A Mermaid Prince and A Warrior King

Chapter 1: Fathoms Below

Birds flew across the sky has a vast and magnificent ship sailed across the misty oceans. Various demons can be heard singing a shanty has they move across the ship to their designated tasks.

"I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue, And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho!"

Some sailors can be seen pulling up a net filled with fish onto the ship and others moving and climbing the yards and shrouds.

"Look out lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you. In the mysterious fathoms below!"

A young female monkey with inky black fur and a cherry red skull-like mask on her face was standing on the forecastle deck next to an older monkey that appeared to be male with midnight black fur, a red lotus shaped mask around amethyst eyes and three pairs of colorful ears on each side of his head, one hand holding onto the railing and the other on a rope.

"Hahahahaha isn't this great?" He laughed and his hair whipped around moving with the wind. "The salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face." He sighed then turned to his female subordinate. "A perfect day to be at sea, don't you think so as well, Savage?" Savage, shrugged and made an indifferent sound. "It's alright, I suppose." He chuckled at her demeanor then turned around leaning back a bit.

"How about you, Rumble?"

A young male monkey with the same inky black fur as Savage, was hunched over the railing with both hands. Rumble turned towards the older monkey with the same skull-like mask but was in a sickeningly green color. "Yes, it's... Delightful." He groaned sarcastically in a raspy voice but hunched over the railing again to empty his stomach, again.

"A fine strong wind and a following sea." A burly demon sailor said while pulling a rope with the older monkey's help. "King Tripitaka must be in a friendly type mood!"

"King Tripitaka?"

"Why, ruler of the 'merpeople', boy." Another sailor spoke in a nasally voice has he loaded a barrel of fish. "Thought every good sailor know about him." He teased him with a crooked smile. The older monkey quirked an eyebrow with a snort, amused has the sailors continued to sing.

"I'll sing you a song, of the king of the sea. And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho. The ruler of all the oceans is he, in mysterious fathoms below!"

The two monkeys came down from the deck towards him with Rumble lagging behind has he rolled his eyes. "'Merpeople', Macaque pay no attention to this nonsense!" He scoffed. Savage turned to him with a raised brow. "Were demons and we're on a ship full of demons. Gods and deities exist and they're assholes, ghosts and spirits are real as well as the aspect of immortality is real." She stated with a flat tone and turned fully towards him.

"How is believing in the existence of mermaids nonsense?!" She asked disbelievingly with her hands on her hips and tail swaying lazily. "How can you not?!" He exclaimed has his tail lashed behind him. "No one has seen one single mermaid or were there any sightings of one. So I say, mermaids are complete superstitious nonsense!" He claimed but was then then confronted by the sailor with a fish.

"But it ain't nonsense, it's the truth. There's a whole world of merpeople and creatures alike under the sea." The sailor implored.

"King Tripitaka's their ruler!"

"I heard he's got four striking sons."

"And a witch of a sister named Baigujing, The Lady Bone Demon."

Each sailor pitched in with statements of their own about the mythical and mysterious people of the sea but one statement caught Macaque's attention.

"Lady Bone Demon?"

He asked with a quizzical expression has he turned to the scrawny sailor that spoke. "Evil and ugly and hungry for power. King Tripitaka, he banished her off in exile within a tomb, and there she lives now, just bidin' her time." The sailor then turned towards Macaque with a sinister grin as he continued.

"Fathoms below in the ocean, lives Lady Bone Demon, witch of the sea! She plots and she scheme, and she wickedly dreams, of the day that she'll return once more."

Soon the other sailors joined in.

"Return to rule the ocean floor! She wants to be queen of the bottomless blue, And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho!"

The sailors then moved towards Rumble and he took a step back.

"So Tripitaka beware there's a biggun a-brewin' Mysterious fathoms below!"

Rumble miscalculated a step and he fell backwards into barrels full of fish and other seafood. Both Savage and Macaque laughed at him when he started complaining about the stinky smell of fish and superstitious sailors, his Master helped him onto his feet and Savage began to taunt him, then the both of them started to bicker has everyone went back to doing their respective tasks. Macaque leaned on the railing has he stared upon the open sea.

'A world of beings and creatures that lived under the sea and nobody has ever seen them, huh. I wonder who they are.'

Has he thought about the mysteries of that the sea holds, he didn't notice a figure watching him from afar with glowing blue eyes and a wicked smile has they dove back down into the water. 

(This chapter is inspired by a song from The Little Mermaid called "Fathoms Below" and it's the storyboard version if you're not familiar with some of the lyrics)