The Mermaid Pirate

Chapter Twelve: Meeting the Queen

{A/N} Hey guys! So, the story finally reached 300 votes, took a while.... But it's here nonetheless! I'm updating on my mobile device so it might be crappy short... My apologizes!!

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(Btw I will be putting ' ' instead of slanting the writing because I can't do that on my phone. And I'll be separating paragraphs with "~" to show a gap in time, yeah.. okay.)

Chapter Twelve:
Charlie's POV

Both Emmet and Aurora look at me with a strained, reassuring smile on both of their faces while my mouth drops open from their news. The queen!? As in, THE QUEEN of the entire ocean!? She wants to meet ME!? I can tell that Emmet isn't too happy about this from a dark glint in his eyes and Aurora is extremely nervous. I can basically hear her heart pounding in her chest from where I'm sitting. Even her tail is shaking ever so slightly with nervousness.
'You're joking!' I scoff in disbelief. 'Does she even know who I am?'
Aurora sighs, "She looked into my brothers memories... He didn't protect his mind like he should." She adds bitterly.
Emmet tries to defends himself, "Mother promised!"
Aurora rolls her eyes. "So? You're supposed to be protecting your memories at all times!"
"She didn't make any indication that she knew who she really is anyways." Emmet snaps.
'Protecting your memories?' I ask, breaking their increasing argument.
Aurora turns to look at me with soft eyes. She settles down next to me on the bed rock I'm sitting on and starts to explain. "Protecting your memories is what the Royal Families do. Memories of important news, meetings, secrets, and so on." She gestures. "Protecting them from spies, just in case if the Dark Pearl Clan ever rises again. Merpeople can develop that skill, but it's a unneeded skill among non royals." I nod my head slowly in reply, unsure what to do with this information and what it means for me. Does that mean they can look into my past too? I wonder to myself. Luckily Aurora has helped me recognize how to speak through the links in the water and how to keep my thoughts to myself.
I catch Emmet staring at me with intense eyes and I return his stare. I swallow a lump in my throat as I try look away from him. My emotions clash together with swirls of rage, fear, and confusion. I sense that these emotions aren't entirely mine but they blend together to become mine. My eyes flicker to his carved chest which shimmers with smaller scales that end just below his biceps. His arms are crossed which shows off his enlarged muscles. My mouth parts unconsciously, almost drooling over him.
'Why does she want to see me?' I calmly ask Aurora privately, snapping myself out of my trance.
She gently responds, "I'm not sure but our mother is very wise. She always has good reason." She smiles warmly at me, grasping my hand. "Come on, lets go before it gets too dark." She spoke through the open link and Emmet stiffly nods, finally tearing his eyes away from mine.
'No, but! I don't want to go. I'm not even a real mermaid!'
"You'll be fine, our mother isn't that barbaric." Aurora giggles at my pout when she pulls me off the rock and starts to swim out through the mouth of the cave.
My heart starts to accelerate slightly when we all emerge out of the cave. The cave is wedged in on the side of a massive underwater cliff which drops straight down, revealing a multicolored display of coral and fish. I'm still wonderstruck every time I glance down onto the ocean floor, memorized by all the colors. Large schools of fish swim all around us, blurring my view with a mirage of colors. During my few days in the cave, Aurora has helped me tone my swimming skills and she was surprised how fast I was able to learn. Now, I'm able to swim without thinking too much about what to do. As the three of us swim father away from the cave, I skillfully adjust my tail and body to the invisible ocean currents, allowing me to swim more comfortably.
I can't help but to glance down at my shimmering golden tail, reflecting the little light down in the ocean. My gold scales move as one but yet, each one moves on it's own. I'm never able to figure out why and when I asked Aurora about it, she just shrugged and said that's what tails do. My tail looks as if I had absorbed some of the sun's own light right into my tail and looking back up, I catch Aurora looking at my tail as well.
"Your tail is so beautiful." Aurora sighs. Slightly taken back by the compliment, I rush to reassure her own tail is just as beautiful and Aurora laughs, waving me off and says "I know!"
'Thank you.' I humbly mumble.
"Just so you know, it's rude to stare at someone's tail for too long if you don't know them personally." She stops swimming and turns to face me. "Also, don't stare at a mermaid's chest, thats really rude. And always pay your respects to the elder merpeople and the Royals." She tips her head down slightly, curving her tail at the same time. "Like this, okay?"
I nod and Emmet swims up next to his sister. "Come on." He growls. "We have a long way to go. You can explain our rules to her later."
Aurora's emotions slip into the pit of my stomach, blending into mine, as one. I bite back my sudden annoyance and flick my tail, moving myself forward and past Emmet. I sense his own annoyance as well and smirk in triumph. He's such a sourpuss, I bitterly think in the back of my head, secretly from Aurora. Since Aurora was the mermaid to change me, we had discovered we have our connection. She explained to me it seems like it's almost like a mate bond but it's not since we weren't marked like one. We even discovered another private link that we can use through the water, which was like the mate link, although different. Aurora mentioned not a lot is known about changing humans into merpeople so she doesn't know where our connection takes us, or how far. Aurora as tried to slip into my mind but luckily I have the whole 'mental block' thing going on so she is shut out. I don't even know how to unblock my mind anyways, not like I would want to. I'm not even sure if these merpeople can even be trusted.
~
With each stroke, my tail grows heavier and heavier with exhaustion. Emmet and Aurora are slightly ahead of me, but they haven't noticed I'm growing really tired. Even though I've become a skilled swimmer, I have never swam this long or hard before. With the pace Emmet set, we were moving at quickly. The water has gone completely dark since the sun has set for the night, but we can still see easily through the water like it's still day time, which I thought was really cool.
"Are you okay?" Aurora's concerned voice pops into my mind, although she hasn't stopped swimming or even turned around.
'Uh, yeah. Just tired.' I warily reply.
"We're almost there." Aurora gently whispers and I choose not to respond, talking though our link is difficult to do.
Emmet turns his head slightly back and gives me a quick, sideways glance before increasing his speed. He has a slight smirk on his face when I struggle to keep up until finally I stop swimming and let myself float slowly downwards with my arms extended above my head. Aurora's frantic face blocks my view of the top of the ocean and she grabs my shoulders.
Her voice is full of worry. "Are you alright Charlie?"
"What's wrong?" Emmet's gruff voice growls from behind her.
'I'm tired.' I snap. 'You guys are swimming really fast, I've never swam this far or long before!' Rolling my eyes, I wiggle out of Aurora's grasp and turn myself upright again.
"We only have a few short moments to go. Let's go." Emmet gestures impatiently.
'Why are you always so grumpy!' I poke his shoulder and he gives me a face such full of shock, I try not to break into a smile.
"Don't you ever, ever, touch a Royal like that!" He angrily snarls.
'And why is that?' I mock him in a sweet voice. Gritting his teeth, Emmet swipes his beautiful light blue tail in front of my face and swims off leaving a trail of angry bubbles. Aurora and I exchange a glance, bursting out in small giggles and she grabs my hand and we swim together towards their home.
~
Diving down in between two, very steep underwater cliffs, the three of us swim together through a series of dark, creepy tunnels. Aurora had said we arrived but looking around, what I see isn't that amazing. All I see are small caves with eels and other sea life living in them. Aurora assures me that I'll know it when I see it. Finally, after a series of twists and turns we break out of the tunnels and what I see freezes me in place. The scale of their kingdom is massive! It's a wonder how we never discovered it! The largest structure, what I assume to be is the castle, is carved expertly out of coral, rock, and pure white marble! It glimmers with it's own light through the water, lighting up the kingdom around it. The castle seems to have been grown right out the side of a massive mountain like coral reef! All the homes of the other merpeople are made in the same fashion, right off coral and rock. The more I look around the more amazed I become.
"Pretty cool huh?" Aurora laughs. I turn to look at her, unable to find words.
'Those are their homes?' I point to the multicolored, dome like coral reefs that fish move freely in and out of. They are scattered all across the ocean floor, booming with live plants and fish. It's a whole other world down here.
Aurora nods, her light brown hair floating around her creating a halo. "Yeah, we are the oldest kingdom around!" She beams proudly over her kingdom.
"Keep moving. I don't want anyone to see." Emmet growls under his breath, pushing his sister forward.
"See what? A mermaid? Oh dear, wouldn't want that." She bitterly says.
Emmet turns to face her, his face in a deep frown. "See the Princess of their kingdom fooling around with some petty human that shouldn't even be alive!" He growls at her but stops abruptly, turning to face me with wide open, holding a sudden regret. I'm stabbed with the utter most pain, pain that I didn't expect to feel. I choke on my words but decide to keep my mouth closed, giving him a stiff nod.
"I didn't- ah!" Frustrated, he runs his fingers through his hair and impatiently gestures for us to continue forward.
"Brother... that was mean." Aurora whispers. I bite my lip, holding back a fury of sudden pained words fighting to break free from the inside of my brain. Why am I so hurt, I wonder dully while continuing forward, now in front of the brother and sister. I feel Emmet's hard, cold eyes on my back while swimming forward through a side entrance of the castle.
Aurora leads us through the side entrance of the castle and all feelings are forgotten when my eyes settle on the inside of the castle. Beautiful displays of coral and underwater plants that were in so many different colors that I have never even seen before! Even something about the water seemed warmer, crisp, revitalizing even. Ever so slightly, I felt as if my energy is being restored and my tail is starting to vibrate ever so slightly from the sudden energy refill. I break away from our small group and approach the castle walls, running my hands over the coral walls in awe. Every bump, hole, crevice has some sort of living creature filling that space. Sea animals that I've never even seen before, live happily within the castle's walls!
Aurora laughs happily and loops her arm with mine. "You are so funny."
'What?' Puzzled, I meet her look.
"You're so easily amazed by everything!" She sweeps her arm around her, pointing to the top of the castle. "Large coral fields act as our ceilings that looks like the bottom of the ocean floor to you silly humans." She adds with a playful wink, tugging me along down further into the castle. She looks carefully around each corner hoping to avoid other merpeople, but reassures me everyone is asleep so we won't be caught. Finally after sneaking down the massive hallway like castle, we arrive to a room like cave and enter through the open doorway.
Even though it is night time, the room is brightly lit with massive crystals, studded into the walls of the room. The walls are smooth, almost glass like marble with rounded, glowing crystals. It's beautiful. So beautiful, I admire as I spin myself around, my eyes jumping from wall to wall until it rests on a mermaid in the room I had not noticed.
My gasp is frozen in my throat when she turns ever so gracefully, her stunning light green eyes landing onto mine. She breaks out in a soft smile, showing a perfect row of sparkling white teeth surrounded by perfect, red colored lips. Her posture shows definite authority perfectly blended with a welcoming warmth that seems to radiate from her. I can't seem to move as she approaches me, still smiling warmly, her eyes holding some amusement. Her hair matches perfectly with her eyes, and tail. Her tail is a shockingly beautiful, light green color with many white marks on the base of her tail with a sharp contrasting black design along her side that reaches her hips. My eyes move to her hair which moves freely in the water and holds a pure white crown, studded with seems to be diamonds and pearls. She even had a small, but vibrant purple sea star placed next to her crown, matching a large, purple necklace which covers her chest modestly, even though her scales cover them anyways.
A hard jab in my shoulder snaps me out of my trance-like phase. 'Ouch!' I harshly whisper but Aurora is frowning, tilting her head like she showed me earlier. 'OH!' Turning my gaze back to the mermaid, I show my respect to her, hoping I haven't ruined everything with my stupidity.
"Hello, I am Queen Thalassa of the Calida Clan. And you are?" The mermaid speaks with a voice so warm, so beautiful, so trusting.
Looking up, I force myself to steady my gaze. 'I'm uh- my name is Charlie.'
Her eyebrows go up slightly, "Charlie. A quite unusual name for a mermaid." Fear trickles down my spine, does she know? I glance over to Emmet and Aurora who both have hard faces but Emmet, I can tell, is extremely tense from his hard jaw.
'Yes, it is... Your majesty.' I add but I soon discover, that wasn't what they say down here.
"Your majesty? My, what a human thing to say." Her eyes light up in full amusement when she watches my steady face falters, and fall in shock. "Tell me, how was the transformation?" She asks, with a hint of musical laughter in her voice.
"You said she didn't know!" Aurora suddenly whines to her brother, hitting him in the shoulder.
"I didn't know if she did! Don't hit me again sister, or I swear..." Emmet angrily rubs his shoulder.
The queen speaks to me again, approaching closer to me with curiosity filled eyes. "Well, are you going to answer me?"
Oh dear god, how am I going to get out of this one.

{A/N}
Yayyyy :) Okay, I gotta be honest with you. I hate writing this story :/ I'm just so tired of it.
But I'm going to finish it, don't worry. I'm not going to leave you hanging.
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