Chapter Text
Deep in the sea, all parts of the sea were ruled by different kingdoms of mercreatures. The North and South Pacific Oceans, North and South Atlantic Oceans, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans and the Indian Ocean all had their own kingdoms. Their rulers would usually be known as Pearl Royals, mermaids with singing voices pure enough to hurt evil. The last generation of Princesses had been the biggest defence against evil, an old clan named after the super ocean that once existed, the Panthalassa. Every evil they faced after that, were connected to that clan. The clan of followers, blindly followed their leader and had caused great turmoil throughout the kingdom. Anything associated with them was looked down upon, including the once highly revered kingdom of the Indian Ocean. Home to a Pearl Princess who had destroyed her whole kingdom out of grief when they tried to protect her from a human’s love. who joined with a surviving member of the Panthalassa and stayed with him to die together when he was finally defeated.
The kingdom of the Indian Ocean’s newest queen had been captured and her soul was ripped apart by a new enemy before she could fully take form. Unfortunately, she felt sympathy for the enemy, just like the Pearl Princess before her. The people within the kingdom felt like there was nothing good about their home anymore. They held the last weapons of the Panthalassa; the Staff of Panthalassa and Poseidon’s Trident to protect them and as a reminder of how their rulers had fallen.
Their own prince, the next Pearl Prince in this case, didn’t even cause the Pearl to react at his birth. To them, it was the lowest they could possibly reach.
Attendants of the Pearl Princess of the Arctic Ocean swam through the halls of the Indian Ocean palace.
“My mother was here before the original palace was destroyed. She says this one looks way better. The previous one mimicked the land’s Taj Mahal, this one is less grand.” An attendant told her co-worker.
“Really? She thinks it’s better? I think it’s just a reminder of how low they’ve fallen. I mean, the previous Pearl Princess sided with the Panthalassa. A clan so evil, the goddess Aqua Regina had to destroy them all. I’m surprised a new Indian Ocean Pearl Princess was created after that, and she got herself captured.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. That new enemy was more powerful than the Panthalassa. We should be thankful they weestopped them before they wiped everyone out. It took the power of all the Pearl Princesses and Aqua Regina herself to stop them. Besides, wasn’t one of the Pearl Princesses courting a lost member of the Panthalassa?”
“King Kaito was human, not part of that evil clan. I think most mers were just surprised they’ve been able to rule together seeing how he was from Japan, and human.”
The more sympathetic mer looked at her friend. “I’m sure it was mentioned he was part of the Panthalassa.”
“He wasn’t. Trust me. Anyway, this palace is just asking to be broken again. I hear the prince never even made a connection with the pearl. How can he be expected to rule? This place is a complete sham.”
“Trust me, I’d be more than happy to show you the door.” The two attendants let out squeaks when they saw the mer in front of them. His tail, more red compared to the orange tones around him. The Prince of the Indian Ocean, Keith, glared at the mermaids in front of him, the red in his dark coloured eyes burning like fire and his white hair making him seem almost demon-like. “For your information, if our kingdom was in such shambles, Aqua Regina would have appeared herself. No one asked for your unwanted opinions. I might not be a Pearl Prince, but that won’t stop me from attacking any threat to my kingdom, including gossiping mers who have too much time on their hands to be badmouthing their hosts. I can have you locked up for treason.”
The two mermaids bowed, “We apologize your highness.”
“Now, get out of my sight.” He ordered, watching the two purple tailed mers swim off.
Keith had grown up on stories of the kingdom’s disgrace, but he never saw that for a moment. They were thriving. Their first queen had been in love and had given herself over to love, but the council only saw what she had done out of grief. They only saw a girl, too young to lead,be captured and feel sympathy for the enemy.
That’s what his mother told him. He grew up knowing that the Princesses protected the seas and the mers had forgotten that. He wasn’t going to let anyone lay insult to his home, no matter what anyone said.
Not that their kingdom wasn’t damaged, strict rules stifled their people. Keith had already lost his best friend because of the rules. The council kept tight control, leaving his mother unable to let their people breathe without fear of repercussions.
Keith swam to his room and picked up a book from his vanity,.He needed a way out of the castle and he knew just the thing. He swam down the halls, listening for the familiar sound of wooden sticks slamming against each other, steel against steel. The training room for the Blades, the kingdom’s guards.
Keith easily slipped in, swimming towards a small group of mers. They were different from other mers in the kingdom because their tails were like sea animals. Thace, the one he was looking for, had the tail of a tail of an orca, and a fin in the middle of his back.
“Thace!”
The dark hair mer looked away from his conversation to look at the prince.
“Your highness? Shouldn’t you be with your mother speaking to the Princess of the Arctic Ocean?”
“Mom let me go early when the conversation turned to expected events for the Pearl Royals. It’s hell being in that conversation. It seems like I’m fighting every mer that’s got an issue with our kingdom... So I was wondering if you could maybe…” Keith trailed off, hoping Thace would be able to understand what he wanted. Judging from the tired sigh, he knew exactly what the prince wanted.
“You do know you shouldn’t even be leaving the castle. What would your mother say?”
“I think we both know that question is what would the council say, and I don’t care what they think. Can you tell them I’m here or not? There’s supposed to be a surf competition in Dubai.”
“That’s a bit far isn’t it?”
Keith shrugged. “It’ll take an hour if I super swim.”
Thace let a heavy sigh, knowing Keith would not be talked out of it. “Ok fine but take Kosmo with you.”
Handing Thace the book to make it look like he was in the training room, Keith swam out again, calling out a thanks over his shoulder. He easily slipped through one of the windows sea creatures used to swim in and out of the castle. He passed a pod of dolphins and with a whistle, one of them peeled off from the group.
“Think you can keep up Kosmo?” Keith teased at the dusky dolphin as he swam.
While he might not be the perfect prince in terms of a Pearl Prince, he was well known for being the fastest mer in the whole kingdom. By the time he broke the surface, he could see the waves rising for the start of the human’s surfing competition. Kosmo followed along slowly.
“Welcome to the Sunset National Surfing Competition! We’ve got surfers from all over hoping for first place, but I think we can all agree that we just want to have a good time and see some sick riding! Let’s go over our rules. Electric type boards have to be checked before you're called to catch a wave. The boards might help you, but no one likes a cheater. You can be in the water, but you only catch a wave when your name and number is called. We’ve got 3 30 minute heats which the judges have determined to be enough time for all our competitors. We’ve got 12 in total, a complete mix of sexes, so it’s anyone’s game. So, without further ado, let’s get started! I can see the waves starting to build up so let’s get the first group out. Number 18, Ryan Kinkade from New York. Number 37, Ezor Li from Brazil. Number 20, Rolo Craft from Cali. And number 49, Curtis Young from Sydney! Let’s get started!”
Keith ducked under a forming wave, knowing not to get too close for people to see Kosmo. This was one of his favourite things to do. The fact that a human could balance so easily on a thin board,and let the waves control them also interested him. He would usually follow under the shadow of their boards, carefully of course. Last time, he hadn’t been paying attention and they had thought he was a shark and shut the whole competition down. He was lucky that the news never got back to his mother. There was a slight problem though. He’d been doing this since he was a guppy, but for the past 10 years, these electric boards had become popular. The electric stabilizer and trackers made a humming sound when in the water, which irritated the hell out of his ears and any other sea animal nearby. Keith could already hear the annoying hum of the boards as they entered the water.
He glanced over at Kosmo, “It’s not like every surfer is using an electric board now, some must still be using traditional ones, right?”
Kosmo only let out an apprehensive click.
It seemed like all the surfers, except maybe 2 used electric boards. He’d been following a surfer with their traditional board, when they’d been intercepted by a person on an electric board surprising Keith so suddenly, that when he swam away, he was sure that he’d hit the board and caused the surfer to wipeout.
“Poseidon above, I came here to get away from annoying sounds, and now that’s all I’m hearing! Maybe I should just head home.” Keith said, letting Kosmo nuzzle him.He didn’t want to leave but this was getting annoying, and anymore of this, he’d have a headache to deal with for the rest of the Pearl Princesses visit. He watched the surfers return to land. “It’s the last Heat, maybe I can just check?”
Kosmo poked him. He didn’t have much to lose.
Keith surfaced again, hiding behind the waves to listen to the announcer.
“This is it, our last heat! Ryan is in first! Jayden in second and Ezor and Luka tied for third. This last heat will determine if they keep those spots or lose them to this group. Here is our last group! Number 19, Morvok Runnet from England. Number 11, Shay Garrett from here in Hawaii. Number 33, Fara Queen from Spain and finally Number 4, Lance McClain from Altea!”
“Where is Altea?” the other announcer asked.
“Glad you asked. It’s a small island, about a few hundred thousand people living on it. Beautiful place. The Garrison actually has a school there, their pilot school actually. Kind of in between the Caribbean islands and like Florida and all the places on that coast. It’s really tiny, so it gets brushed off a bit, but I’ve been there. Pretty sweet. This surfer is pretty interesting too because he only uses a traditional board. He’s one of the examples of not needing the extra stabilization. He holds the title for surfing champ on the North Atlantic side.”
“Oh, he’s that Lance McClain! Hang on, you're telling me he’s still using a regular board? We’ve seen maybe 2 people today that do and they’ve admitted they use electric as well.”
“According to McClain, he takes the sound an electric board produces very seriously. He doesn’t like how it affects our fishy friends.”
“Well, let’s hope his dedication pays off. First one up is Shay!”
Keith ducked back down. Altea, he knew that place. Never visited, but he knew that the island held someone very important. The last board on the wave was the one he was looking for. He noticed there was a sticker on the bottom. Keith had only seen stickers on boards that sunk into the water.
“Is that…a mer?” Sure enough, on the board was a sticker of a sitting mermaid.. “Huh, wonder if he also wants to protect the ears of mers too?” Keith heard clicking and squeaks and turned to where Kosmo was waiting, another dolphin from his pod nearby. He could hear the warning; his mother was looking for him and the Blades could only stall for so long. “Oh gods below. By the time I get back, she’ll know I’m gone. I’m coming.” Keith didn’t even turn to look back at the board as he swam to his dolphins and back home.
“And that is the last heat! Everyone bring it in! The judges are tallying up the points. It looks like we’ve got a new tie for third, Jayden and Fara! In second place, Shay! In first place, one moment please… is Lance McClain with 17.8/20! Congrats to all our winners and for those of you who didn’t make the podium, don’t be disappointed. You showed your best today! Before you know it, it’ll be you on the podium. So let’s give a round of applause to our winners!”