Prologue - It's Not Easy Being Queen

Previously...

Mera addressed the amassed crowd. "People of Atlantis! Today began in bloodshed, now let it end in joy! I give you your new ruler, Queen Aurelia of Atlantis!"

"Make that Queen Aurelia of Atlantis and the Surface!" Hey, that actually had a pretty nice ring to it, if she did say so herself.

"Hail to the Queen!" Orm raised his trident into the air.

"Hail to the Queen!" everyone chorused. "Hail to the Queen! Hail to the Queen!"

Aurelia just stood there, kind of awkwardly, the centre of attention, grinning.

"So now what?" she asked as everyone was still chanting, "Hail to the Queen!"

"Now, you be their Queen." Orm told her, giving her a smile that she would describe as warm and proud.

"Huh... This is gonna be fun!" She raised her own trident and cheered. The Karathen even emerged from the depths and gave a great bellow.

Time to be their queen.

"Huh, this is gonna be fun!"

Record scratch-

To be clear, it was fun for all of like five minutes. That's it.

It was seriously no wonder why they start preparing future rulers as little kids, for she was majorly behind. And everyone (besides Orm and Atlanna) constantly reminded her of this. Mutters of 'traitor' and 'half-breed' and 'surface dweller' still rumbled throughout the kingdom. She had a long way to go, still.

Four years ago, I was basically unemployed. A wanderer with no set path...

She had come so far, but now, she had no idea what she was doing.

"Your Highness?"

"Hmm?" She half hummed, half snorted, snapping out of her daydreaming. She had been doing a lot of that lately.

The Council Member fixed her with a stony glare. Oh yeah, no one had mentioned the tight-ass Atlantean Council that was meant to help rule but was really just a royal pain more than anything.

Aurelia sat up further in her seat from where she had just moments before been lounging. "Uh, yeah, for sure, works for me."

There were gasps and muttering amongst the other council members. Beside her, Orm stared back at her, blinking those bright blues in concern, and it was clear she'd mucked something up. "Wait, weren't we talking about trading across the kingdoms?"

"We're past that," the Council Member stated stiffly. "We've moved on to the concern of Surface pollution of our waters, something you insisted we review."

"Oh..." Yeah, she had clearly missed some of that conversation. Like the whole thing.

She was told that it was 'proper' to read, write, and speak Ancient Atlantean - she thought they used Ancient Greek, but was, once again, wrong. Usually she was really good with languages, but her Ancient Atlantean sucked. She had attempted writing a nice message to the Council but had only ended up succeeding in offending them with her mix up of some letters and words.

It was an exhausting position for anyone to be in, let alone someone as behind and unprepared as her. Another such time, she had fallen asleep in the throne, crown floating off her head, while King Nereus and the Brine King were exchanging opinions about something, she'd long lost track of what. Honestly, half the time she didn't even know which end of the Brine King she was supposed to be looking at.

Orm, fully invested in the discussion, had to lean over and poke her, upon which she jumped to her feet, fist pumped into the air in a cheer. When everyone fell eerily silent and stared at her at that, she had cleared her throat, returned the crown to her head, and returned her butt to the throne.

That was another thing - the wetsuits. She got that they were Atlantean tradition and whatever, but talk about un-comfy. She was used to wearing loose-fitting comfy clothes, and the skin-tight wetsuits were just so not for her.

"Is it just me or do these suits usually give such serious wedgies?" As soon as they were alone in their chambers, she stripped out of her wetsuit - royal blue this time - and changed into some joggers, combat boots, and a tank top. "Oh, that is so much better!" She flopped onto the bed, splayed out dramatically.

She tried, she really did, and Poseidon (yes, that Poseidon) himself had chosen her, as her mother and husband constantly reminded her, so she had to do it. Everyone was counting on her.

Thankfully, she had some distractions. Every weekend (besides the other days chosen to spend up above) were spent at the lighthouse with Tom, Atlanna, Atlas and Arthur. She'd had to fight the Council hard on that one. "Hey, I'm the Queen, that means I can do what I want!" Even they couldn't argue with that.

"Are you all right?" Her mother had joined her on the docks where she sat, away from the others.

"Oh yeah, just haven't been sleeping or feeling very well."

Atlanna sat beside her. "How do you mean?"

"My stomach's been all weird lately. I'm convinced the Royal Chefs are slipping something into my food."

"Do you think it could be something you ate?" her mother asked in full seriousness, ignoring the joke.

"Naw, not really. Probably just stress. And on top of it all, I'm late!"

Her mother eyed her. Then she dropped the bomb. "Could you perhaps be pregnant?"

Aurelia spat out the mouthful of beer she had just slurped from the bottle. Then there was a moment of silence before she burst out laughing. "Me? Pregnant? Ha, good one Mama!" She wiped away a fake tear. But Atlanna was staring back at her in seriousness once again, if not a little bit amused.

"Okay that might make sense," she acquiesced. She and Orm had a very healthy sex life. Like, really healthy. Really, really healthy.

Yeah, after overcoming his initial shyness, Orm had become horny as a teenager, and matched with her own horniness over falling in love with him, the two were unstoppable and went at it like rabbits. So honestly it was kind of shocking things had only progressed now.

She'd been so consumed by everything else she hadn't even thought of the possibility.

"Would you like to get tested?" Atlanna asked. "I can take you to the medical wing."

"Okay." Best to be sure. No use freaking out until she knew for sure. Was she still freaking out? Oh, yeah.

And so back to Atlantis it was, Atlanna leading the way.

"So how does this work?" Aurelia asked upon reaching the Medical Wing and her mother handing her a small metal stick. "Do I pee on it like on the Surface?"

"No, you prick your finger for a blood sample. It will turn green if the test is positive, and red if it is negative."

"Okay, makes sense." She held out her hand while her mother pricked a finger. "OW!"

The little device hummed for a moment, then flashed.

Green.

It was official: she was pregnant.

Atlanna was beaming. "Oh Aurelia! My baby is having a baby!

"Yeah..." She blinked back in shock at the little green light. She had thought she would be overwhelmed with panic, but a warm happiness spread through her. She and Orm were going to have a baby. They had talked about and dreamed up plans of their future family, and now here it was, all beginning. "Orm's going to be ecstatic."

"You must tell him." Atlanna cupped her daughter's cheeks in her hand, drawing her close.

"Yeah, I do." A smile was crawling up her own face now. Everything was about to change.

Welcome and I hope you enjoyed this first chapter!

Happy Holidays to everyone! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))