How Did We Get Into This Mess - KOTLC Oneshots

Weighed Down by a Corset and Silks

( Dedicated to anyone who's ever completely scrapped their first draft. )

"Nightmares again?" Edaline asked, eyes downcast as she pinned Sophie's hair back carefully.

"Yeah."

Sophie's human family had been conquered by the Lost Kingdom when she was little. Brought to the hub of the Forbidden cities and exposed to the ocean for the first time, she'd developed a silvery iridescent tail. It was petrifying. But the memory of her family screaming and crying was far worse.

Edaline murmured reassurance, her heart hurting.

"Me and Grady have been thinking," she began, adjusting her crown. "About letting you and your cousin visit the surface for the annual fireworks show. It will be dark, and the humans will be distracted by the spectacle.

The blonde sat up quickly, brown eyes wide.

"Are you sure? Dad really said yes? This isn't you two overcompensating because you don't think I love you as an adopted child?"

"Yes, yes, and I think so?"

Sophie's tail flicked in a burst of nervous excitement, propelling bubbles behind her.

"That's  . . . today. Oh my god, that's today!"

Edaline smiled, laughing quietly.

"Indeed it is."

"I have to tell Dex!"

The queen of the merpeople watched Sophie speed away, unbeknownst to the danger which would soon befall her daughter.

That was how Sophie found herself ducking under an outcropping of rocks as the royal ship went up in flames, smoke billowing in the sky. Wreckage crashed into the water, fireworks exploding into the sail.

"It's the oil. The boiling oil they use on their enemies," Dex said, a malicious sort of satisfaction in his voice. The oil has effectively destroyed dozens of coral reefs.

"You're happy?" She shrieked, twisting to face him. "Justice should be served, but not like this."

Dex opened and closed his mouth, stunned.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie caught a glimpse of a body sinking, weighed down by a corset and silks.

"Go back to the palace," she ordered, and streaked over to the noblegirl as quickly as the flames had consumed the deck.

Teal eyes fluttered to a close, heavy gold jewelry weakening her wrists. Only the Vacker line had teal eyes. And the only royal girl with teal eyes was Biana. 

Princess Biana Amberly Vacker to be exact, second in line for the throne.

Sophie clutched at Biana's hand, bubbles escaping her lips in fear as she missed. She dove further down, haphazardly tugging the brunette tight against her waist as she struggled to swim upward. She couldn't even look at Biana, heartbreakingly limp without air in her lungs.

Dragging the Vacker princess onto the sand, Sophie pumped at her chest, periodically lending Biana her breath. She was terrified, lonely and wracked with guilt. She wished she hadn't told Dex to leave. 

Finally, Biana seized, forced to her side as lungfuls of water pour out of her mouth, coughing. She sucked in great gulping breaths, wiping her lips.

But she turns, and is breathless again.

For there was an enchanting girl beside her, brown eyes containing all the depths of the sea. Her long eyelashes delicately held up salty water droplets, and she couldn't tell which were tears and which were from the sea.

Her long blonde ponytail fell over her shoulder, swept to the side as the silver loops in her blonde locks glinted in the light of the moon, gleaming strings of pearls resting in her hair. Strands of silky pale hair even hung plastered to her cheekbones.

She was, for lack of a better word, utterly beautiful.

"Are you going to be okay?"

Biana was thrown out of her trance by the girl's gentle words, speechless.

"A-Are you going to be okay?"

Her voice was soft, faded, and Biana had to lean closer to hear.

"I will be if I can get back to the castle," she answered, sitting up and grimacing. Her ribs felt bruised, and they stung like the devil. "Could you help me?"

"Well . . ." The girl winced, biting her already chapped lips. "That might be a slight problem."She shifted, drawing herself completely out of the water.

Then Biana noticed the tail.