"Wake up, sleepyhead!"
"Don't bother. Nothing can wake my daughter up unless the Earth is ending."
"THE EARTH IS ENDING!"
"I stand corrected."
Someone shakes my shoulder repeatedly. "Wake. Up. You. Lump. Of. Nothing!"
I crack open my eyelid and see a black-haired, red-brown-eyed someone grinning at me. "O'way, Suh-uh." I mumble.
She rolls her eyes and picks me up like a rag doll. "UP, ICY!" She yells, trying to dump me to the floor but ending up casting me in gravity-less motion. She growls. "Dang water! No fun tryin'a beat someone up!"
I swing my arms around in circles trying to propel myself upwards into 'standing' position. "Maybe wait until we're back up on land. What are you doing here, Sera?"
"Well, yer dad asked if I could come down here an' help with your, ah, explosion problems." Sera shrugged, gesturing to my dad, who has an enormous case of bedhead. "Since I'm a master of big booms, he thought I'd come'n help!"
"Plus, she heard you were down here, and she wanted to see the underwater kingdom." Dad says.
"A'ight, so I wanted to be a mermaid as a kid---who hasn't?" Sera asks.
I laugh. "Not me. I wanted to be a fairy."
"Aw, c'mon, Maleficent's a fairy!"
"No, like a tiny-winged pixie type fairy! Not an evil one with horns!"
Sera sticks her tongue out. "Whatever. Anyway, wanna explore the shiny kingdom with me?"
I shrug. "Sure. Why not?"
As we turn to leave, Dad clears his throat. "Ah, Liss? You realize something, right?"
"Um...no?"
"You fell asleep. And didn't have a nightm---bad dream." Dad smiles, though it looks forced for some reason. "Didn't set everything on fire."
Sera elbows me. "Ahhh, I knew she could do it, right Icy? Now, enough chit-chat. While you zonked out, I explored a bit already. Didn't get past the gates, but...eh. COME ON!" She grabs my arm and paddles like crazy, shooting us through the hallways somehow until within a couple seconds, we're outside the pearly gates and swimming for the cave opening.
"Sera! I thought we were exploring the city!" I yell. She slows down right at the exit.
"Yeaaaaah, but it's all.... I dunno, safe in there. Like, no risk of death at all!" She complains. "Now, out HERE... HERE'S an experience! We're gonna explore, Icy! We're gonna---"
"Die?" I suggest innocently.
"Maybe!"
I laugh. "I'm down. Where do you want to go?"
She examines the dark waters around us, and then points randomly out into the darkness. "There! Let's go!" She grabs my wrist and flicks her wrist, sending huge bursts of bubbles from her free hand that propels us forward. I'm guessing that she was using her flame-y explosion-y powers, but since we're underwater it came out as bubbles.
She keeps us going for a long time, and the pauses when we reach a bunch of bunched-up coral waving in the ocean waves. Sera beams at me. "Now this looks interestin'. Lookie here, we gotta cave!"
I peer at it. "Hmm... Dark. Scary. Dangerous-looking. Probability of imminent death... Let's go!"
Sera laughs and we both swim inside. For the first time, I notice Sera's glow-thing is a deep, pulsating red that seems to ripple each second, growing brighter when she smiles. She paddles forward and the pauses. And yawns. "Welp, this cave is boring. Not a single monster. I'm hungry." She states suddenly. "Wanna go back and eat some o' their awesome food?"
"I haven't even tried any of their food." I admit.
"Then you gotta try." Sera insists. "C'mon. Before we die of boredom."
"See, I liked those jokes until I almost died." I tell her, and we both turn to leave. But the cave around us starts to rumble like an earthquake, and Sera's face lights up.
"Monster! Excellent! It'd've been so BORING without a few monsters here and there!" She rubs her palms together in anticipation and swims back in. I roll my eyes and follow her, figuring no monster is dumb enough to try and challenge Sera when she's in one of her moods.
But instead, I'm met with an extremely grumpy-looking octopus wearing crab-shell armor, a monocle made of aqua glass and coral, and a bushy mustache covering his mouth. And his entire body is covered in scaly pink-purple skin that glistens under the water.
He huffs out some bubbles and glares at us. "Well. What does a retired crab have to do to get a little sleep around here, hm?"
"Uhh... you're not crab." Sera wisely points out.
He bristles and emits a huge growling sound that vibrates in my bones. Much reminding me of Ursula, he slides down from his little alcove and settles on the floor. "I am so a crab!" He says indignantly. "Crab is my last name!"
"Wait. Your last name is Crab, and you're an octopus?" I ask, barely stifling a giggle.
He glares (Who knew Octopi could glare) at me. "My name is General Reginald Crabbins III, thank you kindly! But everyone calls me Crabby!"
"Gee, wonder why?" I mutter.
Sera yawns. "Welp. Seein' as we's gettin' bored here... I'm out." She paddles away, and I turn to follow her since the octopus obviously is no threat, but he coughs.
"Ah... could I possibly get your names? It's been ages since someone spoke to me." He says, and he sounds so lonely that I stop.
Sera groans. "Fine. I'm Sera. That's Icy. Bye!"
I clear my throat. The last thing I need is him thinking my name is literally 'Icy'. "My name is actually Elicia. But everyone I know calls me Ellie."
His monocle falls off his face and his eyes bulge out. "Eli---El---Elicia----holy Hades, you're his daughter!"
I share a glance with Sera. Honestly, I'm not even surprised that people know my dad now.
But a crab knowing who I am? That's new.
"How do you know who I am?" I ask.
"Why, because Hades is a friend of mine!"
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A) Sorry it's shorter than normal. But I'm working on a special chapter for Elicia's Ice one-year anniversary, and I wanted to spend time on that, so I cut this one a little shorter than I meant to.
B) Look out for the anniversary chapter---it will either be here, or on EMUFF "Ellie's Mess-Ups and Fun Facts" and it will be posted on Sometime this week! not on march 9th, I couldn't make it in time
(The first chapter ever was actually posted on he 10th of last year, but I won't be able to get on on a Sunday. So, the 9th.)