Chapter

"These are the prisoners and slaves of your aunty, the sworn enemy of your father, so, they are royal prisoners because they belong to royalty. Now most of them committee offenses only known go your aunty, and for that, they had been sold to the humans, they serve the humans doing dirty works for the humans, causing bad names for we the mer-people, now the task is clear, what will you do as our next king, will you go against your aunty, and release them? Of letting them be, allow them to serve their punishment since you ain't even know them or even know the offense they have committed, mind you, freeing them could mean angering your aunty who is a great warrior who is already furious with your father. And letting them go, could mean... I don't even know... So what is your take, my young prince." The old mermaid said still dancing, all the while she never stopped with her dancing and even while she spoke, she made it sound like a song with that rhythmic voice of hers. I looked around being sure to find no form of help from Dad, so, I walked around the balls of water, as I think of a decision to make, my thinking even kept on being distracted by the chanting of the crowded mer-people who just won't stay calm. They just do not know that one needs calmness in other to think straight. As I strode on, I caught a sight that struck me, I saw someone familiar, I came closer, she was a mermaid, it is not like I have ever had a mermaid friend, then why must I feel like I know this one, I came close to her, to have a clearer look, it was Electra, the siren from the swimming pool, she looked weak but still super cute, what could she be doing here? Is she also a prisoner of bad aunty? As soon as I saw that it was her, I looked up at dad, and immediately he gave me a look of discord, he wasn't in support of that, father never wanted to tell me what to do, but he clearly wanted me to leave things the way they were, but I presented like I do not understand what he was saying because I started tearing down the sack of Electa, I tore her out and she dropped to the ground of Atlantis, as this happened, the whole crowd became calm they all looked at me with such eyes that suggested a mistake, eve my new friend Julio was not happy with my decision of freeing Electra, dad looked at me with disappointment, making me believe ghat I had just failed the task. It was only then that I understood that Dad and the rest of Atlantis were seeking peace, and with this act of mine, I had just signed the war pact. But it was not like the other side has any respect for peace, they were already planning an attack, and Electra, I knew Electra, she was the first mermaid I knew she made me believe in the existence of mermaid, and she respects father, there was no way I can leave here there.

"Hmm... What a very strong decision, I must confess that your decision is strong, but yet, we can't say for now, if you made the right decision or not. No one had ever freed a royal prisoner before you are the first, all of them including your wise father had always chosen peace, but you chose war. Hmm..." The one mermaid said sipping a link of air in her seen hollow throat.

"What about the others? The other prisoners? Are you still freeing them or not?" The old mer-lady said. On my own, I was almost regretting my decision of freeing Electra, but I just can't undo what I did, so I will rather let it be for now.

"Wise woman, I will rather let them all be, for now, I need to tend to this one." Is said

"Now will someone assist me in taking her to the palace?" I asked again, and a group of armed guards came to me, slots their arms in their pouch, and assisted in picking up Electra, they took her to the palace where Father expressed his dissatisfaction with my decision, he said that he expected that my human mind will tell me to chose peace, but I did otherwise. I just stood there looking at him with great annoyance, 

How come no one briefed me about this, how come no one told me to chose between war and peace, why did they have to ask me to either save life or let them rot? How am I supposed to know that down here in this accursed Atlantis, that to save a life means to start a war, and to ignore one to perish means peace? How comes no one told me why did I not know about all this before I was asked to chose?" I said asking so many questions. We were there when a mermaid came running into the King's came to announce the awakening of Electra.

"She is up my lord, she is up, but she is acting strange and weird, the guards have had her chained down." So she said and dad asked her to leave that we have heard her, 

"You may now go, we will come to see her soon, say this to the guards." As he said this, she left quickly.

"Have you seen it? Dad said and we joins her to where she was leashed, she looked now stronger, she was very aggressive, I never knew her for that, she was a warrior mermaid, no wonder she was behaving that way, and she knew not many of the faces the hovered around her, but as soon as she saw Dad, she recognized him, and when she saw me as well she also recognized me. 

"You are Goldrichson, I know you will be the one to save me, where are my sister? We need to get them prepared because the queen of the coast and her people are coming for the war, and they are very much prepared, you and your people need to get my sisters to me, we know them and their place, so, we know what to do, how to do it and where and even when to carry out.  you need my people Goldrichson." So she said, she looked at me with so much love and respect. 

"I do not know your sisters, where are they?"

"They were in prison with me, we have no time Son of Goldrich, your enemies are on their way at the moment and they had been asked to bring your head for a trophy." She said to me, I looked up to find dad already high on his throne, I let him know about the situation of things through the thoughts of my mind and he fought bit so fast. He immediately sent some guards to lead me to the nowhere land where the sisters of Elektra were kept, prisoners. But before he did that, he asked if I was sure that they will fight by my side when they are freed, and I told him that I trusted Electra and her words, and that actually solved the problem, and we left Dad sent one of his guards to go and sound the war gong, the people have to be aware that our nation is about to be invaded. And for sure it actually was a full invasion that those people planned for us. When we got there, together, Electra and I without hesitation tore open all the water balls and freed the mermaids in the sack, though they were all weak when they were out of the sack, Electra made them whole, she placed her hand on their chest one after the other and this light from her went into them from her hand and made them strong.

They stood up looking very confused, some were even aggressive as they turns to me to fight me and the guards that took us there but Electra calmed them down and she explained to them the things which made them calm, and we left the dungeon.

We were only just coming out of the dungeon when we started hearing the sound of mermaids running and screaming in fear.

"They are here, so said Jumita, Jumita seemed to be the closest mermaid to Electra. She said this and immediately, she stood in a fighting position. For a fact, aunty and her mermaids and merman, many of which were of the Serpent tribe. At the sight of this, Electra jumped up and grabbed a rod from the rusty bars of iron in the dungeon, she jumped so high to grab the rod. Impressive for a girl, not just any girl, but a girl like her who appeared to look too weak and soft, looking at her, one can easily mistake her for a cute face without any significance aside for her beauty. She smiled at me. I never liked the looks of the mermaid's teeth, they are synonymous with that of sharks, but I liked how she showed her teeth when she smiled at me. As I watched her perform her stunts, I almost lost my track, because I didn't even know about this serpent mermaid who worked for my evil aunt, she almost ripped off my head with the aid of her sophisticated weapon, I only noticed that when Electra's smiling changed to seriousness, and with the metal rod wich she had broken from the bars of the dungeon she aimed towards me, I thought that my dad had been right all along, I thought that I had been deceived by these sirens, but when she aimed that weapon she wasn't aiming at me, she aimed it at the serpent mermaid with the sophisticated weapon against me. I actually bent to dodge the rod from striking me, thinking she had aimed at me, but when I turned to see her missed target, I found out that she never missed, she was only saving my life, I then looked at her, I looked at her feeling so indebted, she came to me and gave me a hand, by then the entire place was already oozing of war, children running and weapon clashing against each other. Immediately my mind thought of dad as I saw the crowd of the enemy soldier running towards the palace, together, Electra and I ran after them, slicing them in two with the weapon we achieved from the ones we had slain. 

It was a very busy fight as everyone had someone her of she was fighting with. Even the sea monsters and fish participated in the war. Even though it was in the sea, I could still see glints of sunlight on daggers as they were waved around, the harsh, choking stench of freshly opened blood was all over the surface of the sea, and the loud pat-pat sound of a sophisticated-automatic rifle was the sound of the day, rifles that had never been seen in the most sophisticated country on earth. By the time we managed to find our way to the palace, after slicing through a couple of enemies, we found dad standing gallantly with his sword, he had successfully slain a countless number of enemy mer-creatures and people. On the other side was a lady who was well dressed in war attire, she somehow had this resemblance with dad, only that she looked even deadlier. She was the evil aunty, the queen of the coast, many called her Coastabel. I was so not certain of her real name because she goes by numerous names. At her sight of me, she bled out a wicked smile, as she raised her weapon and her hand so that all the enemies Stopped fighting. This also brought to a sense of tranquility across the boulevard of Atlantis, Everyone stopped and watched.