Curiosities

The sun had just risen and its light seeped into a certain room, brightening it up. A boy of about eight years old was asleep in bed. He had jet-black hair and smooth white skin that was almost glowing.

There was a knock on the door of the room, and then a middle aged woman walked into the room. She went over to the little boy who was still asleep and shook him gently. "Luca. It's time to wake up, so you could prepare for school."

The sleeping Luca woke up, yawning as he rubbed his eyes. "Good morning, Mommy." He looked up at the woman and there was a flash of disappointment in his rich brown eyes. "Oh, it's you. Good morning, nanny Pam."

"Good morning, dear. Did you have a good night rest?"

"Yes, I did. Where is Mommy?" Luca asked with an expectant look.

Nanny Pam sighed. "She said she is sorry, that she needed do attend to something really urgent."

"But she promised she would be the one to take me to school today. She said she wouldn't break her promise this time." Luca pouted and his eyes were glistening with his unshed tears.

Nanny Pam took his tiny hand in hers. "Remember you also promised me that you won't be a cry baby anymore? Look at you now. You are about to break that promise." She chuckled and continued, "In all of this, you have to never forget that Mommy loves you so much, but the love she has for you is nothing compared to the love she has for her job. You will always come second when it comes to her job so you have to get used to it. I'm here, and I could always take you to school, alright? So cheer up and stop looking so heartbreakingly adorable."

She ruffled his hair and tickled him. He laughed as his body twitched, revealing his white teeth.

Nanny Pam smiled at how bright Luca had become. "Now that's more like it. You look more handsome when you smile like this."

"I'll go take my bath now." He said as he got off from bed and went into his bathroom.

"Whoever this kid's father is, he must be really handsome." Said nanny Pam to herself, then she added, "If he is still alive then I wonder if he knows he has such a wonderful son."

….

In the ocean, not far away from Atlantica a small group of mermaids and mermen were uprooting plants and vegetables for consumption. Vegetables like kelps, nori, salicornia and many more.

Among them was a little blue haired merman of about eight years old. His tail was the same color as his hair. He had a small silver crown on his head and fixed his arm bracelets were also silver in color with gems on them and it complemented his silver eyes that looked like they were glinting. His skin looked pale just like everyone else there. The beautiful prince was Axle by name.

Behind Axle were two teenage mermen who were holding tridents. They were the guards Axle's father had entrusted to always keep him in sight and protect him if needed. One was white haired and had red eyes, while the other was green haired and had sharp gray eyes.

"Your highness, must you really do this? It's not befitting for a prince." Said the green haired merman.

"Havelock, just let him do as he pleases." Said the other whose name was Firth, and that earned him a glare from Havelock.

"But of course you will support him, letting him do things a prince shouldn't." Havelock retorted.

Firth turned to look at him. "And what would you have us do? Force him to stop?"

Havelock rolled his eyes. "I know we can't force him to do anything, but at least, we can talk sense into him."

"Did you just call his highness senseless?" Firth looked like he wanted to rip Havelock apart.

"I would never dare to say so? The prince is still a child, so he's only just innocent and naive. It's part of our duty to guide him." Havelock too didn't back down, matching Firths deadly glare with one of his.

Axle could only shook his head with a smile as he watched their banter. He later left there without either of them noticing, and joined the others. They were have a discussion amongst themselves.

"I'm tired of eating kelps. I'm craving sargassum." Said one of them.

"Me too, but it's been a long time since it grew here." Said another.

"My mother told me that sargassum grows very close to the shore in surplus. I wish there wasn't a rule against us going close to the shore."

Axle had also tasted sargassum plants before and he really liked it, but it had been long since it grew. His face brightened when he heard that sargassum grew in surplus, not far from the shore.

He became tempted to just go there and eat them to his fill, but he held himself back. That didn't last though. He was craving it so badly that he finally gave in to temptation. He sneakily left the others and swam towards the light that the rays of the sun made in the ocean.

He hadn't been swimming for long before he saw sargassum plants which filled the whole place. It looked like a sargassum garden. His eyes widened at the pleasant surprise, and his mouth subconsciously flew open. "It's so beautiful." He couldn't help but say.

Axle began uprooting and eating them with relish. While he was at it, a big shadow appeared from behind him. He became alert and quickly moved away before turning around to see what it was. It turned out to be a dolphin.

"Hey! You scared me." Axle complained as he pointed an accusing finger at the dolphin.

The dolphin laughed at him and asked, "What did you think I was?"

Having calmed down, Axle fed the weeds he had in his hand to the dolphin. "I thought you were one of those scary humans." And that earned him another laughter from the dolphin.

Axle withdrew his hand as he glared at the dolphin. "Are you making fun of me?"

The dolphin stopped laughing and bowed it's head slightly. "Forgive me, your highness. You can call me Fiona. I found what you said to be funny because I don't find humans to be scary."

Axle's eyes widened a bit. "You don't?"

The dolphin nodded. "In fact, they have a lot of things in common with the likes of you."

"Like what?" Asked Axle. Interest was already blazing in his silver eyes.

"Everything from your head to your waist. The difference is that they have something called legs instead of a tail."

Axle looked up at the the bright light that was reflecting in the ocean. Just a minute of swimming and his head would be above the waters for the very first time. He was really curious to see those humans. He had envisioned them as dangerous and ugly looking monsters, but the dolphin had told him something totally different.

The dolphin must have noticed Axle's curiosity as it said, "Do you want to see them?"

Axle hesitated a bit, but he later nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, I do."

And that was how Axle and the dolphin swam up to the surface. The sun was shining brightly that day and its blinding light made Axle squint his eyes. It took him some time before his eyes could get use to the light and he was able to open up. His lips parted as he looked up at the beautiful blue sky.

He swam towards the shore and that was when he saw humans for the first time. It only took a little while before two land creatures came in sight. One of them looked similar to mermen, and the other, a mermaid.

Unlike mermaids and mermen that had bright colored hair and eyes, the humans he saw had dull-colored hair and eyes, but he still couldn't help but gawk at them.

"You were right. They don't look dangerous at all." Axle said to the dolphin that was now beside him. "I wonder why there is a rule against my kind coming to the surface."

"Try asking his majesty, your father." Suggested the dolphin.

"I have. He told me it's because of how dangerous humans were, but now that I know they aren't, it makes me wonder what the real reason could be." He rubbed his chin as if in deep thoughts. "I also wonder if humans are aware of the existence of my kind."

"Me too. I have never heard them talk about you mermaids."

Axle suddenly stopped. "Speaking of my father, I think I should get going now or I will be in a lot of trouble. It's been a while since I got on his bad side and I will like to keep it that way. See you later, Fiona." He patted the dolphins head.

With that said, he fully submerged himself into the the ocean, followed by the dolphin.

Meanwhile, the woman whom Axle was previously gawking at suddenly let out a gasp at the same time that Axle left. The man walking beside her gave her a quizzical look before asking, "What? Did you see something?"

The woman was still in a daze and only recovered when the man spoke. She shook her head and said, "It's nothing. I thought I just saw a beautiful blue haired boy with glinting eyes that looked like silver in the ocean. I absentmindedly looked away for a second before realizing what I saw, but on looking back, he was gone."

The man laughed at the woman's hilarious story. "What would a boy be doing in the ocean, talk more of him having blue hair and silver eyes like an anime character. What is he? A merboy?" He stopped teasing her when he saw that she wasn't finding it funny. "It must be all those fantasy movies and novels that got into your head."

The woman kept her eyes on the same spot she had seen Axle. "Yeah, must be it." But there was still a tinge of doubt in her eyes.

….

Back in the ocean, Firth and Havelock were still engaged in an argument, oblivious of the fact that the young prince that was supposed to be under their watch had just done the forbidden.

"You are just being unnecessarily strict so you will get praised by his majesty for doing a great job. But you know what? I'm sure his highness finds you annoying and if there ever comes a time when he has to choose between us, he wouldn't bat an eye before choosing me. Isn't that right, your esteemed highness?" Said Firth.

Havelock quickly thought of a comeback. "I know I can sometimes be a fun squasher, always reminding his highness to stick to rules and etiquettes, but he knows I do it with his interest in mind. Right, your esteemed and gracious highness?"

Both of them got no reply from the supposed esteemed highness, so they looked at the spot where he was previously uprooting weeds and found that he was gone.

"Damn it! We let him out of our sight because you just couldn't resist the urge to start an argument." Firth pointed an accusing finger at Havelock.

Havelock angrily slapped Firth's hand that was just an inch away from his nose. "Shut that hole you call a mouth and let's look around for him. You are so childish and always end up rubbing off your immaturity on me. Exaggerating little things and making me come down to your level, arguing over nothing like children."

Firth wanted to find the right words to retort but Havelock didn't wait around for that, so he ended up mumbling to himself with a little pout, "I'm not immature" before following Havelock from a little distance.

It was at that moment that Axle arrived, feeling relieved that his personal guards had not returned to Atlantica in search of him or else, news of him being missing would reach his father's ears, leading to him being interrogated. His father always knew when he was lying, so the situation would probably end up with him confessing and then be severely punished.

He swam fast enough to reach them, surprising them with his sudden appearance. "Are you both done arguing?"

Firth sullen expression turned into a bright smile. "Thanks be to the god of the ocean. I thought we would end up being punished by his majesty for being careless."

"We apologize for chasing you away with our childishness. I promise to ignore some things this overgrown baby says in the future." Said Havelock with his head bowed.

"You.." Firth immediately pressed his lips together, stopping himself from going further and from proving Havelock right that he was immature.

Ignoring them, Axle went ahead of them towards Atlantica while they followed behind.

A/N: You are all officially welcome to my home🥳💕🥰

I call it my home because it is where I find my peace and my motivation to go through my daily life. It is my home because I'm able to express myself and my wild imaginations in words. The journey through this story promises to be fun and enjoyable and I hope I wouldn't get a writer's block🤞🏻