Eyes Outshine the Horizon Line

Chapter 1 - The Pirate Prince of Hawkins Kingdom

A harpoon splashed into the water. The sailors whooped in glee and drunken squalor. They caught one, a real mermaid. Complete with an additional fin on her back. "Ready the nets!" Jonathan Byers yelled over the roaring water. "Kill it before it reaches the shore." another shouted. "No killing." Jonathan objected. The sailors clambered to catch the mermaid and hardly noticed another man shoving his way through the crowds.

"What are you doing?" Eddie Munson asked the sailors. "They think they got one." the step-son of his royal advisor, Jonathan answered for him. "Keyword being think." Jonathan's younger brother, Will, deadpanned. "It's a mermaid." a sailor drunkenly answered. "A mermaid?" Eddie questioned. "Use your eyes." Eddie pushed the sailor forward. Then the "mermaid" revealed itself as a dolphin, fin on the back and all. "What were you thinking?" he asked them. The sailor fumbled to explain himself. "These are dangerous waters." one began. "And this is a dangerous time." another continued. Eddie rolled his eyes and broke the rope for the harpoon and pulled it back up. "Tonight's the Red Moon. They say this is when the Sea King calls his mermaid daughters together to lure men to their deaths." the second sailor finished. "Is that so?" Eddie asked, clearly not paying attention and putting the supplies back into their place. "Not even the strongest can resist their spell." the sailor continued, trying to get the "pirate" prince to listen.

"Oh please." Will said. "It's old lore." "Exactly." Eddie said. "Guys come on. I mean the ocean is still an undiscovered place, at least one could be swimming around." Jonathan objected. The other sailors murmured agreements with the oldest brother. "Back to work!" Eddie shouted as the sailors, with the exception of Will and Jonathan, returned to their duties. "Come on. Some gustwind just picked up." Eddie ordered. "That's the Sea King's doing. He'd pull us under himself if he could." The sailor continued as if he had zero orders.

"King, come on!" A young girl's voice said, swinging down on a rope in an attempt to tighten it. Her pink skirts swirled around her. This girl was the stepsister of Jonathan and Will, Jane or El as they called her. She had a barely there British accent. "It could be a queen." Another girl with bright red braids said, swinging down as well. This was El's best friend Max. "In my opinion!" This finally got that sailor to leave them alone. "Like any of that is real." Will said. Eddie nodded. "I'm a girl, and to Joyce, I can believe anything I want, William ." El chided, earning a chuckle from her other brother and Max.

"Sail faster." a soldier said as Jonathan tightened the rope with El's help. "Raising the main!" Jonathan shouted back. "This line's tight." Max shouted. They then noticed Eddie climbing the rope ladders up to the bow. "Hopper's going to lose it." Will said as the royal advisor himself walked towards them, stopping to ask where the prince was.

"Where's Prince Eddie?" Hopper asked a sailor. The sailor looked to the siblings and back to him. "Up at the bow, Chief." Hopper nodded a thank you and made his way past the siblings that simply watched Eddie toss himself into danger, again. Hopper made his way to the tip of the bow only to see him and nearly fall into the rough waves below.

"Eddie! Hopper panicked. Eddie simply laughed in response to hide his own fear. "What are you doing out there? Get back here at once!" he ordered. "You need to listen to me." "You have to stop worrying so much about me, Hop. We got it." Hopper rolled his eyes as Eddie pulled himself back onto the bow and continued as work as if he hadn't nearly fallen to his death.

"Call me selfish, but I do not want to tell the King that his nephew fell overboard on my watch. And on his 20th birthday, of all days." Eddie then looked ahead to a galleon in the distance. It was his birthday and could somewhat do what he wanted. "Looks like there's a Spanish galleon out there headed toward the mainland. We could follow it to port, see what they've brought to trade." Jonathan was the first to object to his notion.

"Our ship is loaded to the gills as it is. We've risked our necks out here for seven weeks already." Jonathan said. "That I do agree with." Hopper complained. Eddie looked to the siblings and Max who would agree with him. Will said nothing and handed Eddie his telescope. Eddie looked through it, ignoring Hopper's chatter, something about coming home that night. Then the telescope was taken from his hands by Hopper. "Pay attention." The man moved to stand in front of him but slipped on the wet floor, dropping the telescope. "You pay attention. Be more careful." Eddie laughed.

...

The telescope continued down into the fathoms below before hitting a pile of coral near the ocean floor. Fish moved about it, dodging it left and right as more fish and merpeople moved past.

"Hurry up." a yellow tailed merman called Mike exclaimed. "I'm trying." the younger purple tailed mermaid called Holly said. "You should be worried about Nancy!" Mike sighed, trying not to think about that as they settled in their performance seats. A crowd of merpeople had already gathered to watch the royal Wheeler siblings perform their siren song for the Red Moon celebration.

"My children! It warms my heart to have you all here." Queen Karen spoke, gripping her silver trident. Mike held his breath and hoped his mother wouldn't notice the empty seat beside him. But that was a foolish thought. "Where's Nancy?" she asked. Neither he or Holly answered, fearing their mother again. Karen sighed and then bellowed.

"Lucas" Her advisor, another younger merman, swam to her. He was nervous. Karen held his shoulder in a death grip. "Now Lucas, where is Nancy? You were supposed to see to it that she was here." Lucas groaned "She doesn't listen very well. I tried, Your Majesty, but she is impossible." Lucas inhaled sharply as Karen released her grip. "I reminded her about the gathering just this morning. What more can a merman do?" "You could go find her?" Karen suggested through gritted teeth. Lucas grumbled and swam from the ceremony. "If I miss this because of her.. I swear."

...

The telescope sat lodged between the coral, requiring a bit of effort to pull it out. But Nancy managed on her own just fine. She mainly explored these waters on her own ever since Barb passed. But yet she also knew Lucas, her mother's advisor, would join soon enough. He wanted her home so his mother would get off his back but would reluctantly join her to keep her safe, despite it always being her that got them out of any sticky situation. Nancy tucked the telescope into the bag situated around her and moved into a hole of a shipwreck. Her eye caught a glint of silver. The item was not bigger than her own hand, slender at the base before widening with 4 trident looking prongs sticking out from it. Before sticking it into her bag, a figure got closer, his red tail stook out like a sore thumb.

"Lucas?" Nancy pretended to be shocked. "You aren't supposed to be this far from the palace, Nancy." Oh, come on Lucas, don't be such a guppy." Nancy added with a fake pout. Lucas was far from a simple-minded fish, already having more responsibility than a merman twice his age. Nancy then put the object she just found in his hand. "Now you rule the 7 seas!" she said, swimming towards an object covered in cloth. She uncovered the cloth only to see her own face staring back at her, a mirror. Maybe her world wasn't so different from the humans after all.

"Nance, it's just your reflection, let's go." Lucas chided her, putting the metal thing in her bag. Nancy rolled her eyes at the young merman as he continued. "I don't even know what the humans would use for them anyhow." He sneered. "Erica probably would. Your sister knows many things because of the seagulls." Lucas rolled his eyes. It's not his fault Erica grew wings and left the waters behind. Nancy studied her face in the reflection. Her tail was pink with flecks of gold and blue. In the barely there streams of light, her purple seashell bra nearly blended into her surroundings. Her long brunette curls danced around her. Lucas joined her in staring. His dark skin was a contrast to her own with a bright red tail.

The ship then creaked. They both faced back to the hole and then back to the mirror. All color drained from their faces as a massive shark was heading right for them. They both screamed, swimming as fast as they could. Lucas made it out of the ship first with Nancy and the shark close behind. Lucas hid himself behind a rock. Nancy whipped her head around frantically and saw the mirror again. That gave her an idea as she swam back into the ship so the mirror could catch her reflection. Moments later, just as she hoped, the shark swam back in and got stuck in the mirror frame. Nancy swam out again to find Lucas. They met up and began to swim as fast as they could to the near shoreline.