Water and Air: A Waterfire Saga reincarnation fanfic.

A Riptide of Danger

"No, on Len's new Vespa," Robert drawled. "Of course on a girl."

"Well... Who is she?" Liam blurted. "When can we meet her? Come on, Rob, who is she?"

Robert's shoulder slumped. "I've tried finding out more about her, like where she works, but apparently, all I've learned is her first name, she's an Italian duke's daughter and she moves a lot around the world for her work. The ocean activists I've met were extremely secretive about her."

Beck gave Liam a long look. "It appears our dear Prince Charming's not the only guy who's tried to find out more about her.

Robert grunted in reply. They were surprisingly silent on the matter, even though he was a royal.

"Have you told Dad?" Liam asked, for once surprisingly helpful.

Robert sighed again, unable to get the longing, helpless, hopeless thoughts from his mind.

We'd been travelling for days now, and honestly, I had never been so happy to cross into Atlantican territory.

The city of Aegae, was massive, even more so than Cerulea, due to its vast ocean population.

The city was built on the floor of the Atlantic ocean in its very heart, with the Golden Palace in the centre.

The Golden Palace was exactly as seen on the Little Mermaid, built out of pure gold it seemed, with its graceful spires and towers, ballrooms, halls and chambers, but apart from the palace itself, nothing was like what was seen in Disney's a Little Mermaid. For starters, the Atlanticans did not go around naked or wearing only shell bikinis, anymore than other merfolk did. And it was a massive, cosmopolitan, underwater metropolis, divided into several sections. The palace was at its very heart, the outer ring of the city was where some of the busiest markets, farms and so forth were. There were farms outside it, harvesting kelp, various underwater plants and seaweed, sea prunes, water apples, sand melons, coral berries and more. Other farms bred scallops, the delicious Atlantican clams, lobster, crab, marine mammals like domesticated dolphins, rays, some species of sharks, walruses and seals, for meat or dairy products. Anchovy, various worms, squid, crabs, krill and shrimp were watched over by shepherds, but inside it was more cosmopolitan than anything.

The outer ring was the largest, filled with shops, taverns, department stores, markets, tailors and seamstress shops, mechanics, salvagers displaying ship-wrecked items, inns, motels, restaurants, cafés and more. The whole city was alive and I felt ecstatic just being near it.

"Thank Neria," I heard Tavia mutter. "We've been travelling for days."

Sera and I both agreed, but not out loud. Princesses were never supposed to complain.

Travelling was now especially difficult because we needed to take extra precautions what with Rafe Mfeme, increased human military activity on the seas, and more. It was a real pain, and although the wide majority of earth's oceans and seas, and even freshwaters had yet to be discovered by humans, we couldn't take the risk, and they were learning more and more everyday. Plus, there were deep-sea predators and we were quite a large entourage we could barely move quickly enough.

As a result it took nearly weeks for us to travel from Cerulea to Aeagae in the Atlantic Ocean, and we weren't very happy about it. Sera remarked on the fact that nobody tried to attack and rob us, but I wasn't surprised. The Praedatori would never harm innocents, including Isabella and her family and entourage.

It was going to be months until the tadfoal hatched, and I couldn't be so cruel as to separate Maree from her incubating baby, so I stayed in the large carriage, apart from the times I rode a borrowed hippokamp.