to hit me and I decide to take it and throw it against de railing again, dat must 'ave hurt, I'm really sorry, I don't want to use my strength dat much.
"Hellene! I told ye, look at the level ye're hitting, do ye want tae kill her?" I'm trying not to.
"Sis I'm just defending myself, I swear I'm not hitting hard" I tell 'er.
De big one continues to roar and goes furious on me and I dodge it easily, until it's time to finish it, I dink she won't die with just dis one blow, I hit a hook to stun 'er and den I hit a blow with my tail throwing 'er up in de point dat de cage breaks and she goes stopping up dere what I use magic to transport me and I appear right in front of Raiu.
I give a little blink and hit a weak right punch dat ends up making 'er fall back on de ground and with dat she drags herself in de arena until she stops when she breaks de cage and falls on de ground, already a little dizzy
"What is this? How can a mere worker with a body that doesn't even come close to the one Raiu has, manage to fight her like that?" The queen gets scared and I just keep staying the same.
De giant comes at me, again, swimming with everything I stand with my arms crossed until I show a finger and fire a spell dat catches 'er forehead which she goes falling fainting in front of me and luckily alive, I just go with nicely, I dink we won dis one, anyway I hope dey understand dis as we won until death.
"I got it all, I got it all" Said de queen making even de cage back up and den de workers went carrying de fainted Raiu out of de arena.
"She is alive, I just let 'er sleep for a while" I say de several workers carrying de giant and de queen came to us.
"Now it all makes sense, you are not workers, or at least the one with the yellow scaled arm is not, after that last blow I noticed you used magic, that's not something a worker or a soldier can do, you are a queen, that's why the fight was so unfair, only queens can use magic, I would normally go into combat against another
queen, but it seems that you are one too, what can I say that I surrender as a queen, the command is in your hands, I don't want my colony to be destroyed and my humans to die" said 'er a lot scared.
"De humans on de surface are not like dat, many of us use magic, it is common, it is an art dat is taught to us for millenniums, even de most common people know how to manipulate magic, we do not want your kingdom, we just want to find de sound dat our flute is needing to complete itself" I say to de queen of de colony dat was even crying.
"What? What is a flute? What do you want to find so badly?" she asks, and we can't describe it very well.
"This here is a flute, it's an instrument that we from the surface use tae play sounds and this flute is used tae make magic, look how it works" Diana shows 'er how the Fluit An Neart works and can even teleport.
"This is really fascinating, so the surface is in front of us all the time? I didn't know that, well I don't know what this sound is that you so much want to find, but you can have a free pass to explore wherever you want in this colony of ours, you can have what you want so much within these walls" said de queen dat was even giving us a bracelet.
"With this here you can swim freely through our galleries, but I tell you one thing, they are huge, we have millennia of history, many queens who died, many workers, maybe in the tomb of one of them you have what you need, we have never been defeated by any enemy colony since our foundation, we are the primordial ones" de queen goes on explaining to us.
And with dat we leave dat arena, but I dink we got hungry, we arrive at what looked like a refectory, seeing the workers talking among demselves about de fight we had with dat soldier, who is all strong, she should be a challenge before, but now we are much more dan we used to be.
We soon get a can and use magic to heat de soup inside de water, I kind of 'ave a technique dat only heats it inside, I leave it at a good temperature to eat and den I take de seal of de straw and start eating it and de soup is good when it's warm.
"Our sis, ye almost killed that mermaid" Diana said.
"I'm sorry, I went for de weakest one I could hit, I knew I could hurt a lot, but de training made me very strong, I dink dat if it were you it would be calmer, but it was fun even, de aquatic combat seems to be really cool" I say while drinking carefully de soup not to mix with de water.
"It's not good to talk while eating, you end up getting water inside the soup, it tastes even saltier" Akko said and I just laughed.
We finish drinking de soup and it really gets a bit more watery and salty drinking it dis way, den we also got some water and drank it, under de water, at least de water is all different, it's fresher, it relieved de salt in de mouth, we finished eating and it gave us a relief, even some mermaids come to us and get interested in dat.
"What's that? You eat in strange shells, is there a mollusk in here? I'm not a big fan of them" said one of de mermaids.
"It's human food from de surface, I don't know if you will like it, it can't come into contact with water or it will make de water all dirty, but dere are some dat can, like plants and some meat, it just tastes a bit like water" I tell dem.
"Can I try it?" asks one and we shrugged and gave 'er a can dat we made sure to warm up and there she went trying to drink it.
"Ye have tae suck it up to get the soup" said my sister.
She took it and apparently liked de taste, it even seemed to give de mermaid something different, I dink she must 'ave never eaten something like dat before, a warm food and all different from what she usually eats 'ere at sea, instead of coral and whatever else.
"This is good actually, it's delicious, I never thought hot food could be so good, try it" she said, sharing with 'er friends.
"Good luck, we're goin" Akko said and we went swimming around.
We started to explore de colony of de aquatic ants, or whatever you want to call dem, because honestly dey look like little ants, when we got to a room de queen was dere and offered us chambers to stay, gee, who would say dat dings would be solved by fighting.
-"tay here in these royal quarters, when we used to have more than one queen this is where we stayed, feel like you were queens" said de queen who den left.
And de room even has a peculiar comfort, since it's not de luxury of luxury, but it has crystal lights and a whole separate chamber for us, it's really a nice lettle place to stay and pass de time we even decide to give a rest, I just wanted to take off de mermaid necklace and be in human form soon, but 'ere dere's nowhere to breathe so we'll have to keep.
"This cologne is really exotic" said my sister.
"We will rest now and then start exploring to see where the sound of Fluit An Neart is" Akko said.
"Is it really in this colony?" Diana asks.
"Well de queen 'ere said it's de primordial one, so maybe it is, maybe one of de big mermaid queens 'ere is de one who put it on de wall about de sound" I tell dem.
POV Narrator:
And so begins the journey to find the last sound of Fluit An Neart and begin already living in a colony of mermaids who live practically like a society of ants having hierarchies and defined functions for what they will do for the colony and also for survival, with a very peculiar and different kind of coexistence than people on the surface, since many thousands of years ago they adapted to aquatic life and built there what would be the coexistence as such.
See you, mermaid witches...