As Atlantis never had the rays of the sun reach beneath the waves and to the depths where it was located, telling the time at a certain period was almost impossible.
It was almost as if the time itself did not exist in the beautiful city.
As a result, the God of the Seas held the Royal Court whenever the mood struck him, hating the bunch of paperwork that his trustworthy lieutanant Delphin always piled up on his desk with a smile.
Poseidon always had his family by his side during these meetings, in a show of silent support. All of them had their own thrones and their input in the conversation that flowed in the room was always appreciated.
Just like the Royal Court he was holding right now.
The only slight change in the Court arrangement was at the Royal Dias, where now another throne decorated with Sea Green gem stones and pearls was present on Poseidon's right side. On his left sat his wife, and on her other side, his heir.
Unfortunately, the new throne is too big for its occupant, and henceforth remained empty, as the person for whom the throne was made for found another more comfortable seat, and had stubbornly refused to be seated elsewhere.
In other words, Poseidon's lap.
The daughter of the Sea God had already started showing the symptoms of ADHD that demigods were famous for, and could not sit still in one place for more than three seconds. However, the Dyslexia was curable, and as the Crown Princess of Atlantis, the power of the Sea had taken care of that tiny problem.
The little princess continued to play with her new guppy and the baby turtle that her father had gifted her for her fourth birthday, while said father had her little bluish green tail in a gentle yet firm grip to keep his daughter from fidgeting as he wrapped up the court for the day.
"So, in a summary, we are going to open the academic institutions for merpeople, and will have to work on securing the city borders even more firmly.", Delphin addressed the Royal Court.
"Yay!! More guppies!!", Atlanta cheered.
Poseidon smiled at his adorable daughter.
"Indeed. Is there anything anyone would like to add, or have anymore issues to address?", Poseidon asked his Court, with an expression which clearly said that there was only one answer to the question.
"No, my Lord.", came the chorus of answers.
"Very well. The session is closed for now.", Poseidon loudly announced before slamming his Trident down, marking the end of the session.
The doors of the Throne Room swung open, and with a curtsy, all the courtiers started to leave. Triton swam away to greet his friends, who were actually his valets, who waited outside for him, while Delphin swam close to Poseidon once he managed to control his cheeky little fishling's bout of hyperactivity and stepped down from the dias.
"Princess Atlanta!!", the little mermaid who was following Delphin called out excitedly.
In the period between the arguement on Olympus and Atlanta's first birthday, Poseidon had appointed seventy handmaidens, eleven ladies in waiting, thirty kitchen maids, fifty one tutors, twenty seven trainers, sixty five personal guards, fourteen stable boys and ninety three servants for other general everyday tasks to help in the overall development of his little princess.
But if somebody asked Atlanta, the second-best gifts that her daddy gave to her were her favourite sword Anaklusmos, which stood for Riptide, her back up sword Kataigidamegálokýma, which stood for Stormbreaker, and her seven pegasi who pulled her chariot, among whom Pearl, Porkpie, and most importantly, Blackjack were her favourites. Her best gifts were of course, her mommy, elder brother Triton, her mum in the mortal world, and her daddy. He was her ultimate, absolute favourite, and no one could convince her otherwise.
The perks of having a father-daughter duo which she would always love, is the fact that whenever they messed up, they could always blame Triton and get away with it.
And daddy read very nice bed time stories to her too. She loved that a lot. Even if he told the monster under the bed to eat her up if she did not fall asleep soon.
Yes, she loved her daddy that much.
Triton, on the other hand, is always wary of their daddy, and her mommy told her that her elder brother was traumatized from the same things that her daddy did to scare her, when he was her age. Her elder brother was apparently never quite the same after that, and did not look forward to having his father in the same room as him while he is trying to sleep.
"Daneira!!", Atlanta exclaimed with glee. "Daddy, can I go and meet her?"
Poseidon gave a mock suffering sigh before releasing his daughter from his arms with a smile, and tuned into the conversation between his wife and Delphin.
"Princess!!", the young mermaid gave a curtsy to Atlanta as the little princess approached her.
"We are best friends Daneira, no need for that!! Where are the rest of them?", Atlanta asked the four year old daughter of her father's best friend Donna, after waving off her formalities. Daneira also happened to be one of her ladies in waiting, and the one and only advisor of Atlanta.
"Of course, your Royal Highness. As you are set to venture out of the Atlantean territory after this meeting with the Royal Court, we are all awaiting your presence outside the Throne Room to help you dress accordingly.", Daneira dutifully informed her superior.
"Of course."
After a pause, Atlanta asked with mischief written over her face. "And what about Ariel?"
Ariel was the mermaid who had captured her elder brother Triton's heart. The Disney movies were so wrong about that.
Since Triton had expressed his desire to pursue Ariel as a potential consort, he had made it clear that he had no intentions of ever getting married, making Poseidon mad about Triton's indecisiveness and ban him from seeking the mermaid all together. However, Triton being a child of his father, had of course ignored the warning and had taken Ariel as his secret girlfriend. This sneaking around had gone on for several centuries, and Atlanta had gotten to know the secret when she had found her elder brother's love letter to Ariel while searching for a drawing paper in the desk of his study table.
Needless to say, appeasing and bribing had followed to make her keep quiet about the subject and not straight up give it to their father. Deciding to take a bit of extra mercy on her elder brother, Atlanta had pleaded her father to add Ariel to her list of ladies in waiting, which was done with a baby seal look from her side, so that Ariel and Triton did not have to sneak around anymore to see each other, as the ladies in waiting were commonly seen in the palace grounds.
Atlanta just wanted to help her elder brother.
And she was definitely proud of herself for thinking about that one.
"She awaits you near your bed chambers, your Royal Highness.", Daneira replied with an even tone, struggling to keep the snicker out of her voice.
"That's great. I will see my other ladies in waiting there, then. Ariel can be, excused from her duties to help me fetch my Donna from my elder brother's evil grasp. He had taken it. Again.", Atlanta told her friend and advisor with a frustrated sigh.
"Of course. I will let her know.", Daneira told her friend.
"Cool!! Then we can make our way to my bedroom now, and keep our fingers crossed so as to not run into Tri and his merry band of idiots on the way. Rest of the information you can tell me as we swim.", Atlanta replied while pulling her best friend out of the Throne Room. "Bye daddy!! Bye mommy!! Bye Donna!! I will see everyone later!!"
Two proud parents and a sulking God of Dolphins waved back as the two young mermaids swam out of the Throne Room.
Two hours later saw the Royal Family of Atlantis venturing to one of the smaller kingdoms under the Atlantean Rule with their personal entourage of Royal Guards.
After setting down a picnic blanket in one of the beautiful spots of the kingdom and the royal guard were stationed in their positions, Poseidon flopped flat onto the blanket without any dignity, and smirked when his daughter followed suit to flop onto his back in the same way, making Amphitrite and Triton sigh in exasperation.
Nobody could scold him as long as his little princess did the same thing as him, after all. Who can resist two pairs of baby seal eyes directed at them?
After Amphitrite managed to shoo her lump of a husband and her precious little female carbon copy of Poseidon away from the picnic blanket, she sat down on it and began to take the food out from the picnic basket, making both her husband and their daughter wince at the level of healthy stuff being laid down.
Worthy mention, both Poseidon and his little princess hated healthy food with a passion.
"Why don't you two go and play together nearby with the sand? Atlanta will love it, won't you fishling?", Amphitrite asked, smiling at the excited nodding of her daughter's head. "And Triton, go and play with them instead of sneaking away."
Triton groaned in frustration at being caught while trying to sneak away, and trudged back with a grumpy pout.
Mothers were excellent detectives.
Atlanta on the other hand, smiled brightly and yelled goodbye to her mommy while dragging her overly excited daddy and her grumpy elder brother with her to a nearby spot.
The trio ended up making a sand castle on the sea floor, which Atlanta had declared to be the place where she would live with her daddy after she grew up.
Again another worthy mention, Atlanta had overheard big Donna tell her daddy that he would be sad to see Daneira go when she got older and got married. When Atlanta demanded to know what 'marige' was, her mommy had explained that after growing up, a boy and a girl leaves for their own destination and is together for the rest of their life. When the Sea Princess had said that boys were annoying and gross, her mommy told her that she would simply marry the man she does not think of as annoying, ignoring the proud look that her daddy was sending her for her retort. After a lot of deep thinking, Atlanta had reached a meaningful conclusion, and had declared that she was going to marry her daddy when she grew up, because he was the only boy who was not gross. The Royal Court had cooed at the little princess' adorable 'serious' face, with Poseidon laughing and ruffling his daughter's already messy black hair. But from that day forward, Atlanta had gotten a lot more clingy to her daddy, and liked her daddy to play only with her, much to her daddy's amusement. She even competed with Amphitrite for her daddy's attention, which caused the Queen of Atlantis to giggle when she eventually found out the reason for the cute frowns directed her way.
While Poseidon was invested too deeply in making the sand castle, Atlanta had gone and brought all the beautiful corals and starfishes that she could find to decorate the sand castle. Plopping herself down next to her daddy, she turned to him with a hopeful look.
"Is there truly a pineapple hut down here, where Spongebob and Patrick live?"
Poseidon momentarily stopped his task to look at his daughter, who had her best baby seal eyes trained at him. Sighing in loving exasperation, the God of the Seas chuckled and looked back at his daughter's hopeful eyes fondly.
"Indeed. There is Spongebob and Patrick living around somewhere."
Atlanta's expression lit up. "Then where is it daddy? Can we go and say hi to them? They are very funny, and I want their autograph!!"
Poseidon shook his head with a smile. "It is a top secret location. They don't tell us where they live, otherwise everyone will want to go there."
"Why are you lying father?", Triton interjected. "There's nothing called Spongebob and Patrick."
Atlanta turned to face her elder brother with a hesitating expression. "No. They are there. Daddy said so."
"Sorry kid, reality calls.", Triton shrugged, ignoring the stern look that his father sent his way. The little brat had eaten up all his chocolate chip cookies that Ariel made for him last day. It was payback time.
"Dad's just telling that to entertain you. There's nothing called Spongebob. All you saw was just false. They are animated. Not real.", Triton said with a smirk.
"No. You're lying.", Atlanta said with quivering lips and tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. "Daddy said they are there. You're lying Tri!!"
"Nope. In all my years as the Crown Prince, I never saw nor heard of a pineapple hut. Tough luck. I am sorry for your loss."
"You're lying!! Daddy said so!!! They are there!! They are there!!!", Atlanta finally burst into tears and crashed into her daddy, hugging him and crying her little heart out. She was lifted up and was hugged back by her daddy, but she did not stop crying.
Spongebob and Patrick were not there.
She will never meet them.
Poseidon lifted his crying princess into his arms, all the while glaring at his son, who had a shit eating grin on his face, for making his little girl cry.
"Let's head back. We will discuss this with your mother, Triton.", Poseidon told his son.
All the traces of smugness on Triton's face wiped out with that comment.
The walk back to their original spot was filled with silence other than the hysterical crying of Atlanta. The Princess of Atlantis was so horribly traumatized by the news that she was barely able to walk without flopping back on the ground, crying all the way. Poseidon had picked her up and was carrying his little princess back to his wife.
Amphitrite was very confused to see her husband carrying a crying Atlanta, being accompanied by a guilty looking Triton. The devastated look on her fishling's face was absolutely heartbreaking.
After Poseidon told his wife what had happened to make their usually cheerful daughter sad, Amphitrite had turned to her son and chewed him out for a solid half an hour. At least how much time they thought had passed.
Even when Triton tried to point out that her precious daughter was not exactly the angel descended from Olympus and had not been the most well behaved kid either, Amphitrite had merely mentioned that she was a kid in comparison to a thousand years old diety who happened to be her brother, and outright said that she didn't want to hear it.
It was very unfair in Triton's opinion. He was a kid too!!! He was just fifteen!!! Actual age be damned!!
Meanwhile, Poseidon tried to calm down his hysterical daughter by calling one of the baby Mako sharks nearby to be petted by his little princess. Thankfully, the plan partially worked, and Atlanta's crying calmed down to sniffles and hiccups.
Amphitrite then came back to Atlanta to clean her clothes of the dirt and tear tracks down her cheeks. While she was busy wiping away any dirt on her daughter's face which was completely cherry red from crying, Triton was getting the second chewing out of the day from his angry father.
They had an all-day plan to roam the kingdom, but with Atlanta in such a condition they decided to return back to the palace.
The ride back to the palace was full of sniffling from Atlanta, who hugged her daddy and sat on his lap, and glares thrown at a clearly uncomfortable Triton.
If he knew that the brat will start full out crying and cancel their plans, then he would have waited till the end of the day to say that.
This is why he didn't have fun with his little sister. Every time he tried to joke with her, she ended up having a meltdown, and he ended up in trouble.
Being a big brother was tough, alright.
But Triton was sure he was doing an amazing job at that. He was the most coolest elder brother of the world, and nobody could convince him otherwise.
So what if he took her Donna? She also took his love letters to Ariel and made them paper boats!! That was just making things equal!!
After reaching the palace, Atlanta was welcomed by her best friend Daneira, who led her away to the city markets to cheer her up, and were trailed by her other ladies in waiting.
Unfortunately for Triton, he had received another dose of lecture and had gotten his gaming system, laptop, and video games confiscated.
Nobody really cared about him in this family!! He was also a little boy with sensitive feelings!! The way his parents treated him was as if he was a grown up adult, and his little sister was still an infant!!!
He was a fifteen year old boy. But neither wanted to see the logic that his body age being what it is made him a kid too. What was he, a potato?
After a few hours, and still no Atlanta, the Royal Family grew concerned. What if Atlanta swam away from Daneira in a fit of rage, and lost her way?
The nervousness and panic began to set inside Triton as well. His thoughts ran wild, and each and every possibility was worse than the one before.
No!! Even if you are a little brat and annoying as Tartarus, tease me a lot and eat up all my cookies, you are still my little sister at the end of the day, and I cannot live without you!!
Just when they were about to issue a search for the Princess of Atlantis, the Throne Room door slammed open and the little princess herself waltzed into the room, followed by her best friend, all the traces of sadness from her face a few hours ago were lost. Upon closer inspection, they found out that the small clips that the two little mermaids were carrying an armful of were not clips, but sea oysters.
Which were filled with pearls.
"Where did you come by them?", Triton asked immediately, more concerned about where his sister had ventured alone rather than where she got them.
"A pretty lady showed me!! I also met Spongebob and Patrick, they lived in a pineapple hut!! You were wrong Tri!! I even got their autograph!!", Atlanta excitedly showed them the piece of paper in her pocket after she dumped all her pearls in a heap on the floor.
The dumbstruck Royal Family moved closer to see the paper, and sure enough, there were two signatures which proudly displayed the names of Spongebob and Patrick.
"Spongebob was really funny!! He was so squishy!! And Patrick said nice jokes too daddy!! He said that I am welcome there whenever I want!!", Atlanta gushed excitedly.
"What else happened?", Amphitrite asked, stunned.
"I actually told Daneira to stay back while I go and sulk somewhere alone. But then this pretty lady came and took me to the Pineapple hut!! After we came out, she took me to a very spacey place, with a cave in the middle, and there were so many guppies and baby turtles there!! And these pearls were all laid on the seabed in a row from all the directions leading to the cave!! There were so many pretty corals around!! She told me that it is my own place, and that we have to keep it a secret and not show it to the others. We even did pinky promise on that!! I told her that she could also take some of the pretty pearls, but she told me that she is giving all of them to me for me to use!!", Atlanta finished in a rushed voice, and face aflame with excitement and happiness.
"Who is this pretty lady you are talking about princess?", Poseidon asked his daughter carefully.
"I knew I forgot something!! I forgot to ask her name!! But don't worry, we are good friends now. She had a kind smile and was totally bluish green in color, just like my tail!! Her touch felt funny too, my hand went through her!! She said that she didn't like to see me cry, and that I shouldn't cry at all. She said that I am going to be one of the greatest heroes one day daddy!! Isn't that great?!!", Atlanta asked her daddy happily.
"She met the Soul of the Sea.", Poseidon replied, stunned. " The Sea came to console her."
"You're really lucky, my sister. The pretty lady was the Sea herself. She likes you.", Triton told his little sister with a smile, even if he was feeling a bit excited. He was a Soul of the Sea legend fanboy, after all.
Atlanta merely stuck her little tongue out at him.
"Why don't you go to your bed now fishling? It's already your bedtime. Daddy will come in a bit. Leave the pearls and oysters here, we will take it to your room later.", Amphitrite told her daughter.
" Okay mommy!! Come soon daddy!!", Atlanta called out, as she was ushered out of the Throne Room by her best friend.
The last snippets of the conversation she caught between her family members were that of her daddy's.
"Despite knowing that she is a demigod, the Sea gave her it's most precious treasure as her symbol of power. I truly hope that this means she will never have to be the hero of the prophecy."
After being ready for bed and getting tucked in by her ladies in waiting, her companions had left her bedchambers after wishing her a good night's sleep. After they left, Atlanta was left to ponder over her thoughts in the dark until her daddy came to tuck her in properly.
She had not been lying about her day, yet she had not been utterly truthful either. Just that, after the Pineapple hut, the pretty lady had taken her above the waves and turned her tail into legs temporarily to enjoy a bit of time with the kids of her age. And when she was walking on the shore, she had been blinded momentarily by the burning light around her after not being used to the daylight for so long, and fell right on top of the sand castle of a boy of her age. She had apologized, and the boy had accepted it after she had agreed to make another sand castle with him as a sorry gift. They had played in the water after that, and when the sun had started to set, they had parted ways with a promise to see each other in the summer on the same beach: Montauk. They became good friends, and Atlanta had jumped back into the water after she waved goodbye to him, where the pretty lady waited for her and took her to the cave.
She told the boy that her name was Fidelia Equidae. Fidelia, or fidelty, a form of loyalty, and equidae, which literally means horse family. Technically she had not lied to him, as her daddy told her to never tell anyone her name. But she had a feeling that the boy would not be solving that riddle anytime soon.
The blond, four year old boy with a cute smile and clear sky blue eyes which glinted in the sun was perhaps the only boy other than her daddy who she could tolerate. The boy told her that his name was Solis Moonshine.
The Soul of the Sea gave a long suffering sigh at the creepy smile that the fates gave her on helping them push her favourite dweller further towards her destiny.