Just Add Water

the truce

Water always calmed his nerves, but it did nothing now—struggling to keep up with the merman. No, with Triton. Two tails, both blue, and green skin. Just like the naiads had described him, and just how Percy remembered him.

"I don't think you're scary-looking," Percy said. "I just don't like how you followed me around. My momma would say you're stranger danger."

He said nothing.

Percy hated that. With a strong flick of his tail, he managed to get closer. "Where are we going, anyway? You've been expecting me, but I don't know why!"

"I thought I said no questions until we arrive," he said cooly, and didn't even look at Percy.

Rude.

They swam. Deeper and deeper, until darkness crept into his eyes and arms. It felt like a million years until they stumbled upon the place Triton had been talking about. The strangest thing was how much he could see, even this far from the moon's light.

A small enough palace, tucked away beneath a deep oceanic trench, with twisting spirals made of abalone and pearls adorning the walkways, the windows, the beautiful towers that shimmered from the ground like snakes.

"Woah," Percy breathed. "It looks like a small version of Antlantica!"

Triton turned to him. "Atlantica?"

"You know, the one from The Little Mermaid? I mean, you're Triton, right? Do you have seven daughters? Can I meet Ariel?"

Triton shook his head. He didn't smile much. "That is fanatical nonsense, Perseus."

"Percy."

"Whatever."

Percy huffed, crossing his arms. "It's not whatever! It's my name!"

The merman's eyes softened at this, dimmed to an almost sky blue. "Come along, then. We've much to do, and little time to do it. No questions until we've arrived."

"But we're here."

"Not. Yet."

So Percy followed. Again. He found that, on the path to the front entrance there weren't just pearls illuminating the way, but also jellyfish. Gigantic and with the colors of a sunset, bobbing up and down with bodies that looked to be made of silk. He paused to gape at a few. Something else he realized about this place was that it was busy. Strange sea creatures, things he'd never seen before in his life, stopped and bowed.

"My Lord," they murmured, addressing Triton. Tentacled animals and sharks and fish with teeth as big as Percy's arm. However scary they were, they didn't pay Percy any mind.

"You are a king, then!" Percy whispered excitedly to him. "You're King Triton, like in the movie! You don't look alike, though."

Triton's jaw twitched, but he didn't glance Percy's way. "I am not a King." He moved gracefully past pillars, alight even in the darkness. Chambers and hallways guarded by more bioluminescent jellyfish. "I'm Lord of the Depths. There's a difference."

"What's the difference?"

"Poseidon help me," he muttered, then loud enough for Percy to hear, he said, "I'm not King of the Sea. I'm merely a ruler of a part of it. A lord."

"Oh." A pause. "I don't get it."

"I thought so."

On and on, they swam.

"But," Percy began, looking around. The windows weren't windows; their oval shapes, larger than his entire body, let the cold water in, and beyond it was an expanse of the deepest blue. "This place looks bigger than it looked outside."