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Violet
He leaned over the boat and peered down into the deep, searching for me. His dark eyes almost made me take him home and put him on a shelf to stare at forever. I let myself sink lower, into the protective darkness, knowing full well the extent of the consequences that lie ahead of me when I returned home. It was forbidden to help a human. I didn’t know what had possessed me to do it... perhaps it was curiosity, or my lust for adventure, before I was to become queen, and take over the emerald city. Whichever the reason, I was sure to hear about it from my cousin Esmerelda. That was if my father didn’t know by now.
I ended my return home with a pittstop to an abandoned ship wreck that lay only a kilometre from the Emerald City. It was both mine and Esmereldas place of refuge when the kingdom got to be too much.
I let out a sigh as I leaned against a stool, picking up a shard of glass and glancing at my reflection, “Why did I do it?” I spoke my thoughts, knowing I was alone.
“Why did you do what?” A voice echoed behind me. I fleeted sideways letting out a little scream.
“Esmeralda!” I scolded, turning to hush her, before someone heard my discretions.
“Well? What was it? or who?” She gasped.
“No, no nothing like that. Just never mind, okay.” I attempted to deter her from the current conversation by showing her trinkets, picking up different items as I swam along the ship.
“Oh, come on...” she begged, staying close to ensure she didn’t miss any word that may slip from my mouth.
“I went to shore again,” I barely let the words escape my lips.
“We said we wouldn’t do that anymore... It’s too risky. We aren't children anymore Violet. We are future queens of the Emerald City... well one of us is... and at this rate, it won’t be you.” She scoffed, looking at her manicured nails. She was always one for beauty- always combing her hair and sticking baby starfish to her fingernails.
“You said that.” I mumbled.
“What—oh, you are unbelievable.” She scoffed, “We both said that!”
“Well, maybe I changed my mind...” I muttered, almost only to myself, starting to feel foolish.
“What were you doing up there this time anyway? Collecting shells again?” Her words were spoken with such contempt. I fell further into a pool of foolishness.
“I—nevermind.” I toyed with the idea of continuously giving her short replies until she stopped asking me questions, altogether.
“Oh, you have to tell me. Whatever it was, i’m sure it wasn’t worse than the act of going to shore in the first place.” She crossed her arms and raised a perfectly sculpted auburn brow in my direction.
“Someone needed my help...” I offered as little information as I could, to hide the shame of what I had done.
“Someone? like... who?” She was pushing for more, and it was making me feel incredibly uneasy...
“Just a boy...”
“A boy? was it someone from the neighbouring city?” Now her tone was condescending...
“I shouldn’t have said anything...” I was starting to admit defeat,
“So, it was someone from the neighbouring city...how scandalous” she screeched, overly excited, letting the words curl on her tongue.
I looked away, in an attempt to avoid her guesses. “You're avoiding me, just tells me more...” She swam around me with haste, so that we were eye to eye- Her’s narrowing.
“It was someone close to the shore... a human perhaps?” She laughed at the suggestion, “Not even you would be that stupid...” she moved onto the next conclusion and I let out a sigh of relief... all too soon... she whirled back around, glaring at me, “Why did you sigh?!” She pointed a finger at me, her voice rising in pitch. “A human?!”she boomed throughout the sea, vibrating the water and everything around it. A plate fell and shattered, hitting wooden panels at the boat's floor.
“I—I.” Esmeralda could be very intimidating when she wanted to be and I was no exception to those at the end of her rage.
“You went to the shore... and helped a human...” She said the words slowly, processing, building up to her final meltdown... I recoiled, waiting for the final show.
“ARE YOU INSANE?!” her voice echoed through the kingdom
“Hush!” I hissed, “Do you want us to get slaughtered?!”
“Do you?” She hissed in return. Silence hung in the air around us.
I didn’t reply. Esmeralda swam closer, before whispering, “You are going to bring our kingdom to its knees, and I’m not going to be here to watch.”
Before I could finish deciphering the meaning of her words, she finished with, “If it comes to defending you or our kingdom, I choose our home.” Her words stung as they hit my ears, and then my heart.
1 week later
Hundreds of Mermaids occupied my home. Once upon a time it consisted of thousands, but creatures attack as they do, leaving our home the small community that it now was. Many moons ago, my mother ruled as the queen of Asralia, The emerald city. She was attacked and killed by a giant squid, along with multiple other members of my family. It was in the midst of the last war of sea, land and sky, as evil mermaids, named Merrows, watched and taunted, snickering. Merrows were dark blue in colour and had rough scales, ugly faces and sharp teeth. Their hands were webbed and they only chunks of matted hair on their mostly bald heads. Us Mer would call one another Merrows if we really wanted to hurt someone's feelings.
Each one of us were hundreds of years old and had been there to experience the war. A lot of us were children at the time, myself, my sisters and Esmeralda included. There hadn’t been many children in our city since the attack, as so many were afraid of losing their babes, and those that had explored the path had lost their children to shark attacks- leaving my sisters, Essy and I to be the youngest in the city. There was only one Pregnant Mer right now, Layla, and everyone catered to her like she was a goddess.
Now the kingdom was under the ruling of my father, who gave strict rules on never going to land, EVER. The only exception would be war, which he banished our part in. Myself and Esmeralda were next in line for the throne, being that at birth, we were chosen by the Gods, which naturally drove my sisters wild with gelousy. When we were both, we were each given a glow - mine was golden and essy’s was red. This glow meant that we had superior powers that the others didn’t have. It also meant that one day Essy and I would have to battle for the throne. Until her words one week ago, and counting, we had always agreed that we would never fight and the higher ups would just need to agree to let us rule side by side. Now, I wasn’t so sure about her opinion on that.