A seagull flies across the open waters of a nearby island looking for food. The waves crash on the beaches from gentle strokes to heavy pushes. A small clam pops out of the sand, and the seagull swoops down to snatch it with its beak. As the seagull ascended to the sky, a village could be seen below.
In the village, the residents of the island were preparing for a special event. A man was seen in the center of town. His suit consists of a white shirt with a bow tie, brown khaki pants, a red suit with brown lining and gold buttons, and brown gloves. His hair is slick in the shape of a dull hook and a mustache over his lips. "No no no, set the lights over there please," he said. "They'll be here shortly." "Yes, Mr. Mayor," replied one of the villagers.
Indeed, that man is the mayor of the island. But the seagull kept flying across the village. It flew higher and higher and higher, until the whole island could be seen from below. The seagull dived back down to find a place to eat. It traveled west into the trees, but found no place to crack its clam. The seagull lands on a tree branch, taking a moment to rest. But that moment was soon interrupted when a tropical bird screeched nearby.
The seagull flew away and went to find another place on the island. It flew all the way to the east side of the island. The land was rocky, and interestingly metallic. The seagull lands on a couple of rocks and prepares to eat. But then again, it was interrupted by a group of hammers nearby. The seagull finds itself in another village where a lot of manufacturing was taking place. One of the villagers spots the seagull and waves it away.
The seagull grew tired of flying and flying, and not having to eat anything. It keeps flying alongside the shoreline and then finds a small cave by the edge of a cliffside. The seagull lands and starts cracking the shell of the clam. Every time the seagull slams down on the rock, an echo is made inside the cave. And inside that cave lurked something sneaky.
As the clam's shell cracked open, the mysterious creature swam quietly in the water. The seagull wasn't aware of its presence. Until it popped out and scared the seagull away from the cave. The creature snatched the clam and retreated back into the dark waters of the cave. The seagull then finds another clam and takes it away to eat.
Inside the cave, the creature pops out of the water and climbs out. The creature then walks deeper into the cave then passes an ancient doorway. Along the way, the creature delved down and down until there was barely any light at all. Then, it opens a door leading to more underground tunnels. Those tunnels glowed with intriguing lights coming from outside. Outside the tunnels showed the bottom of the ocean. And outside showed glowing algae that brightened up the corridors.
The light exposed the creature, revealing it to be a young adult male. He is shown barefoot, wearing dark brown pants torn up to his biceps, a dark blue undershirt torn up and dirty. His skin tone is a pale greenish-yellow from lack of sun. His arms and legs are lightly covered with fish scales for a moment. His hairstyle was messy, but curly every time he slick it back. And his eyes were shown to have a hazel coloring.
As he continues down the dark passage, a couple of crab creatures come out of nowhere and trip him. He falls down, letting go of the clam in the process. The crab creatures snatched the clam with their claws and started to scurry off. The creature's eyes suddenly turned yellow with thin slits as pupils.
He jumps at the crab creatures and pries open their claws to get the clam back. But the crabs grabbed and pinched him through their fight. Then, one of the crabs poked him in the eyes, and the creature gave out a large high pitched shriek that echoed in the tunnels.
The creature backed away from the crabs to recover his sight, giving up his clam. As he recovered, he started hearing voices in his head. "That's what he gets," said the first voice. "And he calls himself one of them? He's weak," said the second voice. That apparently made the male creature freeze where he stood.
Hearing those voices, started to make him tremble with shame and humiliation. He tried to cry, but his eyes produced no tears. But he sniffled and slammed his butt down on the ground. He took deep breaths, and rocked back and forth to get over those statements.
His eyes went from hazel colored to yellow with thin pupils like a serpent. He gets back up, wipes away the blood from his face, and turns to where the crab creatures left him. He bolts like a flying fish out of water and catches up to them. If the crab creatures weren't scared of him then, they were now.
He jumps onto the crab creatures, catching them by surprise. He doesn't even give them a chance to react this time. He jumped, punched, kicked, threw them on the wall, showing them no mercy. He pummeled them down until their shells were cracked. The siren panted heavily, knowing he won the fight. But something in his mind also told him otherwise.
The creature took his clam back from the crabs and looked to see their den. Inside there was a whole batch of food buried in sand. Nearby, there was a group of younger crab critters looking scared at the creature. He looks down with guilt, then grabs a portion of their food. "Survival," was all he said. And he huffed away leaving them in shock.
Having recovered from his fight, he slowly walks to a corridor where a hammock is located, along with several trinkets that were laying around. It wasn't much, but it was his place of rest. He reflects on the events that transpired recently and started to clench his fists. He punches on the wall repeatedly, next to the other imprints on the wall.
"So what?" he asked himself. "What if I'm not like the others? I like being who I am. I like being me! I don't need them!" He climbs into his hammock and says, "I don't need anybody else!" He turns to his side, facing the window of the ocean floor. He stares down at the coral until his pumped up anger tired him out. But before he could do that, he spotted a distant bright light, coming from the topside.
He climbs out of his hammock, and stares into the blinking lights above. His anger suddenly changed into sadness. His mind thought he wouldn't need anyone else. But his gut says otherwise. He sniffled again, feeling overwhelmed by the bright lights. Knowing that something above brings joy and happiness. He looks up above to what looked like a way to the surface. Out of curiosity, he wondered if he could join the bright lights.
But then he looked down at his hand, then clenched it, expressing fear. "What's the point?" he asked. He climbs back into his hammock and stares back into the coral in his window. "No one would approve of me." His eyes start to get heavy, then he drifts off to sleep.
The very next day, the creature was feasting on the victory from yesterday's brawl. He felt relieved that he finally had something to eat. He acted like he didn't eat for weeks, when it only showed a few days. But looking back at the small crabs that witnessed him taking their food, he had a sense of guilt haunt his mind.
As he took another bite, he heard an explosion not far from where he was. He turned around to see the pit of darkness, 'What was that?' he thought. But he shrugged it off like it was just the tunnels settling in. Then, another tremor was felt across the tunnels. He stood up, now knowing that something was wrong. 'Caves don't shake like that,' he thought. 'Something is disrupting my breakfast.' He finishes his food with one big bite, then he turns to the dark caves. 'And I'm going to find out.'
He goes down one of the tunnels closer to where the explosion took place. Along the way, rocks started falling from the ceiling. Some of the small rocks hit his head. "Ow!" "I don't know what's going on up there. But those village idiots have no idea what happens when you mix explosives with this island."
Then, he hears another noise coming from above him. It was a scream coming down fast. Before he could move, the source of the scream fell on top of him. The source turned out to be a humanoid creature.
A young adult female with light tan skin, and purple hair tied to a ponytail. She wore red harem pants, red shoes with curls pointing out, a red top exposing her midriff, gold earrings and bracelets.
"Ooof!" She exclaimed. "I think I bruised my bum." But then she hears muffling nearby. "Who's there?" She asked. But she couldn't tell that she landed on the siren's face. He muffled again, but she could only make out, "My mutt's in the race in Kentucky?"
The creature pokes on her leg and she spots him right below her. "Gah!" She quickly gets up, allowing the siren to breathe again. "I said: Your butt's in my face. Get off me!" said the siren. "Oh my," she said. "I'm so sorry."
He adjusts his nose to make sure it isn't broken. He pulls on it to snap it back into place. "Whatever," he said. "Hope you didn't break my nose.". The creature breathed in through his nostrils to make sure he could breathe properly, and rolled his head.
He turns to see the girl staring at him with a pouty look. He in turn, gives a surprised look at her. He was surprised that she didn't say anything mean to him. But, before he could say anything else, she looked up the hole she fell from.
"Uncle?" she shouted. "Uncle! Can you hear me up there?!" The creature shook his head. "I don't think it'll do you any good," he said. "If he can't hear you from down here, then you must've fallen quite a distance."
"What is this place?" the girl asked. He was stunned at her question. "You're not from around here, are you?" "No I'm not," replied the girl. She looks around the area feeling a bit uneasy. "I must be in an older part of the sunken city."
The boy scratched his head and said, "Well, if you're looking for a way out of here. I'll show you the way." The girl turned to him with hope in her eyes, "You'd do that?" He nodded. "Just so long as you get out of my home." He turned and walked down a tunnel with the girl following him.
The girl huffed at his tough statement. "Well, that was rude." "Well excuse me for being so grouchy," he said in a sarcastic tone. "I didn't eat breakfast today because my room was shaking from all the booms and tremors. I don't know what you villagers were doing up there, but it is reckless and irresponsible."
"I'll have you know that I'm not the one responsible for those explosions," said the girl. "It was a group of pirates that planted explosives across the island." Then suddenly, he stopped moving. The moment she said 'pirate' everything went blank on him. She bumped into him from behind.
"Hey. Why did we stop?" She asked. She waved her hand in front of his pale face. "Yoo hoo!" "Hello!"
Inside his head, all he could hear were cannon fire, sword clashes, and pirate chants. The noises grew louder and louder, and he panted heavily. He lowered his head slowly as he clenched his fists. The girl shook him out of it. "HEY!" Then, he snapped back to reality and shook viciously back to his senses. "Oh, huh? What?," he said.
"You really don't like pirates, don't you?" "Clearly, I do not," he replied. "They taste terrible." The girl tensed up with his statement. "WHAT?!" She cried. Then, he started laughing. "You actually believed that? Gross! I don't eat pirates. I only eat the proper essentials."
"You could've said something else," said the girl. "Whatever," he said. "I still got you." The two pressed on into the passageway. "So, what kind of villager are you?" the girl asked. "I'm not a villager," he replied. "Then, what are you?" She asked. He remained silent, for he wouldn't trust her straight away. "Fine, don't tell me," she mumbled to herself.
The two continue down the passageway until they come across a couple of large spiders. "Just keep moving," he said. "Don't stop or they'll get a shot on you with their paralysis stare." The two continue on, as the spiders climb down with their spiderwebs.
In another corridor, they see a chameleon creature scrounging on a pile of food. The starving boy looked in shock and anger. "Hey. That's MY FOOD!" He jumps on the creature's back and starts punching and clawing its face. The chameleon creature grabs his sides and slams him down on his back.
It jumps into a fighting stance, and he slowly gets up. "Stand back," he told the girl. "I'm going to teach him a lesson." The girl watched unamused, arms on her hips, and said, "Whatever you say, you hermit."
The boy pounces at the chameleon creature again, but it dodges his attack and jumps onto the wall. He chases after him by climbing up, only for the creature to jump back down again. He growls in frustration, then sees the girl standing in front of it. "Get away from that thing!" He shouted. "I've waited long enough," she said.
The girl used her ponytail like a whip and attacked the chameleon. The chameleon took hits until it jumped across the chasm. Then, the boy was shocked to see what happened next. The girl shoots a fireball out of the palm of her hand. Shooting the chameleon, and burning it to a crisp.
He climbed back down in amazement, and the girl turned around with a smile. "You were saying?" She asked teasingly. "How did you do that?" He asked. "I'm half genie," replied the girl. She picks up the boy's food, stores it in the bag, and gives it to him. "Here, you said you didn't eat right?" Then, she jumps down the corridor leaving the boy in shock.
He clearly underestimated what the half genie could do. He looked at his bag of food and followed after her. He was shocked at the fact that someone like her could easily beat a creature with her hair. But what shocked him most was that she gave his food back to him. 'I could've stopped that creature no problem,' he thought.
While she was fighting off more creatures, her ponytail whips a couple of old vases, causing a couple of gems to spill out. Then, the boy witnessed another power from the half genie. With a sway of her hips, she started belly dancing. Causing all the gems to magically float to her. He was so entranced by her powers, he felt lost for a moment.
"Well," she said. "Are you leading the way, or are you following me now?" The siren snapped back to reality and pushed on ahead of her, pointing to the next tunnel. "I may have underestimated you," he said. "You clearly know how to fight."
The half genie took it as a compliment, "Why thank you. It's no big deal, it's just what you do when you protect others in need."
The boy shrugged, "I don't need protection." The half genie shook her head silently. "However, I guess it wouldn't hurt having some help," he said.
The two continue down the tunnel that leads to what looks like a dead end. Or an entrance sealed by glass. The girl tried using her ponytail to break the glass, but it could only make a few cracks.
The boy grinned at her attempts, but then got to thinking. If she helped him get his food back, then maybe it wouldn't hurt to help her back. He looked down to his bag of food and scowled. He takes an oyster and slurps it for nutrition. He gets into a flex pose and walks up to the glass seal. "Let me try," he said to the girl. "Stand back, and you may want to cover your ears."
As the half genie covered her ears with her hair and hands, the boy took a deep breath. And with one big long loud screech, he breaks the seal with high pitched sound waves. Now, it was the half genie's turn to be impressed.
As the two continued to walk, they started talking again. "How did you do that?" she asked. "No other villager could do that." "Like I said," he replied. "I'm not like the other villagers, tailwhip."
He took a moment to himself. He thought that if a tough guy like him could have an extra hand with the creatures that lurk in these tunnels, then he's going to have to earn her trust. So he took a deep breath, and asked her, "So, uh… what's your name?"
The half genie was stunned, "What did you say?" she asked. "I said, what's your name?" replied the boy. "I figured if we're going to be working together on getting you back topside. It would be generous to know that much about you."
The half genie remained neutral with the idea. "How do I know that you're not going to trick me?" she asked. "I'll prove it," he replied. "My name is Triton. What's your name?"
The girl was surprised at that moment of trust. She smiled genuinely and replied. "My name is Shantae."
Triton nodded, "So Shantae," he began. "Where did you come from? You say you aren't from around here right? You are a tourist?" Shantae nodded, "That's right. I actually came from a place called Scuttle Town…" Triton kept a close watch on Shantae as she began her tale.
And so, the journey of Shantae and Triton officially begins. Hi, AdmiralDT8 here coming to you with another fanfiction. This time an original character by me, in a video game designed by WayForward. Thought I'd try writing something different other than Loud House and Amphibia for a change.